musophilr

+1 for Mike257's brother's SA2000. I have an SA2200 and it is a most excellent instrument. I find the fingerboard a little wider than my 335, and a little thinner from front to back. I also find the tone a fair bit brighter than the 335, which sometimes isn't a bad thing. Anyway it's a lovely tone and you get to love it for what it is without thinking "it's not quite like my 335".

I turned 21 in 1978. Student grants were around £300 per term, and once you'd paid your hall/flat rent you could typically budget £10 a week for food and so long as you didn't smoke the rest or piss it up the wall you could also get an EllPee once a week for about £1.75. By that time I also had 3 motorbikes (BSA Bantam, BSA Barracuda, and Triumph T100) - at least one of them was in bits at any time. That summer I passed my test on the Bantam. You had to ride round the block while the bloke watched you from the pavement, do an emergency stop, and answer 2 questions on the Highway Code. Life was so much easier then...no internet, the first 8 bit micros were a year off, no CCTV or other surveillance, music was by and large played by real people on real instruments, and since the advent of punk a year or two earlier there was no real requirement to have any musical competence either.

SG2000, Les Paul, ES-335, Vox Virage, or the Heritage equivalents of the Gibson models

I hate this kind of "music" anyway, it does nothing for me whether or not those zeebs are doing it "right" according to this thread.

And there was me thinking this would be a thread about Tax or VAT inspectors!

Playing on a trailer with just the side down won't protect from rain ... saw it once before, there was lightning which caused the guitarists Marshall half-stack to switch channels, then one of the crew found a mains extender reel (the kind with 4 plugs in the middle) full of water at which point the head honcho instructed us to switch everything off using something dry and non-conductive to press the rocker switches. There were no "incidents" and nobody was hurt, but I've never seen a stage swimming in water before.

Spirit - 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus, my favourite summer EllPee

Not much to add here - but if you keep proper records you will have the data that explains to the taxman why you shouldn't have to pay any tax on what you've earned.

BTW I've earned not much out of music in the last financial year, but not had much in the way of day jobs either and didn't start signing on until February. So they're going to ask "what have you been living on?". I can account for some of it in savings and some of it being bailed out by the Bank of Mum. So keeping records of your personal spending is also advisable in case they decide you've been peddling drugs or got some other income you haven't been declaring.

The correct number of instruments to own is [i]n[/i]+1 where [i]n[/i] is the number of instruments currently owned. This may also apply to amplifiers and bits of recording equipment.

[quote name='gt4ever' timestamp='1337109248' post='1655712']
think you got off lightly there, never heard of an auditionee paying, and first ones always free in my books.
[/quote]

I'd have thought so. Band members pay for the room, auditionees are not band members.

The entire band benefits from having it. Not just those whose instruments go though it, the PA facilitates the gig, and hence the earning. Ergo everyone chips in. A proper partnership agreement (see the MU) is necessary to record what agreements were made about who gets what if the band splits or what happens if a member leaves. That'll save acrimony later. I recommend that if a member leaves the rest of the band buys him out (there ought to be enough in the kitty to do that anyway). A newly joining member should be given the option to buy in, but even if he doesn't, he'll have the chance to contribute if the band replaces the PA while he's a member. Depreciation of the value of the value of the band's assets should also be taken into account. If someone contributes 20% of a £10k rig it doesn't necessarily mean that he can walk away with £2k when he leaves in 5 years time, he leaves with 20% of whatever the rig is worth in 5 years time.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1337417362' post='1659512']
Funninly (sic) enough these days at a half decent level I find most bass players can play to a reasonable standard on guitar but the guitards struggle to play a bass line as such?
[/quote]

I knew one bass player who was competent on guitar. I'm a guitarist who's also had a gig on bass, and plays bass on his own recordings. There's no need to call me a "guitard".

If you want to play electric, learn on one, if you want to play acoustic learn on that instead. I'm not totally familiar with Opeth but I guess they're an electric band. IMO electrics are less physical effort to play. I recommend a good chord vocabulary and learning about chord progressions irrespective of whether you do it on acoustic or electric. Then when you learn the scales & arpeggios used for soloing you'll have some idea of how your solo works with the harmony, and you'll hear riffs in context. Have fun

[quote name='Ancient Mariner' timestamp='1337333201' post='1658189']
A little - mine was an Avon EB0 type with flatwounds, lightweight and comfy to play, though with the wooliest, flubbiest tone possible (mud-bucker is a quite fair description of the PU sound). Sold it to help pay for another guitar and was quite happy at the time. Now I'd quite like to own it again, just to see if it could sound good with different gear.
[/quote]

I knew someone who had one of those. I gigged with it once. Your description of its tone is spot-on accurate.

A good tutor will make the theory practical as well, so you play and hear what you're learning about.

String theory: Is the universe made of roundwounds or flatwounds?

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1337341296' post='1658423']
More than expected! There's a thread somewhere, but I can't find it.

You're right, they're rare, we have 4 sets of musicians on our rota, I'm the only bass player.
[/quote]

Any in Suffolk? Worrabout drummers?

How many church-going bass players do we have on this forum? In my experience they're a rare breed.

Lee Sklar
Bert Ruiter
Doug Ferguson
Jimmy Johnson
James Jamerson
... amongst many others

EDIT: see, it's changed !

No, I've still got it although I don't use it much as its replacement is a much better instrument, I wouldn't get much for it, the storage space reclaimed is insignificant compare to the size of my storage space problem, and it has some kind of sentimental value as well. Having said that, a decent offer would not be refused

Tinnitus

Seems like you should be politely "unable to play the gig".

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1337164256' post='1656357']
[b]Do you suffer from Tinitus? [/b]Yes. Loud guitarists did it for me.

[b]If so does this affect your playing? [/b]No. Well, technically, yes. I have to wear ear plugs.

[b]Are there any ways of easing the problem? [/b]No. Only Earplugs. I have moulded ER15's.

[b]The 'Whistling' in my ears is driving me potty! [/b]<shrug> Yep. The only option is to deal with it
[/quote]

Almost this ^. It was repeated monitoring music on headphones for long periods of time daily that did it to me.

It can stop me hearing what the bloke next to me is saying in the pub and it spoils my listening to music, but if I stopped to think about it, I would go crazy. Just don't think about it.

[url="https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/musicality/"]https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/musicality/[/url]

There are some church-goers who will tell you it's too loud and ask you to turn it down before you've even plugged in. It has happened, trust me. The challenge is not being rude in reply. Like I said before, the DFA button usually works a treat

Shame we can afford to have professional page-turners to do it for us!