Staggering on

My second bluegrass gig, one set on Saturday and another on Sunday. I used my Yamaha SLB 200 again, this is a "liberal" festival where EUB's are allowed for bluegrass but all the other instruments are strictly acoustic the sound guys mic each one and really know their job, excellent sound. Both sets were around noon so the crowd was a bit thin but they have speakers all throughout the campground/trailer park so you can hear the bands anywhere on the property. This festival has been running for years and features a mix of country and bluegrass bands with 8-10 bands each day over the four day Labour Day long weekend. Two different players from the last gig so we had a quick rehearsal beside the leader's motorhome before we hit the stage. Perfect weather and a great atmosphere at the festival and I did my first bluegrass vocals and my rather thin nasal voice fit right in, at least it's good for bluegrass.😊 Lots of fun!

You have described me perfectly, especially the part about being a "Royal pain in the backside", thank you.😊

I play DB and about 18 months ago I developed the same thing in my left thumb and a finger on my right hand. I mentioned it to a guitar playing neighbour and she told me that when she had the problem her doctor suggested 250 mg of Vitamin B6 per day. I was a bit skeptical but decided to give it a try and after a few months, 4 or 5 I think, the problem was gone and apparently it worked for my neighbour also. I no longer take it but will try it again if the problem reappears. I don't know if the B6 was the cure or not but at least the problem is gone. I did not stop playing when it was sore so that wasn't the reason it got better, so it may have been the B6, it might be worth a try. I couldn't find any solid research about this.

On Saturday I had my annual blacksmithing gig in a replica logging camp blacksmith shop at Marten River Provincial Park. They have a lovely forge and decent anvil and I had hundreds of visitors to the shop as I made smoke and flames from the forge and sparks fly from various things I made during a hot but fun 5 hour non stop session. The only music was the steady rhythm of hammer on hot steel but I think I can still count it as a gig. I've been doing this for over 25 years now and it is always a good day and they want me back next year. I volunteer for this so there's no pay but this year they gave me a swag bag with some nice goodies from the park store. Forge on! Next band gigs will be early September at a bluegrass festival and a jazz gig a week later.😊

So true. People listen to live music with their ears and their eyes so instruments, staging, band members appearance and antics and other visuals are all part of the "music" for the average audience members, musicians in the crowd will usually see and hear something quite different. I use my EUB for rehearsals but almost always play DB at gigs, it is an attention getter and just looks better, especially, at the jazz or bluegrass gigs that I play.

I played my first bluegrass gig at a festival on Saturday and Sunday. I'm primarily a jazz player but got involved in bluegrass when the mandolin player saw me at a jazz gig and after a few rehearsals I became part of the band for this festival and one in September. I had to learn 26 songs but it was great fun playing with really good musicians and it certainly keeps you on your toes since the arrangement that was rehearsed may not be what happens on stage, very common in bluegrass so you have to listen carefully. Great weather and a decent crowd and I'm looking forward to the next time. I used my Yamaha SLB 200 instead of my DB, easier to haul around and easier for the sound guys to deal with. Quite a few bluegrass bass players have gone to EUB's especially for outdoor gigs, it doesn't have the visual impact of a DB but it's more practical. It was at a large campground on a beautiful river and In the photo things look pretty "rustic" but it was a great place to play and the sound system was superb. 😊

Yes if I'm reading charts, which is a lot of the time including practice time at home and at most gigs. Sometimes if it's very bright or outside I'm OK without glasses.

Sorry to hear about the finger problem, playing a DB is definitely a real workout on a lot of parts of your body. I've been lucky so far, a few aches and pains in my wrists and hands from practising for too long but nothing permanent. I have more trouble with my right hand when bowing but I have learned to stop before it gets too bad. I play every day if at all possible and that helps and I do some hand exercises to keep the arthritis under control.

I love mine and use it at home, rehearsals and gigs with my DB and EUB. I also move around a lot and it is nice not to be worrying about cables and I can even spin the DB. 😊 I've had it for about four years and have never had any problems, it's small and easy to charge and use. 👍

I finally took the advice everyone is given and started DB lessons, of course I should have done that in 2015 when I went upright. After weekly lessons since last October I actually got to play my first orchestra gig on Saturday and I am still just floating...what an experience, and it was only being one of several adults filling out the low end of a youth orchestra. I loved it! 😊 Over the years I have played in many groups including large concert bands but never just strings and this is THE BEST. I posted details and photos in the "How Was Your Gig Last Night?" thread in the General Discussion forum. Main point: take the lessons they will improve your playing and you never know where it might lead.

I played my first orchestra gig yesterday! I've been gigging on guitar, banjo and bass for about 60 years and went to upright bass in 2015 and finally started taking DB lessons last October to learn to play with the bow properly. My teacher is a virtuoso bassist and has been very patient and I have made a lot of progress since my first weekly lesson last fall and all of my DB playing(mostly jazz) has improved. A few weeks ago I was astounded when he asked if I would like to join several of his adult students to fill out the low end of his youth orchestra for a concert. There are about 30 members of the orchestra up to about age 18 with a few very young ones who sit in for two pieces, all the members are his students. The 4 adults, two basses and two cellos, would only play on the last three selections, all of them are "bass heavy" and needed more than the single bass that he usually has. The last piece was an intermediate junior orchestra composition called "Fire in the Forge" and since I am a blacksmith I just had to get in on it so I agreed to work on the material and go to rehearsals. It was a wonderful concert and we adults did fine but the real stars were the kids, the youngest player was 6 years old...71 years younger than I am.🙄 It was probably the most interesting, challenging and memorable of the many gigs I have played over the years and as the last booming bass notes died at the end the last song I just stood there loving it with big stupid grin on my face. I hope he asks us again, my last lesson before summer break is on June 23 but I will be back for more in September, can't wait.😊 The extra basses and cellos were beside the bassist in the long shot, fantastic acoustics in the church, I have been to concerts there but never played in it before yesterday.

Two nights at the Capitol Centre in North Bay Ontario again this year where I play bass in a band in a musical that was done like an old time radio drama in a building that housed the first radio station in the city. The show is about the Dionne Quintuplets who were born nearby and is a slightly longer version of the production that ran last year. This year I even had a minor speaking part in front of the curtain just before the show started, I gave a short history of the theatre and explained how radio dramas were done, lots of fun. Not a full house but a good crowd and the show went of with only a few hitches and the band was just about perfect. Unlike last year I also have a couple of solos under dialogue or as song intros and last night I nailed them, looking forward to tonight's show. My Shen SB100 sounded fantastic through the house system, excellent technicians and very good equipment. 😊

Only my DB's, the first was a blonde bass called "Marilyn", and now I have a Czech ply bass called "Peaches" that I use for bluegrass and outdoor gigs. My main bass is a Shen SB100 that I call "Wuzzer" because I kept getting asked "wuzzer name"?😊

If you are talking about regular ice hockey pucks they are extremely hard rubber and will act as a spacer but won't absorb much sound or vibration and wouldn't work very well for isolation. There are softer foam rubber pucks that are used for fun games and driveway hockey and they might work OK.

I started on guitar at 14 and played my first gig a couple of years later and have been playing and gigging since then. At age 42 I started bass(EB) when I was asked to sit in with a 15 piece big band and I was horrible but got better and worked with several smaller jazz groups. In 2015 I bought a Stagg EUB and then quickly upgraded to a Yamaha SLB 200 and was playing in two bands. Then in 2018 I visited England in time to attend the Double Bass Bash at Bicester and I was totally hooked and came home and bought a "real" bass, a laminate Engelhardt and then a Czech bass and a couple of years ago got my Shen SB 100 and really started to learn about playing upright and got much better during Covid, no gigs but a lot of practice. The latest step was to finally sign up for weekly lessons last October with a great teacher (bass soloist and symphony conductor) and get to work learning how to use the bow and I have made amazing progress and all my playing is much better. I'm currently in a "little big band" jazz septet, I jam with some jazz friends, I'm working with a new band (jazz, blues, soul) and next week will be in the pit band for a musical in a large theatre. A bluegrass mandolin player saw me playing last fall and today I will be rehearsing with him and we will be playing at a couple of bluegrass festivals, something different, I played at a small festival a couple of weeks ago. The most satisfying accomplishment is that I and several other adults have been asked to fill out the low string section of a 30 piece youth orchestra for a concert in June...after only six months with the bow! I have never worked so hard, the kids are so good I really have to get serious about the music and that pressure has really brought my playing to a new level. I turned 77 a couple of weeks ago and although I have played for over 60years most of my real learning on bass has been in the last 5 years, it's never too late.😊

Not a gig but an open bluegrass jam at a campground that hosts a couple of bluegrass festivals in the summer. I'm primarily a jazz player on DB but a mandolin player saw me at a jazz gig last year and wondered if I would like to play some bluegrass. We got together to jam a few times before he left to spend the winter in Florida and have jammed a few times since he returned but this was my first big jam and it was a good experience. My little 70"s Czech ply bass was overwhelmed at times by as many as 4 mandolins, four guitars, a banjo and singers but it went well. Another bass player was there with an absolute cannon of a bass and we took turns playing since two basses just won't work in this situation. There were about 15 musicians and they just dropped in and played and then took a break, very informal. I knew some of the songs and since I play guitar I could follow the guitar players and didn't mess up too badly. The hardest part was to just keep things simple and keep the tempo steady, when the other instruments get a solo they often speed up and I had to apply the brakes a few times. Good fun and I'll do this again.😊

This is from last night with the seven piece swing band at a craft brewery in South River Ontario. We've played there before and it was a packed house, they ran out of chairs with 50+ enthusiastic fans taking up the whole space. We did our usual two swing sets and then I switched to tenor banjo and a sax player went to Bari sax to play the bass lines for our trad or "Dixie" set to finish off the night. We also had a vocalist for some of our swing pieces, a super singer that many of have worked with before and she brought a contingent of friends and added a nice change for our sound. My bass set up (Shen SB 100 and Realist lifeline straight into our Bose PA) never sounded better according to some musicians in the audience and all in all a good night with the added bonus of six free craft beers each to take home! 😊

I was 16 when my folk trio played for all 1700 students at an assembly at our school followed soon after with a paying gig for a church youth group, I was playing acoustic guitar then. Tonight, 61 years later (I can't believe it!), I am playing a gig with my seven piece jazz band at a brewery and I hope to continue as long as possible. Several more gigs coming with that band, a small string ensemble concert and a couple of bluegrass festivals this summer all on DB, I just love playing that big beast.😊

Afternoon jazz quartet(piano, vibes, drums, and me on EUB). We have played together in other bands and we are just having some fun running through some charts and might play a few low key gigs at some point. This evening was the seven piece swing band and we were working on some new charts for a gig at the end of April, haven't had a gig for a couple of months so we decided to add some different material and had a good time with a few of the more challenging arrangements.

New quartet this afternoon working on having fun with some jazz tunes. We have played together in other bands but this is a new group with piano, vibes, drums and me on EUB. After a few rehearsals things are starting to come together and we might even play a few gigs at some point. Tonight was the seven piece swing band, we're getting ready for a gig at the end of April and adding some interesting arrangements to out folders, a good workout and some good music.

Me too! What great story, lovely man and wonderful musician. Thanks for posting that video Owen. 😊

Don't give up yet, you never know what might come along. I play DB in a swing band and jam with two different groups of friends who play jazz and might end up gigging, another band I was in might be getting together again and I am in the band for a theatre show this summer. Just to keep my interest up and learn new things I started taking weekly lessons last October to learn to play better and use the bow, it is tough but a good challenge and I can see improvement in all my playing due to the lessons and the bow is starting to sound almost nice...well, sometimes. On top of that I just got called to play with a friend who is a mandolin player and has a bluegrass band so it looks like I'll be playing at a couple of festivals this summer. It should be interesting because I've only jammed a little, never played in an actual bluegrass band but I guess he thinks I can handle it. I'll be 77 in May and after 60 years of playing and gigging I have no plans to stop and have been lucky to have played guitar, EB, tenor banjo, DB and EUB in an incredible variety of bands. If something comes along, I would suggest that you go for it. Keep most of your gear, you never know when you might need/want it. I was about to sell my second double bass just when the bluegrass guy phoned and now I'm doing some work on it and will use it at outdoor festivals this summer and save my good bass for indoor gigs.😊 Edit: I should add that I live in a rural area in northern Ontario so I have to be prepared to drive an hour or more for jams, rehearsals or gigs and there aren't many venues to play at but I have decided that I want to play so I'll just live with the driving, even in winter.

My teacher has just started me with drones and he feels if you are practicing scales you should use the dominant (5th) of the scale as the drone note, it is easier to hear the intervals and you get more overtones on each note when bowing. I tried it at my lesson yesterday and just got an app so I can work on it at home.

I remember seeing this when you originally posted it and like a lot of us gasped when I saw the actual crash, it served to confirm in my mind that these things are just so prone to problems that I always take my EUB. I still cringe when I watch your video but at least the bass was able to be repaired and you had the EB, good thing you didn't have the aluminum bass that day!

I share your concern re damage in transit or some sort of disaster while playing, you're right about the big awkward and delicate aspects of DB. I play very few gigs that are less than an hour from home and running back for a spare is out of the question so for peace of mind I take my Yamaha SLB200 to most gigs "just in case". It may seem a bit silly but the Yamaha doesn't take up much room and I am more relaxed knowing that I can carry on if something bad happens to my DB. My bass is a Shen SB100 laminate so it is a sturdy bass but I still worry, so far I have had no problems but still take the Yammy and also a spare DB bridge pickup that fits my bass in my gig bag. Belt and braces.