Spouses, do they like or hate your instruments?

[Silvia Bluejay]

I would pick up my other half's basses and play them, but they're all right-handed, so I have my own instead, and that doubles the number of basses in the house. Wait till I find and buy a lefty double bass...
At least we can share amps and cabs.

[Grangur]

Mrs G is amazing. In the lounge I've got:

A standing rack with 5 basses. I have had 7 basses there.
I've got 2 basses in bits, under the sofa and next to the dining table
Tools laying around
Cans of nitro and contact cleaner on the dining table.
A Bass neck leaning against the window sill drying with it's finish.

Last night I was using Nitromores stripper to strip varnish off a neck - in the kitchen sink.

Mrs G loves my Streamer Stage 1, and the Thumb. She never stops me buying a bass (sometimes I wish she would!)
Our spare room has loads of bass cases in there and a couple of spare of combos, a guitar and a bass from another BCer. Mrs G is happy like this!

She's actually looking forward to the SE Bass Bash! Can't wait to meet Herbie Flowers; he's one of her heros.

Mrs G is a pianist - doesn't play bass. I can't believe it.

[Geek99]

Mine is cool along as they live in the corner that we agreed on. If our next house has enough rooms there will be a shared music room

She doesn't mind my p bass, active bass, acoustic bass and 12 string guitar as they all clearly have differences; multiple p basses would be a no no, which I accept as reasonable

[Marc S]

[quote name='bluejay' timestamp='1471529230' post='3113718']


I would pick up my other half's basses and play them, but they're all right-handed, so I have my own instead, and that doubles the number of basses in the house. Wait till I find and buy a lefty double bass...
At least we can share amps and cabs.
[/quote]

Haven't you got any left handed amps and cabs then?

[Silvia Bluejay]

Oooo that's a gap in the market someone could exploit!

[Barking Spiders]

I must count myself lucky. Originally I had all mine stuffed into remote corners of the house. When I came back from a work trip she'd been having one of her moving everything about weekends and my see thru blue ESP and cherry Ibanez guitars and Cort B4FL and Peavey Cirrus 4 BXP had pride of place in the living room. However, the previous mrs Spiders would make sure all my instruments were confined to the shed while the lunatic who was her predecessor once sawed through the neck of my US white Fender Tele as she was jealous of the time I spent with it .

Edited August 18, 2016 by Barking Spiders

[Woodinblack]

All of my ibanez's are on hangers in the living room, as well as one guitar. She likes them although she is very critical of certain colours - there are some colours that are tolerated and some I wouldn't be about to bring in the house.
She doesn't like sunburst so not keen on the geddy lee, but there was one fender baja telecaster in butterscotch she hated, calling it the 'unfinished one'.

[Cat Burrito]

It's essential that a balance is struck. We have a set agreed number in a fairly small house so if something comes in, something goes out. It's nice to do things at together too rather than stockpile unplayed instruments and it took me a previous marriage to get that! My last two basses were purchases actively encouraged by my current wife. It was worth the upgrade... and I'm not just talking about the basses!

[tony_m]

My Other Half tolerates my basses as long as they're kept out of the way, ditto the amps. Moving from a three-bedroom detached house to a two-bedroomed bungalow earlier this year has made this slightly more difficult, but hopefully a dedicated music room may be on the cards.

[Twincam]

Every ex I've gotten into playing bass (since I started playing) so my hobby was also there's so its not been a problem. Its nice to know there's a few more females playing bass in the world because of me lol.

Oh my recent ex didn't allow me to buy a little cab I seen cheap while we were out (as friends) in cash converters recently saying "it was scruffy and knackered". I thought it was a bit cheeky of her tbh but she was right lol.

[Luulox]

Indifference, sometimes sliding into the realms of irritation.

[Roger2611]

Mrs2611 is pretty good about it, as long as they are not sitting around in the lounge she doesn't mind, I have promised to sell them all at some point and we can live like kings on the proceeds for at least two weeks!

[josie]

When I got my first bass, Mr J appreciated that it was a good quality instrument, but apart from that he didn't really care. The "dining room" turned into a nice big music room and he didn't care about that either. Sadly, now that he is disabled and housebound, the ground floor has to be as he needs it, and the "third bedroom" (aka broom cupboard) is the music room. And if possible he cares even less. He doesn't even know I have the J+ - I haven't tried to hide it, he just doesn't notice things.

Both my sons, on the other hand, would cheerfully steal the whole lot given the chance, and my 3yo grandson insists on carefully playing all the guitars every time he comes round.

[Roland Rock]

I know a chap who was going through a bitter separation from his (then) wife. Among other items, she threw his Stingray out of a first floor window.

[uk_lefty]

[quote name='josie' timestamp='1471550242' post='3113962']
my 3yo grandson insists on carefully playing all the guitars every time he comes round.
[/quote]

Yes!!! I wouldn't put my basses away when the nephews and niece visited and I won't have them out of bounds for my child either. I think if kids are told they're not allowed to pick them up and have a play they won't become interested in music.

[blue]

I'm not married. However any woman I have dated had no interest in bands or basses.

Bkue

[lee650]

My wife treats my basses/gear with mild indifference,much like a cat! she reluctantly let me put them on the wall when we moved to a bigger house and she just rolls her eyes when I mention gear.
She was happy to spend the money ive made over the years playing on handbags and shoes though!!!!

On the plus side my daughters love em! Especially the pretty blue one 😂

[MacDaddy]

[quote name='lee650' timestamp='1471561973' post='3114103']


On the plus side my daughters love em! Especially the pretty blue one
[/quote]
Smurfette is one of your daughters? [size=4] [/size]

[4stringslow]

Mrs 4string is totally at ease with my music interests, gear, band and gigging. We have often rehearsed at my house and when we've been recording the place has been strewn with gear, cables and instruments for days on end, but it's never been an issue. We've even held 'music weekends' in the summer and invited friends' bands to play and stay over. Each year the weekend is a little bit bigger and after six of them it's becoming a bit of tradition now

So no spousal problems at 4string towers - my only complaint is that Mrs 4string is not at all musical herself.

[ColinB]

MrsB encourages me to display my guitars and basses on the wall, and proudly shows them off to visitors. I've often said I should sell a few as I don't play them all... she says "No - it looks lovely, it stays!". I'm happy.

[joeystrange]

My wife also happens to be a bass player but she often says I have too many basses and I don't need another one - which, as we all know, is wildly untrue.

Although she has more than me.

[FuNkShUi]

My wife is also pretty indifferent.
When i show her one of my basses, she'll often say "Yeh, that's nice", although i'm not even convinced she is looking.
But she recently said she misses hearing me playing around the house as much, now we have a youngster. Which i didn't expect to be honest.
That's a free pass for more playing time as far as i'm concerned though

[scalpy]

One of the things that made me think I had a chance with my now wife is she had a Gibson plectrum case on her keyring when I met her! She still has Marshall acoustic amp and ovation guitar from before we met too. We moved to a new house in May and she bought me a rack for all my instruments, and understands I want to keep them in the cases as well. We now play in a function band together, she sings, and she can set up lights and plug monitors in etc no problem. So she likes my guitars a lot, especially my L'arrive parlour acoustic, which suits her really well as she's 5 foot 1.

[planer]

I don't think my wife would even notice if I sold all my gear and it disappeared overnight.

She is 'actively disinterested', which results in me playing less and less.

[EliasMooseblaster]

Fortunately, Mrs Mooseblaster has dabbled in music a bit herself (she plays a bit of guitar and clarinet, and was taking drumming lessons when we first met) so the instruments have not been frowned upon. I'm more concerned that the soon-to-arrive Mini-Mooseblaster might take an interest in poking, prodding and scribbling on them. Perhaps the more expensive ones might need to take a sojourn in the cupboard!