Stub Mandrel

I have a guitar with stainless steel frets and the bass I have now has stainless steel strings on it and I've not had any issues. If I touch anything nickel plated it results in blisters after a day or two. Stainless steels form a surface layer of chromium oxide that effectively insulates the user from the nickel content, or at least helps keep exposure low enough not to cause problems. That's why most people with nickel sensitivity can still eat using stainless steel cutlery.

When you are looking at a Venue's 'upcoming gig' list and discover you've got a gig that's not in your diary... 😧

The Borough Blues Festival next weekend. We are halfway up the running order I've discovered, although poster makes us look like the openers. Which is nice.

A bit different for me last night. Went to see Alex's (our guitarist and bl in Bluesfire) other band for the first time The Rogues. A bunch of youngsters playing rocky britpop. Their new 'Live at Rockfield' ep has a definite Oasis vibe, probably because they had an ex-Oasis producer. On stage they were really good and had a more aggressive sound closer to the 'phonics, kaiser chiefs or manic street preachers. Compensation for not being on stage was being recognised by their bass player's dad 😁 They also announced they are Number 3 in the physical singles chart! 449518951_784893787140517_1242004675697746669_n.mp4

Fire and Water isn't a particularly difficult song to earn the bass for. BUT If anyone is remotely interested... there's an error on (the original) guitar solo for Fire and Water. It's 31 bars long plus a 2 bar drum break. It should be 32 bars, but after bar 17 it goes back to B a bar early. Which is really annoying me, as otherwise all the bass bits are neat figures alternating between two bars on B and two on E.

Here's what appears to be an AI generated discussion of piano styles. Broadly accurate it claims jazz piano is the easiest style to learn and that slong with Elton John, Roger Waters is one of the foremost rock and pop pianists. (Exemplified by the inaudible piano on Julia Dreams (sic).) https://enthu.com/blog/piano/types-of-piano-music/

We need to lobby politicians to ensure that AI can never access the Jools Holland archives...

Sound a right mess

So sorry Dad 😞

We had a brief debate about the encore last gig. I wanted something dancy (Let's Stick Together) Al wanted purple rain. He said Let's do both and it worked (but lasted 15 minutes... 🤣)

For Bluesfire Alex has got quite good at calling it as we go along. We haven't got enough to do that with Bendricks yet, but that's where we plan to get. We pick things up quickly.

Is the front as nice as the back?

Band went for a beer last night 🙂 Agreed a list. Ticked off Peaches today (I already sort of knew it). Already know most of them, but Sweet Sensation is new, and I've only ever busked Delilah. <edit> seems it's 'New Sensation'...

I know, but I have an itch...

I'm feeling the urge to upgrade the tuners on my 2002 Squier Jazz. 😧

Is there a pass for spending the money one has saved on not going to see the 'Eras Tour' on gear?

I find 'election communications' ideal. You can guess which give an aggressive tone, produce false notes or 'dog whistle' sounds...

The Earl Haig with Bluesfire today, a short-notice gig to fill in for a very good local band. Good numbers, maybe 100 at the start, quite a few more by the end. Setting up, a dodgy di lead on my amp was freaking when the spots turned on. Took a while to track down. But we had the full light show, there will be photos. First half it seemed ok to us, but apparently sound was very harsh. Our sound guy unfamiliar with house pa. Second half sounded better apparently. Audience randomly joined in the vocals for sharp dressed man, quite a lot of dancing and upriarious applause. Although some of the time we couldn't see the audience for smoke. Lots of happy, enthusiastic punters and great feedback. Alex got a few sets of applause for his solos, was like a jazz gig! Apparently the bit where we co-ordinate and Alex does trills and I do finger tapping was 'epic' - we think it's silly but fun 😁 Lost track of time so started to finish early but ended up doing three encores. Were taken aback to get applause just for starting Purple Rain. Final song was let's stick together which gets manic and my fingers started behaving oddly and then virtually cramped up... just made it to then end.

It's flashback time?

Lots of interesting thoughts. My brother gave me a PA two huge 2x15 cabs, soundcraft mixer and a hefty amp. I had to swap for two smaller 1x15 cabs just to fit in car. Have light cheap powered cabs for monitors/small pa. Cost is a bit of a barrier at the moment - as I own the PA, it keeps things simpler not to invest band funds. If we do go for a band pa it will be different. I may just go for the Behringer or qtx solution for now and see where we go from there. I have come up with a solution to the monitor amp...hold plan was a snall amp to power the two 12" monitors (150W per channel). But the amps in my matching powered 15s will fit the passive 12s. I can swap over one amp which gives me the option of running two 15, two 12 or all four speakers.

This matters for me... in the long run the rack will have pa and monitor amps, plus a comprssor/enhancer, 6 way mic mixer (for the drum kit) and possibly a graphic so light will matter...

And people who didn't understand the system trying to adjust the tilt without slackening the strings and neck bolts first.

A local band of youngsters has posted on Facebook, wondering why they are struggling to get any gigs: "we have a 35 minute set ready to go at a moments notice mostly original with a couple covers thrown in" OK guys, even if you are only looking for support slots, I think you could perhaps put in the effort to learn a few more songs...