David Chen & the Muddy Basin Ramblers

The Washtub Bass

A year or so ago, when I first joined the band, I only played trumpet. David had the idea of adding a bass of some kind to the band, to fill out the lower part of our sound, which at that time consisted only of the jug, played by Slim. We made inquiries into acquiring a stand-up bass, but to no avail; we'd have to look elsewhere for our bass. In face, David wanted to stay with the old-style basses and avoid more modern bass guitars, and I agree. To this end, he did some research and put together a washtub bass consisting of a NT$200 "Chernobyl Orange" Formosa Plastic washtub, a stick about five feet long with a hole drilled through one end, climbing rope almost as brightly colored as the tub, and two metal washers. He took the rope, tied it in a knot, slipped the washers down it, and then threaded it through a hole he drilled in the washtub, tied the other end to the stick, and viola!

So we had a washtub bass. David brought it one night to Bobwundaye for us to try it out, and we did. Everyone gave it a shot, and it sounded great on Bob's wooden platform. The great advantage of flexible plastic is the greater range of discernable notes you can get, as opposed to the metal tubs, where you can just go ploink ploink ploink most of the time and that's about it. One Australian group I know of uses a tea chest, which sounds good, too, but tea chests are more expensive and harder to come by than plastic tubs, at least here in Taiwan.

I got a real kick out of playing the thing, and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get a bassline out of it, and anyway I was the only one in the band who can't play guitar or any other instrument, so I took over the washtub bass playing. I began to single out the basslines of my favorite songs on my mp3 player and try to figure out what made them so good (or not so good, in some cases).

Funny thing is, most people, if they see me at all back there playing the bass, get the impression from my demeanor that I don't like it at all. Nothing could be further from the truth; I'm just so busy concentrating on getting the right notes on an instrument with no frets, positions, valves or anything to go by except pure feeling, that I don't have time to just sit back, relax, smile, or look like I'm having a good time. Also, I almost never look like I'm having a good time; even when I am. I'll be having a perfectly nice day, and people will come up to me saying, "What's wrong?" But that's just me.

Now, of course, I've added the euphonium to the mix, so I play less bass than I used to, but I still enjoy it. On many of the songs I long to be able to play both trumpet and bass, but I can't, so other members play it instead. Often, after performances, other bass players approach me wanting to try it out, and it's always fun to watch them play it. Most of them don't believe me when I say I've never played a "real" bass before, but it's true; I'm hopeless with any stringed instrument except three chords on a ukulele.

David uses his finger to pluck the bass, but I find that the sound is better for me when I use something like a mic stand or a pen to pluck it. It also saves my finger a lot of grief from the abrasion of plucking. In fact, the rope will and has rubbed its way right through other plucking implements, such as a pen that began oozing ink halfway through a performance at Witches one night. I should try a more sturdy material, like steel, I guess. The plastic tub is also beginning to crack from the stress, but those are easily replacable.

In any case, the washtub bass, with it's deep resonant sound and bright orange color, gets a lot of attention whenever we play, and I for one and really glad we've added it to the band. And, of course, Slim still plays his jug, but that's a story for another post.