Norris

I made the last one from a piece of bone from a luthier supplier. Use hacksaw, metal files and progressively finer sandpaper for shaping. Beware - it smells while you're working it. Sticking the sandpaper to something flat will help greatly (small MDF offcut perhaps?). I find aluminium oxide sandpaper nice to work with and you can buy quite fine grits for lovely smoothness Use proper nut files (Hosco are good value). They are slightly spendy. Don't be tempted to buy cheap ones - they will be rubbish Top tip for getting the slot depths right: sand a pencil down half way, so it's as if it's sawn down the length. Place it flat on top of the frets then draw a line on your nut. Cut to just above the line, don't go too deep at first - you can take more off, it's not so easy to put it back on. Try it with strings, take them off and fettle: rinse & repeat until happy. Finally use a couple of dots of superglue to hold the nut in place - it will hold it firm for general use, but still be relatively easy and clean to take off if you ever need to

We've used a pair of Mackie SRM 450's for quite a few years. We only have vocals going through them and the occasional hint of kick drum, but they have been great. Around £300ish each second hand - bargain. Ideal for the pubs and clubs we play in

The chap's opening sentence was "I'm getting an old git". Please think of his poor old back. TEs are so heavy they have their own gravitational field! You wouldn't go far wrong with a Fender Rumble though. Lovely and light. Squier are pretty good, as are the Harley Bentons (Thomann's own brand). Buy second hand if you can and you'll be able to move them on with very little financial loss if you change your mind

If you want to play a 5-string after playing 4's for some time then you really need to "take the plunge". I bought myself a lovely Sire P7-5 back in January (I wanted an affordable 5-string "P") and have played it exclusively since. It probably took 2-3 months to feel properly comfortable on it, and took a fair change of technique in my plucking hand. Gone is the "hard anchor" thumb on the P pup and I'm now a lot more fluid, using a lot of floating thumb too. It's a lovely bass btw. Be nice to your band mates though - just because you can play a low B now doesn't mean you need to spend all of the gig down there

Absolutely not. I feel like I'm playing better than ever - after 38 years of gigging... and counting. So, I may not feel like it every time I load the car up, especially after a full day's work on a Friday. I always enjoy it though and I'm far from ready to call it a day. Buying a 5 stringer in January has given me something new to focus on this year and has done wonders for my technique too

No Venues like that don't deserve to survive. You'll be doing yourselves a disservice, and every other band that plays there Unless you need a free rehearsal session... Edit: £40 per person for a gig?! I wouldn't put the kit in the car for that! Have some self-respect please

If you're used to a guitar and don't want to depart too much from that format consider a Bass VI. They are available as both Fender and Squier, and are a bit like a stratocaster with bass strings on it (even having a trem!). The Squiers should be within your budget

Custom Lynx Guess where I got my custom lead from 😂

A decent custom made guitar lead, van Damme cable with gold-plated angled Neutrik jacks at both ends. Stops punters treading on/breaking them when plugged in my multi-fx pedal and keeps it tidy at the bass end. I don't know why you can't seem to buy double angled jack leads off the shelf 🤷‍♂️

Really the gap is just aesthetics. As long as the neck is screwed securely in place it will work as a bass guitar

That's a shame because they looked like they were really enjoying themselves and were tighter than a very tight thing

The Christians were good too, once the sound guy had tamed the overpowering kick drum. Shame it took him about 5 songs to get it under control though. I very much liked the fretless playing

Saw them in Leicester last night. Fabulous! I'm wearing the t-shirt right now

The lights I bought from them have been great

Tried a new battery in the bass? That's assuming that the lead test makes a noise ^

There's a reason for that

A drummer I play with swears by his P&D stool

There are a couple of ways to wire a tone pot, one ("modern") being much more common than the other ("50's style" vintage), which would be even more unusual on a bass but not totally out of the question. The "vintage" wiring means that the tone could have a bigger influence on the volume too Photos would help

... and then connect that to the ground connector on your jack socket (the outer connector, not the signal connector that the tip of the jack plug touches)

Not a Hercules stand, but I bought a multi-guitar hanger a while ago that had a warning about possible reactions with nitrocellulose. I cut up some old jeans and got the sewing machine out to make some mini "jeans legs" to slip over the hanger forks. (I even used orange thread ). It might not be quite as easy on a Hercules auto-grip stand though

Many have suggested the Fender Rumble v3 500 combo. I have had one for several years now and have never found it lacking in any situation. It does clean. It does gritty. It's cheap as chips. It's a one hand lift. Tbh I blummin love it

It's taken me over half an hour to scroll through the huge list of vendors and uncheck all the boxes. I'm now left with the horrible intrusive floating orange privacy box. Insidious and seriously uncool!

Fabulous. I love a bit of Thomas Dolby