Stub Mandrel

There's plenty of real-world proof that to be a brilliant bass player you don't have to use one technique or the other. But it does pay to think about your technique and try and improve it, which is what you are doing by videoing yourself. Right hand You say you are mostly using the index finger? Didn't do James Jamerson any harm! I built up my right hand technique by plucking the edge of my steering wheel while I was driving! Just do it steadily and build up speed and consistency. Then move on to doing triplets with three fingers and discover how easy it is to do a Billy Sheehan trill on the G-string. Left hand I started bass by being lent a Precision for a month on the condition that I played it one-finger-per-fret! Whether you are happy doing so at the far end of the fretboard really depends on how big your hands are and if you have a short scale bass. I have long fingers (I can do an octave +1 on the piano) so I generally play 1 per fret. But in the real world I find some music is easier to play with 1-2-3 fingers and some with 4. Chiefly because the little finger is harder to control for bends and can lack power for hammer-ons. The little fella doesn't like doing lots of slides either. I can't imagine playing Crazy Little Thing Called love with 3 fingers, but for Song of A Baker my pinkie doesn't get used once! What I NEVER do is the 1-2-4 double bass technique of doubling up the ring and little fingers. Perhaps because I started on guitar but also I can't see why you wouldn't just use your ring finger and keep things simple - this isn't double bass where you need two fingers to have the strength to fret a note cleanly.

My first amp was a 50W Sound City combo and boy did it 'sound sh1tty'.

That's a brilliant show and demonstrates just what a talented bassist she is 🙂

The ACA pedals have a dropper resistor on the ground side of the power supply. Daisy chaining bypasses this as long as you are using a non-ACA pedal. Or you can (reversibly) modify the pedal: http://www.stubmandrel.co.uk/14-music/171-boss-hm-2-pedal-9-volt-psu-conversion

P.S. Yes it does sound amazing now 🙂

I reckon I've added some Genuine mojo to my Ibanez AS53 (sorry - 6 strings...) Before: After, with luminous green 80s DiMarzio Humbucker (originally fitted to my brother's first strat) and Gretsch bridge pickup removed from one of his guitars. The pickup cover on the DiMarzio and pickguard are 'modern'.

Darn it. Listed to a couple of versions and now I'm stuck with a 'Dark Star' earworm.

I have a dream... and that's to be in a band that does what Hawkwind did at the Isle of Wight festival - just turn up with a flatbed lorry, park near the entrance and play free music... I love the idea of a random 'pop up psychedelic band' .

eBay own Gumtree...

Horn is the smaller speaker. Wobbling might make nearby people feel nervous. If it looks like it might fall over if someone knocks against it, you should be nervous and something (like a sandbag) to add stability might be a good idea. Best to make sure it is placed where punters can't knock it. Boost is increasing, cutting is reducing. They probably aren't designed to be used with no speaker attached and I don't see the point... it is a PA not a preamp and any effect of adjusting the controls is meaningless unless in the context of how it sounds through the speaker.

I could... unfortunately I've ordered ordinary green.

I've got into a scrap with an amp designer on 'the other forum' who claimed my estimate that a 150W TE could put out a 400W transient. I just did a test with my oscillscope on the output. When driven to a square wave, it was happily putting a constant 350W plus into 8 ohms.

Well 'Dark Star' on it's own sorts one night... 🙂

Because his head would fall off. Oh, you mean on the bass...

That's news to me. You could call it my moment of Epiphony.

Bet they've just soldered the lead to the wrong tag on the jack. Curiusly tempting but I'll let common sense win, I don't need no djent...

Good lord! Ian Dury was Lionel Blair's evil twin!

I've got an Elites 'Put The Bass In' long sleeve T from the early 90s 🙂

Prototype 3D printed pedal case. It takes over 13 stone.

Cripes those are cheap! Are they as good as their basses? (OK not quite as cheap as I thought with VAT added, but still cheap.)

Sound good to me, put a set on Hohner BVa and they sound much better than whatever was one before, especially the B string. I've used elites for years.

I bet they were tuned properly, given their reliance on keyboards and JJ's classical training.

I use these, whether you call them cheap depends on what others you've been looking at! http://www.basscentre.com/elites-dbe-series/elites-double-ball-end-v.html

I have a few Boss pedals ancient HM2 & BEQ7 plus a TU3. While they are great, losing that stupid little screw on the front would be a 'good thing'.

I fitted proper knobs to my Laney, as a Trace rip-off it originally had little white 'nips'. Rather than fill gaps I fitted proper slider caps. Check out the controls, it's 100% a Trace clone on the outside. Inside it uses op-amp based circuitry, rather than pure transistor like the GP11. Also uses remote FET switches rather than having mechanical ones in the signal path. So strangely its technically more advanced but it doesn't sound as good! It would be a shame to spoil the TE, but I honestly think these knobs do look better: Dang, now I'm getting really BAD thoughts about bi-amping, but that would demand another 8R cab... room for a 15" perhaps?