uk_lefty

I've run 2 separate 1*15s very recently. Firstly using an Ashdown Rootmaster 1*15 as an extension cab to a Mag 300 combo, then two Rootmaster 15s powered by a Rootmaster 500 head. Never needed the amp above "1" or "2" with full band and got a HUGE deep and rich sound. Always had the tweeter off. Regretted selling one of the cabs a while back and bought the first Rootmaster cab I saw at the right price, which unfortunately is a 2x10 instead of a 15. These are modern, lightweight compact cabs and the sound of two of them together was superb. I play fingertyle 90% of the time. The cabs weren't all deep rumbles either, got some good articulate sounds from them, including with fretless. You don't see many 2x15 set ups these days but I'd happily be doing it right now.

Everything is better with gravy.

Silly boy's not wearing shoes. Not happening in my band!

You beat me to it.

Wrong Jovi has been taken but if you gave out sweets to keep people quiet during slow songs you could call yourselves Bon Bon Jovi... Or if your singer has a stutter

I was in a band that never got going on full, sadly. Good singer, very good leader player, we worked well so we auditioned a drummer. A guy turned up and he could talk and talk and talk... Nice enough bloke in that his heart was in the right place, but just not very self aware. He had a billion suggestions for everything, even down to the way the lead player played. Alarm bells should have rung when he talked about how many bands he'd fallen out with, but his reasoning being that if you don't like suggestions you talk about it and agree or compromise, which sounded sensible. His playing was ok but not spectacular. A few errors but ok. He had spent an age faffing about asking for specific weird drum bits from the rehearsal rooms and making a fuss now I think of it. Anyhow, we've all worked out that he's ok, talks too much but we could get used to him... No. Last few songs and he's giving us all orders. Including that at our first gig the drum kit shall be at the front and singer and guitars at the back. We make our excuses and we are trying to get out the door. Oh and he's decided he should lead sing on a few tracks. Then as we are desperate to run away he slams the door shut, lights go off and he gets out his glow in the dark drum sticks. It seems the gig with him at the front of the stage, singing, with us as his backing band, shall also be played in full darkness apart from his sticks. We put it down to excitement and think we will bare with. Then he emails us a thirty song set list that includes Robbie Williams, the Osmond's and other caravan park karaoke classics. We were playing talking heads, etc at the time. Robbie Williams was the final straw for him. Drummers, eh?

I keep trying to start an INXS tribute band named Stranglew4nk, some right weirdos come to audition

I had a band called Not the Hoople once. We did two gigs. We were not a Mott the Hoople tribute, it was a silly joke name because one of the local bars had tribute acts with really lazy names that may as well have been "not Queen" and so on. We were an acoustic duo. We did have a Mott the Hoople fan arrive who thanked us at half time before leaving saying "it's good but not what I was expecting". To be fair, it wasn't even good.

That was the name of a Chilli's tribute for a while, remember seeing the poster. Of course if you're not a Chilli's tribute that's fine, you could be a group of monastic scholars who smell badly, in which case nobody can argue with the choice of band name....

I did a few months of gigs playing the Sam and Dave version of Soul Man while the guitarists played the Blues Brothers version.... I always just assumed the rhythm guitar was lost, it did happen a lot. Took us months to eventually talk about it and get it "right"

My first band was called Guantanamo. I liked the idea of alluding to a political point without actually making one. I also wanted to get an orange jump suit to gig in... And the singer sounded like he was being waterboarded. Anyhow, we got our first gig at an all day local music evebt and, good local exposure, purely off our band name. The phone call went "sorry mate we're full up and there's a long reserve list.... You're called what??? Can you do the 7pm slot?"

I know there are various pickguard threads but what I need is quite specific... I need a replacement fender jazz pickguard. For a lefty MIM. No big deal? Well yes, it's an early 90's MIM so a generic replacement doesn't quite fit. The bass is currently wearing a generic replacement but I had to file out the pickup hole to fit the pickups better so the current pickguard is a bodge job. I need to find someone who I can ideally post this pickguard to so they can see the dimensions, location of screw holes and the size of the pickup hole required and make me a replacement. Can you recommend anyone, ideally UK based so I can post it off to them with confidence they will understand what I want and be able to work quickly? Thanks

I know there are various pickguard threads but what I need is quite specific... I need a replacement fender jazz pickguard. For a lefty MIM. No big deal? Well yes, it's an early 90's MIM so a generic replacement doesn't quite fit. The bass is currently wearing a generic replacement but I had to file out the pickup hole to fit the pickups better so the current pickguard is a bodge job. I need to find someone who I can ideally post this pickguard to so they can see the dimensions, location of screw holes and the size of the pickup hole required and make me a replacement. Can you recommend anyone, ideally UK based so I can post it off to them with confidence they will understand what I want and be able to work quickly? Thanks

A phrase I will be using at work A LOT from now on!! Thank you!

Shareholders?

Our drummer often complains that songs are boring for him, me too really, but our band rule to test songs is, bearing in mind our core audience is couples in their forties: 1) will people dance to it? 2) will people sing along to it? A song has to pass both before it goes on the list. Even if it's the most simple plodding rhythm section exercise if the audience sing and dance we do it.

If you have a good number of Facebook or Twitter followers ask them to vote on a handful of options? We did that quite successfully for a track we would play on Facebook live, so not quite to add to the setlist but it "engages" the fans and makes it clear to the band what people, the people who watch your band that is, want.

Sad but true. Saw two grown men, must have been mid forties, absolutely hammered to the point of being a complete embarrassment shouting at each other and getting aggressive with people at a Red Hot Chilli Peppers gig... Before the Red Hot Chilli's came on. It wasn't a cheap ticket and booze was extortionate. No way would they have remembered the day and they could have spent a month's wages, lost a few teeth and get arrested all at once. Moved away from those idiots very quickly.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F163022639301 It's back again...

Don't want to derail the thread, but whose shared Calender do you use? Looking for recommendations Time tree - I'm on Android and I'm pretty sure at least one of the others has iPhone and it works for us. At home the wife and I use Famcal on Android for family stuff too. Both equally good.

I often find that I need to be quite far away from amps, particularly using Ampeg fridges in rehearsal rooms, otherwise I can't hear them at all if I'm too close. For my gigging set up I need two cabs partly to get one of the cabs at the right height for me to hear it too!

Aged 11 and bored one summer holiday my Mum's Johnny Cash LPs taught me that songwriting can be funny, sad, happy, hopeful, miserable, poetic and rebellious all at once. Songs like San Quentin and Boy Named Sue set me off looking for other great songwriters. I guess I'm inspired more by a good song than great musicianship or great bass playing, though I do appreciate them both. Weirdly, I couldn't play a country baseline to save my life and back when I used to write songs they were not at all country-tinged. But there's just something about the story telling and the wordplay that makes me want to go and write or play a gripping song.

There's a shared calendar for possible gig bookings and noting when people will be away. Guitarist books holiday, minutes later a gig is added that clashes and he concedes and cancels his holiday. Confirmed gig gets added, one member pipes up that it clashes with something "that will be much better" that he's organising with his mate but has neglected to tell the band. Calendar rules we say, "let's keep our options open" he replies.... No. A confirmed gig booked in to a free date cannot be "put on hold" because you might be negotiating something else with your mate that none of us knew about. Slamming head against brick wall.

First time the drummer came in at the right moment?

Perfect, thank you! The reason for looking in to it is that I'm toying with having a bass made and can't decide between fretted or fretless, this could be the solution if it's effective and not just a crappy gimmick.