Stub Mandrel

Ooooh! Talk about case candy. Even has a foam mute strip for the bridge cover. And a hootenany button. Reverse tuners. Tug bar. From the wonderful A Strings in Pontypridd who even made me tea and did a quick setup for me while I made a deal with old nick. And not only did they have it in stock, they jad the best shop price in the UK. You cannot be serious... World's coolest wash bag?

I think the modern ones are poly colour coat with clear nitro on top.

Sounds like the worst of all possible worlds...

I suspect that's it. And nozone knows what happens when the nitro wears off.

I'm getting really cross with facebook at the moment as I asked if anyone has experience of Fender's new 'Nitro over poly' finish and, because no-one on Farcebook reads posts properly, everyone is telling me how nitro wears differently to poly. Argh! I know the difference and have basses in both finishes. Fender have started shipping basses with a (in full) NITROCELLULOSE FINISH APPLIED OVER A POLYURETHANE BASE. There is no explanation of whet is nitro (just a topcoat for the less severe gloss, or the full colour finish over a poly primer, or something in between?) My concern is that any damage or wear (or something like artificially checking the finish) could result in the nitro peeling, the poly cracking off or just strange effects if the mild nitro 'wears' down to bright gloss poly. Has anyone got a bass with this sort of finish and had any experience of how it responds to real use?

I don't so much cut mids as dial in a tiny bit of treble and a chunk of extra bass on my Bass Terror. I'm fingerstyle and generally I'm aiming for a fat, bluesy tone. For the recent general covers band though, on my Trace I didn't use preshape and dialled in a small boost for high mids and a little treble on the graphic. Truth is, it all depends what you want to sound like.

Anything that changes original condition will affect value. Except perhsps a refret.

That would be funnier than Frank's anecdote, except there's a rumour Frank was the piper...

Saw Roachford last night at Cardiff Globe, lovely small venue. Very upbeat gig, Andy Roachford has great stage presence and no mean singer and keyboardist. Plus great soundn and a tight band having a wail of a time. Support Acantha was very good too. Bass player David Levy had a lovely red ~63 Jazz. His credits also include Mike Oldfield, Bernie Marsden, Shirley Bassey, Chris de Burgh and... Five Star!

It's the lighting, the bass is satin dakota red

My mate Barry Morris photographs most of the bands at the Earl Haig, and he's become incredibly good at it. These are some of his flattering shots from last Sunday.

Just wing it and play lots of root, fifth and seventh very fast 🙂

Earl Haig on Sunday. One of those odd 6pm gigs... a few faces I'd hoped for cried off, but I reckon we had about 80-90 people in, which isn't bad. A guy bought two of our live CDs. I lent him my pen and he got the guitarist to sign them 🤣 Photo by Tim James.

Went to an open mike on Wednesday with two guys I never met before k(guitar and cajon) to jam some stuff shared online. Was a bit ~ (6 doesn't work if the cajon player isn't expecting it) so to finish I called a straightforward 12 bar blues which went fine. Actuallya video shared later showed it was quite good but you can only see my headstock!

Whoopee doo! Back to the EH again Sunday 🙂

Get a Hercules!

At212 slim. It's the dog's danglies. Loud, clear and faithful to what you play into it, no strong colouration.

Had a good gig on friday. Someone dexcribed the crowd as 'muso night' so no pressure... in the end we probably played one of our best performances. Even did a bit of call and response with Alex and took an insanely fast solo for Bullfrog Blues. A fair few new songs too which was nice. Great prep for the Earl Haig next weekend😁

My babies.

My rig from last night.

Ok this is me making a meaningless post so I don't lose this thread!

True, and a good band afterwards would be a bonus. Should have chosen 19 March 'cos we're playing there!

Flash Bassmop!

Oh heck it's all coming back to life., Sunday may be... difficult (or not) the EH has bands on at 8pm...

Headstock mounted cymbal is an interesting innovation.