bonzodog

Done

Have a look at the JHS Vintage range too. Very well made with Wilkinson pickups and on a par price wise with the Squiers.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1396446610' post='2413744']
The only reason I play is to play gigs. The buzz of creating live music in front of an audience is what it's all about for me.
[/quote]

Agreed. If my band split up I'd be eager to get into another one as soon as possible. You cannot beat the feeling of playing live to a good audience.

I heard 7 o clock by the Quireboys the other day and it brought back memories of me and my house mate playing it 15 years ago when we were getting ready to go out on the pull.
Cant help feeling good when i hear that song

I would be interested to see what your take is on the above.

We always offer to supply our venue with posters advertising our gigs there. This is mainly pubs, as our club gigs tend to be a longer bill and they take care of that.
A lot of the time we are told not to bother as they say they do it themselves. As we are a 'specific' covers band in that we do Mod/New Wave covers we very often arrive to see no mention of our genre on the poster even though the venue were aware of what we do.
On occasions when we have supplied posters we have arrived to find them not put up which is annoying as they have a cost involved.

Do any of you send posters ahead of bookings as standard or not bother at all?

I would always go separate too. You need to access mixer all the time so if room is limited you can put power amp somewhere else and have a small lightweight mixer on hand.

[quote name='Prime_BASS' timestamp='1395736146' post='2405546']
I would say that's more down to his poor management.
Stuff breaks that's fair but stuff broken due to neglect or incompetence or plain just breaking it, the bands should be held accountable and that's that really.
Running something like a rehearsal studio isn't a case of set it up, bands us it and then the dough rolls in.
[/quote]

Possibly an element yes, but I think rehearsal rooms are a breeding ground for a bunch of mates to get together to have a go at forming a band without knowledge of using the equipment. He has no problem with stuff breaking as thats part of the job, but having mics thrown on the floor, amps blown due to having the gain up full and drum kits broken gets a bit tedious. I would imagine trying to get someone who has just blown and amp due to misuse to pay for it would be often met with a few choice words.

I think owners of studios get fed up with the way bands treat the places so they go downhill. An old mate of mine opened a rehearsal complex and swore he would keep it to a high standard. After 12 months it was a dump. He said he was fed up of replacing blown amps, broken mics and cleaning up fag ash and food. He simply could not afford to keep replacing things.
We rehearse at a studio that is not advertised. We were lucky to be asked there and this owner selects the bands he wants to use it.

Ive worked for agents for over 20 years and it is hard to first get on their books. A good portion of work goes to solo singers and duos as they are easier to accommodate. Agents have to be careful with live bands as there a lot of poor bands out there. One bad gig can ruin their reputation so you have to see it from their point of view.
Its a case of keep trying and maybe offer to do a low paid gig just so the agent can come and see you. There are normally showcases organised by venues where a selection of acts play to a room full of agents and landlords. Ask the agents if they know of any coming up you can get on.
You will get a gig sooner or later and as long as it goes well normally the flood gates open and the agent fills your diary.

Yes I know that feeling. Ive sang for years with no problems but since I have had kids I seem to pick up loads of colds and coughs. I am lucky now that in my 3 piece we share the singing so my guitarist could sing the songs I do if he really has to.
I think it depends on what style of music you play too. A lot of out stuff sounds better with a croaky voice!!

You are right though that you have to look after your voice but once a cold kicks in there is not much you can do about it. Hope you can sort out another singer quickly

I think i will take back off and have a look then for loose wires.
I never use the XLR socket as its not DMX'd. I purely plug it into the mains on its own. I have used terminators before when linking up a lot of lights but suppose its worth a try conmecting a terminator to it to see if it solves the issue
thanks

For small pub gigs we use 2 American DJ megapar LED spotlights. I have just noticed one of them is faulty. No matter what mode i put it on after a few minutes it will freeze on one colour and then flicker. If i press any of the buttons on the back to try and change it none of them work. I have to switch it off and on again to reset it and then it does the same a few minutes later. I have tried using other power leads but its the same. It is out of warranty now so does anyway know whats wrong and if it can be repaired. We have a gig on saturday i was planning on using it for.
Thanks

I get rubber washers from my local hardware shop, the same size as the Grolsch bottle rubbers. Simply put your strap on then place these over the top. The only problem is you need to really leave your strap on all the time so as not to bend the washers. Sometimes you may need two or three washers together to bulk it out but its such a cheap option and its never let me down.
Think I paid £2.50 for 50 of them which will last a very long time

Thanks for the help. On the basis that it is my power amp that is clipping then I am right in my original post to ensure this does not flash.

[quote name='cheddatom' timestamp='1394116013' post='2388093']
the clipping we're on about here is pre-amp clipping, surely?

If your amp has a warning light for the power amp overloading then you should probably take it fairly seriously. My peavey has this, and I make sure it almost never lights up. That doesn't stop me clipping the pre-amp though if I want (which I don't)
[/quote]

The Hartke HA3000 does not actually say. Its labelled as a protect light and the manual does not say whether its pre or power amp

It does seem to clip at a lower gain than I was expecting with my MP Jazz and assumed it was to do with the humbuckers. When I play my JHS Vintage P bass throiugh it I can normally get the gain higher. I was just concened whether I should be allowing it to clip at all, so at next gig I will probably allow it clip more so than I normally do and see what happens.
I do need a new amp though am looking for a LH500/1000 just need to raise the cash!!

Alcohol intake by the audience is also a factor. You may play a slow song early on because you want to keep all the fast stuff for when the audience have 'had a few' but if its catchy, a slow song can go down very well late on if everyone has a sing song. We do 'all or nothing' by the small faces late on and it works

I think its just a story to link with one direction. If he wasn't from there it would not have even been put on their web site. I live not too far away and my nephews band are all from Redditch and the music scene seems to be good there

Just wondering how much you monitor your clip lights. I use a Hartke HA3000 and am always doing my utmost to avoid the amp clipping at all which can be hard with my Fender MP with humbuckers. I often see other bass players allowing the amp to clip more and last week the bass player with the band we played with had his amp flashing red all night long. We used our own amps so wasn't too fussed but just wondered if I was being over cautious

Very dodgy. I dont see why anyone would buy anything off ebay wihout pictures of the actual product. Whats their feedback like?

[quote name='Prosebass' timestamp='1393581391' post='2382108']
Facebook is free
Wordpress is free
Soundcloud up to 90 minutes is free
Twitter is free (if you like to pester people)

The problem is coherent content, updating it constantly and making it visible.
Looking after all this is time consuming and you need to be very strict about this.
There is nothing worse than looking at a band page and seeing it has been 6 months since any content was added.

If you go down the website route, I can thoroughly recommend Wordpress but ensure your site looks best on mobile devices.

Although all this is good for getting bookings / existing fans, it can have the opposite effect as far as future fans are concerned.
If you post all your music and videos on-line many will make a snap judgement on that content as to whether they want to see you live or not.
We all know there is nothing better than seeing a band live and some web content I have seen posted would put me off seeing a band.

Keep your videos and sound clips short and of good quality. Don't use the media as a library, use it as a showcase.
[/quote]

Agree on the music side of this. Especially as bass players we know our sound comes off the worst when playing back through laptop of mobile speakers. Someone did a video of us at our last gig and when I played it back on my laptop the bass was none existent. I connected my laptop up to my surround sound and the bass came through really well, but like Posebass says, people will listen on a mobile and make a decision

FB also works the other way as well. We use it to contact venues who have a facebook page. We recently played a great support gig at the Roadhouse in Birmingham. I originally sent them a message on facebook, they replied the same day and the gig was booked. All without leaving my sofa.
I now send countless introductory messages to venues through facebook with links to our page.

We dont have a web site and put everything through our facebook page. I think its a perfect medium as you can link to venues for up and coming gigs and invite all your friends. Very important to get as many likes as possible too as venues consider this when looking at your page

[quote name='lee4' timestamp='1393100033' post='2376273']
How about a JHS Vintage Tony Butler?Black/Black/Maple joy!
[/quote]

+1. Great bass

Also it makes a big difference I think if the venue put loudish background on during break. If there is just silence then that could kill the atmosphere so we always take our own just in case