Bassfinger

I wouldn't just want to hear a test - I'd want to view the traces on an oscilloscope.

Because some of the biggest steel producers are in Texas, and were badly affected by last winters floods and blizzards, either directly indirectly via damage to the power grid. Many of them still aren't producing anywhere jear xapscity. Texas alone accounts for more steel production than all the EU countroes combined (EU countries account for about 7%) so this has hit the world market hard. Nucor alone produce 22 million tonnes a year and are only now starting to get back towards normal capacity. Demand locally in the UK is massively up with stuff like HS2, and around the world with things like massive building projects in China and the rapod expansion of their navy . As a result the people in the middle suffer shortages, and people who aren't buying steel in massive quantities and thus spending massive sums are having trouble obtaining it. It has little, directly at least, to do with the B word.

Im down to my last 4 sets of long scale 🤫

Good question! Almost always pick for me, as I dont have feeling in all the fingers of my right hand, which makes it a bit of a fate accompli. That being the case I've thrown myself into developing my skills and various techniques, and its worked out very well - I can mimic the fingerstyle sound well enough now that it makes little difference.

What makes me cringe is the wsy some fingerstyle plyers hold their writpst at an acute angle to dangle their hand down the front of the instrument. Thats an RSI waiting to happen. Elbow up, a much shallower angle betwixt hand and forearm is both less likely to cause injury and allows greater control.

I spent some months applying myself to that problem and cracked it - its hard to describe, but one kind of needs to stroke the string with the oblique edge of the pick rather than twang or pluck it, and using flats helps. After a little work I'm good enough that I can't tell on some recordings whether I used a pick or fingeroonies (although for physical reasons I tend to default to the pick these days). Since this not-so- revilutionary breakthrough I've found a few others in a similar position who can mimic fingers to the point where its diffocultmor impossible to tell. I believe our very own FinnDave is in a similar place with that. So fingers don't hold court in a sacred place where the pick fears to tread, at least for fairly conventional fingering (fnaar!) they don't.

Cadillac 3 in December, Aerosmith in June.

Buskers who like to be the centre of attention?

Thats my why studio ismin a room with a fairly stable temperature and the door kept closed, and I don't leave them in hot cars, and why they travel between warm house and cool outdoors - and back - in hard cases. As a result I never need to touch my truss rods after initial stringing and setup.

Rock solid 5 days to a week in my experience, and I order a lot of gear from them.

My MIM Geddy Lee is rock solid, beyond initial set up never needed to touch it. I was a bit concerned at first because of the slim neck, but my worries have proven unfounded. Ditto my Ibanez PJ, Fender Precision, Squier Precision, Harley Benton's and Hofners.

I thought that with bass it was a pick, what with the electric bass being an American invention and all so the American name was the convention? With guitar it should, of course, be plectrum.

Why recommend a used Squier? The only Squiers that better the tupical HB are the Classic Vibes, and any CV as cheap as a HB will be a severely beaten up p.o.s. The HB jazzes, precisions, etc, are easily as good as anything from the cooking Squier range, for invariably less money. The run of the mill Squiers share the same shortcomings for rather more money, so why bother? Until you've owned, lived with, and gigged a few Harley Bentons, they you can't really make such comparisons with any authority. I have, and I do.

I like the fact that it looks great, is a proper tool thar plays well, is as capable as anything costing double or more, lends itself to cheap mods, and won't break my heart if something bad happened to it. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, or in this case the playing. It's now my main live bass, and sounds utterly convincing in that role. What's not to like?

A HB MB4 or 5 win good condition will never be worth less than £80 or so, a depreciation in the order of £35. A sub 5 will depreciate 10%, which is coincidentally a little over £35, the moment you get it home and take it out the box. The depreciation dog doesn't bark this time.

Does she play the oboe?

Isopropyl alchol, followed by a mild soapy water solution. Probably best to do it off the instrument.

Its always sad when a brother-in-bass passes on to Valhalla, but especially so when its one from such a hard driving band.

I don't have any feeling in 2 fingers and little feeling in my thumb following an accident and wrecking my elbow and shoulder, so have little option but to pick play. But thats fine, as after all these years I can alter my technique and can play, where the situation demands, in a manner indistinguishable from fingers. You can pluck with the pick, stroke the strings, use the edge at different angles, allmsorts of different sounds, it's so versatile. Dunlop Tortex Triangle 1.0 is my favoured tipple.

It is indeed. But for that one song where the vocalist struggles in the original key...

I just use a drop pedal and save a while lot of messing.

Nope. 3 of the 5 band members have electric cars, so transport is business as usual for us. We now have a quiet spell until haloween and bonfire night, by which time the panic buying tools might have come to their senses.

I have the 4 string. Incredible out the box, but a Warman pickup added both clarity and punch and turned it into an absolute giant killer.

Hiring only singers that do as they're bloody well told!

The Adagio nickel wound flats are pretty decent. In any other packaging I wouldn't be upset to pay 30 or 40 quid for them. I prefer nickel to stainless or chrome, so they suit me nicely.