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Well I suppose I do need a spare....

Not sure if I have the cajones for that!

Had a 20 minute noodle on it when I came home from work. It sounds lovely. The best I can describe the sound as is wooden. In a satisfying "thwack of leather on willow" sort of a way. Not a "walking out of a Hugh Grant movie" kind of a way. Really punchy and with a bit of growl. I will be interested to see how my pedals go with it but it didn't seem like it would really need much messing about with. Using an Orange Four Stroke head and 1x15 cab it was nice and full and clear on the high notes. Surprisingly booming on the E string. Seems like a very long instrument (get your minds out of the gutter) compared to my Squire P and kit self-build J. Never played such a thin neck either (my J has a slightly chunkier neck than my P). I thought it would be weird when I first saw it but I like it. The only downside so far is the painted back of the neck is a bit clingier than an oiled wood one, but it's only a minor thing. So far I love it!

Cheers. Yeah I'm not a pushy person at all. Generally more backwards in coming forwards so it doesn't come natural to me to pester people. So hopefully I'm not too brassy when emailing people! I'll check Rebellion out and see what, if anything, they come back with!

Yeah it was on my follow up asking if they had any more slots available that they said they'd have us back on. That was ten days ago. Might be worth a follow up or would that be pestering? Thanks for the tip, but we're based in Liverpool so St. Albans might be a bit too much of a trek, but I should probably see what places there are to play in Manchester next.

Yeah we only had one gig so far and it was an hour away in the middle of nowhere (at least as far as anyone we know was concerned) so with that and unavailabilty of babysitters for those of us with spouses we all completely failed to bring anyone with us. So after me spending a fortnight telling everyone to tell the people they bring to take a million photos and videos, we ended up with nothing. Typical! So I think practice room stuff will have to suffice for now. That said the sound man seemed to like us and the venue said they were keen to have us back on so hopefully they weren't just being polite and we'll get another chance to bring some people in soon!

Thanks! Out of interest what was up with the electronics and what would you have swapped it out for?

Just had word that the bass I have just got from eBay has arrived. Epiphone Thunderbird Vintage Pro in white. So that's my evening mapped out! I've always loved Thunderbirds but never had one. I've been wanting one of this particular model for around a year now so I'm pretty excited. The next few hours in the office are going to drag even more than normal.....

Gah! Going up and talking to people and being friendly and stuff? I'm no good at that! Seems a good idea though. I'll have to try and drag some of the others out to a gig somewhere. Videos are a good idea too. We definitely need to work out a way to sort one of those out. I know playing a few songs in a practice room isn't great but it would be better than nothing.

Yeah that's exactly what I'm looking for. I'm asking places for a half hour support slot on a band night somewhere. I know we only have like 35 minutes of material so we couldn't carry a night on our own. We don't do any covers. Would that be selling point? I'm also in a covers band which gigs fairly regularly so I'd prefer to just stick to originals with this band but would do it if it gave us a better chance of getting a gig. Oh yeah I'm not expecting a bean for playing original songs! I'd be delighted to get to the stage you describe of playing those sorts of gigs regularly. I keep saying we should go around town and bug some venues, but the rest of the lazy gets don't seem that bothered. Then again most of the venues I've been in touch with have batted back to me that they only put gigs on through promoters. I've thought of the possibility of putting on our own nights, but then you're taking a financial risk and I don't really know any other original bands.

Does anyone else find getting gigs for a new band doing original songs is really heavy going? After emailing loads of venues and promoters I'm finding that I'm mostly getting roundly ignored. Barely even so much as a "Thanks for your email, get stuffed." Just one gig has resulted so far. I'm sure it wasn't this difficult fifteen years or so ago. Anyone else similarly cheesed off with this endeavour or do you have any top tips (humorous or sensible!) for persuading promoters to give us a half hour somewhere to make a load of noise?

I'm curious to know how you would replace them without knackering the machine heads. I've no idea how you would take them apart.

If it was me I definitely wouldn't paint over that!

Those look ace. Lovely piece of wood. What sort of finish are you putting on it?

That's three terrible calls. That person from Decca Records is clearly an idiot!

I have to disagree. Ten years ago I might have reluctantly grumbled and conceded he might have a point, but there's some really good young rock bands coming through at the moment. Grime and drill may be more en vogue at the moment, but the spirit of rock lives on and is constantly being revived by new generations.

Would a broken truss rod not knacker a neck or can they be replaced without having to rip the neck to bits?

That looks fantastic. I love the spalted woods anyway but that really is very nice. What wood was the back of the body made from? Would you be able to talk through the process you used to grain fill and what went wrong with it? It's something I'm looking into at the moment and the only method I know of is using oil/sanding dust slurry.

Work stalled for a long time due to much messing around waiting for suitably compatible router collets and bits, but we've finally made some small progress with it. We've routed out a channel for the wires to run through and also cavities for the jack socket and the pots to go. The cavity for the pots is in the lower horn because there was a dirty great nail hole in the back of the body there. So we thought we'd put it there to get rid of that. Although it means a longer run of wires. On reflection I've realised that I'm probably going to have to run another channel below where the pick ups will go because I will have to solder the jack plug before the top wood goes on. So if I run it through the channel I've cut there I'll shred the wire when I rout out for the pickups.

That bit in Spinal Tap did spring to mind! I'm glad he wasn't actually playing a cello though because he was in a kilt.

First gig with the originals band I'm in last night. I think everyone was a bit nervous to start off with but it went pretty well. Despite the place being mostly empty. Ah well, it's not the first time I've played to the bar staff and the other bands! The bass player in the band on after us used what looked like a cello bow to play one song. First time I've seen that technique before!

Looks good. I got an American black walnut board for a through neck in a build I have planned for the far, far future. It's beautiful wood. I just need to work out how to get the slight bow out of it.

I learned to play with a plectrum and only about 18 months ago started trying to learn to finger pick. After I got to a stage where I could do that without making too much of a balls of it I thought I'd try having a go at slapping. A couple of Internet instructional videos later I decided it was far too complicated and a skill I'd never, ever use. In fact this week I've decided to stop finger picking altogether and just use a plectrum. I realise I may have to turn in my badge and gun for saying that.

If he'd have done a men's range he could have called it Bill's Grundies. Apologies to @Grahambythesea for derailing this at the first hurdle!

The William Shatner version of Rocket Man has to be the definitive interpretation for me!