Stub Mandrel

"Anyone who buys a stick, gets the stick they deserve."

Considerer yourself forgiven. Beautiful bass, too.

Tell you what, if you fit a screw into that annoying hole, you can have a free go 🙂

My daughter tried to explain how that was really deep and worked at multiple levels as both a metaphor for Black Mirror as a series and for the whole episode. Over my head, unfortunately...

No, but I wasn't suggesting storing them as MP3 or via DAB either 🙂

Harmonics sound better on a fretless 😉

Because I'm not a millionaire YouTube influencer! So far I've raised less than £15 in my Amazon account...

One of these Days, Pink Floyd?

I'm often struck by how accurately Jamie Hewlett anticipated current street fashion back when I used to read 2000AD...

Can you explain what I'm looking at in this photo please? I'm trying to understand how you are choosing the best matching grain. The piece at bottom left is an almost perfect match for the worktop. 🤣

Ha! Not when my broadband tops out at 2.2Mb/s...

Basschat was throwing 502 bad gateway issues earlier. Probably related to this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-48841815

But beat the crap out of MP3 and Digital Radio....

I find Rick Beato annoying, chiefly because the level for the spoken parts of his videos are always significantly louder than the musical parts.

Fair point. I just got over excited 🙂 Really old digital version may only be 16 bit, or (relatively) low sample rates compared to what is used today, especially if made before the 1990s. These are quite possibly going to be inferior and at the least limit the options for further processing. Of course it's a moot point if we don't have the original analogue recording to compare the digital version to! There was also my original point that in the future we may be able to recover more from analogue tapes than we can at present.

Wrong file extension? Chang the extension to .mp3 and it plays: 232683.mp3 Don't have a clue what it is though 🙂

I've found Troy's ( TJH3113 ) cover videos useful. He plays very accurately and clearly with a good sound balance. You can always see what his fingers are doing and the video/sound can stand being slowed to 50%. The only thing is sometimes he goes a bit random at the very end!

With all the shortcomings of analogue tapes, please explain how a digital copy made from one can be better? I've got no problem with making new ADD masters from original tapes but why go to ADDD if you don't have to? This will always be subjective, but as an example I recently got Jethro Tull's Broadsword and the Beast without realising it had bonus tracks. IMHO at least couple of these are better than tracks on the album, and I didn't feel any of them were 'makeweight', just that perhaps they thought they didn't fit as well with the album's concept. Ironically I think Down at the End of Your Road is an archetypal Tull song that would have made an excellent bookend to Beastie on the 'beast' side of the album., There was also the original of Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow, an Ian Anderson song I already knew and loved, because Dave Pegg put a solo version on The Cocktail Cowboy Goes it Alone. It's great to hear it as originally intended. OK I'm a bit of a Tull fan, but isn't that saga enough to show how there is certainly an audience for this sort of material among most band's followers? There's also Coda, the Zeppelin album salvaged from 'unused tracks', which I really like. It's not exactly clear, but I think most of the tapes lost were the original multitracks rather than masters (most of the press don't understand the difference). I think Jimmy Page's remastering of some Led Zeppelin classics was perhaps a more valid way to use old material than the 'release everything' approach shown by some bands. Creating a new mix doesn't invalidate the old one or damage it in any way and there are some albums (Born Again, by Black Sabbath - mixed so bass heavy by Geezer Butler you can hardly hear anything else) that could be drastically improved by re mixing/mastering. I do draw the line at the re-recording of parts as notoriously happened with one Ozzy Album (Bark at the Moon?) when Shazza (according to Oz) fell out with the old musicians over a royalty dispute. After 35 years US artists have the right to ask for their original tapes back. Songs that never saw the light might be for all sorts of reasons, including 'not commercial enough' or 'they might dent sales of versions by other artists' etc. etc. If the artists get their songs back, they can make the decisions for themselves. Just to be clear, I'm not trying to start a row here, and I do think you've made some valid points. But I find this a fascinating subject and I'm intrigued that your views are (generally) so different to mine; responding to those points has helped me clarify my own thoughts on the issue. Would be far more civilised to discuss over a few pints!

I once had a memorable jam with the guitarist from a proper, signed thrash metal band! I was even in a band that played the sort of music I probably wouldn't listen to much (a bit like the Housemartins/Beautiful South, although the basslines were very Jam-influenced) and I always enjoyed it because they were all very good and professional even though we were only a 'pub' band.

Get some silicone base glue: https://diy.evo-stik.co.uk/product/serious-glue Available from the DIY sheds, this is NOT an impact adhesive, but a slow cure silicone, strong, flexible and sticks to most things. Great for gap filling applications or if you need a bit of flex. If you google 'pickup pole piece' you can restore your old pickup too, for a few quid.

Clockwise! For goodness sake, always twist the strap CLOCKWISE!

Here's a funny thing... You say your palms sweat... the palms of our hands only sweat when we are under stress, not when we are hot. It's thought that it improves our grip a little - useful in most stressful situations but not if it makes you fingers stick to the strings... But i'm all for rock-star sweat bands, check this groovy one out 🙂 Mostly these days because they reduce my risk of RSI from my wrist rubbing the body of the guitar!

Get two squares of plywood bigger than the dent drill four holes in them,, matched up as a pair. Bolt the squares either side of the grille over the dent using bolts small enough to fit through the grille, really tight.This should flatten it rather than distorting it further.

For home practice, Orange Crush 25.

Does that count as psycho-billy?