nekomatic

Haha, I think 'ingenious' is stretching it a bit, but thanks! I can report that the 1x8 fits nicely in a Stagg cajon case, with a little room spare for cables or what have you. Although you need to be OK with the risk that someone will think you own a cajon.

That's fair enough. It's just that it struck me it was the one thing you'd used the word 'fun' about, and if your practice as a whole is getting you down, maybe it's time to take a bit of the pressure off and let yourself have a little more fun.

Sounds like you should do this a bit more often.

Back in the smoking days that was one of the non-fancy non-smoking areas, which is how a mate and I got to see Betty Carter from about that vantage point. Probably still a lifetime top ten gig.

The Songs of Joni Mitchell project (again), this time featuring Kate Stables as well as founder members Jesca Hoop and Lail Arad. After that, Emma Jean Thackray at Band on the Wall, on the off chance she wins the Mercury and becomes stadiums only from that point on.

With the usual disclaimer that I am not an electrician and if in doubt you should get the manufacturers advice etc, I’m pretty sure this will do it, or the equivalent part from any other supplier. In any case, 100 mA is approaching the smallest fuse current you can normally find, so it seems unlikely that it should actually be anything smaller.

I read that as slow blow, 100 mA, low rupture capacity, 250 V, which shouldn’t be hard to find - CPC website is down right now otherwise I’d find it there and give you a link. Is it 20 mm or 32 mm long and is it from a device’s mains inlet or something else?

Ooh. This looks fun. I shall get it 🙂

We have a local ironmongers, and they even still sell individual screws (I think)… but not M2 ones!

Plotting how to get my hands on the boss’s job? Not me mate, I’m just the bass player. from here

Just remember to take out the bit where it opens, “Sure, I can help you write a diplomatic breakup note for a band whose guitarist is a massive bell end and singer can’t hit a note for toffee”.

The company that operates the AI music generator site may say this, but I don’t think the law is settled yet as to whether they are correct.

Looks good, have fun! Do report back on how you get on with it.

Lee Ritenour at Band on the Wall - proper jazz-fusion royalty and no mistake. Munir Hossn playing some sort of singlecut six-string behemoth which I could not identify, and neither will you be able to from my terrible picture. Supported by Rosie Frater Taylor who rose to the challenge of holding the interest of a room full of (mostly) blokes who were there for Lee Ritenour with a solo set pretty well, I thought. Bonus artistic photo effect courtesy of my iPhone’s mind of its own.

Just spotted that current jazz guitar fave Rosie Frater Taylor is the support for Lee Ritenour at Band on the Wall next Monday, and grabbed a ticket. Reckon Ritenour and his band will probably be OK as well.

Scott Devine would definitely say raking and yes, do each exercise starting on both i and m, because you can’t plan every line so that every ascending A major run always starts on an i…

Great story! Just reassure me you’re not an electrician in the day job though?

Have you experimented with where on the string you pluck or pick - as in, down near the bridge, right up over the fretboard, or somewhere in between? That can make a huge difference in tone.

This is literally true though! The change in mass is given by the m in E = mc², where E is the electrical energy. You must have some amazing kitchen scales, however.

Members of the Hallé playing works by Steve Reich, joined for one of them by Jonny Greenwood on bass. Superb music, which you don’t get to hear performed so often. The bass part wasn’t technically difficult, but God forbid you lost your place 😁

Find an alternative use for the incorrect one Insist it was meant to be that all along Don't ask me why my printer stand is coated in Tuff Cab

So having decided that I'd like to set myself the challenge of having a go at fretless, and wanting to try before I bought, I looked at what was around on the cheap end of the market and my local music shop (I say shop, I suspect it's more the owner's retirement hobby and gear museum/hangout, with incidental music teaching space attached) had this, so I dropped in and had a look. Internet research suggests it was made in the Samick factory in 1994/5 and will have originally been fretted. The defret job looked good to my non-expert eye, the body and neck felt comfortable, it wasn't too heavy, it sounded OK unplugged - considering it had flats of unknown provenance on - and made a good range of tones plugged in to the shop Trace combo. The action wasn't exactly low and I noticed the G string bridge saddle was as low as it could get, but I figured a bit of setup attention could probably sort that. Oh and a previous owner had decided to replace the output jack with an XLR. Anyway though, I decided I liked it, so two hundred quid plus trade-in of a Marshall MB15 I no longer need and it came home with me. Closer inspection and plugging in at home and the imperfections started to look a lot more imperfect. I realised the intonation was badly out and the bridge saddles didn't have enough adjustment (away from the neck) to get it anywhere near right without reaching the string end wraps. And there was a huge amount of interference pickup, which only almost went away when I turned the tone control fully clockwise, which corresponded to maximum treble cut (??). Inspecting the cavity again, the wiring I'd thought looked passable in the shop now turned out to be a right dog's dinner. I started to feel I'd got a dud on my hands. Maybe I should have gone with the safe-but-boring Squier Vintage Modified 4-string that guy in Ashton with the leather sofa had on Gumtree… But then I took delivery of a set of lightly used Elixir stainless roundwounds courtesy of cdog, and went through the setup as I swapped them on, and everything started to make a bit more sense. Intonation came right in a more sensible place and I had to raise the G saddle a little to cure a rattle on the top end of the fretboard, which left the action still a bit higher than I'd like but definitely playable, and the rounds are easier (or at least more like what I'm used to) than the flats. And I've ordered the parts to screen and rewire the electrics and return it to a normal jack socket. So I'm a happy bunny after all. And I do think it looks rather smart in the black. I reckon the fretboard may have lifted a little bit at the top end, so once I've played it a bit more I may get an expert opinion on whether a bit of work would improve the action, but I'll leave that for a while as I'm planning to stick to the fretted until my next jazz jam in a couple of weeks, then play only the fretless and see how quickly I can get used to it. My own intonation is currently at the 'surprisingly good, but still terrible' level so some practice will be required.

As the video says, there may be things like reverse polarity protection diodes that cause a difference between the voltage you measure from a stereo plug and the actual open-circuit voltage of the battery. The lower the current that your preamp needs to operate, the greater the voltage error might be. Also by the time your battery gets below 7 volts or so it is essentially dead so even a very small current may cause its voltage to drop significantly. At the end of the day though it doesn’t really matter whether what you measure is exactly the actual battery voltage, only that you figure out what voltage measured at the jack corresponds to ‘dead battery’ versus ‘not dead yet battery’, which you have to do by trial and error because it will depend on your preamp circuit anyway, then compare your measurement with that threshold.

I guess there’s always also the old chestnut that the old music we’re still listening to now is the stuff that was good, and the stuff from back then that was terrible has been justly forgotten.