BroDown Bass Throwdown
September 30, 2021
Some of us were at BroDown last month. Ricky's presence was both felt, and missed.
We jammed out on the first night, in unspoken tribute to Ricky. Everything worked fine. But on the second night, when we went to go jam again, my guitar was broken. We tried everything, simplifying my rig, different cables, different amps... It simply would not make a sound. The connection was bad, all of a sudden. I've been playing guitar for over 30 years, and that has never happened to me before.
I was about to dust off my acoustic but Colin suggested... Maybe I could play Rick's bass? I immediately knew that was the right call. I haven't really played bass since college, but I was psyched to try it.
The jams over the next few days were killer. Rick's presence was felt the whole time, even more than the first night, because there was his bass right in the middle of everything. I played it the rest of the trip... and discovered, shoot, I love playing bass. I have a long way to go 'til I can slap like a boss, but it was super fun. Colin suggested I take it home and take a shift with it. So I did...
My guitar amp couldn't hang with the bass tones so I got a little practice amp for it, and have been down there raging like every day. Jenn came down 3 times in the first hour to tell me to turn it down, she could hear me down the block walking the dog, it was shaking the house etc. I was just like, "What?!? I can't hear you over this bass!"
Part of me thinks Ricky reached out into the cosmos to break my guitar so I'd play his bass. If not, that's one heck of a coincidence.
We jammed out on the first night, in unspoken tribute to Ricky. Everything worked fine. But on the second night, when we went to go jam again, my guitar was broken. We tried everything, simplifying my rig, different cables, different amps... It simply would not make a sound. The connection was bad, all of a sudden. I've been playing guitar for over 30 years, and that has never happened to me before.
I was about to dust off my acoustic but Colin suggested... Maybe I could play Rick's bass? I immediately knew that was the right call. I haven't really played bass since college, but I was psyched to try it.
The jams over the next few days were killer. Rick's presence was felt the whole time, even more than the first night, because there was his bass right in the middle of everything. I played it the rest of the trip... and discovered, shoot, I love playing bass. I have a long way to go 'til I can slap like a boss, but it was super fun. Colin suggested I take it home and take a shift with it. So I did...
My guitar amp couldn't hang with the bass tones so I got a little practice amp for it, and have been down there raging like every day. Jenn came down 3 times in the first hour to tell me to turn it down, she could hear me down the block walking the dog, it was shaking the house etc. I was just like, "What?!? I can't hear you over this bass!"
Part of me thinks Ricky reached out into the cosmos to break my guitar so I'd play his bass. If not, that's one heck of a coincidence.