Dan Dare

A major problem with playing in bands can be that those with the most ability do not always possess sterling personal qualities (probably because their talent has granted them a pass throughout their lives). So you end up torn between the fact that they make the band sound good but can be a PITA to work with.

There is fun to be had creating your own Frankenbass, but it's worth bearing in mind that buying a cheap bass that costs, say £100 - £200 and spending hundreds more on modding it can end up costing the same as buying a more expensive instrument. Resale value will not be high and you'll never get back anything like what you spend on it. A HB or similar will always be a HB or similar, regardless of what you do to it, in the eyes of a potential buyer.

And, of course, pickups are not microphones. They detect movement of a piece of tensioned wire in a magnetic field and generate a tiny electrical signal. They don't "hear" in the traditional sense, by sensing vibration of air molecules, in the way that a microphone does and nor do they detect vibrations of the instrument, in the way that a piezo does. So how can the unamplified sound of the instrument have a discernible effect on the amplified sound? I agree that it's pleasurable to feel the instrument vibrate as you play it. My old J bass is quite resonant. It also sounds great amplified, but I don't think the two are connected. It actually sounds better since I had the pickups dipped. They had become microphonic with age over 50 odd years.

Having played in a few function bands, I wouldn't say the work is 95% weddings. There are plenty of parties, birthday bashes, corporate entertaining, etc, etc throughout the year. The problem is that you are unlikely to get much dep' or stand in work (which is mainly what you will be looking at if you want to go and play cruises in summer) and will need to be a full-time band member. So driving, playing in care homes, occasional teaching, retail (joy of joys) and similar it is...

Back in the 1970s, everything seemed to be orange - cars, domestic stuff, etc, etc. I read somewhere it's reckoned to be a "buy me" colour (how true that is is anyone's guess). In Ian Dury's immortal lines: "Another thing that blockheads seem to acquire is black and orange cars. Premature ejaculation drivers, their soft top's got roll bars".

Excellent points, in particular that a good degree course (it isn't specific to music) will teach transferable skills - critical thinking, creativity, teamwork, research and writing and so on. A degree also demonstrates to a potential employer that a person is capable of achieving a high level of educational attainment, which is not specific to the subject studied. Degrees in STEM, professions (law, medicine, etc) and similar are usually requirements for entry into a particular field, but they don't necessarily limit you to it. If a person has an aptitude for a particular subject, they are more likely to get a good degree in it. A first or 2.1 is a valuable thing to have, almost regardless of subject. There's an old maxim - training is for plants and animals; education is for people.

For passive boxes, I find Palmer to be decent for relatively little money. I'm sure a Radial or similar would be better, but whether I'd notice the difference I don't know. Orchid make good reasonably priced active boxes.

I like Chromes on my fretless. They're a little brighter than many flats, but still smooth. I tend to put them on the fretless new and then switch them to a fretted when they've lost some brightness and acquired more of a traditional flats sound. I like the fact that they don't wear grooves in the board the way rounds do.

If you go this route, get the most powerful amp you can (within reason of course). You'll get a cleaner sound with a lot more headroom. You won't blow your cabs up unless you do something really silly. Most speakers will tolerate short bursts of up to twice their rated power provided you're not putting large amounts of LF into them. Speaking of which, if they're for vocals mainly, use a high pass filter at 80-100hz between mixer and power amp to lose the mud and increase power handling and efficiency. You won't notice the difference and you will make better use of amplifier power if it doesn't have to push a lot of low end.

RCF is a standard recommendation for reasonably priced PA speakers. You can't go far wrong with them. If you go for larger ones - 12s or 15s, don't cheap out on stands. Avoid lightweight aluminium and go for K&M or similar. Look for something with long legs that opens out to give a wide base. You don't want them falling over when some drunk punter who's dancing a bit too enthusiastically crashes into them. The power stage in a well designed active cab will have been specified to drive the speakers optimally. Modern power modules don't add much weight to a cab. Power amp plus passives often works out cheaper, but that's about the only benefit.

I wouldn't defend Pay to Play, but I can see how it's come about. There are a lot more aspiring bands than there are music venues. Some venues try to cover themselves by asking unknown/untried bands (especially those playing originals) for some sort of fee in case nobody turns up to see them. They don't do it every night of the week or for all bands/musicians - the ones they want to book get paid. Back in the day, I played a few places that operated like that. The first time we played a venue, we paid, but subsequently and once they'd seen we went down OK and didn't empty the place, we got paid when/if we were booked back. Not a lot, maybe, but something at least. In our case, we didn't pay the venue, but the PA operator. It may be different now, but many venues didn't own the PA, lights, etc. They got someone in to take care of that and we paid him. Given that we didn't have to carry, set up and tear down our own PA, etc and that the amount we were asked for wasn't astronomical, it seemed fair enough at the time. He was doing a night's work and wasn't a charity.

This, I'm afraid. Those without issues/baggage (also applies to the male of the species) are even rarer, ime. Memories are short. People may say "She's not as good as your previous singer" a couple of times, but that will soon end. The sensible answer, of course, is "She's finding her feet. Rome wasn't built in a day", etc. You are unlikely to find someone who can spring, fully formed, into the job immediately, unless yours is a pro' band that can offer all the perks. In your shoes, I'd look to find someone with the right attributes - voice quality, appearance, attitude, etc - and work with them to grow into the role. It's either that or re-invent the band, which would probably involve just as much work.

Not up to me. Funerals are for the living. Whatever they want to hear.

Sensible.

Broken Row, OK? No doubt one of those towns where a virgin is a girl who can run faster than her brothers and cousins.

The only time I've noticed this was in a rehearsal room in West London, which was adjacent to the District and Piccadilly lines. The back wall of the studios was right next to the tracks and pretty much at the same level (you could hear the trains rumble past). As power to the underground is at track level, the live rails were probably only a few feet from where we were. There was a definite buzz through the equipment. Never noticed it at the rooms under the arches on the Holloway Road, but the line there is overhead powered. The line above the old Allan Gordon rooms in Leyton wasn't electrified at the time I used it. It's now overhead power, too.

When I have to learn new stuff, I make charts - chords and structure, plus notation for any essential lines/parts. Then I have it playing in the house and car on repeat until I'm sick of it. Works for me.

You could say that about many boutique products. Some such are no longer really boutique and have become mainstream to an extent. Given that the industry standard for class D heads seems to be an ICEpower module with a preamp in front of it in a fetching looking metal box, the cost of manufacture probably isn't great, so markup is likely to be enormous.

Yep. I replaced the brake lines on one of my cars with Kunifer 10. Good stuff. Easy to work and bend neatly. Just googled it and it's still available.

With the price difference between real Speakons and knockoffs being so small, it isn't worth saving a few pennies on knockoffs.

Agreed. Unless a desk has extensive eq or you are using an active bass with plenty, it's probably best to use some form of preamp/eq. I find bass straight into the desk can be a bit vanilla otherwise. Fine for recording where you can eq the bass at mixing/mastering stage, but maybe not for live work.

Oh and yes, bass - lead - amp for me, too.

A PA can be handy for originals bands. Established OBs with reputations may indeed "play venues with in-house PAs and engineers", but the key question is how often? Many OBs struggle to get more than a handful of gigs a year. Having a PA can be handy if it means you can play in places other than established gig venues. In the past, I've put on gigs in local pubs with OBs I've played in. To do that, we needed our own PA. It wasn't worth hiring in a rig, engineer, etc. We often made little to no money, but the idea was to build a bit of a following, get ourselves noticed and get match fit (which playing in rehearsal rooms doesn't do). Maybe it's different these days. Being an old git who no longer has aspirations to conquer the world, I haven't played in an OB for ages. I would if something musically interesting came along and they didn't mind the fact that I'm ancient, but I guess that's unlikely.

This. A mic' into your backline, combined with a naturally resonant instrument like an acoustic bass guitar or double bass, is almost inevitably going to suffer feedback and require some sort of notch filtering at anything other than low volume. Pickup into backline and mic to FOH is usually the best compromise. It means you won't hear exactly the sound you like from your backline, but it's workable practically. Driver size is not relevant. I use several C4s and/or 4Bs for electric bass and they have plenty of bottom end and are not "dry" unless I eq the amp to be so.

Yep. Everyone is review crazy these days. The minute you buy anything online, you are bombarded with requests to "rate us on Trustpilot", etc.