I only tested this reed a couple times years ago, so it hasn’t seen much use. It was/is a novel idea from Malcolm McLaren. The advantages of McLaren Synthetic Reeds over traditional cane reeds are their ability to play in conditions where cane reeds can be unreliable, particularly in severe weather condition, such as humidity, heat and cold. Because they are almost instantly in tune when correctly set up, there is very little “tune up” time, and they are very useful in situations when they are needed to be playable “straight out of the box”. McLaren Synthetic Reeds are not intended to be a replacement for a good cane reed in the competition scene, but because these reeds are almost indistinguishable in performance and sound with a cane reed there are many pipers who use them to get the most satisfaction from their playing without the manipulation that is required at times on a cane reed.
