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Silvia Bluejay

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Posts posted by Silvia Bluejay

    Pub gig payment methods.. online, boooo!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Incidentally, I remember having a conversation with someone in a thread on here about GigRealm a few years ago. That person was recommending it really hard - presumably they had a stake of some sort in the system - while I was saying that it looked like a scam. Well, a couple of years ago I decided to test it - it is a scam. Avoid it like the plague. Not only are the gig offers on it really low pay, but most of them are probably fake - nothing ever seems to happen even in what look like the best circumstances. And your data gets sold to third parties even if you tick the infamous box stating that you don't want that. I had an angry exchange of emails with GigRealm when I started receiving all sorts of dodgy promotions to the email address I had created just for that site. Uber and Lyft especially would not leave me alone and invited me to use them at a discount in the US (!!). I had to demand GigRealm wipe all of my data off their database.

     

    So there's a lot of sh!t out there; however, I can see the reason why many chains have decided to use a payment system of some sort, and I accept that.

    Pub gig payment methods.. online, boooo!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, lurksalot said:

    Greene King have been doing that for years , they had a really odd way of doing it IIRC.

    i had to set up an account with a payment portal , invoice them and wait , i think the 2.5% was taken by the portal.

    im sure most of these cashless methods are to keep the staff from getting near any business cash.

    That system was called Invapay. Very unpopular with all bands, as we had to add the website's cut to our requested payment. Several years ago they moved to SAP Concur, which sort of works once you know how to deal with it. Except its terminology is absolutely arcane and I'm still wondering if that's because it's been transliterated from German or simply because it takes the p1ss. (It calls an invoice a receipt, etc. which I really hate.)

    • Like 2
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    Pub gig payment methods.. online, boooo!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Well, think of it as freelance work with a company. With that you invoice your client and they pay either within 30 days of receipt or at the end of the month. (Obviously that doesn't apply to your plumber or decorator fixing stuff in your home - you usually have to pay immediately - but I bet it does apply when those same tradesmen work for a company.)

     

    The alternative is to be paid cash for the gig but risk being stiffed for part of your fee with some stupid excuse (not enough people in the pub, etc.) or be asked to commit fraud by signing a receipt for a higher amount than agreed so the landlord can pocket the difference.

     

    So there are two reasons why this is happening - accountability and, as you mention, the slow death of cash. You almost need a mortgage to buy a round these days, you have to use plastic...

     

    As long as you keep track of the band's finances, the system should work. 👍

     

     

    • Like 2

    Soundchecks - are they professional?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

    My covers band has started every gig for the last 15 years with the same song. All three of us sing, so we take a verse each.

     

    Three minutes into the gig, our sound engineer @Silvia Bluejay has heard all three vocal mics, guitar, bass and drums (usually with everything going through the PA as well as backline) and our sound is sorted for the rest of the set.

     

    The audience (pub / club / festival / whatever) has no clue that they just heard our soundcheck.

    The same happens with the 1950s rock 'n' roll band, but we didn't go through a phase of actually playing an extra song 10 minutes before the start. (Audiences tended to think the gig had begun in earnest. )

     

    What is extremely important, and we can't do without in any band, is a line check. I'm fast enough in fixing any problems to the actual sound once the gig has started, but if I'm missing signal from a channel or a speaker that's another matter, and the performance has to be interrupted, which does look unprofessional.

     

    • Like 2

    Lefty Double bass

    in EUB and Double Bass

    Posted

    Minimum size fo an adult, even a tiny one like me, has to be 3/4. Otherwise get a different-shaped, and less deep, DB - Eminence, Kolstein Busetto - or an electric upright. I would steer well clear of anything smaller than 3/4 for an adult.

    • Like 2

    Lefty Double bass

    in EUB and Double Bass

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, Bonin-in-the boneyard said:

    I like the look of the 5 string double bass

    that thomann are offering in lefty 

    But would this be too much to learn on double bass as specially with the longer scale and different hand fingerings ?

    If I had the space for a proper DB that's native lefty and 5 string I'd jump to it! Yes, at some point you may have to source a replacement 5-string set, which are probably rare as hen's teeth, but everything else, in terms of effort needed to learn, will just be the same as learning a 4-string DB.But better! :D @Owen has a (righty) 5-string DB, he will have experience to share. 👍

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    Lefty Double bass

    in EUB and Double Bass

    Posted

    Lefty DBs are very rare indeed. If you can find a "native" one to buy, as you say perhaps at Thomann, I would go that route. 

    Converting a proper acoustic double bass - as opposed to an electric upright - from righty to lefty is very complicated. 

    Besides the obvious - installing a new, symmetrical nut and bridge - you have to literally open up the DB and move the bass bar from one side to the other; the bass bar has to be under the E string. You also have to make sure to reposition the sound post on the opposite side from where it is on a righty (that will depend on the size and length of the bass bar). You will probably also need a new fingerboard, and have it reshaped for a lefty player. Proper DB fingerboards are not symmetrical. The machine heads in the scroll of an originally righty bass may also be in the wrong positions for easy re-stringing as lefty.

    All the above would need a lot of work by a good luthier. While I know of lefty players who only did the nut and bridge replacement and got on with it on a right DB, I would prefer to buy a new, properly left-handed double bass rather than mess around.

    • Like 2
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    BC Struggling Tonight

    in Site Issues and Questions

    Posted · Edited by Silvia Bluejay

    5 minutes ago, ezbass said:

    I’m getting that message along with 404 bad gateway and nothing coming up in the unread filter, despite there definitely being unread stuff (various forums showing in bold). Hoping all will be well soon.

    I'm finding that I can't like or react to any posts. I just tried to like yours and I got this.

     

    image.png.a6fe3156c346f4724c3db017360f8713.png

     

    Ha! But then the like did appear! Fun and games. :)

    BC Struggling Tonight

    in Site Issues and Questions

    Posted · Edited by Silvia Bluejay

    So I imagine this glitch happening now on all our browsers, Windows and Android is related to the move?

     

    Quote

    [[Template core/front/global/userBar is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]

     

    It's at the very top of the page and stops us from logging out and sending messages, and stops mods from seeing the CP.

     

    image.thumb.png.24fabc27b0e7917522fac9d605e8a531.png

    Staying safe on stage

    in Gigs

    Posted

    Only place where the sound engineer does not get asked about the magic on her tablet (yes I know) - instead she gets propositioned by drunks.

     

    The fights could be spectacular (we were often trapped onstage while all hell was breaking loose in front of it), but the load in and out via a badly maintained steep little staircase with a narrow door were even worse.

     

    Keeping the punters at bay

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    When we don't have a stage or a barrier provided by the pub, we combine two uses and place some of these (this is just an example, we have slightly beefier models) at the front of the stage, with our leads inside. They have proved surprisingly effective.

     

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Protector-Channels-Fastening-Organizer-Flexible-Warehouse-Black/dp/B09NVHKP87/ 

     

    Whenever we play a new pub or place without a dedicated stage with our rock 'n' roll band, we tend to pack as little equipment as possible and bring the Kolstein Busetto as opposed to a full size double bass, so @Happy Jack doesn't have to place it on the floor - it has its own stand that can be positioned at the back of the stage.

    Botox and Fillers (would you) audition related

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Silvia Bluejay
    Typos, grammar!

    30 minutes ago, chrisba said:

    Yeah, I'd do it if I was really keen to get the gig and it was genuinely important to look a certain way to get it ( and keep it ) . I wouldn't do anything permanent, like a tattoo or a facelift, but fllers, make-up , hair cut and dye, yes.

    Don't want to open can of worms, but I assume the OP is male ? How differently would a female think ? My guess is they wouldn't think twice.

     

    Good post.

     

    I imagine a woman in @police squad's situation might feel slightly more pressured than a man into trying to improve her appearance. However, note my use of "feel" - it would, I think, be mostly in her mind. Most women of my generation (and PS's) have been raised - by society if not necessarily by their family - with the idea that you should always try to look your best in order to progress your career or generally be taken more seriously in anything you do. The entertainment business is the same, only more so! So we would already be making a huge effort in a case like this.

     

    If you want the gig badly enough, I don't think there's anything wrong at all in using "tweakments" (technical term, people! Look it up...). As someone suggests in a previous post, musicians have stage clothes and accessories, choose the right bass/guitar/drumkit for the look, etc. and improving your appearance (in the gym, at the stylist's, at the cosmetic clinic) falls under that same category. However, as that previous post adds, it's keeping up the appearance that may trap you in. Will you have to do botox and dye your hair from now on in order to stay in the band? What happens if you don't? Would it be like meeting someone on a dating app and discovering they put a 20-year-old photo of themselves on their profile? Will the band have fallen in love with you in the meantime and accept you as you are?

     

     

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