Double Bass Blowing in the wind

[CharleyJackson]

Played outdoors yesterday at a farmer’s market. Intermittent heavy winds. I’m not that big a guy - several times the bass was almost blown out of my hands and it was cold. Wow the power of just enough nature. The bass stayed in tune, though. I opted to bring my small combo amp but the wind carried the sounds away from me from where I was standing. I learned not necessarily that I should bring the 200 watt Rumble next time but to position myself opposite side of wind direction. We did check to make no rain was forecast.

What adverse nature conditions have you played under? With a small combo or an orchestra? Hopefully no tragic rain stories.

 

[JazznFunk]

In terms of 'bad weather for double bass', the worst for me has to be the outdoor Christmas jazz gig I played in 2006 or 2007. A friend of mine passed on the gig, but passed my info on to the bandleader because they still needed a bassist, and I took it. Of course, I took it under the pretenses of there being adequate heaters outside, under a pop-up covering. There were not. Most of the gig was in high 30 degree temps and I was not only struggling to play, but I was worried about my bass getting damaged. I had zero sense of dynamics and refused to solo because my fingers felt like 2 frozen hot dogs playing fence wire. Never again have I taken any outdoor gig in December.

 

[Don Hergert]

One of our favorite outdoor venues is an apple farm located about an hour away, at about 5000' elevation in the local foothills. While we love playing there, we of course are flatlanders who are used to playing in temps about 65°F to 100°F. We've actually set a minimum playing temp for our band at about 62°F -- while I'm ok with the DB in colder weather, my old hands just won't work well for banjo or mandolin below that temp... But we do make exceptions occasionally.

One exception was about 5 years ago at this apple farm. We were playing on a pleasant hand-built break-down stage with a shade in early October, which in this area is usually considered summertime. Gigs for this venue are typically 3 sets of 50 minutes each with a 5 to 10 minute break between. We knew in advance it was going to be colder than we liked, so we were dressed for cold weather but really didn't know what to expect.

Temps were just around 50°F when we started, but within the first 30 minutes clouds closed us in and temps dropped to the low 40°Fs. By the time the 2nd set started we were shivering in the mid 30°Fs, and halfway through the 2nd set it started snowing. It was beautiful, but we were shivering badly and decided to quit by the end of the 2nd set, with a clear "ok" from the venue owner because all the audience had left about 15 minutes earlier.

This was our toughest gig there, but we loved having been there because it was the first snow of the winter for these folks and it was so beautiful.

Nowadays, we do hold 62i°F as our standard minimum. We're all 5 years older and more sensitive than ever to cold weather.

 

[CharleyJackson]

Wow. I guess I had it easy! But it's true the wind almost took my DB straight out of my hands.