I'm about to spend $1500 on not a car

That's right, I've officially lost my mind. I'm spending all that coin on an upright bass. A Strunal, from the Czech Republic. Not exactly a hand-carved hardwood Italian bass, but it'll serve. It thumps like CRAZY. So loud, I love it, and I play bluegrass, so loud is good. Which reminds me, if anyone in the Central PA area wants to hear real, honest-to-god live bluegrass music, come out to a Colebrook Road show. We play all over here, and some in northwestern MD and all over wild and wonderful WV.

Pictures to come.

$1500 on a bass is nothing, and it is also a good investment. Very little depreciation, if any.
I keep going back and forth between banjo and standup bass for my next non-guitar purchase. Been getting more and more into bluegrass recently.

I love me some bluegrass... and I'm moving to Pittsburgh! My parents live in Carlisle.

What's the name of your group? do you have a website?

IMO, spending a lot (this doesn't even sound like a lot) on an instrument makes more sense than spending it on a car. Empirically, a car is disposable. A great instrument is something you keep for life.

Looking forward to hearing more about it.

Mind you--I know NOTHING about stand-up basses.

I can stand behind that. Mind you, I can't play it, but I can stand behind it.

curtis73 wrote: I love me some bluegrass... and I'm moving to Pittsburgh! My parents live in Carlisle. What's the name of your group? do you have a website?

It's called Colebrook Road, we have a Facebook page. Speaking of Carlisle, we play at Market Cross Pub every so often, and California Cafe once in a blue moon.

Mtn: you need to listen to, in this order, The Infamous Stringdusters (self-titled album), Steep Canyon Rangers- One Dime at a Time, and the Tony Rice Unit- Unit of Measure. My three favorite grass albums right now. Matter of fact, everyone who likes good music should listen to them. If you don't like bluegrass afterwards, you have no pulse.

And $1500 isn't all that much. He had a 200-year-old French bass...$35K as it sat, $50K fully set-up and restored. I was like "$50K? I could buy a Dodge Viper for that. Or a 911 Turbo. Or a CTS-V wagon. Or a ZO6 Corvette..." And the guy was like "You like cars at all?" Hahaha.

<---Jealous. I played in the Orchestra in 7th & 8th grade. Hated playing classical, but I usually hustled to class early to fart around. I'd really love to have one. They sound so amazing. Me and a few buddies recorded an impromptu version of this when I picked up dude's bass and started farting around a million years ago...minus the harp and tambura, but with sax and piano.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFDiXszQeVY

I'd love to have one, but at a grand, that's an expensive toy I'll probably rarely enjoy.

I don't know anything about music, but saw a truly grassroots bass on a TV show (US Inventors or similar) the other day.

http://www.edencompanies.com/bogdon/ The bogdon bass is made out of a cardboard kit and sells for less than $100. ON the TV show they had some musicians listen to it and they said it had a cleaner sound.

I am sure it could be fun to try.

Good luck.

In reply to Twin_Cam:

I will purchase The Infamous Stringdusters. Thanks - I didn't know about them.

I loves me some bluegrass, but it seems like there should be cheaper ways to go "DOMM dom DOMM dom DOMM" a little louder...

Duke wrote: I loves me some bluegrass, but it seems like there should be cheaper ways to go "DOMM dom DOMM dom DOMM" a little louder...

How many bass players does it take to change a light bulb?

One five one five one five...

Anyone? Ok, sorry, carry on.

Hmmm... I grew up near Colebrook Road in Hershey. The road, not the band or maybe the band too. Gave a listen on Reverbnation and now a fan on Facebook

I sold my banjo recently and my mother in law was so mad at me she's buying me another for my birthday under the condition that I have to come over and play for her. I have been looking for a while guess I just need to go play some to see how they sound. The Vega had an amazing tone.

In reply to Twin_Cam:

Yes!

Twin_Cam ... do you slap or plunk/pick ?

Twin_Cam wrote: Mtn: you need to listen to, in this order, The Infamous Stringdusters (self-titled album), Steep Canyon Rangers- One Dime at a Time, and the Tony Rice Unit- Unit of Measure. My three favorite grass albums right now. Matter of fact, everyone who likes good music should listen to them. If you don't like bluegrass afterwards, you have no pulse.

1: Never heard of them.
2: Already have the album.
3: Don't think I've heard that particular album, but I have two of his others.

I'm already into bluegrass for listening (my favorite band/artist is the Kruger Brothers), but I'm just starting to get into playing it.

Whoops, double post.

spriteracer wrote: Hmmm... I grew up near Colebrook Road in Hershey. The road, not the band or maybe the band too. Gave a listen on Reverbnation and now a fan on Facebook

Sweet! Thanks. We got our name from the actual road, there's about three Colebrook Roads in central PA across Dauphin, Lebanon, and Lancaster counties. Our bio makes the connection of us pulling musical influence from all these old and new grass bands, plus the road connection different counties...yea. We'll have new tracks coming fairly soon, and they'll sound way better. We've just started working out 3-part harmony with our fiddle player, and he can play fiddle like the best of them.

WBJones: I pluck, and bow on one or two quiet sections of a couple songs.

Mtn- listen to the Dusters. They are stupid good. Off that album, Golden Ticket, Three Days in July, Well Well, and Get it While You Can will give you a good idea of who they are as a band.

I played one in middle school. Started out on the violin and ended up on the bass because I was the only kid tall enough to play it. It was a blast, but a little hard to carry home on the bus.

I don't even have room in my house for one of those! They are fun to play, that's for sure.

I do however play the much smaller electric bass. Lately, I've had the urge to buy a fretless.