spinynorman

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That has the rare distinction of making a Guild B302 look attractive.

[quote name='JTUK' post='967594' date='Sep 25 2010, 01:34 PM']It is funny/interesting with all these songs threads how some songs are the norm in some places and in others, never ever played.[/quote] Could it be bands look at what other local bands are playing and crib from one anothers' set lists? Ssshurely not!

[quote name='Truckstop' post='967098' date='Sep 24 2010, 08:03 PM']I've never heard a cover band do 'Layla', 'Badge' or 'Cocaine'. Actually a lot of JJ Cale might be well received. Fleetwood Mac - 'Go Your Own Way' No-one ever seems to try Dire Straits either. Or Cannibal Corpse. Truckstop[/quote] I had a long fight with our ex-keyboard player over Layla. He insisted that audiences would love the full 15 minute outro, which of course has a lot of piano over (it would have been, trust me) the guitars. I maintained no one would be interested after the chorus. We never played it. His new band does, but that's another story.

So, the Banned Licks thread managed to demolish 2/3rds of my band's set on the first page. I'm just wondering what people think is cool to cover - ie songs that retain the interest of the audience, but aren't over played. To anyone who thinks all covers are uncool by definition: we have our fingers in our ears, we aren't listening.

I voted for the last option in each case. Some random thoughts - the speaker/combo stands I've seen look naff, I certainly wouldn't use one in rock band; I feel happier if at least one cab is in direct contact with the floor, and if I want sound closer to my head I'd put another cab on top of it; since I bought a Markbass combo, being able to hear myself without excessive volume is no longer a problem.

Passive P. That way no difficult decisions are required. Just plug in and play.

If you want a quick overview of Fender Japan serials this table is quite useful. Amongst other things its more current than the Fender web site. Not reading Japanese, I'm guessing the heading over the CIJ O-T columns says something like 6 digits including the "0". Just be thankful you don't have an MIJ T. I've seen various explanations for the + 5 digits for CIJ basses and the most convincing is that the Fender website is just plain wrong. I have an MIJ 89/90 Precision, which is I+6 digits, starting with 2 zeros, so the zeros don't count explanation doesn't really hold up, unless there's something special about the zeros on CIJ basses. The best place I've found for serial # info is the Guitar Dater project, although it does get very confused about CIJs with T serials. [url="http://www.guitardaterproject.org/fender.aspx"]http://www.guitardaterproject.org/fender.aspx[/url] Guitar Info (Q060288) Your guitar was made at the Fuji-gen Plant (for Fender Japan), Japan in the Year(s): 2002 - 2004

My daughter came back from the Wembley Muse gig with phone video of a massive stage set stuffed with lights, lasers and alien spaceships full of acrobats. Looked great, sounded phenomenal even on a phone, and somewhere in all that lot were some tiny figures apparently playing, or maybe changing, musical instruments. Being very old, I can remember when Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP etc got into all this foolishness in the 1970s and the direct result was Punk Rock. I think you should all be very afraid.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='963357' date='Sep 21 2010, 02:41 PM']That will certainly do the trick, but you're buying a huge amount of functionality (for over £200 if new) in order to do one very simple thing. If you have other needs / plans / ambitions that you haven't mentioned then the BDDI Deluxe may well be right for you. I like mine for some applications but for others I prefer my Radial Bassbone. For what you've said you want, the LS2 seems to be a complete no-brainer.[/quote] I've just been looking at the LS2. It looks to me that it has one instrument input and two send/return loops. Manual doesn't show how would that work with two basses. Has anyone actually used it that way?

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='962958' date='Sep 21 2010, 08:36 AM']I just LOVE the description [i][b]Great axe for anyone not quite large enough for a full-sized bass[/b][/i]. Yup, that would be Jack Bruce then ... [/quote] It is ok for full-sized people though. Fatty. 10 minutes with Araldite, you've got a cheap bass.

[quote name='Jazzman' post='962798' date='Sep 20 2010, 10:08 PM']I'm ideally looking to boost the volume of the quieter bass, even though I know this will be more expensive. A friend has suggested the Sansamp Bass Driver Deluxe. Any thoughts? Adjusting the volume on the instruments is not an option I'm prepared to consider. I always return the knobs to zero when putting a bass down, so finding the right volume on picking it up again would not be practical. Not to mention that I like to send the maximum signal strength from the instrument at all times.[/quote] I had the older BDDI. It was ok for a while when I had a crappy amp, but I found once I started using a better amp (and better basses) I could never get a tone I liked out of it.

[quote name='Conan' post='963053' date='Sep 21 2010, 10:17 AM']QotSA - No one knows? Queen - Another one bites the dust?[/quote] No One Know is one of the few songs we've given up on as a band. Somehow we could never get the timing right between the three of us.

My favourite Youtube comment sequence is on a live version of Dylan's "It takes a Train to Laugh ...". There's the usual charity celebrities on stage including Clapton and Tom Petty. First commentard: Why do they let that arsehole sing? There's ten people on stage could sing it better than that. Next commentard: That arsehole is Bob Dylan. First commentard: Oh, sorry. Didn't recognise him. I'm only 14. He was right too, there were 10 people on stage could have sung it better.

We do The Chain. I always milk the bass riff at the end and get a huge cheer for it. It's the easiest bass riff in the world, but I don't get that reaction for anything else. We do a couple of Stone Roses covers. If there's a Stone Roses fan in the room we get undying love, otherwise total indifference. We play Jumping jack Flash based on a Johnny Winter live version which turns the chord sequence upside down at the end and goes into an extended guitar solo. Either goes down a storm or like a lead balloon. You never can tell.

Firstly, please don't take this the wrong way, I think there's potential here, I'm just trying to help work out what it is. A website builder service aimed specifically at bands is a good idea. The only problem is it's a lot easier for you to tell me how much work it is for you (listing what you will do) than to tell me how much value there is for me. The site will be up quickly, it will be easy to maintain and it will meet all the requirements of good website design. Ok, but will it rock? Will it get us more gigs? Will it get more people to gigs? That's what I'd pay money for. More hits off Google isn't enough. "Web designers don't usually ...". Can't argue with that, but maybe they should. Or maybe put the work out to other people, but in such a way that it can be done at a reasonable fixed price. For example, fix my crappy homemade logo and band name banner for £x. Edit 10 of my reasonable but not stunning pictures for £y. Use the same pics and banner to create a poster pdf I can give straight to Prontaprint £z. Maybe even edit some of my uninspiring text so people read it and want to hire us £zz. It's late, the moon's drifting out of reach. I just think with just the website build, you are competing with Myspace, lemonrock etc and it'll be hard to make it pay. Add a few higher value options, that they can't do, potentially you have a business.

Is that a Rivoli? I think I can see an E logo on the pickguard. They had a good apprenticeship ...

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='959891' date='Sep 17 2010, 08:30 PM']Playing covers never hurt The Rolling Stones/Led Zeppeiln or any ammount of bands.[/quote] Exactly. And, listen to any 60s blues bands live, like Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, what did they play towards the end of the set? Little Richard covers, Jerry Lee Lewis, cos that's what got them an encore. Pity Coldplay never learned that trick.

[quote name='charic' post='958632' date='Sep 16 2010, 06:20 PM']That last bit... What do you mean?[/quote] The difficult thing about creating a great looking website isn't website layout and content management, it's graphic design, photography, video. The people that I've come across claiming to be website designers always talk about the technical stuff - updating gig lists, streaming mp3s etc, so what they really are is website builders. Having dealt with the technical building job, they're then looking to me to provide things like a logo, photos, video. If, as is generally the case, what I can do is mediocre, the site will still look crap, however well it runs technically. What I would like is for someone to say - I'll design a band logo and a theme for the site, take some good pictures of the band and build it all into a working site for, say £250. However, I am realistic enough to think it is unlikely that anyone could do that and make a living.

I wonder how many posters here are also to be found moaning no one comes to their gigs? From bitter experience, I've become a musical tart. I'll play anything people want to hear.

We looked at the professional route when we revamped our site. The web designers we approached appeared to have reasonable IT skills, but not much in the way of design background. The sites we were shown as references were either badly designed, or totally unsuitable for a band. In the end I downloaded a free copy of NetObjects Fusion Essentials and did it myself. The problem is I think that the website template, content management stuff is the easy bit. It's been commoditised already by software, Myspace, Joomla, Wordpress, etc. How do you make your site stand out? - not by basing it on a template. One local band has a friend who is a professional graphic artist for a comic publisher, and another who is a semi-pro photographer. They have standout graphics and photos and really none of the rest of it matters. If you could find a cheap easy way to do customised creative content, we'd bite your hand off. Somehow I doubt that's possible.

If it was that bad, I think I would give up. We rarely play with support bands or a sound guy, so that's a lot of the stress gone. Drive my own car to the venue and, since I bought a Markbass combo I can lift with one hand, most of what I do at setup is the lights (I bring) and the PA (singer brings). Gave up asking friends to come years ago - even if they do come, they hide at the back because their wives "don't like loud music". Daughter sometimes brings her friends, which is really good. We play a few pubs where the landlord makes a big effort to cultivate a clientele that enjoys live music. Those are the best gigs. The ones where the landlord sits on his backside talking to his half dozen regulars, who leave before the band starts, aren't worth bothering with.