mcnach

Frankly, I'd redo the wiring from scratch rather than trying to find the specific problem. The soldering looks pretty untrustworthy in general. You'll probably save time by redoing it completely (it doesn't even take that long), and then you'll know it was wired carefully. I'd reuse the pots, unless you have suitable 'known-good' at hand, they can and do fail, but not as often as what bad soldering does.

I saw a singer once stop the band and announce that they were going to stop for a minute as someone had something very important to say, and pointed the mic at the offending person. 😄

The battery on any of my active basses tends to lasts many months, usually well over a year. Once you figure roughly how long you can go I find it simpler to just replace batteries regularly. Having part-used batteries and fully charge ones to alternate with seems like faff that can only lead to mistakes. I change my battery once a year, done.

Same. They/I would not be asked back unless they performed well.

It's a tricky one, do you go ahead with people that do not have the same commitment that you'd like so that you can go ahead and play, or do you wait and keep looking until you find the right people? If people "don't know how to say no", that's going to be problematic. I would not like to have to rely on those.

Now, I totally get that. The hardest part for a band is to find the right members, I think. If they join you and don't go prepared to rehearsals, then they are not a good fit, that's all. I endured a few bands when starting out, trying to make every situation work. Eventually I realised that learning when to quit a band was a very useful and powerful tool. I think it extends to choosing your bandmates: if somebody is unreliable, I will not have them around, full stop, and replace them with somebody else who is reliable. If I didn't, I'd probably be typing lots of posts in the Daily Annoyances thread 😄

I don't fully get the question. They're adults: they manage themselves. They know what the expectations are, how often we're aiming to play, how much time they are likely to need and what sort of availability, etc etc. If that works for them, then they make it work. Motivation? They have to like playing with the band, that's all it takes really. There's one guy in particular playing with us, trumpet, who makes a lot more money with other gigs than with us, but still plays most of our gigs. He just likes to do it, so he makes it happen. If somebody is a problem with their level of commitment or creating scheduling issues, then THEY are not motivated enough for that particular band. It's not down to me to change their mind.

Indeed. With regards to deps... I was with an originals band for just over 10 years, we didn't use deps for that one. The chemistry among us was a big part of the band (which varied between 6-9 members). Sometimes we'd play with one or two members missing, which was not ideal but it still worked as long as the "core 5" were there. But for most other bands there would be someone who could step in if needed. Deps are very useful not just to book gigs when someone is not available, but as insurance against illness, for example. At the moment I only play with 2 bands, plus dep with others occasionally. The main band has a number of deps, for everything except main vocals (we're a 6 piece). They've become part of the band, they just don't play as much as the designated main player.

I'd argue that it was precisely being in multiple bands in different styles that helped me "learn to learn" songs quickly. The only bands I need to spend more time with are the ones playing originals, because the creative process just needs attention unless you just want to play root 8ths. I think that when things don't work is not so much because you're in one or three bands, but because someone is just not being responsible about it and those are trouble regardless how many bands they're in. Committing to a gig and later coming with "oh, I didn't realise that blah blah..." is not going to happen often, it's a 'sackable offence' as far as I am concerned. You just need to find people with your same outlook, like with anything else, really.

If you're in a pro touring busy band that pays your bills, sure. Otherwise... why? I mean, there's nothing wrong with a single band if that's what you want, but it's far from being the only way to do things. I've played in multiple bands for as long as I remember, plus I'm in the dep rota for others. I get to play different styles, originals and covers, and with different people, which is useful besides the obvious networking effect.

Yes, the Behringer MS8000 is quite handy. We've got two of those (each has 8 inputs and 16 outputs) in a little rack case so that we can use one split to our mixer for monitors as usual, and the other split for FOH. https://www.andertons.co.uk/behringer-ultralink-ms8000-splitter-8-channels/

The good news is that when you do find that place, you might find a couple of missing socks and a fiver.