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[Zerozeddy]

Can anyone other than me claim to play Ashbory as a means of avoiding pain? I've suffered from repetitive strain injury (tenosynovitis in my case) for the past 14 years, which both bass and 6 string git aggravate to the point of me giving up for several years, but Ashbory doesn't and hence has given me a new lease of basslife.

I want to know why.

It's either the low string tension, the small scale, or the fact it's harder to try and be clever (chords/double-stopping, playing up the neck vs keeping intoned) meaning I keep it simple. I also pluck Ash with my thumb, not fingers or pick, as I would with the less quirky instruments...

Realistically, of course, it will be probably all these things in combination, but I wonder if my fellow contributors have thoughts on the matter.

[Brock]

I want to know why.

I can't answer that, but when my hand was banged up a year or so ago, I couldn't play a Bass Guitar for anything but the Ashbory was very doable. Why? Less tension and less stretching. Way easier on the hands.

The Ashbory is certainly less demanding on my hands, which, when injured, made that point very obvious.


-Brock

[Mike Tavener]

The co-incidence of instrument playing and related injuries is something that is well documented and definately affects my choice of instruments in my advancing years. The effects of bad habits, e.g. technique, poor posture, heavy instruments etc are probably cumulative and therefore become more noticeable to older players, but having said that my son did cause damage, fortunately temporary, to his wrist/forearm by playing a guitar with an absurdly slender neck. Solution - rest (very frustrating) and got rid of the guitar and now plays very happily on one with a more substantial neck. But I digress..........

I used to play a large body acoustic bass in pub sessions with my fingers, and sitting down. Got a lot of volume from it but with considerable physical effort and ultimately considerable pain. I'm not tall and the effects of reaching over the body and the finger movements lead to a chronic case of tennis elbow, which is the inflamation of tendons at the the elbow joint. I ignored the telltale signs and suffered with it for a couple of years, during which time I improved my mandolin playing considerably (smaller body, different moves) and found that a relatively slim acoustic guitar which I had bought shortly before suited me (and still does) far better than my Yamaha dreadnought. Bass playing was on hold but as I recall the problem more or less coincided with my acquisition of the Ashbory. A godsend!! I can honestly say that playing it has not caused any relapse - I still play with my fingers (thumb resting on the edge of the fret board) but the main difference to me is not reaching over a big acoustic body. Obviously being an amplified instrument means I don't have to work so hard and it is physically easy to play.

One thing I would say from painful experience - if you do suffer pain as a result of playing don't ignore it. It's your body telling you something isn't right and it's very possible that it will get worse if you don't investigate it and find the cause. I did, so did my son, and we both found solutions.

Long live the Ashbory, thick necks and slim guitars!! :-D

Mike

[Zerozeddy]

I believe that instrument-related RSI is a lot more prevalent than one is told when 13 and trying to learn Iron Maiden riffs  :-(

I am about to try an experiment by putting slack black nylon strings on my bass guitar (short scale) and using a capo to make the scale even shorter - with the stock 45-105 roundwounds I managed to detune and capo on the 6th fret and still keep intonation and definition.

Whatever, I'm hoping that the bouncy Ashbo strings are not the main factor in its RSI prevention - this is why I'm interested in your judgement of the "feel" of these Worth strings, as I'd like to justify the expense of one of these badboys.

[Jebberz]

Hi!

I think actually that Ashbory helps. Usually, after a long gig like my last one. I got my arms, wrist and hands tired and the morning after, I always experience a bit of muuscular pain (this ban is an oldies one, an we only use truly old instruments... mine is a '64 precision bass wich is quite heavy). The las gig was very long, we played for over 4 hours because the crowd was always asking for more.

Back home, I just felt like playing again, and I took the Ashbory. It actually helped relak my muscles ant the morning after, no muscular pain. Don't know if it is the bass or simply the circumstances, but I'll surely use the Ashbvory as a warming and after show relaxing tool bnext gig to see if this will repeat again.

[Zerozeddy]

...
Long live the Ashbory, thick necks and slim guitars!

The idea of a thick neck scares me, so I'd like to test your theory - which basses have thickest necks? (n.b. I'm conscious of this not being an Ashbory enough question for the forum...)

[Xrix]

Old precision basses or modern copies / re-issues have pretty thick necks. Precisions and Stingrays in general have thicker necks than say a Jazz bass and many modern shaped basses such as Ibanez Soundgears. You gotta remember though that both width, depth and shape of the neck are important! An old Jazzbass's neck might be thin, but deep, so it feels very round overall and not very thin! People's hands are all different too obviously, so what's comfortable for one player might be stressfull to the next. Do what feels right!

Xrix.

[Jebberz]

Hello!
Speaking of RSI, I experiences it recently, and I have to say that I have no such problems when I play the Ashbory, but my shoulder still hurts when I play regular bass for a long period. I see a therapist, and things tends to goes better.

I also found the book "The Bassist's Guide to Injury Management, Prevention and Better Health" very useful. I just wanted to share this with you all. It really can help.


http://www.drkertz.com/buy_book.html

I recommend it to anyone concerned about health problems related to bass. This book is really great. Here is the "official" description:

Written by a bass player for bass players, The Bassist’s Guide to Injury Management, Prevention and Better Health is designed to point out common and not so common problems that the musician may encounter during practice or performing situations. The injuries and conditions themselves are explained along with their prevention and treatment options. An easy to use symptom reference guide allows the reader to quickly look up the area of injury and find its source. A chapter of pro-tips offers advice and exercises from some of the top bassists in their field including Steve Bailey, David Ellefson, Putter Smith and Victor Wooten.

The Bassist’s Guide to Injury Management, Prevention and Better Health is a useful reference guide for the amateur and professional musician as well as the teacher, student or health care worker.

Hope this will be usefull to anyone.

[Zerozeddy]

Good lord.

Wish I'd had that in 1992 when I had to give up "proper" bass and a life of fame and superstardom

Recently I've been experimenting with www.powerballs.com and it seems to stop the pain of playing Big Bass getting out of control, even to the extent of me buying a 5 string recently (and hence ignoring Ashbo, sadly).

I just need Mr Fender Dearmond to build his 5 string fretted Ashbo.

[wolfk]

In my real-world job (dental technician) I am continually grinding off bits of my fingertips. As a result, I can't develop calluses, so the rubber strings are a godsend.

Some of my bandmates had doubts about the Ashbory at first ("Here, try a _real_ bass") so I tried playing my Vox Constellation IV instead, and found that in addition to the fingertip pain I got an awful pain in my left (picking hand) wrist. Now I'm all Ashbory, and I love it.