Huge Hands

I gave up on iTunes years ago after it kept randomly deleting my ripped albums (my own purchased CDs, not dodgy copying). After I rebuilt the library a few times I couldn't be bothered any more. I remember hearing a few others had the same issue too. I'm sure it is better now but it sowed a (probably out of proportion) dislike of Apple products in me ever since.

If you had have plugged in your tester, it may have shown a fault, or it may not. In large venues the sockets can often be wired to different distribution boards or even electrical phases, so you can end up with all sorts of ground loops or weird issues. You could have even been plugging into a lighting dimmer circuit if some in-house techy type had rewired it so! Sounds like you did the perfect work around to me, and glad your kit seems to have come out of it unscathed!

Rather than looking for band things, there may be courses out there for your instrument of choice? I know a drummer I play with recently did a couple of drum workshop type things organised by Steve White (ex Paul Weller/Style Council). I don't think they gig, but they get to sit and practice together over a few days, and learn from some guest pros. The drummer I know is in his 50s, and from what I saw of his photos, the age range was nice and varied.

I made 2 orders at the end of last year. The first one was for 2 Harley Benton guitars (a bass for me and acoustic 6 string for my son - all under £200). That was made at the end of November, and if memory serves, turned up in 5 days. About 4 days later, I stupidly remembered I wanted some other stuff, so made an order of strings, stands, cables etc. That came to about £60. I ordered that on 4th Dec, the day before the guitars arrived. That one did not come until the week in between Christmas and New Year. If you believe Thomanns tracking system, it appears it was despatched quickly, but got stuck in Customs, so I presume each time you order you are at the mercy of how busy Customs are. I assumed mine had been due to the Christmas rush. Thomann eventually sent me an update a few working days before it arrived saying it had just been cleared by Customs and they were frustrated because it was making them look bad.

I like to think that my hands, whilst huge, are in proportion, and not just swelled up like his highnessessessesses appeared to be in the recent photo I saw.. Whilst my first wife was certainly no Diana, my second is a much better option than Camilla (in my own humble opinion of course, before I get done for treason.....) I also have normal sized lugs (at least I think I do).

I am on my second marriage, so have had 2 rings over the years. I always assumed they would be an issue due to my massive sausage fingers and having to have oversized rings specially made, but neither was ever an issue. I put that down to pure luck rather than anything to do with technique......

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but while recovering from severe covid in hospital in 2020 (or was it one of the later trips for related ailments? I can't remember - I digress) this Arena episode appeared on iPlayer. It seemed to start out as a music documentary about a convicted murderer who managed to make a funk album in prison in the 70s with the backing of a Jimi Hendrix associate (and later Stevie Wonder), then veered off into a study of a damaged con man! It might have been the drugs I was on at the time, but I was hooked on how bonkers his story was, and there was probably more not reported too. I just happened to look last night and it is still on there (saying it expires in 9 months time). I had another watch last night and enjoyed it again. I thought I would share as I think some of my fellow Basschatters would appreciate it too, if they haven't come across it before. I don't know if this link will work - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000jb6v/arena-the-changin-times-of-ike-white Last time I also found the tracks from his album are on Spotify.

I recorded it and flicked through most of it yesterday on FFWD. I have often defended LWJH and Hootenanny as I worry that if it was stopped, we would lose another live music TV show. However, I did struggle with that episode and agree it is all feeling dated. . I struggle to listen to Jools' boogie woogie over everything for very long, and just feel myself cringing whenever he tries to interview anyone. From what I could tell Paul Whitehouse and Vic Reeves, sorry, Jim Moir were well aware and taking the mickey out of him for it. I thought the Sugababe's band was very good, but that didn't save the show on its own. I used to be a huge fan of Joss Stone but felt her voice had changed a bit too much and having the song (the one I saw) played on DB that you could barely hear meant it was missing some of the funkyness. I also thought the "legends" on the show were all struggling with the vocals. I have never got Rod since he went all swing, and if it wasn't for one of his backing singers that was drawing my attention, I would have switched it straight off. To me, Gilson Lavis always feels like he is dragging/slightly behind the tempo, but I am sure he is 1 million times the musician I will ever be and I suppose could be playing to click while the rest of the band pushes, I don't know. To me, it never grooves right, but obviously just IMHO. I just hope they can ressurect/update the two shows in some format so we continue with live music on TV. I think for me it would need a new presenter and a ban on boogie woogie jamming, but I think as it is Mr Holland's show and likely produced by his own company, that is doubtful! I guess if it was my show I would want to keep it going for as long as possible, and join in with bands as much as I could, so a massive hypocrite here!

I should also add that the thinner gauge thing may be psychological due to there being no fat B string sitting there. We'll see. Also to @machinehead's earlier post - I think this feels like one of the lightest basses I personally now own, or perhaps have ever owned. I have my old JV jazz packed in a hard case in the loft, maybe I will have to get that out an compare, but all my 5 strings are much heavier.

Ok - so I've had mine a few days now.....Love it! So far I have filed down some of the jaggy fret edges (not bad, just being picky) and the rather square and more jagged feeling corners on the nut which was bugging me the most. Have put some cheap Thomann flats on it which sound good but feel a thinner gauge to my LaBella flats I am used to. I also lowered the action a little. No fret buzz so far. Loving the sound I am getting out of it. I just keep looking at it and wish it had 5 strings. Maybe one day I will buy a 5 string neck and try widening the neck pocket. Maybe I will also wake up and remember I am s**t at DIY and will ruin it if I try something like that..... As a side note, I am also massively impressed with the quality of the HB acoustic g****r we bought our son. He seems to like it too!

Ideally, everything should be on the +1 and +1. so you don't have to worry about which way round you plug your cables, and you can effectively ignore +2 and -2. The Speakon (I believe) was originally designed to allow for cabs being supplied with separately amplified mids and lows, or highs and lows etc, so had 2 sets of connections (4 in total) . I would assume, looking at the board layout for +2 and -2, that the two sets of +1 and -1 are also connected internally on another layer of the PCB. If not, you could do this at the terminal connector point? If the 1- and 2- are connected, this is probably to give a common ground to both channels. EDITED - to improve my English on the first attempt!

We're giving our son a g****r for Christmas, does that count? If it helps, I just "had" to get a finish matching bass to go with it, so I am giving myself a present of a bass.......

Whoops - just realised I posted the elves comment in another thread - I have been told if I touch the new bass before Christmas Day, all of Santa's elves will die and it will be my fault....

Ashtrays are something I'm thinking about for mine, when I eventually get to have it. 13 days and counting.....no elves have died yet.....

I used to be exclusively LaBella Deep Talkin' on my basses, but the more time I spent on here and falling into the trap of buying more basses to mod and play about with, I couldn't justify the cost of more sets, especially as the price kept going up and up. I bought a set of Detroit flats for my last 5-string Harley Benton I bought I and they have been fine and would happily buy more. However, I have just bought myself another HB (4 string PB-50) for Christmas, and this time have taken a punt on a set of their/Thomann's new mega cheap flats for it. I also bought a 5 string set to try on one of my other basses. I have been told all the elves will die if I touch any of it before Christmas day, so I'm afraid can't report on how they are at the moment....

I was obsessed with drumming as a kid, and used to annoy my family by tapping on anything I could - ie the dinner table with cutlery, chair arms etc. At 11, my parents said they would get me a drum kit if I took it up at school. Our school only had a brass band, and after realising there were about 7 drummers and I would never get a shot, I opted for trombone. However, over the years I would be playing offbeat melody stuff on the trombone, but really listening to (and wanting to play) the bassy stuff the tubas were playing (bass trombone wasn't an option at my school). As an aside, my parents kindly did still get me a drum kit, and outside of school, I became a drummer. However, at that age, in most bands I got to play in the bass player was the most rubbish guitarist "demoted" to bass. However, I was listening to lots of Acid Jazz and funk stuff, and wanted to be playing with bass players like that. I was also feeling I was reaching a plateau in my drumming skills, and although people were saying I was a good drummer, I couldn't get my feet around some of the clever things I wanted to play. Around this time, I watched the Beatles Magical Mystery tour film, and was fascinated by the I am The Walrus video in the middle of it. When Paul slides down and comes in after Ringo's fill - it got me every time. In truth though, it was thinking that Paul looked so much cooler, and that if I played bass like him, I was likely to get so many more girls than as a drummer that gave me the kickstart to start playing bass myself. It is now around 30 years later and I have come to realise I didn't pull any girls on either bass or drums.......

I went for the sunburst. I don't know why, but I just can't stomach red guitars, maybe it's an unconscious aversion to The Shadows thing. I don't remember there being any other colour options at the moment. I don't like relic'd guitars normally, but I have seen fakers before with a white over sunburst and quite like that, so we'll see if I fancy getting some emulsion and a belt sander out.... Having said that, I reckon you'll ask me in a few years and it will still be exactly the same as it came out the box, but we can dream....!

Santa DHL has just delivered mine ready for Christmas day. Had a quick look in the box and it seems to be all there. I have always wanted an old Tele style P but mainly play 5 strings and there are not many options for one of these in a 5 out there unless you go custom, which I can't justify spending out on. This was really cheap and should scratch my itch for a while and might even get me back into playing 4s more often. Now then.....I need to get a copy from someone with the template to cut the headstock to shape at a later date.,....anyone?

I met and worked on a couple of his gigs in the early 00s just before he died. I never got to speak to him personally, but his tour manager was a character. He always told us to keep drinks away from the stage as Edwin was staunchly against alcohol and would walk off stage if he saw any. On one gig a load of staff got up and started dancing on stage with him - me and the tour manager had to run around and quickly grab their beers off them! I also remember Edwin refusing to have vocal monitors, unlike his percussionist who wanted all percussion mics in his wedge and would take us an age during soundcheck setting up, trying to stop the big congas resonating and feeding back at the high volumes he wanted!

I seem to remember Edwin Starr was part of Norman Whitfield's producing stable, so assume this is probably correct - early stuff would have been Motown guys (i.e. Bob) and then I once read that later the band that became Rose Royce were originally put together to back Edwin on tour and in studio, so would have been Lequient "Duke" Jobe on his later stuff. I got to do some stage management and sound with Edwin on a few gigs in his final years as he lived in the UK then. He always had a really good band with him.

Does it have passive or active electronics? I had an active Cort years ago that used to do this after about 6 months of buying new from a shop. It turned out to be a bad solder joint on a pot casing that wasn't obvious to the eye but eventually broke off so was able to spot and repair with a soldering iron. Was totally reliable after that.

I did this very trick with a friend's band years ago when they asked me for some advice after they kept not getting re-booked for pub gigs due to the guitarist being face-meltingly loud. I turned up at their rehearsal and got the guitarist to put the amp in front of him on the tilt-back legs like a monitor wedge. After half a song, he kicked his amp and stormed off. "It sounds awful and is giving me a headache!" he raged. "Now you know how your audience feels" was my reply......... I understand he went out and bought a Blues junior the next day and gigged with that for years.

I had a similar issue with my setup last week - found I had taken the head out of the case and somehow spun the tube preamp gain up to full without noticing. Sound would be fine, then would fade to much lower volume, then cut out, then full power again, and then it would all happen again. Thought I had wrecked the input stage of my amp, but then after messing around found it was a dodgy jack lead in my signal chain. I only found it by starting with guitar straight into amp, then working backwards and plugging each device back up, test, add the next one, etc. I know you said you had swapped cables but I thought worth mentioning. I always thought jack leads would either work, be intermittent or not work, but over the years I have had a few that do this drop in signal to the amp=drop in output power. I assume it is my clumsy heavy feet standing on them and damaging the cores without fully breaking them..

As a big Beatles fan, I thought the song was good, but I do struggle with that Jeff Lynne production sound they keep on with that makes this and Free As A Bird sound like a Travelling Wilbury's record. I think it's the "big wet fish on plastic oil drum" drum sound he seems to love. Maybe they used Bev Bevan kit samples, but I don't like it. Only my opinion, of course.....

Pete Ray Biggin is fantastic. I first met him in the early noughties when I was a sound engineer and he was about 19 playing with Jimmy James (and the Vagabonds). As a drummer myself, I instantly snapped my metaphorical sticks over my knee the first time I heard him play as I was simultaneously amazed at him and disgusted at how much better he was than anything I would ever be able to play - he was that good! He stopped coming to gigs with them and I was told he had left to join Incognito for a while. I have since seen videos of him doing drum workshops with a giant kit but back then he would borrow the house drummer's kit with just top and floor tom. It wasn't particularly his fills that were amazing (although they were) - it was just his feel and groove that were top notch and on another level that I could hear (no pun intended).