Played outdoors today and it was 99 degrees!

[Blankandson]

Looks like the heat affected my writing skills also. The cowboy hats were all we wore to cover our heads. I've had skin cancer so my hats are doctors orders. My wife and I were dressed but she didn't wear a hat so her neck turned red.
Lots of comments and questions. Here's my answer to using Bell Brass frets. That's what most Warwicks come with so I didn't have a choice. Pros? Don't know other than when using flats there is no noise at all - they keep the strings quiet. Cons? They get dirty quickly. I use Gargomyte that I order from Kentucky and use that about every other month. I don't think they hold up for heavy playing as far as not needing to have them lined up, smoothed out, and put back where they started. Not sure what that is called but here in Music City I can get my basses 'dressed' for about $800, which essentially puts them back in perfect shape. Since most people don't pay that much for used basses most won't go to the trouble. Make any sense?
As for the temperature - I got out of my car once in Nowata, OK and my glasses fogged up fast. I looked at my car's thermometer and it said 118!

 

[jeffb28451]

NOW. I remember why I don't care if I perform in public ever again or not. Yeah , July 4th by the pool, at Wrightsville beach, with 200 screaming, drunk tourists...oh yeah...there was that...every year, most weekends...for $25-40 per hour, not including load, load in, load out, set up practice room...oh,yeah, the good ole days. Was the steel barge in the river on Labor Day any cooler? Well, if 96% humidity suits ya...meebe

 

[bbh]

Carrying a beach towel won't look great but will suffice. My method is to follow the shade around my amp as it moves throughout the day.
I had a crappy old jazz bass for outdoor non water gigs. Gigs with water got an ESP bass.

 

[MegaSwing]

Wide-brimmed cowboy hats were all several of us wore. Wife's neck is getting red already. If we do this again I'm taking a white large towel to cover it with.

Anything lightweight and bright in color or silvery will do. A towel brings more bulk. White plastic sheeting, paper, or even a laundry bag. Make it easy on yourself. But it IS a real concern.

Remember that NASA used mylar film to protect the Lunar Module and the command capsule against the sun out in space. It doesn't take much.

 

[Nephilymbass]

We knew it would be hot but wow it was really HOT. We were on a flatbed trailer and sounded good. But my poor bass was hot. It got out of tune every 30 minutes - way out of tune. Totally flat out of tune. I ended up re-tuning every 30 minutes and it needed it every time. My bass has a wenge fingerboard and ovangkol neck with bell brass frets. The frets were hot to the touch. Anyway, it's laying on my bed slowly cooling down now. I know I need to re-tune again later after the race. My question here is: What do you do when you know beforehand that it's going to be hot - really hot. Cover the bass when not being played? Remove it from the stage when not being played? How long do you give it to 'heat up' or later to 'cool down?' My wife said to take a large towel and just cover it when it's not being played. I don't know. I wasn't ready for really hot. And it was 99 degrees!

I try to avoid playing in direct sunlight because in summer time here for one it's miserably hot but also it makes nitro finishes yellow. Most outdoor gigs I play either have some type of shade or are after dark. But yeah today was miserably hot here as well. We rehearsed with AC yesterday and the AC couldn't keep up at the rehearsal spot so we had fans running all over the place. The bass you describe sounds like a Warwick. I've owned several over the years. They are good basses but the necks will move if it's hot and humid and the tuners Along with the factory output jacks are in my opinion weak spots in the design for such expensive basses. I used to have a rack tuner that was always on so I could always look back at check tuning during in the middle of songs whenever I played a sustained note.

 

[Ggaa]

We do(did, anyway)lots of outside matinee time gigs. I used a tarp or towel to keep direct sun off my instruments. Also allowed time for them to slowly come to temp by taking them out of the case as soon as I got there and put them on a stand(hour or a little more). After that they stayed in tune fine, slight tweaking if the air cooled off a lot(summer in TX, not a lot)....

 

[blowinblue]

This thread makes me think of one of the hottest gigs I ever played. It was around 105 and there was zero shade. Of course, 99 in Tennessee feels worse than 105 in SoCal. It was at the dedication of the Fallen Firefighters Memorial statue at Los Angeles City Fire Dept station #27 on Cahuenga Blvd in Hollywood.

My Stambaugh was pretty good about staying in tune despite extreme hot or cold weather conditions but I did tune after each set. We were dripping, sticky wet even before the first song. During set up and during each break I kept the bass in its gig bag out of direct sunlight. That way it stayed close to 'direct sunlight temp' as much as possible without being 'in the sun'. Fun times. I should have been wearing a hat, or so my dermatologist tells me (now).

A bit of trivia. The drummer was an LAFD PIO at the time. Now he's an Assistant Chief. That band was just a trio at the time. Sorry for the tiny pic. I'm feeling a bit flushed just looking at this pic. Hope I'm not getting a fever.

M. M.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

We knew it would be hot but wow it was really HOT. We were on a flatbed trailer and sounded good. But my poor bass was hot. It got out of tune every 30 minutes - way out of tune. Totally flat out of tune. I ended up re-tuning every 30 minutes and it needed it every time. My bass has a wenge fingerboard and ovangkol neck with bell brass frets. The frets were hot to the touch. Anyway, it's laying on my bed slowly cooling down now. I know I need to re-tune again later after the race. My question here is: What do you do when you know beforehand that it's going to be hot - really hot. Cover the bass when not being played? Remove it from the stage when not being played? How long do you give it to 'heat up' or later to 'cool down?' My wife said to take a large towel and just cover it when it's not being played. I don't know. I wasn't ready for really hot. And it was 99 degrees!

More importantly, were you wearing shorts?

I played a Warwick Corvette appointed as yours with ovangkol neck with a wenge fingerboard in Richmond at an amusement park. It was over 100 degrees with a heat index of 105. We weren't out in the open, but under an awning. It was more like 115 degrees under there. I didn't have an issue with intonation or the frets searing my fingers, but the iPads quit working.

I'm probably going to regret this, but I wore shorts and sweatbands on my wrists.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

"Wide-brimmed cowboy hats were all the sun protection several of us wore"....

There...hopefully fixed that for ya....

Hopefully taken in fun. That's my sense of humor when a gig today is canceled because of approaching storms and rain from Cristobol....

How did I miss that the first time around????

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Bandmates initially scoffed at me when I brought a fan, towel and ice water to combat the heat of summer outdoor shows or indoor shows with scorching lights, then they'd ask me to point the fan at them. Soon the drummer was bringing his own fan.

My more recent tactic is to say no thanks to those shows.

Amen on Fluids. With gigs over 80 degrees, I start hydrating the morning of the gig drinking A bottle of Propel, and another mid afternoon. During the gig I may have one or two more, and one on the home after the gig.

One thing, I rarely wake up with cramp. I wake up to go to the head instead....

 

[Tim Schnautz]

We knew it would be hot but wow it was really HOT. We were on a flatbed trailer and sounded good. But my poor bass was hot. It got out of tune every 30 minutes - way out of tune. Totally flat out of tune. I ended up re-tuning every 30 minutes and it needed it every time. My bass has a wenge fingerboard and ovangkol neck with bell brass frets. The frets were hot to the touch. Anyway, it's laying on my bed slowly cooling down now. I know I need to re-tune again later after the race. My question here is: What do you do when you know beforehand that it's going to be hot - really hot. Cover the bass when not being played? Remove it from the stage when not being played? How long do you give it to 'heat up' or later to 'cool down?' My wife said to take a large towel and just cover it when it's not being played. I don't know. I wasn't ready for really hot. And it was 99 degrees!

You played some hot bass!!

 

[Sav'nBass]

We knew it would be hot but wow it was really HOT. We were on a flatbed trailer and sounded good. But my poor bass was hot. It got out of tune every 30 minutes - way out of tune. Totally flat out of tune. I ended up re-tuning every 30 minutes and it needed it every time. My bass has a wenge fingerboard and ovangkol neck with bell brass frets. The frets were hot to the touch. Anyway, it's laying on my bed slowly cooling down now. I know I need to re-tune again later after the race. My question here is: What do you do when you know beforehand that it's going to be hot - really hot. Cover the bass when not being played? Remove it from the stage when not being played? How long do you give it to 'heat up' or later to 'cool down?' My wife said to take a large towel and just cover it when it's not being played. I don't know. I wasn't ready for really hot. And it was 99 degrees!

I played a gig like that once ... I was using two 112 cabs with tolex covering. The bottom of the top cab stuck tobthebtoo if the bottom one. It tire the tolex when I finally got it apart. It was so hot even staying hydrated was challenging ...

 

[rylie]

lived my entire life in the midwest
always hot humid summers
you get use to it or you don't
never understood the herd mentality
it's summer!
let's go outside no matter how miserable it is!

 

[two fingers]

I've done it a hundred times when I was younger. These days I don't play for a living. So I'm not doing it without a cover over the band.

 

[Bassist30]

Speaking about the fans again... I have used the Lasko fans. About 60 dollars. Put one on each side of the stage and it should help heavy heat days.

 

[HardNHeavy]

Don't play those gigs, without some covering at least....

 

[dan1952]

A few summers ago we played 4 outdoor shows in 3 weekends, in 100+ degree heat for each. Had cover for 3, but not for the biggest one. I thought we were gonna lose the drummer on that one! Prof blower style fans, lots of ice water...Now, at 67 years old, I would probably turn down the gig...

 

[sears]

I had a hot and humid one Saturday, at a dock bar. It's the mental fatigue that gets me. I bonked during "Purple Rain," couldn't keep the chords straight. Recovered for the rest of the set but it was weird.

 

[Spidey2112]

Wide-brimmed cowboy hats were all several of us wore.

 

[fhm555]

Might want to consider a cheap backup bass for these outdoor summer gigs if they're going to be a regular thing.

^this^
I got a standard MIM J bass specifically to do a string of outdoor shows in the NW Florida panhandle in high summer. While heat was a consideration they were at night and my main concern was moisture. When the sun goes down in that area the humid air will produce condensation to the point of dripping off things and i didn't want to risk my number one (and only at the time) bass.