I don't use these in a normal way. I play directly with my mouth, using these reeds on hand made aulos-like instruments. I choose to use them because of the various "gigging" conditions where I feel cane reeds would break, and that is how I started by playing directly on the reed with my practice chanter. They sound good enough for my uses, the price is correct, but unfortunately the quality is not consistent: some reed are better made than others. the winding doesn't end in the same place, etc. However, in all, a good reed for practice chanter and experimentation.