KevB

If you are only going to play one type of set and you only want to play in venues that cater for that genre then in those venues which already have a saturation of classic rock covers you either have to prove that you can offer something better than or significantly different to what is already being offered by their 'regular' bands or accept that you will have to travel further afield to get the gigs and this will push your overheads up. I was in a similar situation around 7 or 8 years ago. I'd done 2 back to back stints in 2 different classic rock covers bands. During the time I had off before joining the next band it gave me several months to take stock and look as a punter what was going on locally. It really brought home to me just what saturation level it had reached in that genre. Lots of bands playing to a similar standard with similar set lists all chasing the same venues. It really put me off and I decided i would try other types of bands, not done a classic rock band since. I'd like to do one more before I'm really past it but it would have to be a unit with guaranteed work and a good reputation (so they probably wouldnt hire me anyway! ). Best of luck in what still seems to me a very competitive market.

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1401449639' post='2463730'] I took it as 4 that were broken out the box, 1 which worked but was obviously poor build quality and 4 that looked perfect so would only be shown up once they were put under the tests that followed (feedback, movement noise, dropping lol etc). [/quote] Yep, that would make sense too. Whatever these outcomes if there really are as many fakes knocking about as we are led to believe then it has to suggest that there are a lot of people using them in bands, bingo halls and recording studios who are presumably quite happy with what they have though. Unoless they are all lying idle in drawers and gig bags as 'emergency use only' backups? could be.

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1401447631' post='2463693'] Did you watch the whole clip? I thought the tests they did were pretty comprehensive... [/quote] I watched all of it and i was a bit curious about those 4 boxes he had to one side saying they were ones that only an 'experienced professional' would spot as a fake or words to that effect. May be reading too much into it but it suggested to me they probably passed all the other general tests that they then subsequently did on some of the other 'lesser fakes'. Or maybe they still gave hand held rumble and easily fed back? wasn't very clear.

It also brings up the question that if you had a good quality fake and it was electrically safe and did the job it was required to do would you throw it away on principle because it was a fake? We play basses that are copies of the 'real' original all the time don't we?

There have probably been threads about this before but it was rife on eBay a few years ago and people became very wary about buying Shure mics from there. Though I've never had them professionally checked out all the SM58's I've picked up S/H on eBay seem to be genuine, none show any of the tell tale deficiencies shown up in the programme. However i think i was lucky in a way that some of them were quite old (but well looked after) and probably predated when the fakes really started to kick in. I'd be cautious about buying online new from anywhere other than a reputable dealer now though.

[quote name='bass24' timestamp='1401378548' post='2463025'] As part of BBC Radio 2's guitar season, Johnnie Walker travels to Los Angeles to meet one of the most prolific and widely heard bass guitarists in history, the legendary session player Carol Kaye. [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2014/22/carol-kaye"]http://www.bbc.co.uk...4/22/carol-kaye[/url] Should be well worth tuning in to! [/quote] Ahem.... [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/237818-the-carol-kaye-story/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/237818-the-carol-kaye-story/[/url]

Depends how stubborn you and the rest of the band are about playing alternative material. Another route is to have an entirely different set catering to a totally different demographic and targetting the other venues that won't take your rock act. Alternate between the 'rock' act and the 'other' act. There's a band locally round here that have been going 20+ years. For most of that time they have done rock/classic rock covers. In more recent years they have built up another set doing all 60's material. They go out under a different name for the 60's stuff but it is the SAME BAND. They have even 'supported' themselves at NYE parties doing the 60's set early then the rockier stuff as a second show, coin it in.

Yup, also seen him solo a couple of times and saw him twice in It Bites, supporting Robert Plant and also headlining on their final tour. One of the tightest live bands I've ever seen.

For the right money he would have come and sing in your mate's living room

Always exciting getting into new projects, could do with a new avenue myself. Nice bassline from what I could hear, serving the song in a U2 Claytonesque way.

Never spend any time getting a sound I like. What I 'like' may or may not be relevant to what's required for the band I'm in at the time or the music they perform. I spend some time getting a sound that I believe to be 'right' in the band context considering how and what they play and the music that's performed. And then I leave it alone unless the room requires a bit of tweaking. Never play my gigging rig at home, what's the point? the rest of the band aren't there and I'll just annoy the neighbours. 25W practice amp is fine, all I have to do is hear myself above whatever I'm playing along to/rehearsing/learning.

Another Google calendar user here. It hadn't been set up particularly well by whoever started it before I joined the band and I was initially being given duff login details by band leader but when i eventually got the right info it seems to be fairly idiot proof. Like everyone says it only works if everyone can access it and bothers to keep it updated. Have to admit i also keep a physical cheap (poundshop) paper diary that I use as a backup from the Google diary, that way I can also use it for social non band activities and immeditaley spot potential clashes.

If anyone missed it, good little documentary about when it all stops for bands (until the reunion) covers Beatles, Eagles, Spice Girls, Steely Dan and many more. [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s1n54"]http://www.bbc.co.uk...rammes/b00s1n54[/url]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1401271309' post='2461802'] Ha! Why bother at all in that case? It should be as good as it can be even if you're only going to play it live once! [/quote] I agree and in an ideal world this would be the case. Unfortunately the band I work in currently rarely if ever rehearse (I recall 2 in the last 15 months) and I've wasted hours learning songs that have been agreed upon only for them to be subsequently dropped before being gigged. So if we are going todo something seriously it would be better for it to have a bit more longevity than a handful of gigs. I'm actually the one who tends to push the others into new material and freshen up the set but its a real struggle at times.

My lot have been giving it a run through for a few gigs, goes down well but I'm not sure it will last all that long. We do a bit of a cut down version of it as it gets VERY repeptitive and there are sections in the middle where there's not a lot going on if you only have 2 guitars and a bass. I think there will be a time when we know it's time to drop it from the set. Been thinking of a having a go at either Locked Out Of Heaven or Runaway Baby also as they will go down well in the places we play, again though you wonder if its worth the effort to get them tight if they only stay in the set a few months.

Sorry if this has been posted before, next Monday there is a programme on Radio 2 about Carol Kaye 22:00 as part of their 'guitar season'. Probably nothing in it we haven't heard before but thought I'd give a heads up. [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b045c4jx"]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b045c4jx[/url]

It's a jetglo that's been in the wash once too often... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul72F0YaAcU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul72F0YaAcU[/url]

Get in touch with Rock City in Nottingham, they frequently put multi band sets together downstairs in the basement so if you booked that for a night they could probably supply local supports which would bring in some locals who might not be familiar with your band.

We took things into our own hands a bit last night and though we started later than we used to (which new management prefer) we took a shorter break in the middle and finished closer to when we would normally finish rather than play half the second set to a half empty venue, worked out much better. Its a sports pub so was playing most of the first set alongside the CL final being shown on various screens. The lads watched the match whilst their other halves danced in front of us The singer had badgered us all that he wanted to try a new song and as it was one I'd done many times before with other people said it's be no problem. He then made the most utter shambles of it completely forgetting virtually all the lyrics (and there aren't many and not complicated!). Even phoned me today to apologise, bless him.

Another reasonably early Aussie trib was the Australian Doors, extremely precise in tracking down the correct vintage instruments and general attention to detail. Well worth seeing at the time, must have been the 90's?

Now i think of it, i always play through a Hartke Bassattack pedal anyway so even if the rig did go up in flames at a pinch i could DI through the pedal to the PA in an emergency. Even less reason to take a spare amp, huzzah!

If it was me I'd be taking the minimum required and tell the rest of them to turn the f*ck down so we could get some work done, but then my lot hardly ever rehearse

At least he gets to change the set around a bit as he still writes new material every few years. And with that sort of back catalog plus the Wings and solo material I guess it's not much of a hardship

Used to take back up basses, amps, all sorts. Whittled it down so now I take 1 bass to all but the furthest away gigs, little room on stage for spare anyway so more often than not it would just sit in the car all night. I still have the backup emergency amp (one of those little crate 50watt jobs, meant for guitar really) but the TE combo just seems indestructable and I stopped taking the crate around with me 2 or 3 bands ago. I have a spare set of strings in the bass bass but never broken on eyet, even the cheapo £5 a set jobs I've been using for the past year or so. I love these guys who turn up to gigs with their entire bass collection and spend nearly as long arranging them and tuning them as they do playing the first set. Ah well, each to their own

Though useful, a strong web presence isn't absolutely essential in some cases. The band I'm currently in has virtually no web presence at all. The band leader was supposed ot be getting someone to do a web site but that was over a year ago and still no sign of a finished product yet. We aren't particularly short of work (for me anyway, never wanted to work every single weekend). People see us in pubs and ask us to do their wedding, people see us at a friends wedding and ask us to do their wedding or a 40th or 50th birthday etc, its mostly direcft selling from doing the gigs themselves. And we're not [i]that[/i] good even.