tauzero

I have encountered a fretless Squier, presumably unlined as the dots were at the fret positions, which had subsequently been fretted. It was astonishingly hard to play as I couldn't work out where to put my fingers.

Which 200W amps have you used for home practice and found too loud? The volume control is effective on most, if not all, amps, and will reduce the sound level considerably when correctly applied. If you're using a 100-200W speaker, it means you're less likely to accidentally blow it. I use my 200W TC BAM200 head in preference to my 900W Tecamp when I'm using a small cab (house jam micro cab, and, when I've finally completed it, BC 8" cab). Still managed to blow an Eminence Deltalite 2510 mk2 with it (poxy "Made in USA" rubbish, give me reliable Chinese stuff any day).

I use a 200W amp both at home and at an open mic night, combined with a @Phil Starr 6" micro cab. I use a bigger amp and cab for pub gigs, with the 200W one as a backup. Can't see any problem with having a 200W amp for a wide range of use. After all, 40 years ago I was gigging with a Laney 150W head, which was all the power you needed.

Non-standard by whose standards? The primitives of the USA? As this is an entirely rational prejudice I suppose it shouldn't be in here, but metric is a far superior measuring system to imperial (and which imperial are you using as the standard?), and the UK has been metric for 60 years, so why the f*ck do people still want o use imperial? I will make certain exemptions - tyres, loudspeakers, and televisions have become standardised as measured in inches. Nothing else should be. I'm just off to play my 865mm scale bass.

As you say, there's no locating hole - I assume that they butt up against a stop to locate them, can't remember if the screw itself held the reed in place or if there was a metal clamping piece. In fact, looking back (at around 5:30 onwards) it seems they go into a narrow slot and are held by one screw per reed, but I did wonder if there's a pair of overall clamping screws which clamp up that narrow slot so the actual sounding part is the part that emerges from the clamping piece. Aha! just gone back again - at 5:17 and 5:26 you can see that a bit further back from the row of screws that hold the reeds, there's a couple of countersunk holes which are rather beefier than the reed-holding screws - I think those would be the ones to clamp the top and bottom of the reed holding strips together.

Yes. I've started a build diary for one, including how to chop up a 1220 x 610 sheet with a circular saw should you not have a proper table saw. On a hiatus awaiting better weather at the moment so I can repair the latest cock-up.

Snoopy: 😁

We get the occasional extended solo, and the lads do get excited... I can't climb onto chairs these days, I just have a walk around and a sit down.

Conventionally that's where the dot markers go on a lined fretless, whereas they go where the frets would be on an unlined. I had the markers moved on a Sei lined fretless with very faint lines so they were on the fret positions, and another faintly lined fretless already had them on the fret positions. Conversely, I have a defretted Squier VM 5 Jazz - maple board and black lines, with the dots remaining in place, and that's not a problem. I'd be inclined to find an equivalent fretless rather than have it defretted.

Just to follow on from those events, there's a report today that the motorcyclist died after a collision with a tractor. On a happier note, Mrs Zero accompanied me to the open mic tonight. I didn't take a guitar, as one of the hosts played guitar for us on some songs we'd prearranged. Very enjoyable evening, kept me on my toes as there were three songs I didn't know - cue rapid exploration of Ultimate-Guitar.com to find the chords and squinting at my phone to follow them. And I jumped up to play "Nights in white satin" with one performer, and then discovered that he was tuned a semitone down, always a recipe for disaster.

I've got a D-Tuner on the B string of my Sei 6-string (so maybe it should be an A-Tuner). Can I join your groove, swagger, and oikish malevolence club?

Lovely piece of work. I assume that either the reeds have locators so they are perfectly placed, or they didn't want to show the 200 hours of tuning them all up. Very ingenious cutter to make the rubbers, that must have been quite a task though to make 61 of them.

Probably going to cut down the amount that I go to the Shirley British Legion open mic night, as the guitarist who plays bass badly is also the one sat at the mixer who can just grab his bass and impose himself on whoever's playing, and I'm finding it a bit stressful (it's OK when somebody other than me who can play bass is playing, it's not so good when you're anticipating 25% of the notes being out of tune, time, or both). Plus we only get two songs apiece so Mrs Zero has even less to do than I have. Still, I did get to play a couple of songs with Annette that I've never played (or, in one case, heard) before, so that was fun. Rather sobering event coming home from it. I leave the M42 at junction 10, and the roundabout was partially closed off by a number of police cars and another couple of vehicles, plus an ambulance. Going past the scene, I caught a glimpse of someone lying on the road with a full-face helmet a metre away from them. No sign of activity around them. It didn't look good.