Dad3353

Not ready to try mandolin yet, then. ...

The pre-amp in the guitar is switched on by the insertion of the jack plug, The jack socket uses the barrel of the jack plug as a shorting circuit which bridges the sleeve and the ring, allowing the battery to feed power to the pre-amp. Remove the jack plug and this short no longer exists, so the pre-amp no longer receives voltage, and the battery can rest until the next time. If the jack is left too long in the socket, the battery is drained, which is why one has to unplug the jack when putting the guitar away. There is no good reason that I can think of for using stereo (RTS...) jacks for guitar or bass, and for those with a pre-amp (your electro-acoustic...), this switching function is defeated, as there is no short-circuit created between the sleeve and the ring. Use a mono jack, as one should with all guitars and basses, and all will be well. You've just been lucky so far that stereo jacks work at all, as they are far from optimum in mono jack sockets. Hope this helps. Douglas

a) Maybe not at the moment, but t'will come in the fullness of Time. Just have patience whilst waiting for Patience to descend upon you. Go in peace. b) It's defined as the length of Time between the posting of the ad in the Marketplace and the successful passage of the instrument to its new owner. Hope this helps.

+1

Then my work here is done. ...

Elaborate..? Not a lot, really, as there's no hard'n'fast rules about stuff of the sort. It's up to the composer to 'know' which notes are important and which are less so. Maybe a way of thinking it through could be to imagine a simple Major scale, then imagine an arpeggiator adding in-between notes to that scale. The 'key' scale notes stay the same, but the 'in-between' notes are 'optional'; they add colour and movement in some circumstances, but distract and even irritate in others. What's best..? That depends on what the composer wants. One way in to these rabbit warrens is to keep in mind the age-old adage of 'less is more', and start off by adding as little as can be got away with. An example, slightly off-track, could be the way many songs are composed, on a strummed acoustic guitar. This skeleton is then arranged, with maybe banjo picking, piano, horns, bass etc... In the end, the original acoustic guitar is removed, and the finished song stands just the same, without its progenitor. With chords and melodies, a similar notion can apply : does it all still make sense if the original melody line is removed..? This doesn't mean 'Remove it'; just see if the song still sounds 'right' when it's not explicitly there. Just a thought. Sorry if this confuses rather than clarifies; If I was any good, my own compositions would maybe be listenable..! In the end, it's your own taste and judgement that count, and only by doing it will you know if it's OK or not. I do have a few words of encouragement for these situations, though... 'It's the first forty years that are the hardest, after which things sometimes tend to get slightly better.'

Another tip that I forgot to add : It's very often the last note of a song that tells us what key we're in, the note that gives a sense of 'it's over' (resolution...). From there, the other notes can be assigned their 'rank' in the scale. It doesn't work every time, as some song-smiths do strange things with 'standard' harmonic principles, but for a lot of stuff it's as good a starting point as any. Beware of thinking that the 'key' is the first note; it's very often not the case at all..! Just sayin'.

This is not without interest. There is more (much more...), but here's a start... Note : It's not mandatory to harmonise every note; one may harmonise (say...) the first note with a suitable note held for the whole bar. Have a listen to Irving Berlin's 'You're Just In Love', which features excellent counterpoint (simultaneous concurrent melodies...). Bach has some fine stuff worth study, of course. Hope this helps...

Good afternoon, @Fredflintstone, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. Another youngster joins the club. Allow me, then, to offer my usual words of encouragement... 'It's the first forty years that are the hardest, after which things sometimes tend to get slightly easier.' ..

Ah, probably open circuit there, then, rather than short-circuit. Valve amps do not like being worked hard with no load, so if the connection to the cab fails, for whatever reason... 'Puff..!' is often the result. A pity to not get it repaired, though, as those amps are splendid (we have a Laney VC50 Combo, which is very, very loud, and was toured around France for many years with no issues. Laney do some very Good Stuff.)

Yes indeed; this is an important point, which merits, perhaps, an explanation. Guitar (and other instrument...) cables have to carry very low-level signals, with very little current, and need protection from parasitic interference. To this end, they have very thin, flexible wire inside, enclosed in a metallic outer sheath, which keeps the unwanted noise out. Speaker cable, on the other hand, has to carry much higher voltage and current, and so much thicker wire and insulation goes into their structure. They are not, however, subject to picking up extra noise, and so do not have, nor need, the metallic sheathing of the instrument cable. What difference does it make..? An instrument cable used, wrongly, to cable an amp to a speaker is liable to heat up with the high currents that the amp puts out, as the thin wire, made for low signals, can't handle it, and is most likely to melt. If the inside wire melts, it will provoke a short-circuit between the inner wire and outer sheathing, which in turn will overload the amp. This could, if lucky, just shut down in protection mode, or, all too often, just bust the output of the amp, with ensuing 'magic smoke'. This is a Bad Thing, and can be expensive, or even dangerous. On the other hand, using, wrongly, a speaker cable to connect an instrument, will result in a lousy sound, with much buzzing, clicking and other extraneous noises. No physical harm, but a damaged reputation and a ruined concert. Each type of cable has its specific construction to cater for the use it is to be put to. These uses are not interchangeable, despite their having similar (jack...) plugs. Don't be fooled. Use instrument cable for instruments, and speaker cable for speakers.

No, the original switch has one button for Clean/Lead, the other for Reverb On/Off. There is no compatible switch that allows the combinations you're wanting, sorry. There is a later version of that amp that has a five-pin connector for the footswitch which does all you need; that's not the one in the photo, though, and an update would not be possible without major work.

Could I respectfully suggest a re-wording of this, to avoid any ambiguity, please..? (I'm assuming that the scams were not carried out on Basschat..! ) 'I’ve followed on Basschat the various scams this piece of filth has carried out; how he’s still walking the streets beggars belief.'

'7' or '8', it matters not, but not both at once. Those two are wired internally together, so there's no difference. There are two to cater for the folk using two 16 Ohm cabs, so that, when they are plugged in together to '7' and '8', the amp 'sees' 8 Ohms (two 16 Ohms in parallel behave as one 8Ohms cab for the amp...). Hope this helps.

Cab switch to the right (8ohm mono...), plug into the 'Left/Mono' socket, and the middle output socket from the amp (N° 7...) with the amp switch to the right (8 ohm...). Enjoy.

Good afternoon, @Aurora, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

If there's only one scale length, that's fine, but one needs a template for each scale length. For someone producing, that's worthwhile, but for a solo bloke making different 'one-offs', the maths help. There's a need for maths elsewhere, too, in working with wood, generally.

Hmm... Photos would help. Without seeing the project, then, I'd suggest that, if damage was to be done, it's already done. I'm assuming that the acoustic qualities of the instrument are now of little importance..? If it's to be hung on a wall, a coat of undercoat, to seal the sanded wood, and then paint away. The result depends more on your artistic talents and taste; I would use an airbrush with acrylic paint for a project of the sort, but brushwork would be fine, too, if that's what you're best at using. If the result is to be durable, (and worth it...), a final coat, once the painting is over, with a clear acrylic varnish will protect to some extent the artwork. All of this with some reservation, and subject to completion, correction and/or contradiction from others. Photos (before and after..?) would help, though.

Fret spacing can be established quite easily, using a well-known formula (scale length divided by 17.817...); it's the same formula for basses, guitars, mandolins etc. Here's an easy-to-read page explaining in more detail. It's fastidious (the jig makes it easier, of course...), but it's not complicated to calculate. Cutting accurately is another subject, though..! Calculating fret distances...

I'm a drummer.

Not my idea at all; it's been ongoing over there on Basschat for about ten years or so..! We don't do videos, though, just Soundcloud audio. A modest clique of regulars, but it keeps on going, so it must be doing something right.

Maybe a kick-start is all that's needed..? An incentive, such as a monthly 'challenge' to see who can compose a piece, inspired, maybe, by a picture or photo, with a vote at end of month..? The compo that gets the most votes from Forum members gets to choose the pic for the next Challenge, perhaps..? Nah, it could never work..!