Stub Mandrel

On 28/09/2025 at 08:45, Uncle Rodney said:

I went to see my friend's band last night in a pub. He would tell me how great his lead guitarist is, how almost famous the drummer was.. etc. He's not a bad singer himself and a really nice guy. So I was interested, in a nut shell, even after the first song... terrible 😝 They are all experienced players but.. awful, obviously people were leaving, I could feel those who remained of the audience were gently mocking them. A band that can empty a pub. 🙄

 

Asked what do I think... erm.. what can I say? I tried to find good points but there weren't any. What can I say to the guy?? 😳 I really don't want to upset him.

 

My view was:

1.this "great lead guitarist" was just another standard noisy power chord+fast meandering solo type, usual standard for a pub band.

2.drummer's kit sounded floppy, snare was saggy and his playing average at best

3.singer (my friend) - vocals mostly not good, some was truly horrible, thing is I know he can sing really well.

4.bassman was average, just plodding away with no real expression, as in, every note was a full length 8th, his sound was ok.

5.the song set was an odd mixture of pop and rock covers, I know some bands do their versions and usually "murder" a song

 

I was thinking of doing guest appearances in their band but having heard them, I wouldn't want to ruin my reputation 😄 - I could do the "musical director" role but again that would appear out of place. I think they are too stuck in their way to want change.

One suggestion was just to form a new band with my friend the singer, I could then steer the ship without offending anyone.

 

I'm sure many of you have seen similar situations, any suggestions on how to approach this sensitive issue? The easy one is just to stay away, keep out of it.

Do you know any gangsters? You could shop them and get on a witness protection programme.

On 29/09/2025 at 19:34, snorkie635 said:

As above and I'm sure @Stub Mandrel would agree.

 

GLWTS

He does 😁

2 hours ago, Pea Turgh said:

The 42mm nut width would be the USP for me on the Alnus.

Don't say that in public..

3 hours ago, Mrbigstuff said:

An interesting comparison vid for Fender reissues vs vintage: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BpWRmNVe7/?mibextid=wwXIfr

 

I’m interested to know which of them BCers think sounds best to them. For me it’s the vintage bitsa. Same top end but thicker/ creamier lows

Negligible differences to me.

Hard to see but they are deep brown.

My local club is the one venue where almost every band praises the sound.

It is rectangular with all dimensions very different. The ceiling steps down at the far end, but is all suspended tiles that absorb sound well. This mesms there are no strong resonances.

One side has several windows, but with curtains. Curtains across the patio-style door behind the band. The ends of (normally hidden) skittle runs each side create modest sound traps behind the band. The suspended floor gas heavyweight vinyl that seems to stop any booming. It sounds fairly dead with no noticeable reverb.

Asudd from the curtains, none of this was deliberate, just a happy chance.

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Funnily enough, it was...

However, we had loads when we played the Doll's House just up the road!

Dolls House was two-thirds empty when I played it. Had another date booked a few months later, but it had closed by then 😧

1 hour ago, Richard R said:

She's known as Panda, Pandora was the name the cat sanctuary gave her.

 

Not an Adrian Mole fan then? 😁

My worst was a blues/jazz bar. 110 mile round trip. We played to three friends, two bar staff and a couple of locals for a decent fee. They depended on students and term had ended, and live music was the chain's schtick.

Worst bit... they had us booked three weekends in a row, the staff loved us and wanted us back and the deal was worth it.

But... they recommended us to the chain's venue local to us. Downside access was awful so after 2 gigs we stopped going there.

On 02/09/2025 at 18:09, wateroftyne said:

I wonder if you can see the side dots on this one? It's a big flaw on recent Fender RI's, IMO.

It's the only downside to my AVII.

39 minutes ago, Delberthot said:

I love the ASAT but never considered one due to the neck dive that something that shape will always have.

 

Which reminds me that when someone was mentioning famous users - Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith's name popped into my head and sure enough, here it is:

If they had little points on the tuners they wouldlook different and by echoing the geadstock 'pip' they would brjng some unity to the design.

2 hours ago, Russ said:

Epiphones, despite having lower quality hardware, pickups, electronics, etc, were a lot more consistent than US Gibsons.

 

You got some great Gibsons, but a lot of bad ones. A friend of mine was after a new Les Paul and tried out at least 20 in order to find a good one. Supposedly they've got that under control now though. 

 

My brother is a Gibson addict. He has had many and still has a '62 SG Junior and a LP Junior. He also delights in a few Epiphones (he loves his Firebird and Coronet), and prefers his  Eastwood LP jr to the Gibson. He also a Swuir Troublemaker. Build quality is great across all of them.

2 hours ago, Richard R said:

 

😱  Pandora is my cat!

 

 

But we can call her 'Box'?

15 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Not sure what precision comfort is - the further away from 16 it gets, the worse it gets at finding strings!

You have a diddle on my Performer then. Bareroom for a credit card between stings and a lovely headstock

1 hour ago, Russ said:

they have apparently addressed a lot of their QC issues recently. 

Secretly rebadging Epiphones perhaps?

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Even if I could get past the hideous headstock, the string spacing is a non starter for me.

19.5 is unusually wide at the bridge, but the nut is 37mm, so where you pluck it's 'precision comfort' with 'jazz ease' up the neck 😁

30 minutes ago, jay bass said:

Epiphone EB3 long scale Stained fretboard . i have adapted the  front strap button to cure the neck dive .il post a picture later

looks much better without the scratchplate.

It's that notch!

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

See I used to think they were hideous, and then one day it just switched. Now I have one and wouldn't be without it.

Just wait until you see my Sire at the SWBB 😍

G&L by Squier 🙂

30 minutes ago, bobcha said:

Tried a new Standard, impressed with the overall quality with neatly finished frets and low action fast neck. Not over keen on the ceramic pups but planned to replace with alnicos. 
On second play at home the guitar had become unplayable- horrible rattling of all strings on first to fourth frets. Hadn’t made any changes to the original setup. The dealer couldn’t explain what the problem was but refunded the cost without argument. 

Sounds like it needed a ⅙ turn to loosen the truss rod. My Fender Performer was exactly this after not bring played since high summer.

The dealer let you down.

"One man's Bongo is another man's G&L."

That colour definitely looks better on my sock.

4 hours ago, Lozz196 said:

Ah, I suppose as I’ve only ever played along to The Ataris version I thought the original was also Eb. Hot-dang pop-punkers!

It is (D#m technically) 

We've settled on Bm 😁😁😁

Good rehearsal tonight.

Boys of Summer requires a lot of concentration! I took a five string which was just as well as we ended up playing it in multiple keys.

For the himass bridge fans my stock Flea Jazz had no difficulty sustaining the notes when we played Em.

And for people who worry about flabby b-strings, my Harley Benton Marquess was sounding awesome. We ended up settling for Bm but I'll probably use an octaver (as does Tim Schmidt when playing it in Dm on a four string).

Aside from four new songs, most of the evening was tidying up arrangements.