tauzero

You win again - there's a lot of covers, but there's Bee Gees (who started me thinking of this song title), Hank Williams Jr, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jerry Lee Lewis, C-Block, and Johnny Rivers. I'm not sure who did the originals for a couple of those which are multiply covered and life's too short to work it out. E&OE.

I feel I've dodged a large number of bullets. One club band singer that I didn't get on with, one guitarist (very capable) who never helped with all the other gear, one singer who randomly rearranged songs (we used to accommodate him, but there were many daggers stared at him one night when he introduced us as "my band") - they're the ones that spring to mind and considering I've played with about 100 bandmates by now, it seems I've done quite well.

"I can't hear myself". No, of course you bloody can't, I'm getting the input level for your mic so it's just below clipping. I will set the monitor levels when either I am satisfied with the input level, or I'm so stressed by trying to do it that I no longer give a flying wossname. And why don't you sing as loud as you'll be singing in the gig when I ask you to sing as loud as you'll be singing in the gig? And it would be nice for me to get a chance to set up my bass gear too.

There was me expecting this to be about Fender necks.

Just remembered, I left one thing out from my tale of last night - Mrs Zero got me a pint, which I left on a table in front of the stage while I was doing the setting up. Some bastard nicked it.

Last night... A pub we've played before. I was doing the PA rather than the percussionist. Setting up was stressful as the others milled around getting in the way, and trying to get levels was a pain in the bum. "I can't hear it" "That's because I'm trying to set the input levels". Then both my active speakers went wonky - one went woofer only, the other went tweeter only (which we could have coped with) then the one that went tweeter only became intermittent. The percussionist lives just round the corner so he nipped back for his speakers. The guitarist/vocalist's guitar suddenly stopped providing an output, so he went to his backup one, which didn't work either, so I swapped leads, still didn't work, then he thought of turning it up. We got going about 20 minutes after we'd originally planned to. I kept getting signals from Mrs Zero to put vocals up which I couldn't do, as I'd already got the levels right up on the mixer and couldn't get to the speakers to knock the level up on them. Then the percussionist's cajon's front panel split. Finally, after a couple of encores, the replacement PA also gave up the ghost. Upshot - they gave us an extra £20 and we've got a few more gigs there. It could have been worse. Speaker with woofer only just needed tweeter reconnecting. Speaker with tweeter only is working perfectly happily. Instrument cable I was worried about is fine.

It's not been a frequent occurrence by any means, but sometimes you encounter the loud-mouthed critical bully. They tend to be beefy psychopaths, so I don't get drawn in to arguments with them (strong sense of self-preservation, or devout cowardice, one of the two).

Had a similar experience with one former band (but without the silver lining) - we played at one pub where we were pretty much ignored. At the end, with the guitarist in a fine sulk and going on about never playing there again, I went to get the money off the landlady. She told us we were great, and that the customers had all been telling her how good we were. It would have been nice if they'd let us know too.

The covers band I'm in is never going to sound like the original - lineup is guitar/vox, keyboards, bass, percussion (bongoes and cajon). Added to that, our guitarist can strum only a limited number of chords - he can't play bar chords and can't fingerpick. Keyboardist is brilliant but not used to playing with a bassist, so we're gradually sorting that out (good-naturedly, I may say). We keep close to the original arrangements and play songs which aren't going to expose the obvious absences of lead guitar and drummer too much, which does mean that keys and me take on somewhat different roles to the originals. So we're not learning note for note, but it's more like a disassembly and reassembly operating within our constraints than not learning it right.

I used to love doing "She sells sanctuary" for the same reason - dead simple bass line but lots of energy. And "With or without you" was a great exercise in passion.

I'm currently playing in three bands, two of which have keyboard players, both very talented and non-sociopathic. One of them does stray into my territory somewhat, but has responded well to me warning him off.

I'm so glad there's someone else that doesn't hate it. I thought it was my guilty secret. If the audience don't like what you're playing, and you're playing it well, it's not a problem with either you or the audience. The problem is that you're playing to the wrong audience. And if you're playing to a lowest-common-denominator audience, unless you're really up yourself [1], you can play songs which you at the very least don't hate but which the audience will love. My covers band plays a couple of UB40 songs but we wouldn't touch "Red Red Fscking Whine" with a bargepole. I think (and hope) the guitarist has now abandoned the idea of doing "Youm Sex Am On Foyur" [2] - a song which gets a lot of slagging off, but the original isn't too bad. Haven't ever heard a cover that does it justice, TBH, including any of my bands that did it. [1] Whatever did happen to Edward Himself, or Young Up, as I used to think of him? [2] As referred to by a singer I once worked with - she was from Oldbury

I panic slightly and briefly, fluff a few notes, then stop and wait till I can get back in. Mrs Zero once led us a right song and dance (so as to speak) when playing "Maria", the Blondie song (as opposed to any other Marias). She kept going to the wrong place, so we kept going round and round until I started singing the chorus that would take us out. If I hadn't, I think we'd still have been there. And then she got cross with me afterwards.

Some of you have 1980s Warwicks with the separate battery box, and of those some, a number greater than zero will have broken latches on the battery box lid. The lids are unobtanium and a replacement battery box from Warwick will set you back £30. For half that price (when you include shipping), the identical box may be had from Banzai Music - http://www.banzaimusic.com/9v-battery-compartment-mec-sku50414.html. Although the lid looks different, there's no need to mess around removing the old box and putting the new one in as the lid is a direct replacement. So that's my 5-string Thumb no longer needing a length of masking tape over the battery box lid to keep it closed.

Think how much it reduces the cost per note.

"Diana" - Paul Anka "Diana" - One Direction "Diana" - Paolo Nutini "Diana" - Alejandra Guzman "Diana" - Lillian Axe "Diana" - 3 Lb. Thrill "Diana" - Nerf Herder "Diana" - The Sounds "Diana" - Diomedes Diaz "Diana" - Collage "Diana" - Eugene Wilde "Diana" - Munchener Freiheit "Diana" - Current 93 "Diana" - Paddy Gibney "Diana" - Prefab Sprout Most or all of which aren't about rape.

Having just (as a buyer) undergone a traumatic experience where a couple of grands worth of Warwick bass disappeared while with DPD (fortunately reappearing afterwards), I'm sure you won't mind if I completely ignore this advice. Especially as your speculative 5% figure seems rather a long way off the mark. It seems more like 1-2% from my experience. It doesn't have to be a huge percentage for the insurance companies to make a profit - any courier which was losing or destroying 1% of the parcels they handled wouldn't stay in business long. Yes, even Herpes and Yokel.

We're talking insurance companies here.

Beware of insurance coverage levels. Parcelfarce won't give enhanced cover for musical instruments, only their standard cover for the service (£100 or £200, depending on the service). I use interparcel.com and UPS, and have had no problems with them.

It wouldn't hurt. Just start by saying that on rereading your reply, it was a bit short on detail, and then add what you want to. Try to avoid any hint of desperation.

The producer got the mix just right in 1963, and he's not going to go messing with the settings now.

The description says it has 38 unfret markers. Though there's one each side of the neck at the 12th unfret, so that might just be the gravestones for 37 frets rather than 38.

Philip Catherine later took over from Jan Akkerman in Focus. Just thought I'd mention that.

Good idea. I keep meaning to do something like it and never quite getting round to it. Presumably you have an offsite backup of the spreadsheet in case the computer gets stolen too?

That's pretty much what he said on BBC Breakfast.