rwillett

David Apologies I didn't send this. Wrote it but didn't press the button That's very kind of you. We'll make it fit one way or a other. Rob

I now have five days to complete the bass, I've had to go to London twice in the last seven days so progress was limited. Today's activity is to file the aluminium backbone and floor to fit. I've cut it approximately down to around 2-3mm too big and now ill use the finger grinder and a file to make it better. The red parts below are all sacrificial and to make sure it all fits. All the drilling (bar four countersunk holes for the neck bolts on the bottom) and tapping is done. The top aluminium still has it's protective cover on. Once shaped, I'll polish it to an inch (or 25.4mm) of its life. Body sides are more or less done but need some filling, sanding and then priming, sanding, priming, sanding, painting, more painting, yet more painting and then quick drying lacquer. That might be tight Rob

Brought a couple of cables. No issues, look great, looking forward to now sounding and playing like Jaco.... Rob

The Pirate Midi Polar Max is based on this open source project https://github.com/Builty/TonexOneController/tree/main I thought I'd seen something similar to this. 10% of sales go to the person who manages the code, which is good. If you wanted to save money, you could (if you were so inclined): Buy this https://github.com/Builty/TonexOneController/blob/main/HardwarePlatform_Waveshare4.3B.md Buy 2-16 pedal switches plus this board https://www.sparkfun.com/sparkfun-16-output-i-o-expander-breakout-sx1509.html Buy this for Midi https://www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-Reciprocal-Hardware-Automatic-Converter/dp/B082Y19KV9 Build yourself a case Download the firmware and test it works though I'm not sure how much money you'd save TBH as all of this takes time and I would value my time at more than it costs to build this, but it's neat and you can still plug in extra pedal switches such as the Chocolate. I did have one question for any Chocolate owners, I didn't think that the Chocolate supported switching through pressing C & D together. I will have to look again and perhaps there is a firmware upgrade. Rob

I have no issues with companies doing business, but when they try to extract every last penny from you, it starts to grate. A bit like Ryan Air when they floated the idea of charging £1 to use the toilets, or BMW (was it BMW?) now building cars with heated seats in to all their cars but you pay for them on a monthly subscription. BMW's view is that you can always choose if you want heated seats and not pay for them if not, but the cost of making the car is already incurred, they are now trying to to extract out a monthly or annual charge for a heated seat. So I could have brought the car outright, but still paying five years later to have a warm bum. Thankfully, most car companies have little idea of real security and somebody will hack into the system and charge you a £100 for a lifetime of warm buttocks. Sometimes it's a fine line between what is acceptable to me and not, other people will have their own views. Rob

Thats the business model for IK Media. Always find a way to get consumers to pay more and more.

It's a tough crowd here.

Thank you. Hangs head in embarrassment and quietly shuffles off to the corner.

What's a CAR please?

Yep, I went through the same rigmarole on my Mac for a free UA plugin (minus the j: drive) and thought, nah!, Sod it Don;t care if its free, this is too much hassle

I've not really seen them around so they never really register with me. I did look in the second hand section here and the last 5-6 seemed to have sold. Lots of people seem to like them so I'll now keep an eye out and see if they work for me. Thanks Rob

All this talk of G&L has made me want to go and look out to buy one. I once tried a bass but the neck was too thick so I didn't get on with it. Any suggestions for a wider neck and slightly thinner neck? I'm going to look around for a bass and possibly a guitar as well and see if they are any good. The headstock looks fairly normal to me. Can't see anything wrong with it, no better, no worse than others. Hate to see any guitar/bass company go out of business though. Rob

Yep, I've driven loads of Land Rovers as I used to work in a scrap yard and used to move stuff round in them and deliver stuff. Normal steering action was the steering wheel would move around 45 degrees from the vertical and you;d still be driving in a straight line. They were slow and used to break half shafts all the time, to such an extent, we used to carry them in the back. Now of course they are terribly desirable and go silly money, especially Series 1's (the headlights are inside the wheel arches). We'd have to set off now to get to Taunton by Oct 12th by my reckoning. Rob

It doesn;t feel balanced, I need 48 hours per day to do what I'd like to do

So started drilling this evening and broke my one and only 6mm metal drill, I had three holes to do and then I could do the M3 hole tapping. Somewhat annoying but two 6mm's on order for tomorrow delivery. That's half a day lost. My issue now is time, I'm in London Tues and Weds, jam session Thursday and I may have family things at the weekend. I'll probably have to put the guitar on hold but I'm worried that any paint finish will not be dry, so suspect I may have to just prime it and bring as-is. Ahhhh! This is annoying, work is definitely getting in the way of play now. Rob

Bring the lot and we'll work it out in Clapham. I think you had a Colt when you came down last time you came down, according to Google thats circa 850 litres of space, the Seat has close to double that plus the top box (if needed). Failing that I'll borrow an Land Rover from someone, though it may take us a bit longer to get there, actually a lot longer now I think about it Hold firm and steadfast. Rob

Have you met @neepheid before?

I'll try to remember to tell him... He'll probably work it out though, he's pretty clever...

Now thats an idea...

David Thanks for this. We'll work it out one way or another, if all else fails I'll leave @neepheid here and use his seat for the cabs. Rob

My point is that valuation of scarce items is irrational. its worth whatever someone will pay and that the worth of it is based on something intangible as there is limited supply. When that happens all logic goes through the window.

Is the Mona Lisa worth the estimated $500m that I believe it's insured for? Not to me but I suspect some multi billionaire would pay that for a load of wood, canvas and paint. Is a McClaren P1 worth £20m quid for some shaped, cast and machined metal. Not to me but we know people pay that for it. Something is worth what people will pay for it. The reason they pay that is because they believe the object to have some intrinsic value, rarity, beauty, show off characteristics, or fabulous tone. Dave Gilmour flogged his early strats for a fortune and said he's got some equally nice new ones. I think he flogged them for charity so good for him. Leo Fender built cheapish guitars that were designed to be made fairly cheaply and changed easily. I have no idea if pixie dust was involved but some people believe so. I'm not talented enough to know if they are mythical and fabulous nor rich enough to investigate these claims. My most expensive musical instrument is my Macbook which wasn't cheap but gets used eight hours a day and in about two years time will be replaced by another equally expensive Macbook. Depreciation is great. I really like my 97 Fender Jazz and my 87 Strat and my 89 Tele but are they magical? Not with my fingers but perhaps in 50 years time they will be. I'll leave them to my kids. I'm not knocking anybody who wants an old Fender, you can spend your money any way you chose to. I'd love to play an old Fender and perhaps if some kind person at the SW Bass Bash allows me, I may just sit quietly in the corner, my dunce cap on, and tootle around on an old Fender and see what the fuss is all about. I collect old maps, I have some over 200 years old which are quite valuable. Certainly late 60s, early 70s Fender priced. They are basically some old paper and ink. Who's the real fool here 😊 Rob

If you can break it down to 250x220x220mm chunks and provide about a 1,000 printers, sure.

One way or another we'll get them all to fit in. No children left behind

It's already a large estate... the car, not the house... To be fair I could borrow a sheep trailer. Might need a little cleaning out but then any bass will be genuinely "road worn". There's a bit of worry about the smell but I'm sure the sheep won't mind...