Stub Mandrel

It used to be that the system was somewhat loaded in favour of establishing a small company instead of being self-employed. The ideabis to encourage entrepreneurs and grow the economy. Doing this and being VAT registered has enabled me to subcontract out work I would no otherwise have taken on. The income benefit of having a personal company instead of being self-employed was eroded so much under a succession of tory governments (reductions in dividend allowances and increase in dividend tax rates) the benefit is now so small that it is questionable if it's worth the effort. The way covid support was set up excluded single person companies and forced us into covid loans we are still paying off. Quite extraordinary for the 'party of smsll business'.

Only about 11 lined up between now and September and one venue has gone worryingly quiet. Most are at venues I like playing.

There's a product called evaporust that would do a wicked job on that bridge.

In the 80s all Boss bass pedals were brown.

It is cool! The dark one actually IS daphne blue!

Most hotel bookings allow you to cancel without penalty this far out.

I think it's compression rather than limiting, it's relatively unobtrusive, not harsh at all. Keep up the Trace Elliot tradition of 'they sound best when the gain light flashes' 🙂

There was a chap who in three years went from a nervous acoustic covers to writing songs with a band.

It kind of depends. The 'Blues Dragon' nughts lean towards a true jam... the Earl Haig 'open mic/jam session' leans towards the latter. Most of the local open mics are dominated by acoustic singer/ guitarist types but often get a backing if people are available. They can all be a lot of fun, this one was memorable:

Fascinating! I've just run around with my UV torch.. one weird thing, some 'white' walls look terrible under uv! The basses all look matt under uv! Mid-80s Maya with cracked off poly. Mid 80's sunburst Fender Performer turned daphne blue! 1950s mandolin showing clear wear Nitro finished snd slightly reliced kit I made during covid shows wear not visible to naked eye (only the bright bit is visible) 1960s Kay/Teisco doesn’t show many secrets!

There's the mighty Deard Zeppelin featuring Tortelvis.

If it's a private limited company the Directors own the shares, and they are not publicly traded.

This is the 'secret' of the Trace Elliot Elf, as you push the gain compression comes in giving you extra headroom by squishing that initial peak.

We do in rehearsals! But it's done in a let's get better way and we also share what we are struggling with. The drummer and I are working on Hysteria which is causing us headaches...

If she is willing to dish it out, then I would not be afraid to tell her what you've shared with us. The occasional mention of her more egregious errors would do no harm, especially if delivered with meticulous politeness and respect in a supportive manner "I could see you were having a few minor issues with that passage, have you considered...?"

I can't relate! I have quite a few basses. If I have two similar ones I do something to make them sound or feel different- fit mutes, or flatwound strings. I like swapping between neck widths and profiles, string spacings, 4 and 5 strings, headless and normal, cheap and not so cheap, passive and active, light and not so light, aggressive and mellow. Currently getting a huge kick out of my £70 Harley Benton kit bass with a Squier neck. Very light and sounds HUGE! Before that it was my Sire P10 getting all the attention, totally different bass! So no I don't fall outof love with basses, I'm polyamorous with them!

I still have my brown GE-7B from the 1980s.

Dividends should be to distribute profits... sadly if a company is large enough it seems they can be used to distribute borrowed income.

I occasionally get a novice sent my way to find a song I can play with them. Sometimes they've not played with a bass player before and it's great to see them be part of a 'band' for the first time.

Sound City 50W bass combo...

In the 90s plenty of people did pub/club gigs with something like a Carlsbro Cobra 90W combo. The rule of thumb was 2x guitarist amp power. Nowadays it's 5-10x.

One of my brothers goes to folk nights. When he lived in Scotland he went to one, a pair of girls turned up for the first time and impressed everyone with two songs. The crabby lady who ran it gave them a dressing down for singing two songs in the same key. Open mics round here vary, but are pretty laid back, people talk but it's bad form to be loud and disrespectful. Players vary from beginners to professionals and the odd one who ischard to listen to. What I find hardest are the guitarist/ singers who play with lots of 'feel' (i.e. have never been in a band and are incapable of sticking to a steady tempo even if accompanied by a drummer). At one it seems songs I know get performed then I get asked up and it's suddenly stuff I have no idea of... at the other I have a rep as a blues bassist and I think myself lucky to get anything not a 12 bar 🙂

Shouldn't it be an npn transistor in tat configuration. Is this basically a treble booster?

No longer, it seems Bax have gone bust.

A real jam is playing along to a song you've never heard before by ear 🙂