Stub Mandrel

Silly question... Should I bring an amp? If so a big one or a little one? On the one hand I imagine its a PITA for everyone to be queuing up to plug in. On the other a hall with fifteen people all playing different things at max volume might not be a good idea either...

Interesting reading this, as I'm suffering a fair bit of 'imposter syndrome' at the moment! Personally, I don't think I'm particularly good. I certainly can't keep up with the sort of clips/examples that get held up as skilled bass playing. That said, the majority of the songs I hear on the radio are probably within my reach. I read another thread that said how your fingers turn into rubber in guitar shops - that's me! I do have a few skills. If I have a melody in my head I can usually play it, if I know a song already once I have sussed the key I can usually bodge some sort of basic accompaniment. I do take time learning new songs, but when I was in bands I learned some pretty complex (if not fast) basslines and was able to perform them to everyone's satisfaction and the very occasional compliment. I'd like to think there are two measures of your skill. One is How technically proficient are you? The other is how well does your playing fit in with your band? I guess I score low on the first, but I think I did well on the second - at least for my first and third bands; the second band got a bit fed up of my walking lines.

And I'm sure that when Ian Gillan sang 'I became a cunning linguist, a master of many tongues' he wasn't referring to his mastery of Mandarin, Swahili and Iroquois. 🙂

<falls on sword> Gah! I took square root not square. I blame microsoft calculator....

What would be cool would be a partial capo for the low string allowing you to select a drone note to suit. You could even set you 5-string bass up like a 5-string banjo! <edit> It looks like they used to exist! http://www.woodieshanger.com/shop/woodies-g-band-single-string-partial-capo/

Exposed cores can mess with intonation. Both sets of double ball end strings here are are full wrap at the nut end but go down to single wrap at the bridge end on the E and B. This can be compensated for by adjusting the intonation. If the single wrap end was fitted at the nut end, it would spoil the intonation between open and first fret. Just a thought has anyone, anywhere, ever fitted a new set of strings to a piano? I'm sure our piano's strings pre-date the invention of the keyboard...

That's interesting. All things being equal, the frequency is proportional to density per unit length (proportional to cross sectional area). Now the 135 might have less 'airspace' in it making it denser or more likely the construction also affects it in other ways. Looking at google, most sources only parrot that frequency is proportional to tension and density/unit. A few add that the material and temperature matter, and none mention construction (which must have some effect). Speed of propagation of waves is also affected by stiffness. Although changing cosntruction won't affect the young's modulus differences in the ratio between core diameter and wrap diameter (and wrap pretension) are likely to affect stiffness. Presumably the 135 is less stiff so it needs a bit more tension to compensate for this?

Funny, discussing my upcoming activities this morning my daughter said why not suggest a reggae song - everyone likes reggae and the basslines should be easy (she said that not me!) It reminded me how many years ago I saw Steel Pulse; all the way through the bass player drove it along with solid, straightforward rhythmic lines. Then a couple of songs from the end he got a solo and went right off the scale. So don't underestimate reggae bass players!

Going from 34" to 35" increases the tension by 2.9% (direct proportional relationship). Going from 135 to 145 increases the diameter by 7.5% so the mass per unit length (and therefore tension) increases by 3.6%. Going from 135 to 140 increases the diameter by 3.7%, so tension increases by 1.2%. So the (perhaps surprising) observation is that increasing standard scale length by 1" is equivalent to going up by nearer 2 than 1 string gauge in terms of tension. However, a 30" short-scale base is full 12% shorter than standard bass. Mine has a 95 instead of, say, a 105 standard set, only 5% less mass per unit length so net (very roughly) 7% less tension. Yet the bottom E doesn't sound crap or unbalanced. Tension can't be the whole story.

My B2 hasn't, but it got converted into a lefty and back again (including leg hook), got resprayed by my then guitarist and then I started adding things to it...

On the same planet as the biros and left socks? Makes me wonder if we should have a 'marmite' straplock thread? I've got one bass that came with the JD system (which I think puts a bit too much leverage on the buttons) I've got a set of Schaller clips which I used to use but removed the buttons from the guitar they were on. (I wonder if they are on the Maya?) Set of Stagg Schaller compatible still in the packet. To be honest, for some reason I don't like the idea of changing the buttons on a guitar...

Or more strictly, because you can hit a zombie with a Hohner headless and it won't go out of tune...

Pretty much proves my point! Yes, a semitone is a killer if it takes your voice out of your range or into, but Joe Punter just isn't going to notice.

It's so sad... I made a spreadsheet... now angsting about adding the banjo ukelele which hasn't got a strap...

For many years I managed with just one strap and swapped it areound -after all you can only use one at a time. I've just done a count and I now appear to have 10 guitar/bass straps, two mandolin (one's technically a ukelele) straps, one coming in the post and I suspect a few others lurking elsewhere. I realise I have actually put some effort into matching strap with instrument. I recently got two nice Fender straps courtesy of a BC member, so I downgraded the manky one on my Fender Performer to my Squier Tele and gave the new ones to the Performer and Squier Jag. Despite this I still feel sorely tempted to do some more upgrades. So fess up. How many instrument straps do you have 😈

Phosphor bronze trump all for rich, bright sounds, but unfortunately only suitable for acoustics...

Fascinates me. If you haven't got perfect pitch the punter is highly unlikely to be able to tell a song is dropped by a semitone or even a full tone. So why do it? Sabbath did it because of Tony Iommi's fingers and it's become de-rigeur for any dark/black/doom/mildly depressed metal band. You might have a singer with a desperately limited vocal range... I sometimes think its only done so people can flame other people who post tabs in standard tuning.

Walk Don't Run by the Pink Fairies, although I like the original too:

When I 'found' my Perfromer, it was unloved and abandoned in the corner of the 'practice studio'. I bought it for £80 (🤪) and spent ages getting the thick layer of dust-encrusted sticky yellow crud off. It can only have been five or six years old but looked ancient! It's now 33 and looks much younger than when I got it!

The worms may be cheap, but do you know what goes into the training?

What about a Jaguar? They have Jazz-like necks and hybrid pickups.

I did nearly spray a cheap strat body (eBay blank) with granite stone effect paint - that would have been a 'rock' guitar (groan). This one looks more like sandstone.

It was a bit of a disappointment, I was hoping for a lead of at least 15 points.

As played by Les Claymation...?

Takes all the advantages of a headless bass... and ignores them.