When Dave asked me to play the washboard in the Muddy Basin Ramblers, I didn't know what I was getting myself in for (or should that be "in for what I was getting myself?"). Besides learning how to play it, something I'm still working on, I've also been spending a fair amount of time searching for just the right board and objects to strike it with.The first board I got was from Dave, and it's an all wood board, the kind that is probably still in use here in Taiwan. It's a lovely board, with ribbing on the front and back, but sadly it is not terribly loud, and therefore doesn't get played much. I drilled some holes in the upper part of the board and this lets me attach a small thumb cymbal that I bought in Cairo. I put the other cymbal on my left index finger and play the cymbal as a counerpoint to the scraping on the board. I scrape the board with a wooden chopstick, and I think local audiences enjoy seeing common household objects being used to make music.
The second board, also from Dave, is all metal, with ribbing only on the front, and while loud enough, is difficult to hold because of a short stand on its back so that it can be propped up while in use. Another problem with this board is that the ribs, the part that I scrape on to get a sound, are really deep and effectively knock the thimbles off my fingers, making it hard and somewhat painful to play. I think the board is made from cast aluminum, and if I had a way to mount the board on a stand when playing, it would probably make a good bell if I struck it with a hammer or something.
Board number three is one that I bought off the Internet, from the Lark in the Morning website. It cost about $25, if I remember correctly, and when I ordered it, I also had the company ship ten thimbles. The thimbles are steel, and while not large, fit on my index and ring fingers pretty securely, so I generally play with two of them on each hand. I've only got five left, so my extra sits in my pocket when I play. I wish I realized how easy these things were to lose when I bought them. I should have bought several dozen. I've started taping the tips of my fingers when I play because the edges of the thimbles have a had habit of cutting my fingers when I play. So far, however, the tape doesn't seem to be doing much good, because I still come away from performances with bloody and bruised finger tips. More on that later. The board itself is a wooden frame with a sheet of metal fastened in the middle and has ribbing on the front and back. The ribbing is crimped on one side, making the ribs a bit flatter on that side, which alters the sound somewhat and the speed at which it can be scraped. Deeper ribs generally slow down a scrape, while shallower ones give less resistance and can be scraped faster. This board is loud. I've attached a Chinese cymbal to the upper part of the wooden frame on one side, and I play this by tapping it with the thimbles on one hand while scraping the face of the board with the thimbles on my other hand. I've also affixed two cans, about three inches deep, to the bottom of the frame, and I play on these with my finger thimbles. They're not real loud, but they provide an interesting contrast to the rasping of the washboard.
The next board came from Dave, a souvenir from a trip that he took back to States in 2005. I think he told me that he got it at an antique store for $10. It also has wood frame, but it differs from the other American board in that it has a metal plate only on one side. This board has an old look to it; the wood appears aged, as if it had been smoked or oild, and the metal plate was a brass color when I first started playing it. That color pretty quickly got worn off when I played it, and the base metal, some kind of tin perhaps, shows through in the areas that I usually rub with the thimbles. The ribbing on this board is realy shallow, making this the quietest and fastest board in my collection. Unfortunately, the metal is also really thin, and it has now worn through in the area that i scrape the most. Basically, I can't play this board anymore until I figure out some way to replace the metal face. The jagged edges of the broken metal would probably slice a finger up pretty good if I tried to use it again. The last time I played this one, when I finally destroyed the metal face, was when I accompanied Gabriel Gratzer for a song during his performance at Blues Bash 2 in November 2005. This board also has cymbal attached to it, the twin of the one on board number three.
Now, for the word of the day, frottoir. This is the creole word for washboard, and it refers to a particular type of washboard used in zydeco. The premier washboard maker in Louisiana, the home of cajun music, is Key of Z Washboards. The owner of this company, and the premier maker of frottoir for professional musicians, is Tee Don. Tee Don's father made the very first frottoir for Clifton Chenier, the "King of Zydeco," back in 1946. Would I like one of Tee Don's frottoir? Of course. However, seeing as how they cost about ten times more than my most expensive board to date, I may have to save my money for a while. One great thing about Key of Z's website is that they have videos showing aspiring washboard players how to play.
But the search for the perfect washoard is not over because it's not just about the board; what you scrape the board with is just as important as the board itself. Therefore, I have turned my attention to my hands, specifically my fingers, and I have been pondering how to move away from the thimbles. I had an idea about using gloves with metal caps or pads on the fingertips, but I wasn't sure how to go about finding or making such a thing, so I did a little googling and came across Danny Young, a washboard player from Austin, Texas, who found a unique approach to the problem. In the article that I linked to above, Danny describes how he glued silver Mercury dimes to the fingertips of a pair of leater gloves. This is exactly the trick that I have been looking for, and with much appreciation to Danny for the help, I hope to make some of these gloves, substituting 5 NT$ coins for the dimes, for myself. While doing this research, I also came across musical gloves, gloves with sensors built in so that they can be used to trigger MIDI devices. I don't think I'll have any use for these soon, but it's good to know they are out there.
So, that's the long-winded story of washboards and me. In case, you are wondering, I have used a washboard to wash my clothes. When I was living in China back in the late 80s, I used to wash my clothes by hand in a tub with a washboard. It was not terribly pleasant. I am thankful to have something like this to use now instead.
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