Stub Mandrel

Its unusual for joe public and musicians to agree on who is most talented.

Agreed, it drpends both on the bass's output level and how aggressively you play. 3 o'clock is typical, but expect a lot of variation.

I worry as I've always had the luck to play with good drummers. In my first band the drummer had learned by playing snare for a gold medal-winning 'jazz' band (as in marching). He taught me a lot and our showpiece was to finish a twelve bar by just getting faster and faster until one of us lost the plot 🙂 The two drummers I'm with now are really good, very responsive, and will vary what they play to help the other musicians. Keyboard player was struggling with the timing of a solo, so drummer changed the snare pattern to give him something to follow. Both of them support me and make it as easy as possible for me to lock in with them. This bloody drum machine is useless though, goes all over the place when it tries to keep up with me 😞

I solved this on a bass neck I was sent with original Squier rings still in place. They were slightly too large for the tuning heads I fitted, and the ones that suited the tuning heads were loose - or three of them were. Solution: I took them out and very carefully aligned the ridges on the rings with the ridges left in the holes by the old tuners. This was surprisingly easy to do, and I felt plenty of resistance. Instead of easily dropping out, they are now nice and secure. No mystery noises.

The first band I was in had the opposite problem. The BL was so self-effacing, he would apologise that he wasn't a better guitarist and show genuine surprise when people applauded or demanded an encore...

I'm inspired to take this as my backup in future...

Poor design... I mean your coffee cup is going to spill all over the floor the moment you pick up that bass...

Well not sure how to rate the latest purchase. A 1/6 share in a pair of powered PA speakers. The seem pretty good, linear arrays on top of bass bins. Hopefully we will do more than the two gigs we have lined up. Two bands like chalk and cheese. One cautious, the other we were gigging after five rehearsals.

Surely it's horses for courses? I have a VoxValvestate for guitar, simulating amps and effects, my brother mocks it but accepts it's a sensible choice for someone whose guitar playing has only ventured on stage once... An all-in-one is a great way to keep a new player interested and active and exploring different types of effects, what works and when - they can always upgrade later.

Crikey, looks like the nut on thet MM is cut a bit high.

Danny Thompson is brilliant. Also, I've seen his son drum for Hawkwind.

Are you sure? It sounds very different when he digs in to the Am chords

In the first two bars?

Thanks Andy, that's almost a short book on the subject! I still have to find my router (It's a long story) but it will be one step at a time anyway. Wish me luck!

If this doesn't do the job, you're dead.

If off to rehearsal... on tenterhooks! 🙂

Actually... I have a spirit-based stain. Does this make a difference?

From Luthier's warehouse. It had about five times as many watchers as any other bodies they had up, so I stopped umming and ahing just went for it! Now I have to do it justice. That bubinga looks pretty much what I'm hoping for finish wise Sounds like it might be acceptable to leave the holes. They are very small. That would make life easier. So I could (having also seen some online stuff): Use router to round over corners, sand corners around pickup holes, neck pocket. Use red water based stain around the outside. Sand back a bit. Use yellow stain over whole body. Use the slurry method with Tru-Oil to finish. So best to sand manually and follow the grain. Question: is water based stain going to be OK?

First thanks tpo everyone fopr lots oif useful comment and suggetsions! 1. The picture (from Luthiers warehouse) shows it wiped with alcohol, apparently. I wouldn't want less contrast, ideally a bit more. 2 The holes are tiny ~1mm and in dark areas. A dark filler might be inconspicuous.

None more black!

Yes, just temeprament. But I think other things are going on in blues, with its roots in the minor pentatonic and African music.

Perhaps if a mod could move to build threads? @Jabba_the_gut @Chopthebass @Rexel Matador

Phew!!

More likely you are defaulting to true temperament, this is not unusual for voice or violin, for example.

I'm waiting for the refined sound of the Laney Sutton Coldfield.