NHM

check out East Street Music in Faversham, their tech has done excellent repair for me in the past.

I haven't tried the Broughton, but I have a Vong Filterung on my board and it is excellent - as well as the HPF it has a LPF (switchable on the toggle) and a DI out. You can set the frequencies for both the H&LPFs, and you can toggle polarity should you ever need to. It's really handy as the last pedal in the chain.

I missed the bit about the Americana band - go for the Rumble 500. I've got one, it is a brilliant combo.

the Fender Rumble 100 will tick your box; it's perfect for a gig monitor and practice amp at home. It has a great range of tones, it's lightweight and the reliability seems to be excellent.

I've got a small box of photos, reviews, business cards etc., and some posters framed in my study. It gives me a lot of pleasure to look through it all every now and again.

Perhaps I've been lucky to be in four bands in the last fifteen years, having taken a break from playing for family/career. Three of the bands were through JMB auditions, the fourth a group of people at work, every audition I've got. I'm not boasting, as I'm no more than a competent bass player/musician so it wasn't playing that nailed it. I'd say it is being humble and making an effort to get on with strangers, happy to go along with what others are doing and contribute to the fun, be flexible and play anything even if there are songs you don't really like, being 100% reliable, always set up to start on time, good at comms, learn material in advance, don't gossip/drink/ be extreme, and don't moan if you find yourself ahead of others. Once you're established in the group and if you decide it is for you, you can then start to exert your musicianship and personality if you need/want to. Be a safe pair of hands, you're the bass player!

For me, making it is playing 20+ gigs a year in a really fine local band with three others who have become trustworthy mates. I've had a very fulfilling and successful career doing non-music stuff, having the band as a very stimulating hobby now I am retired is the icing on the cake.

bad luck mate I'll keep my eyes peeled too

That's interesting, the distance of the pup from the 12th fret. I've just measured my Gibson Les Paul Tribute which is also 10". My Musicmaster is 9.5", although I'd say that's as sweet a spot as you could imagine, just a tad darker in sound than the Gibson...

they've done some custom work for me, top folks to deal with.

My son went through a music conservatiore, got amazing results but now is working on an Accountancy apprenticeship getting well paid and having masters-level study paid for by his employer. In a year's time he will be fully qualified and will probably earning more than me when I retired! I know money isn't everything but he enjoys the maths and accepts the compromise of a 'dullish' career, as it has taken all the pressure off him by having a steady and secure income. His music is now his hobby. He doesn't regret the study/debt, he says it was a great thing to do, but doing the apprenticeship has got his career back into a steady state and frees him up top pick and choose what music work he does in his spare time.

If you live in a city with a Uni and/or Conservatoire, approach the Music dept for teaching work. Most teaching is done during the winter months (Oct-April), it's fairly well paid, pensioned, and can be a stimulating environment to be in. If you can get your foot in the door and do a good job often one thing leads to another.

Plan your rehearsals for strike days?

I remember back in the 1960s my parents gave an old wooden-framed piano to the local church's summer fete for a piano smashing contest, where two teams each with a piano completed to smash up them up with sledgehammers, the first to pass theirs all through a 1 foot square wins.

ours went a year or two ago. It was a lovely piano probably worth three figures but I was grateful for someone to take it away for free. I offered it on the local community facebook group.

nothing, it's fine as it is.

same colour as mine. A fab bit of kit.

The pull out mute switch knob on my Bassman 500 is so awkward to grip it's near impossible to operate without changing the master volume level

So, to go back to the start of this thread, the OP was asking for a template. It seems to me that most people here accept there are likely to be joint costs/assets for a band (i.e. a PA but other things too like insurance, business cards etc. (although the PA may be down to the vocalist(s) alone)) and recognise the need invest in equipment purchases and maintenance. For a new band any purchase needs to be pump-primed, either with some or all the members chipping in up front, before the first chord is stuck. I suggest (for the start of a template) that: · Once the band membership is established, make an agreement how the various items of gear will be provided up front. (You may not need gear initially if you rehearse at studios so purchase decisions could be deferred until you’re ready to gig). · Regarding the PA, the first question to ask is, should the band own it or just those that use it? · Then you need to consider how to manage your money going forward. For example, a portion of each gig’s money is set aside to build up a pot to pay for ongoing maintenance, upgrades, annual fees etc. And/or members pay a small sub per rehearsal, to build up the pot asap. A sub isn’t unreasonable as most activities require some sort of ongoing membership fee. It could be that if an individual(s) funded the PA then the pot pays them back so the item is fully owned by the band, if that’s what the band wants. · As the band grows so does the pot and if there is reasonable planning and agreement to ensure money is set aside for potential costs an annual divi could be paid to members from the remainder. · Anyone leaving the band could take their share of the pot but should know from the outset that the assets belong to the band and/or individuals and they can’t expect any ‘buy out’ payment. · A newcomer to the band doesn’t make any up-front contribution other than providing their own personal instrument/gear, but then contributes like any other band member. · If the band splits and sells the assets, then this is equally divided between the line up at the point of the split. It’s best to be open and upfront about how the band money is structured and having a collective agreement to me seems vital if the band is to avoid unnecessary disagreements at a later point. Every band’s circumstances will differ, as will the attitudes and access to money from its members, so any agreement will be personalised to your circumstances. But the important thing is to be agreed, open and upfront about how the money side works. Having a What’sApp group is a good way to present proposals to other band members and to get their approval (in writing) before any money is spent. While you might all think your are mates, money can have a nasty way of turning on you unless things are formally agreed. Just my tupenneth!

I've been lucky with the four-piece band I'm in that the singer owns a decent 'vocals only' PA & monitors and everyone else has good quality kit that they can maintain / upgrade themselves. It's probably a fairly equal financial investment if you break each person's kit down into its original cost. We all travel in our own cars, so there's no shared cost their. We don't have to pay for a rehearsal space. We've talked about having a 'silent fifth member', so we build up a pot of 20% of each gig's money to cover generic costs like business cards, lights, insurance etc., but so far we've just each divvied in an equal share when costs have arisen. Fortunately it is all very amicable and trustworthy. Long may that last.

the best pickup position is leaning on a bar

our singer, who is an alto, uses a TC Electronic Mic Mechanic pedal on her mic. This has a preset (non-tweakable) 'enhancement' switch which really brightens her lower frequencies - for a preset device it sounds pretty decent. Also it has a (controllable) reverb and delay built in, so we've found it a useful solution to get her better sitting on the mix.