phil.c60

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1462035409' post='3039854'] Jesus Christ, that's well creepy! I think I would have been on my way at that point. [/quote] What, on your way to the cash point so you could make him an offer for it?

[quote name='markmcclelland' timestamp='1462041241' post='3039920'] [color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]First time at the legendary Blues Kitchen in Camden. And a jam experience I'd rather forget. Oh, I had. Until now. [/font][/color] [color=#141823][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif][url="https://marksdiaries.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/day-94/"]https://marksdiaries...5/12/19/day-94/[/url][/font][/color] [/quote] Just read that: it's why "Jam Session" are the two words guaranteed to make me stay at home and watch the television.

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1461241439' post='3032787'] That wouldn't work for me at all. I wouldn't be happy leaving outside the entire PA, electronic drum kit, lights & lasers, etc. [/quote] Or leaving my wife outside.

[quote name='Lw.' timestamp='1461004455' post='3030586'] I've always liked whirlwind leads but was recently in need of another so bought one of those fender custom shop tweed ones because I'm a tart- quite nice & seems like decent quality. Got an obbm speaker cable though & its very good. [/quote] Both of my Fender tweedy ones gave up, causing me all sots of odd problems - they don't support the outer cable well at all where it goes into the jack connector, just heat shrink which allows he cable to fracture over time . Replaced them with OBBM's lovely ones which have Neutrik jacks with proper glands to support the cable and a speaker cable too and have had no more issues. Fender ones in he bin. OBBM is your man.

My 1999 Hot Rod P with Rotosound Monel flats. Light, stays in tune for ever and sounds great (to me, anyway!).

the padded/thick end of the strap is so thick that the part that bolts through the strap is not long enough - you can't even get the thread started. That's why they "don't fit".

Someone bought me a set of Fender strap locks as a present having seen me nearly drop my bass on stage awhile ago. I tried fitting them to my P bass and found that they would not fit my genuine Fender padded bass strap. The nice man at the shop he bought them from replaced them with Schallers with no quibble and guess what - they don't fit my strap either. So I've given up on the idea. I'm just careful to make sure my strap is securely attached and I am a jiggler not a jumper so I've not had an issue since.

Had an absolute nightmare a long time ago when the singer started to introduce the next song " Midnight Blues " which starts with the bass riff, and I was supposed to start it gently as he introduced it.. Couldn't remember the riff for the life of me. Frantically trying to attract the guitarist's attention which I did eventually as the singer waffled and he started it instead. Soon as I heard it, it was fine. Singer then comes in in the wrong place anyway.

And I thought it was just me, too! We're all at it. Mind you, when people ask me "What kind of band are you?" these days I just say "A pretty good one".

I think the idea that people used 150W heads and ran them almost flat out is probably true. My LM3 is 350W into my 8ohm Barefaced Compact and I'd be surprised if I run it at more than 1/3 of it's available power. It doesn't clip with my passive P bass until about 3/4 gain, but I rarely run it at that (I know, but it works for me), more like a tad under half way, plus the master only about half way too, so 1/3 of total is probably about right, so just over 100w. And that's plenty for all the pub's we play in.

No, maybe not, but some folks do, and this ad is for them, not you. As such, it's a great example of how to advertise: they want what they want, they are what they are, and you can tell from the ad if it's going to be your bag or not. Which is what an ad should do.

My wife is getting on a bit too - I think I'll keep her.

My wife has started taking photographs in between songs as apparently "That's usually the only time when your smiling". Trying to count, stop the drummer running off and work out how many bars the guitarist is [u]actually[/u] going to solo over (as opposed to how it went when we rehearsed) does sometimes make me look like I'm a bit cross. And, of course, sometimes I am. Seriously, though (har de har) although I can be a bit grim faced under pressure, I do make the effort to smile, laugh and banter between songs - it makes a big difference, and people often comment that the band seem to be enjoying themselves and that they like that. If someone cocks up, a laugh and a joke is way better for an audience than fierce looks and a sour attitude.

I left one band because of this (a shame, it was a decent band). We had an on-line diary on a hidden page of our website for exactly this purpose.The singer would [u]never[/u] keep his up to date and when challenged because it was costing us gigs said that we should just take the bookings and then cancel them if he couldn't do it. When I pointed out that the bookings would collapse once we were seen as "unreliable" he through teddy out of the cot so I packed it in. The band lasted one more gig (which was already arranged) and then folded. You need to sort it out one way or the other or things will unravel fairly quickly.

As someone else said: I'm in my fifties, would love to be able to shave off 20 years and get away with it but I'm not as handsome as Discreet (it's that pants picture in my mind again) but my kids are grown up, I have a supportive wife and can afford (within reason) to spend what I like on gear etc. (which actually makes me less inclined to do so!). I have plenty of free time to devote to the band, learn new songs, get gigs, run our little website, can rehearse any day of the week etc.etc. You would think that all these things might matter to someone looking for a band member, but at the risk of crossing with another active thread, a lot of people are dreamers who don't realise how much work there is in actually running a gigging band and thus how valuable these things are.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1458637486' post='3009209'] I have a pretty terrible track record when auditioning. I don't do many but even so the last one I passed was in 1985! Since then I have got into every band through recommendation from people I've played with or those who have seen me play. As Blue says, most "good" bands and those who are worth playing in don't advertise. No band I've been in has ever advertised. There is always a friend of a friend. I dread ever having to go to the "market place". [/quote] Gently, Bentley: I'm sure there are a lot of people on here who got into a band through an advert, and to suggest that therefore their bands aren't "worth playing in" is a bit harsh. Especially since when you read/hear about some of the great bands formation having started via an ad in NME or Melody Maker: JMB and the like is simply a more modern version of that.

I found my current band via Join My Band, still going and gigging regularly after 21/2 years with some personnel changes but it was after three or four previous abortive efforts (actually more like five or six now I think about it). It is a bit "luck of the draw" I suppose. Some of the personnel changes were made via JMB, others by knowing someone who was available and we thought would be a good fit. Some of the guys who turned up in response to an ad were seriously deluded for all the reasons previously mentioned.Some of the guys we knew and thought it would work weren't available or could not be committed enough. I don't think there is a right or wrong, you either get lucky with adverts (either way around) or you don't, you either know someone who's available and a good fit or you don't. It's just life. But is is bloody annoying at times. And as my wife said "after the last band broke up it took ages to find this one and make it work. Don't break this one." As Joni said "you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone".

Just gone though the same thing myself - replied to an ad for a band that seemed like a good side project to go alongside my main band, waited five days, sent a follow up email which resulted in a message suggesting a phone conversation at a prearranged time:guess what, that didn't happen either. Two days later got a phone call, was asked to send some mp3s which I did ten days ago, haven't heard a thing. Perhaps the mp3s didn't go down well and I am a really crap player and I just don't realise it. Still, a "thanks but no thanks" would be nice. If they can't organise a simple thing like this, I doubt they can organise a band on a continuing basis well enough to keep me interested.

I've got this on the A string on my '79 Jazz, and I know it's because there is not enough downward pressure on the nut. This is because I made a schoolboy error and cut the string too short (D'Addario black tape wounds), which means there is one full turn less on the tuning peg than the other strings. I only noodle with it at home, I gig with something a bit lighter (it sounds nice but weighs a ton!) so I live with it but it is, I must say, annoying.

Done

When I went to Glasgow a while ago a couple of guys from here said I should pay it a visit while I was there so I did. Despite my making it clear that I was just gawping rather than shopping to buy, everyone in the Glasgow shops (three linked together?) was friendly, cheerful and happy to chat and point out things they thought I'd be interested in looking at. And they had a huge rang of stuff!

As others have said, the difficulty with buying something you don't "know" as it were, like a custom built bass is that if you don't like it / find it doesn't suit your playing style / find you don't like the way it feels it's very hard to say so, and if it means you don't play it that's bound to get noticed. When I bought my Hot Rod Precision my dad insisted on giving me the cash and calling it my next birthday present, which was nice, and I gig with it all the time but every time I think about buying a straight P Bass or something else (like Leftybassman's Wal which I would really love to try) I keep thinking how upset he'll be if I no longer play it. I worry that It would look like it wasn't good enough any more. Silly, I know, but that's how it makes me feel. Choose wisely!

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1455743863' post='2982107'] It's not just me then. Our songs are picked from a list as we go. The guitarist will often just tear into the opening riff and we just follow along [/quote] So do we, and so does ours, but it doesn't always help the harp player much as he would really like to have the right one in his hand at the beginning. Especially when he says "It's a bit of a gentle atmosphere in here at the moment, let's start the set with some SRV - how about Pride and Joy?" and then launches into Cold Shot. Took me two bars of intro to realise, but the harp player was frantically digging in his box of tricks. To be fair he has them all nicely in order so it didn't take long but it did induce a look of blind panic.