Stub Mandrel

I’ve got about eight lined up with the blues band and can expect more as the year goes on. The guitarist is young, final year of degree and in an indie band that's taking off so I'm grateful for what we get. I only started looking for deps late last year and have done four across two bands. I really enjoy learning the extra songs without all the commitments. one lined up this month and another cancelled as their bass player became available. Hopefully I will get a few more. The route in is a combination of playing at jam nights and putting it about on Facebook. The new rock covers band has a maiden gig at the start of March and again I'm hoping that goes well and we can start getting at least a gig a month in the diary. A friend is restarting a band he had 10 years ago with the aim of doing a small number of originals gigs (very Krautrock, so new for me!) So that vould be fun. My personal target is to do 2-4 gigs a month but have a decent number of free weekends. Last year was very stop and go with a couple of dry months and a few with lots of gigs. And then I'll do some jam nights as well, which are great fun as zero pressure (except the day they made me drum...)

Not really. You won't change the shape of the neck, you just change the required height of the saddles.

I hear he's wilde about that.

I hope your futt recovers soon.

I know plenty about budget instruments. Rare indeed is the complete dog that can't be made reasonably playable. Less rare is the beginner with a clue that this is even possible. Cheap basses with a good setup are possible. This is where HB stand out... because Thomann see them as a loss leader and want to turn beginners into returning customers. P.S. I like a low action and none of my basses are shimmed.

You have to be 18 to serve in China's armed forces. It's 16 in the UK. Just to make the point we can all be criticised...

Doesn't that suggest setting up Ric truss rods is a bit tricky and needs an expert?

I've had more problems with leads than anything else. In the past year: Rehearsal - cheap lead develops intermittent short at BOTH ends. Binned. Gig - outer body of jack disintegrates into fragments, but keeps working. Replaced with Neutrik. Gig - apparently OK lead has small kink in jackplug that makes contact intermittent. After that, I invested £50 in two Sommer/Neutrik leads. (Edit - this was LAST year)

To be clear there will only be one bucket at a time and they say people will know if it's for the band or venue. It's not something I'd recommend. But they have a larger room for gigs with a cover charge. For free gigs they generally pay bands what they ask, but larger bands (6-7 people) charge more than the venue can support. Their basic motivation is to find extra to support the smallef bands, which is fine, but I'm personally not convinced about collecting for the venue. Bit frustrating for me as my partner has dragged the club into being the leading local venue as a volunteer, but after two years is fed up with the amount of effort with not enough support. They are now struggling a bit to plan 2024. Thing is they can book dates in a diary... but they screw up arranging tables, forget to put on the stage and room lighting, don't do the publicity and social media very well and don't communicate well with the bands - largely due to time, inexperience. So they come up with random ideas like this rather than sorting the basics.

It's a different tip culture in the USA - where it's seen as an important element of wages, and you can even be taxed on the assumption you will get tips. In the UK it's generally for restaurant staff, taxi/cab drivers and exceptional service, and is typically 10%. I suggested to the barman at my local club that they could have a Christmas tip jar, and he said "Argh! We won't do THAT!"

The two places that do it regularly are both good payers already. A third that's going to do it have the plan of a bucket for modestly priced bands as a potential bonus, and a collection for the venue to subsidise when having 'expensive' bands (making this clear to the members).

I'll just leave this here... https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_bz_4000_ii_nt.htm

It's becoming more common in Wales.

Musically excellent, but that sort of stuff typifies Jools and bores my socks off.

This, especially his work with a young Jeff Beck.

Yep. Plus knowing several million people got rickrolled in the opening hour of 2024 😁

Add me. I haven't bought anything yet, and after last year I don't NEED anything new and hope not to buy any basses in 2024...

I had about 22 years off. Bloody glad I came back. It helped save my sanity. I couldn't believe how much I had missed playing with others.

I was in Spoons from about 12:15 and caught the end of Rick Astley. I'm relieved to see others agree it was a great performance! Brave to do You Shook Me after the SeaLion's version...

So glad it's not just me 🤣

I'm interested too... currently put up with removed armrests so I can play instead of work...

Why have the rest of the band all got 'interesting' objects attached to their heads?

My go to basses for most gigs are an American Vintage II precision and Mexican Flea Jazz. While the P is more period correct, I can't claim one is better quality than the other in respect of timber, components or build.

I don't judge any instrument on where it's made. I have American, Mexican, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Chinese basses. All of good or better build quality. Worst bass I have tried recently was a Japanese Fender Aerodyne, which should have been the cream of the crop, but if felt awful. My Mexican Flea Jazz is easily the most comfortable bass I have. Used it recently for a 'seat of the pants' dep as it would not get in my way for anything I needed to do. You have to judge every bass on its own merits and also try to see beyond any bad setup (good shops will tweak a bass you are trying out) and even eadily corrected faults. I'm not saying that bass wasn't poor, but it's not my experience that Fender Mexican basses are anything other than the equivalent of the American ones in practical terms.

Is the issue a backing vocalist who is willing to step up when needed, but isn't a natural front person? Or is it having an unreliable or unavailable lead singer? It really depends on what proportion of gigs the lead isn't available for, and whether you really need a more available lead. Or is this really about personalities?