neepheid

I never met Mani, but he always seemed like a sound bloke, and a great player. The only Mani related story I can think of is that during soundcheck for a gig, I was idly playing the intro to "I Wanna Be Adored". I didn't know it at the time, was just working it out from memory. Well, some drunk guy hears me and goes "YAAAAAAAAAS! STONE ROSES!" and I'm like "F***, I don't know the whole song!" Thankfully he was too drunk to remember and the request I was bracing myself for never materialised, phew!

A new venue to play and it's like 2 minutes from my house! Playing tomorrow night with Nine Lives at the Grampian Bar in Torry, Aberdeen. Always an experience to try new places - no idea what to expect!

You're worrying too much - there's only a problem with break angle over the nut when there isn't enough of it.

No, go on yersel, bigman

I'm selling my burgundy Z7, FWIW. Not because it isn't a fantastic bass, because I need funds for something else, and I can always buy another one some other time.

Nice pair!

In my experience, in terms of maple bodied Gibsonesque basses these weights are very reasonable, actually.

With a hard case tho. Try not to look at it through the prism of "it's an Epiphone" or "it's made in China" or whatever. You're buying a G-3. Your options right now are the Epi at £1200, around £2500 for a used OG Gibson G-3, or you can commission the likes of Baard or Decibel to custom build you one - can't imagine that'll be cheap.

I'd probably just report it for not as described then buy some Hercules ones from a more reputable source.

Well, I had been ill since Thursday, nothing major - just a lurgy but ill enough to mean I didn't get around to sorting out the tuners until today. I won't bore you with a complete step by step - the results of polishing are great but the process isn't exactly a spectator sport. But to give you an idea of the amount of difference I was making... Anyway, very long story short - all tuner parts rinsed of cola, dried, polished, reassembled and greased. Frets polished. Fretboard and headstock polished. Tuners reinstalled - had to put some cocktail stick and wood glue in a few of the holes as the screws were just spinning. String tree polished. Doesn't look that shiny now, but it looks a damn sight better than when it got here. And I don't have to wash my hands after tuning it up, so that's a bonus!

Well FWIW, I can do 25/26 April and any of those days in May. Before/after that, gigs be getting in the way - not that I should complain!

Back at it after a weekend off, with Nine Lives at The Railway Club in Keith. A weird one - I wasn't feeling 100%, had been fighting a lurgy for the past few days but had got myself to the "you'd be well enough to go to work" type state so I decided to go for it. Unfortunately, it wasn't very busy - probably an effect of the Greece vs. Scotland game being live on the Beeb. Things got a bit better in the second half, we had people sporadically come through from the bar area to see us for a few songs then bog off back to the bar. Yet we were still treated to some chair dancing and acrobatics/tumbling. How odd! It was more interesting from the gear point of view, as this was the first time I had taken my Jack Casady out to a gig since I finally got a replacement coil and fitted it. Happy to report that it is back to its normal self - capable of generating feedback, but in a controlled way (instead of reacting simply to being in the same room as a not very loud amp, as was when the dodgy coil was in there). There was a sustained note for 4 bars during one song during which the JC did a lovely slow feedback buildup - became noticeable around bar 2 and built up gracefully (and quite musically) but never to annoying levels. Chopped it dead at the next bar. Loved it. My JC is back doing its JC thing. Gear was the Epiphone gang (Jack Casady then Thunderbird) into the cubist wasps.

Additional - I've just bought a third set - we've got a gig coming up which is a right PITA to PA - wide open space, speakers nowhere near the desk, punters entrance/exit to the main door and the bogs is on the cable paths - spend most of the time sticking cables down with gaffer tape - F that! So we're going to use these doodads to connect the speakers to the desk, leaving a set spare for me to continue to do walkabouts and terrorise/amaze the punters. I've bought these from eBay and Amazon before, but this time I went straight to Lekato - https://lekatodeal.com/en-uk/products/lekato-ws-70-wireless-guitar-audio-system-transmitter-receiver-70-channels-40m and right now they're having some Black Friday nonsense - got 25% off so an already very reasonable £41 became an even more agreeable £30.75. Free shipping. Coming from abroad though, so perhaps the taxman will wipe the grin off my face and take that discount right back off of me, but you never know!

I've been using a Lekato WS-70 UHF system for a year and a half now (well, two really, safety net if I forget to charge a set during a double gig weekend as I'm bound to do now and again). They have never let me down, the only time I've ever had dropouts is when I've pushed the range a bit too much (usually because I've gone round a corner on a walkabout or something daft). They're compact, sound good to my cloth ears and I've never felt the need to look around for anything better.

It takes all kinds... unfortunately.

So, are we all agreed that the UK plug/socket design is the best on the planet? Good.

Yup, no blend knob. Embrace the determinism...

It's a DeArmond Jet Star, with added Peavey T-40 pickup.

Wil bought an SGC Nanyo bass from me. Came to mine to collect. Lovely chap, great to meet you. Hope you enjoy the bass!

B - in the process of being restored, PSU caps done, but mucho funny business being displayed ATM.

Well, I have (admittedly this example is at the device side, not the plug side) But if this had been at the plug end, I would not have been happy to find a soldered plug. Might have chucked it in the bin and got another one if that was the case. To be honest, in this day and age of moulded plugs, it's getting pretty rare to have to wire a plug. But I stand ready to do so. As for screws coming loose - you can always tighten them up. Not that I've ever experienced a screw come loose at a plug prong through basic usage. The cable grip, aye, occasionally. Never hacked apart a moulded plug, hmm - might do that one day if I'm at a loose end

No, I've never done it and I've never even thought about doing it until you mentioned it the now. Nope, still not doing it. I don't see what value it brings - the UK plug is already over engineered to the nth degree (which is why it's the best plug design on the planet - fight me). Reason why not? Apart from it being completely unnecessary, it would make replacing a worn cable a bigger job than it needs to be.

I don't know, but props to you for asking instead of just going ahead.

Heh, nice - a professional player still using their old TU-2. I'll only replace mine if it dies.