Stub Mandrel

https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/isaac-hayes/theme-from-shaft-bass-2375769 (this is the more accurate tab, although the other one is easier to follow)

Is this soul or funk? - But if you get into this, you might grin enough to make the top of your head fall off...

Musical monomania?

Well I bought a £440 (before VAT) laptop for my business from HP and they were quite happy to sell me a full 3-year pick up and return warranty for £40. OK HP isn't Asus but they obviously expect a pretty good level of reliability if they can do that for £40. A similar priced HP laptop from Currys the same cover would cost £130 (I have knocked off the VAT). So two good reasons to go direct to manufacturer: no preinstalled bloatware and less than a third of the price for extended warranty. 🙂

As a result of this thread I did an experiment with my jazz, which has relatively mild 'vintage' pickups not particularly close to the strings and has never exhibited the 'chorusing' effect*. If I fret an Eb on the A string and pluck it I can hear faint sympathetic beating with the E-string, which disappears when I mute the e-string. To me this proves that even without the pickups being too close to the strings there is always some cross-talk to unmuted strings. The answer is two-fold - strings not so close as to make any effects under normal circumstances and good muting technique. *The effect was quite intrusive on my Jag SS after I added neodymium magnets to the neck pickup, until I backed them off.

🙂 Rapture is the sort of thing I meant, simple to learn the notes, good exercise to get it up to speed (I did learn it a few months ago but on revisit I needed to speed up!) Something as complex as the Bruford is the sort of challenge I'd only take on if I was particularly keen on the song and I'm not sure I'd be up to it. Just learning the beginning riff might be worth a look at!

The aesthetic perfection of a CE sticker counterpoised against the do not recycle in the bin symbol.

Hah! Nylon tapewounds, always thought of those for electro-acoustics, but why not?

Got back in touch with the friend who introduced me to bass by lending me his precision(!) He has a severe nickel allergy, so it goes unplayed these days 😞 Unfortunately , even stainless strings contain a lot of nickel, but I was wondering is coated strings might be a solution and if so, which would be the best brand to suggest?

Don't feel bad, I have almost enough spare equipment to set up a practice studio, and I can't even play the drumkit 😳 I'm the sort of person that stuff sticks to... My plan once divorce and Covid are over is to combine forces with my two brothers (one of whom is in a band, the other sometimes gigs as a duo with his wife) and set up such a studio as we have plenty of stuff between us to do it. We reckon the annual cost will be covered by what we save in rehearsal space costs and we can let trusted friends use it as well.

So what's your favourite colour for a bass?

Nixie Clock! K3WL!

It's certainly standard practice for guitar amps.

Interestingly the 'correct' way to set up a Trace Elliot is to max the gain until the clip light just flickers, and use the master control for its intended porpoise. As far as I can tell the input circuit has anon-linear frequency response. This certainly does give a modest amount of pleasant growl when you dig in without entering distortion territory.

Part of my collection, mostly kept in what, 35 years ago would have been known as a 'stash box' - Golden Virginia tin*. A few of these are older than the tin, other beloved ones like my shark fin, mandolin and finger picking ones have long gone. *Of which there are three types: Basic - with the logo scratched out to read "COLD.. VIRGIN.." (How we laughed). Painted - normally used by hippy types (e.g. me). Old Lag - entirely encased in matchsticks.

My longest owned bass is also my cheapest. It's a Hohner B2 and my brother gave it to me, so it was free.

My very incomplete list for the last 2 years ish has 98 songs on it.

We all know to avoid one particular seller, what about the others out there? Generic warnings to keep your wits about you are probably more effective than targeting individuals in the long run.

I've been constantly looking for songs and riffs to learn that I enjoy and also help me improve by being different to what i would normally play. I thought it would be good if someone else did the hard work of choosing things to tackle. Ideally they should be possible to do in 20-30 minutes, not things that require extensive memorising or complex song structures, like YYZ or The Real Me, although excerpts from those songs would qualify. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to get the hang of this: https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/misc-soundtrack/mission-impossible-theme-bass-3194588 It's probably one of these easiest well known 5/4 songs to play, and has a nice groove and some interesting changes without being technically difficult. Don't worry about getting that whole song perfect just have fun getting the timing right past the first few bars. Now any more suggestions...

Back when I was 17, I already knew about apartheid from hearing a white South African* make some awful boasts about his youth in the country. I found this song remarkably empowering as it led me to learn more about Black South Africa and the idea that raising awareness could help lead to change**. *My Dad was pleased to inform me that the guy in question met his karma as he had to be surgically castrated following a seaside accident involving slippery rocks. **I ought to add that since those days and contrary to another song of the era, I have met nice (white, black and brown) South Africans.

I wish I still had the "Doc's Monster Fuzz" I built nearly 40 years ago, in a plastic maplins box. Two stages of extreme fuzziness, one was transistor and one was op-amp based. It got stolen, and I replaced it with the HM-2 I still have, but the HM2 was never quite as extreme.

I remember my wife going around chanting 'Eddie ate dynamite good bye Eddie" like a mantra...

It looks grossly oversize too, there should be more separation from that chunky bridge and the scratchplate. It looks assembled rather than designed.