Stub Mandrel

Heading for d.i.v.o.r.c.e. Obviously having a roof over my head is priority number 1, my hope is to have a garage for a workshop and a music room inside.

Probably Nik Turner...

I love Boolean Basslines 🙂

Working myself up to playing this 🙂

We did my Sister-in-law's birthday event on saturday. Big hall, packed out with a highly sympathetic audience as we did a mix of my brother and her's songs with some other stuff. Mostly went well, thanks in part to borrowing my other brother's drummer but a couple could have done with more rehearsal (one I'sd only done twice vbefore and another one I played bass on I'd only done on mandolin before.... Wes the drummer was ace, we did Black Man Ray and I was convinced he knew the song inside out, turns out he'd never heard it before. My first time playing guitar and mandolin or singing properly (Motorhead's 1916!) in front of people but I felt best when I played the bass. Here's Jer on his very nice Westone Spectrum 2 (and kilt!) and Lu being a butterfly... and me losing my guitar cherry! A few other guys did a few songs as well, and the main band was Stonehouse Collective, our other brother's band. First song packed the dancefloor and it stayed that way through both of their sets, storming night. Just got sent this ace soundcheck shot 🙂

Just the wigs left to sort out... 🙂

Saturday I had to remember/improvise a walking line I made up to a song I only heard/played twice before and a week ago... Luckily (a) it was pretty simple and (b) the singer did a long explanatory introduction so I just started playing a very simple line very quietly, gradually getting more complicated and louder, uke (!) (who wrote it) and drummer (who had never heard it before) joined in and we were rolling along when the singer came in and it felt like something we'd honed for weeks 🙂

Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons at the Cardiff Tramshed. Hopefully some stuff from his new solo album and maybe something special as it's his 'home gig' 🙂

I've certainly seen a few gigs in pubs where you would be very stupid to start a fight.

My bro's band, supported by me, my other brother and his wife!

The monument at the start is the India Gate memorial designed by Edwin Lutyens, it's near-twin, also by Lutyens is in Leicester's Victoria Park. Bet you didn't know that...

Here's one thread: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/a-guy-threatened-to-shoot-up-the-bar-i-was-gigging-at-last-night.1309708/page-3 Particularly worrying are the number of people who say they 'always carry'...

I think the point is the G&L has an extra fret and the neck joins the body one fret further from the nut, this creates a slightly different feel. I have no trouble swapping from my B2 to my Jag which have about 8 frets difference between where the neck joins the body...

Opposite effect when I took my wife (who couldn't play a note) to GuitarGuitar in Birmingham to look for a first guitar. The salesman (for that's what he was) was only interested in persuading her she needed something with a solid spruce top. She saw right through him. Went to Rattle and Drum in Derby and the helpful young chap gave much useful advice and she came away with very nice, parlour-sized Fender acoustic for about 2/3 of my expected outlay...

I have an ancient Ibanez DCL stereo chorus. Sounds great with bass.

Very different responses to a thread I saw on TalkBass. The definition there seemed to be "where one of you gets shot."

My advice, puny as it is, is that what matters is having a feel for what fits. You don't need to be immersed in theory (although it can open up new avenues) you just need to be able to vary what you do. One obvious thing is having a sense for major versus minor without having to see it written down, using the seventh to lead into a chord change and learn some other runs that naturally lead to different chords. You can also practice things like diminished chords - nothing oozes 'sophisticated jazz dude' like playing a slow descending diminished chord ;-), playing the thirds or fifths instead of the root. That's pretty much where my theory runs out, but you can always reply to criticism with obscure comments like "The eleventh note is often omitted from a thirteenth chord with a flatted ninth".

Extra frets at the end of the neck don't affect the spacing or feel of those nearer the nut. Anything from 19 to 24 is pretty much normal.

I play mandolin, long and short scale guitars, short and long scale bass. Never had any problems coping with scale length differences. I like the fact different instruments feel and sound different because they inspire me to play in different styles.

I don't know about guitars, but sometimes machine tool QC failures (from entire lathes down to individual cutters) end up being sold of cheap and ending up pn AliExpress or eBay for 'cut prices'.

I cured mine by fitting steel strings then painting a rattlesnake on it because it rattled so much. I upgraded to my Kay 'SG' played through a modified Dansette and never looked back 🙂 With an origin story like taht I should be a megastar!

"When I got this it was like a jazz bass... but then I got them to put these things back on" 🙂

Glurk! I think I had better take a pill and lie down for a while...