leschirons

I recently sold my Spector 6 thru-neck as it wasn't getting out of the house much, have a KSD705 and Custom shop Fender jazz but for some reason I keep going back to an old Far Eastern Aria Pro 6 string for gigs / rehearsals and practice. It's just like an old pal, stays in tune, sounds nice for a passive cheapy and is so easy to play. I paid about £150 for it secondhand and it's covered in scratches. Same when I had the Fbass, kept using the Aria!! Really starting to think about being happy with what works for me rather than wasting more money on "nice" basses.

Tears of a clown, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles for me.

Played mine last weekend at a Dutch birthday party we'd been invited to. Had the lot there, acoustics, Celtic pipes, washboard, violins, tin whistles, Hurdy Gurdy, Cajon drum, accordians and harmonicas. Brilliant evening. Fitted in well with all the French & Dutch traditional folk music that was being played but it made me realise I need to put some work in to sound anywhere near competent.

Yes, he's got it spot on. He's a good player, he's different and this is about the 50th time we've found ourselves talking about him. You can't buy publicity like this.

Personally, I quite like the song (Manson version) However, send me your address and I'll post you all my Liza and Dusty albums. There's some great tunes on those for your band.

I can see your point sort of about songs you know already but in my view, if you learn their choice of numbers, it will tell the band something about who you are. It will give them an idea of how thorough you are in learning material. Their choices may include particular numbers to see how you cope with different tempos, grooves etc, and will also show them how accomodating you are. If we were auditioning a new member, we would pick the numbers in order to see what the auditionee can cope with. I don't think they're being unhelpful at all. They just need to make sure they pick the right person for their band.

I never get any comments from the bands I'm in about tone or equipment other than, can you turn it up a bit or point it my way a bit more. This could be for one of two reasons. Either, my choice of tone and equipment is absolutely unquestionable as I'm so highly regarded as a band member and musician or, I'm just the bassplayer who organises the coffees in the break and no-one cares a sh*t about what I play or sound like as they're too wrapped up in what they do. I suspect it's the latter.

Whatever you do is going to need to be a little eye catching and different or you run the risk of it not being a crowd pleaser. An example of something that worked for a mate of mine (as a party piece)was a fairly brisk slap version of Stand by me. Works really well with just bass & vox.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1328642456' post='1530607'] I only ever use standard tuning for two reasons: 1) I've played that way for 30+ years and know where the notes are without having to guess or relearn from scratch. 2) Once you go below a low B then all you're really doing is attracting earthworms. [/quote] This, partly because I've never ever been asked to use any weird tuning and partly because anything I'm likely to play can be done on a five or six string.

This is always a problem when different members have different expectations and maybe different reasons for actually being in a band. You'll either have to find like minded players or go with the flow.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1335374135' post='1630165'] I am known for being pretty picky in my number 1 band so I pointed out a few ways I thought we could up our game. I have to say I was a bit surprised when I got 2 mails from 2 members who did not see the point I was making and said essentially that as a predominately pub band that made x amount of £'s on a gig, they weren't going to put any more effort in as we were as good as we needed to be. I could have replied..that is why we are just a pub band but have resisted so far. So, the question is, would you want to be as good as you could be with a reasonable amount of work, or would you say you are good enough for the local standard and that will do...?? [/quote] Some band's "good enough" may well still make them the best band in the county. However, unless there is a universal want to improve and make it better still (no matter what level you're on and irrespective of whether you achieve it) It wouldn't work for me. So, I'm with you on this one.

" I can busk it on the night if we get asked. I pretty much know ALL the Clearance Creedwater stuff" Guitarist, 3 bands ago.

Mijn tandenborstel is door de bliksem getroffen. Welkom

Are we doing Stonehenge tonight?

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1334484354' post='1616632'] Glad to know he`s pleased with it . [/quote] Pleased isn't the word Lozz. He's gutted he never knew about them 20 years ago. He said if he'd had it then, he wouldn't have wasted tons of money on everything else

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1334877623' post='1622985'] I meant the dncers were between 40-60 and the oldies were ..er..older than that [/quote] Hmm, Hole & shovel spring to mind but I'll believe you this time

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1334858828' post='1622553'] We don't cater for real oldies as the people dancing can be 40's to 60's ... [/quote] Thanks for that!!

[quote name='Benplaysbass' timestamp='1334524697' post='1617293'] Its a bit of a different scene over here as they don't really have the pub culture so its more cafe bars and restaurants. We normally charge a minimum of €350 going up to €500, but weddings are €1000. [/quote] Same here and on average this year we're 450€ for the 5 piece, plus a meal and drinks.This probably sounds expensive compared to the UK pub gigs but over here you can end up playing for a lot longer if they think they can get away with it. You need to stick to the best prices the market allows. Our view is "We'll play for nothing (charity gigs) but we won't play for 200€" All you'll do is give yourself a reputation for playing cheap.

Going rate for a duo here is about 250€ so £200 seems about right.

Our French guitarist bought a GS1 last year (Lozz's in fact) and loves it to bits. He'll never part with it. If you don't need the money, I'd keep it. The problem is that there are a few cheapo Gibsons about nowdays with satin finishes and they also brought out a cheapy Les Paul junior. You know what folks are like, they'll go for the name on the headstock and ignore the quality (of which yours has the latter) Pricewise though, it's worth all of what you suggest.

Try and find a secondhand MM SUB. Great bass for the money if you don't mind a mat finish.

California girls Beachboys Happy together The Turtles I'll throw in "Nowhere to run" by Martha & the Vandellas for good measure

This topic has been quite an eye-opener for me, and a little upsetting reading posts about some of your experiences. I've probably got 1,000 gigs under my belt and have never had this problem. Having said this, it has become obvious to me that over the years I've maybe been a little unforgiving about fellow band mates who have possibly been suffering with this issue and I've not realised, nor been supportive. I will certainly give this consideration in the future. I'm not what I'd call a great player so maybe I'm over confident about my ability but no-one complains and I just seem to enjoy the challenge and buzz of playing live. I really hope that you manage to crack this. I had no idea that this was so commonplace. Best wishes to you all.

Welcome to the forum. There's lots of great info here and there's also the "Other instruments" section to cater for the multi-stringer side of things along with all other stuff.