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A bit late here, but on Saturday we played a cancellation at The Chadwell Arms in Grays. A slow night, but we played well and added a couple of new songs to the setlist which went down well. The landlord/lady had a good chat with us after and told us how much they love having us down. They’re increasingly frustrated with the low numbers (was relieved to hear that it’s not an ‘us’ thing 😀). Despite the turnout, the punters had a good time, and wanted an encore to our encore, so we were pleased with our night’s work.

It's been almost a quarter century since I used to play bass. Back then I had black Fender P-Bass and I have to say I really missed it. Hopped over to GuitarGuitar and picked up a new Player Series P-Bass in Buttercream. I'm so far out of practice that it'll be like starting all over, but it's sure good to have another of these beautiful instruments back in my life.

Also probably worth checking if the venues you are planning to sell your merch at want a cut of your takings. Theatres nearly always do this, as do arenas! The cut can range from 10 to 25% from my experience, so allow for this in your costings & check with venues before jumping in.

Heh heh... 800B! 🤭

Loads of experience with band T-shirts for many different bands. This is what I have discovered. 1. Unless you have a strong visual image that always features a particular 2-3 colour palette stick to black T-Shirts with a white or light coloured print. Everyone likes a black T-Shirt. When I've done white or coloured T-shirts (I was once in a band that had a very strong visual identity based around yellow with red and black, so we had yellow shirts with red and black print) they have never sold as well as black ones. 2. No matter how many young skinny hipsters there are in your audience, IME the people who buy band T-Shirts are mostly L and bigger. The number of unsold Terrortones T-Shirts in S, M and ladies fit sizes will attest to that. By all means have a range of sizes but make at least 2/3 of them L and XL or bigger. 3. If you want to make money out of selling T-shirts, screen printing is the way to go. 100 T-shirts with a single colour print on one side should still work out at under £5 per shirt which means you should be able to make at least 100% profit on every shirt you sell for £10. IMO 100 T-shirts is a minimum order to make it worth while. The more you can get printed in an order the cheaper the unit price becomes. 4. It might sound boring, but T-shirts that obviously feature the band logo always sell well, and have the advantage of turning your audience into walking advertisements for your band. If you want to do something clever, think about printing back and front with the band logo on one side and the clever bit on the other. IME clever T-shirts look great but don't sell as well as ones that are obviously for the band. 5. Store them neatly with the size (and the design if you have multiple designs) clearly labeled. No-one will buy a T-shirt that looks like it's been used to clean the floor of the band van. 6. As others have said have someone working your merch table who isn't involved in having to pack the gear away. Your peak sales will be immediately after you have played and again just before kicking out time, so don't pack your merch away until the last punter has left the venue. 7. Get a card reader. Very few people carry cash to gigs these days. One of my bands has a Sumup machine and the other is still cash only and consequently doesn't sell much merch anymore. If you are taking cash make sure you have plenty of the right kind of change, because you can guarantee that first round of sales of a £10 T-Shirt will all be made with £20 notes.

Two things this weekend. I was out playing at a concert on Saturday with the cello. Full-on concert with Weber's Der Freischutz overture, Grieg's Four Norwegian Dances, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.3. Tough programme and a modest audience. Cocnert went down well though. Sunday was an outing with baritone sax to local jazz improv group. This is WAY out of my comfort zone...

My pair of shorties. The Gretsch was bought recently as a cheap back up to the Mustang on the basis that it will basically live in its case in the van… But, I’ve quickly come to realise that although I really like the Mustang. I prefer the Gretsch in almost every way to the Fender. The neck is superb, now as I’ve found a comfortable strap position, the small body makes it a doddle to play live, it sounds so much fuller/warmer than the Fender and I personally think the finish is gorgeous. So, the question now is whether to move on the Fender and try something new. Or, have it sitting in the van as my more expensive back up bass.

@AndyTravis on hot form again, with a great tune, and taking the honours for June . His choice for the picture is a cracker...... "Seems only right… At this stage, surely anyone can run a country? Why not a 30ft pigeon?" Simple rules ✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and recorded between now and the deadline. ✖️ No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on ✖️ No Bagpipes/panpipes as the photo is from London, though it might be a Scottish pigeon, so if they are very low in the mix, it might slide. ✖️ No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you.. Deadline-wise, we will go for Midnight on the 24th (effectively Tea time on the 25th I guess) A line or two of blurb as usual for the vote thread will be super smashing. Good luck, Have fun

I picked this up today and man it’s sooo good and so cheap £699. Just couldn’t resist at that price. after setting up, cutting the nut and dialling in my preferred set up I gotta say it genuinely embarrasses my other basses in the rack which at at a minimum cast twice as much. How is this fair ha. sounds a like a modern jazz, slightly darker, with slightly more tamed mids than my STD jazz 04 but with the active EQ you can of course sculpt it however you want. regardless of all the top level level parts the fretwork is really quite astounding- it’s been nicely levelled so you drop the action down crazy low (okay probably too low right now I’m just excited) and the ends are filed into nice sausages and polished. I’ll do so recording for my Instagram and uploading it here if anyone is interested:) I think if I had to have a life or death bass off where I had to slap tastelessly and overplay in order to stay alive I’d be using this ha

The golden age of graphic design

Happened to us a couple of times. Very strangely in all of the comms that had been sent - lengthy comms mind - this wasn`t mentioned. So we said fine, you want a percentage get behind the desk and start selling.

I went on Saturday night too. 3 of my (now adult) kids came with me (Mrs C isn't a fan) and they all enjoyed it, though they are all fans. It was just amazing hearing Dookie and American Idiot played in their entirety on the same night. Saviors has some good songs too. At the end of the show Billie Joe just sat down on stage and took it all in. He certainly gave the impression of having a connection with the fans. Maid of Ace were good (but F*****g sweary), and so were Anything But Thieves (less sweary) I think it's easy to say your best ever gig was the last one you went to. So I need to go to a couple of others and see if I still think the same. And the obligatory photo of me and the girls resplendent in our stadium acquired "Stash" (I'm the one in the foreground 😀)

Otoboke Beaver.. I'm not sure what I watched but I was transfixed!

One of the highlights on iPlayer for me was discovering Psychedelic Porn Crumpet. Possibly the best band name in history and they turned out to be superb.

So, the last board layout lasted a week, and the Finally is now relocated to the end of my chain. Used it at my gig on Saturday and loved it, as did the sound guy.

Great job indeed! Looks lovely

Picked up this vintera ii 50s p bass a couple of months ago; great instrument, though the big neck took a little getting used to!

When you are looking at a Venue's 'upcoming gig' list and discover you've got a gig that's not in your diary... 😧

This is 6 week of a 3 month build estimate and I'm sure you'll agree Mark is doing a great job 🙂 I'd say no more updates until it's nearer completion, doubt anyone is interested in seeing 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc coats of oil 😀 The man is well on track with my build so can tackle other jobs, if you'd like to see those other jobs please check out his Facebook page 👍 https://www.facebook.com/BonnyWoodInstruments

Squier are releasing a full scale Jazz 6 string https://www.fender.com/en-GB/squier-electric-basses/jazz-bass/affinity-series-jazz-bass-vi/0378671565.html At least it makes use of all that headstock real estate?

For festivals, you need to find out how they're managing merch sales. It varies depending on the size of the festival, but bigger, better organised ones will have a centralised merch setup where they'll sell for all bands and charge a commission. Also, with a festival - your schedule might have you in and out again in a few hours. If you want to make the most of sales you need to think about if you want your merch there for the duration of the weekend and not just the few hours you're on site, so you'd have to ship it in and out. You should be able to get this information from whoever you're advancing the festival show with. For the "arena" show - are you the headline artist or part of a bigger bill? Do you know if the venue charges a concession? If you're the main draw and selling enough tickets to fill a 750 cap room then it's absolutely worth your while to be selling merch. If you're the opener, your return on investment is going to be much smaller as people aren't there to see you specifically so you're a harder sell at the merch desk, by and large. As others have mentioned, many larger venues do levy a charge and it's not usually negotiable. What you get for your money varies wildly here. Some venues charge you for the privilege of selling under their roof and do nothing else to help. Others will provide sellers at one or more locations in the building, load your products on to their POS systems, count your stock in and out etc. Theatre venues usually charge 15-25% plus VAT commission on your sales. O2 Academy concession charges apply in most of their venues, where they contract a third party company (who are usually very good) to manage it, and have recently been reduced from 20% to 15% (again, plus VAT). If you negotiate not to use their in-house concession (or if you're in a venue in their chain that doesn't have one) you'll usually be charged 12p/head +VAT instead. Sometimes there's leeway for some of the above for support bands on a show but this is very much case-by-case and depends on who you deal with on the day and how well you sweet talk them. I've been spared commission altogether on support gigs, or had a threshold of sales put in place before it kicks in. If you're providing your own seller(s), you also need to factor in wages, and get your hands on a card terminal. Zettle and SumUp are both affordable to buy and have reasonable fees (around 2%). Keep accurate records - count out your inventory in good time at the show, and count it back in at the end of the night. Make sure your sales figures match your stock, and if you've had a venue concession sell for you, make sure their count matches yours. The figure used to track merch sales is the Sales Per Head - so divide your total revenue by the number of attendees at the show. Keeping tabs on this helps you make better projections in future for how much stock you need and how much you can expect to make. Some bands might average £2p/h, some sell by the bucketload and can hit £20p/h and beyond! All depends on your demographic, the quality of your merch, and how efficiently you're selling it, but having some history on what that number looks like for your band is really useful when deciding what to order next time out. If I can shamelessly plug a friend too, my go-to supplier is Ozzi at Oz Merch & Touring (https://www.ozmerchco.co.uk/). They deal with every flavour of band merch from small bands to huge ones and it's always good quality and reasonably priced. Edit to add: Another important thing is how you present it. Think about display boards/grids to hang garments on, hangers if needed, making sure the display is presentable and well lit, and printing out signage for prices etc. a scruffy shirt gaffered to a wall in a dark corner isn't a great sales pitch.

Aye, turned out lovely 🙂 Just in from work, Mark has sent me these photos with a wee note saying he thinks it's time to leave things to settle for a couple of weeks .

I twisted for ages on snapping that up myself, but I really don't need a 4-string. But a Rivoli-style would be a good one to noodle about on.

At the two O2 Arena gigs I have done they had a single PoS location for festival and band merchandise with someone employed by the festival to sell all the merch, so IMO it was worth the 10 or 15% that they took.

My band put ona 250 capacity show in May. We sold 4 tees at the event. I know design, colour, size availability etc could factor into how many you sell, but for me it was more hassle than it was worth!

I've only come across this twice in the last 15 years (both times at O2 Arenas).

I saw them on the American Idiot tour too when they played the Milton Keynes Bowl and they were fantastic.

Agreed. Our singer picked one up on t'Bay for £35 in mint condition. It's far superior to a SM58.

In addition to @BigRedX’s excellent summary I’ll add; think about how you’ll store and keep the stuff between gigs and who has responsibility for transporting it back and forth. When I was in a band that shifted a lot of t-shirts we kept them in an old-style suitcase bought at a charity shop. It kept them clean and neat and when opened up on table looked good, and a little “spivvy”. A bit Private Walker from Dad’s Army.

I had an Italia Torino Bass a few years ago. My 2 cents: yes and no To elaborate: because of the large body, and the bridge sitting relatively far forward, it was a fairly big bass. It had a separate tailpiece which sat farther back, enabling the use of normal longscale strings. That said, because of the weird plucking position relative to the size of the body (and to counter its tendency to topple over forward, because of the arched back) I always wore it somewhat to my side so the 12th fret was more or less dead center in front of me. This added to the shortscale feel of the bass to me, despite the larger size. It was a fun bass, with a big mudbucker up against the fingerboard and a guitar humbucker underneath a closed cover close to the bridge. It sounded big and thunderous and looked great. It was surprisingly heavy due to the solid maple center block below the bridge and pickups, but played great.

What's the logo? Does it work well (really well) as white on black? If not, you may want to push it up to £15 and go less basic. Do you know the type of audience you attract? Is it nearly old XXL blokes or do you need a women's fit style? As with @Doctor J please have a CD available. Finally, get a contactless payment gizmo. So few people carry spare cash these days. Extra finally - whole band on merch stand to chat and sign, yes sign, stuff. I couldn't believe it when I was asked to sign our CD, and even a set list!

76 Precision with old as DAddarrio Chromes SGFX Beta V SGFX /Diamond comp/eq Ashdown klystron 400 fingers, thumb, plectrum all good tone

Just got back from playing for the second year in a row. Its bloody knackering but a lot of fun. Did two shows this year, one at midnight on Friday night and the other at 12:30pm the following day, with two hours of poor sleep between. For me it's a weird one as I never had the desire to go or play but it is a lot of fun and a lot or cool stuff happening every day. I could not do it as a punter though, I like the comforts of being an artist there 😂 As last year, I saw hardly any bands again. This year I watched almost the entire D:ream set of all things (mainly because I was having a lay down at the Glade) and The Breeders, which was a bit more my thing despite only knowing two songs I thought they were great and gave a very honest performance. I did spend twenty minutes watching a crowd of people dancing around a metal bug on a tank with Happy Hardcore DJs, feeling quite perplexed that of all the things they could do there, they choose that. Each to their own I guess!

I love Skynyrd but Freebird is a long long way from my favorite track. With suoer talented guitarists like Skynyrd's, it is OK but any mere mortal axeman cannot do it justice.

Did that once on the day of the gig.

Look at stickers, sew-on patches, logo sunglasses, socks, keychains, i.e. cheap-ish, easy to pick up 80-90 styled wearables.

In my old band we sold loads of tees, had many different designs as well. The main thing I’d say about merch is make it clear that it’s available, just announcing you have some isn’t enough, have it hanging up somewhere with the prices clear. We found that most sales take place at the end of the evening if regular gigs, or immediately after a set if a festival so have someone available to look after the sales whilst the band sort out the gear.

Nice frendly 50th birthday party. Not a large crowd, but they were up for a dance and we had a nice stage and a proper green room as it was at a community centre used for plays.

A fairly quiet one at a social club on the outskirts of Huddersfield last night, a bit of a come down after last weeks bikers rally. Our singist really had to work it to get them up an running and even more to keep em up. Still nowt wrong with the odd paid practice. First outing with the new Sandberg Lionel, didn’t have chance to change the stock strings to my short scale slinkies but they did the job. Amazing how much difference they can make the sound on identical basses in a gig setting…first time I’ve done a direct comparison at a gig.

Today's gig, I'm on the left playing my shiny new mandocello, our new bass player on the right. He's actually very good - better than me. But I'm still playing bass elsewhere, and enjoying the change today on rhythm and backing vocals.

My two

Not something I'm in favour of - I'm trying to downsize (not very successfully TBH) and the Wanted forum has been a useful outlet. I feel that I'm being punished even though I've done nothing wrong.