Stub Mandrel

I make tools so I can make tools...

Would JJ Burnell and Tina Weymouth count? 'New Wave' kind of means anything late seventies that wasn't disco or heavy rock...

I am notorious for being easily satisfied by cheap stuff. TC MojoMojo - overdrive Joyo Voodoo Octave - fuzz Boss HM2 - distortion Cover all my needs, although I've got a Behriger Tube Screamer clone that has been waiting nearly a year for a chance to be used at volume.

Oddly enough that's the last but one shop I bought a bass in... ...but I'm in South Wales a.t.m.

Can you tell if you are in tune with something you are playing along with? No shame in using tab rather than working out by ear, but play along to songs and try and focus on making your playing and the original 'merge together'. This is easier with stuff with clear, undistorted basslines and simple melodies e.g. country,. rock'n'roll, blues. Try playing simple, riffs. Play one riff over and again, and then stop and try and 'play' it in your head. Then try and play along to the sound in your head. I learned what major and minor triads sound like that way, by treating them as three-note riffs, and when it clicked it was liberating.

Has anywhere you can try one got them in stock?

Absolutely correct, fingerboard oil is just light mineral oil with added lemon scent. If you are tight, sewing machine oil then sniffing a lemon does the same job just as well, because it is the same thing.

I have to agree that the idea of 'moisturising' something by adding oil is absurd. It should be the number 1 misused word in English (although mainly for beauty products not fretboards). Fret oil (or just plain mineral oil) makes 'em look nice though.

Great rock set, I've only ever played 8 of those 26 with bands I've been in 🙂

Interesting song title...

Makes sense, for a given gauge SS strings will have a lower tension and so need less force for a given bend.

I got given a song to learn for an audition that had the full-tone bend. With the slightly heavier strings the alternatives were a half-tone bend or a hammer on/off. I figured out what was happening when I played it on my Squier jazz and it sounded right, but not on my Fender one. Can be done with the heavier string, but not with the required speed and 'fluidity'.

Yes.

Well even long scale strings need to be cut to fit most basses...

My idea of double thumbing is much more fun 🙂

Oak is notorious for making steel tools rust.

Two lyric mistakes in After the Gold Rush. The spaceships are lying, only the flags are plying, and it's the 1970s not the '1917'. Sorry, I'm picky about such things...

Is this the Tetris thread?

Clap sounds can spoil any track (except a Crazy little Thing Called Love & We Will Rock You).

If God had meant us to use picks he would have given us thin, tough, flexible extensions on the ends of our fingers!

I've fitted 45-100 roundwounds to my Jg SS. Rather thicker than the 40-95s it came with. It sounded fine with the old, light strings, but I'll report back.

No, any self-respecting drum machine gives up in disgust if you add a clap track.

Wowsy... that was traumatic. I cut the G-string a tad short, and the bevelled edges of the '62-style tuners wouldn't grip enough so the string kept slipping. Discretion being the better part of valour I decided it was time to replace the strings on my Jag SS instead 🙂 No problem until the E except when I bent it, it snapped clean off. Second time I didn't bend as tight... and it snapped where it bent around the tuner. Luckily I cut it long and despite losing a fair length on a third attempt it wound on OK. Playing with the cut off section, it doesn't seem as brittle so I wonder if there was a short section of poorly tempered string? The (stock) strings I took off were a no thicker and maybe a tiny touch thinner, so maybe 95s, an odd choice for short scale bass! One positive. I initially tuned the A and E without reference to anything and they were both no more than half a tone sharp. I haven't got perfect pitch but it seems to be improving :-)