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Well no wonder the cast steel yoke broke! Who tries to grind freshly shelled cirnvwith a guitar?

Breathless, Dave - though that bloody Richard Osman gets everywhere, this features the superior Richard Sinclair. Camel went downhill after this as Pete Bardens left! Good choice 👏

There's several bits of wisdom I'd give as someone who'd never touched a double bass till late last summer - and seldom ever a bass guitar before - that and now has the bass spot with a 30 year established rockabilly band. Do your own thing ... there really is no right or wrong if it sounds good. I listened to a certain YouTuber DB player who while great, is a bit of a stickler for technique, and pretty soon decided 'stuff leaving out one of my fingers lark'. I'd been using all four fingers since I started in the sixties (just) on guitar so screw changing now just because I was playing a musical wardrobe. In chess passed pawns must be pushed ... in double bass playing it's fairly easy to start to sound good but you must keep pushing yourself ... a properly double slapped walking R&R bassline blows punters minds ... but it's not hard once you get the technique down. It's easy to 'phone it in' lines ... I've been guilty of it. I learned the rhumba beat of Twenty flight Rock ... but now I might start the rhumba phrase with a drag triplet (or end it with) it pushes you and makes you a more interesting bass player. Listen to Bill Black till your ears bleed - his timing was always awesome. Listen to new psychobilly players like Djordje Stijepovic of Tiger Army (and brilliant solo stuff) Listen to every doghouse player ... but be yourself!

We joined a new church in January this year - our local Anglican Church (or at least one of them) - and been feeling increasingly at home there. It’s not been since the before pandemic that I’ve played in a service but I’ll be playing bass at the the church for the first time tomorrow, so this should be fun. It’s at the more relaxed evening service. The tone and approach to the music is a bit more mellow than I’ve previously been used to at previous churches, though it’s all the same sort of range of writers… Bethel, Brooke Ligertwood, Elevation, Rend Collective etc. Will be keys/piano leading plus bass, acoustic guitar, drums and vocals. Will be interesting to see how it goes. Very much looking forward to it. I’ll try to report back afterwards!

In theory it should sound very like an Epiphone Embassy played fingerstyle.

Oddly enough we didn't do any Gillan songs altho we did talk about Ted the Mechanic. Dave

Bought some 12mm ply, some wood glue and a circular saw. Sh*t’s getting real! Found an app called Cut List, for optimising cuts on the ply - should help minimise waste. Trying to see what colours Tuffcab do, but their site doesn’t appear to work very well on a mobile. Will fire up the laptop to browse later on. Half tempted to do the same domestic emulsion + protection coat like I used for the “BC house jam micro cab”.

I have here my Harley Benton PB-20 SBK, in which I sent it to Shuker guitars completely in stock and I collected it while celebrating my 26th in Leeds, though my birthday is actually tomorrow and I just got home. I have attached some photos but the below is what has been done: SPB-1 pickups installed Gotoh multi-tonal bridge Schaller Tuners in black Rotosound roundwound 45-105 strings fitted General set up & fret level + Polish.

We have, and it’s worked to an extent. But they already tend to know those songs, so no/less work needed!

I've always wondered about and been interested in the Barts. Classic or Original? It may seem a bit crazy to put in some pickups that cost the same as the bass, but I've had these Lollars in a drawer for a few years but never used them. Forgot about them to be honest. I was having a house tidy and discovered enough good P bass bits from here and there knocking around to warrant buying a cheapy to put them all on. It was either that or sell all the bits. Glad I kept them. Turned out to be a fun little project!

Fart of gas - Blondie

And Gillan!

To be fair nearly all the Chinese necks and bodies I have had have been top notch. Considering that a lot of brand’s budget end guitars…Epiphones, Squires and Ibanez are now/have been made in China so the quality has really shot up as the work force are more skilled and the advent of cheaper CNC machines.

Blue green yellow burst!

Go Let It Out - Oasis