Stub Mandrel

You must have a big chin 🙂 Any sketches etc?

Bassist, mid 50s, looking for like-minded guys looking to jam less-well-known covers or write our own songs. Having fun more important than exceptional musicianship! No qualms about gigging if that's where it ends up, but ideally pubs/clubs that want rock. Don't want to go back to churning out standards for wedding parties or clubs full of people who would rather not have to listen to live music... I can get to most of the Staffordshire/Derby/Nottingham Area A few solo efforts with me doing all parts (except the drum machine) recorded at home:

Candy Apple Red which is the colour of my new bass 🙂 A tobacco sunburst is hard to beat. Good natural wood finishes. Blue sunbursts.

Someone, somewhere, has the Showaddywaddy Moon Guitar

Back in the early 90s I found a no-name neck in a skip. I bought loads of cheap bits my brother gave me his cheap Floyd Rose knock off. I made a super-heavy rough as a badgers bum 'explorer-ish' body from two layers of 3/4" play. Fast forward to this year, got a cheap unfinished strat body off ebay (probably made from balsa wood), got a jack plate and a sheet of scratchplate material. Body came up nice with a sprayed on satin finish, but it was so soft i had to paint with 'diamond hard' varnish so it's a 'deep grain' finish -ah well! Definitely not durable enough to gig but those cheap 80s 'buckers growl! Learnt a lot and might have a go at making a decent guitar or bass one day. What's the dark secret in your collection 🙂 Original body on right of first pic, other pics the 'new' version....

The Monks - Black Monk Time

Woo hoo! I saw Little Stevie and his Disciples in 1983! Reading IIRC, same years as Stevie Ray Vaughan on his first UK tour. (He was quite a bit smaller then 🙂 )

Find a decent thickness cardboard tube, say out of the middle of a roll of carpet. Make a hole to suit and experiment with different lengths until you get the sound you like best. Front and back ports sound different. Back port is good for a bedroom blaster played near a wall or corner. Test it where you will play it most. Works every time.

The two times I left bands at my choice, it was because I had a new job. It was pretty tough dumping them in the mire.

You never know underneath the fur could be an amazing three-tone tobacco sunburst.

Is the headstock oversize or is it an optical illusion?

Saxon, Black Star Riders and Girlschool. Only seen Girlschool before, supporting Motorhead many, many years ago!

Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons. B****y brilliant 🙂

My brother was in an AC/DC Tribute band in South Wales, my greatest regret is never seeing him perform in shorts and school blazer... All his current band were in respected tribute bands, but now they prefer playing (mostly non-obvious) covers and starting to do some of their own stuff.

Tip #2 - don't use the SO's toothbrush...

Tie your bass to the back of your car and drive around town, save £££s on getting it professionally relicked* *Is taht how you spell it?

Hmm. I never have done that, on my guitars I always wind neatly below so tension pulls the winds up to help 'lock' the bit that goes through the middle. Never had a wound string slip, but only had flats once (came with the bass and I took them off ASAP)

I've ordered a 26" Ukelele neck to make a custom bass, probably solid body with a piezo pickup and silicon rubber strings. My bro has a Ukelele bass, sound more like a stand up than any electric, but don't bother trying to bend notes!

1. jebroad 2. Len_Derby 3. Jabba_the_gut 4. Spondonbassed - Hohner B2A 5. Andyjr1515 6. Jimothey 7. Mojo 8. Owen 9. Teebs 10. Josie 11. Aidan63 12. Frank Blank 13. petecarlton (newbie) 14. Bassman Sam. I'll bring my NR Custom built Thunderbird, Ashdown 2x10 combo and a MM P-bass. 15. ChrisLovatt (bassbash virgin) 16. Stub Mandrel - Fender Performer (Just realised I was supposed to add myself to the list).

I'll grab a copy when it's in The Works 😉

The gig in my avatar pic! Probably 1987 with Drastic Action 'high energy rock and roll from Kenfig Hill...' Mercifully it was a relative of a band members wedding reception. We had quite a long set list so I think everyone was glad when we ended and the disco started so they could dance. By then I probably had my Laney amp and an 18" cab that weighed about 200lbs. Bass looks like my Hohner jazz copy, now with my brother in Scotland. Sounded great but a really bland bit of wood for the body. I used to think we were crap, but listening to echoey old practice tapes we got really tight by the end and the audience s seemed happy enough - usually working men's clubs and pubs. Once we did a rock club in maesteg and did smoke on the water. There was a lad writhing on the floor like Angus young... Aye those were the days.

They are surprisingly playable and the buget ones are still well made.. I would want to add a mute to get the authentic early-macca plop-plop sound though.

The Jack V is nice, the B2 plays better and its passive humbuckers are 'killer' but it's nice to have the 'set'.

Kind of disappointed not to see myself listed 🤣 I did once get ejected for being 'too widdly and improvisational' - they wanted someone to play root notes so I was replaced by the rhythm, guitarist. That was the best compliment I ever got! I suppose it's true I was trying to be in Hawkwind ... but it was pretty civilised, I even got a songwriting credit on the demo they recorded after I went. My first band was pub/clubs and standard covers, with no lead guitar(!) Our best musician was the drummer, he'd been a prizewinning jazz drummer (as in snare only) as a teenager. At the end of C'mon Everybody me and him would just and go round a 12-bar increasing the tempo with every bar to see who would screw up first. But no 'gits' although a few egos. Probably we were never good enough to have too high an opinion of ourselves.

How about a sunburst Performer if you want good looks? I paid £80 for it, but it was maybe 7 or 8 years old and very out of fashion! Next to it is my Hohner B2 (A.K.A Deathburger) which became a lefty and switched back, had it since the late 80s. Seem to be a lot of headless and 5 strings - got this not long ago, best of both! Back in the day, the rumour was Dave Pegg played a Hohner headless with Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull because he felt the wood body sounded nicer than a Steinberger.