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Comment by zwieback | Hacker News Reader

Finally bought an upright after years of playing bass guitar. Couldn't be happier but transport is a pain. Still play the bass guitar, though, I don't think anything is going obsolete, half of the electric guitars people bought in it's golden years were just collecting dust anyway.

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You might enjoy this lightweight upright electric bass. I've performed with the creator of this bass for the past 7 years and it always sounds great and can be carried around very conveniently. http://www.kyddbass.com/models.htm

I play upright (I'm actually getting ready to go my gig for today).

I dunno if it helps, but when I started I did not know I could put it in the front seat of most cars with the seat laid back. That's made transport relatively easy ( though it is a very bulky instrument).

I had a compact sedan for a long time, and can confirm your observation. In fact, it worked best for me to feed the bass into the driver's side rear door (of a 4-door car), scroll first, and then upside down in the passenger seat.

Now I have a little hatchback, and am quite happy. Granted, transportation is still an issue -- I'm floored when I hear about bassists getting around in NYC using cabs, the subway, etc. But it's the only instrument that I play well enough for anybody to actually want me to play it, and I do love the bass.

A guy I know squeezes his homemade mando-bass (still a large instrument) into a Karman Ghia. Only he knows the magic twists and turns to get it in and out.

I had an old 86 Honda CRX (two seater), and figured out how to fit my bass, amp, and two cellos. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it again. The main trick, though, is to recline the passengers seat and sit the bass in it.

I have seen a double bass player with a homemade teardown instrument that was claimed to fit into an overhead bin.

Well, fortunately or unfortunately for me, I'm not good enough to get called on a fly gig, but there's some priceless pictures in Rufus Reid's The Evolving Bassist on how to load a bass into an airline seat. I doubt that's still possible today.

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