The Pipe
Rory "Gus" Sinclair goes into detail about the Deger pipe he plays with the band:
The Deger Pipe is an electronic bagpipe, manufactured by Manfred Deger in Germany. He is a piper and he put together this very well-engineered product. There are at least four other versions of electronic pipe but this is the most versatile and the most compact for what it does.It has:
- a MIDI interface.
- a metronome.
- two modes of sound, Highland pipe and Lowland pipe.
- drones with independent volume control.
- total variable pitch so I can play in any key. The keys are not labelled, so I need to tune it by ear for each key change, but this is a small issue.
And it can put out sound either to ear phones - I can play on the airplane without hindrance or let - or through a PA or Board or at a gig.
I bought my Deger Pipe primarily as a practice instrument; it is very good for improving technique. But when I was using it to work out arrangements for the big pipe with the band (I don't have to blow up the pipe to do some small bit - it has, as you would guess, instant response) the band goes, "Hey, that is way cool - let's work out some stuff using the Deger Pipe as the principal solo thing".... and so we did.
Rory also tells us the Deger Pipe uses a 9V battery; as a low-battery warning, it plays the first two bars of Amazing Grace. For more information, including photos, sound samples and a user's manual for the DegerPipes Chanter, visit www.deger.com.
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