How many socks can you stuff inside a beatle bass?

[rumblethump]

LOL I just received a Beatle copy bass which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. But in my curiosity, I pulled the control plate and discovered a sock (s) stuffed inside.. I'm sure it was done for feed back reasons or maybe to deaden the sound like drummers do for more thump. Back to the question, just how many socks can you stuff into a beatle bass? drum roll tada, 13. I had to pull both pickups to get access to all the socks. At least they weren't dirty.

[ctufankjian]

Sounds like there's a really lonely 14th sock out there.

[Luke warm]

I played with a sax player once who was having trouble hitting some notes on his sax. After the gig he pulled it apart and found - you guessed it - a sock stuffed halfway down it. Is there a club for "Musicians with young children"?

[DerHoggz]

My friend once found a rock jammed in his trombone.

[JimmyM]

i don't get people who buy hollowbodies and stuff them. why buy a hollowbody in the first place?

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

i don't get people who buy hollowbodies and stuff them. why buy a hollowbody in the first place?

Frued might have had something to say about that.

[Jazzdogg]

I once played a gig with a keyboard player whose cat scrambled out of his cabinet - through an open port - as soon as he played his first note.

The cat had apparently climbed into the cab at home, and seemed quite surprised when he found himself at a gig! The poor keyboard player was beside himself with worry - he couldn't decide whether to play the gig, or abandon the bandstand to find the cat.

[jp58]

Originally Posted by Jazzdogg

I once played a gig with a keyboard player whose cat scrambled out of his cabinet - through an open port - as soon as he played his first note.

The cat had apparently climbed into the cab at home, and seemed quite surprised when he found himself at a gig! The poor keyboard player was beside himself with worry - he couldn't decide whether to play the gig, or abandon the bandstand to find the cat.

Its only a kitty... sooo

[john_martin_sai]

It's how jazz musicians carried their 'stash' while on the road back in the day.

[mr.hughes]

A guitar playing friend had a similar thing happen with his kids boot stuck in the back of his MesaBoogie combo. Standard fare for musicians with kids. Led to a great story tho, of himself as a kid. His dad was in the army, and had to do a 'changing of the guard' type thing, very ceremonious type affair. Part of this involved, in front of hundreds of people, the exchange of a ceremonial pistol to be taken from another guard and put into his holster. When he went to do that the pistol wouldn't go into the holster. After several failed attempts, and aware that he'd probably get into trouble for breaking with procedure, he had to stop and check what was in the holster already - turned out that to be toy pistol that his kid had left when he was playing army with his mates.

Kids huh? Can't live with them, can't exchange them for something useful

[pklima]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

i don't get people who buy hollowbodies and stuff them. why buy a hollowbody in the first place?

For the sock storage space. Obviously.

I've heard of people filling electric mandolins with expanding foam to kill feedback, a quick Google search reveals a foam-filled fiddle:

http://ellieguitarstwo.blogspot.com/...ed-fiddle.html

http://ellieguitarstwo.blogspot.com/...af-fiddle.html

[synaesthesia]

Well with all the soiled knickers the chicks throw at you at your rockstar gig, you need to keep it somewhere no? The OP must have got the bass from someone who played at a sock fetish party....

Seriously though, in the 70s many people did that to kill feedback or to deaden the tone. In that era, I tried it once in my hofner beatle bass, stuffed it with newspaper and played it through an SVT stack. It worked in killing feedback to a point, the pickups were largely microphonic so there were real limits as to what you could kill off.

I've also worked with several drummers in the pre- Duran Duran digital reverb days who used to stuff their drums with newspaper as a different form of muting to tape on the head. We all laugh now, but the top studios all did that sort of thing back then - think of the dead as a dodo drum sounds Carpenters or Don Henley eagles drum sounds from the 70s, and countless others.... thank god for Duran Duran for letting drums breathe (at least in this instance).

[PSPookie]

Originally Posted by john_martin_sai

It's how jazz musicians carried their 'stash' while on the road back in the day.

So start checking those socks for a forgotten stash

[odysseios]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

why buy a hollowbody in the first place?

Because if you steal it, the police will arrest you.

[lowregister]

Originally Posted by ctufankjian

Sounds like there's a really lonely 14th sock out there.

heh, always an odd number isn't it. Good story

[pklima]

Originally Posted by ctufankjian

a really lonely 14th sock

Is that an indie band name?

[Mr. Mig]

I have never stuffed a sock into an instrument. Down the front of my pants? Well, that's a different story.

[sidd_laroy]

Originally Posted by pklima

Is that an indie band name?

dibs

[Bassflute]

Originally Posted by rumblethump

LOL I just received a Beatle copy bass which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. But in my curiosity, I pulled the control plate and discovered a sock (s) stuffed inside.. I'm sure it was done for feed back reasons or maybe to deaden the sound like drummers do for more thump. Back to the question, just how many socks can you stuff into a beatle bass? drum roll tada, 13. I had to pull both pickups to get access to all the socks. At least they weren't dirty.

Why waste perfectly good socks doing that?

Cheers,
Cameron

[doctorpunch]

These are great stories.

The coolest thing I ever found was a bag of weed in the compartment of my case. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who put it there despite the fact that I never use the compartment.