nekomatic

Just a public service announcement that might be of interest to electronics constructors - I picked this crimp connector set up for seventeen quid from the middle of Lidl yesterday. The crimp pliers work better (IMHO) than the highly-rated Japanese ones that go for £40 plus and in addition to the JST-XH and Dupont type connectors in the set, also work perfectly for Molex KK connectors - so much so that I will probably be flogging my Japanese one off on eBay shortly and hopefully getting more back for it than this Lidl set has cost me!

2 hours ago, rwillett said:

I'm still unsure if horizontal and/or vertical bracing is needed here and also if wadding is needed. 

(a) possibly and (b) probably not, from my experience.

Bracing you can add if you feel panel vibration when you test it with a signal generator (e.g. phone app) - I put in a couple of diagonal braces from the rear to the side panels on mine.

I didn't use any wadding in mine and reckon it sounds great without, so I haven't bothered trying it with.

Happy constructing!

ps: I have one up on you, my mum actually used my tea tray for a bit.

On 11/07/2023 at 08:40, Phil Starr said:

There are some ingenious adaptations of the design including some clever bracing and a new handle all covered in the thread. 

Haha, I think 'ingenious' is stretching it a bit, but thanks!

I can report that the 1x8 fits nicely in a Stagg cajon case, with a little room spare for cables or what have you. Although you need to be OK with the risk that someone will think you own a cajon.

On 19/10/2025 at 13:55, kwmlondon said:

I should but I make more progress on the fretted and for a very long time that's been incredibly rewarding. When I'm doing my drills I usually feel the same way people do when they mediate. I tend to pick up the fretless after I've had a good couple of hours and I want to mess around, you know?

That's fair enough. It's just that it struck me it was the one thing you'd used the word 'fun' about, and if your practice as a whole is getting you down, maybe it's time to take a bit of the pressure off and let yourself have a little more fun.

30 minutes ago, kwmlondon said:

I have occassionally messed around with my fretless and it makes me giggle - it's like driving a car blindfolded! I sound SO bad but it's fun!

Sounds like you should do this a bit more often. 

On 16/10/2025 at 18:10, toneknob said:

Donnie McCaslin at Ronnie's. Treated myself to a fancy seat 

Back in the smoking days that was one of the non-fancy non-smoking areas, which is how a mate and I got to see Betty Carter from about that vantage point. Probably still a lifetime top ten gig. 

The Songs of Joni Mitchell project (again), this time featuring Kate Stables as well as founder members Jesca Hoop and Lail Arad. 
 

After that, Emma Jean Thackray at Band on the Wall, on the off chance she wins the Mercury and becomes stadiums only from that point on. 

With the usual disclaimer that I am not an electrician and if in doubt you should get the manufacturers advice etc, I’m pretty sure this will do it, or the equivalent part from any other supplier. 
 

In any case, 100 mA is approaching the smallest fuse current you can normally find, so it seems unlikely that it should actually be anything smaller. 

I read that as slow blow, 100 mA, low rupture capacity, 250 V, which shouldn’t be hard to find - CPC website is down right now otherwise I’d find it there and give you a link. 
 

Is it 20 mm or 32 mm long and is it from a device’s mains inlet or something else?

Ooh. This looks fun. I shall get it 🙂

We have a local ironmongers, and they even still sell individual screws (I think)… but not M2 ones!

Plotting how to get my hands on the boss’s job? Not me mate, I’m just the bass player. 
 

from here

On 27/08/2025 at 10:16, gjones said:

I recommend asking ChatGPT ,or Grok, how you would write a very diplomatic 'Dear John' letter to your band. I'm sure the AI will come up with something you could use.

Just remember to take out the bit where it opens, “Sure, I can help you write a diplomatic breakup note for a band whose guitarist is a massive bell end and singer can’t hit a note for toffee”. 

On 26/08/2025 at 14:40, SimonK said:

MIght be worth noting that the AI music generators I looked at had a paid-for subscription where you could buy the IP for the song. ie with the free version the AI owned the copywrite so you couldn't really use it, but pay the £15/month you could then use it for whatever you wanted to.

The company that operates the AI music generator site may say this, but I don’t think the law is settled yet as to whether they are correct. 

Looks good, have fun! Do report back on how you get on with it. 

Lee Ritenour at Band on the Wall - proper jazz-fusion royalty and no mistake. Munir Hossn playing some sort of singlecut six-string behemoth which I could not identify, and neither will you be able to from my terrible picture. 
 

Supported by Rosie Frater Taylor who rose to the challenge of holding the interest of a room full of (mostly) blokes who were there for Lee Ritenour with a solo set pretty well, I thought. Bonus artistic photo effect courtesy of my iPhone’s mind of its own. 
 

Just spotted that current jazz guitar fave Rosie Frater Taylor is the support for Lee Ritenour at Band on the Wall next Monday, and grabbed a ticket. Reckon Ritenour and his band will probably be OK as well. 

Scott Devine would definitely say raking and yes, do each exercise starting on both i and m, because you can’t plan every line so that every ascending A major run always starts on an i…

6 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Years ago I got a new Fender. It was lovely but I had some Fralins in another bass that I wanted to use in the new one. I took the Fralins out and installed them, and put the Fender's in to the Squire. Just put them in the bass, didnt wire them, didnt screw them in etc. Just storing them. 

Told the band I had this new bass and all were expecting to hear it at the gig. Opened the gig bag and there was the Squier, all in bits lol. I had taken the wrong gig bag. I had to secure and wire in the pups using gaffa tape back stage, even the wiring to the output jack. I was panicking all night that it would cut out. It didnt. 

Other than replacing the tape over the ends of the pup's with actual screws, the bass is still wired with tape holding the wires in place. At least 20 years after. 

Great story!

Just reassure me you’re not an electrician in the day job though?

I knew Steve Berry was talented, but not this talented!

Have you experimented with where on the string you pluck or pick - as in, down near the bridge, right up over the fretboard, or somewhere in between? That can make a huge difference in tone. 

12 hours ago, Jo.gwillim said:

I've found the easiest thing is to just weigh the bass from time to time. As the battery charge gets used up it gets lighter. 

This is literally true though! The change in mass is given by the m in E = mc², where E is the electrical energy. 
 

You must have some amazing kitchen scales, however. 

Members of the Hallé playing works by Steve Reich, joined for one of them by Jonny Greenwood on bass. Superb music, which you don’t get to hear performed so often. 
 

The bass part wasn’t technically difficult, but God forbid you lost your place 😁

On 23/06/2025 at 17:03, Pea Turgh said:

I also failed to take in to account the rivets holding the transformer to the chassis, so I’ll just have to make a fresh case.  No biggy, it’s all learning.  

1. Find an alternative use for the incorrect one
2. Insist it was meant to be that all along
3. Don't ask me why my printer stand is coated in Tuff Cab

So having decided that I'd like to set myself the challenge of having a go at fretless, and wanting to try before I bought, I looked at what was around on the cheap end of the market and my local music shop (I say shop, I suspect it's more the owner's retirement hobby and gear museum/hangout, with incidental music teaching space attached) had this, so I dropped in and had a look.

Internet research suggests it was made in the Samick factory in 1994/5 and will have originally been fretted. The defret job looked good to my non-expert eye, the body and neck felt comfortable, it wasn't too heavy, it sounded OK unplugged - considering it had flats of unknown provenance on - and made a good range of tones plugged in to the shop Trace combo. The action wasn't exactly low and I noticed the G string bridge saddle was as low as it could get, but I figured a bit of setup attention could probably sort that. Oh and a previous owner had decided to replace the output jack with an XLR. Anyway though, I decided I liked it, so two hundred quid plus trade-in of a Marshall MB15 I no longer need and it came home with me.

Closer inspection and plugging in at home and the imperfections started to look a lot more imperfect. I realised the intonation was badly out and the bridge saddles didn't have enough adjustment (away from the neck) to get it anywhere near right without reaching the string end wraps. And there was a huge amount of interference pickup, which only almost went away when I turned the tone control fully clockwise, which corresponded to maximum treble cut (??). Inspecting the cavity again, the wiring I'd thought looked passable in the shop now turned out to be a right dog's dinner. I started to feel I'd got a dud on my hands. Maybe I should have gone with the safe-but-boring Squier Vintage Modified 4-string that guy in Ashton with the leather sofa had on Gumtree…

But then I took delivery of a set of lightly used Elixir stainless roundwounds courtesy of cdog, and went through the setup as I swapped them on, and everything started to make a bit more sense. Intonation came right in a more sensible place and I had to raise the G saddle a little to cure a rattle on the top end of the fretboard, which left the action still a bit higher than I'd like but definitely playable, and the rounds are easier (or at least more like what I'm used to) than the flats. And I've ordered the parts to screen and rewire the electrics and return it to a normal jack socket. So I'm a happy bunny after all. And I do think it looks rather smart in the black.

I reckon the fretboard may have lifted a little bit at the top end, so once I've played it a bit more I may get an expert opinion on whether a bit of work would improve the action, but I'll leave that for a while as I'm planning to stick to the fretted until my next jazz jam in a couple of weeks, then play only the fretless and see how quickly I can get used to it. My own intonation is currently at the 'surprisingly good, but still terrible' level so some practice will be required.