Try swapping out everything else first (i.e. power cable, bass, instrument lead, speaker lead, cabinet) to eliminate them as the source of the problem.
Used to do the intro to Brown Eyed Girl (audience would groan) but then straight into Lip Up Fatty. Crowd pleaser - don't know why we stopped doing it.
I like the demos where the some simple bass is played through a looper and then the knobs are turned to show progressive changes in sound. What I don't like is 5 minutes of somebody thrashing away at their bass without showing what the pedal can do.
It would also be good to see what pedals can't do - e.g. how low an octaver can track before it craps out.
We have a Google calendar. Should work well but we're now in a situation where due to previous cock ups I have to ring the singer to confirm if each gig is still on. The answer is often 'Oh, no, that was cancelled weeks ago' to which I reply 'what the f*** is it still on the calendar for then?' Driving me nuts!
Used a TC Nova Dynamics for years which was excellent. Recently needed to free up some space on the board so now use a Keeley Bassist which I'm very happy with.
I'd liken the whole debate to the difference between petrol and diesel engines. Petrol engines may produce a lot of peak horsepower but produce way less torque than a diesel engine unable to get anywhere near the peak horsepower rating. People seem to be obsessed with horsepower, whereas torque is really a much more telling statistic. (I know much more about engines than I do about sound engineering )
Singer - The vocals are a bit too high for me.
Me - We can change the key.
Singer - No need, I'll just sing it a bit higher.
Me - What? Like, out of tune.
It's one of the only things I've ever done in life where people clap and cheer and whistle and ask for more. I hope to carry on doing it for a while longer.
Not sure about effects but I'm really not keen on the sound of Marshall guitar amps. Seems pretty much impossible to get any sort of clean sound out of them and the distorted sound has a bludgeoning quality that I find tiresome.
We kick off with Primal Scream - Rocks. It's handy because the guitar and bass drop out for a few bars in the middle and it allows minor amp tweaking if necessary.
The unfortunate thing is that the people who think Coldplay are at the cutting edge are way more developed than the ones who think that relevant music comes with Simon Cowell's grubby prints all over it.