Staggering on

Maybe not insane but definitely a bit nutty even in a big place like Canada. Of course you have to be somewhat crazy to play DB and owning two of them and an EUB might be verging on insanity, but it is soooo much fun when things are going right. Certainly agree with your last sentence, it just makes you want to play and play and play....😊

The problem was the sound post, it was way too tight and choking the bass. The bridge also had some problems but he did some creative woodworking on one leg and set it up so the adjusters work properly. I had asked him to check the bridge position and he decided to leave it in the same place. Bass plays a lot better both arco and pizz and is louder with a better sound, strings (Spiros) are roughly 5,6,7,8 mm but I may change that a bit, gotta love adjusters. All in all money well spent but a bit tired today after a 9 hour 800km round trip yesterday into the craziness of Toronto's traffic, happy to get back up north where things are much quieter.

Re NuX I use it on my Shen SB 100, my old Czech ply and my Yamaha SLB 200 and it is great. I have used it for home practice, at band rehearsals (jazz and bluegrass) and at gigs going into an amp, the jazz band's Bose or DI into a house system. You can charge the units from a wall plug or from the sturdy case that they are stored in, a handy feature. I must have had them for at least a year now and have had no problems. I don't know all the technical stuff but you can find that easily enough, I do know that the system is simple and sounds good and that it works for me.

Interested in this because I dropped my bass (Shen SB100 ply) off in Toronto for some bridge work and maybe some fingerboard dressing. The luthier thinks that the dull sound is probably due to several problems but will check the sound post first, he thinks it is too tight and won't allow the top to vibrate properly. He was a Shen dealer and was surprised at the dull sound considering that the bass was strung with 2 year old Spiro mittels, I'll report after I get it back next week.

There are many members in this club, including me.🙄

Aha, another Canadian! I am north of you near North Bay and have been enjoying the wonders of this group since 2015. Welcome, I'm sure you will love it here, great people and lots of interesting topics.

Same rule here at any Royal Canadian Legion club, you will be asked to remove your hat.

No, I hadn't heard of him but did a quick search and found some amazing playing by him and his wife. I will look for some more of his music, he is a part of the ukulele wave from the 70's and 80's started by a music teacher in Nova Scotia not the more recent Covid era uke revival. He uses electronics a bit more than I like but there is no doubt about his talent. Thanks for the suggestion, I will have fun chasing down some more of his music.😊

Two gigs yesterday, a noon hour bluegrass trio gig at a restaurant in North Bay where we have played before and then a set in the evening at a bluegrass festival with the full 5 piece band. Both went well and as a trio we are really getting tight on the vocals with traditional sounding three part harmony on a lot of the songs. Long day but a good one, I left home at 10AM returned at 11PM and drove over 300km. We will be playing two more sets at the festival on the weekend, lots of driving but great fun.😊

Clarification: I was playing the DB while standing on the sidewalk, hard to get a good sound playing the sidewalk and the concrete is hard on the fingers.🤣

Correct, we were outside beside the tables they have on their sidewalk patio, the gig next week will be inside the restaurant.

The "bluegrassy" trio did an outdoor busking gig in front of a restaurant at noon today. First time in many years where I have played on a sidewalk, we went acoustic (mandolin, guitar,DB, vocals) except for me on DB who used my Traynor amp to give just a bit more volume. We will be doing another lunch time gig next week and then have a bluegrass festival with the full 5 piece band the following weekend.

The TV show ran from '58 to '61 and as a young teenager I loved it and as a beginner guitar player I also learned the theme but was disappointed about the way it sounded on my first cheap acoustic guitar, I had no idea how they got the sound. It was a very popular show over here and I suspect that the theme had a lot to do with that, instantly identifiable and an ear worm too. Interesting to see that Blake Edwards came up with the idea for the show and wrote many of the scripts, this helps explain the Edwards/Mancini connection for the theme music, The Pink Panther came out in '63. The graphics are indeed cool and the style looks familiar to those of us who were/are Pink Panther fans.😊

Simply Blu Trio, three members of our 5 piece bluegrass band playing at The Block bistro in North Bay Ontario last night. We have played here before and do a mix of standard bluegrass songs and a few others including some Gordon Lightfoot and keep it light and friendly, it's not a show as such just background music for the diners and it went over well with some nice comments afterwards. We had a request for Ian Tyson's Four Strong Winds from a lady celebrating her birthday and although we had never played it together we picked a key and ended up surprising ourselves with a very nice version of it with three part harmony! Smallish crowd but early gig (6-8:30, two sets) and we will be back next week for something new, a lunch time gig. 😊

Absolutely, people watching a band hear with their ears and their eyes. if you are having a bad night suck it up and look like you are having fun, they are paying you to entertain them. (may vary with certain genres of course😊)

Re tauzero's post yesterday and his "moment of epicaricacy".... You found the perfect word for the situation, I hadn't seen it before and had to look it up and at some point will use it to impress/confuse/annoy/surprise someone, thanks.😊

Finished up at the bluegrass festival this afternoon in very heavy rain. Full 5 piece band and we had a good rehearsal before our set and then found out it was shortened to 30 minutes instead of the normal 45-55 minutes. Not much playing and a two hour drive each way. Yesterday we played at noon and the band was in good form and we were very tight and did a beautiful version of Seven Bridges Road, the acapella part was wonderful four part harmony, a good set and the crowd enjoyed it and our leader and lead vocal was back in good health. Usual festival set up, Czech DB with Nux wireless into Traynor amp and DI to PA, excellent sound guys and we sounded good.

There's one for sale in the EUB's and Double Basses for sale....the website says it is "hard foam", might be what he is looking for, it's definitely not the type of hard case used for shipping a bass but might work for your friend. I wonder if anyone on here has used one.

Good point, I hope he is feeling better for tomorrow and Sunday. I tried to text him this morning but over here in the colonies there are places in the northern areas where there is no cell service and that is where he is, camping in his RV at the festival site. 🙄🤞

Played a set at a bluegrass festival last night as a trio of guitar, mandolin and DB and we all sing. We have done this before and it went well but the leader and main vocalist was not feeling well and it showed with sloppy intros and endings and some other slip ups that are not normal for us. On Saturday and Sunday we play two more sets but with the full 5 piece band and by that time we are hoping the leader has recovered. Not our finest set but that's just the way it goes sometimes.🙄

That's old school but always works. Back in my acoustic guitar days in the 60's all set lists were taped on the guitar and now when I use my "beater bass" for bluegrass I do the same thing and as an old guy I can write the titles as large as I need. I have played with musicians who use an ipad on their music stand and I tell them that I have an "eye pad" and they laugh but my list is always there and the battery won't die and it's much better than having it on the floor, it's not pretty but I am the only one who sees it.👍😊

And here I am at the church looking for a note....

Last weekend my bluegrass band played two outdoor sets at the Tottenham (Ontario!) bluegrass festival, the largest one in Ontario in very hot humid weather. Our Friday early evening set was made more interesting when the PA suddenly cut out part way through the third song. Since we are all playing acoustic instruments and are seasoned players we kept right on playing and singing and the crowd of about 400 loved it and cheered and clapped and we didn't miss a beat. We moved to the very edge of the stage at the end of that song to more applause and started our next song and then amazingly the PA came back so we gracefully moved back to our mics and finished our set. The Saturday morning set had a smaller crowd but we were in fine form and it went well and my twin sister was there, first time she has seen me play since the early '60's when I played guitar in a folk group in high school, yeah, I'm that old. The next day we played a concert as a trio (guitar, mando, and me) in a lovely old church and changed our set to outline a brief history of bluegrass and it was the best we have ever played. Super sound and the audience who were not very familiar with bluegrass loved it. The reason we were a trio is because one guitar player had to go home for a family event and the banjo player was suffering severe stomach pain due to a reaction to a new medication and had to leave. We have done this trio thing before and it works really well and we play some non bluegrass songs like some Eagles, Gordon Lightfoot, and even Ralph McTell's Streets Of London which always goes over well. Sorry for the late report but the area where I live, almost six hours from the gig, was hit by a severe storm Saturday night and when I got home at 11PM Sunday there was no power and it didn't come back for another two days and I am still clearing downed trees from my yard. Bass was my "70's Czech ply through Nux wireless to my Traynor SB112 and DI to PA.

Here's a bit of the mojo on "Peaches", definitely well used but she sounds great. The colour has been called "butterscotch" as opposed to "blonde" but I think that's just the colour she changed as she aged.😊

I'm with you on that. My Shen SB100 is in perfect shape but "Peaches" my "beater bass" , a '70's Czech ply bass, is perfect for bluegrass, it has a seriously cracked finish that is actually rough if you run your fingers over it. The bass side shows some nasty buckle rash and a bad hit in the C bout that has been repaired as well as some beat up edges. Most of the damage was there when I bought it but gigs in very hot sun and also some in very damp conditions probably added some more mojo. It also had some open seams but that has been repaired and is holding well. From a distance it looks good and a lot of bass players have asked me about it, in bluegrass circles a little mojo is not a bad thing at all. It has Spiro mediums and is loud acoustically and amplifies well and it will get a good workout this weekend.😊 Yes, I know, naming your instrument is silly but "Peaches" just fits with this bass.