SpondonBassed

Welcome Saimonbass.

I'd liken it to the take away food enigma. In an area like Alvaston in Derby, it starts to look a bit like every second building contains a fast-food take-away of some description. Each of them tries to cover all of the angles from British fish and chips through Americana, Africana and onto Asian. None of them concentrate on serving up what they are actually good at. They are compromising by offering all varieties. If we're lucky they end up being adequate. There is NO excellence. Drunken customers don't see it that way however and even if they did, they care not. It's lucrative for all concerned though. If you want an excellent meal you go to a restaurant. Same with music. If you want to hear excellence you go to the big venues. I wouldn't worry too much about the drop D in the greater scheme of things. I'd choose a line that serves the band that I am in. The exception? A replica band. Tribute bands can put a style of their own across while remaining true to the band they follow. In a replica band, you are under the close scrutiny of fans*. * It is important to remember that the word fan is a contraction of the word fanatic. OED - "Origin: Late 19th century (originally US): abbreviation of fanatic."

I found the same. Some days, I'd find it hard to listen all the way through 77. If I am having a hard time with my Tinnitus for example. On good days, I like it as a background to what I'm doing in the workshop. Then it gets played through purely because I am not sat listening. It delivers if you let it play instead of putting it on to listen to. Funny that. I wonder if that is a common perception?

@ConstantineIsslamow Good to see your take on this. I really ought to drop in on your YT channel and catch up with your excellent clips. It's been a while.

Sorry to hear about that. It's not a waste of effort though. You've learned a lot and what's more; you've shared your findings here so that others will benefit. It's good to see you intend to carry on with the project despite setbacks. Respect.

Wow Marco. That's quite an offer. Involvement in the development of a product such as this would be a privilege for many of the members here. As a product test, I hope it goes well for you.

That's a fine looking bass. Being a prototype, what would you change about it if you thought it worth making a production run? I'm wondering, in particular, how it balances on the strap.

Welcome Alan. You have asked the eternal question for Fender fans. You might be here for some time. Heeheehee. Many of us are back for a second bite of the bass cherry having carried out early adulthood obligations in the interim. The great thing about this forum is that you will find working musicians from the weekend warriors to the pros. The best thing about this forum is the ability to rub shoulders with all abilities in a friendly and (for the most part) tolerant way. Enjoy.

If you can get it to Spondon and back I can do it for you quite easily. PM me if it's of any use.

You mean milled rather than routed. In theory it should be possible with an appropriate cutter in a router. I've never seen it done however and I would recommend hand tools. PS; There are tables available to work out the correct cutting speed for a particular diameter of cutter if you do go that way.

Mum was cool. She liked a bit of rock among other things. Dad on the other hand; had pretty much Victorian values being fifty when I was born in 1962. He tolerated the then current music but could not get any joy from it. The closest I got to entertaining him with stuff I listened to was when I had him captive for a couple of hours and I made him have Mike Oldfield's original Tubular Bells. Even then he got queasy during some of the more unusual chord progressions. I don't think either of them hated any sort of music. When we had a small pub in Ireland we'd have live folk music on every Sunday. The place was always rammed.

Fair enough. Personally, I think it must help for this sort of multi-talented pool of musicians. The engineer will tear out less of his or her hair worrying about guitar swaps and the associated hazards with the guitars being fixed and the musicians walking in and out from the playing location. Just my thoughts you understand. If you mean the OP; It's not strictly speaking Vulfpeck in this line up. It's listed as The Fearless Flyers' debut. There seems to be a pool of musicians revolving around a couple of key players here. It's admirable, the way they seem equally at ease with each other and some of the older time-served players. Being flexible like that must open up so many opportunities for them all.

Anyway... Did you not enjoy peeling the dried glue from your fingertips? That was one of the hidden benefits of using the stuff. Copydex was even better but it smelled rank.

Quite. Any news?

A good plating company will do that for you.

I had one of those chemistry sets. It had scalpels in it. I wanted to dissect a frog. It seemed a cool thing to do at the time. I was about 11 or so. I caught and smothered an unfortunate volunteer victim with a rag soaked in methylated spirit. I held it across the poor bugger's muzzle until it stopped squirming, seemingly dead. I had all of its intestines laid out when I got called in from the shed for my tea. I didn't go out to the shed until the next morning and the frog was gone! There was a faint trail as if a slug had been across the table and on the floor leading to the unfortunate creature, now dead and with its guts trailing behind. I felt awful about it then and I still do, to some extent, even now. Let's not forget how Bostik was a household name too. I spent many happy hours playing with it. I LOVED the smell of it. It's possible I have brain damage just from playing with it, Blue Peter fashion. Pardon me for rambling.

They say You can't put an old head on young shoulders. It's a sweeping generalisation. Why not own your age? If you are an old person you have a unique perspective. By the same token, why would you think it's any easier to put a young head on old shoulders? To address the OP; I am surprised you can get that far without reading. I am always discouraged by lessons because of some bad experiences with teachers in my youth. I therefore avoid getting into that territory with a passion. I know little about it. It is unlikely that I would ever feel it necessary to embark on a mission to gain certification in the existing Grade system so it is of no consequence in the cosmic scheme of things. As my eyesight deteriorates, I wonder how the grade system copes with blind students.

Does it though?

I've noticed the guitar stand thing. Is that floating anyone else's boat? I think it's a naff idea but I'd like to know if there is a reason for it other than to make them stand apart image-wise as well as stage-wise. Perhaps it is to make it easier to swap players instead of players swapping instruments? I find it hard to criticise them otherwise and it's not a serious criticism anyway.

I like that. I am not a fan of chrome plate. When it fails it looks shoddy and raises sharp edges in some cases. If I see it used on plastic parts, they get replaced in short order. I'm assuming it isn't a pain in the 'arris to keep in "as new" condition.

That's answered the question on how intonation is set. Previously it looked as if the saddle pairs were floating in the bridge channel. Now I can see that each saddle pair is captive with just a small range of adjustment for correct intonation of the individual strings of each pair.

Brass is a lovely metal to work with. Just make sure not to distort the sheet by using tin snips to cut your outline. I'd recommend using a similar set up to what you'd use for fretwork - the decorative sort. It saws and files really well as it is a self lubricating metal.

After your nifty edit, no-one else does either. Heeheehee I only noticed the typo after about six visits to your topic.

Woodcat Hustle Dark Heart YT Search "Tunng" I was delighted to hear Tunng getting exposure on BBC 6music recently with Dark Heart. I became aware of the music when I pursued a musical bed from Chris Hawkins' early morning show some years back. He was using a short loop taken from a track on the album Comments of the Inner Chorus. It was such a subtle hook. It was just a banjo being plucked in a tick-tock fashion for eight bars on repeat. Someone else had been hooked by this musical bed because they had written in to ask where Chris had taken the clip from. When he gave the name of the album, I wrote it down immediately. I was in bed trying to beat insomnia by using 6music as a soother. It was one of those surreal night time things where your mind is somewhere between awareness and sleep. I must have fallen asleep right after I put the notepad down by the bedside because I woke a couple of hours later to find my note. Result! Often I have flashes of inspiration or get little musical ideas in that gap between being asleep and waking up. It is difficult to retain a clear memory of that unless you keep a notepad by the bed. I believe there is a high tech recording device that stimulates the brain in the near sleep phase just to harvest some of these creative flashes of the human brain but that is another topic altogether. I bought the CD. It was interesting. There was only one track that, by itself, you could call potentially commercial (IMHO). That was Woodcat. The BBC later used it as a bed for television promotions. The hooky bit that had been going around in my head for days was hidden in one of the other tracks. I listened to the whole album a couple of times. Then I would pull it out just for Woodcat every so often. After I'd played the track enough to have it spin in my memory on demand, so to speak, the disc stopped on the shelf gathering dust until this year when I heard Tunng getting airplay in their own right. There is a Derbyshire connection with one of the members. I believe he went to London to find the current line up. Beyond that I know little of them. Folktronica is genre that I now have on my shortlist of genres to have on in my workshop as background to my labours. I hope some of you find this quirky band's music interesting too.