Stylon Pilson

I bought a Samson AP1B through this site 4 years ago, and I've generally gotten on well with it. The only issue I had was entirely my own fault - I hadn't been keeping track of which of my AAA batteries were freshly charged and which weren't, so I got within about 3 songs of the end of the gig and it conked out. Grabbed my spare lead and finished the gig with that. S.P.

That joke's so old, it writes newspaper articles complaining about 18-24 year olds and then refers to them as "milennials". S.P.

Post a photo and let us be the judges of that. S.P.

I was at a festival this weekend and discovered my new favourite band - Man and the Echo. Catchy tunes, clever lyrics, and some tasty little basslines in there too. S.P.

Yep, and I love learning new songs too. My current band has a near-perfect two hour set list, but I want to keep trying new songs, even if they're "not as good" as the ones we've already got. Why? Because (a) learning new songs motivates me to practice regularly, and (b) having the ability to swap songs in and out of our set gives us the option to temporarily "bench" something that we're growing tired of. S.P.

Ah, I've worked with musicians like that before. Only way to deal with them is to make plain statements, not ask questions. So the evening beforehand you need to send out an email or message saying "I'm going to assume we're not going acoustic tomorrow, and I need to bring X, Y and Z. If there's a problem then let me know before 7am tomorrow so I can bring something different." S.P.

Last year I bought myself a Yamaha BB235 on a whim. I'd always played 4 strings before that, but I'd had a beer and it was at a very attractive price. Got on really well with it, and now I consider myself 100% a 5 string convert. S.P.

I get this exact email on a regular basis, nearly word for word. The funniest bit for me, and the real giveaway that it's a scam, is that I don't even have a webcam on my computer! S.P.

My main gigging rig is a TC RH450 into a Barefaced Compact. Would cost close to £1200 new (substituting the no-longer-produced Compact by a Super Compact) but you should be able to get it within budget 2nd hand. It certainly fits your criteria for being small and making everyone in the room instantaneously pregnant when you hit the low notes. S.P.

I use rehearsals to learn how to adjust my EQ so that it complements the full band sound. I don't spend much time fiddling with EQ at home, because what's the point? A great sound on your own might sound like damp bum sweat in the context of the full band. I also don't consider myself to have a "my sound". If the band sounds good and I can hear myself clearly, then job done. And to be honest, whenever I hear someone talking about "their" sound, I instantly think "oooh, precious." S.P.

Three problems with that: Generally, people won't tell you in advance if they haven't practiced. They'll mention it as they're setting up. Don't know how it is in Milwaukee, but round here, if you cancel the rehearsal on the day then you'll still have to pay for it. Your approach seems a little petty and passive-aggressive. I can see it working in a very highly paid function band where the band leader has a reputation for not suffering fools, but in your average £300 per night pub covers band, it would come across as highly strung, and your best musicians would leave you for a project with less "band drama" S.P.

I agree, they did not disappoint! Great performance, good show, and the sound balance was decent too, which is rare for a large gig these days. It wasn't just a suffusion of kick drum. S.P.

Update on the whole "Alexandra Palace to Waterloo" drama - left the gig before the encore, caught the W3 bus from stop R to Finsbury Park, Victoria line to Green Park, Jubilee line to Waterloo. Arrived in Waterloo at about 2322, and the 2320 train was delayed so I got on that. So, no need to sleep in the station. Hooray! S.P.

I'm seeing Foals in London this evening. Slightly worried about the journey back - I need to get across London from Alexandra Palace to Waterloo in time for my last train home at 2350. I've got a few options but there's always an element of risk. S.P.

I'm looking to up my backing vocals game - better breathing, more volume, mic technique, that sort of thing. Can anyone recommend anyone near the centre of the Berks/Surrey/Hants triangle? Thanks, S.P.

I don't disagree that you hear the story a lot, but that's because it's a story that people like to tell. Doesn't make it true. S.P.

I think that far more bass players will either (a) develop bad technique, or (b) lose interest completely as a result of trying to play a badly-made bass. Examining your situation, when you upgraded to the Aria after a year, you noticed that you played better than on the Marlin, and you attribute this to having had to "pay your dues" on the Marlin. But there's absolutely no evidence to support this. It's just as likely that you still would have developed that speed, strength and stamina if you'd been playing the Aria from the start. S.P.

"What was Wenger thinking, sending Walcott on so early?" S.P.

I had a pretty good gig last night. We have a very lopsided calendar this year, with busy months and quiet months, so last night was our first gig since the end of March. It was also our first gig with our new keyboard player! For the last 6 months or so we've been playing as a three-piece, which has necessitated some compromises and changes to the set list, so last night was a return to how it's supposed to be. I made a few flubs here and there but given that there were about a dozen songs that I'd never played at a gig before, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. The crowd called out for more, and that's the key thing. S.P.

Whenever someone asks me if I'm on Facebook or WhatsApp and I say no, they always give me this expression like I've just told them that I want to slurp yoghurt out of their shoes while they're still wearing them. S.P.

Just think how pisŝed off you'd be if instead he'd been "on his best behaviour" for the audition and you offered him the position. S.P.

Well, yes and no. If you're the kind of person who has very strong opinions about politics and race, and talks about them incessantly, then perhaps it's a good thing to do that at an audition. Let the other band members know what they might be letting themselves in for. S.P.

Last year I walked from a band, the primary reason being that owing to everyone's unavailabilities we were only doing one rehearsal a month, and 3 gigs a year. If you want this band to have a chance of surviving then you need to identify the person (or people) who are having the biggest problems with scheduling conflicts, and replace them. Have you talked to your co-founder guitarist about your concerns? Edit: also, if agreeing dates week-by-week is meaning that you are struggling to get a rehearsal room, then the solution is simple - start planning rehearsal dates a month in advance. And if anyone says "I don't know which nights I'm going to be available that week" then show them the door, because I can guarantee you that they'll be the death of your band otherwise. S.P.

At the moment, it seems like sellers are taking the viewpoint that there is no advantage to using tags. What is the advantage supposed to be? S.P.

It's exactly the same thing that has happened to the majority of online journalism in general. If you want to make enough money to survive, you need to maximise your advertising revenue, and to do that you need clickbait headlines, wacky thumbnails, and a hyperactive personality that suggests that what's going on right now is the craziest thing in the world and how could you dare even countenance the suggestion of getting bored of this video and going off to watch something else instead. It's true that there are youtubers who resist this. But most of them struggle, because at its core, YouTube (and online journalism) is now competitive. You're competing for attention. You're competing for advertisers. S.P.