speaking of making a fool of myself...

Hey man. You did fine. You ever gig with that DB before? Ever play with those musicians?

Everyone has an off night on stage. The incident as you described it seems pretty standard and common to me.

And, like I always say...

You were the one up there thumping the tub while everyone else in the place was sitting on their cabooses drinking draft, right?

Feel good about it. You did great. And next time you'll do even better!

FF

 

Humm,
Well Limezone, I got one for you that might make you feel better.This has to do with a EB but very embarassing to say the least. OK, I have played in Praise and Worship teams for many years. Have had a chance to play with very good musicians from around the area. Well, at my old church we had a revival meeting and the church I played for was very well know for being a rock&roll church. Light shows at times, solos, you name it. We played together for 7 years and were very tight. Well, the revival brought a bunch of people from other churches and also their musicians to come a watch us play" not bragging, just saying".
Well that night we were on, all is good, we were jamming, place was hoping. By now you can see what type of church it was. We were into our say......third song" a funky slap pop number". I look out and see all the other musicians looking at me, wispering to one another . I`m really jamming. All the sudden......pop!! I broke my D string. OK, I play 6st EB. 6st basses have a 4 octive neck so I play at middle pitch and work up and down to other octives for my little runs so the D string is everything. Ok, I pretty much fall out of the song. The bottom falls out, the band is lost, the singers freak out. The praise leader realizes what happen and murcifully stops the song. Packed house. Everybody is watching me. Hears the kicker. The string breaks at the nut. When it broke, the string come up and slapped across my neck under my chin. This hurt. Ok I guess it made my eyes water. The people in the church really thought God was dealing with me. AND THEN !! you hear the fant small voice of a little old saint of a woman say......oh bless-em lord. Man I wanted to hide. Well, I pulled out my 4st and finished. I still get the" hey Dave, you remember when". All well, we have all had those nights. Have a good one.
Dave

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If the world didn`t suck we would all fall off

 

And the moral is..?

God doesn't want you to play with any more than 4 strings on your bass?

Or that slap/pop is the work of the devil?

 

Could be.........I may have seen the light

 

There ain't nobody out there who hasn't been humiliated/embarassed in a public performance.
It's over. The only thing that matters now is to learn what you can from the experience. Take control: make it work for you rather than against you.

 

PREcisely, Mr. Higdon. In college I was playing with our university big band at the Wichita Jazz Festival. The only chart that was electric bass was "North Beach Breakdown", and you guessed it, I broke the G-string early on. I made it through the song (I'm calm by nature) with only a few clams from having to play higher on the D string. When I got the comments from the IAJE judges, I got lots of praise from 2 of them for keeping composure, probably the reason I got an award. It certainly wasn't for my bass playing, which was only average college big band level at the time.

Don't get scared, enjoy yourself. Most of us took up the instrument because we loved music enough to want to participate ( ok, that and the chicks ), so don't forget that it is fun to play the gig. The practice room is where you should be upset and nervous..............

Monte

 

So with all those strings and all those frets you couldn't play around a missing string? It's really important to know your neck for just this sort of occasion.

-dh

 

Monte:
What's this "Mr." crap?

By the way, I was with Lou DeLeone Tuesday (Gary Karr brought him his Amati when it got busted in Spain). Lou is totally in favor of wires in place of a tailpiece. It is not a new concept for him. Maybe I'll start a thread.

 

It's a bad reference to Sherlock Holmes, as in "Precisely, Mr. Watson." I guess you would have had to see my hand motions tapping down a pipe .

Interesting stuff, these tailpiece questions. I'm beginning to think that some of this luthier stuff is black magic that we aren't supposed to understand how it works.

Monte

 

I agree, but muscle memory makes that harder than you would think. Try playing a lick or scale you have learned one way completely different on the fly. Not as easy as it sounds, I suspect.

Monte

 

Well dhosek, you make a good point but, I said it was a slap song. I personaly hate to slap but that is what the song called for. If it were finger style, yes I could work my way around it but not slaping.
Have a good day.
Dave

 

Mundane:
Didn't Holmes say "Doctor Watson?

 

It is only bad if you didn't learn anything from it.

For the next song you should have asked the guy if he knew "Rent a personality in Am"

So has your public confession helped?
I hope you are planning on going back once you get you confidence back up.

 

Limezone, I can imagine how you felt, but you were a victim of unfortunate circumstances (like a bass amp turned off - why? - with the master volume still up). Just file it under "sh't happens", next time bring your own cable and do the amp routine yourself.

I thought the classic one was "Elementary, my dear Watson".

...or was it "A lemon tree, my dear Watson..." (movie reference ).

 

Ahh, I thinkERIK THE RED has it right, my dear Higgenbotham.....

Monte

 

Correct, Erik, but I don't need Monte calling me "dear".

 

Relax, no one who has ever met me in person has made that mistake. Although I did once spend 6 years working in the floral industry as a wholesale buyer of flowers..........

Monte

 

Yeah, there is some stuff in Exodus and Leviticus, as well as Paul's letter to the Corinthians about "un-natural acts". 6-string basses do fit in this category.

Monte