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Smoking and the bass

#61
I firmly believe in a no-smoking policy for my bass. If my bass would like to smoke, then it should go outside so that it doesn't make its owner or fellow basses suffer from second-hand smoke. And if my bass dies early because it insisted on smoking despite all of my warnings, then I reserve the right to say "I told you so."

Now, if my bass "smokes" because I am playing it too fast or with too much dexterity, then I grant an exception to the no-smoking policy. In that case, it can smoke all it wants.
 
#62
Duuuuuuuuuude said:
Sheeeeeesh! What a bunch a anti-smoking nazis. You guys need to go buy a Doug Stanhope album and read the Keith Richards autobiography. Is this site about rock'n'roll or Lawrence Welk?
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And you need to educate yourself about the actual chemicals coming off the end of a cigarette. Not talking about rock and roll mythology, talking about science. Most of the stuff in cigarette smoke, if someone was found spreading it around downtown, it would be an act of terrorism, but cloud the issue as one of 'personal liberties" and you can get away with it.

It's bad for your gear, it's much worse for people and it's the #1 way to support big business interests- the very same people you were probably rebelling against when you started smoking. Now, that's Rock and roll; tricking a bunch of dopey teenagers into thinking it;s rebellious to become addicted to a dangerous product and then selling it to them for the rest of their (shortened) lives.
 
#64
Killface said:
LOL my dad died last January of lung cancer and 2 years before that my grandpa and me and more than half my family smoke still. Not in the house but still we smoke. The day I wake up worrying about health problems or dieing is the day life is not worth living. Now calm down and smoke a j and suck all that cancery goodness into ur lungs. Have a beer while ur at it!
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Natural selection at work- Darwin thinks you're hysterical.
 
#65
I believe that there was a topic here, at some point.

And the answer is this, smoking won't do anything to the sound or feel, very little to the look but probably a bit to the smell of your bass.

That settles that, please try to forgive the obnoxious posters who suggested that you dump your girlfriend, even though it is absolutely and indisputably none of their business.:rollno:
 
#68
Jim Carr said:
I smoked for 40 years. My basses are all fine. I am not. Don't worry about them.
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Haha. I quit in 1970, and it's scary to think about how much money I've saved in the interim (spent it all on basses and amps, of course:D).

Lots of guys like the patina of tobacco smoke on an instrument. Me, I can't tolerate the odor. But as far as I know, cigarette (or cigar -- the OP didn't specify) smoke doesn't degrade anything else. As I noted earlier, I didn't allow smoking in my recording studio, but the electronics of a bass -- especially a passive one -- are pretty robust. So have the lady smoke away, and start grooming a replacement for when she gets wrinkly and hoarse.:crying:
 
#69
lpdeluxe said:
Haha. I quit in 1970, and it's scary to think about how much money I've saved in the interim (spent it all on basses and amps, of course:D).

Lots of guys like the patina of tobacco smoke on an instrument. Me, I can't tolerate the odor. But as far as I know, cigarette (or cigar -- the OP didn't specify) smoke doesn't degrade anything else. As I noted earlier, I didn't allow smoking in my recording studio, but the electronics of a bass -- especially a passive one -- are pretty robust. So have the lady smoke away, and start grooming a replacement for when she gets wrinkly and hoarse.:crying:
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Reminds me of Kramer in the Seinfeld episode where he smoked all the time:

"Look away! I'm hideous!"
 
#71
Killface said:
LOL my dad died last January of lung cancer and 2 years before that my grandpa and me and more than half my family smoke still. Not in the house but still we smoke. The day I wake up worrying about health problems or dieing is the day life is not worth living. Now calm down and smoke a j and suck all that cancery goodness into ur lungs. Have a beer while ur at it!
Click to expand...

When keeping it real goes wrong.
Loved it though...:bassist:
 
#74
Yeah if the bass is subjected to second hand smoke, it is as bad as if the bass smoked itself. It is inhaling the same 50,000 chemicals that she is every time she takes a puff. It will be likely to develop emphysema and possibly lung cancer as well as be more susceptible to bronchitis and other bronchial ailments. Oral cancer and lung cancer will likely develop. It's life expectancy will be severely shortened and the social implications are dire. It's children will also be affected.

I would store it in a hermetically sealed container and only bring it out if at least a mile from any smoker. That is a subjective distance and has not been tested but it MAY be enough to avoid the horror or second hand smoke exposure in otherwise innocent basses.

I quit last Thanksgiving but I still get a kick out of anti-smokers and the government agencies that attack smoking. They have made a fortune taxing tobacco products but, alas, they have spent it all and more....still not enough money to provide a decent education for our young public school students, which is where the tobacco taxes were supposed to go.
 

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