It took over 18 months but I finally figured out that now that I am retired, I need to self fund my bass and music endeavors as opposed to just paying. You know that whole fixed income thing. Used to be, I’d be at a festival or a jam and see some cool piece of gear and I would go into got to have it mode. I’d find it on line or in a music store and just reach for the plastic and bring it home. Heck, sometimes I was so impatient I’d pay for next day or 2-day shipping. What did it matter? I was a big business executive with all the perks that went with it. I could afford it and was too much in a hurry to wait. I’m talking about strings, electronics, peripherals, etc. For the record, I have three upright basses, an acoustic resonator bass, a dobro and a ukulele, quite the herd.
As I moved into my retirement, it was somewhat difficult to change old habits. I still got the gear urges but at least now I would wait the 10-14 days for shipping. Next it was comparative shopping. I would look around for the best price and then think on the spending for a while but usually went ahead. I don’t think there are groupons for this kind of stuff.
As I matured some after close to 65 years, I surmised that I needed to come up with a different strategy if I wanted to continue to upgrade my kit.
My friend John, a very talented multi instrumentalist musician and also recently retired like me, had a very similar problem with continually buying new instruments and gear. He, however, came up with a new strategy which was to self-fund your obsession. In another words, you need to sell something before you buy something.
Sometimes being a little slow on the uptake, it took me a while to catch on myself but just as this summer was ending I found myself needing some new gear and some work on my Kay bass so I had to do a little culling on my herd. I sold one of my basses.
Being more of a city boy than some, I needed to understand what culling the herd really meant so I did some research on it and it seems that it usually refers to removing the weaker or the undesirable stock from the herd. I was having trouble with that concept fitting what I was doing with my herd. So I had to rationalize what I was doing and I came up with a broader definition of culling that worked for me (in this case.)
The bass I gave up was a beauty. A fully carved Romanian bass, who was named Nadia by her previous owner. She had a great sound, great action and feel. Heavier than heck but that was part of the big sound. It was just that I played my Kay mostly and Nadia was just sitting around.
My point is that this wasn’t a culling or thinning of the herd in a literal sense but rather just a passing on of a valued herd member so that remaining herd could prosper.
I needed a new endpin and I had some bumpers put on my Kay to protect the sides. Also I bought a bass buggie to cart my bass around, as I am not getting any younger. The bass buggie is the new bass conveyance device of choice and as you may have guessed I first saw it at Grass Valley and thought I needed to have one but the new me was determined to shop some before making a decision. I went to the manufacturer’s web site and found their top endorsement was from Lisa Burns. That sealed the deal for me.
Also on the agenda is a new high quality bass bag to replace my torn and ragged one. The new frugal me did a lot of shopping before this purchase as well, and got some real value with the Messina Bass cover, the “Cadillac of Bass Bags”.
All this and plenty left over in the bank. I’ll probably buy a good bottle of tequila too and make a toast to Nadia. I’ll miss her but hopefully her new owner will play her more than I did.
So that’s my story this month. It seems I’m still learning about this retirement gig and in the process of telling you about it, I learned about culling and rationalization. I hope I don’t have to cull too much in the future but I am sure I’ll have to keep rationalizing.
A couple of reminders, there is a lot going on this weekend.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is this weekend and there will be a CBA tent manned by volunteers to let folks know about our organization. Look for the tent by the Tower of Gold and the Star Stage.
Also on tap this Sunday is a very special event sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Fiddlers at their monthly jam at the Hoover Middle School in San Jose at the corner of Park and Naglee. There will be featured performances by two bands led by Jack Sadler a co-founder of the CBA and a charter member of the SCVFA. The bands are Overlook Mountain Boys and Lone Prairie. Besides Jack these bands feature a virtual who’s who of bay area bluegrass and acoustic talent.
Hope to see you out at one of these events.
