Stub Mandrel

I get really whizzed off with singers who can't remember words. If they can't remember their words they aren't learning their parts. Everyone else has to.

I imagine so....

Funky Punk 🙂

You should think of monetising all that effort - just discrete advertising.

Waiting for HB to do a 7-string fan-fret prog monster in matt black... just for pose value 🙂

My Tanglewood was just £70 off eBay, but it was pure acoustic. I had to fit a cheap piezo pickup and preamp and to be honest it sounds great. Like all the Tanglewoods I had previously tried out the nut needed filing and the bridge needed dropping by about 3-4mm as the action was so high Daley Thompson was practising hurdling it.

Yep. Dr Mondeaux would love it, you can do all that dissolving bodies and re-animating roadkill stuff.

Lots of goggles and double containers... Clean scrupulously Strip/degrease in sodium hydroxide - do not touch with fingers after this! Rinse. Polish a titanium rod with wet and dry, and clip into or onto the job. Suspend or put on plastic mesh tray in a container of 13% sulphuric acid (dilute enough to (just) not need a licence. Connect to +ve of a 4A, 12V transformer via a moving iron (very tough) 5A moving iron meter. Connect -ve to a big flat lead cathode (I cast my own from lead pipe) placed as far as possible from the item. Meter hits the stop but in a few seconds usually drops to 4.5A max. In theory do complex calculations for time and current. In practice and on the advice of an expert, the size of the work tends to determine the current. Most things take 30-40 minutes but for large objects (like the telescope body) wait until the current drops right down away. This will take some experimenting. Move the work at least once (inverting it if possible) to avoid any parts being shielded from the current, make sure the current is still flowing There's some feedback so the current tends to concentrate where the anodising is thinnest. When looking uniformly grey and current is low, switch off and rinse well in clean water. DO NOT TOUCH! Now drop into a bath of properly prepared anodising die. This is vastly more repeatable than using other types of die, and is the only element of the process (other than buying titanium rods for connections) where I would advise gritting teeth and paying the price. Colour should start to take almost instantly, black is fairly quick but some colours take time to develop (e.g. the gold) and this gives time to select colour. All your fingerprints and machining marks show at this point. Strip in NaOH, polish, and go back to the start. You will learn to be scrupulously clean. Once you have a good result, boil for 10 minutes in clean water, or put in a suitable sealing solution. Or do both. This uses some really nasty chemicals. I keep sulphuric in a sealed container with a clip on lids (so I don't have to do any pouring) and at all times keep it in a plastic bowl large enough to contain any spill with washing soda loose in it to neutralise any drips. I keep dilute washing soda to neutralise any splashes/drips. The caustic soda (NaOH) doesn't need to be as concentrated but is still potentially nasty. Wear goggles, wear gloves (blue nitrile gloves are great). Wear clothes that don't matter - any drip of sulphuric will create a hole unless neutralised straight away. Just be really careful, keep everything at ground level or a clear bench and avoid any trip hazards and think about what you will do if anything goes wrong - especially how to get to a tap fast if you get acid anywhere near your eyes. Did I say be careful? It does sound very hit and miss, but I was assured by the chap who sold me the dies (who also runs anodising courses) that 99% of the advice online about exact currents etc. really only matters in a production setting where repeatability is essential. For larger objects just accepting longer times with lower currents is fine, essentially anodising will keep forming whatever the current until you get a good thick layer and then the current will drop and there will then be very little change and it tends to even itself out.

I've now moved to Barry! My 'dream gig' would be to help start a band playing a mix of Hawkwind and wider space rock/psychedelic music and perhaps originals. I'm happy playing covers - especially classic rock/heavy metal/blues rock/grunge/indy rock, but have been in a couple originals bands in the 90s. A nice compromise would be a Dr Jekyll band that lives on playing rock covers but has a Master Hyde that plays mind altering space rock whenever a suitable audience can be found. All own gear + transport. Basic vocals only (I can sing in tune but can't play anything complicated at the same time!) Would be willing to join an existing band, or start building something new with like-minded musicians I'm hoping to set up an equipped private practice space which I will share with my brothers and their bands/musical interests.

Indeed, perhaps I worded it poorly. Many people assume because 'aluminium' is soft aluminium alloys are a poor choice for jobs where toughness is a useful attribute. I do my own anodising BTW, usually 6082:

Has taht got THora Hird on it? Oh... Brian Bennett...

Chose the right aluminium alloy (7075) and it's harder and stronger than mild steel, even without anodising.

I find it hard to believe they would bother rehearsing this at a piano...

I watched Jon Pertwee hypnotising Aggedoir today by singing a Venusian Lullaby* a capella. As far as I could tell by playing along he was singing in C minor, despite it being pretty 'rough' sounding. I wonder if he'd been given a pitch cue because it would be pretty odd to hit that key at random. *OK, nonsense words to the tune of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

I normally find that as long as a time signature stays constant, I'm OK. I find syncopated stuff like Monkey Wrench or Papa was a Rolling Stone, harder. This has got me confused, it;''s a slow as a bassline can get, one note per bar, can anyone help?

No, although we've exchanged a few comments on his videos. He comes over as a really decent guy. I'm always struck by how easy it is to follow his videos (perhaps with 0.5x speed for the tricky bits) and they always seem to be much more accurate than most tab.

Troy gets a tone to die for on this - using a Jazz (and the guy has got a Ricky...)

Not the music I was expecting from a band with a name according to the Black <noun> formula.

It's funny. I commented elsewhere hat I'm a by-ear player who uses tab as an aid to understanding. I like to learn things properly, simply because avoiding any shortcuts means I have to stretch myself and as a result my playing continues to improve. Unlike many people I often prefer live albums to studio ones, warts and all, because I like hearing musicians enjoying themselves and enjoying the freedom of playing live. I'd rather hear someone play what's right at the moment rather than trying to slavishly copy a recording. In my own small way, playing live it's when I get a chance to improvise that I have most fun and the best bit of my last gig was when we needed and encore, and I called a song we had only played once together. The structure disappeared, I just followed where the vocalist went, and it was great fun and the audience loved it. So why would I be interested in tabs of some of your Whitesnake classics? Mainly because I'm not convinced of some of the ones in places like Ultimate Guitar and I'd rather start from something accurate rather than a rough idea, then decide what works for me. That's how I'm, very slowly, working through The Real Me - first challenge is just learning all those parts and variations, second challenge is getting into the guts of the song so I can just play along and cope even if it ends up with an extra verse or the bridge in the wrong place.

I'm really a by-ear player who uses tab as an aid (rather than a guide - for a start I almost always change the fingering).

Dishwasher does a better job than the old boiling up with Persil to restore old strings.

The best tab uses 'notes' with numbers instead of heads, so it shows the rhythm in the same way (I can 'read' rhythm, but not pitch, don't ask me why, I don't know). I hear different to what's written for some songs, just like shuffle rhythms are often an 'approximation' of what's notated.

I doubt the cold will affect the structure of all metal strings, even with bronze on steel the differential expansion effect will be negligible compared to coiling and uncoiling a string. If you had aluminium alloy strings, then potentially there could be an effect, especially if recently heat treated. For sensible string metals, no effects happening at those temperatures. HOWEVER... Temperature cycling does 'age' metals causing internal tensions to dissipate, which might accelerate the ageing process. So continually putting your strings in and out of the fridge might be bad. SO MAKE YOU MIND UP!

I don't read music, but I've noticed that a lot of tab (even 'advanced' tab that shows note durations like notation) can't really show syncopation and repeated listening is the only way to get the original 'feel'. I find imitating the rhythm (like some low-grade human beat box) really helps me get an unusual rhythm into my head.