Norris

I play mostly 70s rock. As the post above says, modern amps are so much better than they used to be. A few posts have recommended the Fender Rumble 500 v3 combo, and what's not to like? It can go anywhere between clean and filthy, has a lovely valvey tone with acres of bottom end, is plenty loud enough for any gig you're likely to do without PA support (and has built in DI if you need it) and is a one-hand lift (unlike pretty much any 70s amp, let alone the cab!). It also won't upset your bank manager. I have a grin on my face every time I fire mine up and get busy

Absolutely. My Indonesian Squier P-bass Special has been my main gigging bass for the last 3 or 4 years. Upgraded with a set of SD quarter pounders, a Kiogon loom with series/parallel switch and a Hipshot drop tuner. The P-bass Special has a jazz neck, and mine's like a matchstick. The expensive basses stay at home Ignore the name on the headstock. Find a bass that feels and sounds right to you

It was certainly good for blowing out the oil galleries in my crankshaft, and you don't get much more metal than that

I've played in bands for the last 34 years. The last 18 months have been the only time we've actually had public liability insurance afaik. Then, it's not exactly that expensive - about 1 hour's worth of gig money per year

Gah! Beat me to it. Mine does 18.5cfm though (and actually really is a recent acquisition) Edit: As for bass playing, just learn to pluck the strings consistently

Has the tuner location screw sheared? From the jaunty angle of the tuner I suspect it's split the headstock in line with that screw. Take the strings off, and the dislodged tuner. See if you can remove the broken piece. If you can it will be easier to repair funnily enough - you'll be able to get glue in. If the screw has sheared, remove the remaining piece. Then some titebond (normal type 1 is best) on the headstock pieces, or use an old credit card to squeeze glue right into the split on both sides if it won't come apart. Clamp it back in place good and tight. Don't rush getting it to line up nicely as you have a few minutes before the glue starts to go off. Use some shaped packing so that you can apply maximum pressure with your clamps, and use as many as you can fit in. Wipe the excess glue away with a damp cloth and leave for 24 hours. Next day remove the clamps. If there's any glue line left it can be carefully scraped back with a razor blade. The screw hole may need some packing if it's been gouged out in the tumble. A cocktail stick would be ideal, knocked in while the glue is still wet if that's where the split is. That will then need trimming and drilling out again when the glue is dry Reassemble. There will be "mojo" crack remaining, but hopefully not too big or obvious

Well I'm flipped if I can find it! I wouldn't have thrown it away... The usual stashes of musical stuff have been searched

Your Fender Rumble and a set of rounds (d'Addario prosteels are my particular choice) and your P pickup should get you the sound you're after. Crank up the gain a bit - the amp has a lovely, natural valvey sound. Dial in a bit of overdrive maybe. The tone controls do a lot of work for a little tweaking. Control the overall volume with the master Have fun

Thanks @Chimike for bringing this zombie thread to my attention, and apologies to @SVTony for not noticing his reply in 2010. I had completely forgotten about the circuit. I still have it... only not in the place I thought it was. When I find it again I'll post some photos and the instructions - which is what Chimike was after. Then they will be shared with everyone I plan to build myself a bass soon and it might just find its way into that if it's decent Thanks for the info @Chris 1

The 210/2 is the one I bought a few weeks ago. I've only gigged with it a few times but it has been very sturdy so far. The cast base boss means it has a little weight to it - not too much that it's a lug to carry it, more that it won't go flying with the slightest knock. No boom droop either, it's rock solid.

I'd think that would tick a lot of your boxes Blue. Except the frequency of gigs is maybe a little low for you. They are stating pretty clearly their expectations and commitment

I saw them at a festival last year. Fantastic performance, so tight and looked like they were having fun

There used to be some graffiti in Leicester that said "Ish Must Fall". I have no idea who Ish is/was or indeed why he needed to fall, but it would probably make a good band name in the obscure category

So did I. However after reading this I somehow felt the need to seek out Madonna's performance. She always was more style than substance imho. Pretentious twaddle. I gather we don't have to host it next year then. Nice (I will have to admit that if I hadn't been gigging I would have probably watched it all the same. I don't mind an evening of cheesiness if that's how you approach it)

Two gigs this weekend after a 10 week break. My fingers are a little tender this morning. Last night we had a dep drummer that the guitarist and I hadn't played with for 8 years. He reckoned that was the last time he played drums too. Luckily he's a talented musician and did a fabulous job, when I remembered to give him cues Anyway, we didn't get paid off, as I discovered when I walked back into the room to pack up...

Good tip. Knowledge enough to "wing it a bit" through the whole set is better than nailing 4 songs and not knowing the others

Another thing, although you're probably practicing like mad, don't fry your fingers. You still need to play a gig. I once had to cram for a week for a gig backing a "name" along with my guitarist. I was practising for hours every night and my fingers were getting pretty sore by the time of the gig. I had to give myself the night off beforehand to try to let them recover. Good luck

This helps a lot. Have the songs on repeat and just listen constantly. You'll be surprised how much will sink in after a couple of days, even if you're not actively listening. Every now and then listen more intently and visualise yourself playing along. Of course you'll probably be sick of the songs by the time you gig them

A damp cloth, maybe with a little bit of detergent will clean most muck. A clean-ish old toothbrush might help, especially around the bridge to shift the dust bunnies. A rosewood fretboard might like a tiny wipe of lemon oil after cleaning.

Do your back a favour. Have a serious look at a Fender Rumble v3 500. Great tone, plenty loud enough for pubs or even outdoors, light as a feather, looks great, won't blow the bank

I don't know of anything that will automatically tidy up your drawings. Back in the day I'd have used CorelTrace, part of the CorelDraw suite, to vectorise a scan of the picture. It might take as long to tidy up the nodes after the trace as it would to re-draw though. It might be worth having a look at Inkscape - it's a free vector drawing app (a bit like CorelDraw). It's a very capable application and handily supports layers, which can be locked and switched on/off. Also Draw.IO is a bit like Visio, but free, and you can download a desktop version (it's primarily web based). I'd probably scan the drawing onto the computer, then add it to Inkscape as a background layer and use it as a guide to re-draw it. The nice thing about vector drawing is that you can tweak & adjust things as many times as you like. Once you get the hang of editing nodes there's not much you can't knock up pretty quickly

A K&M 210/2 stand arrived today. For a shade over £40 delivered from Amazon, it's a good, sturdy stand. The boom clamps in place and it feels like it's not going to dive. The stand is weighty enough to take a few knocks without being excessively heavy to carry around. Well worth the money for the quality, albeit on first impressions Thanks for the recommendations

If you want it to look like the original powder coating, POR-15 paint is the next best thing. Not that cheap, but great finish. It's more often used for painting car parts

That looks fantastic. Well done

I used clear gloss nitrocellulose rattle cans from Manchester Guitar Tech with good results. As others have said, watch the fumes!