Stub Mandrel

Yes, such hardcore punk lyrics... Bonsoir Ton véhicule n'a pas l'air d'avoir de passager Peux-tu, veux-tu me recevoir Sans trop te déranger Mes bottes ne feront pas trop d'échos dans ton couloir Pas de bruit avec mes adieux Pas pour nous les moments perdus En attendant un incertain au revoir Parce que j'ai la folie Oui j'ai la folie Oui c'est la folie Oui c'est la folie Oui c'est la folie Oui c'est la folie Il était une fois un étudiant Qui voulait fort, comme en littérature Sa copine, elle était si douce Qu'il pouvait presque, en la mangeant Rejeter tous les vices Repousser tous les mals Détruire toutes beautés Qui par ailleurs, n'avait jamais été ses complices Parce qu'il avait la folie Il avait la folie Oui c'est la folie Oui c'est la folie Oui c'est la folie Oui c'est la folie Et si parfois l'on fait des confessions À qui les raconter Même le bon Dieu nous a laisse tomber Un autre endroit, une autre vie Eh oui, c'est une autre histoire Mais à qui tout raconter Chez les ombres de la nuit Au petit matin, au petit gris Combien de crimes ont été commis Contre les mensonges et soi disant les lois du cœur Combien sont là à cause de la folie Parce qu'ils ont la folie Ils ont la folie Oui c'est la folie Oui c'est la folie Oui c'est la folie Oui c'est la folie La folie La folie La folie La folie La folie

Last night it was a long trek to Llandovery for a pib gig on the first day of the sheep festival. The singer was picking me up with the pa but due to a local incident we left late on the 1 ½ hour journey, this meant only 30 minutes to set up, but the three other guys were already sorted which meant ok but no soundcheck. It was a half-timbered pub with about an inch of clearance above my head! No pogoing! I bet @Bluewine doesn't play nearly 800 year old venues very often! Pub was full and the audience was mostly older people and our very rock setlist went down well. We even had people singing along to War Pigs! One oddity was What is and What Should Never Be, which fades out gently and was met with stunned silence, very disconcerting. Yet three people came up and said how much they appreciated it! My first three-set gig, we played from eight to 11 with two 20 minute breaks. The last set was more dancy with "those songs" Dakota and Sex on Fire. Superstition went down very well too. A fair few new songs for us, Motorcycle Emptiness didn't get dancing but virtually the whole pub was singing along. Finished with Everlong as encore. We got free drinks on arrival, at the end the bar manager fetched us another free round, paid us more than the agreed fee and asked us to come back. Lots of good feedback from punters (also one said he'd come after seeing our Facebook page). So we were pretty pleased with how it went. Tonight a normal 2-set gig, with the drummer from my other band standing in. 😁

Going to upset the applecart. I am at the point of using pedals again after two years off. My compressor is a TC Electronics Forcefield - basically a Behringer in a bulletproof metal box. The need was chiefly for something that allowed me to slap (very occasionally) without having to turn down my volume and lose quieter passages. What I it was something that mysteriously adds harmonic richness without losing my lows, in a way that just playing with tone controls or pickup balance doesn't. Very odd. I use it on a very neutral setting, and it has a sort of 'better knob' effect. If I turn up the compression past 12 I have to back off the level a fair bit. It's far too good for a cheap and cheerful effect, and has effectively prevented me from investing in a Spectracomp (although I know that's a different animal). The compression built into my Joyo BadASS is great too, such a shame that's only a 50W amp 😞

Damn. @Frank Blank had his fingers crossed for the Dollar reunion.

Doing a three-hour gig in Llandovery tonight with Bendricks Rock - lots of new material, then back on home territory in Penarth Ex's tomorrow. Saturday's gig is with the drummer from my other band depping. Nothing can possibly go wrong, can it?

I have somehow a knack for being at gigs that end up on live albums. My total is massively inflated because the BBC recorded Reading that year, and eight of them have appeared as albums (as far as I can tell): Stevie Ray Vaughan (part of his first UK tour, there was a real sense of expectation about his 'Hendrix' covers). Big Country Thin Lizzy (final UK performance, I saw them in Gloucester at the previous one too, the only times I saw them). Man Ten Years After Twelfth Night (and a DVD) Marillion (who were very good despite being dissed as a Genesis cover band at the time). Strangelrs (apaprently only on You Tube)

Easily.

I still have the programme. For me the highlights were Ten Years After, Twelfth Night, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Sabbath*. *controversial!

Back in the mid-80s Ii wasn't sure which band I had seen live the most. The Stranglers or Hawkwind. I do find it sad that these days most bands have a 'style' so strong all their music sounds the same. You could play Peaches, No More Heroes, Strange Little Girl and Golden Brown and many people would assume they were four different bands.

They are nice on my P10.

I was at the other end of the telescope tonight, meeting of a new entertainments/promotions committee for the club I do all the posters for. Chap I hadn't met before but who is in an originals band and recently promoted a successful four-band night commented that lots of venues are suddenly demanding Oasis tributes. He added that a covers band could quickly learn a load of Oasis songs and charge tribute rates. I replied "That will take them a few hours!"

Come one, what about the Infinity Warp XXX-69++ Super Tune?

I have a spreadsheet, mainly because if I count them in my head I get different numbers...

I just went through my small collection of singles as I thought I had a copy of Ballroom Blitz. Still I found something interesting, can anyone name the song that had 'Teddy the Dink" as a b-side. Googling verboten!

I made a £70 Harley Benton kit bass. I upgraded so many things all that's original is the neck. So I bought a Squier neck and used it with the HB parts... So yes, we are all mad...

I posted the following after seeing the Sweet at Northern Kin festival last year: "the Sweet who said they would finish at 8, so they didn't overlap with Jethro Tull, but they got such a huge reception they ended up doing their full set to a huge and rapturous audience, most of who fled towards Tull's big top afterwards. Ian Anderson must have been wondering why he had only half a tentful to start!"

The perception of volume has a subjective element which means there is no completely 'right' answer. The 10dB SPL = doubling of volume is an approximation, but is quite close for most sounds. I remember my shock in the 1980s when I connected my Marshall 1x12 cab to my tiny Maplin one-watt PP3 powered 'micro combo'. It sounded huge, and I repeated the experiment as a demonstration for people many times. Percieved volume is measured in 'phons'. "A phon is a unit of measurement for the loudness of a sound or noise. Phons are based on equal loudness contours and the decibel scale of sound intensity. The threshold of hearing at 1,000 Hz is 0 phons, or 0 decibels. " As you can see, perceived loudness is heavily dependent on frequency. With 200hz sounding loudest at just about all powers. These curves can only be derived by subjective listening tests, but they show how the amount of power needed for a volume change is very different depending on context (frequency and starting volume). Absolute volume is measured in the not universally accepted unit of 'sones'. To quote Wikipedia: "a loudness of 1 sone is equivalent to 40 phons (a 1 kHz tone at 40 dB SPL).[1] The phons scale aligns with dB, not with loudness, so the sone and phon scales are not proportional. Rather, the loudness in sones is, at least very nearly, a power law function of the signal intensity, with an exponent of 0.3.[2][3] With this exponent, each 10 phon increase (or 10 dB at 1 kHz) produces almost exactly a doubling of the almost exactly a doubling of the loudness in sones.[4]" See also the explanation section here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness which isn't very useful... Long and short of it is that it isn't an exact science. Add in the complexity of headroom, room acoustics and other aspects of our amps and where/how we play them the only way to make truly meaningful comparison is to take readings with test signals and an accurate sound meter in proper conditions while accurately measuring amplifier output.

We do. One of my favourite basslines for trying out a new bass.

Having changed the batteries I need to report the ceesyy plastic wood effect covers, are actually wood...

This is the only circumstance where shimming is the right way to go.

I think neck dive is maybe only an issue with some playing techniques? I screwed my back for a month carrying a huge pa cab for my brother's band recently but in 40 years of playing I've never found a bass too heavy to gig. Perhaps I'm lucky or perhaps it's just how I sit the strap on my shoulder - tight in to my neck.

I'm 62 with a totally fsxked ankle among other things... but I get by. I do have a super-lught cab and hybrid amp for 17lbs each though (and a 96lb Trace Elliot combo, but that's on wheels...).

It's awful when a bad vibe or dound screws up a gig, shame you got two in a row

Played the Ex's in Penarth last night, my 'home' gig in many ways. Was expecting a half-empty room due to awful weather, but it was pretty full. It seems our loyal fans plus the local musos had come out, but not the 'casual' punters which meant lots of appreciative listening but little dancing. Awful new lights that just dazzle, hope my forceful feedback can get them toned down a lot. I used my new Sire and had a great sound but felt the PA was just reinforcing the bottom end. Playing with pedals again. The drive on the mojo mojo was set too high and the octaver just made mud, but chorus, compressor and hpf all worked fine. We invited a well respected local singer up for The Hunter which went down well. A less successful song was finishing on Sultans of Swing as Al forgot the words and got a bit lost... but e solos were ok. Lots of positive feedback, including on my playing which was an ego boost! Got sent a video by a friend with apologies for sound quality. I am pleased with the little improvised diddle I managed at the end 😁 WhatsApp Video 2024-09-08 at 18.38.51.mp4

We braved the rain to see James Oliver last night. Loads of his banter, amazing what he gets away with. High point included him going out into the porch while playing. He greeted a smoker who apparently replied "eff off". He also whacked his 56 tele so hard against the mike stand the cable fell out... Had a good chat at the break about what it's like to gig with Norman Watt-Roy. 20240906_223725.mp4 Afterwards the roads were pretty floody...