KingBollock

Say I wanted to make my own bass nut from scratch but had no existing nut to base it's measurements on. How would I go about making a blank? What I am really worried about is going to all the time and trouble of carving one out of steel and then going a tiny bit too far with the slots and buggering it up. Is there a measurement based on the height of the first fret that I should use and not go lower than? I have been thinking about doing this for ages but never got around to it, however I have discovered that the nut slot on the g string is ever so slightly too low, requiring the action to be higher than it otherwise could be. And I like my action really low. There is already rather more relief in the neck than I would like, so I didn't want to have to increase that. What I really could do with is showing it to someone that can look at it with new eyes because I am getting too frustrated with it. Such a simple thing and I have been doing it for years, but just not getting it right with this bass, possibly because this bass means more to me than the others. If I manage to do this successfully, I want to carve a nut from bone for my five string. I should probably start with that one, I've got everything set fine on that bass, it would just be a case of making a perfect replica. I only want to replace it because bone would suit the binding better than the current black one. See, I am actually really vain, but I am too fat and ugly to get away with it myself, so I transfer it onto my basses.

If the rest of the shaft is 6 or 6.3mm diameter then it shouldn't matter if you put a round screw locking type on it. You can set the screw to fit against the flat edge. I'm having no end of trouble finding knobs for my amp, 4mm shafts, bloody stupid thing!

Mine's a cheapy (£200 new) Fender five string but I love it. Lots of fun can be had by transferring finger picking rolls onto the bass, too.

I managed to confuse my wife when I asked her to pass me her hair straightener while she was doing her barnet. It has a very flexible lead, felt like neoprene, and it is black. I meant to have a look to see if her hair dryer had a similar lead but I couldn't find it, it might still be packed from her holiday, but it makes sense that such things would have flexible leads, to make wielding them easier. If you can't find a broken hair dryer to nick the lead from, I happen to know that you can "make" a broken one by trying to turn it into a super powered bong... I also know that the owner won't be very happy about it, but it is too late by then.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1401101872' post='2459985'] Where would music be without entertainment? Surely the real conclusion is that there is room for all forms of music . . . Even karaoke and elevator Muzak. You just have to choose the stuff you like and allow others to do the same. [/quote] It would be sososososososo much more artistic and worthy!

[quote name='Nibody' timestamp='1401043988' post='2459500'] Personally I'd cover it in brass fittings and cogs and flog it to a Steampunk band . I remember first rig I had was a Carlsboro 150w stack (when I knew nothing about anything). Came with one matching 1x15 and an odd shaped 1x15 cab of undetermined origin. Bought some chipboard and basically reverse engineered the Carlsboro cab, and built a copy using the speaker and fittings from the odd shaped cab. Actually sounded better than the Carlsboro original. [/quote] Yesterday I coughed and sneezed at the same time, [i]that[/i] sounded better than the Carlsboro Stingray I used to own.

Sort of reminds me of a design I have had in my head for a couple of years. The plan is to take an existing cab and clad it with rough looking boards and add vertical bars in place of a grill, to make the whole thing look like an old animal crate.

How about making one from the mains lead to an old clothes iron? They have to be pretty flexible because of the way they are used. Maybe, using that criteria, someone might be able to think of something better.

Perhaps the Chapman stick is the bride? Might explain why it appears to be covered in sp**k.

That looks ace (Someone already did the brilliant thing...). I am a sucker for anything shiny but it's not just the lights that look cool, the overall effect is really nice. I have some plans for using black light LEDs and UV reactive paint.

I have seen High-on Maiden a couple of times and a Beatles tribute that I think was called The Fab Four. Enjoyed both. I'd be up for a Rammstein tribute band made up of chubbies. As long as I got to set fire to stuff. I used to work for the bass player for AB/CD. Never saw them play, though, can't stand AC/DC, so not much point really. They once supported the Stereophonics in an arena in Cardiff after winning a competition on MTV.

Decided to widen the scope of the topic as I have another question or two. Firstly, for now. How do people go about running guitar cables and mains cables to their pedalboards? I have seen people with mains extensions on their boards, and even with a pedalboard power supply you need to get AC power to it. I want to be able to run the pedalboard power from a rack mounted power strip, probably a Samson PB10, so that all my power comes from one place. I was hoping to be able to make an umbilical with the audio and mains cables bundled together, with a good, solid amount of shielding covering the audio cables by wrapping the audio cables together with copper or aluminium tape, which would be earthed, then running the mains cable along side and all wrapped up together with self amalgamating tape or something, but this isn't going to be enough is it? I was also considering a multi core audio cable, with four wires and a shield. There would be two audio cables, each using two of the core wires, and then attach the shield to ground at one end. I would use a suitable plug and socket at each end, perhaps even a PC monitor type which can be screwed into place for extra security, then have a box with the socket at each end, one on the pedalboard and one on the rack, to split the cables to go where they need to. I think this would be neat and simple to set up once built. I know I am over complicating things but I have too much time to think about this stuff and, to be honest, all the fun for me is in the designing and building, the more complicated the more fun, but I don't want to do it all and end up with something that is crap. Even with all the extra stuff I don't mind if it just works as well as a more simple setup, I just don't want it to be worse.

There are albums that I adore but can't listen to because they remind me of other times and make me sad. Björk's Debut album, along with white musk incense, always makes me feel like Christmas.

Worth knowing if I ever needed cheap components that I wanted to put together myself.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1400097463' post='2450812'] Ha! I knew it would be something interesting or disturbing! This is both!! [/quote] Bugger, you replied before I edited my post to better satisfy you!

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1400096787' post='2450792'] Don't like that explanation. It sounds far too reasonable. [/quote] All right, you've got me! I have a terrible compulsion to eat soap every time I swear, having been forced to do so as a child, and my wife likes me to talk nasty in the bedroom.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1400094530' post='2450742'] Should I ask why you ordered £300-worth of soap? A particularly dirty weekend, perhaps? [/quote] It was fancy craft soaps, with petals and stuff in them. They come in large bricks which you cut up and sell. My wife had a stall selling that kind of thing.

In the last house we lived in we had problems with parcel deliveries because it was difficult to park near the house and the road was too narrow and busy to just stop in the road for any amount of time. They would pull up, jump out and just stick a card through the door without knocking. I actually answered the door as one of them stuck the card through the door. He looked suitably shamed, having in turned bright red, he went and got my parcel and not a single word passed between us. It was quite funny. Fortunately we were only there for six months. We don't have the same problem here. We have a drive that they can pull up to (though they don't pull right onto the drive, even though it is actually illegal to park across the entrance because there is a zebra crossing right there). They don't bother knocking, they just put everything in the utility room, accessed at the side of the house, where it is safe. The worst delivery we had was back when we lived in the Midlands. We had £300 worth of soap delivered, but they didn't put a card through the door and hid the parcel under a bush behind the wheelie bin in the front garden. It was there for two weeks before we found it. It had been a very wet fortnight and the soaps ended up as one huge lump. Fortunately the place we bought it from replaced it without fuss.

You've got me interested in it now, didn't even know it existed before. This video might help with your questions: http://youtu.be/wbTX9CNbzDo I think it looks ace, but I'm like a moth when it comes to colourful lights and twinkly things.

Sometimes Bass is the easier (not easy) option, but only because I believe some people are more naturally inclined to a particular instrument. I started on Bass and I think I got lucky in finding the right instrument for me early on. I have been playing guitar for only a couple of years less than Bass, but, even though I use chords, I still play it like a Bass player. I am the same with Banjo and Ukulele, too. I get told I even look like a Bass player. I will never forget the time a mate of mine, a ridiculously naturally talented guitarist, picked up my Bass for the first time and had a go. A few minutes later he handed it back, shaking the pain out of his hands... "Not as easy as it looks, is it?". I had no idea he even thought it was easy in the first place.

It has been proven that ear candles don't work, but could it actually be worse? Other than the obvious fire hazard. How warm does your ear get when you set fire to something stuck in it? Surely making the ear warm would cause the ear wax to flow in the direction of gravity? Isn't this likely to cause a worse blockage? Unless it stays warm enough to slop back down to the bottom of the ear canal when you sit up.

I was really hoping that no one would mention ear candles. Massive con, as has already been said, and a real risk of injury. I have to confess to being naughty in my ear cleaning. When I am in the shower I direct it into my ears, where the warm water softens the wax. I then use a little scoop, actually designed for the job, to get most of it out. Then gently mop up any residue with cotton buds. I use a NeilMed sinus cleaning kit, which is really good, and they do an ear kit, too. I will get one and try it at some point. Of course, real men use a car key.

I can't imagine meeting a BassChatter in person and having a dull conversation. There are quite a few I really would love to meet, many of whom are owed a beer, but being the shut-in that I am... I'd also love to go to a BassBash but I'm not sure turning up with a BC Rich Warlock in a Coffin case is the done thing... And if I accidentally wondered into the nursery school nextdoor, they would still all be better than me on Bass. Even if it was nap time. The closest I've got was my wife meeting another BassChatter's wife.

I have always used furniture polish. It's what we used to use when I worked in a guitar shop. Lighter fluid for white guitars, because everyone bar me smoked like a chimney, and polish for everything else. I gave my Warlock a good setup and clean yesterday and, thanks to this thread, decided to try Flash, it worked a bloomin' treat! It's a glossy black finish (gonna have a crack at dulling the neck at some point. I have a dodgy left thumb and sometimes it gets strained when sticking while moving around on the neck a lot), I wish there was a way to keep dust off it. It always seems that as soon as I have finished dusting it it needs doing again (like painting the Golden Gate Bridge). I always thought furniture polish was supposed to be anti-static, so able to repel dust, but not for my Warlock, apparently. I use a large, soft makeup brush for final dusting, but it seems glossy black abhors a dust free exterior.