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Whenever I hear the words Rolling Stone I reach for my revolver. I'm not entirely surprised a magazine whose founder allegedly blocked The Monkees from the Hall of Fame and not once but twice stiffed Dr Hunter S Thompson turns out a list of songwriters with Bjorn and Benny at the bottom. No single publication has done as much to 'explain' - and in consequence suck the f**king life out of - popular music than that bloated, self-satisfied rag, begotten as it is of a lethal cocktail of filthy old hippies, pencil-necked pseudo-academics and unrepentant fans of Hootie and The Blowfish. With any luck, next time 'widely respected' Jann Wenner is visiting the Rolling Stone office his frankly colossal haemorrhoids will explode and blow the side off the building, killing everyone who works there in a cataclysm of fire and bloody havoc. Selah.

We'd never be able to agree on the cabinet, though. 2x12? 1x15? 4x10?? The possibilities (and arguments) are endless!

I dont get my panties bunched up over something like a subjective opinion from a stranger over something inifinately trivial

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For anyone interested in a report on the progress of FAP, I am entering the third day of the first week, in which the cyle of fourths is applied across the whole fretboard as major triads in three fingerings. Very basic so far but none the worse for that as a back-to-basics reprise. Polished production, made a good deal more digestible by a rather good and slightly hypnotic backing track which is much nicer than working to a metro gnome. A faintly surreal note is imparted by a video lighting issue which makes Scott look as if he only has one eye.

Glitch in the matrix I think. @Dad3353 please bring @warwickhunt in for questioning. I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding that can all be ironed out with a good beating.

Somewhere in the Peak District? 😛

Apparently, Kanye West is a 'better' songwriter than Bjorn/Benny AND the Bee Gees. Ooookay then. I see your revolver, and raise you a sniper rifle and a tall building.

If only he could randomly suck and blow into a harmonica, he'd have been in with a chance.

As Mrs T reminds me regularly, there’s no prize for coming first.

I ceased buying Rolling Stone in 1982 after an egregiously breathless editorial which opined that the band A Flock Of Seagulls were the future of rock 'n' roll. Not long after I commenced a guerrilla campaign against the magazine and its ownership which continues to this day. The high point of my initiative was the covert introduction of catering-strength chilli powder into Mr Jann Wenner's underpants immediately prior to the 2010 Emmy Awards whereat he was a nominee for an award. The camera dallied only briefly at Mr Wenner's table but even this short glimpse was enough to reveal the excruciating agony on his face as the fiery capsaicinoids interacted with his nobbies. Rolling Stone Founder Jann Wenner Ah, you say, but Jann Wenner no longer owns Rolling Stone, having sold it to media tycoon Mr Jay Penske. Me, bothered? Is it not enough that Wenner birthed the Frankenstein monster that tore the limbs from rock music, added wheels and turned the form into a hostess trolley designed to ferry around his progressive notions as if they were cucumber sandwiches and butterfly cakes at an old biddies' tea party? But, you cry, why has not the Stone's new owner Mr Jay Penske become the focus of your white-hot though entirely justified animus? Well, hasn't he, I counter, a sly smile playing about my lips. What of the recent incident when a wheel mysteriously came off little Jay's electric golf cart and caused a high-speed accident on the links which nearly wiped out not only Mr Penske but his tee partners Pres. B. Obama, Sec. M. Albright and Mr Jay Leno? The fight goes on.

My mate calls them “scratch guards”. Makes me feel sick. My wife also calls the glove compartment of a car The drop down. Also makes me feel sick. And when Chocolate is shortened to Choc. rancid. I generally use pickguard.

Well, the Eurovision song contest started in 1956

MAPLE ROAD THIS SATURDAY July 11th!! Still some tickets available! 2 hour Vista King Concert Cruise on beautiful Lake Michigan! Boards at 8:30 pm sharp and your first drink is free! Join the party! Guys, I'm concerned about this gig. They have cut the capacity in half for distancing but I'm still considered.I plan on staying away from everyone

Surprised to see Chuck Berry way down in 4th, "My Ding-a-Ling" is an absolute classic

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Yes all I need are your bank details, and if you give me your login information for said account I can make the transfer happen really quickly. Looking forward to your correspondence.

If you play with your fingers and call it a pickguard then you are part of the problem.

If anything it’s worse. You can send the hulk for that. Nasty. Dirty boy.

Thats pretty bad. No, nothing that ends with a y, like chocky or biky or something like that. Unless you are 5, then it is ok. Still, nothing is as bad as people in the last 5 years using the term Glasto for glastonbury. That is punchable.

“Tofunk” by Glou Glou

She’s an English teacher too. It baffles me. ”it’s in the drop down” - WHAT?!

Final touch...custom logo arrived. Just wanted a similar logo as Rockbass has, but instead of Rockbass is Popbass (my nick name is Pop).

I have in the past looked around for info on the switches as it wasn't initially clear to me whether the "lowest", "low", "high" etc related to frequency or boost. On the Ken Forums he only says something like the bass, mid and treble controls are set to "some frequencies that sounded nice but I can't remember what they are and I think I have them written down somewhere"! I then found a sheet on the Smith site for the PAPA outboard preamp that has the same dip-switches in and he talks about them adjusting the basic frequency of the unit. From this I gather that the bass, mid and treble controls give you cut and boost and the dip switches are there to "fine tune" the frequencies. Currently mine is set with the New configuration but I feel a "twiddle" coming on to check again what they do in practice 🙂 My current Fusion 25th and the 6'er I traded for it.

But....... but........ but they're not the same 100 I'd have chosen. Oooh I feel so outraged. [Flounces off to put the kettle on.]

Rolling Stone know their audience...

That is very true indeed!!! But that in turn does very bad things to me as I suffer from terminal G.A.S!! Imagine having to give back a bass you really want to take home! 😂

It is always pickguard; "Jean-Luc Scratchplate" would be a terrible screen-name.

More Family Man!

And so to the top bracing. The Bouzouki is based on an OM acoustic guitar and the bracing pattern will be identical. And it's all a bit precise. Legend has it that Martin in the thirties (?) did a bracing pattern that just, well, worked. And from that point 90 odd percent of acoustic guitars have been, and still are, made with the exact same bracing pattern. I may well have my facts wrong but my philosophy is that - like banging dustbin lids to keep the elephants away - it works so that's what I'm going to continue to do! So, for those who haven't seen an acoustic build before - a flat-topped acoustic generally isn't flat. Most have a spheroidal shape of around 25 feet radius for the top and 15 feet radius for the back. So you have to make (or buy) a 25' and 15' radius dish, you have to curve the bottoms of the braces and then you have to press the braces into the dish to force the flat top into the final spheroidal shape. The process will become clear soon (probably tomorrow), but today I was cutting the braces blanks for the top. This is a straight piece of spruce sitting across the 25' radius dish: It's subtle. But the bottoms of the braces have to be planed and sanded into a curve - and because it's a sphere, the actual curve needed is different depending where each brace is going to fit. First is the well known 'X' brace which is two pieces curved underneath and locked together: And here it is in position on my home-made MDF 25' radius dish. Difficult to see, but both lengths are now completely gap free on the dish: The braces will have a LOT of work done on them, but it makes it a lot easier to remove some of the bulk by starting to cut them to side profile, especially in terms of the positions (again, very precise) of the peaks you can see below - the 'nodes'. Here we now have all of the braces for the top, rough-profiled but finish-fitted on their under-sides to suit the radius dish at each of their respective positions: And tomorrow, these will be glued and pressed into the radius dish to form the basic top shape. I might do some work on the cross-sectional profile of some the braces before they are glued in...I'll have a think about the best way round to make the access for the final shaping of the braces as easy as possible.

Drop down? WTAF @AndyTravis? 😬 Choccy, also completely unacceptable. Glasto similarly so. As for holibobs - users of this phrase have a special corner of hell reserved just for them.

I don't call them, I throw them. Being Belgian, I won't vote as in French, we call it Pickguard, but for most of the French people it's Pigardeuhhhhhhhhh... Go figure out.

Regardless of whether it's left handed, turning the wheel clockwise will straighten the neck, turning it anti-clockwise will add relief. This is when viewed from the opposite of your photo. You should be sighting from the wheel towards the headstock. Before making any adjustments have you measured the action to know if there is too much or too little relief?

Although I wouldn't change my One10s I think I like the SC best in all the videos. The subtle differences are becoming apparent the more I listen.

I joined my latest band in Feb and we were rehearsing for a late march gig, then had 2-3 gigs per months through the year. I had to shield as did one of the guitarists so we are all wary of infection. We have a large hall for rehersasal but feel its too early for that yet. One gig still on the books for 22nd August but I can't see either us, or the venue wanting that to go ahead. I can see an upsurge in what I call professional Karaoke singers being the norm for some while in the clubs we were booked at. Much easier to accomodate than five big blokes with guitars and drums. Of coures the gigs will be fewer and the pay will be lower but boy do I miss playing live.

P bass 1968.

*Bonus* - Vic and Steve

It is a sign of bad design or construction. In a perfect world they would all line up perfectly. Who doesn't want a perfect bass for £2100, when Squier basses have perfect alignment?

I just bought myself one of the Fender Vintera Mustang basses to add to my selection. It's the first short scale instrument I've owned, and it's fun to use. I find myself playing more "busily" than I would on a standard scale length bass. When I got the bass, the Pau Ferro fingerboard looked pretty dry and anaemic. So, Ioosened off the strings and set about dressing the fingerboard. I scraped the board with a single edged razor blade to smooth off any raised grain in the wood, then buffed the board with super fine steel wool. The next stage was to apply lemon oil. This was left on the wood overnight to really soak in to the pores. In the morning I wiped off any excess left over. The end result is a board which now looks dark and lustrous, and feels super smooth to the touch. I've also received a set of medium scale La Bella flatwound strings to use (I got medium scale as short scale strings would only be usable on top loading short scale basses. The Vintera has the traditional "through body" stringing, so needs a slightly longer string length to accommodate this). I've also got a Nordstrand NM4 to use if I want (I mat also fit a couple of solid shaft CTS pots too, and a switch craft jack - just because I have a few unused ones in my "bass bits" stash at home. Oh, and the Hipshot lollipop tuners that come with the Bass are very cool!! Fingerboard - before, and after.

Types often seen toddling around C London on Harley Davidsons with overloud exhausts and bolt on mean man expressions.😆😆

A bass demo:

Finally some updates. I decided to put this on the scale and landed on a whopping 3,5kg. Yikes. I then decided to put this on a diet. I also noticed that thikness was also a bit too much, about 42mm. So with that I mind, I made this kind of a routing jig / contraption for shaving off layers from top and bottom (well, front and back actually...). I know that Stingrays are officially about 40mm thick, but for the sake of weight control and also curiosity, I went down to 39mm. I like routing, it's meditative like painting. Preparations just take 80% of the time Of course after this I also had to make that electronics cover thinner but good thing it was thick to begin with. Also, edges had to be re-done, no biggie. I'm hoping that the neck route will get rid of some extra weight and I also have a special feature in mind, more about that later

Agree about the wonderful Ibby necks. @Skinnyman, make sure you're comfortable with tight string spacing. though (I love it, but I do have small hands). Incidentally, what's this eighth fret of which you speak? One of the advantages of a good fiver is that you can go lower, rather than higher, with your basslines, and play across the neck rather than along it. Depending on the genre, you may not need to go further than the 8th fret at all.