Bom, bomm, bom, bomm

Am delighted to hear about the reverence still accorded the metal washtub. "The bass fiddle is now considered to be the main rhythm section of a bluegrass band," notes Jack Lewis (here), a member of the Virginia-based Oriskany Strings band and a podcaster.

"Old-time country folks, Jack says, could never afford to buy a bass fiddle so it was rarely found in the early bands. Instead, folks made an imitation bass fiddle out of a galvanized washtub and a sawed-off broom handle. A clothes line was tied to one end of the broom handle and the other end was tied to the bottom of the tub. The tub was turned over and the player held it down with one foot, being careful to touch only the rim so the sound from the bottom (drum head) was not muffled. The line was then pulled tight by the broom handle using one hand, and plucked once with the other hand. Then the line was pulled tighter to hit a second higher 'note' and plucked again. The two 'notes' were played alternately in time to the music without regard to playing in any key. It worked, sort of."

Jack Lewis special-ordered a Cable Tub Bass, and marked all the notes he could find with pieces of tape. There are instructional videos.

The tunes at times have to be, well, a little slower that you might want: "If the notes are too far apart on the strings, he can't play fast tempos because it takes too much time to move his hand up and down the neck."