Hmmm, maybe Frono's got something there...

The Guilds of Grot

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So the lead guitarist in our band gets us a gig here for last Saturday night;

ChannelClub-1.jpg


It's a very expensive Adult Community named "The Channel Club". He and the other guitarist went over to meet the people and to get the lay of the land. The gig is for their "Summer Party" and they were very concerned about the volume. We assured them everything will be fine. Set up is to be by the kiddy pool where the arrow is.

So the average age of the party goers will be around 70 years old. We start looking at our current song list and we realize there's a lot of songs that aren't going to work. So I break out my monster book and start looking for songs from 1955 to 1965. We fine about ten new songs and have two rehearsals to work them up.

So as I'm listening to all these songs to learn the bass lines, I'm also noticing the tone of the basses. So then it dawns on me that I need to break out some of me vintage basses for the gig. I figure there shouldn't be too much wear and tear imparted on them as the band will be in "Lounge" mode. So much so that the drummer played with Hot Rods.

For the first set which was really mellow, I played this one;

M-85009.jpg


Then for the second a little more up tempo set I played this one;

rt125.jpg


And finally for the "rock" set I played my "Sheryl Crow bass;

rt114.jpg


Now a lot of the songs we did had a "walking blues" bass line that spans four frets. Normally after such songs as "Carol", Lucille", and "I Saw Her Standing There", I get some pretty good cramps in my left hand. Now on Saturday, I experienced almost no hand cramps at all.

Hmmm,

Maybe there is something to that short scale thing? :?
 

The Guilds of Grot

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fronobulax said:
Glad you got a chance to show off the collection.
Wow, no I told you so about the advantages of short scale basses!

I think I'm a little disappointed. I set you up, and then you were nice. :wink:


Graham said:
Kewl Kurt, how were you received?
Well since we were just "background" music, nobody really paid attention to us as there was no clapping after songs. (Maybe they had their hearing aids turned down!). I was told if I saw any "toe-tapping", that it was a good thing but that was about as much as response as we would get. :?

Now when we got to my killer rendition of Elvis' Love Me Tender, it must have melted some hearts as there was a smattering of applause at it's conclusion.

Probably the best thing was that nobody came up and asked us to turn it down the whole night! That, and when we were done, quite a few people came up and told us how much they enjoyed the music. I guess you can't ask for much more then that! (Well a hefty tip would have been nice!)
 

fronobulax

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The Guilds of Grot said:
I think I'm a little disappointed. I set you up, and then you were nice. :wink:

I realized after the last go around that the reason I advocated short scale is the size of my hands and the fact that I would rather keep my LH in one place and reach with my pinky than slide to get the note with my ring finger.

Besides, if short scale was always best then Jack's signature model would have been short scale.
 

The Guilds of Grot

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While I don't have large hands, I do have some what long skinny fingers. On a 34" scale bass I can stretch 5 frets from my first finger to my pinky.

Although the "standard" blues walks use 4 frets and I can easily reach them with my pinky, on the faster songs my pinky gives out! It's weird, right in the middle of the song my pinky just stops moving. :shock:

I found that on the short scale basses this didn't happen. I guess that little bit less of a stretch kept my pinky happy!

Another interesting side effect is in all the years I played guitar as my primary instrument, I never used my pinky. After switching over to bass now when I pick up a guitar my pinky is in the mix!

(I think I feel a "Pinky Poll" coming on!)
 
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