Beer of the Bass

Hybrid usually implies the back and sides are laminated, and the description of this one says it's all solid. Though I think there have been both hybrid and all solid Zeller models, so it'd depend if you can see the lamination layers at the edges of the sides.

My Ampeg PF-50T and pair of 1x12“ cabs are pretty well to my taste for what I do, and my band doesn't go wild with stage volume because we have brass and flute. If budget, transport and venue size was suitable I might be tempted to look at a V4B and one or two slightly larger cabs, but that wouldn't be an actual need - I could probably be fine with what I have.

I played with a fiddle player using the violin version. It could sound good, but was really variable in tone and output level as the band shifted around or got loose. And I'd imagine making it big enough for a bass wouldn't help with that.

I thought Fender's use of the name came from V. C. Squier, an American string manufacturer who were bought out by Fender in the 60s.

I've definitely seen a few sound guys spend the largest part of the soundcheck getting a massive kick sound to the full ability of the system, then everything else is almost an afterthought over the top. I don't know if this is a genre specific thing, or some sort of strange soundguy tunnel vision!

I wouldn't go too small - although I used to fit mine in a Fiesta and then various tiny rental and car club cars, I never liked the way it reduced visibility when upside down in the passenger seat, or the way it sat close above the handbrake and gearstick when put in from the boot with the back seats down. Currently we're keeping our 2007 Zafira going until it needs anything too expensive doing.

It'd be worth checking you're happy with the string spacing of the Allparts bridge before you commit yourself to it. Rickenbackers are narrower spaced than most other four strings at the bridge, and not all modern day copies imitate that. You might find it leaves you with a lot of space at the edges of the fingerboard.

I think Mr Pastorius must just have liked appending "Of Doom" to things. There was the short-lived Trio Of Doom with John Mclaughlin and Tony Williams too.

As much as I love his music, being in his band sounded like an ordeal by all accounts!

I've never boiled them - I've found cleaning with isopropyl alcohol is effective if they need freshening up a little. Some people soak them, but just slackening them off a bit and wiping up and down them with an alcohol dunked cloth does about as well IMO. Though once they're really on their way out, nothing will buy you very long. Though my current TI Jazz flatwound are coming up for 4 years without more than a simple wipe down, and I feel they're doing fine!

Was Holger Csukay's bass with Can a Musicmaster, or one of the other short scale Fenders?

That low-C mandocello range is fun to have, especially as it's a different sound to an open tuned guitar. I have my 10 string cittern (made by my classical guitar luthier brother) in unison CGDAD at the moment, so it's in mandocello/Irish bouzouki range. And these are my two mandolins The bowlback I've had since I was a teenager, it sounds sweet but I struggle with the tiny and V shaped neck. The other is a Sears catalogue model made by Harmony in Chicago, which is cheaply made, but the endearing, funky kind of cheap!

They just dampen the section of string behind the bridge that can otherwise ring annoyingly - especially noticeable recording with a close mic or amplified with a piezo pickup. On my mandolin I just have a strip of felt under the tailpiece cover to do the same job.

Looks smart! I really enjoy mandolin, though I tend towards more of a folky direction with it. Oh, and about those grommets - are they any different from the ones from electronics suppliers? I've been using those (seen here on my cittern) and I've never been sure if "mandolin grommets" are just the same thing in a packet.

Though it's obviously not a mandolin, there are a few people on the Mandolin Cafe forum who have some knowledge of the various Catania makers, so they might have some insights. And regarding the inlay, apparently many of the inlay designs used on these instruments were stock items from an inlay supplier's trade catalogue, so the same inlay as another instrument might only indicate the same inlay supplier rather than the same luthier.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing exactly that. He comes across as the sort these days!

We've been holding off from doing a proper launch gig for our album until we're sure the vinyl will have arrived. With the current supply issues, that keeps being pushed back too.

Yep, it's happened with my Hogmanay gig too. Seems there aren't hard restrictions saying they can't have live music, but once smaller venues have implemented all the guidelines it becomes unworkable to run the gigs.

I really like the older, curvier version of the Aria headstock, for some reason.

I've been experimenting with an LPF recently (a Schalltechnik Vong HPF +LPF pedal) to tame the extreme highs from a fuzz pedal I use. The fuzz sounds great through a tweeterless cab, but with a bass rig with a tweeter or through a DI, it's hard to manage. Though the Markbass VLE control also does that quite effectively the times I've used them.

I remember there was a tune dedicated to him on John Mclaughlin's Extrapolation, and the sleeve notes described him as "unjustly jailed with his brother Bunny". Though given the release date of the album, that must have been referring to the earlier drug possession charge.

It's downright silly applying the concept to bass playing too. If being a good bassist (or any other performer, or indeed any role) was a simple mechanical test of strength, then it would make sense. Otherwise we're just taking a very specific use of the word "strong" and conflating it with much more nebulous, cultural concepts associated with the word.

I just view it as Clayton having been a bit of a gobsh!te, and if you're going to respond to that at all, you clap back in kind as Shah did rather than writing a thesis. All business as usual in the pop world.

The concept reminds me of this weird old thing found in a vintage tenor banjo case. It's some kind of early plastic (I think), maybe bakelite or similar, with a thick leather handle part that flexes slightly. It's interestingly loud and plunky on banjo or archtop guitar, and almost useless on anything else.