Playing in cold weather

[Mlazarus]

A couple of weeks ago I had a gig outside at a gulf/country club. We expected to play indoors, but instead we played outside at 7 to 9 pm. Bad idea. The temp was about 45 degrees. This is April in Massachusetts. My fingers were getting stiff, but I plugged through. The drummer is an older guy (68). He started losing concentration. He is normally a solid/pocket player, but the cold-which can be dangerous, was getting to him. We were missing time and coming in late or early. Not a good situation, yet, because we are strong players, managed to do a good job overall. As for my series 1....That monster stayed true all the way through. Between sets, I made sure I put it in its case. Later, at home, I did not open the case in my house, because I didn't want the neck to be affected by the sudden temperature change. Anyway, the neck was solid. No changes with the tuning. It's a strong neck, not to mention the dual truss rods. Is that why Alembic went to Dual Truss rods? Have any of you had a similar situation?

[jazzyvee]

Hate cold gigs, inside or outside. I would take a tip from buskers and use fingerless gloves. You can get them now with pockets to hold a those little heating packs. 

[Mlazarus]

Sounds good.

[Spoilers!]

Anyway, the neck was solid. No changes with the tuning. It's a strong neck, not to mention the dual truss rods. Is that why Alembic went to Dual Truss rods? Have any of you had a similar situation?

I had a similar experience the first time I played out on my Distillate.  It was winter in Maryland, so roughly comparable to spring in Massachusetts.  We were the last band to go on at an afternoon showcase which the venue owner moved outside.  There were gas heaters at every table on the patio, but nothing but cold and wind for the musicians.  The schedule ran behind to the point that we were going on a dusk as the temperature was dropping fast toward freezing.  For icing on the frozen cake sound problems for our keyboard player took almost 20 minutes to sort out while we all stood there freezing.

I ended playing mostly whole notes on the root, just because my fingers were too stiff for anything more complicated than that.  The Distillate was spot-on though - no tuning or intonation issues at all!

Note to self: must find fingerless gloves with heating packs!

Ken

[Mlazarus]

ha ha good story Ken. Playing whole notes on root. Well, you still held it down for chords sake. My fingers didn't end up like yours, but i was stiffening. I owned an 80's Distillate back in the 90's. Great sound, i has some of the series 1 sounds.

[Spoilers!]

What part of Massachusetts?  I went to school in Lowell.

[Mlazarus]

I live in Springfield, MA. The gig was in Belchertown, MA

[edwin]

Here in Colorado, I've played a ton of cold weather shows, including during snow storms. We have a system of fingerless gloves, long underwear, and adamant requests for heaters on stage.

At the beginning of April, we played outdoors in Telluride. It was 22ºF when we started and by the time we were loading out it was 16ºF. It was a bit of a struggle and our fingers were pretty stiff, so we passed on the faster complex stuff, but it was really fun and the crowd was a couple of thousand people. Unfortunately, my side of the stage was not enclosed and the blowers didn't heat me up, so someone found a radiant heater that I put right in front of my fingers while I played.

I have experienced zero issues with my instruments playing in the cold. The next night, playing in Aspen indoors, felt so luxurious.

[Mlazarus]

Yes, these basses are tough and durable..

[jazzyvee]

I am pretty impressed with how stable my new (to me) Orion bass is. I have travelled so far from a wet and chilly England to palm springs, seattle, salt lake city, Denver and currently in Texas with temperatures as high as 43 degrees celcius and throughout those changes in temperature and humidity, i have not had to make any adjustments to my bass at all.

[lbpesq]

That’s 109.4 in fahrenheit!  Hope you were at least in the shade!   Do they have any fans on you while you play?  I have a little floor fan that I set up next to my mic stand when I play in hot weather.  I saw Bonnie Raitt use one, thought it was genius, and ran out and got my own.

Bill, tgo

[jazzyvee]

I did have a fan last night so all was good. Tonight is the first indoor venue so the AC should make it comfortable.

[Greywolf]

For colder gigs ( or when my 68 yr old hands hurt) I use Copperfit gloves with the open finger tips. Great support , no interference in playing and lightweight. 

Instrument wise , try to ease your baby into any temp change , despite the incredible stability of Alembics , materials don't function optimially when exposed to rapid temp changes generally  . ( half a life time in failure analyis as an engineer, and 40 years in lutherie)