Rich

In the case of the South West Bass Bash: You turn up with whatever basses, amps, FX, anything else you like, and then Mrs @scrumpymike and the Scrumpettes serve up their amazing smorgasbord and the rest of the day is lost. Basses? What basses?

In my big soul-ish band, the vocalists all use wireless mics and in-ears, and the guitarist and I are both wireless. One of the sax guys occasionally plays a bit of electric violin on one song, and he's got a wireless for that. So that's 8 or 9 lots of wireless on stage already -- god help us if the horns ever decide to go wireless...

+1 for surgical spirit. I also find that if you soak a pad of cotton wool or lint or whatever with the spirit and actually rub your fingertips with it rather than just soaking them, the hardening effect is even quicker.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what it's all about. When I stop doing this, it's the point at which I shall give it up.

Monkey Man - Toots & the Maytals

Gigs are like buses... Nothing for a while and then 3 in 4 days, including 2 yesterday. In the afternoon it was an hour at the Cider, Rum and Reggae festival in Trowbridge. Utterly brilliant, such a happy vibe and some great ciders flowing and some amazing food -- curry goat, jackfruit & ackee and a roti, oh god just thinking about it is making me drool. Superb PA sound with a maHOOsive wall of bass, we played really well and the crowd seemed to love us, some of them were up and dancing from the B of "Buster..." and by the end they all were. The evening was 2 hours at a private party thrown by a bandmate's friend, they also fed & watered us and everyone danced the night away. Probably helped by the copious amount of Red Stripe being consumed a brilliant day, but oh holy mother I am so broken today.

Yes! That's my go-to when my fingers aren't sufficiently work-hardened. Absolutely work a treat.

Likewise, my gen 1 fiver is a very early one.

Here y'go

The tuners on my first gen V7 fiver weren't brilliant either. They held tune ok but felt flimsy. I replaced them with a Hipshot licenced HB6 1/2" set -- they had the twin improvements of feeling much smoother and saving half a pound in weight over the old set. Which is a hell of a lot when you think about it! I had to pad out the headstock holes a bit, I forget what I used -- gimme a break, it's been a few years and I'm old -- and I had to fill the old screw holes on the back of the headstock. Glue and toothpicks did the trick as per the pic, I've trimmed them completely flush since the photo was taken and they've not quite disappeared but almost. The stock bridge is ok, if unremarkable. I've bought a new bridge as per the second pic -- I've used this type on a previous bass and was very pleased with it, everything locks down solid and unmoving and it offers string-through and top-loading options. I haven't fitted it yet but will do so when I get the time. My other hardware mod was to replace the utterly rubbish bar-type string retainer with the two Hipshot items in the third pic. Much, much better. As in, loads. I would heartily recommend this mod.

I'm loving these photos, really superb closeups. Some of them almost look like futuristic cityscapes straight out of Metropolis.

Nice These are the sets we'll be playing on Saturday night, after a shorter one at the Cider, Rum & Reggae festival at Trowbridge in the afternoon.

I've downloaded KiCAD and have been having a play. Drawing a schematic was very straightforward, but it's going to take me a while to work out how to untangle the resulting rats-nest on the PCB

Ideally freeware/shareware, certainly to start with. I'm only dipping a toe in the water ATM.

Questions for any UK DIYers who design/use their own PCBs... 1. What design package do you use, and 2. where do you get them made? I understand there are quite a few prototype mfrs. out there, could do with some recommendations.

Part Of The Union - Strawbs

Alas, a lucrative dep gig on the Saturday night means that I might not now be able to make it to the SWBB after all.

Bonkers - Dizzee Rascal

Drink Up Thee Zider - Adge Cutler & the Wurzels

Dirtbox - Static X

The Portamento is the best off-the-peg fretless bass I've ever played, by some margin. I tried a 5-string one at Guitar Village once and my credit card was screaming at me the whole way home. If I had a regular fretless gig, I would get one without hesitation.

Everybody is missing the obvious choice for an English national anthem -- as proposed by the Big Yin:

Happy Ending - Mika

There's nothing worse than a politically correct dingle.

Mummy, He's Making Eyes at Me - Furman and Nash