Flyer the Bass

I came up with a master plan to allow myself to play bass anywhere, and bring live sound to friends and family far away. On my trip last year to see my friends Sean and Kurt near Coeur d'Alene, as well as my family in Boise, I was confronted with the difficulty of hauling a bass on an itinerary involving 3 airplane flights and 2 rented vehicles. Finding it onerous, I resorted to renting a Fender P-Bass from the Spokane Guitar Center along with an amp for a cool couple hundred dollars, and borrowing other people's basses in Boise (Dalin's and Ronnie's). This worked, but set me back a pretty penny and wasn't on 'my' bass.

In the intervening time, I encountered the Wing Bass online, and resolved to buy one. It fits entirely within an airplane seat in profile, and in combination with a headphone amp I own I can play it in one! Further, a male-to-male cord lets me plug into a portable speaker directly, which is plenty good enough for a roadtrip in the passenger seat of a car. I got it used online, and after missing the delivery to Severine's house, I picked it up at the local dry cleaners, which I thought was funny.

I've named the new bass "Flyer", since it's going to come with me on all my flights to see friends and family from now on. I already got to enjoy its portability when Severine and I went to Loess Bluffs nature preserve, strumming along as she drove the car. The preserve was lovely itself: we saw a dozen bald eagles, hundreds of geese, thousands of bay gulls, and even a coyote wandering on the ice. Sev was lovely and we had a great time.