Richard R

We allow straps, so a bag should be OK I would have thought?

They aren't all bad. There is one particular Rickenbacker that I know of which is a truly fabulous instrument, sounds great and is an absolute joy to play. However the owner has made it clear that she will never part with it, despite growing arthritis in both hands, due to its sentimental value.

Sorry but not under these rules. Selling to purchase is just funding the shiny new toys. Now if you were to start a separate "Buy and sell what you like but keep the net spend to zero" thread, that might be entertaining. You could have a totally over-complicated scoring system; the person closed to zero wins outright but after that the maximum standard deviation about that point gets points as does the most lopsided curve, etc etc. There is bound to be a statistician somewhere on the forum. 😉

That pic is worth entering in this month's photography competition: "Grey is beautiful "

If I recall your demo at the last Midlands Bass Bash, the way for this was to measure the gap between the frets and a steel straight edge with the neck under tension. You recommended a business card difference presumably at 12th. In the absence of a long straight edge then clamping a string at 1st and last fret. In the absence of business cards then use a feeler gauge. If you fancy repeating that demo at the Bash on 20th June then I'll video it for posterity and transcribe it.

Thanks @Mike Brooks, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to that. I think I saw Thunder in Brum when they were supporting Marillion the early 80's and they were absolutely not my thing at all back then. I shall have to have a listen and see what I think now I no longer wear a Script for a Jester's Tear t-shirt and cowboy boots 😊

Be prepared for a looooooooooong wait. There is my 35" headless travel bass with hex pickup to build first! 🤣 As a complete aside, I've had occasional access to a MakerSpace over the past 18 months, close to the client site where I have been working away, and have been dabbling with laser engraving & 3D printing, relearning parametric CAD and some IOT stuff. Sadly the client is choosing to end the engagement early this month so I won't get to grips with the X-carve CC router. However I know I want one in my retirement workshop!

And to compensate him for the fact that ply isn't interestingly figured, suggest some lightly routed patterns he can show off with on the sides and front? All sorts of wild possibilities spring to mind!

So, am I right in thinking that to play @Stub Mandrel's harmonica you need to learn by ear where to put your mouth (if you see what I mean!) and on the one @goingdownslow was searching for you have defined places to make it simpler? The same concept as fretless and fretted?

I have been kicking around the idea of making a MIDI pedal board and then hooling it up to a Pi-based synth housed in the same enclosure. If I ever get round to it, Gumtree frequently has "take me away" or "not sure if this works" organ listings for under £20 so I was thinking of butchering one of those for the pedals and canibalising a cheap mini MIDI keyboard for the controller. That's quite a lot of soldering and programming though, hence not starting it until I can be reasonably sure I'll finish. I would sell your pedalboard into the right market. Someone will be delighted and you will be a few quid up, though it leaves you without a pedalboard.

Well that's not something you see every day!

Belatedly learned this morning, from @miles'tone, of @SamIAm's death earlier in the year. Really upsetting, Sam was a whirlwind of life, ideas and good humour. Looking at the McMillan page I realise her surname was Margerison which is my aunt's maiden name. It's not a common name so there is probably some relationship. RIP Sam - hope you and the big Maker are having fun. https://samanthamargerison.muchloved.com/

What??? I thought Sam hadn't posted for a while, and didn't reply to a mention in June, but I hadn't realised she'd passed away. When and where?

See this thread from a while back: https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/212424-battery-powered-bass-amps/ A clean bass amp can also work well for a fiddle, which seems all wrong. I've heard @Mottlefeeder's self built combos and they are great, but maybe more complex than you're looking for.

The Bakelite Earplugs - the legendary heavy metal tribute to Glen Miller. Now on tour supporting Crackly Pot.

Hurrah!! Glad you're building again.

Did you know the pickup was knackered when you bought the bass (presumably not in the last 12 days)? If not then definitely allowed. If you did, then a heartless judge could argue it has a working bridge pickup and you should just play it. Regardless though, this jury tends towards leniency and is letting you replace the broken pickup so you can be a complete babe-magnet on stage. Though once they have seen THIS image they may change their minds 😉 Until then, you're still in.

Keep ruddy Zuckerberg out of it!

Use three in your ear and, no matter what chords you start with, you will end up in A&E!

Guys and Gals - it's a bit of fun! New IEMs are part of PA, so T2 fail under the rules which are quite clear. But so what? If you're pro or semi-pro then buy what you need to do the job to the standard required, but accept that the challenge is as written and not really aimed at you. It's at those of us <ahem> who like buying stuff because it's interesting/fun/cool/collectable or whatever but we don't need it and really should be practicing instead. @SimonK If your church has just gone IEM and you need to buy a Behringer P1 then it’s still a fail, but nobody here will excomunicate you.

They still get quite heavy, or at least muscular wiith Peggy's bass way up in the mix, just not obnoxiously loud. Back to the topic...

You don't get these problems at Fairport Convention gigs. Though if you are sat at the back you can be blinded by the lights reflecting of the sea of grey hair in front of you.

I would say It's a modification not a repair, same as swapping the pickups to get a different sound. The aim of the challenge it to play what you already have, so definitely a T1 fail. Buying a bass for a new project would be too. But the challenge is only to make you stop and think, it's not a religion 🙃

🎶 'So I said to Mrs Scrumpy, please bring me the pies She said "We've only had crumble here since 1969"' 🎶