Spacebadger

I've been out today with my Olympus 35RD, I just hang it round my neck and have a short cable release down to my pocket. The shutter is super quiet and on auto mode it'll catch pretty much anything, the lens goes down to f1.7. and It's a 40mm, so slightly wide. Downside is that although it's small it looks so nice that people walking towards me eye it up all the time, I do better catching them side on https://www.cameraquest.com/olyrd.htm My better half never leaves the house without her Olympus XA2, she gets some great street shots, it's a little wonder of a camera and as unintrusive as it gets.

My folks were from Attercliffe right back to when it was farm land. Memory fades, but: 'Dancers' meant stairs, something to do with Fred Astaire always dancing on them (or the name?), so "Gerrup them dancers", 'Twirls' were keys, and 'Mad eye' meant a nutter, someone tearing past in a car would provoke "Ay ay, mad-eye!"

It's still the days of film as far as I'm concerned, £500 would buy you an insane amount of kit and film, and it's a great time to do it. Get yourself over to this place, massive choice of serviced cameras and lenses: http://www.realcamera.co.uk/

That bloke was the anti-guitar shopdude. Even his staff were like car salesmen. "What are you looking for today?" "Err, just looking ta." "This is a very nice guitar....." "I'm sure it is....." "What kind of price range are you...." "ARRRRRRRGHHHHH!!!!" *sound of rapidly fading footsteps* Wavelength: "Grunt" (if you're lucky). *Perfect guitar shop experience*

I think it was supposed to be a Hartley-Thompson amp he borrowed off the jazz fusion player Alan Holdsworth.

RIP indeed. Legend has it that he built the amp Eddie Van Halen used on 'Beat it'. It's Boog. Hope you get a Dave-a-like sorted soon, sounded like you were getting plenty of gigs under your belt and a decent rep. I certainly *have* fixed/modded/built pedals and most things noisy in the past, but it's not really my business, and a lot of the newer pedals are too undiscrete (components) for my liking/skill set. I'll be interested to hear who crops up as a suggestion, it's a much needed resource.

I was just going to say Pete Hartley but he's just (I think) passed away: http://www.hartleyelectricmusic.co.uk/ That's a real Sheffield music legend gone, not sure who else to suggest. What do you need fixing (and is that you Danny boy?) B

Nathan at ND auto repairs has been doing some great work on my Land Rover series III recently and is very classic friendly: https://www.facebook.com/ndautorepairs

It's a spring (sometimes multiple) between 2 transducers, one is a little speaker, one a little mic. Not sure of the physics behind it but imagine that some of sound energy is reflected back up the spring while some hits the mic. It's a variation on plate reverb, not sure which came first. I once made a spring line reverb with 2 x 2" speakers in an LP case, coiled an thin E string into a spring, hooked it into the cones, drove it with a little amp. Sounded great kicked around the stage! BTW, I think the spring lines were often made by outside companies to the amp manufacturers so arrived in their own boxes ready to be fastened to wherever there was room - I've seen them inside amps and in the bottom of cabs like yours, other than maybe getting them away from the power supply I'm not sure there's a reason for the placement. I've got a big Gibbs Special Product unit made in the US that I got out of an old Carlsboro valve head many moons ago.

I think it's still available for XP via a Service Pack: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/get-movie-maker-download Have you checked that you've already not got it? It's probably fine for what you want, though Gary is right about using the online tools at youtube, probably about the same functionality as MM (if your browser will run it smoothly): https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/183851?hl=en-GB bx

Depending on what version of Windows you have you may already have it - 'Windows movie maker', was free on a lot of systems, or a free download. Think you can still get it for 7: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/features/movie-maker Was basic but worked ok as far as I remember. bx

Pretty old, early 70's but I'm not going to start digging them out. I do know that most modern amps are direct coupled and robust, and you are welcome to run your amps at 11 into thin air if you want mate, and you'll probably never have the slightest problem, but that 'probably' is where best electronic practice as I was taught can save the day. If someone gives me limited information, like a make going back to 1959 and wattage, I will always err on the side of caution rather than assuming it's bombproof. To be honest, I'd still probably run it into a dummy load even if I knew it was, that's just the way I roll. Transmission ends. bx

I meant *pop* as in a component blowing John, but turning the power off is very sensible (in my humble opinion at least). The switch rating sounds just fine. Csd, unless you know the specific circuit you're dealing with in an amp can cope sans load happily, then it's *best practice* to assume it can't. A tech with the case off can see if its direct or transformer coupled, the average user doesn't. There are plenty of SS amps with output transformers still floating around, I've probably got a couple in the house thinking about it... bx

We'll have to disagree on that one csd1, especially as we've no idea of the amp circuitry involved or type/rating of switch, which may put loads in parallel briefly if it's a make before break. If you look at any decent commercial speaker selector, they all take open circuit and impedance protection into consideration. It could indeed not bother his amp a jot (or even be designed to) to be run full bore into nothing, but it's sound working practice never to present an abnormal load to any amp, SS or valve, radio or audio, even for a split second. It's always better to be safe than sorry in my experience. He is unlikely to have any problems (especially at 10w), but just because you get away with something in one situation can mean you try it in another, and *pop*. bx

As a cautionary note, no amplifier likes being operated without its load, some solid state ones especially. You mentioned that you've added a switch to route the amped signal. You'd be well advised to turn the amp off and wait a few seconds before switching over just to be careful, as there will be a brief no load moment where you can get a fried final if you're unlucky. bx

Yet more sparkly disco balls from Sheffield's own G-Love Divine! https://soundcloud.com/heavenly-bodies-records/sets/g-love-divine-this-disco-rocks Due for release on the 12th of August including a remix from 5prite who spent *months* in the Beatport top 100 charts with his remix of Get Lucky. Wooo! bx

No pain, no gain. Whatever you play, pain generally means you're on the right track, blood means you're really on track. This is in all seriousness, I used to sit and play along with albums for hours at a time until my fingers were ragged. You don't get clean barre chords with soft, podgy civilian hands - you need deformed and calloused muso claws! Playing a low action electric (especially with wimpy light strings) through highly distorted or compressed amps/headphone things is a crap way to start off in my opinion, yet so many people do so. The more you can make your strings ring the better tone and separation you'll get all down the line. I do know how hard it seems, but 'easier doesn't always mean better' is a good ethos to bear in mind as you learn. Most importantly, play whatever you've got as much as you can. Don't get too hung up about what type of guitar you should be playing, it's all good.

There must and shall be aspirin, or I shall die, here, on this f***ing mountainside!

Sparkly-spangle disco release 'Mesmerised' from Sheffield producer G-Love Divine came out on the Miami based Heavenly Bodies Records last month, soon to be followed by 'Supersonic' at the end of July - hear them both here (hare here): https://soundcloud.com/heavenly-bodies-records/supersonic-original-mix-g-love bx

Be afraid, be very afraid. Lots of pedals use 9v DC with the center positive, but not all of them. The heavier digital pedals use 12 or 18v, and older stuff is more random about it's connectors and polarity. Also some random bits of tech use AC adaptors rather than the common AC/DC jobs. All pedals vary in how 'protected' they are regarding wrong voltage and polarity. some are bombproof so long as you don't connect them directly to the mains, one, such as a first issue MXR distortion that sounded utterly sublime for all of 10 mins until I stuck the wrong juice into it, will fry at the drop of a hat. Buy a £5 multimeter to check voltages and polarity, there's nearly always a diagram on the pedal showing if the center is -/+ All your gear sounds low powered and like it would run off a standard PSU, something like a 1.5 or 2amp regulated unit with a daisy chain lead, or pay more for one with multiple output sockets. The flangers' 18v is a bit unusual. Bardwells on Abbeydale road are great for all this stuff. Take your gear in and ask for power supplies to suit, they'll put you right.

I'm quite into film at the moment. It's a grand time for satisfying consumer urges, I buy cameras for £5 or under, use Poundland color film and cross process in b&w chemistry at home mainly, got a scanner for £10 that does 35mm and 120. Had fun developing in Caffenol, all ingredients found at Tescos (other than Sainsburys for the Iodised salt!) Why bother? It's alchemy, an invitation to the Gods of Chance to take part and a lovely process to contemplate. Press shutter, by your will you allow photons in, badda bing with the halogenated silver etc.... Recent stuff and experiments, Zenit 122, Smena 8M, Halina 35x: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79541348@N04/ Oh, btw - 35mm redscale film, make your own, it's just normal film loaded into the can backwards so you shoot through the back anti halation layer as far as I'm aware.... bx

I'm offering free mixing and remixing for tracks/artists I like for the next couple of months, all styles welcome. Drop me an email, preferably with links to your track or demo, and any online stuff about yourself: [email protected] Recent work: Cheers

I used to go for swimming lessons there with school (Athelstan primary - mid to late 70's) and with my Mum. Went for ages, swimming teacher (Mr Lyons?) failed to teach me to swim but my mum learned by watching me. Ace crisp machine in the entrance, used to sell these: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/2831978790_2c69e3dd71.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickriver.com/photos/rollthedice/2831978790/&h=351&w=500&sz=217&tbnid=U53co8BS62WlCM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=128&zoom=1&usg=__tYCaQnQNYax-ffJMWCn_Jot9r_4=&docid=TiaS69OXBBMKSM&sa=X&ei=X0BwUqWXFa3b7Ab56YDADA&ved=0CDQQ9QEwAg Can taste the crisps and smell the chlorine. bx

There was a girl knocked down at the traffic lights just before CN road, she was laying in the gutter, possibly an elderly couple in a 4x4 hit her - however, 2 fire engines came down shortly after the first responders and ambulances, so I dunno if rubberneckers caused another smash, bad place for it. She only looked a young lass, fingers crossed she's ok. bx

Ok, have PM'd you.