KingBollock

My worry would be that the US buddies up with Russia. I believe that Trump would be uncomfortable with that power dynamic, he’d be afraid of Putin, so he’d happily let North Korea join them, just so he’d have Un to feel he’d could lord it over. I don’t know what China would do. I sort of see them sitting back and watching, to se where they could best take advantage. As you might notice, I don’t really get into politics. Most of my views in this are based on Trump as a person.

I’m not so sure that a civil war would happen. I think that a lot of republicans might even be relieved, and they’d soon stick some other buffoon in Trump’s place. My worry is a world war. What I can’t decide is whether Europe should grow a backbone or not. Would that antagonise Russia and the US? Or should we just roll over to try to avoid a war? I have a feeling that any backbone grown would be a weak thing and we’d end up capitulating anyway, just after a lot of death and destruction.

He wants to be a dictator. He is jealous of the way other dictators are pandered to and worshipped. He said as much after meeting with Kim Jong Un. He doesn’t care what damage he does. He got the courts to make it so that any thing he does as president, no matter how illegal, is legal as long as he says it’s official. So what has he got to lose? He either comes away disgustingly rich, or he gets to rule until he dies, filling his, and his friend’s, pockets as he goes. He is truly loathsome.

I have a list of words and phrases that I often add to, that I would like to use as band names, effect pedal names or knobs on effect pedals (should I actually get around to building any more…). Some of the pedals I have built have very long and pretentious names. Dank & Fetid Earth Beneath A Doom Coloured Sun, being a favourite. It’s two different kinds of Big Muff in one box (a Musket and a ‘73 Ram’s Head). I always liked the idea of a punk band named KingBollock & The Danglies. Which sounds fun but doesn’t really work if you think about it. I was once in a death metal band called Bum F#ckers From Hell. Which was suggested by a friend of the band, who was actually quite homophobic (not nastily, it was just something he couldn’t cope with. Lovely fella otherwise). Then we had an opportunity to support Bolt Thrower and suddenly everything got serious and our name got changed to Cerberus, which I wasn’t happy about. Especially as the reason we got the opportunity was because of another band supporting called Dirtbox (who were brilliant. I so wish I could find the demo of there’s that I had). Anyway, sadly, it all fell apart and it never happened. Thinking of using paint names… I do a lot of model painting and use a lot of Citadel paints, which often have interesting names. I do my wife’s head in when we’re out and about and I keep pointing out and naming the colours of cars by the Citadel paint name. The trouble is that Games Workshop are extremely litigious, so probably best not used for a band name. There is actually a link between Bolt Thrower and Games Workshop/Warhammer, including their name and the release and artwork of their early albums.

Now if only they had Skaven in 40K!

I had a parcel delivered by Evri recently, and I think it was only due Evri that I got what I had ordered. The box was made of very thin cardboard and was far too big for what was in it (which was some quite delicate, wooden boxes) with absolutely nothing for padding, they were just left to rattle about. Due to the box being closed using only one piece of sellotape, the box was actually open when I got it. It can only be due to careful handling by at least some staff at Evri, that everything was still in the box and was undamaged. I have had some bad experiences with Evri in the past, but we’ve not had any problems with them since moving here. My wife has nothing but praise for our driver.

I wonder how many people would be fine with getting the same make and model, rather than the exact bass that they owned? I’d be ok with any Westone Raider I in silver/grey that was in good nick. It would be nice of it had the hard case, too, especially if it had the same smell. In fact, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell. There was slight buckle rash on the back and I had added a small sticker of a vulture perched on a skull, to the headstock, which I would imagine would have been removed. The biggest giveaway would be the case, since it had my name embossed in huge letters on the front of it… I was 12 years old, I thought it looked cool! I never considered that I’d ever no longer own it. I used to think that if I could, I’d get two of them. One to keep as is and another to add a second P pickup and active circuitry. If I could only get one I would keep as is. Though, I always seem to miss out if/when they do come up for sale. Someone even made a thread on this forum pointing out one for sale on EBay, in 2021 (I think), but I had wondered off from BassChat around then, so I missed it. That’ll teach me!

This isn’t a band story, but WalMan reminded me of it… It was new year and I was working with a mobile disco. It was a very large and impressive setup, and included pyros. For some reason the boss put the button for the pyros under a table behind some light boxes. I spent the last half an hour of the year asking one particular bloke to move back because he was too close to one of the pots. Come midnight, I’m on the floor, under the table with the button and I can’t see a thing… I only went and set the bloke’s jumper on fire!

Some friends of ours, my wife, and I were heading Skegness for a couple of days. My mate said that, as he’d lived there and visited regularly, that he knew the way and would supply directions… We started off in Nuneaton and got as far as Leicester, about 17 miles. Then, somehow, we ended up in Wolvey, which was about 2 miles from where we started. We followed the sat nav a couple years ago while heading home to south-west Wales from north Norfolk. For some reason it sent us via London. The trip took over 8 hours.

My first love was a Westone Raider 1 in silver/grey that I got in 1987. It was so very 80s. (Not my photo) I have regretted selling it every day since I parted with it.

I don’t quite know why I am mentioning this because it is probably stupid and impractical… I am quite a large fella, I’m mostly all belly (parts of me look like they belong to a much fitter/thinner person. I wish that the rest of my body was as lean and muscled as my legs!). This puts a lot of pressure on my already damaged back. Anyway, one day I was out at a quarry collecting rocks for a vivarium setup. I ended up with a rucksack on my back with about 50lbs of rocks in it. My back hadn’t felt so good in a long time! So, I am wondering if attaching some kind of counter balance to the back of your strap might help? I don’t know what you’d use, and it would probably be best if it was not obvious. Maybe a small dumb-bell weight covered by something? Or a bag of sand/rocks. It wouldn’t have to be huge as it only has to counter balance some of the weight of your bass. Something small but dense. I don’t know, like I said it’s probably stupid. It might only have to be used for a short time while you work on strengthening your core. It might even help with that because as well as a counter balance, it would be extra weight. It could work like those weights that people carry or attach to their ankles while out jogging.

I inherited a couple of Recorders but I really can’t get on with them. I really enjoyed playing when I was a kid, but an incident put an abrupt end to that. I play the Penny Whistle a bit. Badly, but I enjoy it. Finally got around to buying a Clarke Sweetone a few days ago. I think I’m going to give up on trying different ones now. I just really like the Clarke Original. Along similar lines, I own a tiny Ocarina in D, but it is far too shrill to enjoy practising. At some point I hope to get one an octave lower.

I once took some speed and picked up a guitar (skinny stringer). Over the next twelve hours, without a break, I learned to play the first two Pearl Jam albums. I eventually got to sleep but when I woke up my fingers were in agony. I’m not a guitarist, so didn’t have the appropriate calluses… I couldn’t touch anything with my left hand, never mind a guitar, for over two weeks! By the time I could pick up an instrument, I had completely forgotten everything I had learned that night. I miss weed. It is one of the few things that can help when my mental health takes one of its regular dives into despair. But, when the only person you know, that could conceivably get you some, is your wife, and she works for the police…

Megadeth - Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying. I was 13. Until that point I had only ever played blues riffs from a book I had. I actually had the tab book for Guns & Roses - Appetite For Destruction, but I just couldn’t get anything to sound right… I had no idea that you could tune your bass differently… Then I joined my first band. It was decided that, because Peace Sells was the most difficult song to play, it should be the first for me to learn. It took me two weeks to get right. I can’t remember how many songs they had in their set (they had been playing the same set for two years at that point), but Peace Sells was the only one I had ever actually heard. There was Metallica - Seek And Destroy (I’d only heard the Master Of Puppets album), King Diamond - Dressed In White, and a song by Zodiac Mindwarp (no idea what the song was). I’d never even heard of King Diamond or Zodiac Mindwarp. I think most of, if not all, the rest were originals.

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.