Is it possible.?

I'm thinking of busking soon and will likely have to deal with or consider where I play in our market space.

My experience of playing stringed instruments in the hot sun or any temperature extreme has been that it's the strings themselves that are affected and not the instrument itself. Strings are gonna expand and contract like all metal does in those conditions. It won't hurt your instrument physically tho unless there's also extreme humidity changes over an extended period of time. My favorite is when your set starts about 30 minutes before sunset and ends about 30 minutes or an hour after sunset on Santa Monica pier about 500 yards out over the Pacific ocean. Bring a good tuner and deal with it. Or one time I played a midday poolside cast party for the TV series "Dallas" at a mansion in Palm Springs in July with no available shade. That's near Death Valley, California BTW - home to the hottest recorded temperature on earth. It was probably 115 degrees and my strings were quite literally burning my fingers and the back of my hands got very sunburned. All you can do then is wear a cowboy hat,drink copious amounts of booze and pretend you're in tune.

That sounds like a plan! What do you reckon, Konrad?

Hi Gents.

Well Captain, that gig in Palm Springs sure did sound extreme..!

My concern is that graphite being black of course, would make matters worse. I suppose I'll need to procure a busking umbrella, something groovy looking. Maybe a Stickrad icon/business address type of thing, or not..?!

Cheers

Did you find out who really shot JR.?

The old black polycarbonate Sticks do not like being in the sun. They will go out of tune quite dramatically when exposed to direct sunlight. Sometimes people mistake the poly Sticks with the graphite Sticks. The graphites are the most stable Sticks. I don't know about the RailBoards yet, though. When busking you can usually stop and retune often. In a band setting outdoors it's sometimes not so possible.

This is a worthy experiment, let us know how it turns out.

-Eric

No but JR (Hagman) was drinking shots. Lotsa shots. People were eventually jumping in the pool with their clothes on splashing water on the band so we got zapped as well as sunburned. I got a few pictures of that gig somewhere. I remember it was catered by an "In & Out Burger" truck parked in the front yard of the mansion which I thought was a little low down. "In & Out Burger" is a popular chain of fast food burger joints across California for you non-California peeps.

Yeah black instruments in the hot sun not good. Good luck with that.

I try to avoid big changes (in degrees) with my stick. It's normal you get untuned if you don't take time to wait till your instrument is Under this "pressure".

I live in Québec, Canada, and many times I have to go out of my house (let's say around 23 Celsius...probably around 73 Fareinheit) and then I go out at 10 or 15 Celsius below...ouch...I have to wait when I reach the place where I want to go till the instrument comes back to a normal condition.

It's the same situation Under the sun...not easy to manage.

My suggestion: invest in something like this.
http://www.amazon.com/E-Z-UP-SR9104BL-Sierra-10-Feet/dp/B000NRPN8E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415561468&sr=8-1&keywords=first+up+canopy+10+x+10
Yes, it's another thing to have to lug around and deal with, and it might not be practical in all busking situations (especially if you don't have a 10x10 space to yourself), but it could actually be something that not only saves you from sunstroke or heat stroke, but gives you a little bit of a personal boundary (if that's a concern).

Aha..! Yeah, good suggestions gents.

Man, that Palm Springs gig gets crazier with every post.!