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In other news, I woke in the night with the shivers, a banging head and a really sore throat. Temp of 38 this morning and I feel like death. I have succumbed to the f**kin flu that's going around. But there's no backing out of the gig, it's tonight, and I have no understudy. Lemsip, mask and distancing will be the order of the day today! Bah humbug. Rob

One of my favorite BMW tunes: And it is a great album.

On the serious side, don't solder your mains cable, if you do want to tidy up the wire ends (and escaping strandd of mains cables are a hazard) then you can use a crimp connector over the stripped ends. You often find these on the few wired plugs around. I prefer wired rather than moulded plugs as I often chnage out the mains cable, either because of wanting a different length but also so I can change to a nice flexible cable rather than the overly stiff plastic that a lot of gear comes with. However I don't think I've ever had a moulded mains cable actually break and wonder why I look down on moulded mic/guitar cables which frequently need re-soldering?

I think I still have one of these alongside a bayonet plug to connect a plugboard to a light fitting The good old days 😲

I've got one of the Harley Benton Mustangs and other than shielding it and upgrading the cheap pots it's stock and holds its own on a gig alongside my JMJ and Sandberg shorty. In fact, of the 3 it's my favourite sounding bass although the other two are no lightweights in tone - my 'Berg is fitted with an EMG Geezer Butler but the HB still holds its own. Mine is from the first run with the Gotoh machine heads. It has a slim, jazz profile neck too which might work better for you daughter than the slightly chunkier classic vibe neck - although I'm going from memory but there might be that much in the necks in a direct side by side...

If you can stretch a few more quid, the Sire U5 is a great little bass and very versatile. In the value category, there is the Hartwood Delta from Gear4Music. Very similar to the HB Mustang look alike.

I've heard of a few others doing the same and changing out the stock pickups which I believe are Bartolini's.

We've already tried my 34" scale basses and some in shops and her arms are not long enough to reach the frets by the headstock. She has the nickname T-Rex because of her short arms. We've had the same problem for years in karting, if we get the pedals right, her arms can't reach the steering wheel but if we get the steering wheel right, her knees are too bent and she's too close to the pedals. We have to use a series of seat packs to get it right. It also doesn't help her elbows bend inwards where as most people's just stop when you straighten your arms.

We Care A Lot - Faith No More

I took my BB1100S to band practice for the first time. We're playing something between stoner metal and grunge so pretty noisy and nasty. The BB actually sounded better than my Spector. Played through an Ashdown ABM600 and Gallien Kreuger CX212 & CX115 cabs, it had a nice growl to it and loads of bottom end with a nice midrange punch. I had it set to active with mids boosted and both pickups plus a bit of drive on the amp.

Our annual Christmas gig for the Mencap gateway charity last night. Always a fun loving and appreciative crowd. This is where Christmas starts for us.

I Don't Care - Icona Pop featuring Charli XCX

Well, I pulled the trigger on one of these and it arrived yesterday. Love it and it fits the Jabba perfectly. You can actually adjust it to accommodate an even longer bass if you want. Really well made and chunky. That accessory bag is really useful. The only thing that doesn't appeal to me is the velvet lining. It looks sexy but I just cannot bear the stuff for some reason. Highly recommended folks 👌

I bought a Zoom B2-4 from Matt. Immaculate condition with all the accessories and manual. Great communication throughout, very well packed with seemingly miles of bubble wrap. Deal with confidence, a BC good egg.

Interesting Al it's very close to what I am aiming for at the moment.There's a really strong colour wash on the stage. If you look at the steps at the front there is a strong shadow so you can work out that the lights are in front of and above the stage shining down. One red one blue,and both floods rather than spots. Pretty powerful too from the general colour cast. there are fills up by the mics and an uplighter on the banner at the back plus something behind the drummer lighting up that cornere where the bass amp is. All the 'action' is on the T-bat behind the kit. Looks like four scanners and possobly a laser/strobe combination. Then four chasers mounted upright whcih look like the 24 segment bars you've ordered from Ali Express set to one of the chases. They've also got a couple of decent sized PAR's below the bar. It's doung some heavy lifting! This is a decent sized stage which opens up the possibilities. I'm still playing the pubs where this sort of set up would have to be smaller for space reasons, so what I'm trying to do is this sort of thing but modular, so this would be my full set up. For the red/blue stage wash I'm currently using a couple of the light bars like yours but mounted vertically on stands so the tops of the lights are at head height. I've dug out my 200W floods though, which have a 40deg angle and when I get space I want to try them to get a more intense colour wash. They are about 6-10 times brighter than your 24 light strips so significant lamps you cant really use in small spaces. BTW I bought a couple of the 24way bars. I''m going to try them as uplighter/colour washes at the side of the stage on the slow fade and as static colour to see what works best. So at the moment it's bars for the small stages and the big floods if we get to play somewhere nice and spacious. For mid stage I've got up to six of the generic strips they are using, the refinement I've added are the stands which raise them to head height. The guitarist brought them from his band and I bought them off him when he left. The height makes them more visible on a crowded stage. I'm really interested in the T bar those guys have at the back behind the drummer. It looks to be nearly the width of the drum kit with five fairly bulky lamps mounted. I've looked at building a square arch behind our drums and ordered one from G4M it was damaged and not as described so I returned it but as well as weighing 10kg more than the one I ordered it was too big for the job. I've been toying with the idea of T bars there but the widest are 1.2m. I'm currently using a 4-way PAR bar in that position. Two lighting stands either side of the drummer would let me hang the banner cutting down on the frame for that so I'm looking for a hardware option that would be quick to set up. I should have gone for a banner like theirs. This is all a pretty big investment and of time as well as money. Hopefully I can sell off some of the stuff I don't use once I've settled on a system.

These are very very good, however: I tested two of these for De Bassist (bass magazine) and the difference between the Ibanez pickups and the Nordstrand alternative is significant. I'd definitely invest in a set of better pickups if you go for this one. Otherwise: excellent bass.