Stub Mandrel

Indeed 🙂 The rubber knob grips are a lovely detail too! It's like they thought 'can we make it better' about every bit.

I read that as pervey first time... 😲 Yes... more than a bit Peavey!

I can't resist it; I've been playing my Performer on and off all day. Here are some photos and comments on my Fender Performer, this is the made in Japan version, alledgedly the American ones were superior but it's hard to see where they could make improvements. It sounds great, feels great and looks great. Despite being standard scale length it looks like the neck goes on forever. A radical makeover for the Fender logo may have dented sales. The headstock was shared with the even more unconventional Katana guitars and basses. The body that was radical in 1987 now looks ace and is super comfortable. Controls are deceptively simple, three-way selector and two volume controls but the tone control is a Fender TBX so the range of sounds is wide, but always lively. Unique appearance of the pickups; I suspect they have a split-coil like a P-bass inside the assymetrical lozenge-shaped case. Open back but very smooth tuners. Micro-tilt neck and note the tiny cover for accessing the jack socket - not a battery compartment, this is not an active bass. A fully sealed jack socket, rather than the usual skeleton socket. The neck is thinner than a typical Telecaster, compared here with a Hohner B2. I'd love to see or hear about other examples of these beautiful instruments!

To be fair, I think it's a trick of the light.

Err, the clue is in the name...?

Bacuase I love the Bowie original, but this somehow makes everything about the world better:

My feeling is that the USA tends to focus more on the individual than the band, lots of famous signer/songwriters who get a lot more profile than admittedly great bands - from Dylan and the Band down. The UK tends to have more profile for the band than individual songwriters. For example, the Beatles and the Stones, despite their songwriters being well known, are still better known. If you want to get partisan about it, you could debate Birmingham and the Black Country vs. Detroit or Canterbury vs. Haight Ashbury (I think Seattle versus Manchester was covered above).

A veritable Swiss Army Knife of basses. Precision, Musicman and the headstock works as a can opener 🙂 Actually, very nice but what are the four dots above the neck joint? Just a logo?

Excellent post @Frank Blank

Probably because in just temperament some notes are quite far off from even temperament (e.g. fretted instrument). This is particularly true of thirds while the fourths and fifths are close in both approaches.

That's a bit unfair. There's clearly a continuum between dabblers and virtuosos. I guess most people who have played a bit are like me, they can cope eyes off while playing in a position, but need a look when shifting it. I don't pretend to be anything more than a basic fretless player, and really don't want to put in the vast amount of practice to build up the muscle detailed muscle memory but that doesn't mean I shouldn't play the thing.

I've always gone for Rotos or Elites. These days I buy Elites direct from http://www.basscentre.com/bass-centre-elites-strings.html Confession, I have a 1990s Elites long-sleeve t-shirt 😲

Most people miss that...

All the best bass players come from Barry. there's Pino, me, my brother... 😎

Wow, this makes me cringe. The guy has a product that, clearly, plenty of people like and pay for. He's built it up from nothing and clearly put in vastly more work than people who make bigger fortunes from streaming crappy videos of their children or pets misbehaving. It's clearly absurd to assume that buy buying a specific product you should assume the right to a slice of everything he produces. I enjoy the videos I've seen, but buying into something like this is probably not for me, just because of the way I learn and where my interests lie, but the pricing and product seem fair from where I'm sitting. Must say I am impressed by his response; most people would have just walked away and waited for the fuss to die down. P.S. Scott you are bit of a waffler but so am I.... 🙂

I used to think that too. I was wrong; Sweet Home Alabama was aimed at NY for stereotyping all southerners as racists in Southern Man and Alabama. In his autobiography (which I'm reading at the moment) NY says " "My own song 'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue." By the way, Clydie King, one of the two black ladies who sang backing vocals on Sweet Home Alabama died earlier this year.

One thing I found REALLY weird. At school I was useless on violin, even with little plastic markers taped on the fretboard. After learning fretless bass I can play violin in tune, not very well because my bowing technique is absolutely shite, but pretty much in tune!

I used to know a biker with a dent like that in his head...

🙂 Good venue? I've got tickets for Phil Campbell there in November - he should be good on home turf!

🙂 My brother keeps on encouraging me to buy a cheap 3/4 classical guitar and a 'ukelele bass conversion kit'. I saw the ideal guitar today in a charity shop for £15. Unfortunately I'd just dropped my car off for its post-MOT work and I just didn't have the balls to walk through town carrying a bright pink 'Barbie-style' guitar...

Buy a Squier Jazz, swap necks and put the Squier neck on the bay (or send it to me as a reward for such a good idea).

My Squier Jag has rolled edges to the fingerboard (if I am understanding what that means properly)

This mention of lemon oil got me thinking. It seemed weird to me that a vegetable oil would be used on fretboards. Why? Vegetable oils oxidise, thicken and go gungy over time. Mineral oils don't. So I looked up the MSDS (material safety data sheet) for few a popular brands. They are typically >90% white mineral oil or 'heavy naptha' (which is the same thing but longer molecules so a bit thicker for lemon oils used as a 'lacquer'), the 'lemon' bit appears to be just a touch of essential oil to add fragrance. What's the cheapest and most easily obtained source of high-purity white mineral oil? Sewing machine oil, which is thin, hardly smells and is specifically chosen not to go nasty and gungy when used in a very challenging environment. Just happen to have a bottle too! Tried it on an old no-name neck - worked great. Tried it on Hohner rosewood - great. Tried it on Laurel - spankin! I also found an MSDS for pure lemon oil. Slightly toxic if taken internally, hazardous (irritant) with skin exposure. In other words, don't put pure lemon oil on your fretboard, just drip it in your new-age oil vapouriser and use it to summon unicorns. I suppose you could add a drop to sewing machine oil and make your own 'lemon oil'. <edit> found this which seems to agree with me! https://www.guitaranswerguy.com/12-lemon-oil-debate/ 🙂

Better than my Portugese 🙂

I think it looks great... I wonder how they get the 8R impedance with three drivers, they must be non-standard wind?