rwillett

Mmmm…..

I think it's a stunning guitar. I think having high standards is great, and it's a credit to you that you want to work to those levels. However don't pull yourself down on that work of art though. I have no idea what the costs of the parts are, but stribgly suspect that the hours you have put into it easily exceed those costs. I'd put it up for sale and see if you can get more for the guitar than the cost of parts. If you have a figure in mind PM me (I make no promises). I can't play a five string, never tried, can't really play a four string either, if I'm being honest but it would such a shame for something like that to get broken up for basically scrap value. All the best Rob

It certainly beats the naff letter rack I made in wood working class for my mum's birthday when I was about 12. Only four bits of wood and none of them lined up or were jointed properly. She still keeps the bloody thing. I look at people who can work wood like this with awe and insane jealously. I was quite competent as a C developer, yet nothing I do, no matter how clever or elegant the code is, no matter what brilliant tricks I perform with pointers, no matter the really nifty way I handle interrupts on a disk driver in the kernel, will ever look as nice as that woodwork. It's simply not fair 😢 Rob

Nah. The head is still in the right place. It has an appropriate number of strings that are also in the right place. It doesn’t look like it’s been used as a hammer or that a hacksaw has been used to ‘improve’ it. There are no random holes to indicate the number of attempts to drill something. Now of course, this could the sacrificial guitar, the ‘before’ before the after.

I wonder if this is based on your IP address? Thats the normal way to *try* and work where people are. This fails miserably for stuff like AOL who are all out of Virginia. If you go to this website https://nordvpn.com/what-is-my-ip/ it displays where it thinks you are. This is where it thinks I am. Its out by around 30 miles but at least it's in the right country. Since your IP address is sent out with every http request, its not sensitive information and will be in the logs anyway. Might be worth checking, There are lots of websites that do this sort of stuff. Rob

Andoid phone now posted off.

John, I have replied and will keep looking. Thanks rob

First of all thank you for the comprehensive update. Thats very helpful. I think what you are doing is the right approach as well. I wasn't aware of this test, not sure I should be at all to be honest, but it appears other people have been scared by it. I like the idea of advertising for lurkers, I also like the idea of paying supporters not having some of the ads. I recognise the challenges that you face financially, its a tough environment. Thats why I became a paid supporter. It would be good to know which cookiers are needed and which are not. Most people (including myself) have no issues with necessary cookies, but I am wary of the trackers that accompany Google and Facebook. Facebook has too much information about people already. My personal view is that the more comms the better. However other people might have other views. I am more reassured now and will follow this with interest, Rob

I don't get any popup ads on either Firefox on Mac or Safari on iPhone. I have all sorts of extensions to block stuff though as I detest all the trackers and cookies. Stringly suggest adding in various things like Privacy Badger, Ghostery, AdBlock and going through your privacy settings to kill any leaks of information you can. I stopped using Chrome a few years ago, Firefox works very well except for development and a few websites. Safari is pretty good but not as good yet. Apple does appear to block a lot of stuff in Safari anyway. YMMV Rob

My warnings in English I’m also not getting it each time I use Basschat. Given I support Basschat as a subscriber I don’t like that. I would have hoped my payment would have avoided this sort of tracking for us all. Dead easy for next year, I won’t support the site financially. Actions have consequences. Rob

These are the trackers that Safari on an iPhone is blocking for basschat. c

It appears that you no longer have the right to opt out of cookies under UK law. This changed last year 2022 as part of the Government drive to liberalise the internet. This liberalisation appears to only benefit people who collect data on you. It doesn’t help you. The exception to this is when websites collect information from children. I cannot recall what information is requested on signing up. However since the ICO does absolutely nothing to enforce cookie compliance under UK law, the law is mostly disregarded. It appears that in the UK the inability to opt out is legal. However in the EU, users must explicitly opt in to cookies. The exact opposite of the UK. This means the cookie is illegal for EU users as it gives no ability to use this site without denying non essential cookies. The EU and local states do take personal information and cookies seriously so any complaint might be looked at. I might try and look at the site from a European based VPN and see what it looks like. I’ll also look at what extensions are available to clear and kill cookies. Poisoning the well is the other option. think of it as yet another Brexit dividend. Rob

No longer for sale. Not sure if it’s sold or withdrawn

This is an old Android phone, a Nexus 5 LG-821 in black. It was the flagship Google phone (at the time) Specs are here https://www.lg.com/uk/mobile-phones/smartphones/lgd821/ It was actually a nice phone when it came out with a reasonable camera. I used it for Android development but it only supports up to Android 6 which is quite old. However it is a servicable phone, just don't expect it to run your latest VR games. As a burner phone, or one you can take abroad and don't mind it getting nicked, or a free one for the kids who keep dropping theirs, its great. It's in realy good condition, no scratches and has been in a case from new. The case is included but it's getting on a bit (somewhat like me). It's free and I'll even post it for free. I'll reset it to factory settings before you get it. After than it's up to you Thanks Rob

It’s always good to check out as many basses as you can. It’s a sign of an organised and inquisitive mind. Even though you might have a small number of basses (perhaps less than 25), one more might just provide that extra oomph or subtle tone that you’ve been looking for. At least that’s my rationale and I only have four. I have to say the Mustang might be good enough for anything I might ever do, but that doesn’t stop me looking and testing and checking the credit card “just-in-case”. I’m lucky that I live an hour each way from my local music shops Promenade Music in Morecombe. If I still lived in London, I’d probably be bankrupt. I can’t even play that well but you know how it is…. Rob

Wow. What a wonderful guitar.

Has anybody managed to get their mod_dwarf providing digital input into something like GarageBand on an iPad. Looked at this page https://wiki.mod.audio/wiki/Audio_Through_USB#Using_USB_Audio_Gadget and added the appropriate files via ssh. I resisted the temptation to wander up and down the file system seeing what was there Rebooted etc. I used the same USB cable (USB-B in the Mod Dwarf to USB-A on the iPad via a USB Apple Camera Adaptor that I used for the ssh connection, so I know that the cable works) to connect the MD to the iPad. Can't see any connection there, if I replace the USB connection with an iRIG, Garageband notes that it is there. I can feed the Mod_Dwarf output into the iRig and feed that into the iPad and that works, but that adds yet another D->A and then A->D conversion. I've done the update on the mod_dwarf twice just to check and got the same result each time. If anybody has done this, be grateful to know. Thanks Rob

I'm not sure what I can say about Mick that hasn't been said before. Just brought a Ritter Gig Bag off him. Slightly annoyed with him as I think he undersold it and he should have charged me more Great bloke to work with, no issues whatsover. Looking forward to sharing a coffee with him Rob

@WoodinblackI'm actually saying the same things as yourself, we are in violent agreement. I may be clumsy in my words. The only guitar that I am aware of that has some sort of unique sound is the Peter Green one. It seems to be a mistake in the coil windings (or whatever). Is it worth the aledged £1M paid for it, I don't know, I'll never be good enough to know. agree that the Dave Gilmour and Eric Clapton guitars aren't that different from a guitar of that era at all. The fact that DG or EC has played or (swoon) Jimi Hendrix has played adds to it's provenance and adds value. I can smash up a guitar like Kurt Cobain, that doesn't make it worth $6M, wish it did. The Stradivarius discussion/argument goes over my head, I don't know how good it is, but I do know that if one came on the market, collectors and musicians will be fighting over it. Is it very good? thats for discussion, will people fight over buying it? that's a fact. I wasn't aware of the New Scientist link but I'm not surprised. I have to say that amuses me. Collectors like rarity, they like having something that nobody else has, the Mona Lisa. Thats one of a kind and appears to be worth somewhere between £500M and £1,000 million. I know I have a set of trade cards (like Brook Bond or cigarette cards) in a locked drawer from when I sold post cards and cigarette cards with my dad when I was younger, that nobody else in the world has. We have a complete set, other collectors have partial sets. It's worth about £500 and thats it. I'll happily swap my one unique item with the current owner of the Mona Lisa. In fact they get a better deal as they get 25 cards and I just get one small painting of a unknown women with a dodgy smile. Thats why Titanic glasses go for what thay sell for. It's worth what somebody will pay. I put my money where my mouth is. I loved playing the MIJ 97 Jazz and I played a MIM Fender Mustang at the weekend and brought that as well. I tried other basses but that one just felt good. I'd love a 62 Precision becase it's my year of birth but thats an illogical reason to have it. I'll never justify buying it, but it's be cool to have. @xgsjx Thats a great looking video and will watch

I would have never guessed that was ironic (says he ironically AND sarcastically Rob

This is a topic that I've been wondering about for a few months and the picture above clarifies it for me. Just so we are clear, I'm a pretty rubbish bass player, I dabble for my enjoyment and thats about it. if I rated my knoweldge of the bass guitar from 1 (clueless) to 10 (God like John Paul Jones etc), I'm coming in at about 1.5. I've been thinking about what was the simplest bass guitar I could make. I am not a luthier at all and the last piece of decorative woodwork I did was over 40 years ago at school, a letter rack for my mum. It wasn't very good then and it's not much better now. No idea why she keeps it. My thinking was that the essential elements of a bass guitar are: 1. Neck - I have a 97 MIJ Fender Jazz that has a wonderful neck. When I brought it the pickups weren't very good, but I thought that electrics are cheap to solve, so brought it anyway. A new loom from Kl0gion and it sounds great. I also have a Fender Mustang MIM which also plays great and sounds great. We'll not talk about the Ibanez Mikro The neck holds the tuners, nut and frets. 2. The bridge - The strings have to end somewhere. There appears to be lots of different types of bridges, but the ones on each of my fenders appear to be quite simply made with bent metal. Thats not a dig at Fender, it works for them. I am also aware that there are far more complex and higher mass bridges, but I'm not clear what value they really offer. They may make a massive difference to an expert player, the Fender ones seem to work for me. See my value as a bass player above. 3. Something rigid needs to hold the neck and the bridge apart. 4. Pickups and something to hold them. The rest appears to be not that important. Looking at the guitar above, it's clear that there is no wood body to resonate. No idea how the metal resonates, but I'm sure it's wholly different. Stuff like strap buttons and controls can be put in different places. I'm happy to take @BigRedX statement that it plays well. The guitar above doesn't have a body so whats actually important. I have seen acrylic guitars, both bass and 6-string, played by guitar hero's, so I'm assuming they are happy enough it. On the counterside, we have the money paid for the guitars from Eric Clapton, Dave Gilmour, Peter Green. Whilst these have provenance, who wouldn't like a guitar played by EC, people seem to think they play better and sound better. We've had this argument over Stradivarius for centuries about how wonderful they sound and no one understands why. So is the bass guitar body really needed? There is enough evidence to make the answer blurred to me. Perhaps I need to build one to find out Thanks Rob

This one looks similar to yours (for some value of similar) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325784004555?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=fiyFn5zpR12&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=70h8JO93TH6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY The knob look like the ones I have on my 6 string so guessing this is fairly original. I'm no expert though so take this with a pinch of salt. Rob

I understand a bit more now. You want to keep the originals. That's OK. Pictures would help to confirm though. I can easily and quickly print two hemispheres to go inside your custom printed hollow balls. I am assuming that you don't have any flat sides on the balls which would complicate things but is doable. Filling with epoxy would work, but it will take weeks to cure and cost a lot. Epoxy resin isn't cheap and if you made enough to fill the spheres in one go, it might take a very long time to cure. You also can't make a single mistake. Epoxy is very unforgiving. Printing two hemispheres to fill your originals out is pretty simple. The design takes about 60 secs, printing is a function of volume but none of the printers are doing much this week so I'd just put them on and let them run. I have loads of filament anyway, so am more than happy to set them running and bang them.in the post. No charge.