godathunder

I remember around 25 years ago part of the midas rep's sales pitch for the easy tilt console stand mentioned the presence of discrete compartments - Im not sure the keys he had in mind were the household kind though..............

Then Sklar had best stop bullshitting.............. “It was put together by John Carruthers in 1973 with a Charvel alder P-Bass body I handpicked for resonance, a maple ’62 P-Bass neck I had that John reshaped to Jazz Bass dimensions, first-generation EMG-P pickups mounted in Jazz Bass position and flipped upside-down—which provided a more even sound—one of the first Hip- Shot D-Tuners, and a Badass bridge. In shaping the neck, John had to remove the frets. I saw some mandolin fret wire hanging in his shop and convinced him to try it, and we were thrilled with the results. It seemed to fit my style of using glissandos, and I had gotten tired of listening to railroad tracks clicking away; with a lightened touch it enables me to get an almost fretless sound.” But yeah, youre quite right - as ever, it's mostly in the fingers

well, just to wander further off the point (whatever it was), have a different take on the fretted/fretless combo bass. I've always admired the sensitivity and taste of cronos' fretless playing If memory serves, Lee Sklar had mandolin frets fitted to one of his basses so he could emulate fretless style sounds

I couldn't be in a band with anyone with views that were that offensive to me. First of all, because the company that someone keeps is often a good indicator of their character and I would not wish to be presumed to be a right cnut because of someone else's opinion (besides which, there are plenty of other perfectly valid reasons to presume that about me anyway) Secondly, because I find it just about impossible to keep my big mouth shut and the frequency of arguments that would result would impact badly on the productivity of this band Having spent some time working in the trades (following years of work in the liberal arts), this was a frequent problem. Building sites have always featured a higher than average proportion of racists, homophobes etc that seem to feel emboldened to pass frequent comment by that setting

I am a qualified sparky (if somewhat out of practice now). You're both quite right. If there is no earth bond to the chassis/common ground of a piece of equipment then the transformer output is floating, with no reference to the 0v ground/neutral of the supply. Generally, due to an effect called capacitive coupling, it will sit at around half the mains voltage. If you touch this floating "live" chassis you become the reference point to ground. The good news is that, after a small discharge once the reference is made, the capacitive coupling now has a reference to ground and no further current flows. So following an initial unpleasant tingle it is now at 0v. At least, until you remove the reference (ie you let go or remove your lips from the mic etc). Then the capacitance will recharge and another tingle will occur next time you complete this circuit. Roughly translated this means that the effect is a bit like a nearly dead battery that can measure a decent voltage until you connect something to it and then instantly drops to 0v under load While at mains voltages this SHOULDNT prove more than an annoyance, you certainly don't want to be subjected to constant small shocks so the fault, while very unlikely to prove injurious, needs to be repaired. At distribution/transmission voltages (ie National Grid stuff with pylons etc) where you're talking 10s and 100s of thousands of volts, this capacitive coupling carries enough energy to fry you instantly. This vid (at c1min) shows them discharging the line prior to working on it. Note that the line is still live at a very high voltage and the helicopter has no reference to ground but due to the capacitive effect there is still considerably energy discharged. Once it's been discharged, despite the line being live, it is now safe to work on There is no harm in cutting the shield cable of a balanced mic/line cable. It's pretty common practice in install work to have all shields only connected to the output side of equipment and disconnected at the inputs. It helps to reduce the number of earth paths and lessens the likelihood of hum caused by earth loops. In fact, you will sometimes find equipment interconnects made with unshielded twisted pair cable such as cat5 or cat 6 with no ill effect (the balancing circuit effectively recombines any interference in reverse polarity which cancels it out) And yes, while I have opinions about PAT, your equipment and mains cables should be inspected/tested, labelled and logged frequently for your own safety and liability - not to mention that some venues will not let you plug in anything not displaying a valid label There's a whole other rant to be made about cheap switch mode power supplies or shoddily manufactured Class II devices but I haven't taken my blood pressure medication yet today so it's probably wise to stay off it for my own safety

I'd say that a significant factor is how much cash you'd have to invest to tool up for the job. If you already have premises and tools then I'd say go for it, you've little to lose. If you have to buy substantial tooling and rent a workshop then you'd have to be pretty sure you've got a customer base. If you have to borrow for the above you need to be absolutely sure it makes business sense. Just prior to covid striking I was in the process of setting up a reclaimed furniture business. I'd managed to make and sell a few small pieces but, in my case, covid did me a favour and gave me breathing space before I'd invested significant money into the venture . It became apparent that I wouldnt be competitive making pieces on spec to attempt to sell. Etsy etc showed that as a cottage industry I couldnt manufacture at a low enough cost to compete with factory line production and I struggled to make contacts for bespoke pieces so, in my case, it was a non starter. That said, if you think theres a market for a unique style and you can be competitive go for it

Yes, and cars arent allowed to run you over on a zebra crossing but it's still wise to look left and right before you cross.............. (less snarkily, yes, theyve been required for over 20 years but you'll still encounter the odd legacy system out there so its a good idea to carry your own. Be prepared and all that dib dib dib) Yes, 13a plug in rcds exist - they cost about the same as a couple of pints https://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-13a-fused-plug-in-active-rcd-plug/44855

and while Im being a preachy know it all / ersatz screwfix salesman - an rcd socket adaptor is a good idea too. Really theres no excuse for the venue not to have rcd protection at the board but back here in the real world............. https://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-13a-fused-plug-in-active-rcd-plug/44855 and yes, if your gear/cabling is suspect there is a chance of it activating and embarassing silence following but thats temporary and preferable to the permanent silence that may follow if a fault occurs without one

Sparks (semi retired) here - absolutely seconded. NOTHING gets plugged in until the wall socket/extenion lead has been tested with something like this. https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-16a-socket-tester-230v-ac/91596 these are a fiver at the moment and are so simple to use that even the drummer can use it - theres no excuse to not have at least one stashed in your gigbag theyre not a panacea and dont check useful things like actual voltage present and cant detect a neutral/earth swap but they will give you a good indication of the general safety of that outlet very often cheap switch mode power supplies leak all sorts of nastiness but thats a little outside the remit of the end user to deal with.

Oh wow, a blast from the past. My father had to oversee a clearout at a school resources centre in the early 90s and I ended up with four bell and howell 1x12 cabs. One pair became "hifi" cabs in my flat and the other pair had a 50w carlsbro valve amp shoved up them as my guitar rig at the time. Sounded pretty decent in both roles as I recall. Absolutely no idea what became of them which is a shame, loved the aesthetic

If the keyboard player cant maintain discipline and stay out of the bass players way then nail a plank across the two lowest octaves of the keyboard

Even with my none too special woodworking chops it only took a few hours to design and build one from some offcuts from the scrap pile

Loved his work on miles' tutu and jarre's zoolook. My ownership of a fretless sire with his name on the headstock is purely coincidental though

Saw joe bonomassa's rory gallagher tribute at the marquee in cork. Blistering gut churning visceral rock and roll - decent volume too (albeit not the best sound and a couple of technical issues but so what). The whole band were on fire, joe and lachy doley (keys) in particular. Bass was courtesy of Aongus Ralston of the waterboys although Gerry McAvoy also sat in for a couple of numbers. Bass was low, full and driving; not an especially articulate sound but that wasnt really the remit - it was perfect for the gig. It must also be noted that mr ralston is a sartorially elegant chap. unusual to see joe upstaged in that respect

Iron maiden in dublin - still awesome after all these years. not the best Ive seen them (no criticism, theyve just set such a high bar for live performance over the years) but if you asked me to draw up my dream setlist it'd be pretty close to this. New drummer seem to have settled in nicely, he's not quite as fluent sounding as nicko but he's only been with them for a couple of months, rather than nicko's 40+ years. Adrian smith dusted off his old Lado guitar, was a shame 'arry didnt dig his Lado bass out too - he was as flawless as ever - an absolute machine. not my footage but it gives the general gist of things - I was a bit irked by the cgi projected backdrop at first but it quickly won me over - it's probably the best Ive ever seen this sort of thing used. I was feeling positively seasick by the end of the ancient mariner