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There is photographic evidence that the moon landings were faked:

Following on from a different thread where the question was asked as to how a Bongo differs from a Stingray, I went down a pickup position rabbit hole for a number of popular basses. I've very roughly copied internet photos of various basses, some long scale, some short, some in between (Ric 4003) and sized them to be the same (or as close as I could get) between the bridge saddles and 12th fret. There were, for me at least, some surprises ('Ray, Ric, SB700 similarity for instance). I've not added lines as it would be messy, just use your eye, or a ruler for a slightly more exact comparison. This is not meant as a definitive guide as some saddle positions may have been 'wrong' and the cropping may be a tad sketchy, but I think it's there or thereabouts. Anyway, for your delectation...

Hi All – I wanted to share my first build with you fine folk! I’ve been doing a guitar building evening course for a couple of years now – a few hours a week hence the slow progress. I actually have another bass nearing completion, but this one is the output of an intensive week-long course I did last last summer (have spent my evening class time since finishing it). I could probably write a small and very boring book about my experience of the build process but instead I’ll just share the specs and my key lessons learned, in case of any use/interest to anyone thinking about getting in to luthiery. Specs: • Swamp ash body • Maple neck • Rosewood fretboard • Schaller hardware • Sims super quad pickup with passive electronics Top 3 learning points for a first build: Keep it simple. Sounds obvious but it’s easy to get excited and carried away with the design. I tried an original body shape and a wood veneer and pearloid logo on the headstock. They look pretty decent but they added a large chunk of time to the build. I made some mistakes with the veneer and just ended up staining it black anyway. Start with an existing template (e.g. J or P bass) and go from there. The main purpose of the first build will be learning all the basic woodworking techniques, so focus on that rather than funky design ideas. Try those once your confidence and experience increases a bit. Don’t blow your budget. It’s very easy to be tempted to buy a really nice looking piece of quilt maple for a top, or some high-end pickups. Materials and hardware aint cheap and before long it can get quite expensive. The first build isn’t going to be perfect so don’t go overboard with the extras. Save them for later - in hindsight I got overexcited with those Sims pickups and should have opted for something more cost-effective. Cheap and functional is what I’d recommend. A guy in my class made a P Bass the same time as me and fitted some Wilkinson pickups to it – they sounded great. Take your time. You’ll be really keen to get your first build finished and in your hands ASAP but it is a long and tricky process. My patience was tested quite a few times by the mistakes I made, and quite a few of them could have been avoided if I’d just done things a little slower and steadier. So don’t rush, the next build will go much quicker! There are quite a few things I’d change design-wise for another build (smaller, sharper body, wider headstock so there’s more distance between the strings at the tuners, cheaper pickups/hardware etc.), but nonetheless I’m quite pleased – the bass sounds decent and provides a good benchmark for the future. Hopefully there will be a few more before too long!

Personally I can't see there's any need. If you do then where do you stop? Are short scales any more different and popular than say, five strings? If not then do we end up with separate four, five, six, eight and twelve string sections, short scale, long scale, medium scale, traditional style, modern style, active, passive, painted, natural wood, fancy 'coffee table' wood, blah blah blah? Where do you draw the line?

Last night was a 45 minute set supporting the Complete Madness tribute act at Melksham Assembly Hall. We did a blasting greatest-hits set (minus all our Madness songs, obvs) and though I say so myself we played an absolute blinder. Crowd loved it, we got loads of praise afterwards, we'd brought some t-shirts with us and sold the lot. We're getting a whole load of new followers on our Farcebook page this morning. Here's a couple of pics... god I'm really digging into that E..!

SO Many of you may have seen me bang on about the Sunn bass. However last night I rehearsed it, with the pictured setup. I can't tell you how absolutely fantastic this setup sounded last night. Volume, punch, clarity and the bass plays itself. The only upgrade on the bass was the @KiOgon loom. The rest was a few odd parts, a fret dress and a setup. The bass was £50, the loom was £34. The amp was £40 from the bay, admittedly tatty, it functions perfectly. The Zoom B1on was £20. Having previously had Overwater, Roscoe etc, through a Markbass or Ashdown rig many years ago, I know what's decent and what sucks. Honestly, for around £150, this setup plays and sounds awesome. Just saying..... it IS possible to rig up on a budget, it's not all about expensive gear. 🙂

Got to use this last night thanks to @warwickhunt. It's been a few years since I used to gig one regularly, and I've remembered how special these things are. The authority in the lows and detail in the mids and highs is absolutely beautiful.

My latest acquisition; a Fender Japan PB70. I've had this for about 3 weeks now, bought from @lapolpora from the Marketplace. The colour caused much discussion in the sale thread, and I can confirm that it looks absolutely nothing like the pictures below 😄 It's probably Sonic Blue but does look Daphne Blue at times. I stuck on a set of Gotoh lollipop tuners I had spare and some Dunlop flats and it plays and sounds fantastic. I really need to get the Patio Magic out. span widgetspan widget

The biggest lesson I've learnt from gigging. . . is that it's the biggest turn on, greatest fun, most satisfying thing that I've ever done. Selecting your gear, practising the songs, loading the car, driving around the M25 at 20mph, putting up with drunk punters, the drive home, all worth it for a good gig.

Just got this Trace Elliot Series 6 GP12 and 1220 Cab yesterday! Sounds amazing! Condition like it has just come out of a time capsule! Very very happy bass player😃👍😃👍

He's great! Also check out Profesor Dave Explains, he holds no punches. In my day to day work I have to engage with any number of "alternate" theorists and it really is quite extraordinary the things they believe. History can't be trusted, no dinosaurs, Trump is great, New World Order, one world bank, lizards, global paedo rings, Q Anon, NASA is evil, Bill Gates is evil, and of course the Flatulents as I call the flat earthers. It gets rather tiring after a while.

It's an easy trap to fall into. The wife of a friend of my missus spent a fair bit of time devolving into a conspiracy theory believer after she spent more and more time on the internet while on maternity leave. She has recently started spouting the official Russian line on Ukraine which, while that isn't good, at least indicates where much of the misinformation originates which she is snared in. How you pull someone back from the state they've been manipulated into, I don't know, however. Some people just get caught up in these things unwittingly. It's easy to laugh at them, but much of this stuff is a state-sponsored attack on our societies via social media which has been going on for quite some time. It's dangerous and intentionally so.

I turned 21 in 2005. I had a mortgage, was living with the mother of my first child… when I turned 21, my mum and dad - who I’ve battled with, but have been incredibly supportive of my musical endeavours asked me what I wanted. ”Musicman Bongo” And they gave me £800. So I put the rest to it and I got one of the early bongos. They didn’t come with a case originally. i took a case…but was later informed it was a £120 optional extra 😕 Returned it. Anyhow, 4 years later - my partner wrote her car off and quit her job on the same day when we had a brand new baby…so a massive bass sale began. @LukeFRCand @Etienne got some basses… the Bongo went, at a huge loss… they weren’t popular at all at the time. now I’m 37, the “brand new baby” is a 13 year old bass playing emo. Its time found the same age, spec, colour… It’s in Northern Ireland. i debate a flight. And then I remember my good mate @briansbrewis in Derry. and here’s where a person shows their worth. A message last night to Bri. “Yeah it’s near me, I know him - let me work on it” and nothing…for a bit. this afternoon “I’ve gone out for a drive…here it is…got £150 knocked off and I’ll get it ready to ship…” it’s in his lounge. He’s bought the bloody bass! What an absolute hero - Bri is no middleman…he is the man. I never in a million years expected him to do this - I thought he was going to talk the guy into shipping the bass (listing was collection only) I cannot express my thanks enough (I’ve paid him back - financially at least.) A depressing thing is that I don’t have any pictures of me with my original bongo. Anyhow - Publicly, thank you Brian.

This took a little longer than I anticipated! I thought i'd record a few sound examples for those pondering between the two... not trying to match them, but finding settings at low, medium and high gain that appealed to me on each. I've also put in examples of the 2 cab sims and the straight DI with the pedal bypassed. I've really enjoyed playing with these, and I do feel they give me something that other amp sims/preamps haven't in the past. Going in I expected to like the Super Vintage more, as I am SVT biased (and I'd say that my Super Bassman is more SVTish than anything vintage fender). This initially was the case as it felt very familiar, but as I spent more time with them I really fell in love with the Black Panel. It has so much character and some wonderful settings that I really loved playing with. However, I would say that 1. The cab sim with the pedal bypassed is pretty much unusable for me (but pretty accurate to a 2x15 there really!), whereas the 810 sim in the SV is a useable sound. 2. All my favourite sounds required quite dramatically different settings. If one of them was really appropriate for particular gig it'd be great, but the SV has alot on tap with very small changes. So with that, I took the SV out on a gig on Friday, to a local venue with an in house engineer. SV and IEMs in the gigbag, that's it! Engineer is used to me bringing my pedalboard with Noble DI and big Cali76 so I was interested in his opinion. The SV was really fun in the IEMs, but my previous cab sim experience led me to worry that the tone might be too rounded to really work in the PA. The reports however were good! I didn't even really miss my Cali76, as there is an element of amp-like compression. Later in the gig i upped the drive a little and pulled back the master to compensate. Again great fun and positive feedback. It's certainly different from my usual setup, but i can't see owning this little Ampeg in a box as being anything but another great tool in the armoury. Whether it goes on my board or not I'm not sure yet, it may be that it's more useful as a standalone unit. Happy to answer any questions, and I hope you find the examples above useful!

Dummy build coming together 👍

What a Waist ～ Ian D & The Bs

I recommend checking out scimandan on YouTube. His whole thing is about pseudoscience and science based conspiracies. His Flat Earth Friday videos are always good for a laugh. The Netflix film Behind the Curve is also worth a watch, a group of flat earthers blow a load of money on experiments to prove the earth is flat and you can probably guess what happens.

Couldn't resist a quick mockup. Please note, pickup cover, knob and bridge positions are approximate at best! To be added to this will be black binding on the neck, and black block inlays.

Just snagged an excellent condition 1993 vintage no fan AH250SMX. Replaced the original insanely microphonic TE branded ECC83 with a new JJ and all is working perfectly.

A strange one. A group wanted us to play in suits. After the very quiet set of jazz standards they wanted to talk and eat by themselves. After long time together, they decided they want to sing and dance. Yes, we were slightly whizzed off but could push ourselves to a good drive - and everybody was happy. There haven't been too many gigs around, so everything is fine at this point. They seemed to need time together after all this quarantine thing, and being afraid of the disease. They nearly shouted the songs they knew.

Vocal style/delivery reminds me of The Flying Lizards version of Money

Might as well do the whole album now. Only three left

Nice one @AndyTravis

A reunion gig with my lovely pals in the Peter Donegan Band last night. One or two of you might have seen him on The Voice a few years back singing with Tom Jones. We haven't been in the same room for four years, but it was (mostly) like riding a bike. Full house, loads of fun. I even used a HandBox WB-100 that I managed to borrow for the night from Warwickhunt, too. Win after win after win.

There re two problems here. not only are they the authorised agent but they are the only agent , a monopoly. Certainly for Mark Bass they do not provide circuit diagrams or spares It seems that TC are offering the same deal. I would imagine that Real are paying licensing fees to be the 'authorised' repairers and the manufacturers save the entire cost of support or their products in the UK. You can't go elsewhere because the normal repair shops won't really touch something for which specialist parts are not available. As stated the only real repair is board replacement, there isn't a lot of testing and diagnosis going on and there have been reports on BC of gear being returned with the original fault still there. An hour's labour charge to 'diagnose' isn't of itself unreasonable as just opening up the amp and closing it can take a lot of that time. Since just about everything is on the board and they don't repair boards the diagnosis is inevitable. The board replacement is £280 and the amp costs £199 so you are effectively being charged £35 to be told to buy a new amp. You can pay an additional £18 to have the amp returned but at that point it is just junk. The manufacturer can claim an after sales service is provided whilst accepting no responsibility. Real have a monopoly and are under zero pressure to provide a better service. The second effect is environmental. If cost effective repairs aren't possible then every am becomes disposable. To an extent that is our fault, we all buy by price and modern amps are cheap and by and large super-reliable. Mass producing with specialist chips and surface mount components certainly cuts costs. Ironically Music Tribe who own TC do provide cheap spares for at least some of their own Behringer gear. I bought a replacement amp board for one of their active speakers for around £70. When it came it was already mounted on it's heatsink and the repair took under an hour. Behringer may well have made 100% on the 'board' but I repaired a £200 speaker for £70 so I was happy. It can be done. It would be interesting to see how this is managed in the States where I think monopolies are not viewed as lightly as here. The EU are legislating to make manufactured goods economically repairable on environmental grounds. It'll be interesting to see what the UK govt. does. Not much on recent performance I expect.

New strings arrive tomorrow @horrorshowbassso will give a more in depth response than my previous message 😉

Wow, where are you guys finding this shiny stuff. Share it on the TE Facebook Group, people will faint!

Creaky Blinder and Sir Sic can be good for a more light-hearted/sarcastic take on conspiracies. I think both of them have done stuff with Scimandan. Creaky even had Aron Ra on his podcast recently, which was a bit of a coup for a small Youtuber. I often find conspiracy videos by people like Hans Wurmhat and the bloke behind Mud Fossil University can be equal parts fun and frustrating.

Yeah, but that's what THEY want you to think. #flatearth #JFKwasarobot #lizardroyalfamily #ohFFSyouvejustsatonmytinfoilhat

The line should be after the Mojo levels sub-sections, graded from one to five: one for some mojo and five reserved for those being anointed with sacred lemon oil on the day of the Feast of the Sacred Tonewood by the ghost of St. Leo.

Keep leads tidy. Coil them properly, velcro-tie them. If you use wall warts or similar PSUs, don't wrap the leads round the body of the wall-wart. Wrap them round your hand and use velcro ties on them. And if you use more than one wall-wart, put some coloured heat-shrink on the plug so you know which is which without having to go back to the wall-wart itself. Periodically go through the leads bag and weed out anything you don't need. You will need: 1) all the leads to connect your gear up (you're probably doing the PA too, so those leads too) 2) spare leads for all of 1) 3) spare lead(s) for the guitarist(s) (which should be bright yellow) Besides the set list being in big enough letters, make sure it's in black ink and that you've made any necessary additional notes (like which key it's in or which note to start on or if it's one of these modern tunings like drop-D) Make sure that at least one person other than the singer reads the setlist and tells the singer if he/she has suddenly skipped two songs (adult supervision). Please feel free to have a 20-page discussion if you are a singer who is offended by this. Have a checklist for car loading and make sure that everything is in Make sure there's enough extension leads Colour coding leads can be handy if you're doing the PA If you're running a pedalboard with separate PSU, get a DC extension lead the same length as the jack-jack lead from the pedalboard to the amp, cable-tie the two together, and keep the pedalboard PSU by your amp

I like the way the fretless P has partial lines on the edge of the board. Best of both worlds?

Last night's gig was at one of our favourite venues. Great crowd and we tried a couple of off the wall new songs out which worked out really well. We've invested in a DMX foot controller that muggins has been tasked with operating and I spent a week programming it and the whole gig tap dancing on it. But it worked pretty well. Here's some pics that someone in the crowd took...

There's a great YT video about a guy who buys secondhand records. George Benson contacted him and basically said 'I have too many albums and I want rid, would you like to buy them? This guy rang up GB, got invited up to the house and was treated with great courtesy and GB went throught his collection with loads of anecdotes saying which of the records he wanted to keep and which he would sell. The record shop guy got 2 or 3 videos out of it with GB's permission, they even went to a bar together. Seems he's a really nice guy.

My little pedal board. Work in progress.

Just discovered a new band. They're called Weather Report. Don't know anything about them but they're clearly fans of Vulfpeck. Bassist is pretty good, not as precise as Joe Dart but sounds like he's using a fretless so probably going for a different feel. The album is called Heavy Weather, a bit jazzy but don't let that put you off.

We've done some gigs in Scotland this week. First one at the wonderful Caird Hall in Dundee (pics 1&2), a favourite of mine. Great crowd and a good sounding room. Gig made even better by some of the best pizza we've had at the wonderful Mozza restaurant near the theatre. Second one was at The Edinburgh Playhouse (pic 3). It's massive, seats something like 3060 people, unfortunately not when we were there though. One of the biggest seated theatres in Europe apparently. Gig slightly marred by a group of pis*sed people near the front kicking off through the first set, but the excellent security staff had them sorted for the 2nd. I love Edinburgh, and had time pre gig to walk around this wonderful city.

First one in 2 years last night - a support slot with some friends of ours. Excellent night and great to be back. Freezing my t!ts off to start with, but by the end of our set I wish I hadn't worn the hoodie as I was sweating like a glass-blower's bumbum...

From my neck of the woods… Half Man Half Biscuit. Dread Zeppelin. I saw Albertos y Lost Trios Paranoias once… but they didn’t go down well.