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Stub Mandrel

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Everything posted by Stub Mandrel

  1. Stub Mandrel
    What's voluntary about it? If anyone here can actually help me learn to sight read, I'll gladly accept their help.
  2. Stub Mandrel
    No, I'm just saying there are things you can't notate, but I would also observe there are various other ways to get what notation passes on; not least well-written tab, although it struggles with the same issues as notation. Any form of written music is like written poetry, it doesn't come to life until spoken, even if it's in your head.
  3. Stub Mandrel
    Rubbish! It's a well-proven fact that stickers add value to Kay guitars.
  4. Stub Mandrel
    As any amputee will tell you there's a big difference between the tools you have to use and what you can achieve with them. Written music is just one perspective on a piece of music. There's far far more to a performance than just a crude indication of note pitches, lengths and dynamics. With my pathetic work-it-out-one-note-at-a-time skills it's not difficult to see how totally inadequate a conventional score is for communicating, say, Led Zeppelin, songs - even supplemented by text annotations by Bonham and Page.
  5. Stub Mandrel
    Certainly true for the originals bands I've been in. The covers bands, we evolve our own treatment. This time round complicated by access to so many versions of the same song. Transcriptions can be wildly different let alone the fact that many songs have multiple versions. The main challenge for ANY song is not how to play it, it's agreeing how to end it!
  6. Stub Mandrel
    Mine are velroed, but batteries mean if I lose 9V I can just pull th power plugs out.
  7. Stub Mandrel
    At the end of '95 I was in an originals band that were pretty proficient, we just played locally but always went down well, and had a good, professional demo and distinctive songs. I changed top a much more demanding job, met my future wife and moved further away over the first few months of '96, and decided I had to put the band to one side, helped by a disastrous last practice where my amp sounded crap. Over a decade later I fixed the amp (just a broken joint on a smoothing capacitor!), but there were years when the only thing I played was an hour bashing on my acoustic. Life brings changes, and I started playing a bit more, and my duaghter started drum lessons, which meant regular sessions sitting in a music shop diddling with the guitars and deciding I ought to get an Epiphone electric. Then one day a courier arrived at the door. Inside the huge package was a guitar case and inside that was an immaculate but nicely worn Tokai SG - my brother had let me know he was sending em something, but not what! From there, my enthusiasm for playing grew slowly and steadily again and with encouragement I started to learn some stuff rather than just diddling the same riffs and runs. I started trying to play along to every song that came on Planet Rock. To my surprise I reliased my bass playing hadn't got worse, if anything my ear had got better and now there were tab sites to help me get the difficult bits. I realised I wanted to be in a band again, did a 'weekend warrior' event aimed at folks just like me. Had the good fortune to be matched with an excellent guitarist and drummer (in four bands, I've been blessed with four good drummers!) and behold it's happening again. And it's great 🙂 My one regret is that I now realise that I was actually a half-decent bass player back in the day, I'd always considered myself 'competent' and assumed people were being polite, what would my playing be like now if I had kept it up? So don't be afraid to take a break, but my advice is that 23 years is a bit too long.
  8. Stub Mandrel
    Fair call, my approach is new batteries that never get used in the critical pedals - compressor and a distortion.
  9. Stub Mandrel
    Yep they are like that. Does it not reduce volume (outside) as well?
  10. Stub Mandrel
    We walk hand in hand with horror, we ride side by side with death, we are the warriors at the end of time Over poisoned crystal deserts, where the ruined towers shout We march towards our dying scarlet sun. Death Death to life! Death! Death to time! We bring sweet destruction now to everything. In our mirrored flashing armour, in our secret, hideous helms, we are the Angels of your ruin. And we climb obsidian mountains, on our final, dreadful quest, Crossing lakes which cry with pain as we pass by. Death to all things living! Holy death will cleanse the world! Death, our standard! Death, our only joy. We are the Warriors at the end of time. Death to air and fire and water Death to light and earth and sound Death to anger, love and sadness Death to death... and time... and apace. On the dead horses our dead riders, Seek the last retreats of life. Life betrayed us and we slew it Corpses locked in battle, dancing at the End of Time Works for me 🤣
  11. Stub Mandrel
    Sneak a look in a Pirate Studio - they need to get good results on a budget. The one I use has foam on the walls, fabric covered, then a layer of plywood or chipboard with holes of many different sizes. Works pretty well.
  12. Stub Mandrel
    I tried using switching jack plugs. But my bass is an old dog, and you can't teach an old dog Neutrix.
  13. Stub Mandrel
    I've had to learn this - only a few minutes ago I had the realisation I've played it enough that I now enjoy it (like broccoli). And (like broccoli) I'm equally sure there's a point where it gets all to much! Ho hum, Use Somebody next...
  14. Stub Mandrel
    One thing about the Hohner design is that if the battery is flat you CAN switch to passive. Many basses don't let you do this. I've never been 100% convinced that a preamp inside the bass can actually do anything you can't do better with one outside it, except, perhaps, drive a VERY long jack lead.
  15. Stub Mandrel
    Get one of these and stop worrying:
  16. Stub Mandrel
    I found the music to 'If I Were a Carpenter' yesterday in a (looks round guiltily) Russ Shipton book. I'm inspired to gather some fellow musicians of similar stature to myself (6' 2"), use brown instruments and wear brown clothes to play the music of one of my favourite sixties bands. We'll call ourselves The Tall Faeces.
  17. Stub Mandrel
    To explain why, when you switch on an amplifier it will almost always make a click or pop as the capacitors charge up and the bias levels settle down. As it's not unknown for people to switch active in and out during a performance, this needs to be avoided. So... if the amp switches on when you plug in a jack, it is in 'standby' and the other switches are just re-routing the signal or changing parameters, less likely to make an unwanted click, pop or even thump.
  18. Stub Mandrel
    I used to go to the Bass Centre in Birmingham. Got this case there: And this fine long-sleeve T. My little girl is at University now!
  19. Stub Mandrel
    I like it, it's musical rather than just 'wankage'. Hmm. I've got a mate who looks just like Scott. But it isn't Scott.
  20. Stub Mandrel
    Truth is, with the lithium batteries, all I can do is try them out and see how long they last. My guess is that on the Hohner system there's an LED that probably uses 10mA which would flatten them in about three days on its own, but switched off (but still plugged in) the drain might be a few mA (guess) that would take a couple of weeks.
  21. Stub Mandrel
    Review what you want to achieve. Don't be afraid to take a break, but consider the reward of getting an album out and think about what the real barriers are. If you have great demos and access to resources, perhaps you just need to lose someone in the food chain and replace them? Or tell them 'shape up or ship out' which may be kinder or crueller depending on their sensitivities. P.S. Phil got that from Cream - Born Under a Bad Sign P.P.S. <googles> Who nabbed it from Albert King P.P.P.S Who cadged it off Lightning Slim (1954) according to Wikipedia! Sorry for the thread drift...
  22. Stub Mandrel
    That's true of anything in life. When you need to reach a level of proficiency to be able to identify your own faults, you are getting somewhere.
  23. Stub Mandrel
    Found these: Alkaline cells, typically ending around 6-7V: Comparison of various chemistries:
  24. Stub Mandrel
    No, it's a result of the chemistry. The (9v NIMH cells use 7 cells to give 8.4V as an approximation to 9V) The original zinc carbon cells had six nominal 1.5V cells, but they typically drop to about 6V before most applications give up.
  25. Stub Mandrel
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=9v+rechargeable+USB+PP3&_sacat=0&_sop=15 "Stable discharge Voltage from 8.45v down to 7v to supply power for device " 7V should be plenty for most applications.
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