Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Adventures with Drones: The Cracks of Drone

Did you ever notice that adventures are never fun while you are having them, but retelling them afterwards makes everyone laugh?

I'm still having this adventure.  It's not fun.

On the second day of the Salt Lake Highland Games (June 2018), my bass drone refused to strike in correctly.  It was almost as if it preferred to be a tenor drone, thankyouverymuch, and would not jump down the octave.

I tried many things:

     New chanter reed. No change

     New drone reed (Small Son's).  No change.

     - I re-treated my hide bag to make sure it wasn't losing any air, discovering in the process that it was supposed to be done every six weeks, instead of every four months.  (Oops.)  No change.

     PM tried to play them and determined that it wasn't me (his first thought), because it did the same thing for him.   He checked hemping, and then he checked the bass drone for cracks.  There were TWO on the lower section of the bass drone!  So he rummaged through his drone-yard collection of pipe parts and found a spare.  I installed it, re-hemping in the process.  No change.

     - I thought it might be the rest of the drone, so PM rummaged through the bone-yard again and   found me the other two sections of bass drone.  I swapped them out, checking hemping in the process.    No change.

     - I tried playing Rob's spare set, but it obviously needed some work, as keeping the bag inflated    was a hurculean task.

     - I tried playing Small Son's set, ditto.

Chris kindly let me play his pipes one practice evening.  I was afraid it was going to be difficult to play, as well, but it was so easy!  It was lovely to pipe again, and exhilarating to realize that it wasn't me that was the issue, but also frustrating because I didn't know what the issue was!

I went over all the parts of my pipes, re-checking the bag, and the hemping of drones, chanter,      blowpipe . . . everything.  I found another crack in the stock of the bass drone (this is the part that sticks into the bag, and is very carefully tied into the leather to make it airtight)!  The  crack didn't show on the outside, but it was definitely on the inside.


PM rummaged through the drone-yard a third time and found another stock.  This happened last Wednesday, when he had to go somewhere for work and wasn't going to be at practice, and I was flying out to Minneapolis that evening, and wasn't going to be there either, AND it was going to pour buckets shortly.  He wrapped the stock very thoroughly in plastic and tape, and left it on the side of the dock driveway of his place of work.  I found it 5-10 minutes later, and only minutes before the rain hit.  Then I went to Minnesota (via Boston).

I still have the replacement stock in my pipe case, but not in my pipes.  Taking the old one out won't be a problem, I don't think (unless I accidentally slash my $300 pipe bag), but tying it back in is another story.  I tied in the previous stock a YEAR AGO, with help from Pipe Sargent Trevor.   I can't even remember what I did a MONTH AGO.  And I haven't had a spare minute to take care of this tiny issue since last Wednesday, so I still don't have working pipes.

And Sheep Dog Trials are THIS WEEKEND!  Sheep Dog Trials require ALL HANDS ON DECK.  Small groups of pipers and drummers play from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and the whole band plays for the closing ceremony on Monday afternoon.  It's a colossal effort.

Guess I'm going on another trip.  A Guilt Trip.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Where Tuners Work Best

To facilitate the 1.25 hours of tuning per piper per set, Some Kind Soul invented a bagpipe tuner.  Several souls have invented them, actually.  There are many different kinds.

The process is to hold the tuner near the end of the drone/chanter while you are playing (it takes two hands to play; already this is difficult) and determine if the drone/chanter needs to be adjusted longer or shorter (that is to say, flatter or sharper).  The tuner "hears" the sound coming out and tells you how much it is out of tune, and which way (sharp or flat).

I had not been able to find my tuner since Festival of the Trees in December, so I had been using Small Son's tuner instead. 


No biggie. His tuner is nicer, anyway, and he's not using it.  He's serving a church mission in Montreal, Canada, and speaking Mandarin.

Last week at practice, my pipes just were not playing and/or tuning well.  The reed was replaced (with an easier reed, something I for which I have been begging for months), drones were re-hemped, and still the sound was not at all lovely--even for bagpipes.  So finally the pipe major opened up the bag (the bag has a zipper on the side; handy, huh?) and reached in.  He pulled out . . . a tuner.

It was not even moist.

Then I remembered that after Festival of Trees, I needed to put my tuner somewhere in order to take it with me. 

       The pockets of my vest are too small.
       My sporran was full of iPhone.
       If I put it in the bag cover, it would fall out and be lost or trodden underfoot.

So I opened up my bag (it has a zipper on the side; handy, huh?) and put my tuner inside.  And promptly forgot about it.

Once all that had been corrected, my pipes sounded lovely, and were so much easier to play.

Tuners work better on the outside of the pipes. 

Just sayin'.