Maude

I will only wear a thin natural cotton t-shirt while gigging, anything thicker between the bass and my stomach affects the tone too much. Heavy knitwear will definitely result in a woolly tone, whilst synthetic fibres are good for slap.

After spending some time researching string choices for my Hofner Club it would appear that a lot of string manufacturer websites refer to scale length measured from nut to anchor point. The length I'd always called the scale length (nut to bridge) they refer to as the speaking length. Confusing.

Can't remember exactly, about £90 delivered I think.

Is it wrong that I don't actually know how many basses I have? They're stored in various hidey holes, living room, dining room, in cases in the workshop, in our rented rehearsal basement and a few in pieces "mid project".

There's two Horaces, one has a Ricky for sale. Therefore, an 'orace must have for sale.

Whatever the hiding place was you got the PA out of, just put your missus back in it. Job done!

Dan, who makes the Fdeck clones at the link supplied in a previous post will make one for you with or without the features you want. I had mine made without any frills, just the HPF control on the top and a 9v socket instead of a battery clip. I always use it and just roll off the bottom end as needed. It makes the whole band sound better as the sound in the room is cleaner without all those subharmonics rumbling around muddying things up. Your amp and speakers will thank you as well for taking the load off them. It takes a lot of power to produce the inaudible subharmonics of a doublebass, power that's wasted.

Evenin' all. I've just bought a Hofner Club bass and plan to put some flats on it. I normally use higher tension strings (you know what I mean, let's not start that conversation :)) on my other basses. So what 30" scale flats are on the higher end of the flats stiffness scale? The cheaper the better but happy to pay LaBella prices if they're what I need.

Cool! I need a set of flats for the Hofner Club I've just bought. Every little helps

I've just bought a Hofner Club bass, not with me yet. I've seen good reviews and gone for the cheapest option (Ignition) as its fully hollow, the medium priced (Contemporary) has a centre block which I don't want and the real deal expensive one is fully hollow but prohibitively expensive. I'll report back how loud it is acoustically when it turns up.

I've just noticed that Bax Music has 10% off this Sunday and Monday, just use discount code KA518. It's not massive but if you've got your eye on something it might help make your mind up.

Were the sellers initials A.L.?

I tried some fruitier prompts and got these results. No help I know but there you go Twisted Friday C.O.C.K. pink torpedo Metal Alice's Midnight Wronguns The Twisted Wronguns's Club Alice Wonder Perverted Blue Day Aliceatron No Rest For the Wronguns Undercover pink torpedo and the Perverted Thighs The Twisted Service Sixtyninedust Purely Blue Alice and the Wronguns Sixtynine Goats pink torpedo Attack Bathtub Pumping Cockback Pumping Thighs Sixtynine Pumping Iced Goats Teenage Perverted Blue Thighs Pumping at the Disco pink torpedo, Thighs and Goats The pink torpedo Sisters A Box of Thighs with Blue pink torpedo Beyond Soho Twilight of the pink torpedo Gods pink torpedo of the Twisted Thighs Twisted Goats Dream This pink torpedo

I love the sound of my Yamaha Bex4 with D'Addario half rounds on it and I have an Aria STB PBass with flats and foam mute I paid £40 for, roll off the tone and it's pure Motown/Stax heaven.

And as for 'tribute food'. The last time I looked, every major supermarket up and down the country were selling their own tribute version of the original foods, Weetabix, Shreddies and many other breakfast cereals are particularly well catered for. Lidl even do the whole dressing up lookalike thing, with their version of McCoy's crisps, Muller yoghurts, etc. They seem to be doing rather well which is strange if nobody is buying it.

I like those sort of backstage ones that you didn't know were being taken, almost like seeing the workings of the band if that makes sense. Here's one of our mod band.

Don't go spraying anything. You cannot de-nib or polish satin lacquer as it will become glossy, so you will be stuck with an imperfect finish unless you really know what you're doing. What you need is '3M Prep and Blend'. It's used for prepping cars for paint and will leave you with a perfectly even, matte finish. But if used watered down and lightly it will just take the shine off to any level you require and you won't see any scratches. It's a bit like a cutting compound except that it will just matte the paint. Ebay and Amazon will sell it.

Depends on personal taste but I've always liked the look of the Aria FEB's. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=aria+feb&client=ms-android-tmobile-gb&prmd=vimn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2i9eVkfzaAhWJK8AKHWUIBI0Q_AUIEigC&biw=360&bih=512#imgrc=FjlSPQSEfFo92M: Gear4Music have them for £220. Not tried one (daren't) but Aria usually make decent budget gear. The Harley Benton ones are good as well, I have a fretted and fretless and they're both good.

Playing or viewing?

Spent a whole day underground supplying background music for some terrible Christmas fair. It was at Carnglaze Caverns which was an underground slate mine and an amazing place. One of the caverns (used by the Navy a long time ago as a rum store) is used as a music venue but is at a constant low temperature and very damp. Outside was below freezing so slowly throughout the day your body temperature just got lower and lower. It was only the beginnings of our acoustic band so wasn't a full on set up but still a good experience. No pictures of us but this is 'The Rum Store' with the stage right down at the far end. Then another picture from Google to show the stage area closer. There are further caverns the deeper you go including on with an underground lake where Echo and the Bunnymen took the shot for their Ocean Rain album cover. The boat is still down there but they wouldn't let us recreate the shot for our first album. Anyway, it took about the same amount of time as we were down there to warm up again

Are they big enough to put the guitarist in with the amp, and the have a little duct to pump the smoke machine in?

Also make sure the groove the pick up sits in hasn't got any rogue bits of wood in it.

Before you buy a new saddle pick up or anything try fiddle around with the existing one. I've had this issue on a few acoustics at the 'value' end of the market, one even had Fishman pre and pick up. Loosen strings and remove saddle. Lightly sand the saddle base flat with the fine sandpaper, emery cloth, whatever you've got on a sheet of glass to get it dead flat. Reassemble and try all string volumes. If not fixed try slipping a piece of paper or two under one end of the pick up strip, even in the middle. It's all about getting the same pressure across the pick up from all strings. The most trouble I've had from this problem is with uke basses as they have very low tension strings which the piezo strips don't seem to like. It might not fix it but it's free to try

A little off topic so I apologise, but what's the idea with the extended fingerboard under the E string? Is it meant as a thumbrest or just design? I'm curious

I've snapped two A strings in the last 18 months (both D'Addario Half Rounds). The last one before that was twenty years ago. I do have a particularly aggressive style and 18 months ago I joined a Mod band, playing a lot of The Who and The Jam isn't helping. I've had to make a conscious effect to reign it in but playing to decent sized, energetic crowds I kind of get carried away