SpondonBassed

For a stealth bass you need a matt black finish. I wonder how affordable Vantablack is. If you use it, fit a tracker too because you'll put it down one day and never see it again until someone trips over it.

If only my life were like that. I'd like to see a bass made from parquet flooring... Maybe it will feature in a Build Diary one day after I've been to visit my old school in the dead of night with a crow bar.

Years of writing technical manuals had an effect on me that is not quite the same. At school, writing stuff down would help me to remember what I was learning. Much later, my job as a Technical Author meant that I had to read and assimilate large quantities of text and drawings produced by highly educated specialists. I then had to present that in Simplified English for the users of the manual I was working at the time. As a consequence, I forget what I write down within hours, sometimes minutes, if I am on top of a deadline. It's as if my brain needs to reduce the amount of clutter that's accumulated in my mind before I can do the next chapter. Now I learn the tunes by heart using written notes as the means to understand the more complex patterns but discarding them as soon as they've served their purpose. I don't gig however. It would be good to find out if my method of learning a set works for me under the spotlight, so to speak.

I've noticed that too. Some of the stuff that I struggle with seems to fall into place by itself when I return to it after a short break. Repetition is good but like anything else, you can overdo it too. With me, the trick is to repeat until I am just about to lose it completely. I then stop it for a bit and do something else. It takes a while to recognise the approach signs of mental fatigue though. I've had a few moments where I thought I might give my bass, the rig and all of the associated cables flying lessons over the cliffs at Matlock Bath. These days I am able to stop before I'm into the red zone.

I got into a couple of fights at primary school. One of those ended suddenly when I chucked a kid against the tall cupboard where the ink was stored. Yes, we were taught penmanship with real ink wells and pens. It was the late sixties. We stopped and stared while the cupboard swayed, as if in slow motion, in response to the impact. It then fell over onto the parquet floor of the class room. In the fall, all of the ink bottles fell off their shelves and some of them spilt as the cupboard landed face down in front of us both. A dark stain emerged from beneath the cupboard. Navy blue and bright red inks mixed in a random pattern that would make ACG jealous. The teacher, Mr Spridgeon, grabbed both our scruffs and had us on our tiptoes while he assessed the situation. He was an imposing figure. To us nippers he looked like a giant. We anticipated our punishment. Instead of sending us to the Headmaster for a caning he made us wipe up the mess. It was an impossible job. The ink was already creeping beneath the worn out varnish and it followed the grain of the wood as we worked. In our childish minds we both though that we were expected to leave the floor as clean as it was before. It reduced us both to tears because everything we did just made the stain worse! Eventually we were let off with a reprimand. I'm so glad that there is a modern method for staining wood these days. It isn't nearly as traumatic as when I tried it.

If you are doing a presentation of that can you make sure that @Silvia Bluejay captures some of it please? No pressure. Heeheehee. I'm loving these two because they're so tiny. I don't like the squishy feel of uBass strings but that would never be an issue with the mini-twins.

You can't help but get a lift from a good yellow like that.

Danish Oil, rubbed on, if you want a fine satin finish. True Oil or Gun Oil, rubbed on, if you want gloss. Lemon Oil, rubbed in and buffed off periodically.

I have always had difficulty with applying myself. It was actually stated on one of my annual school reports - "Has natural aptitude but needs to apply himself". I wish you every success!

You might find that your drain has been suffering from a build up of Squarnch. If that's the case, call Mrs Muscle. She's the one who does Mr Muscle's laundry.

You'd have better luck trying to get a Mexican Wave out of us lot. Nice try though. On a more serious note; the number of "Bad Gateway" messages that I get from Cloudflare suggests that the new server can't really cope as well as it has been expected to. We'd crash the site if we flooded it.

Forget Greem. You need I Can't Believe it's Not Squarnch! on your butties. Abba swear by it. Ever since it was announced that Boston Pancake enthusiasts were at risk of catching nasty diseases from sharing squarnch without protection they've been promoting I Can't Believe it's Not Squarnch! at their Boston Pancake parties. Winks at Discreet

Never mind that eighties Disney rubbish. (Pulls half a dozen memory sticks from the Basschat server) Sing Daisy Bell for me now b1tch! PS: *giggle* PPS: This inspired A C Clarke seven years before the release of 2001 A Space Odyssey.

I know. How does he do it? I mean, compared to you he's quiet as a mouse. Paging @Dood...

There's 2 kW of basschat points that say otherwise. I'll see you there.

If all goes well, I'd advise anyone reading this to stand in a doorway or to sit beneath a sturdy table as there is likely to be a significant seismic event when this instrument goes off!

There might be unexpected import duties if this is coming in from the 'States. Needs knob 'oles though. Not difficult to DIY. PS; I just saw this: "This seller is currently away, and isn't processing orders at this time. You can add this item to your Watch list to keep track of it." It's a start though.

I'm usually the same. I have good manual skills though.

If you are anything like me, the notion of sleeping in the garage during the kitchen works wouldn't be far from your mind. Just to leave the good lady with a bit of room to swing felines at leisure of course.

No pressure then. Heeheehee Joking aside, you are right. These Diaries are inspirational because all abilities are represented.

That there suggests that you are hearing interference between several overlapping and loud sound sources. If your solo output is clean at the same settings then, as they sometimes say, it's is all in your head. Where you stand relative to those sources may help somewhat. What has already been said about headroom is valid but as it is the volume control of your bass that is up full, I am not sure that there actually is a problem if you have left headroom at the pre and power stages of your backline amplification. Do the other band members find the same thing happening to their backline output?

Stiff upper lip and carry on regardless. I like your style. Good luck with the pipework. My tip for that would be to systematically check from the top down and section by section but you are already doing that. I have every confidence in you.

I thought Prince Chas was the Goon fan. Oh well. Chas Hodges didn't need a knighthood. People can tell true class without all that guff.

I sometimes confuse that word with "prolapse". I hope you are well in either case.