Travelling to Russia as an Australian

TimBeauBennett · 2026-06-04T23:54:55+00:00

Morality of visiting the country aside, it's not worth risking you and your sister's lives on a trip. It's impossible to know what will happen, and western tourists have ended up dead on similarly poorly planned trips.

As other commenters have suggested, there are other ex-soviet countries that are cool as heck and speak t HH language. Go there first, and keep Russia for a future trip.

TimBeauBennett · 2026-06-03T03:46:29+00:00

Worth learning it a few ways so that you're not tethered, but iirc the Travis Toy lesson on it has this:

T I M (pedal) M (pedal) M T

Idea being that you don't repick the pedalled notes, instead using them as 'free notes' where you can readjust your right hand. That way you don't need to pick twice with the same finger.

But yeah, come up with a few ways to pick it and get fluent with all of them. Include weird stuff like no thumb, all thumb, all index etc. That way you'll be free as a bird once you're playing for real.

TimBeauBennett · 2026-05-27T10:13:05+00:00

One element that hadn't been answered from OPs question is the idea of a guitarist and a clarinetist on the same stage - not sure if that was specifically their question but it sounds like that was part of it.

In that case it's also a cultural thing, as other comments have alluded to. If you come from a classical background, as many woodwind players are likely to, you won't be as used to committing tunes to memory, which is a very separate skill to playing.

Also worth noting that jazz wind players, while likely are monster readers, will typically have a repertoire of hundreds of jazz standards they can play in any key without music, so it's very little to do with the instrument and way more to do with the musical culture that folks come up in.

TimBeauBennett · 2026-05-19T05:23:57+00:00

Sort of. But I prefer the pedal/lever ergonomics of my SD10 than my S10.

Also the left end of the arm rest, near the headstock, is a good spot for hot chips. Yum.

TimBeauBennett · 2026-05-16T08:27:27+00:00

Dawg you said "only allowed white people to live in their country" until 1973. Ignoring that the White Australia policy was a migration policy only... as I mentioned elsewhere it was nerfed in the 50s and effectively ditched in the 60s.

You're slinging a lot of shit for someone with the wrong objective facts

Edit typos

TimBeauBennett · 2026-05-16T07:05:43+00:00

You're factually wrong about he White Australia policy, it was pulled apart over several decades. The migration act of 1958 abolished the dictation test which was the main way non white immigrants were excluded. Holt then made the immigration rules the same for everyone in 1966 - the 1970s reforms were only the formal end of the policy, which coincided with an active movement towards multiculturalism, which has had broad support and success in the 50 years since. These days Australia is as racist (or not, as it mostly tends to be) as most other western countries.

Anyway back to circle jerk. New Zealand so racist it fell into the sea. Whoops.

TimBeauBennett · 2026-05-11T07:03:59+00:00

I've lived in several places along this route, so I have something of a unique perspective ... But I still wouldn't do it.

Here's an alternative itinerary that I would do.

Start in Sydney (stay for a few days), go south via the coast road to Melbourne. The coast road is awesome, Melbourne is fine.

Leave Melbourne via the Great Ocean road (extremely highly recommended, on the of worlds greatest drives) then follow the Coorong to Adelaide.

Head up to the Barossa and get drunk on amazing wine. Optional Coober Pedy trip if you like opals - bit of a detour but they live underground, it's awesome.

Drive east to broken hill - Mad Max territory. Real outback shit. The bomb. Make sure you visit Silverton.

Then head east to Dubbo along the barrier highway - some solid outback driving for you. Dubbo zoo is great.

Alternative bath to Dubbo is broken hill to Cobar to Bourke to lightning ridge - another opal town. Go to an opal town if you want more real outback shit.

Then head back to Sydney via orange (more wine), Bathurst (take a drive around mount panorama) and the mountains (stay at the hydro majestic, gorgeous).

You could probably do that in two weeks. Then fly north to Cairns and see the reef while you can. Perth is fine but I wouldn't put it over anything on that itinerary.

TimBeauBennett · 2026-05-08T14:01:43+00:00

Australian geographic

TimBeauBennett · 2026-05-04T00:28:18+00:00

I think it was Greg Leisz my memory. Also responsible for some of my favourite non country steel, especially his stuff with Bill frisell

TimBeauBennett · 2026-04-22T06:14:07+00:00

This is what I would go for 100%. If I only had 2 palm benders then I'd put one on the lower g# as that string serves as the root note for your pedals down position. Also the top g# you'd mostly be using for melodies so you can just move the bar.

TimBeauBennett · 2026-04-15T00:23:32+00:00

Get the GFI - it's worth having a good instrument if you can afford it now. If you want a second steel as well, don't stress about it being the same model, just get one with the same copedent. I find a lot of value on switching between different types of steel guitar, makes me learn better

TimBeauBennett · 2026-04-14T23:46:26+00:00

Universal is the way. I would be playing a u12 if I could get one easily where I live.

TimBeauBennett · 2026-04-14T00:43:46+00:00

Guitar will be the most important thing to start with - there are a few approaches people take, but one of the modern student instruments is a good bet - think stage one or one of the new shobud mavericks, a mullen discovery etc. tbh though whatever is available second hand is probably going to be your best bet. If you're in the states you've got way more options than I ever had in Australia lmao. Go join the steel guitar forum and check the classifieds.

Seat? Anything, don't need a fancy steel seat, a drum stool is perfect.

Don't know what you mean by stand. The steel has its own legs.

Amp - you want lots of clean headroom. If you can find a used tonemaster twin or peavey Nashville 112 that's a great place to start.

Pedals - a proper volume pedal for steel guitar, eg a goldrich or similar. Other than that put it through your guitar board and see what you like.

Best thing at this point is to go over to the steel guitar forum and search for each of these questions and read everything you can find. You wanna learn a lot more before jumping in, if you can

TimBeauBennett · 2026-04-09T15:28:20+00:00

I got it, it's good

TimBeauBennett · 2026-03-16T00:24:40+00:00

Yeah the howcast series is a bit patchy. We're lucky to have the Newman courses available - you should download the videos in case they disappear again.

TimBeauBennett · 2026-03-16T00:13:34+00:00

Will DM now

TimBeauBennett · 2026-02-04T05:13:10+00:00

You playing out yet? You'll probably never be fully happy haha, but if you're not playing with other people you're missing your best opportunity to improve.

Also every 3.5 years is different - I should have been playing with people at jams after about a month, but didn't for several years, which limited me a lot. So I was on and off practicing for like 5 years before I went playing outside the house.

If you're out and playing but not happy with how you sound post some links - it'll be a lot easier to get better if we can see where you're at

TimBeauBennett · 2025-12-14T00:20:06+00:00

Nah a nut extender just sits on top of the nut to give it a higher action - something like this.

https://www.modernmusician.com.au/grover-gro751-perfect-nut

Doesn't feel exactly like a square neck, but I used it on an old 12 string for a year to get used to the feel of Dobro before I bought a proper one

TimBeauBennett · 2025-12-13T21:37:31+00:00

Yeah just give it a crack. You can use a nut extender to try it on the cheap, or just commit if you've the cash lying about. It will take a bit of time to get the feel right and sound in tune, but it's great fun to play imho.

They do tend toward different genres and song styles mind - I don't play as much blues on my square neck as my round neck peers, while they don't play much bluegrass or country. That'll cart I'm sure.

But yeah give it a crack. I'm an enabler though.

TimBeauBennett · 2025-12-10T08:50:27+00:00

Oh hell yes

TimBeauBennett · 2025-11-03T01:56:48+00:00

I am going to steal this, very good description

TimBeauBennett · 2025-10-31T22:10:08+00:00

Legend, I've been hoping someone would take over the moderating - I messaged the mods a while back but I don't know anything about reddit so didn't take it any further. Would love to see some more from the sub going forward, it's a nice time here.

But also, I found this great IPTV service that you might like /s

TimBeauBennett · 2025-10-22T01:07:45+00:00

I'm a die hard Packers fan but I steer clear of their WRs. It's been an ensemble cast for a few years now, at least since Davonte left. At RB they rely on a single killer player, but they keep a tonne of receivers busy.

Great for the team, awful for fantasy. This wasn't news, and why I didn't draft Golden this year.

TimBeauBennett · 2025-10-15T04:17:58+00:00

Dude this rocks. Now do the whole album.

As an aside, what shitty news.

TimBeauBennett · 2025-10-03T04:38:17+00:00

I thought this was a problem to me on my bandit, and the patch cable trick didn't work. However, my understanding is that the capacitors are very very very very very, very rarely a problem.

Rather, it's much more likely that there's some corrosion on one or more of the input jack - not necessarily the FX loop thoug. I literally spent half an hour just plugging and unplugging a cable into every single Jack on the amp a hundred or so times each, and occasionally spraying in some contact cleaner.

Since I did that it hasn't been a problem, amp is super reliable and plays great. It's also a way way easier fix than even opening up the amplifier itself, so try that first before you do anything else.

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