Photos by Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Louis Hardie, 2, of London, England, eats his ice cream under the big tent where competitors wait for their turn to play at the Old Fiddler's Convention in Galax. The event originated in 1935.

Kevin McKinnon (left), a mandolin player with Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain, jams Thursday with bassist Jacob Eller at the Old Fiddler's Convention in Galax. McKinnon was playing an electric bass Sunday night at the convention when a few people complained.

Editor's note: This online version has been updated from the original print version to correct Louis Hardie's name. An earlier version misidentified him.

GALAX -- At the Old Fiddler's Convention, organizers and music lovers have a question to answer: How much electric bass guitar is too much?

As the 74-year-old festival's name implies, it's about acoustic music -- bluegrass and old-time, in particular. But for years, some observers say, electric basses have been a part of the scene.

"I've been coming here since I was in the womb," said Southwest Virginia native Kevin McKinnon, 23, mandolin player with Crossville, Tenn., bluegrass band Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain. "Electric bass has been here, and it's been part of bluegrass music for 40 years -- The Osborne Brothers, Jim and Jesse [McReynolds] had them in their bands."

It's not like the Felts Park site is thick with electric basses. You see people lugging around and playing the big bass fiddles. But the electrified versions have advantages -- they're more compact, and players' fingers suffer less wear and tear over the course of extended jamming, McKinnon said.

Players can't use them for competition, but they're handy elsewhere. Until this year, though, electric basses have never been subjected to serious scrutiny.

The problems started Sunday night, as campers were settling in for some jamming the day before the convention officially started.

McKinnon and his twin brother, Keith -- a guitarist in Hassler's band -- joined a group of friends near the rear of the site. The spot, just behind Mary Edna "The Soup Lady" Thompson's community soup kitchen tent, is a popular hangout for some of bluegrass music's hottest pickers.

Kevin McKinnon broke out a bass, pulled an amp into a circle of players and started playing. Soon, a couple of people walked up and began complaining, the brothers said. They got rude, Kevin McKinnon said, but he declined to stop playing.

By Tuesday night, people were lodging complaints about the volume of the amplified instruments, said Bill Beasley, governor of Moose Lodge No. 773, which organizes and hosts the event.

Security broke up at least four groups, according to an e-mail that festivalgoer Joseph Hannabach sent to The Roanoke Times.

A longtime attendee, Tracy Burcham, told The Bluegrass Blog that Moose Lodge members, accompanied by two police officers, told him that amplifiers were not allowed in the park, and threatened to kick him out.

Beasley declined to comment about specifics of any incidents, though he did note that there is disagreement about how to interpret one convention rule.

Rule No. 15, says "no boomboxes or loud amplified music" is "to be played at any time during the convention."

Beasley said that a lodge committee will meet a couple of weeks after the event to decide what action, if any, to take on amplification.

Meanwhile, festivalgoers have worked out their differences, and electric basses are still around.

The situation doesn't suit everyone, regardless of volume or cooperation.

"It's called the Old Fiddler's Convention, not the new fiddlers convention," said bluegrass aficionado Jerry Steinberg, 68, of Salem. He added: "I'd rather be around the swine flu than an electric bass."