Stub Mandrel

+1 GOK why they have those swirly mud generators!

I already shared my best purchase. How about a couple of 'honorable mentions': Harley Benton Marquess-5 Blue Stain (B-Stock but immaculate) - for the price it's an insane thing to have, yes I've gigged it. Shame it doesn't fit the blues band image but looking forward to playing Gasoline on it with the other bunch :-) Two 5m leads, Sommer cable, Neutrik connectors (90 degree switched at one end). Worth it for peace of mind. Lekato (or similar) rechargeable clip tuners, just so good - bright, fast and huge display. And not really a purchase but a Christmas prezzy: https://blackstaramps.com/amplug-2-fly/ It's really good, and now I can practice after 10pm.

Facebook grumblings about someone selling the Jazz for $700 (and others at $600 on Reverb!)

I was given a little Blackstar amplug thingy for Christmas. Sounds great, spent some time playing one of my Fenders through it. Then an hour ago I played my Thunder 1 through it. Incredible, that bass is IMMENSE, it sounds more like a precesion than any precision 🤣

Exactly this! Whats the point of having several basses without the fun of playing them?

I read that and wondered what you were doing with a manatee.

Shame when one idiot takes the shine off a great evening.

Is he getting the tats? Or just five minutes with a Sharpie? 😁

My partner was feeling a bit rough this afternoon so we decided not to go out. An hour or so later, a band I'm going to dep for in late January got in touch - could I help them out tonight. With the warning that I'd be busking a lot I decided to go for it. Got to the basement club. First hour super loud dj playing rock music with awful disco beats over the top. Later he just played very loud rock. We went on at 9:30 and finished at 11:30 with a brief break. Straight in with Psycho Killer - a nice gentle start fortunately I know it well! Audience was mostly young, enthusiastic and enjoyed a mix of standard covers plus paranoid, queen, jeff beck. Go Ypur Own Way went down particularly well, I've always wanted to play it and enjoyed blasting away at that great chorus. Had a request for metallica so 'learned' Enter Sandman in the break. Mostly went well, lot of rough edges and a few pink torpedo ups. They were grateful as it saved the gig. Downside- an hour's drive each way... that's me wound down. Goodnight owls!

I wear a wristband on my right, plucking, hand. Stops me getting the tingles of carpal tunnel. Hadn't occured to me it might help with my arthritic thumbs.

43.2mm C-section neck, feels pretty chunky to me. The weak point is the 'clay' markers on the side of the neck are pretty much invisible under some stage lighting with the yellow lacquer. "Why do I suddenly sound out of tune? Oh..."

Congratulations! Benedigedig!

It's an AVII 1960 which cost several fingers and toes, if not an arm and a leg. Somehow it manages to LOOK vintage, I think it's the faint grain and very narrow band of orange compared to a modern sunburst. <edit> Found this...

Looks like they can't be shared, not on my profile. Here's a couple. Love playing teh EH as Barry takes great pics 🤣

Fun pics from Saturday's gig (where I seem to have picked up a dose of Covid!) https://www.facebook.com/albums/7338482506175580/

Guitarist I know in a young indie band. They got a grant to record an EP that got picked up by the BBC. The got £1,800 for about a month's worth if being on rotation, that covered over half the recording cost, plus they got a decent PRS payment. Five lads aren't going to live off that level of income but you can see the potential if you have a hit.

The first one makes Noddy Holder £250,000 every Christmas!

It's a matter of proportion. The small size and shape means big holes will allow the wiring to 'stick out' and pick up hum, but smaller holes won't matter. Remember 2mm holes in the grid behind the window of a microwave stop signals in th GHz band. Taxi radios... haven't heard one of those break through since the 80s!

Back at the Earl Haig last night with Bluesfire. Front bar for the first time. Got there at 7:15 and it was already busy, thought there must be a band in the concert room... no! Probably just the xmas effect 🤣 Packed in a lot of stuff with lights etc. Sound was great but we had a couple of tech issues... nearly did an instrumental of Susie Q but the mic got sorted half way through. These put me a bit off kilter, and guitarist was tired so I felt we were not up to the standard of our last couple of gigs. But audience was happy, lots of people telling us how much they enjoyed it. Young Alex's other band have just had their layest single on heavy rotation by the BBC (The Rogues) so big things ahead for him, we hope. Icing on the cake, woke up to see this amazing pic by Barry Morris who feeds my rock star delusions.

I used mine to play a song live once.

Cheapskate here. 8" HH which is actually really good. Two 15" '600 watt' fun generation speakers [to be fair Thomann list as being 240W rms]. Nothing special but seem to be fine as vocal only speakers for rehearsal/small gigs. For bigger gigs they will be used as monitors. Don't particularly recommend them but if you are on a very tight budget, they do a job.

Couldn't afford Fender. Knew Hohners were well made. Got this.

So many nice goodies. Slightlt taumatised by seeing basses with stickers on the scratchplate though... Not much this year, mostly just pa stuff, tuners and leads. But I did get this and I guess it would win for me in most years...

You dont even need to worry about small gaps. The wavelength of 50Hz electromagnetic interference is 4000km which is slightly larger than the average bass...