Matt P

The rooms we use are still closed and expect to stay like that for a little while yet, they started a crowdfunder last week to help keep them afloat and they hit their 5k target in under 48 hours! now they've set a stretch goal and any extra money is going on improving the spaces and the kit, we're on very good terms with them and i think they are one of the best rooms in our area and run by very enthusiastic guys. Our normal room is pretty small (the smallest one there) so we don't expect to be back for a while, in the mean time we've put some money into the kitty and will sit tight. one of the rewards was to nickname a room, some of these have been taken (at 500 quid a room) so i'm looking forward to seeing what names they are given! we went for buying a step, we get to decorate it anyu way we like so that will be a fun discussion with the other band members. Matt

well i has some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket and they were under a tenner on amazon so picked up a couple of the clamps. i was hoping that the clamp would be able to be rotated so i could fit them to the shelves but they seem to be welded in place so i had to come up with an adapter (one of the clamps from some ikea lamps with some inner tube as padding). they clamp on really well, no problem at all and they fit both my concert and my u-bass with no issues, I tried them on a regular stand and they worked fine there too so highly recommended! Link - Amazon uk Matt

I'm looking forward to seeing this come together, i've been following your status necked build and i can't wait to see what you do with the shorter scale neck. Matt

My son made me a card and got me a mixed case of local beers, I suspect that my wife might have helped though as he is only 3 😁

subscribed, i have a 30" bass with a p-pickup and it sounds excellent, i can take some measurements for the position if you want. I'm not happy with that last sentence as i know you have lots of experience of bass building so let me re-word this, i have been doing some measuring and calculating for a design that i want to build and in the process i have found an excel file that had some measurements for pickup positions, i did some measuring of my own instruments and some scaling of the classic instruments into a 30" scale and found that the pickup on my little short scale Aria was nearly 20mm closer to the bridge than the numbers would suggest, it sounds really good this way. the numbers suggest the centreline of a p-pickup should be 641mm from the nut but this Aria is at 673mm, it has a great tone and cuts through really well. Matt

excellent, it's amazing what differences there are between different valves, glad to be of help. Matt

You don't need to use a screwdriver to remove these covers, they are a 2 part design, if you push down on the top and then rotate a bit they will slide off, very much like a bayonet fitting light bulb. Matt Edit to add that the covers will most likely be earthed so should be safe to touch, the advice of leaving the amp unpowered overnight before starting is good advice for working on any mains powered equipment.

A courier just delivered a shiny new hercules stand, I'm a very happy customer, especially as I had no serial number or idea of how old the stand was, there was no discussion or convincing on my part they just sent out a new stand. Matt

I have experimented with a seymour duncan phat cat neck pickup combined with a jb bridge humbucker in an epi les paul of a similar vintage and the combo was ace, they're currently waiting for me to build a guitar for my best friend, a pair of phat cats will be fantastic. Matt

What brand flats were you using? there only seem to be 2 options for 30" 5 string flats (that i can find), Dunlop or La bella, as i am mainly a flats player this is one of my concerns. If i needed rounds i would probably go for Newtone stainless i think. Matt

yes this cable is not going into use, it will sit at the bottom of the box as a last resort cable, i know about the plugs on these being damaging to sockets but at some point i might have the need for it when i come across an already damaged socket and don't have the time to sort it immediately. Until then it's safely quarantined at the bottom the box of cable for cutting up and re-using. I have about half a drum of Klotz AC110 sitting on the shelf and maybe 20m or more of Van damme xke as well for making my own leads but every so often i find i need something disposable for a project or a lead that i might not get back so the planet waves one might get some recycled plugs at some point and disappear. i have plenty of usable but not Neutrik plugs as well that i have removed form leads. 2 other planet waves cables were sent straight to the bin as they had completely failed, this one only got a reprieve as it appeared to be working. Matt

i did initially check the resistance as i thought maybe 100ohms would be possible but i've just tried with my multimeter set to it's highest Ohms range and it's actually 30k ohms! that seems pretty high to me given that 250k ohm volume pots are common. Mystery solved I guess, this is one lead that won't be going into general use though, it can sit at the bottom of the box for last resort use (especially as it has those springy contact things on the jacks which i do not like.) thanks Matt

@james_027 I haven't pulled the trigger yet, I was hoping to buy from PMT at their Newcastle branch as they have excellent customer service but i have just got off the phone with the very polite gentleman an thier bass department and they are having to space their deliveries 2 weeks apart and have no TMB35's due so it would be a special order which if done through the shop would commit me to buy. So it looks like i either have to wait until the shops are back to normal or i pick one of the onile retailers that have stock and rely on the distance selling regs if it's not what want (i'm 99% sure it is exactly what i want though.) so which retailer should i go for? Matt

? i'm not sure i follow,

after reading and commenting on the Recommendations for best cable to use with your bass? thread i had the urge to go through the two boxes that contain all of the random cables that i have collected over the years, mostly these are ones that people have declared as broken or dodgy, they end up in my possession as i make and repair my own cables. at the bottom of the box i find a planet waves instrument cable, according to my cable tester it is fine, i then check it for noise by plugging it into my interface and turning the gain up then wiggling and bending the cable to detect noise, all is fine. then i double check using my multimeter and there is apparently no continuity between the tips of the jacks, my cable tester gives me a perfect connection and the sleeve connection is fine, i have also pugged a bass in using this lead and it works fine but my multimeter declares it dead. any idea what might be going on here? i have changed the battery in the multimeter and also used it to test other cables and it seems to be working fine. Is there some kind of weird voodoo built into these cables? thanks Matt

as has already been said many times (and for very good reason) Neutrik plugs and a good quality cable, Van Damme and Sommer are both very good, personally I love Klotz (the AC110) which I know was an option with OBBM , i make my own and use a piece of clear shrink-wrap tubing to hold a name tag onto the cable with my phone number on it, i also like to rivet a velcro cable to each lead to keep them neatly coiled. the Klotz cable isn't that flexible though so not everyone's cup of tea, my pedalboard is wired using Van Damme as it is much more flexible. I'd suggest that learning how to properly coil the cables when not in use is the biggest factor in the lifetime of a cable, i have some of the cheapest Klotz cables that are getting on for 20 years old and are still working perfectly as they have been cared for. Matt

It seems that the photos have made it to strings and things, they are looking into it and say there should be a replacement dispatched asap. Matt

there is also Ghost Pickups which are made by an acquaintance of mine in the north east (i think there are a few other BCers who know him too),he makes mostly to order but has definitely made bass pickups before https://www.facebook.com/ghostguitarpickups/ Matt

i'm hoping to join in soon with the Talman love, my finger is hovering over the buy button for one of the new TMB35 basses, love the colour and played a TMB30 last year and loved it, just hesitating right now as i haven't tried the 5 string in person and normally i like to try before i buy. Matt EDIT - i also have a plan involving a pair of Nordstrand pickups and a bit of routing/new scratchplate but this might have to wait until some second-hand pickups are available.

am i the only one wondering what model the acoustic guitar is? it ticks a lot o boxes for me, small body, discrete burst finish, sounds pretty good as well. Matt

Update - sent a polite email asking if there was any progress and got a very swift replay saying they didn't get my email with photo's etc. So i have re-sent the original email as well as replying to the email today, hopefully this will get resolved quickly. Matt

I haven't done it myself but some friends of mine take this to a different level, this is one of their Rock Mass services from a few years ago, thy still run these once a month (or do when there isn't a pandemic) the gentleman playing lead guitar on the goldtop les paul is an ordained minister in the CofE, and the lady playing the Warwick thumb 5 NT and lead vocals is is wife, when they're not working their day jobs or rocking the church then they have another band playing rock covers in the pubs around Halifax and Leeds. I hope i'm not breaking any rules posting these here. Matt

I'm more of a seymour duncan person.

I carry one of these, I think I've had it since I was about 10, not the lightest but has every size I have ever needed and can double as a small hammer in a pinch. https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-maintenance/bike-tools/halfords-metric-dumbbell-spanner-969816.html?cm_mmc=Google+PLA-_-Cycling>Bike+Maintenance>Bike+Tools-_-Cycling>Bike+Maintenance>Bike+Tools-_-969816&istCompanyId=b8708c57-7a02-4cf6-b2c0-dc36b54a327e&istFeedId=62b447cf-331e-4fec-a47a-9985ff72d404&istItemId=xqtmmt&istBid=tzwx&_$ja=tsid:94971|cid:8979078200|agid:94446559127|tid:pla-328770784500|crid:412800844508|nw:g|rnd:16662881451624242591|dvc:m|adp:|mt:|loc:1006948&gclid=CjwKCAjw5vz2BRAtEiwAbcVIL_AFUmp7PPcE5bMY85yOA3wpj2iuN1xhxL3yNO24b_MEoHUkgFuCxRoC6U4QAvD_BwE Matt

it's fighting against my desire for a new 5 string short scale bass though, i have played very little guitar in the past 5 years and my current collection has 5 electrics and 3 acoustics that get only a little bit of use each, i'm not sure if i have ever even gigged my Telecaster. Matt