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The "Acrylic stingray" is almost ready: The story behind this is quite simple. I'm an enormous stingray fan (we all are I guess) and already own two of them. But I also love the EGC acrylic line, and love how all those clear guitars look. They're something else, art pieces almost. I played a Dan Armstrong a few times and loved the weight and clear (pun intended) sound. Sure it's heavy, but I can manage it. So I thought to combine the look of the original stingray with a Dan Armstrong/EGC. I ordered a custom made acrylic block from a Dutch Laboratory, I got the seymour duncan humbucker for free (when the store owner heard about the project), I found a stingray special bridge online, ordered a Status graphite stingray neck and had a custom preamp made (that was also free). There was a test run done with a cnc in wood and this week the acrylic was made. Sorry for the bad pic, they're screengrabs of videos. The body still needs some polishing but after that it's PERFECT. The specs are exactly the same as an original stingray body. I can't wait for this to be finished but I'm still looking for an official six bolt neckplate though ... Made by Dimitri Derwael of elinore guitars. (I know that some people will call this a gimmick. I don't want this to be a gimmick, I want this to be a bass with good materials and an unique look. I've researched this for 2 years (what plexi to use, etc.) and the fact that companies like EGC charges 3000 euro's for basses like this says something right? Hopefully some of you think it's nice

Crowd were obviously royalists last night. 2 minutes silence after every song was a bit over the top.

3rd gig of the weekend. Sunday September 18th Maple Road 3:00 Boots Q 'n Boogie / Bailey Hall Waubeka WI 1. 20 minutes travel 2. Appreciative crowd 3. Nice hall 4. New clean bathrooms 5.We sounded good 6. I was happy with my playing. 7. Above average pay. 3 gig weekends are a bit much. Blue

Just the truss rod cover to sort - all other jobs done!! Electrics all sorted - not the world's biggest cavity and no spare height to work with for the EMG push/pull pot but it fitted!! Here's a couple of pictures of it next to my MarkBass 801 - makes for a nice little mobile set-up!! I'll take some proper pictures when I've finished the truss rod cover. Cheers

Jane’s Addition

Citizen Sane ～ Joe Jackson I think that some occasional visitors would be suffering from a cluster headache or an attack of righteous indignation as a result of the level of obscurity currently occurring 🙇🏼‍♂️

A highlight for me was when a lone piper was playing in the gallery and then walked away while still playing.... the sound gradually faded to nothing. Very poignant and symbolic of a departed person.

Finally, a bit of of bleedin' progress 😁. After shamefully ignoring this for a while, persistent quizzing by @andy67has guilt tripped me into making a bit of more of an effort. This was all your fault to start with anyway. 😂 I'm joking of course, but thanks for the nudge, I need it sometimes. Well the issue was that the contrasting end grain woods in the body sides would look terrible if the back and sides were just stained. It would be far easier to just go for a solid colour for the back and sides, but I wanted the wood grain on the back to be visible. Lots of scenarios to run through, not least was I going light or dark wood. Although I liked the light colour in the previous pictures my original plan was dark wood. I'm sticking with dark because the pink sparkle is a lot darker in real life and the darker wood goes better with it I feel. The sparkle is rose gold and has more gold/brown tones to it than silver, which would work better with a light coloured back. If you imagine bright silvery pink with white and chrome, compared to darker coppery pink with brown and gold. I masked the back with foam about 5-10mm in from the the edge to allow me to prime the sides and slightly onto the back to cover the different grains on the sides and the edge of the back piece. The foam tape gives a softer edge to the primer so as not to get a step. I used black primer as that should work best with what I have decided to do. I'll stain the back wood to a colour I like and then spray a sunburst effect with a paint that matches the stain, then lacquer it all in. Foam masking and primer. Once demasked I gently sprayed a slight sunburst with the primer to further soften the primer edge. The easiest thing to do now would be just black ink to stain the back and lacquer it but the black is a bit harsh for what I want. A dark brown just works better. Primer flatted and ready for stain. I'm using calligraphy ink, @Andyjr1515's recommendation which I really like using as you can re-wet them and work and blend them, even remove them to a degree. This had a wipe of sepia ink a while ago but it was very brown with no gold tones to it, so was wiped off with a wet cloth, which has left it slightly darkened. Below is around a 50/50 mix of sepia and yellow ochre. The wierd patch is a mix sunlight and the ink drying. Then a wipe over with just the sepia. It has a more golden hue in the flesh. I did toy with the idea of rather than trying to paint the sides to match the back, doing them a different colour like bronze but I think it would start to look tacky if there's too much going on. Next step, match the sides. 🙂👍

It could have done with some Cowbell.

Use my man with a van, who is based in Scotland. Foolproof, safe, reliable and guaranteed to not be chucked around in depots. DM me if you want info

I do a gig in the house band for a blues jam in the local dive , been doing it for about twenty five years now. Some old friends from Austin Texas were in town and dropped by after doing a festival in New Brunswick. Was an absolute joy to get them up.

It really was a game of two halves last night. First set was dogged with problems, singer’s wireless mic set up was getting interference from somewhere and kept clipping. Spotted it during sound check but there was a compère as it was a charity do and we didn’t have sufficient time to sort it as we had to sort his sound. Also had issues with one of the lighting booms unraveling itself with a subsequent crash to the ground. Fortunately the second set went fine but singer was a bit gutted (it was a local gig for him) as he’d heard negative comments about the first spot. C’est la vie, people went home happy so all ends well and all that, also raised over £2k for the cancer charity. It was the first gig where I’d used my Status that I bought new last year...it really was a tone monster but perhaps a bit OTT for a glam band, the leds did help on a dark stage though. Only one crap photo as we had no partners on this one.

Used my Elf last night through 2 TC Electronic RS112’s and I was blown away…Loud as hell and only slightly warm at the end of the night. It’s usually a back up for my RH750 but I’m seriously thinking about just running with 2 Elf’s so one as a back up. And also maybe putting a little di’d bass through the PA 🤔👌👍

Duvet Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid

If he did that at my house he’d get a bucket of water over him!

Watching the Detectives Elvis

It’s been a good year for the yellow roses. Elvis c

Season Of The Twitch ～ Donovan

Lunar Tic Floyd

Power has nothing to do with it. What determines cone excursion, which determines sound pressure level, is the amp voltage swing. A SS amp will deliver the same voltage into any impedance load, so when you add a second identical cab both will realize the same excursion. That gives a 6dB increase compared to just one. The halved impedance load results in doubling of the current draw, which results in the doubling of the power draw, but it's the doubling of cone excursion driven with equal voltage that gives the increased SPL.

I've tried a lot of instruments over the years - bugle, trumpet, violin, piano, voice - but I think the one that's helped above all else is the marching snare drum. Especially when not playing an accompaniment and just having to mark the beat by playing solo. Marking the beat has the bass and tenor drums playing ||: left - left - left right left :|| and the leading snare has to improv over that. Lose your place and you very publically go from hero to zero in an instant. The reason it's helped with playing bass is that I instinctively listen out for the one. If I screw up or get lost, I can land on it without too much effort and that's me back in the pocket.

Incoming! Not in my sticky mitts yet but soon will be. An '85 BB1100S fretless. (Sellers pictures) Very kindly @Len_derbyoffered to go out of his way and collect it for me from Coalville. He's heading down my way(ish) in a weeks time so I'll drive up and meet him. Can't wait. 😁

Whilst I am generally a fan of the sunburst + tort combination, recently I have found myself hankering towards basses with black scratch plates. So after a long wait, a new black plate arrived this week for my Fender Tony Franklin P bass and I’ve fitted it this morning. I think it looks great 😎 Oh and its interesting to see how much the nitro finish has aged in just over 11 years.

Lovely woods and awesome design Ben!

Sue Lawley ～ The Police

Killing An Ahab ～ The Cure

sledge hammer - Peter Gabriel

Lunar Sea - Camel

Peaceful Easy Feline ～ The Eagles

Yup, absolutely though there are BCers who'll disagree. There should be spectacle as well and TBH i don't wanna see sex/sept/ox/non-ogenarians hobbling about on stage or sitting down for a breather mid-song. Few things more dull than watching people on stage just standing while playing an instrument.

Saved by Carlo...I mean given Wotchie's choice of song and artiste, Out Of Gas ～ Modest Mouse may have seemed insensitive, right?🤔.

Absolutely, and of course, the governor... It was that originally. You can flush my offering down the Mavis.

Not bad tempered discussion just intense. Usually the band is raring to get on stage as we are packing up but there was no sign of any bands after we finished. It was only as I was leaving that I saw all the gear, and what I assume was the Hendrix Band, in a band huddle. They were probably wondering if they should accept the 'half a set' deal, or just take the cash and go home. Sounds like everything got resolved in a cool and reasonable manner and everybody went home happy.

Pedalboard is the way to go IMO, if you have more than one or two pedals. Main benefit is short set up time… it contains pedals, power supply and connections. Just plug and play. If the board is going front of stage then I recommend a rechargeable power pack. If it’s mainly ‘always on’ then yes, put them at the back of the stage.

Housefly - Gab Perticone (Do I get extra points for combining the two? )

Best Dressed Chicken in Town - Dr. Alimantado

They do as they are the only company authorised by MB to carry out repairs. Since MB won’t release circuit diagrams or component spec details they are the only people in the UK with the ‘official’ information. That is literally the definition of a monopoly. Of course, there’s no doubt other people that might have a bash but they are by no means approved repairers.

Getting older is odd. I used to hate light pickup covers. Now I look at them and think "tasty".

Dunlop prime tone 1.5mm small triangle (no grip version)—the same ones I use on guitar.

Wonderstuff frontman Miles Hunt. 'nuff said.