Joe O'Connor

Yeah I figured that I had the exposure too long. This was taken at 30" at 18mm. Previous times I had gone out and shot the sky I haddn't edited with Lightroom and it was harder to edit them well. Now that I am using LR I don't think I need to shoot so long of an exposure. Weighing down the tripod is a good idea though, never thought of that one... Have you had experience image stacking? I'm not sure how well that would work given that the stars like to move a noticeable amount in less than one minute...

So I set my bass up with the strings I need. Was an experience getting the .182 in, the string was too thick to fit through the bridge so I had to unwind the ball and feed the end through and try re-attach the ball. That caused issues and resulted in a messy looking solder job, it works though so that's what I am most worried about haha. The one issue I am facing however, is sound. It sounds pretty muddy undefined. Obviously a lot of that is to blame on the fact that it is an octave below E... The combo that I own is only 2x10 and I've also tried it through a single 12", both sounded kinda lame even with my Sansamp running. Any ideas as to how to EQ it better? The other four strings in drop A sound great, its just the low E. Is it an EQ issue? Or do I just need more inches to push my sound? Also, pretty keen to buy a new bridge haha. Do not want to repeat that process every string change :/

I get sick of the fact I own a decent amount of gear and never use it. Tried Astrophotography again, getting a little bit better with every trip. I think I need to look into photo stacking, seems to give the best result. Critique my image please, haha.

After spending ages searching for the right bass, I found one. I played an LTD 5 string, looked and sounded amazing, only issue was that I didn't like the finger spacing. Too close for me. I ended up buying a more expensive bass anyway. Decided on a 2014 Mexican Fender Jazz 5 string with active pick ups. Absolutely gorgeous to play, hear and look out. I seriously could not be happier with that I have. Only downside that I can think if is that it doesn't have the standard Jazz tuning pegs but I think I'll let it slide ha. Now I just need to wait for my strings to arrive from Circle K so I can set it up in the right tuning, .150 for the A and .182 for the low E..... Lol.

My 5 string Jazz bass should arrive tomorrow :D

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=548763681891237

Thanks for the load of info! Has very much helped to set in stone how I should be doing it. Why cut out coffee and tea? Seems like, high fat/protein and minimal carbs is the way to go. Which is a lot of what I thought would be the right way, I always thought that it would be silly to think that a big salad sandwich would be bad just off the fact it has bread on it. Im guessing Vogals and other heavy/dense breads are the way to go? Also in terms of high protein veges to replace meats for dinner, what am I looking at? Broccoli for sure. Things like cabbage and asparagus? Ive never been able to get a decent meal out of lettuce, its too watery and what not. That would be the hardest thing for me to figure out, that and suitable replacements for sauces that are less than good for you (Like sweet chilli sauce). Also also, lunches.... Ive always struggled to get enough out of my lunches. I always end up with yoghurts to bulk them out, which are sugar loaded. Boiled eggs and nuts are seeming like a good idea to me? I like what you said Dave Anscombe, that's very much what this is about. Not only to get fit and into shape, but also for my future health. Ive spent so long snacking on whatever I feel like and I am starting to get conscious of how its going to affect me in the long run

True true. Doing it for 21 days is more of a discipline. We always talk about cutting crap out and then three days later buy something nasty haha. So a strict 21 day detox will help us build a habit of eating healthy and to push out all of the sugar from our systems. It would be more focused at cutting out unnecessary carbs, mainly bread and that sort of thing. I've had a huge amount of friends change their lives around from going zero carb, one guy loosing over 85kg. Eating mostly vegetarian is an interesting idea though. I have always wanted to try doing that to see how it would help but I have never known what to replace meats with to get enough iron and whatnot. Im guessing things like broccoli? Like I said, its all about developing a habit of eating healthy and if we maintain a very strict diet at home it will make us less likely to buy fast food.

So my girlfriend and I have decided to drop all sugar out of our diet, as well as starting a serious keto diet. After constantly feeling fat, worn out, tired and average we feel like its a positive thing to embrace. Both for our current health and or future health. We are aiming for a 21 day detox sorta thing and then continue from there, for those three weeks it will be pretty full on and from then on we will tweak it to what suits. So starting tomorrow we are going to take this challenge on. Any suggestions, advice or experience would be gladly appreciated. I really don't want to be stuck without energy to be able to work and to ride, its just starting to get into warmer weather in New Zealand and I want to get fit and improve. Any of you lot done the same or something similar? Would be cool to have a discussion here if there isn't already a similar one in existence. I would also be willing to update people on the progress if anyone is interested? Joe P.S I pretty much use this forum for life and tech advice..... Hopefully I can come here to actually talk more about trials again hahaha

Haha, nah I think I'll pass. I can barely handle 4 strings! Twice as many will throw me right off haha

True true. Just been doing a bit of research on them. Kinda keen to get my local music store to get an ESP LTD Deluxe B1005 in for me to try. This puppy I own one of the really basic LTD B104 things, I've always loved playing that so this might be killer too. The only downside to the B1005 that I have read is that the pickups are a bit lacking, so I would be happy to upgrade. I know nothing about bass pick ups though.... Haha.

Hey metal folk (Or smart bass folk in general). I'm going to be getting a 5 string bass soon to play in a metal band playing in a pointlessly low tuning (Drop A with a low E), so I'll need something dumb like .180 gauge strings. Trying to decide what bass I want to get. Pretty much looking at something like a Warwick Rockbass, a 5 string Jazz bass or some form of LTD with active humbuckers. Really the only reason I want a Jazz bass is because I like the necks and they look amazing. The Rockbass is an attractive option because it has two massive pickups and they sound so huge, which is what I want. The LTD's certainly look a hell of a lot nicer than the ugly Rockbass, I don't know much about active humbuckers but I've been told that they make your bass sound real big too, the Rockbass is only passive but the overall size of the pickups pretty much make up for that. I think that the Rockbass is the cheapest option which is why it is the most attractive at the moment but I don't know if the LTD's active pickups will be better? I really want to get a huuuuge bass tone. Really full and chunky.

Today when I was randomly walking through a second hand store I saw this beauty and decided it was a stupid idea not to buy it. Its a Yashica Minister III. Its in amazing condition, even has a UV filter on the front. There is one dial on it I have no idea what does, it has ASA written next to it... The only thing wrong is that the shutter does not move when you try to take a photo, which is kinda important when it comes to photography. I was reading up about how to open the top up to get to the shutter and it involved undoing the film advance leaver. I have no idea how to do that. Im guessing I need a special tool for such a task. Should I attempt to open it to see whats up or is that stupid and I should I just send it to a shop? Also, thoughts on this camera in general? Is it as nice as I think it looks?

Mate if you come to New Zealand, come up to Rotorua in the North Island. World class mountain biking, beautiful lakes and country side. Ill go riding with you. Also, bring your trials bike

Well I'll be damned. For the last six years I've known about the sport, I've been calling it the wrong name! Where did I even get the name Trials from?

Yeah I had a read through all of that, that is where I got the preamp idea from. Took it into the amp doctor yesterday though so it will be interesting to see what the cause was. By the sounds of it, it is early on in the head. The gain control on the Lead channel can drop it out so yeah... We did give it a decent clean out with cloths and blowing on everything, but didnt go for compressed air. Like I said above, it sounds like an issue caused early on in the head, inside that actual circuit board and there is no way I am sticking my fingers in there!

Hey guys, So my girlfriend has just in the last two days started to have an issue with her amp head. Even when nothing is plugged into it, so just straight from head to cab, it crackles and hisses in both the clean and lead channel. Me being not overly (At all) knowledgable on guitar stuff, I've researched it a lot on the internet and the main suggestions seem to be to swap out preamps on it to see if they are faulty. So we have bought one and swapped it into each of the three preamps but the problem still exists... We havent tried a new power tube to see if its a problem from that but thankfully they arent overly expensive so if we have to we can. Any suggestions to what is likely to be the cause? Its only been used for a year, semi frequently for gigging and practices, nothing insane. The next step if I cant check anything myself is to take it to a professional to inspect it, but if we can save money then that would be neat... The preamps are 12AX7 and the power tubes are 6L6GC if that is any help at all? Thanks, Joe

I reckon they are 50% ABR vocals and 50% The Ghost Inside vocals haha. That dude is such an agressive vocalist, pretty cool that they found him through his youtube covers too. I saw them last year, got to talk to their drummer real quick too, hes the man. Also him and the drummer from Texas in July are real good mates and are both pretty close in terms of skill

After a long time of silence Texas in July released this song and man it is actually so killer. I could not have expected anything better than this!

I have a crappy little laptop that I am using because my normal laptop decided that it didnt want to work anymore. This thing sucks so much. Windows 8 with a pointless touch screen I dont need. Processor maxes out at 0.8GHz..... If I try to load two tabs at once it freezes for 15 seconds, trying to watch youtube the video pauses at the start for 14 seconds before it jumps ahead to catch up, wireless decided that it just didnt want to work fo a while. I hate this laptop, I want to throw it out the window so bad

Haha yeah, its legit fast now. Do you think it would be wise to invest in another fan? That is true. However I had/have no idea at the complexity of doing so so I just got the people at the shop to do it. Not really. I got it custom built but under the advice of the guy from the shop. They sell pre-built computers but they also do custom builds which end up being cheaper and better. I told him what I wanted to do and he told me what I needed. We discussed it a bit but it was mostly him telling me what I need because I dont know what I need. The shop built and tested it, no way in hell I was going to do that myself! Haha. Dude I am ecstatic! Hahaha. I would be honored!

To be completely honest with you, as this is the first ever computer I have had built up for a specific purpose, I was always under the impression that the graphics card was all internally inside the tower and it was all connected from inside. I never knew that I had to plug into it myself from the outside. The last 11 months I have always assumed that my graphics card has been working haha... I just thought something was up and it wasnt working properly. I've made two lyric videos on this computer and done a decent amount of multiplayer on Red Orchestra 2 and its always been better than any other computer Ive ever used. Now its doubley better It has a 12cm front fan Chuckle all you want! Ive been laughing at myself the whole time. Yeah man, I was so disappointed in it. The warranty was coming up to expire in a month so I wanted to sort it out ASAP, Ive spent literal weeks trying to find out what is wrong. Gone into shops to ask and asked sooooo many people. If TF didnt know what was wrong I was about to hard reset it and if that didnt work I was going to take it back in and get it replaced or something hahahaha. So glad all I had to do was move a cable. I only ever got a real basic tower because I didnt need some big fancy thing, In later days (When I have money) I might upgrade the case. It currently has a Cool Master K350 tower. Which as a 12cm front fan and apparently, a nifty red LED which just seals the whole deal

Well I am glad it made someone other than me laugh haha. Well I bought the computer on the 15th of January 2013 and up until now I never knew that HDMI port was there.... So my graphics card has been sitting unused for nearly a year now haha. Because the dude at the shop when I bought it never told me I needed one?

Damn son, love Hands

First time I drove way out into the country on a clear night to take photos of the stars. Actually could not stop grinning like a mad man for so long when I saw how many there are. Lying on a bed with my girlfriend and having her rest her head on my chest. The first time I listened to the band Hands album Give Me Rest, haha.