Stub Mandrel

Looking back, not forward, just returned from Northern Kin which was hit by a lot of mud (not much rain though, at least except for overnight). Some exceptional bands, Hawkwind (who played an epic set with many older gems and had an eye-wateringly good lightshow) and then Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons (who must have surprised themselves with how good their own material is, they used to only play Motorhead at festivals, for this just a handful of crowd pleasers) were the standouts. Also brilliant were Reef (great to see Jack Bessant fully recovered) and 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! Other excellent acts included Tom Robinson and Wishbone Ash (Andy Powell version, layed lots of Argus 😁 ), but we didn't catch everyone we wanted to see as there was once cancellation at the beginning (The Stumble) and we were off-site and arrived later on days 2 and 3 (so missed the Groundhogs 😭). Lots of other bands worthy of a mention, but I won't name check them all, musicianship was great even for bands whose music I am not hugely into. Only saw a bit of Lindisfarne and regretted no seeing more, for example. Some pics (no Hawkwind yet as downloading from my phone). (That's us in there!)

Was that the bit where Andyjr1515 is telling everybody that to raise a nut slot, you can pop some bicarb into the slot and add a drop of CA....

I played a couple of gigs with the Elf at a long thin venue. It was plenty loud enough and did not struggle.

Steve Jones reckons he has sold his original Les Paul multiple times...

Shaping up to be a great bash! Wish I could join you but as a collaborator in this...

Seems OK this evening... hmm.

Bassbash ettiquette is to wear something like a decent t-shirt or sweatshirt hanging over your belt.

Mine has a big round bit at the end

Good point, if it starts again I'll try that. My brother's new valve amp had a rectifier tube that was 'buzzing' mechanically but it turned out to be an internal fault.

Says a lot for the Hotone that you have gear like that, but still use one!

It seems better today... might be an intermittent issue, see what happens after the valve has run hot for a few hours, like yesterday.

I have 12ax7 tubes in two other amps, so I OUGHT to have a spare. Don't want to cannibalise, so I've just ordered one. See if it sorts it in a few days.

In the last half hour my Joyo Bantamp (50W hybrid) has started making farty/crackly noises if I dig in on the E string. I have volume low and gain modest. It seems to be very biased towards low frequencies. It doesn't sound like distortion as much as a really noisy volume control and appears to be independent of gain and master volume settings. I can turn up loud and play gently without the nasty noise. Turn it really quiet and dig in, and it crackles and snaps. It's a hybrid amp, and my worry is that something 'mechanical' has gone awry in the 12ax7preamp stage. Is this possible?

I did occur to me that with my well-equipped metalworking workshop, I could have made something...

That's what the Stewmac tool solves.

The bass has had a week and a half to settle down, hanging in a Hercules stand. I'd already set the bridge as low as I could go but there's been a bit more bow in the neck than I would like. Took the scratchplate off, and used a Stewmac tool to put about half a turn on the truss rod. Now about 1.75mm at the 12th fret and no buzzes. Very happy. 🙂

Pon... sorry wrong thread!

Warman pickup has that meaty Stingray sound.

Thanks seen that before but useful to re-read it.

Gorgeous

I did notice they don't supply one.

It's tempting... if only to see how well the mute works

Just hope I can do it justice.

To me it feels shallower than I expected, considering it is described as 'deep C'. I'd suggest a try out as I find these things hard to judge, especially as I adapt my playing style so I really only notice if something is really baseball-bat chunky. I will probably take some scotchbrite to the back of the neck as it is very glossy.

More pics 🙂 Relic capacitor? Had to take the scratchplate off to remove all the film and sticky residue. Note the separate shielding plate!