Jean-Luc Pickguard

Perhaps he was using the music stand for the last song on the Folsom Prison album, Greysone Chapel, which was written by Glen Sherley, an inmate at the prison who gave the song to Johnny via a preacher the night before the concert.

My candy apple red VM SS jag cost me £165 from Thomann soon after they first came out. I had to send back the first one I received as one of the neck screws was put in at a wonky angle and the end split could be seen through a split it made in the side of the neck heel.

The replacement is a good one - it is very light & resonant, and now has a few upgrades - EMG-X PJ pickups (& pots etc), vintage style jazz bass knobs, a hi-mass bridge & Thomastic TI-JF324 flatwounds. It was my main gigging bass with my last band and is a very comfy little instument to play. It looks like the neck was made from a quarter-sawn blank from the grain pattern and there's some flame in there as well which was an unexpected bonus. As far as I can see the spec of the instument included the pack is much the same apart from the sunburst finish - I doubt there would be any substsantial differences in build or hardware.

I had one made back in 2008 from chandler guitars (pickguard.us) in the US for my CIJ Mustang bass in aged white pearl celluloid to replace the underwhelming stock dark tort one. I requested the two holes for the 'tug bar'. It wasn't cheap but it came out absolutly perfect and on my bass within a month of ordering it. I think they have access to all of the fender shapes in a massive variety of colours/patterns and can do customised versions also.

The handsome family: Unseen
The Felice Brothers: Life in the Dark

I've never considered buying another gigbag to fit my short scales. My danelectro longhorn fits my telecaster guitar gigbag perfectly. If I'm taking my mustang, musicmaster or squier jag shortie out, I use the same standard Fender gigbag I use for my 34" basses. The extra space at the headstock end is not a big deal - there's just about room to stash a mid-rehearsal snack such as a pack of monster munch.

I bought an Eastwood Warren Ellis on ebay recently. I was very pleased to get it for £240 (+£15p/p).

Its the single pickup version in translucent cherry. I already play ukulele so I was always going to set it up like a tenor uke with low G. Coincidently the previous owner had already set it up with ukulele tuning but the setup was pretty bad with far too much tension on the strings. I worked out the string tensions and put on some plain strings for (G C E A) uke tuning: 008, 011, 014, 018, gave it a full set up and it is now absolutely perfect. I'm very impressed with the Eastwood build quality.

NS users - how often do you change your strings?

I have had my NS Design CR-5M for ten years and it still has the stock strings so it might be worth thinking about changing them. They seem OK at the moment, so maybe they'll last forever, and the cost of a replacement set of the stock ones is rather scary.

The GHS Crossover strings for NS EUB seem to be available for about £70 for a 5 string set if you shop around, with the D'addario contemporary 5 string set about double that amount.

I really like the pizz sound on the demo video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBnCxCmh-Mk

Anyone tried them?

If brandoni guitars in Wembley still have their fretless Precison necks, I'd recommend checking them out. They're not listed on their website, but its probably worth a call. I built a bitzer using one and it is on a par with a MIJ Fender - a nice bit of maple with an unlined ebony board. It looks very fendery including the headstock shape. I think it cost a shade over £100 but it was quite a while ago.

Thanks for all the replies. It looks like one of the new focusrite scarett devices would probably be a good choice. I'm planning to buy a new macbook pro when(/if) new skylake models are announced at the WWDC next week.

I had forgotten that my zoom B3 can act as an audio interface so I will see how that well that works before buying something new - I also have a behringer mini mixer with a phantom powered XLR input, so I'll also try rigging that up to go into the B3 to for mic recordings

I now have two fully working, but functionally useless USB audio interfaces as the manufacturers stopped providing updated drivers for newer operating systems.

The first is the Tascam US-122 which is only supported up to OSX v10.5 leopard
To replace this I bought a native instruments session I/O which is flaky on OSX 10.9 mavericks and according to my research will not work at all on the current El Capitain or future releases.

All I need is one guitar/bass input on a 1/4" jack and an XLR input with phantom power for a condenser mic.

I guess the reason for manufacturers to not release updated drivers for old products is they think that this will drive the owner to replace it with a newer model, however this is a flawed logic as what has happened in my case is that I will never buy anything made by tascam or native instruments again.

Are there any manufacturers who do care about releasing drivers for new operating systems?

I'm looking at the IK Multimedia irig duo/pro and focusrite scarlett interfaces- Does anyone have any comments about the longevity of support likely to be provided by these these or any other devices?

I went to the big annual music equipment exhibition at Olympia one year in the early 80s. After checking out lots of shiny basses and other instruments at the main show, I checked out the unofficial 'over the road show' in the upstairs room of the pub opposite where a few smaller companies, who presumably had a tighter budget than the ones exhibiting in Olympia, were showing off their kit. One of the exhibitors was a guitar company I'd never heard of before called G&L, and sitting by the guitars there was an old fella who looked like he was someone's grandpa who had come along for a day out. I later found out a little about G&L, and after seeing photos of the founders I realised it had been Leo sitting there.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Handsome family at the 100 club on 1st June & Penguin Cafe at the Barbican on 2nd July

Advice I wish I had been given: It is pointless being in a band with a drummer who plays too loud, can't groove, can't keep time, doesn't listen to what anyone else plays (or says), and thinks a weekly band rehearsal is all the practice that's ever needed.

When I played an Ashbory bass with sticky 'rubberband' strings I used unscented talc on my hands before playing. If the problem with your bass is caused by sweaty hands on the gloss finish it might be worth trying this - don't get it on your shoes or shirt though or people might think you're being paid too much.

If I didn't have one already, I'd spend the voucher on a very cool transparent Makala reproduction of a 50s maccaferri plastic ukulele:
[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kala-Makala-Waterman-Sopran-Ukulele/dp/B00TUMK0CM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454866150&sr=8-1&keywords=kala+waterman"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kala-Makala-Waterman-Sopran-Ukulele/dp/B00TUMK0CM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454866150&sr=8-1&keywords=kala+waterman[/url]

It plays & sounds much nicer than such a cheap uke has any right to.

The design process was probably similar to this

I've never enjoyed 'acoustic guitar style' bronze bass strings - new ones are far too zingy for my taste. I did try the Thomastik acoustic bass set on my tanglewood acoustic bass, but they went manky very quickly and made my hands feel stickly and smell weird. I put on a worn-in set of TI 324 flats from my mustang instead and much prefer the feel & sound (& not having weird smelling hands). Not as loud by an acoustic bass by is that important if it needs to be amped anyway?

It is probably a good idea to try a few different ones - both unplugged and through an amp, but if you like the tanglewood go for it. I have a Tanglewood Rosewood Reserve Acoustic bass & it is lovely. The only problem I have with it is that the preamp has tiny lettering on it so I can't read the labels on the various controls without my specs.

[quote name='hubrad' timestamp='1436115963' post='2815094']
Dunno really, seems practical to me. Just get a fretless - no zero fret either way!
[/quote]
I do have a fretless - a 'bitzer' precision I put together many years ago. The maple/ebony neck didn't come with a nut fitted so I made one by cutting/filing a 'synthetic ivory' chopstick.

Almost every new bass/guitar/ukulele I have bought, has had to have the nut adjusted before it was properly playable. One notable exception was the hohner B2A 'licensed by steinberger' cricket bat bass which I bought new in 1986. This has a zero fret, so the height of the nut does not need adjustment.

Just wondering why more instruments don't have a zero fret.

Is it because most of the popular brands traditionally don't have zero frets?
does it make the fabrication of the neck more hassle?
or is there likely to be some other reason?

Mine works well with my NS CR-5M electric upright, but I no longer own a 'proper' DB

Squier & other 'budget' instruments tend to have crappy cheapo pots that eventually go scratchy & sockets that lose their spring so I always swap them out for CTS & switchcraft* so they're less likely to fail during or just before a gig. A bent shaft on the original pot of a squier wouldn't worry me as it won't be staying on the bass for long.

* except my squier VM SS jag bass which has all EMG gubbins now.

I think a lot more people that this would affect would sign the [url="https://www.change.org/p/vince-cable-mp-uphold-the-vat-exemption-threshold-for-businesses-supplying-digital-products"]petition[/url] if they knew it would affect them, but anyone selling a few cost MP3s on their own web site - or ebooks, knitting patterns etc using WordPress with Easy Digital Downloads or any other self-hosted system is unlikely to have checked EU VAT regulation so will only find out about the changes and realise that this flustercluck applies to them if they come across something about it on a forum or social media.

The change in legislation is that from 1st January 2015 when you sell digital services such as mp3s, videos, ebooks, downloadable software in the EU etc the VAT that applies is that in the country of the buyer, not the seller.

The £81K threshold we enjoy here in the UK that means anyone selling their stuff perhaps as a sole trader as a side gig will now have to register for VAT in the UK and also register in every EU state they sell to or signup for called the Mini One Stop Shop service (MOSS) that helps them sort out the EU VAT. If you're selling downloads on your own site and someone in Germany buys a 99p MP3 you're stuffed unless you ignore the VAT aspect and risk an unlimited fine.

Rachel Andrew expains what's going on at [url="http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2014/10/13/the-horrible-implications-of-the-eu-vat-place-of-supply-change/"]http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/2014/10/13/the-horrible-implications-of-the-eu-vat-place-of-supply-change/[/url]

Isabel Zinaburg has started a petition to call for Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to intervene and uphold the existing VAT Exemption Threshold for businesses supplying digital products. Please sign it if you think the changes are a bad idea. [url="https://www.change.org/p/vince-cable-mp-uphold-the-vat-exemption-threshold-for-businesses-supplying-digital-products"]https://www.change.org/p/vince-cable-mp-uphold-the-vat-exemption-threshold-for-businesses-supplying-digital-products[/url]

You need to keep detailed records on each purchaser including a billing address and IP address and check that the geographical location matches before making the sale. The records need to be stored for up to eleven years and this may mean that businesses need to register with the Data Protection Commissioner.

HMRC held a twitter Q&A which is archived at: [url="http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/hm-revenue-customs-hmrc/blog_posts/eu-vat-changes-twitter-q-a-31555"]http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/hm-revenue-customs-hmrc/blog_posts/eu-vat-changes-twitter-q-a-31555[/url] I though a possible solution for me might be to block non-uk EU sales, however the Q&A flagged up that this may fall foul of anti-discriminatory laws.

This nonsense was brought in to stop companies charging 15% luxembourg VAT in countries where the VAT can be as high as 27%, but it is affecting many thousands of sole traders and small companies who can no longer sell on their own websites and will need to use a 3rd party site who will take care of all the VAT - like amazon.

The VATMOSS portal has been tested by four people and after completing thir assessment we have concluded the VAT Mini One Stop Shop service should not be given approval to be a live service on the HMRC portal: [url="https://gdsdata.blog.gov.uk/vat-mini-one-stop-shop-service-assessment/"]https://gdsdata.blog.gov.uk/vat-mini-one-stop-shop-service-assessment/[/url]

I had one for a while as a 'spare' amp. It had a decent tone and was loud enough for a rehearsal or small gig but had trouble keeping up when the drummer and two guitarists got a bit heavy-handed. I recall it being a lot heavier than I'd expect it to be for its size & the volume it pumped out.