I’ve played just about every bag ever made, except Norman Kyle’s vulcanized rubber bag. I didn’t see the point. I played Cowhide and Sheepskin until synthetic bags were introduced. I’ve played all the synthetic bags and have now gone back to a hide bag for reasons that I will talk about later.

What I learned about synthetic bags and their various moisture control systems is that you need to understand how they work in various situations and make adjustments as necessary. Let me explain. Chanter reeds need to to be properly hydrated to sound and behave optimally. Too dry and it may sound too sharp and tinny. Too wet and it’s flat and dull sounding. If it’s at either extreme, it will probably take 48 hours of careful management to get it settled within the optimal range again. It’s a lot easier to maintain a reed within that happy place than to bring it back from being either too dry or too wet.

If you’re playing synthetic drone reeds, you may or may not need to manage the air going to those reeds separately from the chanter reed. Depending on what’s going on inside your bag, you may need to “feed” your chanter reed additional moisture or remove moisture going to your drone reeds. If you’re playing cane, your chanter reed and your cane drone reeds are pretty happy at about the same RH level. It’s a lot more complicated than you thought, right?

Let’s stop here and digest this. What do you do, if anything, to manage your moisture management system? What are others in your band doing? Do you all use the same bags and moisture systems? Why or why not? Just things to think about. We’ll drill down deeper tomorrow.