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Great strings. Awful! Actually they sound ok, bit brassy but solid fundamentals. They just take ages to start sounding, the bow kind of skates over them. You can bow them if you have to but they're not really intended for it.

Jeremy Meek played fretless Precision for Live Wire back in the day. I really liked him. Did this one have frets Pete?

Hi, I was searching the forum when I got some posts hidden which said that I must post at least 5 times to see the search. What’s that about?

I'm going to miss the Bristol store, what else will I do when the family are hitting the shops. I'll miss Mansons in Exeter more though. It's been inevitable for some time that these stores would be in trouble. If we all trot off to Thomann and the like for our needs then they are bound to suffer. It's not as if the rest of the high street isn't in the middle of a huge upheaval also. I don't think the situation has been helped by the likes of Gibson and Fender forcing them to carry huge stocks either. The other reality is that the guitar has probably lost it's dominance in music and 'peak guitar' was actually back in the early 80's with perhaps it's own indy revival. On the bright side I'm seeing a couple of independent shops benefitting. Often by offering other services. In Chard (a small Somerset market town) we have The Somerset Music Academy, it's a guitar shop which also offers guitar and other music tuition combined with a repair and set up service. It combines a steady turnover of used gear with a range of um... lesser known brands. Even this has a twist, they are careful what they stock and every instrument gets a set up before they sell it. There are some very playable, nice sounding instruments at reasonable prices. Something you can't get from the warehouses. The tuition gives them a stream of customers for starter instruments and the kids get something decent to start their journey with. I believe they plan on running a rehearsal room too. There's so little competition out there that people will travel to go somewhere you can try before you buy.

Paul Carrack and his band at Scarborough Spa theatre last night. Capacity crowd in this old venue on a balmy evening. Paul was fabulous, and despite having maybe a cold (or hay fever?) his voice was still as amazing as ever. A superb band too, including his son Jack on drums and wonderful bassist Jeremy Meek playing a sunburst Precision with what sounded like flats. We were at the rear of the stalls in front of the sound engineer and apart from maybe being a touch on the quiet side the sound was spot on with the bass sounding exactly like a Precision should. They played all the songs associated with Paul from his long career, including ‘How long’, ’Over my shoulder’ ‘Tempted’ ‘Love will keep us alive’ and the inevitable ‘The living years’, along with some good covers - Springsteen’s ‘If I should fall behind’ being the standout for me. A great evening with one of my favourite singers.

I'm 38 and need to lose a 3 or 4 stone. It's hard when you have a young family. I'm mainly just walking to/from work and nursery. Oh, and working on the gun show by pushing my daughter on the swing 😅 I made a rod for my own back there by pushing her higher and higher and now no-one else pushes hard enough! I used to do a lot of road cycling and I quite liked the gym if it was quiet when I lived closer to one. Bit of weights followed by 20/30 minutes of cardio three times a week and I was pretty darn fit. Strength training can have a massive effect as you age too. There was an article in the Guardian a while ago about a group of care home residents in the 80s, most of whom required help doing things like standing up from a chair or going to the toilet. They did some strength training, built muscle mass and were then able to do most of those things that they previously required help for. It's never too late to do a bit more exercise. https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2025/mar/11/older-adults-strength-training I think I'm going to get some kettle bells now 😂

I had this problem with E strings many years ago and stopped buying Rotosounds. That solved it.

Rehursing with the metal group in a south facing building that is all glass down one side, I am glad I brought a fan, it didn't do much but it did something! The music went well, but the heat wasn't that much fun!

The question I have in these circumstances is if PMT still owed money to their suppliers, does some of that stock still belong to the supplier?

Okay cool. I never once referred to a scale however. Your GPT post starts by saying it's in C Minor and the OP found it helpful.

Bodies - The Sex Pistols