Quote from: edwardofhuncote on October 12, 2026, 02:52:48 AMA band I really liked played a reunion show in Big Stone Gap, Virginia Friday night. Kenny Smith happened to record the event.

(these guys are all GIANTS in the bluegrass world... two of them are AK+US alumni, but honestly that's just one line on their resume')

Just linking the story from BT- https://bluegrasstoday.com/the-boxcars-shine-in-reunion-at-blue-highway-fest/

I'd forgotten what a natural comedian Adam is. 😄

Wot!

Quote from: cozmik_cowboy on October 14, 2026, 08:35:18 AMAnd you can just imagine what they're like.......

Peter

Yes, actually... (listen to the end)


Long live T. Michael C. on my Mount Rushmore of Bass. 

An SF-2 is quite a different beast than an F-2B.

Bill, tgo

And you can just imagine what they're like.......

Peter

Colin Hodgkinson (1945)

Peter

In my opinion there's no wrong technique.  Whatever works for you is right!  There's no need to "unlearn" anything unless it stops working.    Whatever you do to get the notes to speak the way you want - that's the way to go. 

But Greg has brought to light an important thing about playing bass; the length of the note!  It took me a while to understand that in many musical situations the moment where you STOP the note is almost as important as where you start it.  That can help the groove in a big way. 

Playing bass in a Bluegrass band with no drummer is a big job because you're driving the time.  The traditional upright has a very fast decay so that percussive "thump" is almost as important as the pitch when there's no kick drum helping out.  As Greg said, it makes sense in that situation to provide a more muted emulation of that relatively short driving sound.  But the beauty of it is that we have the option to occasionally play long notes - without reaching for a bow.

I also realized at some point that the great pop-music bassists I was listening to would often stop the note on the backbeat.  A full 1/4-note on the downbeat, stopped with the snare on beat-2, followed by an 1/8th note pickup to a full 1/4-note on beat 3, stopped on beat-4, etc...  That seems so simple but that "space" is the DEAL. 

Jazzy I love hearing that you use your right-hand little finger to mute the B-string.  These are the detailed techniques we develop as we need them and they are what set us all apart.  Great stuff!

Jimmy J

Thanks for that Greg, I think most of my muting comes from my fretting fingers mainly and occasionally thumb round the neck if i'm on a 4 string. My right hand thumb moves vertically to mute on 5 stringers and strangely my right hand little finger rests on the underside of the B string when not playing that string and the rest of my hand kinds of pivots around it. Bad technique i'm sure. That happened unconsciously with my first Alembic and i haven't tried to un learn it yet.
But for certain i'm noticing more since i've been playing with the filters more open than previously. Also i'm enjoying and playing the Elan much more with rounds than flats.

Doesn't have much of anything to do with your original issue Jazzy, but tangent to your post above^. 

One of the technical things about playing bass guitar in bluegrass and string bands goes beyond the visual, cultural, and yes, traditional idea that it should be an upright bass in that role. Bass guitars just plain don't sound like upright basses, but there are techniques you can employ to help emulate them. And I believe, well... I know, it comes easier if you already play them. That's how your brain wants to hear bass in that space anyway, so your hands go to work making it happen. I don't know how much of it is a conscious set of decisions, but one of them is definitely right-hand/left-hand string muting to prevent or allow notes to sustain a fairly precise amount of time. 

See, in my gig, there is no kick-drum and snare. There's a guitar strum and mandolin chop to fill out a rhythm section, but the bass is the root and the timekeeper. So the length of those notes matters a lot. Learning to control them is a key component whether playing the upright or the bass guitar. It's also why I struggle so with other music... playing with a drummer instead of the band following me is hard to process. It happens, but slower. 

Been liking an F2-B  for a while now. With our dollar the way it and our taxes, that price is good for me.
Anyway I message the seller yesterday to see whether they would consider shipping the the F2-B but It's pickup only. Unfortunately don't know anyone that's close to the seller.