neepheid

Or lazy. I effing hope we're entertaining.

Shaggy dog story/sidebar related to having standards - I once declined to join a band because I had expectations of basic professionalism which I think were (and are) completely reasonable. I played a couple of gigs with them as a dep and at one of them, the singer and the guitarist had a pretty heated argument on stage during the set about eff knows what. Singer asked me to join a few weeks later and I politely declined, and told him why.

Well, isn't that exactly what the OP was getting at? The pining for old times notwithstanding, he didn't like the songs provided to him, he didn't seem to care for what he seemed to consider delusions of grandeur on the part of the band RE: their quality, so no, I don't think his expectations are too high - it's just not the right opportunity for him. No initial spark, no play. Of course things take time to improve, but without that initial feeling that it could go somewhere, what's the point?

We're talking original music - what effin' pay packet?

Between Christmas and New Year, I'm going to take my BH250 and a single cab to the rehearsal room and face off against my drummer. For Science!

Respectfully, I disagree. You can't deal in absolutes when it comes to people. If the material doesn't immediately speak to me in some way, or show some degree of promise or potential, then I'd rather not waste my time with it. My current originals band (The Inevitable Teaspoons) formed out of the ashes of another one semi-imploding (which finally died this year). We started afresh with a clean slate and without the main songwriter. I'm terrible at tooting my own horn, but I think we sound quite good.

You either like the material or you don't. I've quit bands because the new stuff the band leader was coming up with was not to my tastes.

Eh, I'd take a BC Rich Ironbird to a folk gig, fsck genres.

Uh oh - shots fired!

No wonder scammers are having a field day out there, with folk this gullible!

Gruesome packet loss...

Well, 2024, it's been a blast! Last gig of the year, playing with Nine Lives at the Kirkie Bar in Elgin. When we arrived we were shown to a rather small alcove which had a dirty big Christmas tree in the corner of it. Didn't throw a diva strop and worked around it - the sort of space that the drummer has to move cymbal stands out of the way in order to extricate themseves from behind the drumkit! Anyway, we managed to squeeze ourselves in and got going. Wasn't super busy but the folk who were there were into it and up for a dance. After the gig, we got a lot of nice comments from people, including wishing we had been the band the night before when it was apparently heaving - "Mad Friday" and all that. Guy behind the bar was very enthusiastic and expressed an interest in booking us again, so it looks like we passed the audition. 4 weeks of nothing now! It's been a good year - new singer has settled in well and we're very happy with both her performance and how she's fit into the band socially. 2025 to-do list - freshen up the set list with new songs! Gear used - the Epiphone gang - the Les Paul (not very) Standard followed by the Thunderbird '64.

Then get a Z7, job's a good 'un. Really happy with mine, and I don't think it's that heavy (9.5lbs) - but everyone's definition of "heavy" is different. I use wide straps and am privileged to be in reasonable structural health. I've played 12lbs+ maple Gibson bruisers in the past, 9.5lbs means nothing to me. In fact, I'm one of those even rarer weirdos who has a minimum weight for basses - below 8lbs I just can't take it seriously, I get a toy-like feeling from it and it just doesn't feel right.

That's New Backup Amp Day, BTW. Yesterday this BH250 came into my possession. Had a quick razz on it last night and I was very impressed. Sounded really good at neighbour friendly levels through a Markbass New York 121 cab. I think I'd get a knock on the door if I cranked it, and that's at 8 ohms. I'd get an earful if it was one of my neighbours, but if it was the other one, he's probably bring a guitar round for a jam. One cool neighbour is better than none I guess. Anyway, I digress. Yes, great wee amp - despite only having three EQ bands, the frequencies seem well chosen and have a big effect on the tone when they're swept from min to max. The built in tuner is super handy and very responsive - the LEDs dance around while you're playing, it's quite fun to watch! But the secret weapon is the Toneprint. I thought this would be little more than novelty value and a toy to p!ss about with but I loaded up the Spectracomp Toneprint and it's actually really good - really smooths out the playing and makes it punchier, better than any single control compressor has any right to. I was super impressed with it. I think I'm just going to leave it on Spectracomp and have at it. And thank <insert deity>, there's a mute switch (plus the power LED blinks when it's engaged - nice). I like to have a mute switch on my amps. I was a little sceptical about the lack of preamp gain control beyond an active/passive switch but the gains seem to be set sensibly and it didn't seem to be clipping horribly. Have a pic. Very happy with this for my home practice/recording amp, and it's nice and small (not as small as some like the BAM200 or the TE Elf) but certainly not a chore to take to the gig, just in case.

All this drama could have been saved if you hadn't gone off the deep end...