Stub Mandrel

I shall send you all my sparezzez for your next brirthday 🙂

I had prepared a longer answer but decided it was teaching granny to suck eggs. In it I proposed a unity follower to give a nice hi-Z input stage, then a conventional volume control, followed by inverting amp with a gain of about 10 or so all fed by linear regulated supply derived from eth main one 🙂

Tell me more of this mythical 'audience' of which you speak? Is it truly some strange gathering from the maskless days?:

Long ago I shared a flat with (among others) a chap who worked in a computer shop. He told the story of the BBC computer that came in for a service full of dog ends. The owner thought the cartridge slot was an ashtray.

I like the little box on the back to hide unwanted plectrums in.

For banjo players:

That is, actually, quite nice, I must admit 🙂

Slap requires a degree of skill and dexterity, but it also needs like any 'lead' technique to be used to serve the song and to be done well. Unfortunately it's become the bassist equivalent of the flashy guitar solo - often delivered with little regard for accompaniment and with more concern for speed and display than musicality. This can lead to it becoming as hollow and soulless as rote jazz solos, meaning many people (only partly motivated by jealousy that they can't do it at all) conclude it's a waste of talent.

I would just put a unity follower before the volume control.

Another year and a half and you are in the clear... Although it depends on the species, the death watch beetle can take ten years before emerging...

I would power a preamp with a separate, linear, power regulator - just based around a 7809 or 7812 to give it the cleanest possible power source.

Yet...

Only when playing my Flea bass.

Looks a tad large for woodworm, probably some larger beastie. It will have got in before the wood was painted. If it's a whole batch could prove expensive (unless they become sought after collectors' items).

So share the best kecks for your style of music.

In the UK if one of these doesn't cure it the EMI isn't getting to your gear via the mains: https://cpc.farnell.com/bulgin/pxd301-550-01-1/power-outlet-iec-5way-10a-emi/dp/CN16585 Probably cheaper alternatives out there, EMI filter is what to look for. <edit> It probably has the same electronics inside as the Citronic box...

Fine when it serves the song. Embarrassing when it's an angst-fueled pop-tastic slap-fest...

1990 was to 1991 like 1977 was to 1978. (Check out the number 1 hits in each year...)

Going into business Ricky?

Well just to make sure no-one else patents the idea, it was standard interconnector that could be fitted as a socket beneath pedals in parallel with standard power and signal jacks as well as custom ways for each pedal (for expression pedals, programming etc.) so all the power and interconnects could easily be provided, unseen, from beneath on a crowded but neat pedalboard with moveable matching connectors. It would be an opensource or licenced connector so that it could be adopted by multiple manufacturers.

What's the odds you eat it all by the end of the week, let alone keeping it for September!

Bugger! I invented that system last year and tried to sell it to a pedal manufacturer who said it was unlikely to fly because we agreed it would need multiple companies to adopt it. Just as well I didn't try to patent it!

Having to tighten my belt until the house is sold and the divorce aftermath is settled so abstinence is order of the day anyway. GAS is strong but as the theme seems to be twin 'buckers it's possible an Epiphone Embassy or an EB3 might cure it come the time.

My old Pro-Bass used a compander chip to provide fixed 4:1 dynamic range compression. The chip was one Maplin used to sell that was 'lo-fi' intended for 'telecoms use only'! Worked well enough that I sold (foolishly) my old Arion stereo compressor 😞