PaulWarning

yeah I was 53 when I started playing bass, although I did play guitar in a limited sort of way before that, bit like my bass playing now

yeah I thought that, then later on starts talking about not using a backline at all and relying on monitors

this can be true, I don't think us pub bands should be so far up our own backsides that we should imagine the only reason people are in the pub is to watch us

this is the thing, there's watts and then there's watts, it would seem 100 valve watts are plenty (never used a valve bass amp myself), 200 watt Class AB amps are enough, but Class D amps seems to need to be about 500 watts, as I understand it anyway, and that's before you start talking about speaker efficiency. Even listening to them in a shop's no good, it's not until you get in a full band situation that you find out if it's giving out enough volume

I've got a 150 watt series 5 Trace head, plenty loud enough, class D watts just aren't the same

if he's a really good front man he's probably a narcissist, most are drummers that don't drive aren't a problem as long as someone else is happy to transport them and their gear around, otherwise it is a no no for me as well

I'm afraid it's a decision for you, we've all got shortcomings, some peoples you can put up with, some peoples you can't, all bands have stuff going on but only you can decide if it's piissing you off enough to leave

I've put 81-100 but how many can I play without making a mistake? a lot less than that

years ago we were supporting the Subs and Charlie heard our soundcheck, he says"Nice song, one of yours" we hadn't the heart to reply "No Charlie it's Green Days Welcome To Paradise" still makes me smile, cracking gig though, full house and Nicky Garrett on guitar for them, never the same without him, though the new bloke is a lot closer than Jet ever was IMO

are we allowed to ask why he got banned?

coated strings are the way to go for a long string life, I used Elixir Nanowebs for a while they lasted a long time and stayed bright, very smooth though, not to everyone's taste, I now use DR neons, they last me about 6 months (2 hour gig most weekends plus practicing), again not to everyone's taste, but they look good under lighting if you're in a Punk band . They do cost more but I think they're worth it late edit, I should add I change them every 6 months because I broke one during a gig after about that length of time, so I change them as a precaution, there's very little difference between the new and old once the initial brightness has worn off

we use 58's with the band but I use a 57 for home use (practicing my vocals for open mics) and I prefer the 57, not so much bottom end on it, more of a Jeff Lynne type sound which suits my occasional flat vocals, could be a counterfeit though, I got it second hand

sometimes it's better to have the in house sound man sometimes your own, depends, as always, if they know what they're doing, it should always be possible to get a reasonably sound, a lot of the time it's a case of TURN IT DOWN. Remember going to a small outdoor festival a few years ago (Strummercamp), all weekend it was the familiar loud bass drum and mushy sound, then Ruts DC came on and it was chalk and cheese, everything nice and clear, I actually messaged their Bass player (Segs Jennings) about it, back came the reply "We've got our own sound guy"

saw her at the Butlins Alternative Festival last year (calling it a punk festival seems to be one step too far for Butlins) a good show, very professional and put a lot into it, but not really my cup of tea and not punk

I use a Trace Elliot with clipping lights and passive P bass, I have the gain turned right up and the red clipping light doesn't come on, don't know whether that's any help or not, but it depends on the amp, they're not all designed the same

you mean the bands had a bass player? seriously, Bad Religion on the first night was awful whereas Sham 69 sounded spot on, the main difference from what I could make out was the Bass drum at a sensible level and the guitar and vocals clear in the mix, still couldn't here much of the bass though, most of the bass players seemed to have this big smiley EQ mix, which sounded great on it's own but inaudible when the rest of the band kicked in

I used to got to a lot of Punk gigs in the late 70's, the sound was so bad it took about a minute to figure out what song the band was playing, I thought it was great, used to laugh about it, we had a game going, who can recognise the song first

went to Rebellion last year, the sound in the main venue was awful for the first couple of days, sounded like they'd put reverb on the bass drum, just a sea of mud, my mate went up to the desk and actually told them the sound was rubbish, they just pointed at the high ceiling and said there's nothing they could do, come day 3 the sound in the venue was spot on, I just thought "Christ, people are paying £180 a ticket here and they can't even get a sound man who knows what he's doing"

I agree with you about certain members of the band turning up to loud in small venues, but how often does the sound engineer ask them to turn down? not often enough, like you say they just turn everything else up to distortion levels to try and compensate. A sound engineer I got to know used to turn up anyone who was too loud really high in their monitor, that usually got them to turn down

don't play many gigs with a FOH PA but when we do I make sure I've cut everything below 100hz off my bass signal and ask the sound engineer, very politely, to go easy on the bass drum. I've been banging on for ages about sound engineers obsession with the bass drum, oh yeah, and they hardly ever have the lead vocal loud (clear) enough either, if you don't know the song you won't have a clue what they're singing about

shouldn't really mention the 'B' word but I will, the Beatles, they were the first band I got into, and the Ramones for showing me you don't have to be a great musician to write great songs

the older I get the more I think that is true, one of the reasons I don't go to many gigs anymore is the idiots I have to put up with when in a big crowd, and why anybody would want to go to Glastonbury is totally beyond me edit, don't mind a big crowd when I'm playing a gig though

I've just put new strings on mine, so checked the set up, 3mm at the 17th fret on the E string, doesn't bother me, it sounds better like that, as @gjones said, 90% of the playing (well mine anyway) takes place on the first 5 frets

ah yes, I've tried busking, being totally ignored is far worse than people chatting while you're playing, the biggest amount I got was for looking after someone's bike while they went in Marks and Spencers

i think this has always been so?, people go along to gigs because of the media hype surrounding a band, get there can't admit they've wasted their money, pretend to enjoy it, then tell everybody what a great evening they've had, and in this age of social media it's a lot easier to fool yourself and everybody else