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I told them to put you above the puppet show!

Ok, I'm having a leisurely drive over to Beverley tomorrow morning. https://www.peterhallviolins.com/ Had a good conversation with Peter as to my requirements, looking forward to a good outcome 🤞

More rain. After I'd cleaned all the glue and torn fragments of wood out of the neck pocket (not a process I took any pictures of), the first order of business was to reattach the various pieces that meet at the neck block (by that I mean the solid piece of timber inside the body that the neck is glued to, not sure if it has a proper name). The top was still securely attached to this block, as was the right-hand side piece. The back was completely detached from it (along with having parted from the top 15–20-cm of the sides) and the left side piece was detached as well. I think these splits had their origins in one of the historic neck-smashy incidents. Like, they were violently snapped off the block then, and either no glued back into position or not glued back well. The steam might have separated an earlier repair, but I don't think those repairs were more than surface-level. I used a long thin scraper to clean the surfaces inside these splits and then lashings of titebond (injected deep into the joints with a syringe). I considered hide glue, but I was doing this indoors during the winter, and really didn't want my house smelling of boiled hoof. I know titebond's not traditional for proper luthierie, but I figured there should be some leeway if you're working on a plywood bass that looks like it was dragged behind a car. Here's a picture of the clamping arrangment for glueing up the side piece. It also shows the cleaned up inside of the neck pocket, with no more manky glue. I held off on glueing the veneers and patches into the pocket until after I'd closed everything up and got it secure. This second picture was taken while glueing up the back. You can never have too many clamps. I have at least twice as many now, but there's always room for more. I also noticed while moving it around that about a 30-cm-long section of the top had come away from the sides at the bottom of the bass. I again used scrapers to clean this out before injecting glue into the gap and clamping. Some of the more knowledgeable readers might be wondering how I kept the sound-post in place through all of this. The answer is that I honestly don't know. I forgot that it wasn't glued into position. Kindly it obliged by not falling out despite all the bashing and squeezing and shifting around. I didn't remember it was there until I was stringing the bass up weeks later.

Sounding GOOOOOD!!!

Mods, that’ll teach me to post using my iPad! Feel free to delete these two “extra” posts😀

We've got a Sunday afternoon slot at Ellesmere Port Summer Jam on 3rd August. Not played this one before, looking forward to it.

X

Never too late. I always did backing vocals and often would sing one or two songs a night just to offer the singer a rest/ give the crowd something different but never viewed myself as a “singer”. That is until the singer in my originals band left and it became down to me. So I did it and it was actually ok. Then I started wondering if I would be able to carry a whole night as the “singer”. So I did it and I enjoyed it and the punters enjoyed it and now it’s just something I do or don’t, depending on the circumstances. If like many bass players, you have an ear for production and arrangement, I will say that being the singer as well gives your opinion far more clout in these sorts of discussions - piper calls the tune etc. So I say go for it. A very worthwhile thread of your musical journey.

All installed and wired, just need to stop playing and start tidying up the cables and adding Velcro.

Almost finished, Got some cables to tidy up though and more velcro to add.

First time at Matchbox in Warrington. Absolutely huge room. Sharpening up the short set for our appearance at Ellesmere Port Summer Jam on 3rd August and messing about with phone cameras to try and get some clips for the band socials. https://youtube.com/shorts/3K7Fehhf_To?feature=shared

I used a Marshall 4x12 in the past whilst I still lived in the UK. It worked very well for me too. I was using a Marshall 45W amp (KT66) and a Blonde Black face Fender Bassman (6L6GC). With the Marshall amp reading the data books I concluded that the KT66 tubes could be substituted by a 6L6GC without any modifications. I swapped in a pair of the 6L6GCs and the amp worked better to my ears so I left them in there. All these years later I still have those two KT66s in my tube caddy. I too remember the 6K11 tube from the schematics I have seen. It was somewhat of an odd ball even back then. I don't know the complement of the new V4B but I see no reason why the mid circuit couldn't be handled by a 6SL7.

Loved Sabbath Bloody Sabbath as a younger me, and subsequent albums too, played Paranoid and War Pigs in a band with my mates as a teenager, influential singer/front man who was a larger than life character. RIP Ozzy 👌🏼😞

I agree. Nice to see a six come out to demonstrate the full range of bassing, it’s just a shame she didn’t really drop below the top two strings as I would have liked to have heard her dig in for a bit at the low end!

Yes, it is. I have had an issue on my Precision with it. Turns out my Precision doesn’t have pickup polepieces that are grounded. So, if I don’t have a good path to ground (e.g. because the strings are coated in non-conductive material), I get a ton of noise touching the polepieces. Like when Elixirs are installed.

Absolute legend!

I’ve had them in place so long now they’re just part of the baked in tone. Initially I’d got them to add to the signal chain of a different unit but then ended up with an all tube pre amp with a Tx in the DI. How I use them now is having them in line after a drive unit or preamp (or both) sounded best as they’re adding some colouration and need a wee bit of signal driving into them. I did get the next model after these it it lost some lows while adding more colouration but the 2020s models were the right mix. I’ve seen on TB one guy had about 5 or 6 2020s unit in line beneath a Nano board. I had one initially and it wasn’t so noticeable. Ended up with three 2020s’ but two was the sweet spot for me. If you’re reconsidering using them definitely try them after a drive or preamp to get the most out of them.