Mottlefeeder

I checked the bass this morning and found part of my PVA had peeled away from the original finish. I pulled at the loose end and the whole lot came off, so I am almost back where I started, except that I now know more. The original tint appears to have gone into the wood, so by next job is to find out whether superglue will change or move the colour, or whether I can just start building up layers of clear. David

Sorry if I seem to be tiptoeing round nail varnish - it is solvent based, and I'm worried about what it might do to the original finish. David

The body wood has a nice grain and is heading towards mahogany colour, but the original finish has a tint to give the final walnut colour finish. The original finish is around 1mm thick, so I don't think I can just use an oil as a finish. That pointed me towards 'seal, tint and layer up to fill the crater', and thinking that a water-resistant PVA would do the trick. I'm now looking at superglue. I'll start by checking whether it bleaches out the existing tint, and if not then I'll layer it up to fill the crater. I'm trying to minimise the amount of sanding due to the risk of creating more damage to the surrounding area. David

The vocalist/guitarists in my band are quite happy with the pa speakers at the back, because our performance volume is about right as their monitor volume. However, sound disperses according to the square of the distance, so OK for them is too loud for the back line. Even wearing earplugs, enough mush gets through to make it difficult to hear the bass notes you are playing. Our compromise is one front -of-stage speaker and one back-of-stage speaker, and I make sure I am as far from the back one as I can get. David

I agree, and I'm now looking at completing the 'crater-filling' with something both hard and waterproof, like Gluboost if it does not react with the existing foundation of PVA. If it does, then I take out all the existing PVA and start again with a sealing layer of Gluboost followed by a tinted layer of Gluboost, then fill as necessary with clear Gluboost. David

Thanks for that, but as @Baloney Balderdash commented, it is water based, so it will never be totally water resistant. I'm now looking at options for crater filling with PVA, finishing with a waterproof layer on top. David

Viagra is diamond shaped...

Slightly off topic: You will pay over the odds for a speaker rated in-line jack socket and/or an in-line speakon socket just because they are not commonly available. If you are comfortable doing so, it would be cheaper to use readily available panel-mount jack sockets and speakon sockets and fit them into a small plastic box. David

I use blackboard paint - it is readily available from diy stores, water based so it is compatible with TuffCab, and it dries matt black. David

PVA is water based, so a water soluble colour tint should be compatible with it. Also, the glue is listed as being washable, which I assumed meant waterproof. That may have been my mistake. David

Put some glue on a piece of plywood yesterday evening. It seemes hard this morning so I started sanding it. It didn't smear or crumb so I thought I had a winner. Got as far as 1000 grade paper - still looking good. Then I wet the abrasive paper, and the dried glue became tacky. I'll leave it for another 24 hrs to rule out 'glue still not set', and if it goes tacky again, then I need to be looking for a different top layer. David

@Eric.C.Lapton - I think we differ on 'Mojo'. To me it means natural wear and minor dents on a loved and cared-for instrument, not ugly scars like this. YMMV. @BlueMoon - yes, it's a Hohner cricket bat in walnut satin stain. The colouring I used was transparent, so the grain still shows through, so the only outstanding issue is filling the hole, flatting and polishing. I accept that it will still be visible, but hopefully will look a lot better than it currently does. @Maude- I've just put on the next coat, so I can't answer that question. I've also put some glue on a bit of plywood to check how hard it sets, and whether I can sand it. I'll report back tomorrow. Thank you all for your input David

I parked the car on a slope, opened the boot and failed to catch the bass as it slid out. It landed on the thinnest bit of padding in the gig bag. The finish chipped down to bare wood, with one crater on the edge of the top/side, and the other on the edge of the top/side/base, The left hand crater is about 15mm long at the bottom. The craters have sloping edges, making the finish look deeper than it is (about 1mm). I made some enquiries and one luthier declined the job, and one quoted £175. Going to Allparts for Gluboost would cost £50-£70 for a range of colour additives and some glue, so I thought I'd look for some alternatives locally. Hobbycraft have a transparent PVA glue and some water based transparent colours so I thought I'd have a go, mixing the colours on a transparent film so that I could see them against the wood. I painted the damaged are with PVA to seal it, and left it to dry. Then I mixed some mid brown with some red and got a surprisingly good match. I mixed that with some glue and painted it on. This is how it looked when it dried. This is the crater with about 6 coats of PVA over the tinted coat. I'm getting there, but it is a slow process, partly limited by the risk of the glue dripping if I put it on too thickly. And finally, my question - If I changed horses in mid stream, would Gluboost complete the job faster, or would it also drip off the edge? David

Not quite on topic, but may help - I play a 5-string ABG and I find that an HPF gives me better control of feedback than the built-in notch filter. David

Any news on date options yet? David

I bought own-brand 5-pole XLR plugs from Studiospares and they did not fit Neutrik 5-pole sockets. Just sayin' David

I've been using my own version of this for many years - a rucksac strap adjustment buckle at the end of my bass strap. Its a lot cheaper. I put it on so I could shorten the strap when sitting down. David

It is also possible that for a small generator connected to a 13A distribution board for you to plug into, it may have no terminal to connect it to earth. Similarly, if your gig is under a gazebo in a tarmac carpark, or on a concrete slab, you will not be able to hammer an earth spike into the ground. Provided that the generator is local, and not feeding any other areas, it is a floating mains system, and will require two simultaneous faults to become dangerous - the first to earth it, and the second to give you a live part to touch, allowing current to flow through you to earth. 'Simple' circuits like that will not work with some plugtop RCDs since they will not switch on unless they detect a connection between neutral and earth, which is the norm in most houses. As others have said, a generator feeding multiple areas should be earthed, and/or may have been earthed at any of those areas, and therefore only needs one fault to allow current to flow through you to earth. That is where the RCD is helpful. David

Adding a C4 to the line up would be good. If I can help with the organising (from Warrington), or set up and tear down on the day, then yes I'm volunteering. David

I'm not part of the organising committee, but I'd like to hear both of those. David

I'd be interested in a shoot-out between micro cabs. I have my even Briefer Case twin 5s and others have Fane or Faital based 6s, or PJB 4s. Any one else interested? David

I've had trigger finger in my fretting hand fourth finger and in my plucking hand third finger. Cotisone injections helped for a while, but it was the minor op that fixed them. In through the palm, sort the tendon, keep it still for a few days, and light duties for a few weeks. Sorted. David

I may be burned at the stake for this, but I prefer IEMs with less bass, and I turn down the bass on my monitor mixer. I find I can hear my bass notes with more clarity without that bottom octave or so. I'm using a cheap mixer with 3-band eq to approximate to the profile of my hearing aids, and I feed that through a passive belt-mounted volume control to a pair of Shure SE215s. I take a feed from the desk (acoustic guitars and vocals), a feed from my bass amp, and a stage ambience mic to pick up drums and band comments. David

Most of the PJB briefcases I have seen work from mains or a 12v 7Ahr lead acid battery, not a laptop battery, but I think one of the newer combos does use a laptop battery. Depending in the OP's DIY skills, a brick sized 12 v battery and a car audio booster amplifier can be used with existing speakers, and is sensitive enough that you don't need a preamp or booster with an active bass. The item on the left is a 150w into 4 ohms when bridged, class AB amplifier, and lasts over an hour with the battery shown. The item on the right is a class D amplifier of similar power. David

The instruction book says one speaker jack and one headphone jack, which mutes the speaker jack. My interpretation of the handbook is that they allow you to add extra speakers, but only in series with the one supplied. David