NHM

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.

Don't agree with that. My '71 is a lovely instrument, superb neck, just needed a better pickup.

I thought all the first Musicmasters (with the tulip tuners) had a black pickguard. So what colour did the black one come with?

So A.I. has still got some way to go

I love my Fender tuner 'cos (a) it works and (b) it says 'Fender' on it. (or perhaps the other way round)

I thought from the first pic the banana box was a nice Fender tweed...

I recently retired from full time work and worked out a spreadsheet of our outgoings to see how much money we needed to survive. With recent inflation, it is about £20k a year for all food/drink, bills, insurances, house maintenance money set aside, car/fuel, dog etc. but as we've paid off the mortgage this figure doesn't include this or rent. Over the years I've built up a top quality bass rig, with three gigging basses, a main amp/speaker rig, a decent combo for small pubs, a small back-up amp and a small pedal board. I made a decision that once I was happy with the gear, that's it, no impulse purchases and only buying gear to replace breakdowns. My gear is about a £5k investment in total. I haven't spent on bass gear for some time now, so my income from being in a covers band is a healthy supplement to my pension. I'm saying all this because I came at having a fulfilling musical lifestyle by planning what was possible on my budget and then sticking to it, and getting the fun from playing knowing that the money side of things was secure. I've not been good enough to go pro so the issue of going full time has never been one I've seriously considered, but I'm lucky(?) enough to have been in good quality bands for many years so I've had a brilliant time with a lot of really talented and lovely people playing at some fantastic events without it ever jeopardising the family. So I'm an advocate of keep the day job and have a great time in a local band - and any income this generates offsets the tedium of the day job and buys you and the family some nice extras.

Only once had need of a back up bass, many years ago at a NYE gig in Harrogate. The 'A' string broke during the first set, and I had to soldier on as I had no alternative. Ouch. Thereafter I carried a back up bass but now don't bother any more as the basses I gig feel rock solid, but always carry a spare set of strings (and amp head).

half a darning needle does the job nicely...

I love the little model figure - and I've got some trousers like those!

the band I'm in is great, but I wish we went out now and then and got hammered followed by a curry (like in the old days). S'pose one can't have everything, so it's a good job the music is good...

I can sing fine if I'm strumming an acoustic guitar, but stumble on the words when playing bass. Never understood why one and not the other.

they had a fair bit of 'band' gear, but thinking about it it was mostly or all Yamaha.