rushbo

I love the idea of a pedalboard, but I've never really been happy with one of mine. Although, to be fair, the Rockboard is the first actually "proper" board I've ever owned, having used offcuts of MDF in the past. If you're that way inclined, pedals must be great fun to collect and swap like Panini stickers or Pokemon cards. I really enjoy looking at the expansive boards that some Basschatters share on the forum, but it tends to be in a "rather you than me" way... Right now, I'm happy with my teeny little board and my minimal collection of gizmos. They may be small, but they were very carefully planned. And that's half the fun, isn't it?

Where's the fun in that? Seriously, it was a pretty useful exercise as I wanted to get my pedals in as small a footprint as possible, so it was nice to physically move stuff about. I'd imagine that if you had truckloads of gizmos, one of those template dealios would be just the ticket.

I'm an unapologetic planner. My board is pretty tiny (a Rockboard Tres) but before I bought it, I measured out the surface area of the Rockboard on my workbench, marked it with some masking tape and then cut out paper shapes of the area of each pedal. I dutifully shuffled them about to make sure I could get them on comfortably. (No, I don't live alone in my mother's basement - why do you ask?)

I've just picked up one of these: https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_mixer_stand.htm?sid=174a0a6518ddea26a5234e3bfdcc43ef With a maximum load of 136kg, it should be sturdy enough for most applications... I've gigged with it a couple of times and it held my combo (a Genz Benz Contour) very nicely. I've actually removed the extendable legs as the height was fine already without having to go any higher. Because I'm a bit OCD, I bought some cheapo black cloth to drape over it, so it doesn't look like the combo is perched on a table.

Sigh. I wish I was cool enough to play one of those.

Yes it was - I sent a message and asked if they could do "Prescription Bass" in Helvetica, Calibri or Arial at 14pt in bold. The seller tried all the options and the one that worked best was Helvetica. So there were two transactions in all - one for the "Fedner" logo and one for the "Prescription Bass" lettering, so the total cost, including P+P was £2.98.

I have a lot of fun putting bitsa basses together - nothing high end, just grafting orphaned necks onto bodies and playing around with spray paint - that sort of thing. I always put on a "Fender style" headstock sticker as I think headstocks look a little bit weird if they're left blank. Generally, I use waterslide decals, but I find them to be very hit and miss - sometimes they go on perfectly, but more often than not, it takes me multiple attempts to get something I'm happy with. Looking for alternatives, I found an eBay seller - morphiuscraftsuk which does cheap and cheerful, die cut stickers. I ordered the "Fender style" version and although it wont fool anyone (which isn't really the point...), I thought it looked rather good. I got back to them to do another sticker in a font which they didn't advertise on the site and they came back straight away with a number of options. I ordered it, and part II came today. Once again, it looks ace. Customer service was incredibly good, especially as the items were so cheap. Total cost: 2 x £1.49 If you're lovingly recreating a 1963 Fender Jazz, this isn't the product for you. If you're using up those bits from the parts box and you want a quick, no mess logo to finish it off, this might be a viable option. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323769332446?ul_noapp=true

Frank gave me- yes gave me - a Polytune clip on tuner . He even went out and bought a Jiffy bag specially. And paid postage. This obviously makes him a truly righteous dude. Thanks Frank. Now I have no excuse to be out of tune anymore.

Fascinating stuff. He always come across like a real sweetheart, too.

I've had about five variants of this "company" pop up on my FaceBook feed offering £2000 guitars for £86. It's the biggest scam since Scammy McScamster opened up a branch of "Scams R Us" in Scamstown, Scamshire and offered a free scam with every scam purchased over £85. I'd avoid it, if I was you.

Eric Idle is a pretty useful guitarist, but the reason that he may not be 100% convincing as a Bassist here, is the fact that he’s a right handed musician, playing the role of someone who’s left handed. Here’s a little test- flip your bass around the other way and try and play something that sounds like music and look convincing while you do it.

...and possibly ambitious. My combo comes in at a shade under 24 kilos and sits very happily on the stand, with the legs on the lowest setting. I wouldn't really want to go much higher or much heavier than that. It's mainly intended for mixer units, but there are a few positive reviews from people who use them to hold combos and PA speakers. Only time will tell, I guess, but the early signs are very good.

I use a Genz Benz Contour combo - great sound and not too heavy. When I'm gigging, if there's room in the car/van, I'll bring along the extension cab for the combo to sit on, but most of the time, I don't bother. I've been looking for something to direct a bit of the signal towards my ears and not at the back of my knees for ages. I don't trust the "tilt back" stands - with good reason as some of the posts above prove! I finally found this - A Millennium mixer stand from Thomann. It folds up to a sensible size and according to the spec, it's well capable of supporting my combo. Its a sensible price too - £37 incl P+P. My combo has been perched on one for a few days now and it hasn't fallen off and crushed anything yet. I'd be reticent to put anything too weighty on it, especially on it's highest setting, but it seems to be doing a great job at the moment... https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_mixer_stand.htm?sid=c43730682627b18f9c23051cfeab8379

My pleasure....just don’t blame me if the universe implodes, due to your silk removal!

I may be doing something potentially life threatening but... I swapped some flats out from one bass to another, which generated the inevitable "tatty silk at the tuning peg end" effect. I got my handy craft knife and rubbed gently along the frayed silk and it came off easily and cleanly, which eased my mild case of OCD immediately. I've never removed any silk from the bridge end, but if there's no significant reason why strings must have silks at the peg end (and a quick Google search seems to corroborate that) then as long as you have a cheapo craft knife and 10 minutes of spare time, you too can eradicate the horror of a frayed silk. Caveat: The silk bits turn to dust and fly everywhere, so have a dustpan and brush to hand, or do it outside.

I was curious about Olympias and bought a set a few years back. They’re excellent- not just good value for money, but a great sounding set of strings. I’d been using Fender flats, but I couldn’t really get on with the tension, and the Olympia strings have much more ‘give’ to them, than the Fender set. I’d agree that they’re about medium tension. They have a little more brightness than some flatwounds, which suits my current band, as I have to alternate between early 70s thump and 80s twang, both of which these strings do very well. I love ‘em.

This was way better than I thought it would be. It sounded like a band - in fact, it sounded more like Yes than the last version of Yes I saw...

I may have dreamed this, but I seem to remember a strap which had a pocket at the bridge end. You could fill it with fishing weights, which helped to eliminate neck dive.

I loved my B9.1. I let mine go when the B3 came out and as much as I love my B3, the B9.1 was the best multi fx pedal I have ever used, in terms of programability (especially on the fly) and for live use. The size of it was a bit of a drawback, as at the time, I was playing mainly small pubs and clubs, so with the band all squashed together, it wasn't unusual to have a foreign foot stomping on a pedal mid song. If it wasn't for that , I probably still be using mine to this day.

That Sandberg looks gorgeous.

I’m in.