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It's just a hammer...

What kind a hammer was used on the song "bust a move"? I heard it on the radio the other day and couldn't resist :) I'm one of those who is in the middle. Nothing wrong with hanging a one of a kind bass on the wall. The older I get the the less I care if my bass gets a dent once and awhile. It all comes down to preference. I do think we should all spend more time practicing as opposed to posting (don't take the last sentence too seriously, please). It must be hard to have a beautiful burl maple top bass and think, it's just a dent. I know when I was gigging with my several thousand dollar Warwick, it felt like a functional piece of art. Like I said earlier I am getting old I guess, life is too short not to play the $&@& out of my bass/hammer. I love these threads, just wish I hadn't burnt the popcorn this time :(
 
What kind a hammer was used on the song "bust a move"? I heard it on the radio the other day and couldn't resist :) I'm one of those who is in the middle. Nothing wrong with hanging a one of a kind bass on the wall. The older I get the the less I care if my bass gets a dent once and awhile. It all comes down to preference. I do think we should all spend more time practicing as opposed to posting (don't take the last sentence too seriously, please). It must be hard to have a beautiful burl maple top bass and think, it's just a dent. I know when I was gigging with my several thousand dollar Warwick, it felt like a functional piece of art. Like I said earlier I am getting old I guess, life is too short not to play the $&@& out of my bass/hammer. I love these threads, just wish I hadn't burnt the popcorn this time :(

Did you know that MC Hammer worked, when he was young before music, as a VP for the Chicago White Sox?

Had to bring that up.
 
+10000 I couldn't agree with you more and I didn't understand Dan when he kept saying "it's going to get beat up" why? I don't care if you play seven days a week you're playing a guitar not doing construction work there is no reason your instrument that puts food on your table can't be taken care of? I know plenty of professional musicians who gig all year and you would swear they never played their instruments. I know some things just happen but things like buckle rash can be avoided and thanks OP for a great post.

Well when Leo started the electric (bass) guitar, the music business was quite different. To make a living they had to gig every night - I don't know any professional nowadays who does. Many played in small venues that were'nt that well equiped/safe/clean.
 
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Well when Leo started the electric (bass) guitar, the music business was quite different. To make a living they had to gig every night - I don't know any professional nowadays who does. Many played in small venues that were'nt that well equiped/safe/clean.

He also knew that the nitro lacquer he was putting those early fenders wouldn't take much abuse. Poly is a relatively recent innovation.
 
Well when Leo started the electric (bass) guitar, the music business was quite different. To make a living they had to gig every night - I don't know any professional nowadays who does. Many played in small venues that were'nt that well equiped/safe/clean.
I understand that but it's still no excuse to beat your instrument up and if I'm looking for a vintage instrument from that era and it's beat up do I assume that it was heavily gigged and not abused by its owner? but maybe it was a poor choice of words on his part.
 
To the OP, to me a bass is toy, expensive one but a toy.

To recap what has been learned:

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I remember playing a gig in someones backyard for a B-Day and at the end of the gig a bunch of kids walked up on stage and started touching by bass. The father shooed them away and said to them "you have to respect a man's tools". I will always remember that. He was right.
 
IMHO, Leo's family of bolt neck instruments is one of the twentieth century's great pieces of industrial design. Beautiful, capable of producing beautiful music, made out of simple, plentiful, sustainable materials, interchangeable parts, easy to put together for any careful shade-tree mechanic. Relatively inexpensive. I can understand people's reverence for individual instruments, but I don't share it. Play it till it breaks. Replace whatever's broken or just switch guitars. .

Sure, all instruments are tools, but bolt neck guitars have a utilitarian quality that makes them homey and comfortable. They aren't delicate flowers. They make a great weapon in a bar fight. (Try that with your 1948 Martin.) Even their beauty - from the planks to the space age sculptures - has a "use em, abuse em, We'll make more" quality.
 
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I remember playing a gig in someones backyard for a B-Day and at the end of the gig a bunch of kids walked up on stage and started touching by bass. The father shooed them away and said to them "you have to respect a man's tools". I will always remember that. He was right.

Were a pack of kids to descend on my bass like that, I'd commence to lawn bowling.
 
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Narrow? I'd say he had a realistic view. Instruments were invented to make music. They weren't invented to sit on a wall, or in a glass case, or be sold for excessive amounts of cash to be added to some collection for prestige purposes. We didn't start beating sticks together in rhythms as a status symbol or for personal appeasement. They were for communication & expression. I think Leo had it spot on. It's our commercialized & coveting society that has it wrong.

Hey not all hammers MAKE music. Some STOP the music.

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