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No, no, no ... it's tone perspex.

I don't think there's any danger in me not doing that, Silvia You know me - I even stop strangers in the street with an 'Excuse me, but have you seen my new build? Here, I've got a few hundred photos. Oh, wait a minute...can you see them properly if you're walking this fast???'

It's arrived!!

This weekend just gone. Friday night gig. Singer is giving it her all on the intro to Somebody elses' guy '. Rude silly billy sitting straight in front of the band talking loudly to his mates as if there is no band in the room. Woman from other side of the room strolls up to him and slaps him ( gently but firmly) round the back of the head and pulls his baseball cap down over his face. He looks round somewhat shocked, she indicates that there is a band and puts her finger over his mouth doing "shhhh" thing with her lips. Audience cheers.He shuts up. By end of the number I look up and he and his two mates are gone. Table now full with more enthusiastic punters. Its nice when the audience helps you out.

Music seems to attract so many delusional people. Do they imagine it's an easy option? Anything worth doing demands commitment, focus and drive. Music is no exception, though you wouldn't think so given the thousands of deadbeat wannabe nut-jobs making a terrible racket in rehearsal rooms up and down the country...

You're clinging onto the band because at least its a band and the' in no band' wilderness is a depressing place to be if you have no immediate direction. These two idiots serve only one purpose in your life right now and that's to make sure you don't get any better at playing bass by restricting every possible positive bass playing experience you could be having elsewhere. Bin them with immediate effect and get on with your life. Use this as a what not to do in bands learning experience.

I prefer the one on the right. Why not try a tweed or patterned grill cloth? The black looks like a black box.

I've been a novice who plays for fun for the past 30-40 years!

Very badly. At this weekends gig, a large middle aged drunk woman was rubbing herself against this 20 year old bloke who looked pretty terrified while his mates were laughing. I said when I described it when I got home if the genders were reversed it would be sexual assault, to which my wife pointed out the gender made no difference, it was still sexual assault.

I wish Aria UK had the Selected Wood series! Just look at these two!

Disagree - I was 51 when I first picked up a bass and although I know I'm a long way behind the curve, I'm taking it very seriously indeed. It helps that I have played other instruments in the past and can read music, I mustard mitt. But IMHO attitude is more important than aptitude, in that if you practise regularly, play with and be willing to learn from other people and don't think you're awesome from day one, then you will get better. Might take a wee while, but effort will pay off, whether you're sixteen or sixty. But you have to put the effort in in the first place, and from reading the forums here, that seems to be a huge problem - fantasists thinking they're a lot better than they are. Age shouldn't be an issue. Just my 0.02.

Contrary to popular belief sealed cabs do not have higher 'compression' than ported. The reverse is the case. Reducing port area doesn't increase compression, it only lowers the tuning frequency of the cab. There is no characteristic sealed sound, there is no characteristic ported sound. In blind listening tests with cabs EQ'd for the same response one cannot tell if a cab is sealed or ported. Side by side with the same amp and settings they won't sound the same, but that's only because they have not been EQ'd for the same response.

You need one of these....

This. Myself and an old guitarist were in a 4 piece band with 2 intelligent but flaky individuals (singer and drummer). We used to rehearse in their house but they were always late for rehearsals. Upstairs fannying about/power play. After a year of this nonsense the guitarist and I quit, set up our own band. Within 2 weeks I found our drummer at a New Year's Eve gig playing in a top function band. He just recently played 3 sell out nights at the Royal Albert Hall with Steven Wilson and a singer who was an understudy in the West End playing a young Elvis. We rehearsed like crazy and our first gig (3 months later) was on a TV show and we signed management contracts and later an independent record deal to record singles with Dave Allen (cure's producer) in a top studio. Unfortunately in the end it never happened for lots of different reasons but it goes to show that when everybody is 'committed, focused and driven' anything is possible. This is why amateur bands with amateur attitudes frustrate me so much.

Oddly enough I have never chinned anyone, I’m all talk. Do as I say, not as I do as my c*** of a mother used to say *spits*. No issues there then...

I know from bitter experience that people are lazy and will try to get away with minimum effort. A mediocre player who imagines they are doing a good job will not improve regardless of how much you want them to. They are just wasting their time, and yours.

Thanks @Silvia Bluejay - it’s just been shipped 😁

I was once in a similar situation - I was playing with a drummer who I disliked both musically and personally, and no matter how hard I tried, we never seemed to gel, on or off stage. Meanwhile, the narcissistic control-freak singer/guitarist sang badly and his guitar playing was only average at best. However, I liked the material that we were playing, and rather than face the bandless void, I spent over a year trying to make things work, whilst steadily enjoying myself less and less and becoming more and more frustrated and depressed. In the end, a particularly unpleasant racist story from the drummer prompted me to walk out, and it was the best thing that I ever did in that band. Unsurprisingly, I got a lot of abuse for leaving, but a couple of months later I found myself playing in two great bands with lovely, talented bandmates, and right now I'm loving my musical endeavours. Life is too short. If you're not having fun, walk. Remember too that it's possible to improve your bandmate's musically, but completely impossible to fix their personalities.

this can be true, I don't think us pub bands should be so far up our own backsides that we should imagine the only reason people are in the pub is to watch us

If it is to keep the volume down, what does this do that turning the volume down wouldn't do?

This question is very prescient to my current position, as I find myself increasingly frustrated with the way my band operates (I have a thread on this elsewhere, which goes into details). So, as I ponder my predicament I draw ever closer to the conclusion that it might be time to move on. I’m keen to avoid any repeat of the issues I currently face, therefore my next band should (ideally) tick the following boxes: 1. Location: ideally the band or band members should be fairly close to me. I already spend all day in a car wearing a groove in the M40, doing the same at night doesn’t much appeal. 2. I might have to try and recruit members to form a band, but having done this several times before I know what a pain it can be, so joining an existing band or nucleus of an existing band would be preferable. 3. Gigging or nearly gigging. I don’t want to spend months trying to get to a gigable standard. Something that I can just slot into would be amazing. Also, as much as I love gigging I don’t want to do it every weekend. Once a month is satisfactory for me. 4. I’m not interested in playing someone’s songs about how his missus left him and how he really misses her, I want to play covers. Floorfilling, crowd pleasing covers. Even if it’s not necessarily music I’d chose to listen to at home I want to play Saturday night songs that people want to jump about and get drunk to. Entertaininment is the name of the game. 5. No jamming. I hate jamming. Mind numbing nonsense. Rehearsal time is rehearsal time. Do your practising at home and turn up to rehearsal with the song learned, at the right tempo, in the right key. 6. Money split equally after every gig, after any necessary expenses have been deducted. 7. Lastly, I want an excellent drummer. There you go. I’m tired of all the BS, the egos and the politics. That’s what I want. Don’t want much, do I?

I always make sure to see Jeff when he comes to Milwaukee. The smaller the venue the better. Jeff played the rather small Turner Hall ( an old gym from the 50s). I arrived early, real early walked in on their sound check. Here I am, alone with Jeff, Tal and Vinnie. When I realized what I had done I freaked out , turned around and left before I got the boot. Great night, great show, somehow I ended up standing in front of the stage with Rick Neilson from Cheap Trick. Blue

Update: I have gone with my gut and the majority here and sent out a message on our whattsapp to say that I am not happy with our current situation and we need to meet up to talk rather than say nothing and walk away. I have had some responses from the singer who seems worried but nothing yet from the drummer yet.

Or, alternatively, chin both of them.

I really couldn't be in a band which is named after one member...stinks of narcissism and egotism.

Keep it, you`ve got a Mexican Wall before Trump gets his

I don't know how many times ive said to myself. "If I just get this one piece of gear I'll be happy and my GAS permanently sated"

Not much progress as I was out on site yesterday...... I made a minor alteration when I marked the template out (I thought that it need a little bit more meat where the top horn meets the body so I’ve made that about 10-12mm wider at the deepest point it’s only a tiny adjustment but I think it will make a difference aesthetically) before I started cutting the body I’ll finish cutting and sanding the body on Friday so I’ll probably post some more pics then

The SMX series have a valve in the preamp with a blend control. It does add a noticeable warmth compared to the SMC and Series 6 more than drive - unless you’re really cranking the head. Ashdown did better with their hybrids, albeit I found them impossible to make work in a band setting and lacked “Trace Watts”, IMO/IME.

AAAAAaarrrggghhhhh!!! I'd finally finished designing the Frog to how I want it & then this happens!

Shades of Paul Weller and Edwin Collins in the vocals. Nice work.

Er, no... *locks doors*

If it was me, I'd use the handsaw to open the phone so I could shake the photos loose and send them surface mail. Glad you got topside of it in the end.

I found this discussion relevant to this thread (from 29:04):

Pretty much every guitarist has their amp way too loud. I'm not sure it's for tone, I think it's for dominance as they believe they are the Silverback of the group. The problem is too much mid and treble are really piercing and very unpleasant.

@BrunoBass Before they would just ship the boxes out and deal with any QC issues after delivery. This year they have started doing checks before shipping, imagine that's the cause for the delay.

Depending on your budget, and second-hand availability: some of the smaller Phil Jones amps sound surprisingly good for the size. On the larger end, the Bass Briefcase certainly works at low levels also. At the tiny end of the spectrum - the Double Four gives surprisingly deep sound, given the size. (Personally, am not a fan of the Bass Cub - the DoubleFour seems to have a tighter/clearer sound)

A drummer who can't drum is quite acceptable and not unusual, a drummer who can't drive is a liability

Let us know how you get on. The fact that the drummer still hasn't got back to you doesn't do him any favours. In my opinion, you should walk as it sounds like you've got all the skills and you're doing all the work. It's bad enough when you have one passenger in a band - but if you've got two or three, there's something very wrong. And that's without mentioning their musical competence, or lack of it. Life's too short to pander to flakes and fantasists. But as I said, just my 2p. Play it your way for sure and good luck.

Been there...I even bought back my Overwater Custom Jazz last year which I'd foolishly sold. I'm tempted to buy back the Status Kingbass which Snoop is selling which used to be mine but that would mean I had 6 or 7 basses which I'd "never sell"... Some people see instruments as tools, merely bits of metal and wood that do a job, to me they're much more than this so when I sell items that I've bonded with I, in my mind quite naturally, feel sellers remorse.

Leave. I made that decision as soon as I reached the "Drummer doesn't drive" bit, let alone the rest. I don't care if it's Dennis Chambers - he transports his own frakking kit.

You'll all feel pretty stupid - I've just seen it says "100% authentic" so there's nothing to worry about after all