Stub Mandrel

Or more strictly, because you can hit a zombie with a Hohner headless and it won't go out of tune...

Pretty much proves my point! Yes, a semitone is a killer if it takes your voice out of your range or into, but Joe Punter just isn't going to notice.

It's so sad... I made a spreadsheet... now angsting about adding the banjo ukelele which hasn't got a strap...

For many years I managed with just one strap and swapped it areound -after all you can only use one at a time. I've just done a count and I now appear to have 10 guitar/bass straps, two mandolin (one's technically a ukelele) straps, one coming in the post and I suspect a few others lurking elsewhere. I realise I have actually put some effort into matching strap with instrument. I recently got two nice Fender straps courtesy of a BC member, so I downgraded the manky one on my Fender Performer to my Squier Tele and gave the new ones to the Performer and Squier Jag. Despite this I still feel sorely tempted to do some more upgrades. So fess up. How many instrument straps do you have 😈

Phosphor bronze trump all for rich, bright sounds, but unfortunately only suitable for acoustics...

Fascinates me. If you haven't got perfect pitch the punter is highly unlikely to be able to tell a song is dropped by a semitone or even a full tone. So why do it? Sabbath did it because of Tony Iommi's fingers and it's become de-rigeur for any dark/black/doom/mildly depressed metal band. You might have a singer with a desperately limited vocal range... I sometimes think its only done so people can flame other people who post tabs in standard tuning.

Walk Don't Run by the Pink Fairies, although I like the original too:

When I 'found' my Perfromer, it was unloved and abandoned in the corner of the 'practice studio'. I bought it for £80 (🤪) and spent ages getting the thick layer of dust-encrusted sticky yellow crud off. It can only have been five or six years old but looked ancient! It's now 33 and looks much younger than when I got it!

The worms may be cheap, but do you know what goes into the training?

What about a Jaguar? They have Jazz-like necks and hybrid pickups.

I did nearly spray a cheap strat body (eBay blank) with granite stone effect paint - that would have been a 'rock' guitar (groan). This one looks more like sandstone.

It was a bit of a disappointment, I was hoping for a lead of at least 15 points.

As played by Les Claymation...?

Takes all the advantages of a headless bass... and ignores them.

More choice out there now than there was in 1995!

Modern speaker design has broken all the old rules about driver diameter/size and frequency response. You can get pod speakers that will deliver 32Hz audibly. You no longer need Tandy speakers with "18" wooofers for bass you can really feel"TM on your HiFi. The natural frequency response of the ear varies with frequency so you need a much greater SPL to get the same perceived loudness at low frequencies and by the time you get that low the difference is big. To get 32Hz to sound as loud as 40Hz you need a hefty boost in SPL. 10dB at low levels but as little as 2-3dB at high volume. With your practice amp at bedroom levels, you have the headroom to wind the bass control right up and get the 10:1 power ratio you need, go to a practice session and the extra boost applied to the B-string gives you horrible distortion. Play at gig volumes through a PA and you only need a small boost to achieve the same perceived volume so it puts less demands on the equipment. With a hefty combo, you might be better turning overall volume down a touch to give low notes more headroom?

Well I was looking for a set to match the ones it came with (wait for it, fetches digital calipers - actual measurements not rounded to the nearest 5) 45-64-85-105-126(!)

Use broom handle, very cheap, very strong.

There's more going on than simply the amount of harmonics there. There are some really complex mixes. Lots of even harmonics will tend to give a saw-tooth shape like the 0.055 string. This will sound smooth and rich (like bowed strings) while lots of even harmonics will tend towards a square wave (fuzz box) and sound harsh. A pure sine wave tends to sound a bit 'meh'. The fatter strings aren't really looking like square waves but loook harmonically richer across the boards. It would be interesting to see a spectrum analysis that shows the energy in the different harmonics and with the odd and even series mixed in. As has been mentioned, moving towards the bridge increases harmonic content. In theory a pluck right on the end should give a triangle wave but in my experience this works with washing lines better than basses....

Oh dear, this set of elites on the shelf are 45 - 130... Fortunately for a headless bass...

Suspect lead after no power. If the insert has died there are ones on eBay for about £14 which are of decent quality - as well as lots of 'boutique' circuits that are probably as good as the Rode one is if that's what's died. to check you need a mate with an oscilloscope who can trace the signal back and discover at which point it 'dies' I'm going to build an insert and circuit into a B800 shell (£10 of amazon including mike and accessories!) - this seems to be a popular way to get a studio quality mike in some circles.

Isn't it great to have a drum machine? And you only have to punch the rhthym in once too 🙂

Only in private. It can be brilliant, letting pedal strings ring at the 5th or 7th fret without the open boom can sound great, fuller and deeper than a guitar.

Since my late teens when I got hold of a couple of cassette tapes made from a reel-to reel recording of Woodstock I had a an ambition to play a 'festival'. While the 'Rock for Life' sort of counted, the landmark gig for me was playing the Jamaican Independence Day festival on the 'green' nest to the Talbot Inn in Leamington Spa. We were more Indy-psychadelic than reggae, but the whole band were regulars in the pub and it all went down great (and the food was amazing!) Playing in a proper big club in Coventry (rather than the Valleys working men's clubs) was also a big moment for me - the only gig where I invited mates from afar to come along and watch!

Nah! They're just pulling your plonker 😉