KingBollock

I have an Aria Pro II MAB-20/5. It was my first five string. It plays nicely and it sounds early good. But my goodness is it ugly! I hate it so much that I feel sorry for it because it really doesn’t deserve such rancor.

I imagine that if you were to remove the side, an extra screw hole would be revealed. When installing the ears, you would reuse the screws you have just removed, and also the two (one for each side) that come extra. You wouldn’t see the shaped side panel if racked anyway, so there’d be no need for them.

It looks like it takes three screws and the ears sit flush against a flat side, then scoop forward. So, I wonder if the V vented side panel needs to be removed to reveal the extra screw hole?

I have a Bass Baby 150w, 1x15” combo, that my wife picked up at a local auction. It looks rough and some of the pots and sliders need a clean, but it does indeed sound very nice. It weighs a bloomin’ ton, though!

I think Subhumans are my favourite punk band, though I have never seen them live. Mind you, the only punk band I have seen live is Conflict.

You make a good point. When I was single I briefly became homeless, I spent two weeks (so not long) living in a stairwell behind a cinema. I still owned my first bass. A friend stored it for me. Later, while living in a bed-sit, I got mucked around financially (I was naive and trusted the words of the wrong people) and it ended up that my landlord was taking very penny I had. Most weeks I would be lucky if I got to eat once. I didn’t like to talk about it, but sometimes a friend might buy me a bag of chips or something. And still I held onto that bass. Years later, while married, finances became troublesome once again. Though it wasn’t really my fault, so that we could both eat, I felt that I needed to sell my beloved bass. I got all of £60 for it. And I have regretted it every day since.

My BC Rich Warlock NT. In 1989, I was asked what my ultimate bass would be, and that bass is exactly what I described. Black, neck through, double P, with a Widow headstock. The thing is that they didn’t start making them until 1999, and they stopped production in 2009. I didn’t even know about them until they’d stopped making them. I found mine on EBay in around 2012. It was a ridiculous gamble (though, with a Warwick coffin case and postage, it only came to £265). The description was basic at best and the single photograph was blurry. After two weeks with no contact, I messaged the fella and he told me he’d forgotten it was even up for sale. It came a couple of days later. Phew! It had a single piece of cardboard stuck to one side and the rest was wrapped in two bin liners... It plays beautifully (once I had ground the bottoms off the bridge saddles to make it playable) and sounds great and my heart still skips a beat every time I look at it.

The first thing I would do is go to each neighbour and explain that you play music, and that if your music is too loud, they should tell you, else you have no real way of knowing (this is what I did). I have decibel meters on my iPad and my phone, so that I can keep an eye on the volume. You should be fine with anything up to about 65db, which I would say is like a loud conversation. As BigRedX said, even with headphones, there is still going to be some acoustic noise. I used to have a Zoom B1on that I would stick in a guitar case to take away on holiday breaks. They can be bought cheap, have loads of features and good quality effects. It can also be powered via wall-wart or batteries.

It’s possible to suffer all three, at the same time, and it’s horrible! I have nerve damage in my spine and one of the symptoms is having no feeling in most of the skin on my left buttock, down the back of my left leg and my left foot. When touching the dead areas I can’t feel anything. Sometimes I get itches in those areas but scratching has no effect because I can’t feel it, it’s maddening! If I touch the line between where I can feel and where I can’t, it feels like my whole leg has become a giant tongue and I’ve just licked a massive 9 volt battery!

Indeed, I sold my very first bass/love to Cash Converters. One of my life’s biggest regrets, but I had no choice at the time (due to someone else’s poor decisions…).

I have always found that the easiest way to get old solder to reflow, is to add new solder to it. I have been using the same, 17w Antex iron since 1991, and have never had a problem with it. I have never tried lead free solder.

That’s really interesting, I had no idea. After reading your description it reminded me of the Discworld Clacks, so I looked it up. And indeed, the Clacks was based on the real thing. Every day is a school day! https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Clacks