Norris

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

Unfortunately not. Replaced it with an Alpha push-switch one courtesy of KiOgon. CTS don't do a switchable one that small Here's the original showing what a tight fit it is in the chamber... ... not much clearance at all. The new loom wasn't difficult to fit though once we'd got it oriented correctly

The standard pups are reasonable. I tend to just use the P though, occasionally dialling in the J too, which gives a more humbuckerish tone - especially in parallel mode. Tuners are decent enough. Bridge is standard bbot. The main weakness was probably the tone pot that went scratchy, but a new loom didn't break the bank. For a cheap trial of a P it's not a bad choice at all

Excellent job @Grangur

Ha ha. I propped it up in the tidiest corner. I'm not showing the music room in public given the state it's in! The joys of having children

Yes. Lovely bass. Serial number starts IM04 = Indonesia 2004? Beautiful slim neck, lovely finish in gunmetal metallic and still in excellent condition. I dropped a set of quarter pounders in and have fitted a drop tuner. The tone pot packed up so I got a @KiOgon loom and now have series/parallel switch. That caused a little headscratching to shoehorn it in, as it's fitted with mini pots and the routing is tight, with the scratch plate barely covering it It's been my main gigging bass for a few years now despite several much more expensive basses in my collection Edit: As for cost, the bass was £150 second hand from BC classifieds. SD QP set was £100. It's paid for itself many times over. I originally bought it as a project donor, but it was too nice to mess with. Even the original cheapo pups sounded pretty good

Zźzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Nudge me when it's over! Luckily we don't do it often. I can't even be arsed to flick the lever on my drop tuner for it

A hacksaw, a half round metal file and wet & dry paper are all you need really. You'll want to scribe the outline, and you could sharpen the tip of a large nail to do that (using your half round file) You'll need a couple of drill bits too, as you'll need holes for your pots & switches, and for the fixing holes. Use your largest drill bit as a countersink for the fixing holes. Again you can use your sharpened nail as a centre punch before drilling to stop the drill bit wandering Those tools would probably cost less than £20

Seemingly countless gigs in Working Men's Clubs playing to one old bloke who steadfastly stayed engrossed in his copy of Racing Post with his dog curled up at his feet For the benefit of @Bluewine... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_men's_club https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_Post