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I am a qualified sparky (if somewhat out of practice now). You're both quite right. If there is no earth bond to the chassis/common ground of a piece of equipment then the transformer output is floating, with no reference to the 0v ground/neutral of the supply. Generally, due to an effect called capacitive coupling, it will sit at around half the mains voltage. If you touch this floating "live" chassis you become the reference point to ground. The good news is that, after a small discharge once the reference is made, the capacitive coupling now has a reference to ground and no further current flows. So following an initial unpleasant tingle it is now at 0v. At least, until you remove the reference (ie you let go or remove your lips from the mic etc). Then the capacitance will recharge and another tingle will occur next time you complete this circuit. Roughly translated this means that the effect is a bit like a nearly dead battery that can measure a decent voltage until you connect something to it and then instantly drops to 0v under load While at mains voltages this SHOULDNT prove more than an annoyance, you certainly don't want to be subjected to constant small shocks so the fault, while very unlikely to prove injurious, needs to be repaired. At distribution/transmission voltages (ie National Grid stuff with pylons etc) where you're talking 10s and 100s of thousands of volts, this capacitive coupling carries enough energy to fry you instantly. This vid (at c1min) shows them discharging the line prior to working on it. Note that the line is still live at a very high voltage and the helicopter has no reference to ground but due to the capacitive effect there is still considerably energy discharged. Once it's been discharged, despite the line being live, it is now safe to work on There is no harm in cutting the shield cable of a balanced mic/line cable. It's pretty common practice in install work to have all shields only connected to the output side of equipment and disconnected at the inputs. It helps to reduce the number of earth paths and lessens the likelihood of hum caused by earth loops. In fact, you will sometimes find equipment interconnects made with unshielded twisted pair cable such as cat5 or cat 6 with no ill effect (the balancing circuit effectively recombines any interference in reverse polarity which cancels it out) And yes, while I have opinions about PAT, your equipment and mains cables should be inspected/tested, labelled and logged frequently for your own safety and liability - not to mention that some venues will not let you plug in anything not displaying a valid label There's a whole other rant to be made about cheap switch mode power supplies or shoddily manufactured Class II devices but I haven't taken my blood pressure medication yet today so it's probably wise to stay off it for my own safety

I don't work with anyone with an agenda of hate.

Might as well post my recent build.

@andyhaines, I found this in the user manual of the GR Bass One (350 / 800 / 1400): "On the ONE 350 amplifier, pressing the LED button for about 8 seconds allows to toggles the cooling fan activa- tion." So, it means that the fan can be switched ON or OFF, but without the Studio Mode that will engage the fan when needed... Maybe it's worth considering for your needs.

Reading all the comments here, I figure it's probably simpler to just do the odd build as and when I'm called upon. By and large anything that I'd have been doing would primarily be Fender-based, as the parts are fairly plentiful and I could easily buy in the stuff I'd need. I would have been able to offer custom routing/electronics along with a custom paint options, although these would have been solid/flake as opposed to sunbursts. A few years back I had a short conversation with a guy that was close to Mike Lull; he mentioned that a lot of the work behind creating their basses was outsourced to external businesses and the magic only happened when the parts went back to Lull for assembly/set up. I'll admit (despite owning a pair of Lull basses) this didn't sit so well with me, but hey-ho, they're great instruments and needs must, I suppose.

Hod Stewart, the well known brickie.

Great idea for a thread. I've got a bass which is now my favourite that I tried to do an amazon return with!

And you are totally right.

That would be amazing. Thanks so much!

That’s jaw-dropping

PM inbound!

Les Humphries Sinners

Nice, but as you say, not cheap, and only marginally less than you would pay for the parts new

It does. It also takes MIDI data so you can chuck in whatever combination of stuff you like and it’ll play it back.

I absolutely wouldn't want to spend my precious time with someone who holds those types of prejudices.

Yes. I got asked to dep for and rejoin a band a little while ago, but in the time between them ditching me in favour of a mate of the BL's and the request to rejoin (several years), it had become pretty bloody obvious that they were racists of various levels and I politely refused. On a broader front about racism, our elderly next door neighbour died yesterday of cancer. If she hadn't kept refusing to see her GP for years because she was foreign, and refusing well woman clinics because of seeing a foreign doctor, it would almost certainly have been diagnosed sooner.

We are using the two original LEDJ Q Colour filters for stage wash. Those new LEDJ fixtures you've just purchased are more powerful so I suspect they will do the job nicely.

Yes, and have done. I'm not sure to be honest whether I walked on principle or because I immediately disliked them when I noticed the racism. Both I hope

I need to be able to get on with people I'm in a band with. We need to be able to have sensible discussions and some give and take on all sorts of things like song arrangements, gig bookings, and which hotels to stay in, etc. I can get on with people who have different mainstream political views, that's what democracy is all about I think, but prejudices just switch me off. Incidentally for a new project I'm starting up with my drummer and an old band mate we had an email this morning from a singer we wanted to audition. He seemed to be against singing a great song because it was originally for a female vocal and about a man, lots of unnecessary punctuation. Just made him seem very insecure, I haven't bothered responding because I don't think it's worth telling a grown man he need not worry himself, or he can change the words. The tone of the message just screamed that he's not someone I want to spend my time with, let alone have to have discussions with that may involve persuasion and compromise on each side.

Does it do odd meters/time signatures? As intriguing and brilliant gadget it is, if not I have no use for it.

My partner is in such a situation. She joined a band a good few years ago now. The band, itself, is very long establshed with two (near) original guys left. She loves being in the band but one of them has fully embraced the views of the right and sees any opposite view as being held by someone who has been brainwashed by propaganda. Due to the age of these two, the band is ending soon. The plan had been to get together every so often, to 'rehearse' and play some songs. She is now at the stage where she can't wait for it to end so she is no longer exposed to his views. Seems a shame but he has become really quite vocal about certain things.

Yes.

Assuming that everything else about the band is okay, I would join without a qualm. we live today in a series of echo chambers that reflect (and amplify) our own views. I’m not sure that society has improved as a consequence and I firmly believe that we only tackle extreme views on either side by talking to each other. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and even if they’re views that I find distasteful, so long as they’re not illegal, who am I to force everyone to think as I do? Bigotry exists on both the hard right and the hard left and it can only be challenged if we spend time in the same room. The world is polarised enough without me adding to it so, yes, I’d join the band. Unless it was jazz. There are limits….

Come and give some a try