Jean-Luc Pickguard

Brandoni probably might a neck to fit [url="http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/necks.asp"]http://www.brandoniguitars.co.uk/necks.asp[/url] give 'em a shout

O5B once did a gig where we did the first set as a three piece. The singer did the usual 'introduce the members of the band' bit & introduced me & the drummer, then ten indicating the empty space normally occupied by the second guitarist said "The other member of the band would have been the Late Nick Guitarist" then a pause followed by "He's not dead, just running a bit late late"

Willie Weeks played bass on 'its only Rock n Roll' - kind of obvious it isn't Bill as that song has a proper bassline rather than a typical Wyman rumbly mumble.

Not sure where I heard this, but I recall hearing a tip to use a soldering iron to heatup each fret & it should come out cleaner - or is this BS anyone?

Most double bass pickups are based on piezos as well as the pickup in my ashborys. Also of course acoustic bass guitars and things like godin & rob allen basses which look acoustic, but are more like solid bodies. I made a cheap & cheerful banjo pickup for Pete, o5b's guitarist using a lid from a colman's mustard jar, a cheapo piezo disk element from Maplins, double sided car-trim tape, a chunk of mousemat, a few inches of mic cable and an inline 1/4" jack. It also Sounded Pretty good mounted on my precision when I tried it out at home. Here a live recording of it on it's first tryout - click the MP3 thingy: [url="http://www.o5b.co.uk/petes-banjo/"]http://www.o5b.co.uk/petes-banjo/[/url] I was pretty chuffed that it sounded OK and didn't feedback - I don't think we even used a preamp - it went straight into the guitar amp if I recall correctly.

Its been so long since I've bought anything bass-related, that I have no idea what it would have been.

I came out after playing a multi-band charity gig at the Grove in South Wimbledon on a Sunday evening to find my car had been broken into. A bass rig for all bands to use was setup onstage before I got there and no storage area in the venue meant I had to reluctantly leave my Ashdown rig in the car. I originally though I'd lost my rig but it was still in the car. There are still scratch marks around the CD player though where the daft b'stards tried to nick it - why anyone would want that old piece of junk is beyond me but they didn't get it as its bolted in from the back. Blummin' nuisance to get the glass cleaned up & replaced.

I prefer guitar amps raised as the bass frequencies often can mush into the bass region otherwise - especially with humbucker guitars. Anywhere you play is likely to have beercrates and failing that a spare chair/stool which do a perfectly good job though. One more thing to carry - no thanks. Saying that, an idea I had once (which I didn't do anything about as I though it was a daft idea on reflection) was for a gear box to hold cables, mics, pedals / bits & bobs about the same size as a speaker cab and styled to look like one in tolex with a fabric panel to suggest a speaker/baffle. Even though this is a daft idea, some guitarists would probably love this as it could. [list=1] [*]raise their amp up [*]Give a home to loads of bits & bobs they probably carry around in asda 'bags for life' [*]look like they have a bigger rig (& therefore a bigger c**k) [/list]

My '81 Precision has a few bits of birdseye in the neck, but nowhere near as much as that. Does it disprove the myth (at least I think its a myth) that birdseye necks are less stable? Before this, the nicest 'bonus' figuring on a standard model guitar/bass I've seen is on the neck of my mid-80s casio midi guitar which is much like a MIJ fender strat but has an extraordinary amount & depth of flame in the neck.

Mr Fagina

Precision in the traditional place with a passive tone/volume.

[quote name='bluesparky' post='965958' date='Sep 23 2010, 06:51 PM']...literally a bed sheet with the band's name written on it with a sharpie minutes before the went on stage.[/quote] Yep - been there done that when I was much younger! My mum wasn't happy - I didn't think she'd miss a sheet. Last one I did I used a dustsheet from B&Q & carpaint, but the ebay link above looks worth a look 6" x 2" for under £30 - bargain.

[quote name='bumnote' post='965256' date='Sep 23 2010, 08:37 AM']is it the dressing up that bothers you.[/quote] Surely that's the best bit?

[quote name='Johnston' post='964882' date='Sep 22 2010, 08:21 PM']Don't have them problems with tab. 4th fret on the A is always 4th fret on the A. [/quote] Which string's the A again ?

He only THINKS he plays through all that gear. The soundman really takes a DI straight from the bass into the desk where its processed via a £100 multiFX pedal. Of course the tech couldn't say that on the video or Chris W would find out.

If there is a difference between being in a tribute band or backing a tribute singer, no one cares. Playing originals in a pub to the staff, four punters and a dog but with your credibility intact is much better.

[quote name='Beedster' post='963881' date='Sep 21 2010, 10:25 PM']Badass bridges, good on Jazzes, crap on Precisions. Simples [/quote] That has been my experience - The precision with a BBOT has a punch to the attack which seems to get lost with a high mass bridge. I prefer the jazz with a badass II don't know why though maybe there less low end punch in the attack to start with. That could be bullhsit though

I before you ditch the EMG hook it up to 18v by using 2 batteries. I was going to get rid of mine as I though it was a bit characterless, but it sounds huge with this simple upgrade. The batteries last ages as well so its not as if you're always going to be changing them. The easiest way to get 2 9v batteries to supply 18v (as long as they actually fit in the space available) is to buy three 9v battery clips from maplin & solder them together like this: from: [url="http://home.comcast.net/~mgollihur/emgmod.html"]http://home.comcast.net/~mgollihur/emgmod.html[/url]

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='962037' date='Sep 20 2010, 11:59 AM']Whats the colour scheme? Not checkered is it?[/quote] Knowing Wayne it'll be Sunburst

A few interesting points raised - thanks for everything so far chaps. Yes the target market should be broader than pub bands and every type should be catered for. I'm sure function bands will have different reasons for wanting a site than a pub band and different requirements, so those will need to be identified and addressed. Do bands who use a MySpace or Lemonrock account consider it their website? My perception is that a Wedding band certainly wouldn't, and neither will a lot of other bands. Maybe I'm wrong though, just as some people with bicycles don't need a car. I think what I would be offering will be sufficiently different to the social media services in that the main branding will be the band's own. If a band wants to use the site to build a following and get gigs, the best website in the world won't do it for them, but if they use it as an integral part of their marketing efforts - ie web address on all posters & flyers, cards CDs, letters, forum posts etc it should help multiply those efforts. Double opt-in email Newsletters and maybe an onsite fan forum (if they can develop a fanbase) may be useful as well on the site to make the fans feel like a community.

[quote name='spinynorman' post='959759' date='Sep 17 2010, 06:21 PM']The difficult thing about creating a great looking website isn't website layout and content management, it's graphic design, photography, video.[/quote] Making a website look great is only part of it. Usability, accessibility and visibility to search engines is important. Certain SEO principles are a no-brainer but it's amazing how many people don't bother with alt tags, unique page titles, meta descriptions, correct hierarchy of headings etc - usually the same people who build something fugly using tables for layout with spacer gifs, [quote]...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.[/quote] Descent designers will ask you if you have these things already and supply them if not. They would need to be budget for them though. Its not within a web designer's remit to be a photographer - that's a totally different skillset, so a photographer would be brought in and would need to be paid. [quote]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.[/quote] At that price, a supplied logo as part of the package would need to be very simple, the budget wouldn't allow for much more than the band name attractively rendered in an appropriate typeface possibly with a few tweaks or embellishments, but if a band aren't already using a logo, what are they putting on their posters & flyers? If a logo is designed as part of the web package would the band expect a pdf version as well to put on their printed stuff? A web designer wouldn't normally take the photos. They could supply a photographer, but at a cost. For business sites, licensed stock photos are used a lot and they can be as cheap as £15 or so for a dozen decent pics at the ideal resolution, but obviously that isn't appropriate for a band site. If all you have are live snapshots taken by mates with point & shoots, any designer who knows how to use photoshop properly should be able to improve your photos with cropping, colour & contrast correction etc - or even something funky like turning them into cartoons, paintings or polaroids. [quote]However, I am realistic enough to think it is unlikely that anyone could do that and make a living.[/quote] Awwwww! If you hadn't have said that I would have asked whether you wanted the moon on a stick With my system built, it could probably be done within the budget you mention (but with simple logo, & customer supplied pics.) Once the customer sends text content/pics/mp3s/links to youtube vids and answers a few questions - the aims of the website, how they want the site to look, any specific colours & style - dark/light/clean/grunge/cool/professional/60s/70s/80s/classic/modern/retro/colourful/monochome/metallic/textured/flat etc Then the steps I would take to create the site would be: [list] [*]set up the site nuts & bolts (mostly automated) [*]select child theme for colour scheme & layout [*]create & upload custom site background [*]create & upload custom logo background [*]edit pics & upload for display on pages, image slideshow & gallery [*]upload audio [*]copy/paste page content, add pics & media to pages [*]SEO stuff [*]test & launch [*]send customer user logon details & pdf manual to update content, add gigs etc [/list] Using the system I am building to streamline the design & build process, I would hope it would be possible for a professional, unique & blummin' nice site build to be achieved within half a day from receiving the customer questionnaire, text content & photos. If so it could possibly come close to or within the price point you mention for a full setup & build service. I think I might prefer this approach rather than having people do their own set-up. Hosting, domain registration & support would need to be factored in - maybe the first year could be included in the base price & subsequent years half that?

Talcum powder & silicone rubber

[quote name='mep' post='958861' date='Sep 16 2010, 09:49 PM']Lemonrock £10 a year (I think), job done. But you didn't want to hear that did you?[/quote] If that is all people want then fine, that's why I started this thread as a bit of informal market research to gauge whether there is a market. If most people in bands don't know or care about the differences between a profile on a social network and a website, then perhaps there isn't much of a market for this. Better I find out now. Thanks for all the replies so far chaps.