spacey

Keep away from the hartke vx10 cab, my firebass head ate on in less than a minute on stage , yet it has run a peavey 4x10 for years, nasty cheap Chinese drivers in those cabs.

[quote name='Prunesquallor' timestamp='1367399083' post='2065023'] Do you think anybody would be printing out Rickenbacker headstocks in the near future? Oops....! [/quote] Might see a few custom TRC designs hitting the market at £100 a pop for a second hand one, the temptation must be there.

The word rehearsals and professional band are like fish and bicycle . As soon as you hear regular weekly rehearsals you know you are going to end up dictating chords to a lazy guitarists, telling the drummer where to break and stop and what kind of beat to play. The singer wont have any equipment other than a old microphone, not even a lead. Those with a few years under the belt know that all learning is done at home to the record, no made up "improved" guitar solos and no made up drum fills. The band only needs to come together to break the mojo of gigging, the material is learnt at home to the record in two or three blocks. These are things that take 30 years to learn.

It is possible, but you have to get the cleaver and chop off those only wanting to play in front of a few mates blowing smoke up their backsides. As some already pointed out, to earn a living from music, the hobby goes out with the trash. 40 + hours slogging in a dead end job or 3-4 gigs a week doing what you love and making £600 a week. It soon divides the camp and lots do do it, you just try and get an audition in a pro band, the list is endless. But to mix the two,never works and never has, if you want to play at least twice a week, you need to put the line down and step over it.

Anybody who does not need the gig money will cause problems and so will anyone who smokes anything funny. To do it right, you need a van with a full PA and the setlist sorted, a theme band helps, heavy metal is out as pubs dont want to book it as the followers tend to "smoke" more than they drink. Scooter/ Mod/ Punk types drink like fishes and landlords know this, they always get first crack and the best money. General covers next and heavy rock is last. You need a theme, a brand to sell, provide the van that leaves from your pad, the fuel comes out at source and the split is an extra way, so a 4 peice gets split 5 ways with the van costs and PA and lighting upkeep taking the extra split in to a kitty. Everyone must take the same holidays, no more than two weeks in summer as this is the money making season. No work is turned down, nobody sets limits on how often they gig You soon set those who treat it as a job apart from the hobby crew and it is the only way to get any band to gig frequently. Once you have these in place you will be surprised the number of applicants that will want a job. There is a whole different crew to the hobby weekenders in the game and they know the crack.

Count desks by XLR inputs only, that is how many channels it has, anything else is an auxiliary

Then the Singer takes full pints of water on stage in glasses that end up all over the floor every gig ! Who else has this problem.

The No -win no fee thing has come to an end now and it is a conditional fee arrangement where you have to pay an upfront insurance premium before a Solicitor will take the case, the fee for insurance depends on the likely hood of them getting the legal costs back. Anything around £2500 up front is average for an accident claim and this has to be paid in full before the solicitor even puts a pen to paper If you have Liability insurance, the solicitor knows they have a much greater chance of success in getting something back. I doubt you could find anyone to take on a case against a bunch of skint musicians with no insurance when the venue has insurance. Who would you go after. Solicitors make it very clear they are not there to teach skint people lessons, they work in pounds shillings and pence terms only. If it was effective in covering you , you would not be getting it for £60 a year, insurance companies charge that for a letter. As I say in our case, the venue had the superseding policy as the judge put it and ended up paying out, much to the annoyance of the Hotel and their insurers. IMO having been dragged through it, a bit of a micky mouse policy and priced accordingly .

Up here folk demand you are only in one band, then decide they only want to gig once a month thinking you should sit at home the other 3/4 weekends.

The most common mistake of Noob bands is they do not rehearse the gig ! Learning the sets is not good enough, you need to get the full set list, turn up set up all the gear, have a break to get ready and then play the first set in gig fashion, break and play the second. Dry run the actual first gig from PA set up to pack down and the first gig will be easy. Turn up with just a set list and the nightmare will begin. Or worse still with no setlist !

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1367009892' post='2060335'] Has anyone here ever claimed on a PLI policy? What were the circumstances and the outcome? Has anyone here ever wished they had a PLI policy? What were the circumstances and the outcome? [/quote] Someone once tried to claim on ours a few years ago after a speaker was knocked over by two fighting drunks, it ended up in court with the judge ruling the hotels Public Liability was the one that had to pay out as it covered the same risk and where two policies exist that cover one risk the oldest policy is the one that takes precedent cancelling out any other policy, the hotel did not like it an appealed to the high court, lost again and ended up with 30k of legal bills. It is a requirement that any venue selling alcohol holds its own liability insurance as part of the licensing application.

Depends, if it is a hobby band, you can take a punt on amps, but if it's a pro band then you need the boring old, never breaks, works year in year out peavey. When you take a walk out, much of a finely sculptured tone never makes it off stage and bass is bass.

Well they certainly wont be rushing to fill the job if they are all making £100 extra by having a depper in.

Another point, the last real usa fender I bought had a neck pocket you could keep gibson heavy picks in, it buzzed when you played. It went straight back.

By insisting that sellers stick to a rrp, they expose sellers to EU competition price fixing rules, remember the vw £18 million fine ? They may have decided that they want freedom to sell at what price they want

It is never a hobby if the venue has a till.

Raising the pole pieces in the pick up is an old trick, down for jazz, up for punk

Anything with 3 chords in, ramones ect, as I get so bored I forget which one I just played.

You can not play anything on the basses at PMT Leeds as they are not set up, people do visit to limbo under the strings

Marshall 400w valve head, sounded like Thunder, lovely and sweet, but so unreliable, spent years at marshal under warranty.; A bloke broke in the van and ran off with it and I shouted him, mate, take the *&*&****** thing ! Good luck... Trace Elliot 300w 1x15 combo, again always breaking down, always at the wrong time. Bought a peavey 700w fire bass well over 10 years ago as an emergency last resort, dreading it I plugged it in and it just sounds fantastic with no need to adjust anything, over 10 years later and it refuses to die, loud clean bass. Thought about replacing the peavey 4x10 with a new cab (Harkte vx410) well the peavey swallowed it and spat it out in seconds and a £350 cab turned in to someones £20 bargain on here. Tried an Ashown to see if they were up to anything, what on earth are they on ? The Fire bass 700w head and 1 peavey 4x10 or two at big gigs , thousands of gigs, every time as good as the last.