buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Meds plus alcohol is a great way to $&*-&%$# up your liver.
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Yeah have the pick at the ready. Give the BL a heads up about your situation. Grab the pick every few songs to give the finger a break. You're a bass player. You'll know which songs will fit the pick (and your style) better.
Ibuprofen up front (no more than 800 mg).
Try to lighten your touch a little and let the amp work harder. This would be really hard for me to do but I would give it a try if I were in your shoes.
Abstain from flipping too many people off so the finger can rest.
Report back! Hope it goes well!
Ibuprofen up front (no more than 800 mg).
Try to lighten your touch a little and let the amp work harder. This would be really hard for me to do but I would give it a try if I were in your shoes.
Abstain from flipping too many people off so the finger can rest.
Report back! Hope it goes well!
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OK, don't fire that drummer and rage quit.
"Sorry dude, I'm your bass player today."
Yeah he's not a jerk at all, very cool guy, just want to make sure I get the call when I can and not "he didn't sound quite right that last gig." Don't know why explaining the situation to him hadn't crossed my mind 
Maybe try one of those felt picks instead of a plastic or nylon one. Seems like they'd give a little easier, and they sound less... well, "picky".
The only thing I thought I might see posted is thumb picking.
OK, nobody does that anymoe and it's not fingers,
but it is closer than a pick.
Alternate two fingers, one finger, thumb and flat pick.
You may find that you want to keep doing that,
to some extent, just for the varied sounds.
Don't self medicate to the point of being able to hurt
yourself with out feeling it.
If I had that finger out of commision,
I'd lose a big part of my vocabulary.
OK, nobody does that anymoe and it's not fingers,
but it is closer than a pick.
Alternate two fingers, one finger, thumb and flat pick.
You may find that you want to keep doing that,
to some extent, just for the varied sounds.
Don't self medicate to the point of being able to hurt
yourself with out feeling it.
If I had that finger out of commision,
I'd lose a big part of my vocabulary.
Try to lay off it if you can, see if you can get away with just index finger, or index + ring finger.
Don't do anything that will disrupt or impede the healing process.
Don't do anything that will disrupt or impede the healing process.
Yup. Take ibuprophen starting in AM, 2, then 3 then 4 every 4 hours. Ibuprophen works best when it builds to a therapeutic level in your system. One time doses are least effective way to take it.
I think all the good advice has been said already. Talk to your BL, do extra prep for the gig (figuring out which songs work with a pick), take something for the pain, adjust your picking technique (good excuse to work on your Jamerson hook!), simplify the basslines when you can get away with it, and most of all, don't make the injury worse.
In addition to the usual 2 fingers, i occasionally add my thumb to get a simplified banjo roll, but i've also used it with just my middle finger to rest an injured index finger. I've done the same with my ring finger to rest an injured middle finger. The ring finger was by far the easiest to adapt, just hold your middle finger slightly forward (away from the strings) and concentrate on moving the ring finger. It took me a couple hours to get it to happen without having to think about it. Being such a rote kind of guy, i was truly surprised at how quiclk and easy it was to adapt.
Ibuprofen is as bad as booze for the liver, and nowhere near as nice. I'd go easy on it and use lots of anti-inflammatory cream on the finger instead.
