TimR

Stream it live. Have cards around the wards. Have phone ins.

Mine has increased 350%. These measurements are meaningless. You need to measure a like for like bass against the RPI 1985 - 373 2000 - 671 2023 - 1472 My Charvel would be around £1400 at todays prices.

I still have my Sidewinder from 1985. Everytime I get it out of the bag I have to adjust the truss rod and the pickups pick up mains hum to the extent its unplayable in a theatre. 🤣 Think it was £120 new.

Take the bridge off and have a look underneath. It's very wonky.

Mine's 20 years old. Lots of minor damage from rehearsals and gigs. Dings and scratches. It happens. Main culprit is standing in corners or close to cymbals in small pubs. The question is did you spend that much because it sounds good and plays well, or did you spend the extra becasue it looks nice. If its the latter, frame it and hang it on the wall.

There are a lot more medium to higher range basses around. Looking at £1300-1600 that'll get you a serious amount of bass. Maybe that's what is skewing perspective. Still loads at £300-500, so I think it's just that there is a much wider range.

I think if I was in a band with 43 gigs lined up and then extra practices to learn material, and the personal time to set aside to learn, I might start asking whether it has turned into a full time job that's stopping me from doing other things. Especially if I was retired. Learning bass lines to songs is pretty easy, they mostly write themselves. I wonder how much work it is learning keyboard tunes when you're not just comping the chords.

I bought a Jackson Charvel SB2 in 1989 for probably £350. There are similar models on eBay for £500+. I was told to I sure it for £1600 20 years ago as I wouldn't find anything comparable for less. I then spent about 7 years looking for something comparable. 🙈

You can download the isolated tracks (stems). Have a Google.

Good SH basses disappear very quickly on Facebook marketplace.

£1200 will buy you a low end premium bass. I'd expect, good machine heads, bridge and excellent finish and woods. Bottomed end £500 bass will be just as playable but will have cheaper hardware and basic woods. They're all CNC machined so the build quality should be pretty much the same.

"We are expecting your parcel." "In Transit" means it has been picked up from seller and is on way to the depot. Then it will say "We have your parcel." Then it'll say dispatched or something. I'm currently waiting for a package I ordered on Sunday afternoon with a delivery date of Thursday to my local Budgens. I'll let you know of progress but currently, "Your order is on its way". It has passed "Processing", "In transit", and is showing "Received by Delivery Company".

If he is overweight (just guessing) maybe be has sleep apnea. That will really mess with concentration and can cause micro-sleeps.

I would be looking for another band to join if you're not being challenged. Although with 45 gigs I don't see you'd have any time. I'd suggest he is struggling because no one can concentrate on songs they've been playing every week for 7 years. I start thinking about what I'm doing tommorw or what song is next on the setlist during most of our set.

The odds were slightly better when it was £1 on a 50:1 shot of winning a tenner. £2.50 isn't a huge amount when the prize is £150m so I just do it when it's triple roll over or whatever. Hence very seldom.

I spent £25 on lottery tickets last year. I'm sure £1.50 on an odd bass raffle when a nice one pops up isn't going to turn me into an uncontrolled addict.

I had this very conversation just before Christmas. Trying to explain to someone that you use an "instrument cable" and not a "speaker lead" between a mixer and a powered speaker. He said he'd been doing that for years, and yes "You must always use speaker leads for speakers". Might go someway to explain why we have so many issues with our powered monitor speakers.

Has anyone had a punt on anybody these fantastic chances to win a bass? It's a very well constructed facebook page with seemingly good reviews and comments spelled correctly and from people in the UK. Obviously they make their money from selling more tickets than the guitar is worth, so slim chance of winning. https://guitargeargiveaway.co.uk

Yes have had 6 of them on some pages I manage. Usual precautions. Report and block.

Not many albums I listen to end to end, the one that used to be on full play on long journeys was Powerslave - Iron Maiden. The last 3 tracks. Back in the Village Powerslave Rime of the Ancient Mariner. I've just seen they're the entire second side on the Vinyl. All the Pink Floyd albums run seamlessly from one track to the next. Great band for concept albums. Meddle - pick any 3 from side 1.

I think a lot of people are confusing what happens in theory and what happens in real life. If everyone 'learned their parts' before 'rehearsal' then it should take no more than 15minutes of a rehearsal to play the songs perfectly. And you shouldn't need an entire rehearsal to work on them. So something is amis with what a lot of you are saying and what you're doing. 😁 In reality, everyone is altering the arrangements to suit the ability of the musicians and the instrumentation. If you don't have a keys player, any tunes with strings, brass, piano etc, someone will have to fill the sound somewhere. Same if you only have one guitarist. That doesn't factor in overdubs and solos where the recording has a rhythm parts added. This altering of arrangements will be happening during band practice. And there will be no guarantee the tune will work. As per @Lozz196 comment above, they ended up with 8 songs fairly quickly but had to throw a bunch out because they didnt work. Practice at home, band practice and band rehearsal all have different components and objectives.

How do you learn your parts if you don't know the arrangement until everyone is together? Being generous 2 tunes every 2 weeks, sometimes all 3 will work, sometimes none of them will work, that's 6 months to get a set together, that's without revising previous tunes as you go. If you're starting out as a band, you need to flood a setlist and bare-bones the songs and experiment.

If you only learn 3 songs every 2 weeks it's going to take months to get a set list together. It's unlikely that every one of those 3 songs will work, and then the next 2 weeks after what will you work on? Honestly, having a big list of songs for everyone to try, and keeping in communication over those 2 weeks as to how you're progressing, takes away a lot of pain and disappointment. I can't tell you how many times bands I've been in have agreed to learn 3 songs and none of them have worked. And you're 2 weeks on... Picking and learning tunes as a band is one of the most frustrating aspects of being in a band. Making it simple and quick, and recognising when a tune isnt going to work is key.

'Learning' is a subjective term. I'm quite happy to cover 10 or 20 songs in two weeks. Good enough to be able to play verses and choruses and mid sections. Bare bones of the tune. Return and sketch them through with the band to see which ones have legs. The problems really occur when you go away for 2 weeks and everyone tries to learn 'only 3' songs exactly as per the recordings. You return and find find - actually everything needs rearranging for the instrumentation and half the band can't actually play the lines anyway. That's a waste of 2 weeks if the songs get scrapped. I don't think it's fair on guitarists who will go away and learn solos, or even bass players who have worked on tricky lines and are then invested emotionally in a song, only to find out it doesn't work and you're going to bin it. So yes. Work on 10 songs to a level you can sketch through and then reconvene in 2 weeks and work out which ones have legs. But make sure that's what everyone understands you are doing.