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Killed By Death - Motorhead

Back with an enhanced version of Deadlight Dance yesterday, and once again we were joined by our drummer from our Sixth Form band, Mike. This was for a street party in the road my band mate lives in. I had my trusty long scale Hofner Verythin bass but was mixing it up with several on the Gold Tone (AKA Goth Tone) Mandocello and even a couple on guitar and a couple on mandolin. I was going through my Boss BCB60 with the Boss IR2 at the end of the chain. I was telling the story of how we filmed our zombie apocalypse video in this very road, in a very light hearted way - see Infectious for details - when that Government text alert went off! You couldn’t make it up and it was a genuine comedy moment. We played well. We picked up some travelling fans from the last gig and even sold a few CDs. It was also an absolute pleasure to hang out with two of my oldest friends.

I had a similar issue at a theatre on Saturday. The in-house lighting guy had put one of those automated turning and tilting round LED multi colour lights right next to where I was playing. Every time I moved to the right, my Jazz Elite's preamp started whining & hissing like crazy! I thought it was unusual at the time, as that bass is usually as quiet as a comatose mouse. I've attached a picture here - you can see it through the legs of my Fender Stool.

Raincow Uriah Head Jethro Tall Player MegaHeath

Excellent choice! 🤘

Sudden death - Mr Bungle

John made me a passive Vol-Blend-Tone loom for my 5 string Precision build. Dead easy to install (even if John was super-fast in delivering it and you've lost the wiring diagram in the weeks it took for the pickups to arrive) and sounds great. Thanks again John!

The bow and 6 year olds!

Thank you chaps. I went with a Stingray instead.

Thanks chaps. I've ordered some grain filler so I'll do that first then sealer then paint. It's a paulownia body so it is quite open grain. Most of the body is poly coated already, but I've put in belly and arm carves that are currently without any finish and they'll need a stable finish for the wrap.

Practice with the bow is never wasted. Intonation can be lax with pizz and you can get away with the odd interesting pitch. The bow does not lie.

This looks great! I don’t have the time to dedicate to orchestral stuff really. I’m doing 70 DB gigs a year at the moment and it really takes up the time. But it’s what I enjoy doing at home and that’s keeping me playing the bass daily, which is what it’s all about.

The position of the pickups on a Stingray determine a large part of the sound..

Depending on how thick the wrap is, I would expect it to show some surface imperfections underneath - probably not swirl marks or orange peel, but any scratch deep enough to feel with your fingers. Ideally you'll want the paint to be as close to perfect as you can get, as if it were the actual finish - but OTOH I've never done a wrap myself except really basic hobbycraft-type stuff, proper professional-grade materials might cover better. The key to a good finish, as always, is good prep.

Great to hear of your good experience at Bowspeed. You should definitely try orchestral playing, I've done a couple of play days which are great fun, low pressure and great experience. There's always other players there so you can "hide" in the section 😅I'm doing one next month in Crewkerne - a movie themed day - should be a lot of fun! Pop Up Orchestra - Movie Magic https://www.tom-griffin.co.uk/pop-up-orchestra-movie-magic/