Rosie C

Been there! Mid 1990s, me and a friend were renovating a flat I'd bought, on evenings after work. It was winter so we'd left the mains on, confident that a particular wire was not live.

The scientist in me wants to test how much electricity the pencil's graphite core will conduct! 😈

Infamy! Our worship band has had a little recognition - we've been invited to play at another church next week at a special diocese-wide service. I'm going to dust off my upright for the occasion

Interesting, mine is more of a pink noise. But I have hyperacusis too, so maybe not exactly tinnitus.

This is also my experience. We gave our baby grand for free to a local school. The upright we had before that the guy who delivered the baby grand took it away for free 'as a favour'.

If I was buying a new upright now I'd probably start my search with a Yamaha B2. I've just sold my Kawai digital. I liked that it could do harpsichord, and I liked not having to heat the room or pay for tuning, but it lacked the soul of a 'real' piano.

Interesting. I'd not realised the difference in flexibility. I must admit my main reason to buy orange lawnmower flex was it being hi-vis for teenage boys running amok at our community band break time... though I'm sure the pro cable comes in bright colours too. I always use Neutrik connectors though.

I'd not realised that was significant, but you're right - although the place I'm planning to use seems to be one of the leading suppliers, there only 38mm and 40mm sizes. Not that I need it to read music, more to take a quick look at a set list, or remind myself of the opening bar of a tune. I'm in a 'border morris' side, so a monocle will work well with the rest of my outfit.

My optician suggested one eye short vision, one eye long vision, but I dismissed that out of hand as a crazy idea. As it happened, I failed the test for contacts - the callouses on my left hand fingers from bass-ing and mandolin-ing meant I couldn't feed the lens, and I couldnt' manage the "left lens in with the right hand" thing. So I wear glasses, though I am considering a monocle!

I joined my local gym. Not something I EVER thought I'd do, but my doc gave me a choice of meds or NHS part-funded gym membership. The strange thing was after a few weeks I started to really enjoy it and missed it if I couldn't work out for a few days. Nothing too strenuous - treadmill, cycle machine, and some weights and there's big TVs to watch so the time goes quickly. My formal exercise goals include "carrying my bass amp" The NHS bit was quite important for me - I have a special coach who went through my medical history and designed a suitable programme and keeps tabs on my progress.

Despite these days of Speakon, I still use orange twin-core mains cable to make my speaker cables, just I use Speakon plugs now

Shine a Little Love - Electric Light Orchestra

Invisible Man - Queen

My fretless jazz has a PF fretboard and I like it. When it arrived the wood did have a dry open texture feel to it. I applied a series of fine sand paper and waxed it and I'm very happy with the result.

Indeed! Before I bought mine I didn’t believe it would sound as good as it does and hooked up with an old band mate to try his before I ordered. No, the band leader hasn’t heard it yet but I’ll take it to the next service we do 😈

I mentioned the U-bass to the band leader in our church band and didn't sense any enthusiasm at all, yet it sounds awesome!

I have the Kala 'striped ebony'. At the time it was the cheapest Kala model in Thomann's range, though they don't seem to list it anymore. Not my photo, but it looks like this:

They weigh virtually nothing, but I'm happy to weigh mine for you. I've only had it about two weeks, but I love it. Somehow it defies the laws of physics - such a deep bass sound for such a small thing. I'm gigging it on Tuesday at a Morris dancing thing as a substitute for double bass while a leg injury heals. EDIT: 2.6 lbs

I had one of those from about 2001 to 2022. It did its job. I donated it to a local music school and as far as I know it's still going.

Our renaissance-folk-rock duo went to a local open-mic on Monday - the first we've done for a couple of years. We did a medieval tune on recorder and bongos, then a Blackmore's Night song with octave-mandolin accompaniment. It was well received. Of the other acts my highlights were an American over on holiday doing some folk, a lady playing John Playford tunes on a melodeon type instrument, and a couple of younger singer-songwriter guitarists.