So… a little backstory. I live in northern Orange County, CA. I’m about 15 minutes away from Disneyland, if that helps you out-of-towners (heh). My brother is a fantastic guitarist, who lives up in northern Hollywood and frequently gigs in far-away places like La Crescenta which is on the other side (I think, I’m not good with that area) of Los Angeles proper. In order to see him gig, it’s like… a 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive. Which makes anything but a Saturday night gig largely out of the picture for me. And most of his gigs are weekday gigs.
ANYWAY!
My GF and I are on vacation this week, we decided to surprise him and his wife (she’s a fantastic vocalist) at their Wednesday night jam. And they were surprised. Anyway, fantastic jam, mostly blues and blues-rock based, with a number of classics and some original songs. And I realized… that’s EXACTLY what I want to do with this hobby. I have no illusions of stardom or even making money; I just want to jam blues and blues-rock with and for other people. With all of the wacky instruments I’ve gotten myself into it’s all I’ve ever wanted. It really cemented my dedication and devotion (once again).
ANYWAY YET AGAIN!
Here’s the crux of this post: I have two main basses now, those being my headless Kiesel Osiris 4 string, and my Carvin B50 five string. They’re both great, play awesome, have no issues, and I’m very happy with both of them. The Osiris is P/J, and has a more, I dunno, aggressive sound and feel to it. The B50 is J/J, has a very classic feel to it, and sounds like a brighter/crisper Jazz.
Since we went to my brother’s jam the other night, I’ve dived into the B50 with gusto, at the expense of the Osiris. My thought here is that if my goal is to jam with and for people in a loosely blues/blues rock setting, wouldn’t it look weird and out of place if I pulled out a headless, crazy modern bass? Shouldn’t I play something with a more classic look and sound to it? Wouldn’t that be more fitting to the intent?
Or am I the only person who worries about stuff like that?
Oh, and apologies for the rambling post, LOL.