Stub Mandrel

🤣

My Kay KT-2 six string camo with dead flatwounds fitted in 1979. Only ever used roundwounds since... (tip for flatwound users, have you considered using the tone controls 🙂 a much cheaper way of sucking all the character out of your sound)

OK. I'm amazed they haven't been mentioned but the definitive Christmas songs are Merry Xmas Everybody and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday. Trivia time, the ISO9000 consultant for a landscape consultancy I was a NED for, John Heath, lived opposite Roy Wood's mum when he was a kid and was one of the school choir on I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day (he doesn't get royalties). But my favourite Christmas song is one of Jethro Tull's ample canon - first appeared in the wild on Dave Pegg's Cocktail Cowboy Goes it Alone, but there's also a version on the reissue version of Broadsword and the Beast: Through long December nights we talk in words of rain or snow While you, through chattering teeth, reply and curse us as you go. Why not spare a thought this day for those who have no flame To warm their bones at Christmas time? Say Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow.

The most unlikely choice of Christmas song ever - mentioning Christmas does not a Christmas song make!

Just out of curiosity, how on earth do you retrofit fretboard lights?

I'm quite happy with it, one of our guitarists is keen to get one as well. Our new practice room is at least 15m long, so I was able to get a decent idea of what we sound like. I haven't found a latency problem so I suspect @Maude or his/her setup may be more sensitive than I am to latency...

Dear God... the string spacing is uneven in different ways at each end of the bass... You have to wonder what other, unseen horrors there are other examples with similar 'quirks'. And look at that neat pickup rout and carefully applied varnish: At least this one has even string spacing, even with the unique intonation and failure to line up with the laminations... I suspect the frets have been spaced 'by eye' (or perhaps it's just intonation?) Ouch..

The colours all look dark and a bit desaturated, I think the issue is with the photo's colour balance, is this better?

And channelling that Ed Sheeran look too 🙂

Hah! I'll photograph it tomorrow 🙂

I've bought a couple of strumsticks as Christmas presents for my brothers, I won't post pics yet just in case (highly unlikely) they see them! Bough them of Tim Blackwood https://www.facebook.com/239545106941773/posts/handmade-madeinstoke-strumstick-dulcimer-madebytimb-i-can-make-these-to-order-st/239556086940675/ He makes them in a studio in Stoke on Trent. Both tuned DAD, one is like a dulcimer for my brother who (a) is fascinated by dulcimers and (b) uses music in his work with people with various learning/social issues. An instrument you can't play out of tune is ideal! The other one is chromatic for my Guitar hero brother. Thing is, I've wrapped everything (is this record?) except the strumsticks as I keep picking them up. Sound is more like a banjo than anything else - I can just about manage a rough version of 'Duelling Banjos' and the Bonny Black Hare (and Thunder...)🙂 Fanstastic fun, I want one of my own... and a bass version.

I haven't made it yet... Actually I measure up and there's JUST enough room for an Eminence Alpha 10 instead of the four small speakers and the volume will be an almost ideal 11.8 litres, not huge response below 100Hz, but...

This is interesting to me... I have a a big TE combo, and 150W Laney head plus some hefty cabs (1x15, two 2x12), then my tidgy Orange Crush. It looks like I will be doing some small venue/low volume gigs with acoustic guitar and singer, but even for a cafe bar session I don't think teh Orange will be up to it. The laney plus a 2x12 is my only realistic option at the moment. But... I have a 'mini' 50W amp I made with 4 x 4" speakers that sounds good (and loud) through a 2x12. You have me thinking I could rehouse it in a small cab with a decent 10" speaker (or just saw off the top of the mini-amp and make a stand alone 10" cab). I certainly don't need thumping low-end to compete with an acoustic guitar or a keyboard (on piano or electric piano setting). Alternative is go through the PA but I have no idea what we will be using for one yet.

That was off my radar! Richard and Linda on the same album in 2018, whatever next! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_(Thompson_album)

Does it weigh more than 7.5lbs?

Does the world need a Basschat T-shirt? eBay/Amazon are full of smug t-shirts, but we need something a bit more obscure... And if so, what should it say on it? "Drums stop ... Bass Solo" "Have YOU seen my Jama?"

All four of them, by the look of it - Rickenbacker eat your heart out....

Is it mono or polyphonic? I've got a Voodoo Octave fuzz (which doesn't give you the octave without fuzz) as well as the XVI which is a way of doing it for just over £100 (£70 for XVI, £32 +P&P for Voodoo Octave) that gives you polyphony with +/- 1octave and the fuzz octave but takes more room.

Well this is certainly weird. Not convinced its wonderful (or suitable for beginners...) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Factory-Custom-17-Strings-Electric-Bass-Guitar-Rosewood-Fingerboard-no-Frets-Inl/202814579937 (I suspect this was made to demonstrate the factory's custom capabilities rather than as a serious instrument?)

Does anyone know the spec of the nickel plated strings that are shipped with the fender Flea bass? The 'played in' tone is still nice and rich so they seem a good choice to stick with. <Edit> I'll answer my own question: Fender 7250M Super 7250s NPS string set medium

You know your problem... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnsoRheU_v8

Whoop de doo! Rehearsal this morning... set up the XVI with max modulation and through a delay then started playing slow notes to do the intro for Club Foot. I scraped my nails don the strings near the bridge to get some weird mechanical clanging and huge grin spread across our guitarists face. It isn't spot on, but it's enough in the spirit of it. And what an ace song for a bass player - I get the intro, the driving riff AND the solo 🙂

Even so... can you show me a link to a heaterless preamp valve? (I am willing to believe it if I see it!) 🙂