Joe Nation

Phew, I'm not the only one. I also have no idea what the chrome pickup cover thing is for on certain older Ps and Jazzs (I get that the bridge cover is hiding the mute, but there ain't no mute over the pickup is there?).

Can anyone convince Squire to make a Jazz CV60 5-string in daphne blue?

@ubit, that should've been in the trainwreck thread!

That's either an unfortunate error on your part, or a very deep self-referencing joke.

Ibanez can be either "EYE-ban-ezz" or "ee-BARN-yez" - I always thought the guitar company pronounced it the former way, but I could be wrong; the latter is commonly a Hispanic surname. Warwick has only one W; Rockbass has no Ws. Korean car brand Hyundai famously has three official pronunciations, depending on whether you're in Korea (HYUN-die), the US (HUN-day) or Europe (high-n-dry).

If you like the HB, is it worth getting a new fretboard made instead?

Interesting idea, might have to give that a go.

Gimme Stitches - Foo fighters

Chocolate Salty Balls - Chef (Issac Hayes)

I think the 0, 1 and 3 might be frets, but could also be fingering as funkle suggested. It should tell you at the back of the book what the notations mean. The bass clef is also known as the F clef - the blob in the middle of the clef is in the same place as an F. Just remember that and work your way up and down from there (remember, only natural notes sit on the stave, sharps and flats are marked with a # or b, never got my head around why that is). The treble clef is the G clef, the centre of the curl of that one is on the line for a G. I just looked it up and there's also a C clef which looks like a weird B-shape, it's used rarely for soprano/alto/tenor registers. You can also move the treble and bass clefs to get different registers, which puts the notes in completely different places on the stave but to the untrained eye it will catch you out. Now I've thoroughly confused myself and most of the rest of you, I'll shut up...

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - The Beatles

Yes, the audio itself is fine but it's not in sync with the video.

I have one of these and it's great, apart from trying to play along to youtube lessons through my ipad and bluetooth - the latency is massive. Before I go buy a cable, can anyone confirm that I can use a lightning-microUSB cable to feed the ipad audio into the Mighty Plug without any latency?

That's my problem, every dropped note results in either a complete loss of form or a rude word and starting again! (usually both)

Every month is Jazz month!

This sounds brilliant, exactly what I feel like I need right now (if I had the time!). I've never been anywhere good enough to gig - I can barely make it through one song without messing something up. I was in a band with some mates from sixth form back in about 2000 (oddly enough in Diss, same as the OP), but we mostly messed around and watched Kerrang instead of practicing. The self-appointed lead guitarist was a bit of an ego, really into metal and refused to play much else, but the rest of us had more varied tastes - even then I could sense he was going to pull the band in a direction I didn't want to go, but it fell apart when half of us went to uni. I always felt like starting a band with my friends would be easier and more successful than joining a band with strangers, but maybe that just makes it more complicated because you've got the friendship and the band to worry about. I reckon if you're not one for gigging twice a week every week, aim to practice little and often but gig few and far between - elite runners train for months for one marathon, they're going to ruin themselves if try to race every weekend.

Wouldn't it be amazing if that was your actual bass, coming home to roost...

I'm inclined to say a black stain on the pickguard (rather than paint), but it might look odd against the rosewood fretboard. Maybe leave it natural until it's all put together, or I guess you could make another one?

Tort FTW. Or maybe the Black Pearl but only if you dress as a pirate!

Oh no, I'm completely overthinking it, like I do pretty much everything (unless it's actually important!). Of course, the answer is all of the above points and more. But the point of the discussion is to get people thinking about what their instrument is, what it can do (and can't do), and what they want to get out of it.

I've been pondering a bit in recent days about ultra-short scale basses (eg Wingbass), uke-basses, Bass VIs, baritones etc. It got me thinking, is there a general agreement of what exactly makes a bass, a bass? I guess having 4 strings and a 34" scale is the most common variant, but there are plenty of things with more strings (or fewer?) and both longer and shorter scale lengths, that are most definitely a bass. But to me a Bass VI seems more like a guitar that just plays lower notes than standard tuning (to be fair I don't really know how you play one or what it sounds like!). Is it purely about the frequency of the notes an instrument can play - in which case do you measure the lowest note, the lowest C, the highest note, an octave above the lowest, the average? Is it more to do with what instruments you're playing alongside, with the bass being whatever is lowest in the group? Do we define it by the part it plays in the band - that magical link between rhythm and melody? Or is it simply some unquantifiable, unmeasurable property - this is a bass because we call it is a bass? Furthermore, with a Wingbass being effectively the upper half of a conventional 4-string 34" bass, could you fit a thicker gauge of string to lower the frequency of the notes and go a whole octave lower (ie the same pitch as an open string on a 34" scale)? The gauge required may be far too thick to fit in the bridge or tuners, and may be unplayable, I'm curious if it's possible though. Is there a formula linking string length, gauge and resultant frequency (assuming the same material of course)?

Yeah I wasn't sure where to put it, as it's about whole builds but not specifically a build diary. Consensus? As for basses, they've always accepted them AFAIK, and the launch video does refer to "guitar or bass" a lot. No specific bass category, but I don't know if that's a bad thing or not. There's also a new "freestyle" category for acoustics, ukes, banjos, hurdy gurdies, and pretty much anything else with strings, as well as random new inventions and awkward hybrid monsters.