icastle

[quote name='mrtcat' post='1110236' date='Jan 31 2011, 09:47 PM']Apparently superglue was originally designed as a field dressing in the war.[/quote] It wasn't designed for that (another one of those pesky urban myths) but it was certainly used there.

[quote name='Conan' post='1110678' date='Feb 1 2011, 09:43 AM']Incredibly irresponsible. I have two cats (which I am also looking to rehome) and the damage they do to the local wildlife populations is very worrying - mainly small mammals and birds, but they have even brought an adult rabbit into the house before!! I shudder to think of the level of predation that 29 cats would be responsible for.... indirectly of course - it's your ex who is really responsible![/quote] Don't I know it! There was a rotting flesh smell downstairs last week and I hunted around trying to find the source of it. I pulled out the stereo (dead since one or more cats decided to use it as a toilet) and discovered two half eaten birds behind there! One of the cats came in a few months ago with a bat! Whilst it's certainly not funny from a wildlife conservation point of view, the look of bemusement on the cats face was funny - a sort of puzzled 'I didn't know mice can fly' expression.

[quote name='adledman' post='1110642' date='Feb 1 2011, 09:09 AM']i really have been trying to resist but not neutering on moral grounds! i think with all the unwanted pets we have in a so called animal loving country and the vast numbers destroyed because the charities are overwhelmed is proof that worrying about tibbles balls and how he wont be able to strut his stuff has back fired in a big way. lets hope they dont reach sexual maturity and multiply even further! i hope you manage to find a suitable home for them and that they get to have a long but sterile life. and blow a raspberry at the ex for me if you see her. thats the nicest way of putting it anyway. ad[/quote] Don't resist on my account mate, I totally agree with you. Pet ownership brings along a whole set of responsibilities and my own feeling is that if people can't be responsible then they shouldn't be taking on pet ownership. Latest update is that the Cat Protection people are coming in this afternoon with a van and a pile of cages - they'll take as many as I can track down this afternoon in 'one hit' and it's up to me to find the others and deliver them to whichever of their centres has spaces. I've got 15 of them shut in the kitchen at the moment and am hunting the house and garden to try and find the rest! Shame I didn't know about it earlier on because I could have trapped them all when they came in for food at 8am this morning!

[quote name='Gust0o' post='1109608' date='Jan 31 2011, 03:50 PM']icastle, on a more serious note, get yourself on a cat forum and be frank about your position - your wife has maintained the animals; that relationship is coming to an end; you're looking for alternative homes. We used to keep a lot of rodents and got heavily involved in the rescue and rehome side of things - people will understand (some will judge too, but it's still out in the open) and you'll get greater coverage for your appeal. Just google cat forum - there'll be loads! I'm not sure what paperwork, if any, you'd need for ownership; it could be as simple as pics>chose one>come collect.[/quote] I had a call from the Cat Protection people yesterday, they are having a count up of how many spaces they have got in their various locations and will get back to me today to let me know how many they can take as a first batch, so fingers crossed here.

Some people seem to be comfortable buying unseen but I always like to 'try before buy'. Luckily, living in the Midlands means that wherever I need to travel to to try something out, I rarely need to travel for more than a few hours to get to where an instrument is located.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='1110053' date='Jan 31 2011, 08:33 PM']If you were offered an endorsement and could get the bass or amp for free, would you use it because it cost you nothing, despite the fact that you didn't really like it?[/quote] Nope. A band I was in back in the 80s turned down a sponsorship offer from an amp manufacturer, not so much because of the kit (which was 'so so') but because we hated the new owners of the company. If you don't like the kit then you're not going to be inclined to work with it to get the best possible sound and it's always going to be 'that pile of sh*t', so a bit of a pointless exercise for both parties really.

To me, those two videos explain 'musician' without needing to rely on words to do it.

A band I play with used to use songsheets for everything until I joined. I was given a folder with all of the songs in it, I took it away, familiarised myself with it and then dumped it - to my mind it looks really cr*p on stage using music stands. At most, I'll have a set list with the key of the song scrawled at the end of it. The way the rest of the guys learned how to do it was harsh but worked - they got rid of their books as well. Nothing focuses you more than having a crutch AND a safety net removed at the same time...

[quote name='Spike Vincent' post='1108510' date='Jan 30 2011, 07:18 PM']A small baggy of what I assume is washing powder.[/quote] Is that your usual defence?

[quote name='4-string-thing' post='1110001' date='Jan 31 2011, 08:11 PM'], Surely it's much more fun trying to put them back together with gaffa tape and kitchen roll? [/quote] Gaffa tape and kitchen roll aren't too bad, but I got some decidedly odd looks off the A&E registrar when I used a soldering iron as a makeshift tourniquet.

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='1109596' date='Jan 31 2011, 03:41 PM']"I don't need a P-bass for £60!"[/quote] That's ok then, but do you need a P-bass for £59.99?

[quote name='dan670844' post='1110174' date='Jan 31 2011, 09:21 PM']Yes thats true, I have played around with the HB GA5 and the Epiphone VJ the VJ is a very hummy valve amp the GA5 is even worse! The circuit design is good but the actually components used are sh*te.[/quote] +1 HB stuff is just house branded kit built to match a price instead of being built to deliver quality. Far better off looking at good SH kit IMHO.

In my experience of Ibanez, some are better than others but I've never tried one that is complete rubbish. For £90 you aren't going to be taking much of a gamble if you're looking for a second bass.

[quote name='barryman' post='1110215' date='Jan 31 2011, 09:38 PM'][color="#0000FF"][b]I've got a 20 year old Carsbro Viper which, up till today, has never given any problem. Today, as I turned power on, it was dead. No mains light on. I checked mains plug and fuse and they are all OK. So I went to check any internal fuses and, bugger me, I cannot see where to access any internal fuses !! I even tried to undo screws on top and slide amp head out of cabinet but it won't slide out (moves about an inch). So, anybody able to put me outta my misery and tell me how to check any internals. Thanks[/b][/color][/quote] Looking at the pics I can find, it looks to me as though the amp chassis pulls out like a drawer from the rear of the amp once the little screws are removed from the top of the combo. Have you tried sliding the amp out in the other direction (i.e. does it slide out the front instead of the rear?). It's a long shot, but maybe the bolts from the strap are catching on the chassis.

[quote name='Soloshchenko' post='1110529' date='Feb 1 2011, 02:13 AM']I really don't get why Fender still piss about putting these things on. Hands up who still plays this way? Me neither, but I do have 2 screw holes in my CV Precision scratchplate that annoy me a little bit and the knowledge that a standard Fender replacement scratchplate probably won't fit. I know it's a small thing but what is the point in the first place?[/quote] If they didn't put it on then they'd have people complaining about it - whatever they do they'll not win!

[quote name='funky_numba' post='1110536' date='Feb 1 2011, 03:42 AM'][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7nfC7kWBAQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7nfC7kWBAQ[/url] I want to learn some Simply Red music as per the above link. I have a really dull sounding bass. I want a big fatter, funky sound like the above vid. I've tried everything to try to enrich the sound but it still sounds dull!!!! Changed to Rotosound Swing Strings -40-60-80-100. My bass is a Wesley Bass with 2 single coil pups. I've cleaned the frets, the strings, raised/ lowered the pickups but I have got nowhere. I need lots more treble. I mainly play my bass thru my pc with a top notch soundcard. I want a funky sound but it still sounds bad. Do I need new, better quality pickups? Thanks Paul. p.s. on the video... what is that wire that is hanging from the bridge at the bottom of the bass? What is that for?[/quote] I suspect that part of the problem is that you are expecting too much from your PC - it was never designed to be a bass amp after all! Changing the pickups on your bass is probably not going to be a cost effective exercise and you'd probably be far better off saving the money you were going to spend on pickups and looking for a proper bass combo. The lead that looks as though it is hanging off the bridge is the guitar lead - the bass player in the video has just looped it over the strap button.

[quote name='cheddatom' post='1109527' date='Jan 31 2011, 02:56 PM']Sorry, what was I thinking... To be able to swap between two different basses AND use effects at the same time, you need a advanced multi effects processor. You'll need a MIDI floor board to control that as well.[/quote] ...and four more basses, three 8x10" cabs and a 1000W amp head. EDIT: Forgot to add the dancers

[quote name='bubinga5' post='1109501' date='Jan 31 2011, 02:35 PM']Blimey Icastle your organised.. i thought i carried alot of stuff in my gig bag... First Aid kit though? where do you play? [/quote] I live near Tamworth... In fairness, the first aid kit lives in the car all the time so it's not a concious decision to take it. People who chop lumps off just gravitate towards me - it's no fun trying to put them back together using gaffa tape and kitchen roll.

[quote name='tinyviking' post='1109447' date='Jan 31 2011, 01:48 PM']If I was using an A/B switch would I plug into the active input of the amp and leave it there?[/quote] Yep that's all I do.

[quote name='teej' post='1109229' date='Jan 31 2011, 11:28 AM']Actually, from a street theatre point of view, that could be a really good idea, done in a slapstick manner - would draw a crowd![/quote] ...especially if you go through the water main...

[quote name='charic' post='1108807' date='Jan 30 2011, 10:26 PM']Shame it's a no pet policy where I live I need a kitty and an alsation... One day[/quote] I had a big black alsatian until a few years ago - fantastic lad and a damn site easier to look after than a swarm of cats!

[quote name='noelk27' post='1108643' date='Jan 30 2011, 08:46 PM']What makes you think that B to G is standard? Originally 5-strings were always tuned E to C, it was only when some manufacturers suggested that an alternative B to G tuning was possible that players adopted it.[/quote] Standards change. On a 5 string, B-G tuning is the most commonly used and has therefore become the normal standard.

[quote name='smashie' post='1108625' date='Jan 30 2011, 08:32 PM']Yeah I noticed that today, no idea what the strings were, round wound (normally use flat or ground wounds). I thought it was me, probably was to be fair [/quote] I think they all are. I mostly tend to use mine as a transition to 'somewhere else'.

[quote name='gary mac' post='1108645' date='Jan 30 2011, 08:48 PM']Some of the screws are black cross heads, some are chrome and some are slotted, it's a right old mish mash.[/quote] The originals are almost certainly the black cross heads. I don't think I've ever seen a production bass that uses flat head screws for anything visible! * EDIT: * and... cue the deluge of people telling me that the HagHof LegWinder 2 string bass from 1954 used them...

Kinda depends on what it is I'm doing... Appropriate instruments, amp, cabs and effects - obviously [b]Sensible Kit:[/b] Spare strings for everything Duster Guitar Stand(s) Various mains leads (extension reels, boards, IEC and Commando) Various signal cables DI box Towel Folding trolley Duct Tape, insulating tape, blutak Thin marker pens Spare clothes and shoes/trainers Water Bottle Flask of Coffee, sandwiches/food (if I'm going to be out all day and half the night) Guitar tuner Spare batteries [b]Disaster Kit:[/b] Toolbox First Aid kit Various loose plugs and sockets (mains and signal) Bag of cable (mains and signal)