Huge Hands

At university in the 90s doing Electronics and Music Tech we had an ex-BBC engineer as a lecturer who decided to try and teach us how to correctly set up the head bias (he had set out of kilter) on a Studer with an oscilloscope. I remember saying to him "This is all well and good, but what if something went really wrong with it? Wouldn't it be good to look at that?" He replied that he didn't want to break his precious Studer any more than that as they were too expensive... He was a lovely guy so I'm not knocking him personally but I always got frustrated that we never got any real-world electronic failures to deal with on our course, just lots of theory.

Are they 1/4" tape? If they're like the ones in the OP's photo. then surely you would need to buy studio quality machines like Studer etc with those big locking hubs? My dad was into reel-to-reels in the 80s and had some pretty professional looking domestic models. but they all had the small 3 prong hole in the middle like @Rosie C's example. Not that those full size reels would fit on Rosie's machine! I wonder if they do adaptors for the centre? Not that I am planning to go down this rabbit hole of course! It's a long time since I tried splicing tape on a Revox B77! EDIT - I just clicked the link and saw how much they were - definitely not!

I bought the 10W Joyo practice amp last year. It sits on my home office desk and is great for quick play alongs, but is very noisy when not touching the strings, and not something I remember hearing about in online reviews. I would hope this one is better for that.

The language on there sounded a bit like the English you get from Chinese adverts, so had a look and they are on Ali-Express for about the same price. EDIT - I would be interested to know how easy those little wheels would be to turn once the strings get up to tension...

A guy in our Leeds office at work was telling me that the owners of Vintage (JHS) are selling up and this means that Vintage are being closed down and a lot of stock is being sold off cheaper (he lives near their base and knows a few in the company). I don't know if the brand is being retired, or someone has bought it, but I would imagine it might affect you getting a new one. Last time I looked on Vintage's website about a week ago, most basses/colours were out of stock. I hope I'm correct in what I'm saying and not causing a panic. I did see a thread on here from about 4 months ago that was saying a similar thing.

I feel this needs further explanation.....i.e. why? I'm getting visions of someone making a model to practice their next bank job...🤣

Ummm, I don't think they'd want the one I cleaned my drain with..... EDIT - I had a proper look at that site. Imagine buying something thinking you might be getting a bit of Noel Gallagher's finger skin on it, and you end up with Mr No-Name's greasy bacon sandwich finger marks from West Sussex lol

I think I read that as a euphemism first time around....

So, yesterday, I got a guy out to fix my washing machine that wouldn't drain, suspecting the pump had failed. It turned out that the weird down/across/down bit of drain pipe between the washer drain and the main soil stack in the downstairs loo on the other side of the wall was blocked. The guy had one of those metal tool grabbers with the plunger and 3 little grabby bits on the end, but the housing for those was too big to bend around the corners. We tried to tip some drain cleaner in, but only got about a capful in before it got to the top. I scratched my brain, and remembered I had the rounds that came with my HB PB-50 in the packet for the flats I put on it. I got out the E-String, and was able to push through the blockage to allow me to pour more drain cleaner in. The washer is now running away happily as I type! It got me thinking - has anyone else had any great alternate uses for old strings that isn't in a musical vein? Discuss!

Having a dig around on Youtube, it looks like it was the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, which is a yearly occurrence. I have found another listing of that clip that says it is 2011, so your guess is as good as mine as to when it actually was.... It does look like I was right and it was a show band backing the star vocalists.

The clip says it was a "Lady of Soul" show, so I assume it was more about Aretha/female singers, and Stevie was a guest appearance for this song. There appear to be so many US TV shows like this where they have a house band and guest singers come on and off stage, so I doubt it would have been Stevie's band/Nate Watts.

Took mine to rehearsal on Monday. Found them to be very noisy when not playing. I suppose it could have been interference on the channel I was on but didn't have time to mess around and try other ones. Replaced it with a cable and all quiet as a mouse.

My only experience in this is that my first 5 string was a new Cort C5 about 21 years ago and although it was a great sounding bass, I found the string spacing to be too tight for me compared to the 4 string Jazz I had before. I think that is the Cort in my Avatar on the left. My sausage fingers kept tripping up over the strings so I have ended up always trying to get 5 strings with widest spacing over the years which isn't easy at the budget end of the scale - I note it is not even mentioned on a lot of online listings.. I also remember that after about a year of ownership a ground wire to one of the pots fell off and it kept cutting out, so I had to get my soldering iron out. It was fine after that but did concern me with their QC - although he later ones may be better. It is the only bass I have ever sold on (due to the spacing), but I sold it to a mate and he seemed very happy with it.

I received mine last week - have only tested them so far but all seems good. Forgot to take them to rehearsal last night - hopefully will remember next Monday!

John made me a passive Vol-Blend-Tone loom for my 5 string Precision build. Dead easy to install (even if John was super-fast in delivering it and you've lost the wiring diagram in the weeks it took for the pickups to arrive) and sounds great. Thanks again John!