There are plenty of old jokes about guitar players maintaining that "I could do that" when hearing/seeing just about any other guitar player's virtuoso performance. I'm not one of those guys ~ I am very aware of my limitations as well as my strengths as a guitar picker.

However, even though it's been a long time since I had a washtub bass of my own, I AM that kind of washtub player. I've never witnessed another player without feeling I could do as well or better myself.

Once, at the Arkansas Folk Festival in the spring of '73, I had the opportunity to sit in on washtub with a six- or seven-piece combo fronted by the great Jimmie Driftwood. His regular player was so mediocre that I was probably a bit too obvious, sitting down front and giving body english, faces, maybe even humming aloud to the bass parts that I was feeling but not hearing. Jimmie called me up to put me on the spot, liked what he heard, let me stay through the entire set, gave me solos on every number, and announced "now, there's a real picker!" i got a standing O ~ one of my greatest moments as an on-again off-again stage jumper.

Now, I know that Jim is a gen-u-wine picker, too, and wouldn't claim to be any better than him ~ but no worse, either. The plain sorry fact is that the vast majority of those who perform on this homespun apparatus really treat is as nothing more than a percussion instrument, thump-thumping along with no sense of melody, or of the bass's role as the rhythmic and harmonic foundation of an ensemble.

About 8-10 years ago, after many years off, I tried to make myself a new gutbucket, but was very disappointed in my sudden inability to play more than a 2-3 half-step range of notes. The problem was the string: in the old days, I got very good results from the kind of white cotton rope then commonly sold as clothesline; decades later, the same stuff was no longer available and the synthetic/plastic line I bought was totally unsuitable. Either too much stretchability, I guess, or maybe not enough. So I certainly understand the subject of this thread ~ the right string can make all the difference.

I'm sure Mr Scott Leeper is a pretty good player, and may well be demonstrably better than anyone he's encountered ~ yet. But none of us should be too quick to proclaim oneself "world's best."

Also, I have my doubts about his endoresement of weedeater line, which seems a bit thin to me. Of course, he has amplification built into his washtub; things might sound different in a purely acoustic setup. Kinda like how those ultra-light guitar strings work so well and stretch so easy on an electric guitar, but are useless on an acoustic wooden box.