Norris

There are cheaper and simpler systems than the one I'm using. The main thing for me is that I'm playing bass, so need something that runs itself while I'm doing so. Also I'm a computer programmer by trade so am not phased by some technical details, and I wanted something that could control any light I throw at it. It's a solution that suits me but may not suit everyone Edit: Dad3353's suggestion of a more simple foot controller might be more suited to your needs. Have a read up of what they can do

It's been a few years since I bought my kit so there will probably be stuff that is much easier to set up now. I went over to DMX mainly to keep the lights synchronised. The controller is not the cheapest either as I wanted something that was versatile and would last a while. In fact I've replaced the first set of lights I had with much better ones but am still using the same controller, which will handle most lights. https://www.thomann.co.uk/stairville_dmxmaster_i.htm The thing is that it will take time to set things up. You'll need the manuals that came with your lights because you'll not only need to put them into DMX mode, but also set a base address for each one. This will be via pressing buttons on more modern lights, or setting tiny little DIP switches on older ones. For each light you'll need to set the colour's red, green and blue (and perhaps white) levels - for every step in the sequence. A notepad will be handy. Once you've set it all up though it's very easy to operate. The controller has buttons to select the colour sequence, whether it's time or music switched, and a couple of sliders to control the speed and cross-fade duration. And of course a blackout button. The one thing it lacks is the ability to dim the lights - the brightness is set to how you programmed the colours. In our setup I have a pair of 4-way RGBA lights, so that's 8 lights to set up per sequence step. I've set up 3 or 4 sequences, one of which is a dim single colour wash to light the stage between sets. I also have a couple of "derby" lights that are not DMX controlled, they just do their own thing. It's also worth investing in some decent DMX leads (they are different spec to instrument cables, even though they use the same plugs!) and a terminator plug. Hope that helps. It will be an investment in both time and money to set up, but easy to use.

Kudos for the Ric, but a serious no on the tuner wart And a definite no on the switch in the background (Extreme closeup to protect the innocent)

I don't know exactly which Sterling model you have, but my Sterling Sub5 sounded very "meh". It was just about ok at home, but was quite indistinct and really didn't cut through in a band situation, even in our guitar/bass/drums trio. I then bought an active Sire PJ that sounded so much better, so put the Sterling up for sale on here. After a few weeks of bumping I eventually withdrew it. I was considering changing the pickup, but after doing a bit of reading found several people who said that the preamp was the weak link. So I bought a Stinger '77 preamp from Retrovibe. Oh my goodness - there was the missing Stingray tone! It transformed the bass into something usable. It wasn't that expensive and I considered it paid for itself in one gig. I've gigged it a few times now and it makes a nice contrast to the Sire. You never know, if you fancy a bit of tinkering, you might get a little bit closer to that sound that the bassist you love has https://retrovibe.co.uk/product/retrovibe-stinger-77-classic-mm-stingray-bass-eq-pre-amp-2-band-pre-eb-circuit/

The pickup will be connected via a coaxial cable tucked away somewhere. The outer sleeve of the coax will be connected to earth in the control cavity. You could take earth from the other end of the cable for shielding the pickup carrier Edit: Ah - I just noticed that the jack socket is in the movable pickup carrier. Oops

Interesting bridge - looks like a DB or cello bridge

This. Commonly known as "drop tuning", just tune the whole thing down a semitone. You really won't notice the difference when you are playing unless someone tries to play along with you while still tuned to concert pitch. Our band has done it for years because it makes it easier on the aging vocal chords. One day we must tell the drummer...

All instrument wood must be seasoned to make it stable enough to use. Otherwise it would be likely to warp over time. If wood were damp it's unlikely even a poly coating would stay on it for long. Some chunks of wood are simply more dense than others, even from the same species. Different growing conditions will affect the wood quite significantly - for instance swamp ash is quite slow growing, so is likely to be more dense, more stable and more resonant (although I don't really subscribe to the idea of tone woods). Also rock maple - a very stable wood suitable for making necks. I made a guitar body from a big chunk of African khaya - similar to mahogany. It was almost like balsa (which is actually a hardwood btw) in weight. It made a fantastic guitar (according to my guitarist) that was really light but sounded good. However another chunk of khaya is unlikely to have the same weight as the one I used though. In other words (and the tl;dr version), some guitars are just heavier than others 😂

Great photo. What bass is that?

I had to give mine a little dab of vaseline the other week to lubricate them. They started to produce a bit of black dust as I was prancing about and I could feel it tight and binding on the button as I played. The tiny dab of vaseline was ideal and will hopefully stop them wearing out

That's not good. There's no excuse for not advertising an event, as it costs nothing apart from time and effort

We've found that Facebook works as long as people follow you. To that end I created an A4 sheet with our band logo and a massive QR code to take people to our page. I then laminated it and it goes in front of the band at every gig. I make sure I create events a month or so in advance, and the guitarist does an amusing "call to action" post with photo a day or two before. It seems to work. The photo is a must, because text-only posts just disappear into the ether I don't use Facebook on a personal level because I hate it, nor any other socials

Anyway, yes, we had a gig yesterday and despite polishing my DMs earlier in the day I didn't take a photo of them. In fact I didn't take any worth posting. A new venue for us in Nuneaton. This is probably the 10th place we've played in the town and it's all been organic, word of mouth - which is nice. We had a few in from another venue we play not far away, which was also nice. It was quite a large pub so we were glad of the extra people. Low ceiling and carpet made for a slightly different "on stage" sound to normal, suppressing the top end, but I've played my Rumble for long enough to trust that it will still project a good tone out to the audience. The drummer even removed some of the gaffer tape damping from his cowbell 😂 Anyway we went down well, and they did the usual trick of waiting until the last song to start dancing and then wanting us to carry on all night. At least we left them wanting more. That's our last one for a few weeks - our guitarist is off touring the UK and Germany with Martin Turner (ex Wishbone Ash) through March and April. We just have the odd gig or two in the gaps. I'm looking forward to some free weekends to crack on with the garden and my VW camper (1979 aircooled late bay).

We had a request for Money by Pink Floyd. The guitarist asked me what key it was in, because apparently I am the Floyd expert. I couldn't remember so said C or D. So he played it in A. I don't care, I have a 5er and just played it a string lower! 😂

Tonight was a private do - a 65th birthday party for a guy we've known for absolutely ages. His birthday isn't actually until April, but he rearranged the party around our availability. He's a really nice chap but it's always hard work at one of his events - backing him singing for half a dozen songs as well as doing our usual sets. The evening started with a chap playing some nice smooth, tasteful jazz/latin trumpet along to backing tracks through the tiniest little Bose combo. What a great little setup for dinner/dances or a bit of event background music. He was followed by a girl with acoustic guitar and a great voice doing some unaccompanied covers. It turned out she had got up to play guitar with our band in a pub aged 15 nearly 40 years ago! It was great to hear about the musical career she had made after that early encouragement (no, neither me nor the guitarist could remember the event, but she still did) Anyway as it was a party we dialled down the heavy rock & prog and dialled up the pop & funk. We had them dancing all night -win! The venue was a village hall geared up for the local am-dram society - quite a high stage, but a great sound The theme was beachwear, and they had hired a photographer... It looks like a scene from a Weekend at Bernie's - if you're old enough to remember that film 😂. They have also cropped out my burgundy suede Vans 😜

I once played at a place where the really small, but highly sensitive mic was set into the wall. It didn't trip after I'd stuffed a load of loo roll into the hole on top of it! Hate the things!

8 years. That's one of the longest zombie thread resurrections I've seen

I guess it all comes down to whether you try to sell it afterwards. Anything I've changed/upgraded generally ends up making it a better bass, therefore I like it, and don't sell it on Squier P-bass: SD-QP pickups, Hipshot drop-D tuner Sterling Sub5: Stinger preamp It made them better basses, but MY better basses

The lengths some people will go to, eh?!

There's another band called Cubic Nipple?! 😮

The speakers will likely be wired in parallel. It's a mono cab. You would need to rewire the cab to get the speakers to work in stereo, and then you wouldn't have much separation. I'm guessing you want to use your cab for one side and another cab for the other side? Edit: btw a DI box would be no good for the speaker-level signals from the amp output and you would damage it and possibly the amp too.

At Christmas I generated a few themed Teams backgrounds for online meetings. In one of them a guitar (being played by a Christmas elf) had two necks - at opposite ends of the body 😂

Scale length is 41.25" Hmmm. The tuners are pretty standard P bass style The string anchor may not work with the BT11 xtender

I think this is the more likely option - thanks