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My Shuker JJ Burnel Signature 'The Raven' Precision arrived on Thursday. It has now been gigged twice (Friday and Saturday) and I can report that it was definitely worth the wait. It's just an incredible piece of work. It is exactly as promised, nice and light at 8.24lbs and the neck is probably one of the nicest I've had in my hands. It has a lovely satin finish with a nice low action and the whole bass balances superbly. There was a slight change in the spec in that I was going to have Armstrong pick-up's fitted. In fact, John did fit them and then gave me the option of the new in-house pick-up's hand wound by Oz. These are the pick-up's that are in JJ's newest 'The Zenith' signature bass which he took delivery of recently. Those of you that have seen The Stranglers recently will have heard that bass. I opted for the Oz pick-up's and they're great. I still can make up my mind about the screws, knobs and plate screws. Jon supplied a full set of black and chrome so I can make my mind up at leisure. They may change, they may not 🤷‍♂️. Here are some photo's.

Made myself a new board - Got a nasty lung infection but I will populate it once I am up to it.

About 9 years ago I guess my moves on stage at a particular gig didn't come off as planned. I saw a video clip and what I thought was cool actually looked like I was humping an invisible bear.😀 Blue

I've been playing my 4 string passive JP all evening and it's just wonderful. Plays like I've had it for years. One feature I love and wish I had on all my basses is this

Cool ? I guess you don't know about the invisible bear. Blue

Yeah. Nursery. 1987. I bought her a valentines card when I was 6.

Its voting time again and the inspirational image was chosen by last months winner, @skankdelvar who is on a roll, and is approaching the hallowed ground of a treble! I'm no stato , but that's a rare thing round these parts , however we have some serious challengers for you to consider . some notes provided by the man himself... Before radar was perfected, aircraft were detected using acoustic locators which enhanced and amplified the sound of an aircraft's engine. The smallest version was a pair of acoustic mirrors which the user strapped either side of his head. Please Choose your favourite 3 entries from the following. 1 @Dad3353 I was lucky, as I remembered this case from some decades ago, having read an article in the Boy's Own Paper of the time. The first successful human biological re-engineering, which enabled this man, born into a human body but with his real nature that of a fennic, to at last reconcile his psyche with his physical appearance. Early days for these medical miracles, but the operations and treatments finally enabled the fellow to become the creature that his mind had always known himself to be. 2 @Doctor J This has come together influenced by a few recent things of note, like the "Three on E" thread, a trip to Berlin and a bout of Covid. Four is one more than three and more is more, says Yngwie, so four it is. The bass riff came a bit too easily so I hope I haven't subconsciously pilfered it from somewhere. I can't place it, though. 3 @Leonard Smalls I thought - that geezer's got some serious phones: feel the weight, feel the sound, heavy pressure's going down! 4 @fingers211 A simple ditty really. The poor chap hears all the twaddle the world and it's media have to offer. 5 @NickD Started with the idea of how in modern times a whisper can be heard around the world, then got into the idea that a dumb meme travels much faster than anything involving hard reality... and just developed from there. 6 @upside downer Our hero is doing his bit for the war effort but he keeps on picking up sounds from the wild and wonderful world of pop music. Nonetheless, he'll do his very best until he can have a well earned drinks break. 7 Lurksalot it's a bit on the simple side and I got lost a few times even doing this. Mercifully no singing this time just some speakage! 8 @Nail Soup The picture made me think of eavesdropping... did a bit of research and found stuff like a quote from Thornton Wilder (me neither!) : "There's nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head". Built up the lyrics with such ideas. God knows where the music came from 🙂! 9 @skankdelvar Basically the song's about something but I'm not sure exactly what. Probably something grim some brilliant, humourous and well observed compositions again this month , fair play So it's your favourite 3 then Voting will end at midnight Saturday 30th April Good Luck All

My humble jazz, a cheap B-stock Squier Affinity in Charcoal Frost Metallic. Haven’t got the blingy chrome covers for it yet but I will. Nobody will ever accuse me of having good taste 😂

Ready for the painter to put the clear coats …. I’ve finished my task now … up to Valérian Werner to finish it well 😎

we knew the score for us. They wanted us on at 8:30, play until about 10 to 10 when they did the walkthrough or whatever it is, and then if it finished before 11 go back on until quarter past. so we played until 10 to 10 finished with Saturday nights alright for fighting, went down well, the sat around until one of the guys fell over, then came back in with I get knocked down. All seemed to go well. but I had a terrible tone which I couldn’t correct in my first half, I just took one bass, unusually, and It had no definition or treble. The only thing I can think is I changed the strings a few weeks ago for longevo and lowered the action, maybe that? asside from that and the short times, it was good, and pay was fine!

Playing around with the laser yesterday… 1 pass gives you about .5mm dept. Also (because I could) tried cutting out an inlay in maple ….this was just for fun. I will either leave au naturel OR fill with epoxy/ebony dust. Also did a little print on back of neck.

Well the drive there wasn't too bad, and parking was great. But it was freezing bloody cold. Unsurprisingly there were only about three people in the audience other than other bands. I take my hat off to them because I wouldn't have come out of a nice cosy bar to see a band in an arctic beer garden, no matter how good. Funnily enough, I think I played quite well Guitarist was a bit off though because by the time we played, his fingers had frozen stiff! Then I got lost on the way home and found myself driving right through the centre of Birmingham, which is the main thing I wanted to avoid. And then guitarist wanted me to stop at a garage so he could get some tobacco. I felt like saying 'No, no, let me go home' . But of course I didn't. Ah well, it's all over now until 15 May, so I can chill out for a bit.

We played a 2 hour acoustic set at Sahale Ale Works. It was an outside gig, 6:00-8:00. 80° degrees. My kind of gig. Blue

After a couple of hours working on the allotment this morning, I reckon I hate gigging as well. Bloody hard work, and I had to carry the spade and fork there and back. Hang on - it's digging I hate, not gigging - my mistake.

I forgot to post! Amazing sound last night! Once I had a chance to dial in the EQ it had a surprising amount of bottom end and loads of volume as the amp was on maybe 3/10. I haven't had a new cab for years so it took a bit of time to adjust but once the gig got going it was just a joy to play through! Apart from checking the cab at bedroom volume it was the first time I've had it at proper volume so the speaker will obviously take a bit of time to burn in. Cannot recommend Zilla more, the whole process has been excellent!

Second gig with my new Nordstrand Acinonyx shorty at The George in Croscombe, a nice pub on the main Shepton to Wells road. Very little parking, have had to resort to pavements in the past but managed to find a space in the 5 car car park! Not a lot of room inside either so glad I brought my small 60 watt MB 101 combo. This I was to regret as the Bass sounded very different to how it had sounded on Easter Monday through the MB CMD121 which is 300 watts! Anyway was tucked in the corner, my combo on a bench and next to our Banjo player( gulp) so the small size of the Bass was helpful too. We went through our 2 sets of Americana-ish stuff finishing on Copperhead Road, for which our singer broke out the mandolin. Only surprise was she opted to do Hillbilly Highway again for the encore which we played already, rather than another song from the repertoire. Lots of supporters in the audience from the times before CV19 when we used to do Jam nights at the local pub ( which has now closed down, to be revamped as a DFL venue) DFL- down from London! Next Sunday we have a slot at Frome Sunday Market which on a nice day is always heaving and just bring your instrument, as one can plug straight into the PA. Looks like the Nordy will get another outing, so much for 2022 being the year of my Telecaster Bass on its 50th Birthday!

are you ready to rumble ...... well, lets get ready to rumble ... and......... RUMBLE

Fair Exchange - Be-Bop Deluxe

It's been a struggle this month. Two abandoned attempts that wasted a whole week. On the other hand (i) Douglas has been spared an AC DC rip-off (ii) the world will never hear my take on Barry White. Basically the song's about something but I'm not sure exactly what. Probably something grim Lyrics ↓

I had the T shirt... but one of the sleeves was moved to the neck opening... nightmare to put on!

my band Scandal from 1990. Me at the front, my brother at the back on the left. 6 years we lasted, 639 gigs

Hello guys, I have an amazing Yamaha TRB5P but don't like a bit the electronics. Changed the preamp and fitted a Sadowsky 4 Knob, sound killer! Some time a go, I bought a set o MAMA pickups (they make them specifically for this bass). The P pickup sounds good, a bit too compressed for my taste but sounds good. The problem was always the bridge pickup. Hums like hell, thin sound and low output. Not really happy here... So, since I have a Nordstrand NJ5S sitting at home, I decided to solve the problem by building a pickup cover using the 3D printer and Tinkercad to design it. It's the first time that I use this kind of software and it's possible that everything isn't perfect but so far, is looking good. Honestly, I never post anything about my workl but I decided to post this project because I really hope that this 3D model solve someone's problem as it did for me. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5365871 As soon as I get this thing printed, I'll update the post with some pictures

Burma Shave - Tom Waits

History of this is that it was bought around 15 years ago for £40 as something to mess with as I was just playing guitar back then. It's a 1980s Encore Coaster bass with the pointy headstock, plywood body and was a shoulder buster. Being a lefty and not wanting to spend much a cheap righty restrung with a new nut seemed the cheapest way. That's all that was done to it and it gathered dust in a corner. I bought a used unmarked Harley Benton JB for £70 and used that. I put an S1 switch on that for a bit more lows and was considering getting a PJ or a P to play with. Anyway plugged the Encore in and it sounded nice to my ears so a mini project was on the cards. The first incarnation was lopping the big horn off and shaping the contours a bit. Not really happy with the look. Try to disguise the fugliness with stickers? FAIL.. Put back in the corner to regroup my thoughts. It had to be done on the cheap or it wasn't worth it. So, a large sheet of pickguard, new nut, coping saw and a rattle can of gloss black it was time to begin. I had various bits in a box so a strat neck pickup and a couple of switches were to be added. Hammer, chisel and coping saw later the body was abused into this. Not pretty as I don't have a router but I cleaned up the cavities and the largest pickguard in the world would cover the righty routes. Next was the pickguard done with the coping saw and some sanding. I used some heat to relax the pickguard to follow the righty body contour. Next was a rattle can of gloss black to hide the fugly. Lightly sanded the fretboard and put a very light stain as it was too glossy and light then gave the headstock a little extra shape. Next I fitted the neck which needed a 1mm shim at the heel to get the angle I wanted, new nut fitted. I drilled the pickguard for the tone & vol pots and an extra two holes for neck/bridge pickup and the other for both pickups in parallel. It may change to a blend pot in the future but as I had a bag of switches from earlier tinkering it was in keeping with the low cost of this project. So it was time to assemble. It went OK but I had to reverse the polarity of the neck pickup as it was cancelling signal when in parallel mode. It is not a thing of beauty but the nut was filed, string height set, truss rod tweaked and intonated spot on. I'm happy with the result. It does what I need with my setup. Compared to all of the guitars on here it's still fugly but it's to me it's the equivalent of Susan Boyle. Ropey looking but sounds pretty good. Just waiting for a string retainer to align the A string better. Be kind, here for your close alternative for needles in your eyes is Subo 😁 Thanks for not flaming😁 I hope..

I think it may be time to identify as someone who was born on a different day

😊

Back on the neck for more work. Here I'm doing the face and side dots.

My Wife ～ The Who

It’s photo editing software, not liposuction. 😆

In that case, definitely start by changing your strings. Honestly, I’ve found strings can make as much difference as electronics when it comes to affecting tone, but at a much lower cost.

Surprised nobody has mentioned the EMG Geezer Butler P pups yet.

decent set up that. i see you have at least one octave, synth, 2 drives (VTDi and B7K on the zoom) and the envelope filter all on. What kind of sound does that give? Is the drive on your amp also on? All of that combined could give a very rich harmonic sound.

Ha! I feel the same about you 😘

Depping with a half decent band at Worthing last night, hadn't met them before, nice guys. So, the band play their first set, take a break, and we're about to go back on for the second set when a giant screen is lowered, completely blocking the stage. Seemed like everyone was there just to watch the Tyson fight, and by the time this had finished there wasn't time to play again. Got paid in full, but, err, communication, eh ? 😳

37 years of cover band service and counting...

Yeah. Worth every second of waiting. My absolute world this lady.

A punter said tonight "It's so nice to hear some different music: not Mr Brightside, etc." Our work here is done 👌

Cyclops - The Libertines

From what I could see, Lobster identified an issue which, seemingly few were aware of (the pick ups stated in Gretch literature and on line as humbuckers were in fact single coil). The rest of the thread was taken up with the people complaining they had thought they were humbuckers and thus had been misled (seems a reasonable conclusion to me, although I’m from U.K. where we have laws relating to misleading or plain wrong advertising, and consumer legislation that protects from this sort of thing) - however a bunch of other people jumped in to defend Gretch (and Fender) suggesting variously it didn’t really matter, possibly was an ‘oversight’ on the part of the marketing people - I must say I wasn’t surprised as I’ve seen half baked idiocy before of that sort. It was then shown that the advertising had been changed (although no official comment from Gretch/Fender - says a lot for their public interface - although not really any surprise there…… 🙄 I do wonder whether Gretch/Fender are running worried they may get taken to task legally over it by significant numbers of people. Having said that, if they’re happy with their instruments they possibly will have less of a problem. As for people complaining about Lobster, well all he’s done is brought awareness to an advertising irregularity which is somewhat misleading - why any consumer would want to attach him over that is beyond me (unless the attackers are paid employees of the allegedly miscreant companies 😂😂).

This is a late incarnation of Live n Kickin'. Ashford based band that did 30 years. Here I'm playing bass and fronting it. Our original bass player passsed away a few months previous to this but we carried on. It's what he wanted. That's Martin Kidd on guitar (Cornford/ Victory designer)

Updated version of Scandal from 2010. Me now on guitar, my wife on bass and the same lead guitarist called Tick

1969