tauzero

Robin Smith's ensemble at The Alexandra theatre in Birmingham, on the Tubular Bells: The Best of Tubular Bells I, II & III tour. Very impressive performance, the only bit of a let down was the bass - audible in the mix but I suspect using a P with flats, it was just a dull thud with no mids and absolutely no treble giving not a lot of pitch information. The ensemble was Robin Smith on keys, accompanied by two guitarists (one of whom played the clavinet on the instrument introductions), one bassist, one vocalist, one cellist (playing an NS Cello), and two percussionists playing everything hittable, from a stock drumkit to glockenspiel and (of course) the tubular bells. First half was excerpts from Tubular Bells II and III, plus Moonlight Shadow, second half was all of Tubular Bells. The musicianship was great, as was the sound in the main (the thuddy bass didn't spoil it), the female vocalist was tremendous. The guitar tech/roadie kept doing the guitar swaps for one guitarist, while the other guitarist had to swap his own guitars - not sure why that was. Anyroadup, the tour continues, and I'm sure tickets will be available at other venues - the Alex was quite full but it wasn't sold out.

Always the whining about Coldplay. Stop the bitterness and envy, before it destroys you.

Microfrets so they can get quarter tones in the lower part of the neck.

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.

You may be watching the wrong programme. If you want your tat fixed, you have to go to Tattoo Fixers, where your 2cm x 4cm tattoo saying "BOB" (your ex-husband) will be transformed into a giant peacock covering your entire arm, or your rather unfunny tiny little picture of a man weeing somewhere a few centimetres north of your penis will be turned into a Cthulhu covering your entire torso. That is one programme where the punishment in no way fits the crime.

I think we should take a helicopter view of this, preliminary to a deep dive. And don't forget to think outside the box while you're pushing the envelope. We must use synergy for organic growth.

Where are the pitchforks and blazing torches? She's got a clip-on tuner on the headstock!

I'm baffled by all the variants of EBMM, SBMM, Sterling, SUB, etc Rays. I'm currently at the cheap end with a <checks headstock> SUB series Sterling, made in Indonesia and presumably a Ray5. I'm sure somebody listed the various ranges and models a while ago but I haven't been able to find it. Would anybody be able to produce a definitive list of Rays past and present, with maybe some information on things like neck profiles, virtues, and vices? Pictures would be nice, preferably showing the headstock so it's simple to know what you're looking at when you spot one in the wild.

I'm not keen on the looks of singlecuts [1], although I do have one - a Barcus 6-string fretless that was feeling unwanted at a Gardiner Houlgate auction, so I took pity on it. Very nice to play, and the top unhorn slopes to the neck rather than being one of those (like the Ibanez above) where the unhorn slopes back towards the bridge giving it a Snoopy nose. Other than the looks, there's nothing really to differentiate this from other basses. The neck is very playable, it sounds good. [1] Except Les Pauls, though I'm not so keen on the basses

Probably not an autobiography.

You could use M7 spring washers to space out a 7mm thread pot: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363082401549