Stub Mandrel

Increasing convinced a Jazz bass on neck pickup with tone rolled right back is the way to go 🙂

Like that.

The guy who stole your seat in the van and was ligging all night stealing your beer and egg mayo sarnies! 🤣

Oh no! For goodness' sake don't let @Al Krow know you are wearing compression gloves... I think that in physiotherapy circles the technique is referred to as "spliffin' up".

LOL! Just twigged who you are Dave... I have to admit categorically NO shortage of thump on Saturday night 🙂

That's because it's an ex-MOD "List, Set - Musician Mk IVb"

This is interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_jazz#Years_of_National_Socialism,_the_1930s_and_the_missing_1940s But as always, music became a focus for resistance too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swingjugend As for bassists, I already knew we were a bunch of degenerate pluckers.

I don't get on much with books, but I have one on developing your 'bass groove' and rather than numbers it has words/sounds that help you visualise (audiolise?) complex rhythms. I find 'internally vocalising' helps greatly with getting a rythym from tab or conventional music (I can read pretty much rythyms, not pitches!) It does come with practice, try and 'accent' the downbeat, and other significant beats. Even simple things like triplets can be: DAH -dah-dah Dah-dah-dah Dah-dah-dah Dah-dah-dah Such emphasis isn't obvious from score (usually) but the grouping of triplets in threes is a clue. Get that in your head and you find yourself playing it easily, emphasising the notes at three levels of emphasis rather than just playing twelve identical notes. When playing with a drummer, listen for the patterns they use, you may want to lock in to the rythym on the snare or kick, or maybe the gaps between them. A good song to practice is In Bloom by Nirvana, where the bass and drums lock together in some nice, memorable patterns but the tempo is nice and slow. I'm afraid I find repeat listening to be more effective than counting... Sharp Dressed Man has 19(!) bars of straight eighth notes and I find it vastly easier to listen to the guitar solo than to count!

There's someone else working hard to convince themselves the 64 picups in their Flea Bass are U/S. Perhaps the two of you could get together and do a swap?

Funnily enough my TE doesn't have the light, but I've bought a roll of UV leds on a strip with a USDB connector. Haven't fitted it yet.

The figure were just to demonstrate it's possible to work to greater accuracy by hand. Despite what people think, you or I could work to the 'thousandth of an inch' mentioned in awe on other forums, I regularly do so.

In engineering, hand scraping is the most accurate process for producing flat surfaces over long distances, by comparing three surfaces and taking off the high spots. https://www.okuma.com/hand-scraping-wp There isn't an accurate grinding machine in existence that doesn't trace it's accuracy back to hand-scraped surface plates 🙂 When optical telescope mirrors need to be made to the highest levels of accuracy (fractions of a wavelength of light) they abandon the machines and finish them by hand. Even the production of gauge blocks (small but very accurate & expensive) was finished by manual lapping until the 1960s. For a fret dress, that machine will work to a known level of accuracy, as it's fairly lightly built 0.02 or maybe 0.01mm is probably about it <it's 0.01mm according to the patent http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6114618.pdf>. Expert hand scraping can work to around 0.000025mm... An expert hand finishing frets could easily work to better than that to a factor of ten (although it's questionable if that would give any improvement). The value of the Plek machine (operated by a semi-skilled person) can do the job to a higher standard than the majority of music shop techs, but i very much doubt it can beat a skilled luthier.

Bad company 🙂

I've got a side project with a black vocalist. I feel decidedly ambiguous about lyrics like 'I'll always be your slave', but it's their call and Sam Cooke didn't have any qualms.

Surprisingly different, would probably go down well in a rock type venue, maybe a bit too extreme for a pub crowd.

Ace of Spades. Properly, with a pick, double stops and all, at full speed. I'm not a plectrum bassist... I keep getting cramp...

Nice. Took my 5 to rehearsal last night. Extra string and four extra frets, I did get lost a few times. Your 'B as a thumb rest' comment rings true! Playing Song 2 (not exactly complex!) was a bit confusing because I had to adjust from playing dropped D... Did enjoy Lil' Devil as I could play it a whole octave down using the low C and D rumbly wumbly 🙂

Hmm, I know enough about precision machining to be sceptical that it's superior to doing the job by hand. I don't question that a machine can do an excellent job, but it's accepted that in principal hand scaping can provide a superior flat surface to grinding so I'd expect that to apply to fret dressing as well. Not least because a manual dress can address any residual high spot without having to repeat the entire process (or even remove the strings).

Nothing compared to people who leave the protective film on their scratchplates or (horrors!) little white circles on the back of their enclosed tuners.

How about an onboard compressor? 🙂 The Elf is 200W but doesn't have a preshape although it claims to be able to give that ';classic Trace sound' with the three band EQ. Is it fair to say the Ashdown preshape is pretty close to the TE one?

Can I suggest rounding the internal corner to avoid creating a stress raiser, even a 3-4mmm radius will make a significant increase in resistance to a split starting at this point if it fall backwards and the headstock hits something.

Well they've taken it down... Other than lack of handwritten date marks or a serial number that works on Fender's database, what's the give away?

?

I've started feeling uncomfortable about 'cultural appropriation' ever since an American bride got slated for wearing a kimono to her wedding. My daughter, who speaks some Japanese and has Japanese friends says they were all horrified and couldn't understand what was wrong with other people appreciating and enjoying something they are very proud off - after all it was being used in a respectful ceremony (why don't people boycot Gilbert and Sullivan?) Personally I think 'cultural appropriation' is only an issue when people 'pick and mix' aspects of a culture in a way that is genuinely disrespectful - thing like bastardised versions of religious ceremonies or using special symbols as decorations. I don't think most of the stuff criticised is any more direspectful than non-Scots wearing tartan kilts. But one point you raise is really about 'do you need to have a black experience' to sing this song? To be honest, most black people in the UK have no more validity to sing about lynching than anyone else. The author of American Dirt was on the radio today, she's of Puerto Rican extraction but has written a book about Mexican refugees. She made some compelling arguments such as 'do we replace one set of gatekeepers/censors with another'. I also feel that raising such issues is more important that who raises the issues; if no Mexican immigrants feel able to write their story in the current climate in the USA, it's good that someone, anyone, is. So I'd argue that yes, white people or anyone can sing this song. On this level, is it materially different to a man singing a song about a woman's experiences or vice versa? What I do think is the real issue is the sincerity and authenticity brought to the performance, and that reflects where and when it is performed, to whom and the motivations of those involved. Personally I feel it should only be performed if the occasion suited it and that performers had the audience's 'permission' to do so. This may or may not involve issues of ethnicity or cultural heritage depending on the situation. After all Woody Guthrie sang about lynchings, racism and other such things with no disrespect.

Do you play very near the bridge?