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An Update: Having had lots of chats to the various surgeons, they've decided that they can try and rectify the previous error. But hell, it's sure going to take some rectifying... Two big ops, not sure of order yet. 1) The more expected one. Remove all the currently-installed metalwork. differently shaped, longer fusion from L5 to T... This includes reshaping some vertebrae, all in the cause of restoring some sort of lumbar curve. 2) ALIF - Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion. This is to fuse L5 with S1, effectively fusing spine to pelvis. It's that 'anterior' bit that worries. Draw a line from level with navel to just above pubis, a little to one side, cut, shovel everything aside until you get right to the back! Then start hammering bits of titanium in to the lower spine. Ops to be done just two weeks apart, likely before Christmans, so all of a sudden, there;s no hanging about. Jeeeeez...

If only this were 16 strings (I no longer play 15) . . . . GLWTS

On the One Show tonight there was an item by Watchdog’s Matt Allwright about people getting scammed on the Vinted web site. Not dissimilar to the experiences here. At the end of the item he said if there was anyone else who’d been scammed on any online marketplace to get in touch and report their experiences. I know that he’s a guitarist so he’ll probably be interested in hearing from anyone on here who’s been affected. I would suggest all affected members to get in touch ASAP to create some noise about this story.

Don't some airlines allow under 5s to travel free? Tell them your bass is under 5 years old.

It's been suggested that I do a bit of a precis / clarification of one or two of the myriad finishing techniques available, especially relating to Tru-oil slurry filling (I call it slurry and wipe), Tru Oil used for a satin final finish (Slurry and buff) and also wiping on old-fashioned polyurethane varnish (specifically, Ronseal Hardglaze). I won't cover the use of Tru-oil for a gloss finish as I don't really do that variation although I have seen very impressive results from folks who do. For natural wood, I tend to use Tru Oil as my filling and preparation method (if it's going to be glossed) or as my preparation and finish method (if it's going to be satin) Tru-oil 'Slurry and Wipe' for filling and preparing Take this camphor laurel top. Now that's what I call a filling job! Yes - some of those voids go right through to the other side! I use Tru-oil as the Wet part of a 'Wet and Dry' sanding job. And, personally, I start fairly coarse - 250 grit emery cloth or even 120!! I basically slosh the Tru Oil on and sand to my heart's content: Very quickly I end up with a wood-dust /Tru-oil sludge. once I have plenty of sludge, I use an old credit card to get that sludge into all of the voids. I let that dry overnight. The next day, I repeat, adding more sludge into the remaining void depth. This is day 2: I then move to finer paper - around 350 grit and do the same again, but this time, I wipe the excess sludge off while it is still wet with kitchen roll / old t-shirt. Maybe a repeat after it's dried. It gets me here: And, for Tru-oil Slurry and Wipe, this is where I would stop, let it fully dry and then varnish it. Sneak preview (I'll cover a couple of poyurethane 'bedroom builders' methods tomorrow), this is good old fashioned Ronseal Hardglaze wiped on: Tru Oil for Slurry and Buff Satin Finish ...is exactly the same as above, but you keep going. The slurry and wipe is done a few more times with finer and finer paper. And the 'wipe' is now used to remove pretty much all of the oil Then the final couple of goes, is Tru-oil with c 400 grit wet and dry, but now I not only wipe it all off, but I then vigorously buff it as dry as I can. I usually let it fully dry overnight and repeat. What you are left with is a silky smooth surface that is protected, but feels VERY organic to the touch. This is a Bubinga bass done that way. 8-9 years of playing later, it still looks and feels the same! I do pretty much ALL of my necks using this method. There are some if's and buts involved and some practice. However, the above methods require neither fancy equipment nor facilities.

On a hopeful note, aikido buddy of mine had a similar op a year or so ago, much the same context, fused vertebrae being supported with new hardware, lots of titanium and a deal of Black n Decker work, proper do or die stuff to save his ability to walk, and he came through it with greater mobility and less pain once the actual op wounds had healed. Very best of of luck.

Was the physics class using a low pass filter perhaps to remove upper harmonics reducing everything to a sine wave at the fundamental. That’s not compression.

Not many Vox Starstream owners on here (Obrienp and RichT are the ones I know) so this won't be of interest to many. Anyway, it works a treat and, while not cosmetically perfect, it's more than good enough for me. All easily reversible to leave the bass exactly as manufactured.

Compression is very much a misunderstood concept, you really need to understand compression to get the most from it and to apply it correctly. That cannot be overstated. When done properly it's often invisible, in so far as it's not obvious, although it can be. The subject has been covered many times on BC already so it's worth doing a search if you want to know more, although there is some ongoing misconceptions that keep cropping up. Better still, take a look at sound engineering sites online as you'll get a more objective overview. I've never heard of compression reducing overtones before, I'm not sure that's true. Compression is for controlling the overall waveform as well as signal spikes on the signal, including but not always the transients. As for the guy on YouTube with his acoustic guitar, it sounds like he didn't know what he was doing 🤷‍♂️

I was hoping to bring this along to the SW bash in a few weeks time, there has been a pickup and bridge change since it came into my hands last year.

I had to walk a similar distance one night in the 80's following a mate's band's gig in a West London club on account of Lemmy having signed the £10 note that was otherwise going to get me a taxi home

So, following on from recent forays into 70's Prog with Yes and Genesis I delved back into that other major force in 70's prog The Stranglers.... And wow I'd forgotten just how bloody amazing they were, and how prog they were (certainly far more prog than the punk label they had in '77/78 would suggest). Elements of Squire bass tone and Emerson keyboards? And this is just one of the best tracks ever recorded (in my humble opinion of course)

Hi. Here is my new (oldish) Pbass that I bought from gas station guitars. Love the colour and it’s pretty light so that’s good too. Good points: - colour is great, looks better in real life than the pictures. - sounds cracking. Just like a Pbass! - - neck fits my muckle hands better than the Jazz I sold to find this. Not so good points: - Had to give it a good clean as it was covered in a fine film of aged dust/grime/dirt - Input jack was intermittent on first plug in. Have removed the pickguard and cleaned up the jack and pots with contact cleaner. Much better now. Also adjusted the contact of the inout jack. - strings are covered in the same grime and have been loaded in to the tuners with only half to one turn, new strings incoming. - relief was a tad much so have adjusted that, good to know the truss rod works though. - saddles are flippin high so action is way more than I like. I’ll drop those later once I get ten minutes. all in all, happy with the bass. More care could have been taken with prep before shipping. It’s in ace condition, although they were a pleasure to deal with in terms of money and communication. The photos show that colour has faded a bit with time, as it’s more vibrant under the picknguard. if anyone knows anything about the pots, body wood and neck stamp please do share.

Not for me

I’ve had the amp a week now, and whilst I’ve not yet managed to play it outside of my house, I have a few observations: 1. The USB recording output is very quiet. So quiet that I have to max the input gain and master volume to get a suitable signal level. Speaking to a guy at Peavey about this, it may be down to a compromise in the chipset they had to use (supply chain issues) but it’s no real biggie as I have my Ashdown B-Social still. 2. Not sure I’m a fan of the compressor as an always on feature. Even with the controls fully off the sound noticeably thins and loses a bit of fatness. It’s great as an effect though, and I can see it being useful for a couple of songs in my function band. 3. The flat (i.e. EQ centred at noon) tone is lovely. Funnily enough it sounds like an Elf but with much more headroom and power in the low end. I actually found that the Trace nearly flat sounded very similar indeed to the way I have EQ’d my Glockenklang. The Glock is more hifi/transparent with its EQ so I have felt I have to work it to get a bit of character in the basic tone; the Trace has it there already. This of course is a personal preference thing (see the recent thread about amp flat settings!) but it works for me. 4. The fan is probably the second quietest fan I’ve ever had in a bass amp. The quietest being in the Glock - even after a long loud gig you can’t hear it at all. With the Trace there is a whisper of one but that’s nothing compared to the Elf, any Ashdown I’ve ever owned or countless other amps. 5. The preshape really is the old Trace preshape. 6. The foot switch is excellent. Sturdy, solid switches and silent switching within the amplifier. Jury’s out still whether it can replace the Glock in my affections as the big gig amp of choice (I need a few gigs under my belt before that, and the Glock has more versatility vs the Trace with the drive control and voice feature for example) but I’m liking what I’m getting so far.

The Raven was the first LP I bought 'new' too. I'd bought the back catalogue of 3 LPs plus the live LP and loved them as a punk band. The fact that teen-punk me really liked the new album when it was a bit (spit) prog speaks volumes for their talent.

For me The Raven is one of the key Stranglers albums. I find it to be a worthwhile progression from the first three albums. I think it’s atmospheric and moody, particularly the title track. This probably has a lot to do with me first seeing them live on the Raven tour in ‘79. That gig was dark and moody and really cemented the album in my musical experience.

Another excellent band name ... Melted Decals, playing post-math art-rock at venues in and around Leamington Spa.

Well you'd better not look at these then...

And of course while front cover was good.... The back cover is one of the most iconic in rock history

Get to the rehearsal, start tuning, finish tuning, go home as the rehearsal is over.

Looking for the heart of Saturday night - Tom Waits

The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore - PJ Harvey

My little mustang is now blend/tone which is super 👌🏽

Similarly, it was the first album of theirs I bought when it came out, I was 13 and already had the other 3 second hand, so perhaps that's partly why it has particular resonance for me. Nostalgia is not to be underestimated...

If 6 was 9 - JMH

It sounds a pretty hideous ordeal to go through, but understand it's a necessary evil. I wish you good luck.

I always felt that the front cover was a bit odd and the back should have definitely been the front.

Does anybody remember the one of these (Tennessee branded but just another AliExpress special) floating around on eBay a few years ago? The owner had tried to mod it into an acceptable instrument by throwing decent pickups and custom string sets at it but it was a total mess. Started off at some silly price and gradually got discounted to the point where it was probably worth it for the parts if you wanted a handy portable ironing board.

Safety is a Cootie Wootie — The Residents

nice in Nice. As above

nice ‘n sleazy - stranglers

I’ve done it twice Antonio. Both times were to Ireland. It is - or was - pretty straightforward. I can’t remember who I flew with, it wasn’t Ryanair though.

It will be interesting to see if @ambient makes a move on it....and then, rearrange those pickups with his Hammer & Chisel.

Saw them in October '77 at the Top Rank, Cardiff. They were quite awesome as was the support, the Dictators. There was a comedian, Johnny Rubbish, sandwiched in between the two bands. He only managed one line: "I hear you Welsh can't play rugby..." before making a hasty and early exit.

My two compact boards. The bigger (Metro 20) is tuned for doom/sludge/stoner: 5 strings, big lows, lots of dirt, lots of volume. Small one (Metro 16) I’m using to play post-punk/goth/hardcore: 4 strings, somewhat cleaner, more cutting tones, played higher up the fretboard. Many similarities between the boards. Different goals though, so much that it really is much easier to have two different sets of pedals.

Uke Ellington C*nt Basie

A bit of Kubix for a Saturday morning