JamieMillsBass

Had a look yesterday, it's a massive improvement on the old site!

My Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 has been giving me problems lately, I've had it 'fixed' about 3 times. I know class D amps are a bit of a pain in the arse to fix, but I figured I'd give it one last go before declaring it scrap. Does anyone know of any class D repair experts in UK or Ireland?

As someone who's gone from no IEMs to IEMs. I can 100% vouch for IEM's. I would never go back. If I ever join another band that doesn't use them I'd definitely work my own setup in and wouldn't care if I'm the only one using them. They are so much better in so many ways than floor monitors. I still have my amp on stage for stage volume, but hear everything via in ears.

[quote name='Andyjr1515' timestamp='1412764751' post='2571705'] Very difficult to get the right finish AND colour using an all in one varnish. Also, a lacquer/varnish over the black (probably less so with satin, but certainly with gloss), that is built up to an acceptable thickness, adds considerable depth to the colour (even on black!). [/quote] Thanks for that, great job on the bass by the way. If mine ends up even a quarter as well finished as that, I'll be a happy bunny!

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1412697782' post='2571115'] 1. Probably 2. Probably 3. You can buy Satin poly or Nitro - poly is easier to work with. [b]put the black on first[/b], then layer up coats of satin over the top. Don't fall in to the trap of thinking it's easier with satin as its not as shiny either, it will show up every imperfection in the finish. go with light coats and lots of them. lightly rub between to keep it smooth. 4. decal - as you can always remove it later good luck! [/quote] Put the black on first? I was under the impression that if I bought stain black Poly, that was all I needed to put on, can you clarify the above a little? It looks like I have some more reading to do, not sure I even understand the basic fundamentals yet!

OK, here's the deal. I bought an Epiphone Zakk Wylde sig on the cheap a while back. It has had the 'swirly' finish removed and I've since had the bright idea of trying to finish it myself. I had no idea there were so many different options for finishing a guitar! My plan is a satin all black guitar with all black hardware, and I want to put the Black Sabbath 'Angel' logo in the area just behind the bridge in white or grey. So, some questions; 1. Do I need grain filler? From what I can see, I do with mahogany 2. Do I need primer, again, from what I can read, I think I will 3. How do I get a satin finish. From what I can gather, polyurathane is my best bet, but to get a satin finish I need to sand down the 'glossyness'. Is there an easier way for a beginner to do this (e.g buying specific satin polyurathane?) 4. For the angel logo, which would be best, stencil or decal? I think that is all I will bombard you with for now. Your help is very much appreciated!

Genius marketing ploy from Bono and the boys. Fans who already like them will be talking about how great it is that they got the new album for free. People that hate them will all be talking about how bad it is that they had the new album forced upon them, which will generate publicity for the band. People who aren't really fans will probably give it a listen before deciding to delete it so they might gain a few new fans anyway.

What was your band called dude? I took pretty much a 3 year break whilst at uni. I found my chops came back pretty quickly to be honest, but not sure if I had of taken a longer break would things be different.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1408982597' post='2535205'] Today and tomorrow, they're either laughing about it or ashamed. In both cases you need to get your money back. I'd say the police is the first stop. Also realise what all these guests are telling all their friends about how they got back their money... Very bad case, and one I feel you need to take very seriously. Forgiving a drunkard is one thing, but letting it slide is something completely different. [/quote] I'm not involved in the business side of the running of the band, I was just filling in on this particular night (so I got paid anyway even though the business owner was out of pocket). He's looking into his options to take the matter further though. [quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1408984400' post='2535231'] That would be my guess too. Glad to hear that everyone was safe and sound but what a depressing tale. I wonder how they would have reacted if the band had refused to hand back the money and called the police instead, for the reasons Chaypup mentioned above? Easy to say in hindsight though - must have been a dreadful experience at the time and I'd have probably gone for self-preservation as well. [/quote] Yeh, in hindsight, that is exactly what we should have done. Called the police and asked them to wait outside in case of any trouble, but at the time (believe it or not) we were conscious that it was also someone's wedding day, there 'big day' and all that, so bailing in with the Police pretty much would have destroyed the whole thing. This was before the money was handed back though. But yeh, I wish we had just said 'f*ck it' and rang them then and there as soon as it kicked off.

[quote name='phil.c60' timestamp='1408964050' post='2534911'] I wasn't there so I don't know, but a good guess is that drunk fighty man had wound her up with "If we don't get our f###in money back me and the boy's 'll job them" or whatever your choice of vernacular is, so she was between a rock and a hard place. And probably drunk too. Everyone loves a wedding! [/quote] Yeh, in fairness I did get the impression that she was a little reluctant to ask for the money back. She didn't seem drunk at all, but then I don't know her so she may have been. Every bloke in the place was absolutely hammered though, in fact I bet if you asked shouty bloke to name two songs we played in the morning, the probably couldn't have.

[quote name='krysh' timestamp='1408962607' post='2534890'] what a terrible story. thanks that I don't have to play weddings, too. [/quote] Over the past few years I've filled in for them at quite a few. Never had any problems until this one. Still can't get my head round how she blamed the band. The most cynical part of me thinks that it may well have been a set up. But I don't know.

Absolute disaster of a gig filling in for a wedding pop covers band on Sunday night. Long post, but this is a bit of a rant. Gig was in Omagh in Northern Ireland. I live about 2 hours drive away. We arrived on time, the wedding was running a bit behind so we waited until the bride let us know to start setting up, got sorted, started playing. From the first song in, I had at least one, often two people telling me to 'play some country, that'll get the bai's up hey!'. 'We don't really play much country, mate, but I'll see what I can do.' So after about 3 or 4 songs of this, we play 9-5, it's probably the most country thing we have on the set list, and right enough a few people get up onto the dance floor. We continue to play, and the small number of people up dancing stay up. But still, every song 'play some country, play some Nathan Carter etc etc'. Played for about an hour. Took our break whilst the buffet was served. No-one from the wedding party came near us during the break, not comments nothing. Went back on to play the second half. Again, no-one up dancing. Still with every song, 'country, country, country' but we are now joined with a number of drunken people just shouting 'Rock and Roll' at us. We've already played a few Elvis tunes, Free All Right Now, Come on Everybody and no one has bothered to get up and dance, so I'm not sure what their definition of Rock and Roll is. So then, the bride joins me on the stage. 'Play some 70s and 80s rock. They're saying they'll only dance to 70s and 80s rock' I respond 'what sort of 70s rock' to which she answers 'I don't know. I don't know any 70s rock'. Again, there's a couple of 70s rock tunes in our set which no one has bothered to dance to at this point. So, we play Tina Turner's version of Proud Mary and the biggest crowd of the night fills the floor. From then on through to the dancefloor is pretty full. So we get to the last song (Oasis - back in anger). Everyone is swaying, singing along. Then out of the blue, some guy from the wedding party (not sure if he was groom, usher, best man whatever) tries to storm the stage and grab hold of our guitarist/lead singer who deals with the business stuff. I manage to get in his way with my bass and he backs off to stage side, but continues to shout 'Get you over here f*cking b*stard, I wan't my money back, stop playing, f*cking get over here now etc etc'. We keep playing, but once the song finishes, we play some music through the PA and our lead singer goes to discuss the situation stage side. He asks why the guy wasn't happy 'You's didn't play any f*cking country, no one got up to dance, you're a b*stard, give me my money back (they paid us at the start of the night)' Another member of the wedding party pulls him away, but there is a horrible atmosphere and there are a bunch of guys in the corner including him whispering and looking at us. If we could have just left then, we would have. But the lead singer was booked to do a DJ set also. I could have left, but he asked if I would stick about in case anything goes down. So I set about trying to find some support. Headed into the hotel bar to try and find some bouncers, there are none. Asked for the hotel manager, he's gone home. Spoke to the bar staff, they wanted nothing to do with it. So basically it was the three of us, and we were starting to feel increasingly intimidated. The next part really took me to the fair. I was outside helping pack the gear up and the bride comes up to me and our other guitarist. The conversation went something like this; Bride: 'can you give us our money back' Me: 'can I ask why you want it back' Bride: 'Because no one was dancing' Me: 'Can I ask why you think that is our fault?' Bride: 'you didn't play any country' Me: 'We aren't a country band, if you'd booked a country band then everyone would have been dancing' Bride: 'But you're a 70s and 80s rock band, but when I asked you to play 70s & 80s rock you didn't' Me: 'We're a wedding pop band and when you asked me to play 70s & 80s rock you couldn't tell me what you wanted' Me: 'Musically, what do you think was wrong with it' Bride: 'I wasn't listening to you, I was mingling and chatting with my guests' Me: 'So you are out here asking for your money back, but can't actually tell us there was anything wrong with it' Me: 'Can I ask, how or why you booked us?' Bride: 'My friend in work had you at her wedding and she said you were amazing so I thought f*ck it and booked you' Me: 'Did you look at the list of songs on our website, or did you come and see us yourself before you booked us?' Bride: 'No' Me: 'We'll there lies the problem' Bride: 'Can you give us our money back. No one was dancing' Other guitarist: 'We'll give you your money back, I'll get it now' (by this point he was a little feared for our safety as we were still getting looks) Bride takes the money from his hand then says: 'Can you ask the DJ to play on until 01:15AM?' At this point, I had thrown the head up. I was only filling in, I knew I was getting paid anyway so I told her to go and speak to him. I couldn't believe the cheek of her question though! So, we were in a pretty tricky situation. Three of us, quite a few guys ready and looking for a fight. No money. A tonne of expensive gear preventing us from a quick getaway. No bouncers, hotel management, anyone on our side. We knew that if we uplugged the music, all hell would break loose, and we had no hope of packing down the gear in time to get away before it did. So we packed absolutely everything we could bar the DJ stuff into the van, set up a playlist that played automatically and left. With a mixing desk, a laptop and two speakers still in there. Fortunately on the way home, one of our cars got stopped by the police and they escorted them back and got hold of the gear. But honestly, I've never experienced anything like that in my life and the band owner is down money because of it! The quicker I get back to originals gigs the better......................lol

Been going through this process recently. Nightmare. Myself and a friend who is a rhythm guitarist had been jamming and decided to get something going. Went through multiple crap guitarists who claimed to be brilliant, but found a keen drummer pretty quickly. Met the drummer for a jam. All went well, then he introduced us to a new lead guitarist. Had a jam again, all good. But as soon as we left the jam room it all fell to pieces, both the drummer (although we've since discovered he's in about 50 bands) and the guitarist were the worst communicators ever. Set up a facebook group to talk band stuff and when we asked about availability for rehearsals this Thursday, FB would tell us everyone had read the message but we never ever got a any response without harassing them to almost death. So we got rid. Now jamming with a guy who I've known for years and his brother. I know they are reliable, and his brother is a beast on the guitar so it's worked out well (so far). My advice would be always go to people you trust won't let you down. Even if they aren't as good musicians as other possibilities. Generally a dedicated, trustworthy person will be willing to put in the time to improve on their instrument anyway, whereas a very talented waster will do nothing but waste your time.