Reminiscent of the approach that the Spirit of Scotland Pipe Band took in early 2008, the "North American Pipe Band" has been formed in California from players not currently attached to any group, led by Pipe-Major Stephen Megarity and Leading-Drummer Carl Lenny, both former members of the Grade 1 Los Angeles Scots Pipe Band.
The new band will be supplied with chanters from McCallum Bagpipes and play Pearl drums. Megarity is a well known reedmaker in the Los Angeles area.
The North American Pipe Band has not yet been assigned a grade, but its roster includes many players with Grade 1 experience. Listed as members are 16 pipers and 12 drummers, mostly from the California area. Familiar names include Dave Hicks, Calgary; Fritz Hoffman, Reno, Nevada; Eric Rigler, Los Angeles; and Eli Fugate, San Diego.
The band's website originally listed several pipers and a drummer on the roster who said after pipes|drums first reported the story that they are not yet committed to the band.
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Quality reed selection is a pre-requisite to obtaining a good tone in a pipe corps. Four criteria to consider when testing reeds are balance, vibrancy, volume and strength. Check the High A Low A balance against a single sounding tenor drone - if these two notes are in the ballpark chances are the rest of the notes can be tuned.
