Happy Jack

Yup, it's a bunch of resistors (I think, leccy stuff not being my strong suit) arranged around a pot. As you rotate the knob (click click click) you get slightly different tones. I've tried Tonestyler units twice and, played at home, they sound great. Totally unconvinced that anyone (including me) can hear any difference at a gig.

If you're in a decent covers band that needs a gig on Saturday 6th April anywhere near NW London, PM me.

With a too-loud band, I usually stop playing (in a high-vis sort of way) halfway through a song, and very obviously change up my earplugs from ER15 to ER25. I then reply to everything said to me with, "You what? Sorry? What was that?". With a too-fast band, I greet the ending of every song with, "I reckon we can play that faster, y'know." Not that funny the first time, bloody irritating the seventh time.

Ultimately I reckon it all comes down to what you want as a musician. If you want to play to full venues full of happy, dancing people (a bit like me, really) then two ways to completely wreck that are (i) play too loud, and (ii) play too fast. If the band's volume pins the audience to the back wall of the venue, then pretty soon you'll be playing to an empty room, and then you won't be playing anywhere. If the band's speed means that the audience stand around looking bored and disgusted, then pretty soon ... well, you get the picture. I can't see either of those issues as being negotiable, and if you're in the minority on these subjects then chances are that you're in the wrong band. You haven't mentioned the third big issue that causes trouble - repertoire choices (no, that wasn't a failed Tarantino project).

Those are the ones that Lakland use as their own-brand flats, aren't they?

Where did you find him - Gumtree, JMB, Facebook, friend of a friend?

That Price List is from 1993, so actually quite late in the history of SGC Nanyo. My favourites were the 80s basses, especially the SB320 which had apparently dropped off the roster by 1993. I'll add this Price List to one of my earliest posts so that it's there for people reading the whole Topic for the first time.

Doesn't this interfere with the sound of the cab?

Started to watch the clip, then realised that it's an entire program lasting 46 minutes. Any chance of some edited highlights, Owen?

Daft thing is, that quote doesn't make sense anyway. If you've been backdated, surely that makes you older ...

Finding stuff about "Excelsior" is just too easy ... it was quite widely used as a model name and over a long period. When I did a quickish Google yesterday I was swamped with relatively modern B+H Excelsior DBs and also with other musical instruments labelled Excelsior. Couldn't find anything at all about 3-stringers though. This might actually be one of those rare occasions where old-fashioned reference books are more useful than online searches.

That's because you can't see his socks in the last photo.

That's been around the block a few times. I'm guessing that it's a 4/4 rather than a 3/4? You say it plays well, Owen, but what does it sound like - drop dead gorgeous or just another DB?

There's also a substantial element of each generation thinking that it invented sex'n'drugs'rock'n'roll and being desperate to avoid accepting that everything in their lives was actually created by their grandparents.

Liking this a lot. Way more work involved than just buying a pop-up unit, but a great way to disguise the sheer ugliness of a big tripod stand!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47606592 The clue that this obituary was not written by a guitarist probably lies in the sentence: That was where he developed his percussive style of playing, initially on a right-handed guitar, despite being left-handed - essentially meaning he was playing back-to-front and upside down. ps: Note the entirely helpful rude word filter amendment to the Title imposed by the not-at-all-intrusive Big Brother software.

You're really taking this future-proofing seriously, aren't you?

There you are! What did I tell you?

I wonder if electrician's forums have similar threads. You know: "That Edison guy, I don't get it, what was so special about him? And don't get me started on bloody Marconi." Presumably mathematicians have forums where very average modern-day number-crunchers debate the lack of originality in the work of Fourier and Bernoulli. Yawn.

Last I heard, he'd retired.

Things come, things go. 10 years ago I was routinely trading Wal basses with Clarky. He'd buy one, sell it to me. I'd buy one, sell it to him. Not one of those trades was valued at more than £2000 and some were sharply cheaper than that. The same basses now trade in the £3k - £4.5k range. They're the same basses, and the intervening period has (allegedly) been one of austerity and low inflation. Go figure.

Yup, my recommendation was entirely empirical, as in "this worked for me, so it might work for you". Nothing I wrote should be misinterpreted as suggesting that I know what I'm doing. I wish, I really wish that last sentence was intended to be funny, but actually it's merely an accurate observation.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BASSURGERY-4003-INSPIRED-6-STRING-BASS-GUITAR-PRE-USED/392126458450?hash=item5b4c8eea52:g:gBUAAOSwpUtboQKH

Was that exposed red & black wiring for the speaker really how they used to it?