Mark,

By the time I felt like I was debilitated, I had been through many bouts of increasingly painful hand issues. My doctor called it the bass player disease. He said, and I've read the same thing elsewhere, that modern music, when played on a conventional upright, is just too fast and hard for the process not to damage a lot of arm parts over time, including the tendon to the elbow and all ligaments involved in a traditional carpal tunnel injury.

My answer is to stop playing jazz on an upright; something I dearly love to do. Today, I think I could handle an upright job, but, I'm one motion away from a serious injury I might not recover from.

If you know any bass players....I'm talking about top tier guys who've been at it for 30 plus years, look at their elbows. Most, like my dear friend Ray Brown had an elbow that looked like a road map from the surgeries.

Be well, and let us know how things progress.


Russ