tauzero

Grow your fingernails a bit, so they catch the strings as you pluck.

I don't mind my lot doing some things to help - take speakers off stands, fold stands up and put them in bag, put speakers in slip covers, coil mains leads (which have velcro ties and are colour coded with insulting tape for length). They know to leave me to coil the XLR leads (2 to FOH, 2 to monitors, 2 to mics, the vocalist brings his own XLR lead and mic). I don't bother with subdividing the leads case, XLR leads are colour coded (orange = FOH, green = monitors, purple = my mic) so easy enough to get what I want out at the next gig.

Must have put an extra zero on the end of the price by accident.

The drummer had our banner made and I made the stand for it, so he's going to have those, plus my lights (just four LED units). I find setting up the slowest part - PA first (two tops, two monitors, Behringer box and controller console), then my bass rig (which isn't massive, just a combo and whatever pedalboard/effects I want). Knocking down is much easier as I'm not playing hunt the socket and daisy chaining three or four mains extensions. Due to my 10kg rule, carrying stuff isn't too hard, and the rest of the band are very helpful - generally I'm just ready to start taking stuff to the car as the guitarists have packed their own stuff and helped the drummer, so there's at least four of us to take my stuff out. Having played in a few bands where members have been no help at all, it's a very welcome change.

Their old premises on Smallbrook Queensway are to be demolished - I bought a Variax 300 from there 19 years ago. I still have it, in fact.

I have posted a very belated NBD thread. The bass was purchased and received in 2023, initially put together then, but I decided to use bolts and inserts rather than screws for the neck joint, and the preamp was seriously defective, so those bits were purchased this year. The replacement preamp was an Artec SE3, so not a big upgrade from the average Chinese anonymous preamp. I think I'm still just about in unless there's any objections. I thought I'd better disclose all this in the interest of transparency.

Some time ago (back in 2023), I bought a Chinese fan-fret bass for the grand total of about £225 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404181116674. This was shipped with the neck off to keep shipping prices down. I initially screwed the neck on, then decided to use inserts and bolts, and also to replace the preamp which was absolutely dreadful (pots did either nothing or something unexpected, with what appeared to be the volume control having a centre detente). I also decided that the neck could do with a shim. So I finally got round to finishing it a couple of days ago. The body is a rather unconvincing photoflame. The neck is slightly on the chunky side but comfortable and the frets are finished beautifully, not a sharp end to be found. I've been able to get it down to a good low action. The preamp is now an Artec SE3 as the original was a five-pot preamp - this necessitated a tiny bit of routing with a Dremel, as the pots sit in recesses which wouldn't accommodate the preamp circuit board so I had to bridge between to recesses. I left the original pickups in for the time being, they seem pretty good. It also has the original strings on which aren't so good, they're rather dull so I'm not sure how well the treble control works. Incidentally, the tuners have good and bad points. Strings go straight through the middle of the knob so there's none of the weak points associated with the claw type string holders, and none of the fiddliness of getting ball ends in and out of the tuners (especially the B string on a fiver). However, the intonation is by sliding the entire tuner back and forth, for which the string has to be removed, and the string height is adjusted by a screw in the middle of the brass bridge saddle. If the bridge saddles could be moved independently fore and aft and up and down, on a fixed base, the tuners would be far better. It will be getting an outing at an open mic later this week.

I prefer a 34". However, I'm also quite happy on an 18" Ashbory, and I have a 32" acoustic which is very comfortable and has an excellent sound. Then again, I also have a 36" 6er which is very playable, and an Ibanez multiscale (33-35).

If it's a blues jam night, most of the time it will be a variant of a twelve-bar for which a walking bass line will be the best fit [1]. Essential bits to know are the key and the order that I IV and V are played in (and if they're sticking in any odd ii or vi somewhere). It's useful to be able to read a guitarist's finger when they're playing chords, especially if they're so loud you can't make out what's going on. But these things will come. The first thing to do is build up your confidence - it sounds like they're quite an encouraging lot so stick at it. Would you be able to get there a bit early and run through something with the drummer and a guitarist before the evening starts? [1] Folsom Prison Blues doesn't count. That's root-5 all the way.

"I have made four of these so they're going to be very rare" (on the other advert). They'd have been even rarer if he'd only made one, and the world would have been a better place.

"Please ignore" threads are where the best parties happen. Has anyone brought Pringles?

I have an Alesis SR-16 which I occasionally use, though when I program drums now it's generally in MIDI - only for studio use, not live.

I suppose that shows how forward-looking Brian May was when he and his dad built it in 1963.

"Book him, Danno"?

I've just put some on my Pedulla and Sei fretlesses. Haven't played them much as yet but they seem to go twang in a satisfactory way.

I'm the one lugging the PA, and storing it for that matter. I've got a 10kg limit on any single item, so bass rig is a GR Bass AT800 combo, FOH is a pair of Alto TS408s, and monitors are a pair of Alto TS308s. Just vocals and sometimes one guitar going through them.

I thought New Zealand had progressed past the 70s.

How would they come together? Socket A powers a few things, which will almost all contain some form of power supply converting the AC to DC. Socket B on a different phase powers various other devices to which the same applies. Are there any devices which will connect socket A to socket B?

Gone, and never called me mother.

All off so I can give the fretboard a clean and dust round the pickups.

Marked as sold. Various possibilities - someone with more money than sense has come along, he's accepted a realistic offer, or he's marked it as sold to annoy everyone who says it's too expensive.

Barrel jacks are dreadful things and should be regarded as consumables.

2.4GHz and 5.8GHz. That's guitar wirelesses, for radio mics I've just got 2.4GHz.

Damn.