Broom Stick Bass

[Verbena Reynoso]

Thewashtub bass, or gutbucket, is a stringed instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. Although it is possible for a washtub bass to have four or more strings and tuning pegs, traditional washtub basses have a single string whose pitch is adjusted by pushing or pulling on a staff or stick to change the tension.

The washtub bass was used in jug bands that were popular in some African American communities in the early 1900s. In the 1950s, British skiffle bands used a variant called a tea chest bass, and during the 1960s, US folk musicians used the washtub bass in jug band-influenced music.

The hallmarks of the traditional design are simplicity, very low cost and do it yourself construction, leading to its historical association with lower economic classes. These factors also make it quite common for modern-day builders to promote modifications to the basic design, such as adding a finger board, pedal, electronic pickup, drumhead, or making the staff immovable.

The washtub bass is sometimes used in a jug band, often accompanied by a washboard as a percussion instrument. Jug bands, first known as "spasm bands", were popular especially among African-Americans around 1900 in New Orleans and reached a height of popularity between 1925 and 1935 in Memphis and Louisville.

At about the same time, European-Americans of Appalachia were using the instrument in "old-timey" folk music. A musical style known as "gut-bucket blues" came out of the jug band scene, and was cited by Sam Phillips of Sun Records as the type of music he was seeking when he first recorded Elvis Presley.

According to Willie "The Lion" Smith's autobiography, the term "gutbucket" comes from "Negro families" who all owned their own pail, or bucket, and would get it filled with the makings for chitterlings. The term "gutbucket" came from playing a lowdown style of music.[1]

In English skiffle bands, Australian and New Zealand bush bands and South African kwela bands, the same sort of bass has a tea chest as a resonator. The Quarrymen, John Lennon and Paul McCartney's band before the Beatles, featured a tea-chest bass, as did many young bands around 1956.

A folk music revival in the U.S. in the early 1960s re-ignited interest in the washtub bass and jug band music. Bands included Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, which later became The Grateful Dead, and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, which featured Fritz Richmond on bass.

A tea chest bass is a variation of the washtub bass that uses a tea chest as the resonator for an upright stringed bass. The instrument is made from a pole, traditionally a broomstick, placed into or alongside the chest. One or more strings are stretched along the pole and plucked.[citation needed]

In Australia it was traditionally used to provide deep sounds for "bush bands", though most such groups today use electric bass or double bass.[citation needed] It is also known as bush bass or Tbox in Australia, and was used by the Northern Territory group the Mills Sisters.[2]

In addition to the mentioned Broomstick I can mention the following that I miss:

Groove Agent 2 by Steinberg themselves.

USM by Steinberg themselves

Darbuka

Wizooverb

Key Rig

Bass Rig

The advantage of 64 bit is so great that you should leave 32 bit altogether. The difference between the two, as I am sure you know, is 64 bits ability to access more than approx 3,5 Gb of memory, given that you have more than 4 Gb in your machine that is.

As mentioned: There is nothing in the market that replaces Broomstick Bass. I have Trillian and i is very good. It is however not the same thing. It is not just to compare the samplings. Broomsticks ability to give you a fast working bass groove is not even considered in Trillian, nor any other bass software that I am aware of. And as mentioned by another OP: some of the samplings in Broomstick are still among the better. I find both the Mini Mooog, Taurus and Chapman to give Trillian competition, for a fraction of the price.

Have you tried to rewire it in Reaper? When Broomstick stopped working for me I had at least a year of utilization by rewiring Reaper in Cubase and loading Broomstick in Reaper. It may be that some other DAW is also capable of running Broomstick that you can rewire in CB8.5. Many have a free trial period. Reaper is very cheap and solved the problem for me for a while. However and sadly not anymore so I have the mentioned two computer solution with CB 4.5 on the old PC and 8.5 on the newer MAC.

i do miss Broomstick Bass. I read somewhere the developers just made it to show off and demonstrate their programming abilities and were snapped up by some other company afterwards which is why it was dropped from support

This is a play on the idea of a washtub bass. A washtub bass is a simple instrument, but this version is even simpler -- and cheaper! It uses a 5 gallon bucket instead of a washtub, and some handy simple knots tie it all together and allow for easy adjustment. It's a great way to "get your feet wet" making and playing an instrument with minimal time and investment.

I marked my stick with a pencil at about my height minus the height of the bucket. This is easy to do by setting the bucket upside down on the ground, standing the stick on top of it, and marking it at your height.

Cut a notch into the bottom of the stick using a knife or saw. This end will sit on the rim of the bucket with the rim in the notch. This creates a secure pivot point for the stick. You will want the notch to be deep enough to stay on the bucket rim, but not so deep that the stick touches the flat bottom of the bucket (the soundboard of the instrument).

Prepare to drill a hole in the upper end of the stick perpendicular to the notch in the bottom of the stick. With the notch of the stick straddling the rim of the bucket, mark the hole location on the side facing the center of the bucket. This will be the attachment point for the string. Drill the hole big enough to easily fit the string through.

Push the string through the hole in the stick. For the most flexibility, I secured it with an adjustable hitch as shown step-by-step in the pictures. This hitch allows for easy adjustment to the length of the string as needed, while holding securely when in use.

Set the bucket face down on the ground. The tone and volume will be better if you place a stick (such as the piece cut off earlier) under the bucket edge to lift one side off the ground. Adjust the string length using the adjustable hitch so that there is some tension on the string with the stick in place (stick roughly vertical with its notch on the rim). You will need to hold the bucket down with your foot on the rim. Pluck the string and play with the sound! The pitch is adjusted either by changing the tension by moving the angle of the stick, or by changing the length of the string by holding it at different points against the stick, or both.

A Tunable Washtub Bass

Updated: 17 April 2012A washtub bass is (usually) a one-stringed instrument that makes a noise low enough and loud enough to provide a bass accompaniment to music. The resonating chamber of the traditional washtub bass is usually crudely made from a galvanized tub (or, more recently, plastic buckets). But going beyond this, there are infinite variations in materials, form, and craftsmanship. Probably the best place to get a taste of this is The Washtub Bass Page.

The advantage of a washtub bass -- Traditional American or European folk music, particularly when used for dancing, is tremendously enhanced by being supported by a bass line. But standup basses are hard to come by and not easy to play, and even electric basses require serious learning. The virtue of a washtub bass is that anyone with a decent sense of rhythm can use it to provide a serviceable bass line. I've even grabbed people from an audience to do it, and almost never been disappointed.

Traditional washtub bass -- The traditional washtub bass consists of a galvanized tub, a wooden pole (broom handle, hoe handle, ash branch, etc.) and a piece of cord. The tub is upside down. The cord is firmly attached to one end of the pole and threaded through a hole in the center of the tub's bottom and retained there by either tying a knot in the cord or tying it around something else to keep it from pulling out of the hole. The other end of the pole is usually notched, so that when it is rested on the bottom rim of the tub, it doesn't slip off. One hand holds the pole near its top, the other plucks the string. Variations in pitch are achieved by changing the tension on the string by a harder or softer pull on the top of the pole.

The "wrong idea" -- However, when I was working at Folklore Village Farm back in the early 70's, I didn't know any of this. So when someone told me our small folk band of farm kids should have washtub bass, I knew about a stick and a cord and a washtub, but I pictured something that would be played like a standup bass. That is, you would control the pitch by the length of the string being vibrated. If you're right handed, you'd pinch the string at the desired point with your left hand and pluck it with your right hand about halfway between the pinch point and the tub. (I found plucking was best done by pinching the string between the thumb and first joint of the index finger and then pulling it and letting go, but I've seen people just whack at the string with their hand. Whatever floats your tub...)

The immovable pole -- So I bolted a rake handle to the tub, inadvertantly violating the basic principle of the traditional washtub. I drilled a hole through the middle of the tub's bottom, knotted one end of a piece of clothesline (later window sash cord), and put it through the hole in the tub from the inside. I then ran the other end through a hole I'd drilled through the pole near its top. By squeezing the top of the pole toward the tub and then knotting the end of the rope up against the pole, enough tension was created to play the clothesline.

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