Mottlefeeder

Kev was freecycling several packs of mic wind shields. I asked for one and it arrived promptly, no charge for postage either. Thank you Kev.

It is also worth checking where the centre point of the fan is. On my Ibanez 5-string it is about the 5th fret, which is also my normal cage position, so the transition is very easy. If you often play down by the nut, your transition to fanned fret may take longer. David

I busk in a band fundraising for Cancer Research UK, and we have to do risk assessments for every gig in order to be comply with their insurance requirements. It's mainly common sense - Typical hazards are: 1) Cable routes not thought out - keep as many as possible out of the performance area. 2) Gear falling onto people - less of an issue if it isn't your PA. 3) Electric shock - test gear regularly and visually check each mains cable as you set up. 4) Audience members on stage (invited or not) - higher risk from trips and falls & probably not covered by your insurance, so no audience on stage. 5) Crowd surfing...etc David

Gone to recycle centre.

My daughter's printer has just died, shortly being switched on after a period of non-use. Annoyingly, she had just replaced some of the cartridges. The printer is not economically repairable so I have eight new / almost new / part used cartridges that could be re-homed. Yours for the cost of posting them second class. David

Anderton's write up does say that the fretted version is shown 'for illustrative purposes' David

To reduce water usage by your loo, the recommendation used to be that you put a brick in the cistern. You could use something spherical so it did not flex, and hollow so it was light - a tennis ball or two? David

I've seen two styles of battery box, a) conical springs point in through the end of the box, in line with the battery terminals, and b) curved spring contacts sit at the bottom of two pockets which are sized so that the battery terminals only fit in one way, so it is impossible to connect the battery the wrong way round. 'b' seems to be a much better way to go. David

Heavy duty battery clip https://www.bitsboxuk.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=192_194&products_id=1428 David

My understanding, from the comments of an independent retailer, is that having stock you don't own on display improves your sales, and then you also get commission when you sell the stock that hasn't cost you anything. If you are selling into a niche market, go to a specialist in that market and accept they will take a cut. David

It may be that those manufacturers want to mimic the look of Marshal / Vox / Hywatt / Wem cabs from back in the day. Several speaker builders on this forum have used speakergrills.com, so that would be a fairly safe option. If you investigate other suppliers, check the thickness of the grill they offer. David

There are speaker grill manufacturers who will produce a grill to your dimensions - eg www.speakergrills.co.uk Before going down that road, you need to consider how you are going to fix it to the cab, whether you want a flat grill, or one with folded over edges etc. I would also recommend having it coated before despatch. You will waste a lot of paint spraying through the holes if you do it yourself. The alternative, if it exists, is the aftermarket you refer to, which may be more expensive because each product is intended to fit an expensive branded cab. David

I had a s/h Warwick Corvette fretless tuned BEAD, which I loved, and decided to move on to a 5-string fretless Corvette. What I didn't realise was that the transition from 4-string bubinga body to a wider neck 5-string and lighter swamp ash body would result in neck dive. I tried various remedies and eventually decided I would never be happy with it so I moved it on.

It may depend on whether the amp module is stand-alone, or on the same pcb as everything else. When I fried my Ashdown MyBass, I did some basic tests for them and they then sent me a new module and asked for the old one back. That suggests some component level of repairability is feasible. David

I have a Tascam GT-R1 recorder/bass trainer with stereo mics built in, but found it overloaded at performance sound levels. Conversely, a cheap Tandy electret mic feeding into a budget mixer worked fine at the same volumes. YMMV as they say. David