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My "do-it-while-you-can" moment arrived the day my younger sister was diagnosed with a terminal glioblastoma aged 44. She was young, relatively fit and healthy, a mother, a partner and to be told that it's extremely unlikely your 44 year old sibling will survive this is a moment that I'll never forget. Our mum believed that a cure would be found and that she would be ok - the trip to tell her that her daughter had passed away in person, not by phone was a harrowing journey knowing what lay at the end of my travels. It changed my outlook on life...changed the way I looked at blame. If something isn't my fault, not a decision I have made or had any input in then just don't stress it. Equally, if I had any involvement did I try my hardest? Did I try my best? Again, if I can honestly answer yes then don't stress. I do things not because my sister wanted to do the same things, but because she was denied the opportunity to do them, even if she didn't want to! Our grip on this life is slender - live your life to the full and in a way that brings joy to you.

You can get the Hipshot style ones cheaply too. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004824551050.html

I did a guitar, female vocal, bass trio last week. Lots of original songs but we finished with No Woman No Cry. Always goes down a treat and everyone was singing along by the end.

Thanks all - especially @Raymondo for sharing those lists

This lovely instrument turned up on Monday. The finish is just great. In a dark room, you wouldn't know it wasn't black, but the quilt veneer just peeps out at you. The NS shape is super comfortable too. The neck is fairly chunky, but not too wide - I'm finding it to be very comfortable. And the rosewood fretboard is very dark and even. It does make me wonder if it has been dyed. Very harsh edge to the fingerboard, but that should soften with use. Nice and light at 3.87kg/8.5lbs but a little bit of neck dive. I think some Ultralights or Gotoh GB350s would be just the ticket to sort that I reckon. It isn't bad with the lightly grippy RightOn strap I got at the same time. The tuners arrived in a sorry state though. There was a scuff on the back and a bubble under the gold plating on the D string tuner. Thankfully, @Bass Direct have ordered me some replacements (thanks!), so I'll get those on when they and my custom Newtone string set arrives. It sounds great. It's very mid forward which is new for me. I'm used to having to add them in with my Dingwall. The boost/cut range on the preamp seems to make a fairly huge difference. For my use I think just some subtle movements are what's required. The Aguilar pickups seem to be nice and clear too. I'm not a bridge pickup person, but the blends are all very useable. It's nice and even sounding across the neck though and nicely resonant. Other than the tuners, which will be sorted in due course, I'm very happy!

We don't ... they are encores... but a mash up would indeed be interesting!🤔

That’s the idea but there is many a slip twixt cup and lip!

So you're in for the 2026 challenge then?

S&M - Dean Friedman

Whip It - Devo

Last rehearsal of the year(?) with the originals lot tonight. But now I'm choosing the versions of the new songs for Bendricks Rock to share, so the guitarists can be 100% sure to learn the wrong ones. 😶

Very nice

Just in case you need some info I had an attack of the dreaded A string buzz on my pub project P bass never a thing for me before as all my bass are 2 a side. Partly this is due I think to the el cheapo scalloped tuner towers which force the string to ride center upward on the mid part of the tower, even with plenty of winds. With the straight sided ones you can get the string to lay lower to the headstock. Feel free to argue with me on this point. Did some digging for string trees and these came up on the bay, also mentioned on here somewhere "Gotoh Style" whatever that means 🤣 at £4.99, I am skint so this seemed doable. However, not as wide as advertised imho, here as pictured sitting on a 42mm nut at 9mm string spacing. It works but is playing havoc with my ocd and I am concerned it will bork the A string at some point or tear out of the headstock. [we shall see] Hope this helps someone avoid unnecessary sting angles in the headstock area by spending a lot more money on the Hipshot product, which looks to be way, way better.

This.

@Raymondo How do you join Hurt and Sympathy for the Devil together?

I have been playing in an acoustic duo for a couple of years .... here's a few songs we have done, they seem well received. ALL are played in a relaxed laid back style.... you'd be surprised how much people like laid back Hendrix!

I'm seeing as little as 0.6 to 0.5m being recommended for 'living room' calibration. Our vocalist has said he's happy to lend me his reference mic and I've found better software.

The USB to Host thing seems to be a strange omission (or half omission) even with the relatively expensive £1,555 Viscount Legend One as it has a built in audio interface that can send midi out via USB and can receive audio in via USB but cannot send audio out via USB: "USB to host port for transmitting MIDI data to apps on a pc, tablet or phone, which ALSO transmits audio, BUT: it only transmits audio in ONE direction (INTO the keyboard). I have NEVER seen THIS before; any other keyboard that has an audio interface built into the USB port will send audio in BOTH directions. So what does this mean? It means you only get HALF the benefit of a built in audio interface; and that is if you are using the Legend One’s keybed to trigger sounds on a MIDI app on a device. The sounds generated by that app will come straight back into the Legend one (and out of the Legend One’s outputs) without any lag which is really cool. And, you can also use this connection to stream audio into the keyboard as an alternative to the 1/8″ analog in port. The feature you’re missing though, is the ability to send high quality audio FROM the Legend One TO a device to record audio in a DAW, or for making high quality piano videos by connecting the keyboard directly to your phone; to do those things, you WILL need to connect your L&R audio outputs to an external audio interface like a Focusrite Scarlett (which then converts that audio to digital audio to send to your device)" https://pianotone.ca/viscount-legend-one-review/ .....that seems odd and I think it has more potential issues than they mention as it is also an issue for things like the one I've had on the ES-60 using Simply Piano type apps via headphones, and also it'd be an issue for using an iPad/Laptop to live process the actual sounds coming out of the Legend e.g. receive the Legend One sound via USB and process the audio to add an effect then send it back to the Legend One via USB to then go out of the One audio to the PA or headphones. It isn't a deal breaker for me as that live iPad/Laptop processing potentially isn't really needed and might add latency and complexity where I could use Bass effects pedals or the Volt external interface. It's strange that the Legend One has a USB audio interface built-in but doesn't have that USB audio out feature. It would be useful and like the reviewer says they've never seen anything do this half-thing, so fingers crossed a it isn't a hardware limitation or a deliberate choice and a software update might sort it. The keyboard was launched less than a year ago and has had some worthwhile software updates, I've written to Viscount to see if they will be doing another software update to solve this.