Stub Mandrel

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?

length should be pretty much standard, but there are 6mm and 1/4" (6.35mm) shaft diameters out there. Also some guitars have splined shafts (in either diameter...) My Jag has splined shafts and that same style of knob, but the ones with lock screws in your pic are designed for plain shafts with a flat on them. You can also get push-on knobs for shafts with a flat. So in short, no, there are at least six different styles... splines, screw fit and flat push on in each of two sizes. Actually.. a bit of digging, add coarse or fine splines to the list. And 5mm EMG pot shaft diameter. And long or short (~3/8" or ~1/2") shaft. Not to mention 3/8" or 10mm fixing nut. I'm boggled... You can also get collet fit knobs for plain shafts, but they are probably too push for basses...

It's been done before, truckloads of aluminium necks out there, but alloy bodies as well, apparently this guitar is 10.1lbs: https://reverb.com/item/18234435-2017-electrical-guitar-company-standard-baritone-aluminum What surprisies me is that people always go with raw aluminium, OK when polished it feels OK but if it tarnishes it feels bad. Anodised aluminium has a lovely feel, as nice as wood.

I'm impressed with the TGI extreme padded gig cases for about £40, but for another £5 - £10 Gear4music have some surprisingly impressive looking hard cases.

You've got to watch those Canglewoods...

The laurel one is actually a Squier VM SS Jaguar... I suspect they work hard to make sure the Squiers don't outshine the Fenders, at least on their website.

Hmm, perhaps some lines to try... "Sorry about that, I didn't realise you were struggling to keep up with me until near the end. Do you want me to knock the tempo back a bit next time?" "Do you think we should try death-metal vocals to better match our playing style?" "I would turn up my amp, but your speakers sound like they breaking up a bit already." But the ultimate weapon for any bass player... "You think that's loud? THIS is loud..." 😁