Maude

I love the sound of my Yamaha Bex4 with D'Addario half rounds on it and I have an Aria STB PBass with flats and foam mute I paid £40 for, roll off the tone and it's pure Motown/Stax heaven.

And as for 'tribute food'. The last time I looked, every major supermarket up and down the country were selling their own tribute version of the original foods, Weetabix, Shreddies and many other breakfast cereals are particularly well catered for. Lidl even do the whole dressing up lookalike thing, with their version of McCoy's crisps, Muller yoghurts, etc. They seem to be doing rather well which is strange if nobody is buying it.

I like those sort of backstage ones that you didn't know were being taken, almost like seeing the workings of the band if that makes sense. Here's one of our mod band.

Don't go spraying anything. You cannot de-nib or polish satin lacquer as it will become glossy, so you will be stuck with an imperfect finish unless you really know what you're doing. What you need is '3M Prep and Blend'. It's used for prepping cars for paint and will leave you with a perfectly even, matte finish. But if used watered down and lightly it will just take the shine off to any level you require and you won't see any scratches. It's a bit like a cutting compound except that it will just matte the paint. Ebay and Amazon will sell it.

Depends on personal taste but I've always liked the look of the Aria FEB's. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=aria+feb&client=ms-android-tmobile-gb&prmd=vimn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2i9eVkfzaAhWJK8AKHWUIBI0Q_AUIEigC&biw=360&bih=512#imgrc=FjlSPQSEfFo92M: Gear4Music have them for £220. Not tried one (daren't) but Aria usually make decent budget gear. The Harley Benton ones are good as well, I have a fretted and fretless and they're both good.

Playing or viewing?

Spent a whole day underground supplying background music for some terrible Christmas fair. It was at Carnglaze Caverns which was an underground slate mine and an amazing place. One of the caverns (used by the Navy a long time ago as a rum store) is used as a music venue but is at a constant low temperature and very damp. Outside was below freezing so slowly throughout the day your body temperature just got lower and lower. It was only the beginnings of our acoustic band so wasn't a full on set up but still a good experience. No pictures of us but this is 'The Rum Store' with the stage right down at the far end. Then another picture from Google to show the stage area closer. There are further caverns the deeper you go including on with an underground lake where Echo and the Bunnymen took the shot for their Ocean Rain album cover. The boat is still down there but they wouldn't let us recreate the shot for our first album. Anyway, it took about the same amount of time as we were down there to warm up again

Are they big enough to put the guitarist in with the amp, and the have a little duct to pump the smoke machine in?

Also make sure the groove the pick up sits in hasn't got any rogue bits of wood in it.

Before you buy a new saddle pick up or anything try fiddle around with the existing one. I've had this issue on a few acoustics at the 'value' end of the market, one even had Fishman pre and pick up. Loosen strings and remove saddle. Lightly sand the saddle base flat with the fine sandpaper, emery cloth, whatever you've got on a sheet of glass to get it dead flat. Reassemble and try all string volumes. If not fixed try slipping a piece of paper or two under one end of the pick up strip, even in the middle. It's all about getting the same pressure across the pick up from all strings. The most trouble I've had from this problem is with uke basses as they have very low tension strings which the piezo strips don't seem to like. It might not fix it but it's free to try

A little off topic so I apologise, but what's the idea with the extended fingerboard under the E string? Is it meant as a thumbrest or just design? I'm curious

I've snapped two A strings in the last 18 months (both D'Addario Half Rounds). The last one before that was twenty years ago. I do have a particularly aggressive style and 18 months ago I joined a Mod band, playing a lot of The Who and The Jam isn't helping. I've had to make a conscious effect to reign it in but playing to decent sized, energetic crowds I kind of get carried away

No one ever seems to mention the Fender 9120 black tapewound. I have them on my fretted and fretless acoustics, fretless P and did have them on my Bex4 but swapped that for some half rounds as I like the higher tension. The Fender tapes really aren't muddy at all, quite bright like average rounds but with a really nice fundamental to them.

Quiet boys, I've got a bite! It was a joke, hence the smiley. I'm a big fan of Yamaha, my number two bass is my Bex4, absolutely amazing bass for very little money, and if I sold all my basses and had to choose one bass for life it would be a 2024x in vintage white.

Bollocks to all the Ibanez nonsense, buy a Yamaha instead, they're basically the same thing

These are a couple of ariel shots of Glastonbury Blue, definitely not good if you don't like crowds. The main 'Pyramid' stage. And yes, mega expensive compared to your Summerfest. Your ticket price wouldn't cover the booking fee for Glasto, last years was around the £240 mark (about 335 USD)

It's amazing how wrong this sentence becomes just by adding the word 'on' into it

That's pronounced 'Feen darr'

On the subject of the spelling of a word leading to the mispronounciation of the word. Whilst at primary school, a customary punishment handed out by us kids was a 'Chinese Burn'. Roll on ten years. Upon entering a pub for the first time, imagine my panic and anticipation in equal measures when my port drinking friend told me to go and ask the leggy barmaid for a couple of Cockburns.

I've seen all the 'big four' live at various points and Slayer live are indeed something to behold. Monstrous power

You're entitled to your opinion, but that's all it is

It was tongue firmly in cheek. Although I feel great hardship has always given rise to the best music, just one of those unfortunate things.

Hopefully a post-brexit, dying on its derrière Britain will spawn a generation of angry kids with something to say again.

Our youth are far too clued up on these matters and therefore their music is very straightlaced and safe. Music is so much better when it's written by a drug fuelled, chaotic anarchist with a chip on his or her shoulder.