The single-string fretless washtub bass

[Guest]

Were it not for the bluegrass washtub bass player I saw & heard in Tucson, Az, at a Plaza Antigua concert in 1974, I'd have thought washtub basses were a joke. But this guy rocked the plaza!

 

Twenty-four years later, a friend who heard me rave about that guy's playing built me a custom single-string fretless of my own. It has a galvanized, instrument-quality tub with an oak string stick and an old A string off an upright bass.

 

I've played along with some of Hoagy Carmichael's recordings hundreds of times. My version of "Stardust" as a washtub bass solo may eventually be polished enough to end up at incorrectmusic.com.

 

I'd be very interested in reading remarks by the bassplayers who are part of this forum on the subject of washtub basses. Have you ever heard a washtub bass played really well, so that it seemed the perfect bottom line for the music? Are there any recordings by washtub players you'd care to recommend? Do you have one in your basement that you play for fun when the night's gig is over and you can lay down your stable of stage basses? If you have a washtub bass, have you installed a tuned bass port in the tub?

[brianrost]

There's a guy here in Boston named Washtub Robbie Phillips who is a master of the instrument.

 

He calls his latest "the Wombat" and it's actually a floor tom (!!) with a neck attached that has a gut E string attached to a Schaller tuner. He installed a pickup and runs through a Walter Woods amp (!!!) into an Eden cabinet to get an awesome sound, plus he can really play...he has BIG ears.

He used to use more traditional washtub rigs but is quite a tinkerer and has been evolving his axe for the 20 years I've known him. He has also built other stringed instruments like a solid body electric ukelele, a 9 string ukelele dobro (???), six string electric banjo and various oddball lap/slide guitars.

 

He's recorded a bit (indie label stuff), was actually in G. Love and Speical Sauce for a short period (not sure if he's on any of those CDs).

 

Ed, did you know Robbie when you were living here?

[Ed Friedland]

Brian,

Of course I knew Robbie, you couldn't hang out at the Plough & Stars without running into him! Robbie used to work at Sandy's Music in Cambridge, a music store that catered to the folkie crowd. That gave him access to a steady supply of weird, and cheap acoustic instruments to mess around with. My favorite was his homemade Dobro, he called it the "Yo-Bro" an expression that was sure to come out of his mouth upon entering the store. I saw some tubs he built out of what looked like a pickle barrel, it sounded pretty good. He also had one made with two tubs a "double bass" I guess.

 

I remember seeing a guy in New Orleans playing washtub on the street and he was lifting the tub up by pulling back on the neck and then stomping it down on the sidewalk in tempo, it was a pretty heavy beat.

 

Singlestring, being in Tucson, you ever check out Al Foul & The Shakes? I saw them with a tub player once.

 

What other instrument can you also do your laundry in?

 

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