At the Great 48 bluegrass festival last month in Bakersfield California there was a bass player playing a Kala uke bass with a big amp... He sounded great. I'd have liked to have jammed with him a bit (I also play banjo, mando and a little Dobro).
Interestingly, shortly after we happened to stumble upon that jam, there was a power outage in the whole hotel and everything electric went off. Lasted about 5 hours. But short of that kind of minor disaster, that bass sounded excellent.
Again, not all bluegrass people are inflexible. I'd say at the Great 48, the majority of people there probably would have been fine with that uke bass, as long as it was accompanied by that player. Quality counts.
The band "Bluegrass ETC" comes to mind. Dennis Caplinger on banjo/voice, John Moore on mandolin, guitar/voice, Steve Spurgin on electric bass/voice. Amazing.
Interestingly, shortly after we happened to stumble upon that jam, there was a power outage in the whole hotel and everything electric went off. Lasted about 5 hours. But short of that kind of minor disaster, that bass sounded excellent.
Again, not all bluegrass people are inflexible. I'd say at the Great 48, the majority of people there probably would have been fine with that uke bass, as long as it was accompanied by that player. Quality counts.
The band "Bluegrass ETC" comes to mind. Dennis Caplinger on banjo/voice, John Moore on mandolin, guitar/voice, Steve Spurgin on electric bass/voice. Amazing.
