tauzero

Mine is about to get reduced - Sub Zero is about to move out (about time, he's 29) and I'm reclaiming his bedroom which was formerly my music and computer room. Then I'll have somewhere to put various pieces of music making and recording equipment that I've bought but have had nowhere to set up.

I have a feeling I'm the winner. The actual area I generally use for a workbench is the bit of the keyboard drawer between the mouse mat and the edge, although I do occasionally move the keyboard to give me a bit more room. The settee to the right is a two-seater submerged to the same level all the way along. It looks very slightly messier than normal because Mrs Zero's watch is sitting on the keyboard being charged.

I'm not sure whether this should be in this thread or the "Rehearsals" one. I've been sort of recruited to a(nother) band and last night was our first go at playing together. It was a combination of band rehearsal and jam night, with the next one being in a weeks time at a different venue. We did it at the Shirley British Legion which is where I go to an open mic night, and as we had one attendee from the open mic night who did a few songs, I think we can call it a jam night. Plus we did a lot of jamming. So it looks like Magnolia Protocol is now a band.

Convenient car parking PA, drumkit, and decent backline provided, and a decent sound engineer Good sized and enthusiastic crowd Air conditioning if indoors, sun and a light breeze if outdoors No technical gremlins Well paid, promptly, and a rebooking Entering into the world of fantasy, no mistakes by anyone.

You should consider yourself lucky. My Ibanez SRF705 has three volume controls, one for neck, one for bridge, and one for piezo bridge. They put a blend on the Ashula 2, would it really have hurt them to put one on the Portamento too? One day I will get round to wiring in the blend pot I have sitting on my desk, if I don't lose it first...

If you have an irrational fear of cables, go wireless.

Don't forget, you mustn't have the clip-on tuner clipped on while on stage, or the Basschat Taste Police will be down on you like a ton of bricks. And I advise against mentioning buying a music stand.

I left one band amicably nearly 20 years ago as we weren't getting any gigs and I'd got the offer of a quite busy club band. The band got a replacement, but some time later they couldn't get in touch with him for a gig and they asked me to dep, which I did. Subsequently they found that he'd died.

So he never achieved nirvana?

I'm looking to get a reasonable approximation to the Stingray sound from a Ray5. I'm installing a Musikding classic bass preamp which is the 2EQ Musicman circuit (same as the Retrovibe Stinger). Being curious, I checked out the resistance of the Ray5 pickup, and it's 7k or so. This made me wonder if there was a pickup which would match the circuit a bit better and also not cost more than the bass. It so happens that I picked up a Squier Vintage Modified Modified Jazz with a Warman MM pickup in the bridge position which had Ray5 pole spacing, which I replaced with an Aguilar with better spacing for the poles, so I have a Warman MM pickup with the right spacing and two 7k coils which I could switch as series/parallel/single. So should I keep the original pickup or replace it with a switched Warman pickup? Alternatives involving spending more than £25 will not be countenanced.

Don't forget, in a double blind test you could be getting the placebo cake.

At one point I was in a couple of bands, very different, both of which I enjoyed, but one was quite busy and it was very difficult to find slots for gigs with the other band, so I told the other band I felt I couldn't commit properly to it and I didn't want to let them down, so I was leaving. All very amicable.

I've had excellent cables from custom-lynx on Ebay. kenable_ltd on Ebay also do a wide range of cables at assorted quality levels - I've always gone for the higher quality ones and not been disappointed, and it's where I get my phono and 3.5mm jack leads. I also make my own (Van Damme cable and Neutrik/Rean connectors).

I've had several Lekato and M-Vave products (they seem to be the same company under two badges, and there's an M-Vave ANNBlack Box that bears a distinct resemblance to this) and they've all been good.

After charging up, I've done a short test. Same audio quality as the Lekato, and indeed the transmitters and receivers will cross-connect if set to the appropriate channels. For under £30, an absolute bargain.

Have just arrived - that was quick. Externally identical to the Lekato WS-90, just charging them up now. Will report further in a bit.

Or Focus.

Arrived an hour ago, so just four days from order to delivery. It's a bit short on power to do Wembley stadium, but should add a bit of je ne sais quoi to the average pub gig. Definitely worth a tenner.

Both seem perfectly rational to me.

I did that on Saturday (as ususal). The landlord gave me a free pint.

And there's a thread specially for that too, isn't there?

I thought I'd get a better photo of the rig at last night's gig as it was a bit less cramped. Lekato wireless dongles are visible on top of the amp and the cab.

Last night was at the pub closest to my house - the Gamecock in Birchmoor, about a ten minute walk over the M42 footbridge (but about a five minute drive as you have to go the long way round). We got a whole room with a goodly amount of space but not a very big audience - scraped into double figures. However, they were very very enthusiastic and the landlord wants us back, and a farmer who was there said he'd like to get us in to play in his barn.

Yes. Drums weren't bad, our drummer is quite restrained. And our front man is guitar and vocals - originally we were supposed to be a five-piece with him just doing vocals, but the other other guitarist was crap and never learnt any songs so we had to get rid of him and Dean went back to playing guitar too. Just as well, we'd never have fitted five of us in there.