Stub Mandrel

This is the GP11 preamp. VR1 is 500K, R4 is 220K. C1 is 1.5uF, C2 is 0.47uF. R5 is 1M. C3 is 1000pF As gain is increased the resistive element of the input impedance drops considerably. Without modelling it I would expect this to mean the low-frequency gain will drop more than high frequency as the gain is increased. I don't know if this is the case, but the GP11 certainly has the reputation of changing the character of the sound as the gain is changed. It's certainly unusual to vary the gain in this way.

And effin' YouTube fill a fundraiser with ads! OTH aren't YT part of Google who are matching donations 2:1?

... and utterly mind-bogglingly brilliant!

Easy to duplicate, apparently. My brother bought a genuine '62 SG Junior that had been refinished to disguise where a Bigsby had been fitted. It had been expertly checked by cycling it in and out of a freezer. No other wear added, looks (and sounds) the dog's.

Excellent (I'm TLRT'd out...)

Cripes! Unless there is more than one Paul King who plays ridiculously competent rockabilly bass... I'd better drop him a PM!

The circuits is laid out so the frequency response changes with how the gain knob is set, which is different from most designs.

Isn't that what we all want?

That's the exception that proves the rule. It's a 5-10 mA fuse to stop electricity coming from amp to guitar rather than a fuse in the earth connection of an amp. Such a fuse could offer protection IF the earth of the amp was faulty/disconnected BUT and its a BIG BUT: It might stop the strings becoming live but it sure as hell ain't going to stop your guitar lead going live if the fault is coming from your amp so be prepared to be zapped when you unplug your lead.... Also, apparently the thing that kills those expensive fuses is plugging them into the switched side of a stomp box with a battery in... http://dthompson55.blogspot.com/2012/03/problem-with-taylor-guitars-fused.html (By the way it MIGHT have saved Moby the experience related but as his shock was non-lethal it's quite possible it was too small a current to even blow the Taylor fuse... 6-16mA is enough to give a painful shock and a 5-10mA fuse would probably need 10--20mA to fuse instantly).

People forget to to turn up the gain until the overload light comes on regularly during normal playing, then take it back one click. Makes a big difference to the sound.

Nice. Not that I am biased 🙂 I always wanted a Trace in the 80s, it's great to be able to have one.

Genuine natural wear (the paint cracked and flaked off, especially since I moved it indoors from the garage about six months ago). Most people would say bad relic job but it's over 40 years old gigged quite a lot by me from 87 to 96 but I think hardly any damage gained during that time. On the other hand, my bit of (unfinished) relicing* on a guitar over 30 years old but not played much and never gigged. *White scratches and chrome worn off pickup are genuine!

Curiously, that has exactly the Flea Bass wear pattern but isn't a Flea body (plus it's pinker...)

LOL! I was going to defend these on the grounds that by copying an actual roadworn bass they have a realistic pattern of wear. TBH you can easily spot the dings are made with just 2 or 3 tools and some of the stuff is in predictable patterns. I must admit I've 'randomised' the wear on mine a bit. But I bought it as the best vintage Jazz of that era I could afford, not because it was roadworn.

PLEASE NO!!! In a proper installation there will be a fuse in the right place. If an earth fuse fails there is then (a) no protection in the case of a fault and (b) no path for enough current to flow to blow the main fuse. Double fusing is not double protection as my Dad (a working lifetime in electrics) drummed into me. But a lethal electric shock is milliamps, it probably take 20 amps to blow a 13A fuse promptly - those fuses are to prevent fires under short conditions, not protect from electric shocks. This is also why if you go to a venue make sure there's a RCB for the outlets you use and test it - back in the day before this became a legal requirement I always used a stand alone one for my gear and now I have fitted an RCD to my extension lead. An RCD will trip on less than 40mA leakage - enough to prevent a lethal shock.

That is a very poor description. The ground does act as a return path for signals and shields from noise, The earth connection in the amp (unless it is double insulated and super safe) should be connected to the earth in the mains plug and if it becomes live due to a fault its function is to pass enough current to blow the main fuse. Grounding the guitar itself makes no great difference to this protection as modern amplifiers are constructed so that it is virtually impossible for the instrument connections to become live (sadly this wasn't the case in the old days when a few people got electrocuted by valve amps). That said, it is still important to have the guitar's metal parts connected back to earth, but mostly in case they get connected to something else that is live (ironically there have been cases of a microphone being live and a guitarist being killed as the become the path to earth via their guitar). But... as the shielding is inside the guitar it plays no practical role in safety and is there solely to reduce hum, or clicks when you pick up the guitar.

On the original, recorded live by the two bands, one of them was Geddy Lee.

I thought the lockdown would be an ideal opportunity to learn to read music. Then I thought nah.....

Although my favourite MW track is a subtle as a brick...

It could be described as intelligent rock music...

153 consecutive C-notes over the solo does require an odd mix of concentration and groove... and then if you don't hit that little run down everyone is going to notice 🙂

Learn Sharp Dressed Man* and you get Gimme All Your Lovin' free... *Not really much more involved than working out it starts on C...

Max Webster are certainly one of the best bands no-one has heard of. I have almost all their albums and love the stuff. To be so appreciated by Rush you know they have to be good*. Even if they are about as photogenic as the Enid...

It's a feast for old-school Sabbath fans. There's are explicit nods to some many past songs, (virtually?) all original line-up ones from single licks and guitar sounds up to Zeitgeist being an explicit companion piece to Planet Caravan. Not to mention starting with a pretty definite mission statement: 'Is this the end of the beginning? Or the beginning of the end?' and closing with an exact mirror of the opening of Black Sabbath. An absolute masterpiece of an album that sucked me in on first listening because of its combination of utter familiarity with completely new arrangements. Brad Wilkes captured poor old Bill Ward's feel as well - details like keeping the beat on the bell of a crash cymbal.

Damn. I need a bigger stack...