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As dannybuoy says, it's a way of setting targets, then congratulating yourself when you achieve them. The important thing about this is to set KPIs that you can easily achieve. I do this for work all the time. Examples include: Force myself to go to work; Wear trousers to work; Pretend that the client/s is/are not complete imbeciles (challenging one, this); Withstand the urge to bludgeon anyone who uses the term 'optioneering' to a bloody death (struggling with this one); And finally, another easy one - leave the office at the earliest opportunity. It's important to have goals...

My problem is that jobs like this really interest me but the way they're worded makes me feel massively de-skilled. By that I mean that I think I could do many of the jobs I think it refers to but I have no formal qualifications in them, which presumably would put a stop to any potential application. I do find it surprising that 'startup' type companies often do this even though most of the people at the helm have followed a similarly unconventional less certificated path. It makes me think sometimes that you basically have to decide at 16 what you want to do for the rest of your life because if you try and change industry at a later date you won't have the experience and particular value alignments of the new post. I know that's not exactly it but I'm trying to explain how I feel about it. Although running this site has taught me a lot and I think developed my skills hugely, in my experience even if i word it in management speak, employers don't want to read the sort of language they use in their ads, and it's difficult to 'sell' skills you have but which haven't been accredited.

I feel sorry for young people today. IME, job ads have been heading in this direction for the last twenty years or so. Tons of pious crap like "must be prepared to crawl over broken glass and barbed wire to deliver against key performance metrics; world-class team engagement skills 200% essential". IMO, bonkers job ads stem from the fashionable idea of superimposing inappropriately controlling and over-complicated management techniques on otherwise simple jobs. It's all of a one with the kind of buzzword bingo which suffuses meetings, 'mission statements' and corporate press releases. Hot drinks machines become 'beverage vending solutions'. Ratcatchers become 'rodent extermination executives'. It is not enough that a company simply does whatever it is they do; they must be 'passionate' about it. It's linguistic hyper-inflation. I am reminded of the Simpsons' episode where some Hollywood types are sat round a table discussing something and one of them is banging on in corporate speak and a colleague says something like: "So, basically, we're all randomly using big words so that other people think we're smart? (pause) I'm fired, aren't I?"

But Daryl, personally I don’t think that is the right attitude. If a punter has come to a show and liked it enough that they are prepared to shell out another ten quid for a CD, then I’m always happy to sign it for them if they ask. Deep down they know that you’re not Keef Richards, but for that moment you are something vaguely close and if they are putting money in your pocket by buying a CD and you signing it helps to personalise it in any way then that’s great as far as I’m concerned. They’re the ones who will be back for the next gig you play in their town. I’ve signed CDs, gawd knows how many cassette tapes (back in the day) and countless setlists. I always joke that people come across them when they’re clearing out shoe boxes when they move house years later and wonder who the hell peteb was and why on earth they asked him to sign something 30 years ago! But who knows, it might spark a memory of a good night from their youth and as a musician, you can’t really ask for anything more than that…

i.e. more than many of us will make in a lifetime. Good on him, I say - I'm not a fan of his videos etc, but I have a lot of respect for what he's achieved.. He clearly has some idea of what he's talking about, despite what some here would suggest.

I can't bear it. Any of it. The whole David Brent culture makes me I'll.

"Hand Made Bass Guitar. House clearance find scratch built bass electric bass guitar.just see pictures and see what you think and for condition.think it needs some work setting on fire." Fixed.

OK - body finished. I'll wax it once the tru-oil is fully hard, but this is now silky smooth: The neck is going to have to wait a week - some family stuff coming up this next week, linked to 40th wedding anniversary - and after 40 years, I know that when MrsAndyjr1515 says, "And all THAT STUFF OF YOURS has got to be cleared away too!" my answer has to be simply, "Yes, Dear."

Unless you’ve been following the build thread you won’t know who Conway Instruments are. So check out this for the history: All you get here is porn (and specs): 5 string fretless, 30” scale with through body stringing Black limba core, English ash top and limba back Limba, maple and cooba set neck, pau ferro board Nordstrand MM5.4 pickup with coil tap and series/parallel switch There's more to it than that but it’s the basics. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. She’s stunning to look at, lovely to play and sounds huuuuge.

Have you ever found an unexpected reference to your band? In the movie '500 days of summer' there's this: - see record divider bottom left...

NBD the Euro 4LE 1979 has landed. Here are the happy couple.

I've added a parts list to the very first post in this thread - and have taken the opportunity to delete the old drawings, which are now out of date. I'll post drawings of the latest version shortly.

My trouble is that I would have ordered one and by the time it arrived I would have traded the amp head, sold the bass, changed to a different stomp box and the new stuff would not fit... That's GAS for you! The case looks great BTW

My new rig for relearning bass on. Glad to be back!

A few more pics in the sunshine. Collecting this evening, cannot wait!

Going by the fact that Scott emailed me direct with this ad, and he doesn't really know what field of work I'm in. I doubt there's an agency involved yet. Scott is very much a down to earth guy who will be thinking about what he needs in a person and thinking, "Of all my database of 1,xxx,xxx, it's very possible the right person is in that list. So his first action is cobble together what he sees as a good, "hip business" job description, and get it out there. The wording is not what some folk are used to reading in a job ad, but I've seen worse. @musicbassman, no, I don't think it's hit its potential. It's a music school. Like a driving school, there are always more youngsters coming up. Where it went wrong is certain things happened that p*$sed people off and they went away. When that happens and friendships go, others drop off. I see it here in BC. Characters of old have gone. I drop away too sometimes. "It's not what it was", is what goes through your head. What he will struggle to get back are all the "old bass hands" who were there to improve, but having "done SBL" finding new ones will be tough. The trouble he faces is when new members join, they find the "vibrant Campus" is dead. There's hardly any discussion going on. All the "Unread content" threads are other folks "practise logs". (Yes, they have a section where members keep a thread which is their own practise log.) The quietness turns folk off and they quit after their 14 day trial... I guess. I could write tons more, but Scott may see this and he's not paying me for this consultancy!! :D

Even the most well intentioned KPIs have unintended consequences, my profession has suffered the consequences of them since 1992. I frequently take comfort from the quote "We trained hard . . . but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."

Here's someone who might fit in well.

Not quite at that level... But this poster I created for a gig I played in 1984 is now part of the Victoria & Albert Museum's permanent collection. Also in Sound On Sound Magazine in the early 2000s there was an interview with Steve Levine in including photos of his home studio where the CD from the band I was in at the time was visible amongst a pile of stuff on his desk.

Just stumbled across this when looking for new toys online, I think I want one https://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-offset-mustang-bass-pj-sea-foam-pearl/927703?gclid=CjwKCAjw0N3nBRBvEiwAHMwvNmsxvmgo1JDe6QimSKavDDPBq7CnzkXBcrx06Pp0Uz1KHNtVwSf3LBoCcHQQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

When I first got back into bass playing a couple of years ago, all I had to knock about on was my son's Squier Bronco. Then I had the chance to try out for my current band and felt the need to take along something a bit better, so I called on a mate who had once loaned me his Precision Lyte, which I had really liked. (When I had the loan, I think that he was trying to persuade me to buy it, but at the time I wasn't playing bass much and couldn't justify the expense). Unfortunately, he'd sold the P-Lyte and he let me borrow his Jazz Bass instead, because I'd always been a Jazz player when younger. Once I had the gig, he offered me the chance to take the Jazz off his hands, but I still couldn't justify lashing out on an American Fender Jazz at that stage and so I ended up with my Bass Collection SB300-and-something, which has a lovely neck and P/J configuration. Just the job, and even now in my 5-string and fretless days, it still gets the occasional outing at a jazz gig or somesuch. However, having been a long-time Fender player, I really fancied one of Leo's lovelies in my collection. Back in the 1970's I had a Jazz, because the Precisions that I could find at the time all had massively chunky, baseball-bat necks. Having tried out a few more modern versions, though, I found that I'm getting on with them OK now, and so the GAS was born. On the way to the Basschat Southern Bass Bash before last, when I was giving @Stingray5 a lift, while chatting in the car, we separately came to the inescapable conclusion that we each wanted a Precision!! Still more time has passed since then.....and there have been loads of threads on here that frankly, haven't helped, guys. The one from Rubis of his build of his P-bass is exactly the kind of thing that I shouldn't have been reading, if I'm honest!! Then last weekend I did some recording and for one tune, I used my Bass Collection, now sporting a new set of Rotosound flats, and solo'ed on the P pickup, for an old-school sort of sound.....and of course, as a result the GAS is now back and in full effect. I have and love my Spectors for the vast majority of things that I do; but, I just fancy a P-bass. I surely can't be alone in all of this? Is there a way out of it, or do I just bite the bullet and start looking in earnest for something that's going to scratch this itch - for now?

IME, ruthless Teutonic efficiency is very much a thing of the past. The last time I encountered a ruthlessly efficient Teuton was about 1987, since which time they've all been wishy-washy Green types driving around in cars with 'Atomkraft? Nein Danke' stickers on the back. That said, it was a slightly eerie experience travelling on Chiltern lines a few years ago and seeing the ticket office people with their DB (Deutsche Bahn) staff lanyards.

Love what you've done to this...far beyond what I would have achieved. Hope the 40th anniversary celebrations go well.

For just a tiny extra bit of footprint you can add two more switches. I got mine off eBay but they have a website - it’s called Skinny Little Twins As above, snapshots would be better if you don’t want latency when switching patches.

You can set it so that two footswitches are used for preset up/down, and the other toggles an effect within a patch. The built in tuner isn't an effect block, and doesn't require a dedicated patch. The default setup is to have footswitch 3 as a tap/tempo switch, but you don't need to have this..... but if you don't, then you'd need to press the action and page right buttons together to engage the tuner (or use an external footswitch or midi controller). I normally have FS3 setup as a regular effect block toggle - I don't usually need to retune so frequently that bending down to press the buttons by hand is much of an inconvenience. Switching between patches does cause a brief pause in output. It's pretty quick though (about 0.1s), so assuming you're going to change patches between notes rather than in the middle of one it's not likely to be an issue. If it is, you might be able to use the Snapshot feature to workaround this... you could have a single patch with an amp sim, an envelope filter a fuzz pedal and whatever else in it, and then have 3 snapshots setup within that patch so for example - snapshot 1 could be the amp set to a clean sound, snapshot 2 could be same clean sound but with the envelope filter engaged as well, snapshot 3 could have the envelope filter off, fuzz pedal on, and also up the gain and back off the master volume on the amp sim. You can add 3rd party IR .WAVs via the HX edit software - you can load up to 128 onto the Stomp, but it's worth being careful about how they're named before you add them in, as you only get to see the 1st 16 or so characters of the filename. If you use HX edit you can still see the whole filename, but on the stomp screen itself there's only so much room... but if you're tweaking sounds away from your computer, it can be tricky to pick between 100 different variants of "CelestionGreenb" or whatever

I'm happy to get free beer.

I gave up trying to turn bass playing into a living and I was only after tens of thousands of pounds. That was tough enough, but if Scott can turn his bass playing into an enterprise worth millions of pounds then he gets all the respect from me.

When we gigged there we had a fixer (a lovely chap called Mubarak) who reached into a wadge of cash in his pocket whenever anything became problematic. It was an enlightening trip.

It's a tough one - I'll be careful what I say, not because I think I may offend someone, but because each company and personnel will invariably see things differently dependent on their experience and perspective. From my experience in social care, good Director's are vastly experienced (or naturally gifted) especially outside their specialist area (e.g. HR, legislation, coaching etc.) , have worked their way up through the ranks, been innovative and decisive and have a natural disposition for the role. And in contrast, poor versions have been inexperienced, weak, over critical and reactive (to justify a position) and/or generally just bullshi**ers or 'yes' men. Speaking of both types, qualifications hasn't come into it as much as the skills noted in the first line of this para. People who do amazing at start ups deserve every praise and respect, no question. But it isn't a certainty that they'd enter another company and repeat that feat, and some need a person who's been around the block or has fresh ideas to add another dimension. This leads to my concern about the points in the advert regarding 'being on same page as CEO' and 'Translate and filter CEO message' type stuff. I get what they mean of course in that damage is done if people aren't in harmony, but they seem like leadership and middle management requirements to me when spelt out that blatantly... As for a Director - what about diversity? what about challenging the CEO constructively? What about bringing innovation and being given the opportunity to use it? The best Directors I've worked for have done all that. I'll never be a Director, and am biased by my experience (aren't we all?). I'm ranting because I'm about to lose an outstanding Director, following a long line of yes men, 'not a clue about the front line' types or dictators. So yeah Ped, you might just have the skills, if your CV doesn't get through then you just might need to meet on the 9th hole and have that chat to show your credentials... n.b. Of course, essentially Scott can ask for whatever he wants, even if it's a mini-me or glorified multi-tasking manager dressed up as Director, he's earned that right!!!

No prizes for tidiness but here's my messy but fun pedal board!

…… And I thought the Youtube videos were full of waffle. Sorry but I started to loose interest after the first couple of sentences of that advert! None of what he does holds no interest for me personally to be honest. I'm sure Scott is a great bloke and has obviously been pretty successful in his venture and I wish him the best for his business.... I hope it's made him a sh*t load of money , 'coz with that nearly endless list of requirements he will only be attracting those of an ilk who will be demanding a sh*t load in wages! 🎸

I am a tart. I can't deny it. I think it stems from a restless soul. I'm always looking for novelty, never satisfied for long with whatever was new just moments before. I remember a fellow alchy saying when asked what his favourite drink was he invariably replied 'the next one'. I'm a bit like that with amps, cabs, effects, instruments, cases, straps, cables etc etc etc etc etc etc

Scott seems to be a very nice man, so I hope he finds the right person to fulfill this role. The wording of the advert is a tad annoying, and corporate bollix, and perhaps not clear (at least to me) as to what they're actually looking for (I'd comment on the grammar, but @BassTractor would quite rightly point out that I'm a murderer of the English language! ). I'm out anyway - I'm outrageously dis-organised!

You're a gear hussey!

Phrasing the ad that way is likely to sort out the Modern Management sheep from the Musician goats, i.e. putting off the people who just might fancy giving it a crack, because they play bass, maybe because they've worked in the Music Industry. Fact is, you could fill that role without (at the start, at least) knowing all that much about music, bass-playing etc., but having the required qualifications, Project Management experience and overall Management skill set. It's locked into the kind of thing I see far too often in my working day, all this MBA-speak BS written in TLA's (three-letter acronyms) like KPI's, SLA's, etc. This might help with all that: http://www.theofficelife.com/business-jargon-dictionary-A.html Nowadays, Companies add a layer of Operations to the process and think it makes them modern and efficient. In my experience, in most cases, it just adds to the cost and time taken to make decisions whilst bringing little if any tangible benefit. So all in all, I'm quite glad at 61 to be coasting down towards retirement from this kind of thing, hopefully giving my time to playing music instead.

Maybe SBL has reached the limit of it's potential. * There are only so many bass players out there. * There's an ever decreasing number of opportunities to play live, which must decrease enthusiasm. * He's preaching to an ageIng demographic. * Just maybe.

I don't think the ad is too bad... Probably because I've seen many far, far worse!! I think it's a bit confused, not sure how you can be an experienced and respected contributor to the business of your job is to make sure everyone does what Scott says. Also being remotely based but being responsible for team culture just doesn't work IMO. There are some specific skills and experiences required so it's not just hopeful pie in the sky stuff. I just think it's a bit of a confused mix of stuff he's asking for, in a language that may turn off a lot of people who would want this kind of gig, and it seems a bit "big corporate" for what seems to me like it should be a tight knit small but successful enterprise. That's £1,500+ VAT and expenses for my insight.

If I was arranging them, they'd be 'Noodles, Pot' and would sit between Noodles, Egg and Noodles, Rice. Yes, it's precisely the sort of thing I would do because I too am that anal

Best paid and most mind-numbing job ever was when I was attached to an 8 person sub-team on a project led by Hewlett Packard and working on a staff internet usage policy (!) Six months on site, five days a week to turn out a 4 page document which basically said: Don't view porn via the company network Use 11 point Arial for emails Er... ... that's it As one might expect the company in question was an absolute swamp of management-speak.

I get metal fatigue as soon as i listen to some

In fairness, both situations might pertain. I consulted to a number of companies where the management asked me to help them establish KPI's where the brief was usually heavy on the objectives of the exercise but were significantly light on specifics. So I'd toddle off to have a chat with the people on the front line. Then I'd come back and marry up the actualities with the objectives. I often got the feeling I was there to spare the management the necessity of discussing specifics with those they employed to do the job. Might this have been because so many senior personnel these days seem to be management generalists who flit between industrial sectors and are happier talking about management theory and strategy rather than the nuts and bolts? Who can say?

Don’t kill Geri though she’s hot in a mumsy way

That’s when you choose something to measure employee performance, which ironically then leads to overall poor results. For example if a programmer gets rated on how many lines of code they write per day, they will churn out lots of inefficient code instead of thinking how to simplify 100 lines down to 10. Also team members will spend less time doing things that aren’t measured, such as sharing knowledge and helping others. Therefore a load of rowlocks!

I have the contents of my cupboard alphabetised from Actimel all the way to zucchini although problems arise when I'm faced with whether to put the Pot Noodles under P or N. I still have no idea what a key performance indicator is