Norris

At least half a dozen compliments on my sound and playing, from a room pretty full with muzos. Even a compliment on my dress sense - now that's going some! Cracking night, we rocked!

Failing that you can buy plug cutting bits to fit in a drill Like...

I've not long had my tea either and it's nearly bedtime for an early start.

In the same way you can ask someone to paint a portrait. You can check there's eyes, a nose and a mouth, but where they appear is very much in the style and interpretation. Is a Picasso still a portrait? Musical scores are still open to interpretation, and would usually have slightly less freedom than various artistic schools. However a synthetic, robotic performance might be accurate, but would it be enjoyable?

It shouldn't hurt the bass. You might consider investing in a Hipshot drop tuner though. That would make it a doddle to switch tunings. Although they are not cheap (around £80 or so last time I looked), that's a lot cheaper than another bass

Totally bananas!

Buy a left-handed body and all the routing will be on the back... ... oh wait

Try chucking a bottle of Mr Muscle drain cleaner down your plug hole. It works wonders. It comes in a bright orange bottle - you'll know it when you see it. It says it works in 5 minutes - give it an hour

The pub we played in tonight was snug with only 30 people in there. It's tiny. We really had to watch the volume. Great evening

That sounds cool. Do post photos of the results!

I was thinking a little ski ramp that you could fit in front of the jack. I assume that the collisions happen on a down stroke? You should then still be able to remove the jack plug when you've finished playing. It depends how craft-ey you are. A teardrop shape with a circular cutout at the bottom could look quite elegant if you have room for it, to wrap around the socket and allow access for your angled jack Edit: Maybe someone could 3D print you something. Unfortunately I don't have a 3D printer or I'd offer to make you one

I thought you were cleaning strings with washing up liquid too I wouldn't recommend that due to the very high levels of salt in it. I'd scrape the worst crud off with an old credit card or similar (something softer than the wood) then use a slightly damp cloth

Spray it a brass / antique gold colour?

I was going to say he doesn't move around the stage much - he's still in the same place as when he started the worst gigs ever thread! I'm 52, 33 years of regular gigging, pretty much with the same guitarist throughout. I'd say that no matter how good you think you are you can always get better (assuming no health issues to trip you up). There's always room for improvement, both technically and musically. It's a journey with no end destination.

Feeling Groovy - Paul Simon (or was it S & G?)

Our trio play mainly 70s rock in pubs. We take pride at playing at a reasonable volume yet still with the energy appropriate to the style of music. The guitarist can still make his guitar sing, wail and feed back, and will even complain if we are too loud. I suppose we are lucky in having a drummer with jazz influences (his favourite drummer is Mitch Mitchell), but also our usual dep drummer can play with appropriate dynamics. It still kicks donkey. It still rocks out. It's still got heft () We listen to each other. We rarely sound check either. We know what the knobs do on our amps, and set them appropriately for the room before playing a note. I've never had to wear ear protection either. The guitarist wears ear plugs for his "name" band as they play in larger venues, but never when we play in pubs as it's never loud enough to require them Landlords are happy. We don't drive people out of the pub, and the staff can still hear the bar orders that keep the tills busy Just because you play a "loud" genre of music, you don't have to give everyone hearing damage. In fact the quieter it is (to a certain point), the better and clearer the sound As for having to crank it to get "the sound", the guitarist's Mesa Boogie amp is set to a clean sound and the distortion/overdrive comes purely from pedals. The only slight tweak he has done is to stick a small piece of gaffer tape on the speaker grille over the centre of the cone to dampen a harsh, piercing spot that can occur about 15' away in the crowd

Could you make a little ramp to deflect your blows over the jack?

Only if you can live stream it

Here's another I recalled... 1985. I'm going a summer season at Butlins Skegness (rock and roll!) with the Billy Walsh Showband. Anybody that was around the Leicester area in the 70s & 80s will have most likely done their stint with him - may he rest in peace. We played 6 nights a week and dossed around all day. Lovely lifestyle for a 19 year old with no other commitments. Saturday was changeover day, so was our night off, when the 3 of us "young lads" would do a pub crawl in Ingoldmells and surrounding area. One week he announced "Good news boys, I've got us a gig on Saturday night". That went down like a ton of bricks. The "do" was a posh party in Derbyshire iirc - full dinner suit. So the Saturday comes, we grab the gear from the backstage storage area and pile into the ancient Transit van for a lovely 3 hour journey to the gig. Having set up the stage we get suited & booted - and that's when I realise I've left my dicky bow behind. I had a go at fashioning something from a chunk of vinyl butchered from the rear of the Transit driver's seat and gaffa tape - it looks appalling! So I end up with a borrowed dicky bow. It looks like a giant velvet vampire bat is attacking my throat! (Remember it's the mid-80s, full streaked mullets, slim-fit DJs, etc. - I'd rather have worn the vinyl abomination than this throwback to the 60s!) It turns out that the party is full of Billy's mates. While we three "lads" are still glowering at losing our night off, the guests are busy buying Billy brandy after brandy - his favourite tipple. We have to buy our own beer out of the pittance we are being paid. Retribution was realised in the last song of the night. It wasn't supposed to be the last song though. Billy had stood up at the end of the number, stumbled under the combined weight of half a bottle of brandy, and accidentally knocked his keyboard over. It tumbled off the stage, crashed onto the floor and laid there groaning loudly in its death throes. Luckily that was the last "filler" gig he booked for us. He probably made a nett loss after getting his keyboard repaired too

This thread makes our method of writing the songs on an old cereal box and pulling them out as the occasion suits, positively antiquated Yes, really. Oh, and learning the lyrics - but that's a topic that's been done to death already

I wonder that more punters don't sue for hearing damage. I bet that's not covered by public liability insurance

I completely agree. We can get a great sound without being deafening. It is possible. Recently we nipped out during a break to watch a mate's band playing a pub round the corner. We lasted half a song before heading outside, followed by half the audience. You can guess the topic of discussion

Well if we're posting our own, here's my "Nozcaster" thinline tele - my first and only completed build so far

So do I I hadn't got the heart to strip and refinish it, which was my intention when I originally bought it

Give it a couple of flicks with your finger before it clogs up. That will help it to last longer. Obviously remove the paper from the sander/block first, or it won't half smart