mrtcat

Many of Lidl's "Parkside" brand power tools come out of the same factory that also produce Bosch tools. When you open them up lots of the parts are identical. Not necessarily ideal for pro use but far better quality than the usual Black & Decker, Worx etc that you find in big box diy stores.

Yep happens every now and then. As long as it's all agreed at time of booking and they're paying accordingly its fine. we get the occasional Bridezlla who emails two days before to tell us she's decided she wants us to be there at 9am or similar to set up but unless it's in the agreement or they want to pay extra then she ends up disappointed. Usually theres a sound engineer and PA hire company so pack down for us is a breeze.

Just buy and fit the speaker yourself. £65 to fit a new driver is criminal. I hope some of the £65 was to cover looking at the amp although any decent tech should spot a blown driver within seconds.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1440421502' post='2850519'] The Bell. [/quote] First time I played there I thought it was going to be a nightmare as it really didn't seem like a music loving pub but turned out that the locals in there really like a decent band so I was pleasantly surprised. We were pretty much in the front window bay as I recall. We still play the Swan in Wantage quite often as it gets a good crowd and has in house PA & engineer.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1440363095' post='2850156'] Just back from our first time at a pub in Wantage. Got the gig as a result of a cancellation. Only found out when we got there that we were expected to play for three hours. Band was in top form, guitarist in particular was on fire. Place was packed, we went down well and they want us back. We'll need to pace ourselves better for the the 3 hours next time though. [/quote] Which pub? We play Wantage reasonably often and there's some good places. We played a wedding on Saturday in the hottest marquee on the planet. Drank 7 pints of water during a 3hr show. [attachment=199200:11953451_10152972731851372_8666383493687869712_o.jpg]

I do some BV's but mostly as a double up of the lead part in choruses etc- would be interested if anyone knows any good places on the internet for learning more about singing a harmony part.

Swamp Groove

Unlikely to bring gigs to you, unlikely to bring punters to gigs but does give a place to put demos / photos / videos if you haven't got a website or FB page. Essentially for me a total waste of time & £20.

You would hope that whoever designed these would have known all that. Makes you wonder what other daft things they've done. They look more suited to living in the front room than out on the road.

A BDDI is why I don't GAS after expensive amps these days. No matter what amp I had I always ended putting the BDDI in front of it and usually set amp and pedal flat with the blend and drive on the pedal both set at about 10 o'clock. I just use the level dial on the pedal to match up so there's no boost or loss of volume when it's on. Means every amp sounds pretty much the same. I need to get out more.

Reaper all day long for me. $60 and great online support.

PA ownership share is always something I'd avoid. It just leads to complicated situations like this. I own the PA we use but take an extra cut at gigs to cover buying, storage etc. Our old guitarist used to complain about this as he said "everyone helps set it up and pack it down" but I reminded him I load it into the car before leaving for gigs and then unload it at 1-2-3am in the morning when I get home and store it. I'd discuss it all at next gig / rehearsal / beers and 1)ask the singer for some cash and 2) tell him he needs to store his share of it. Problem is if you walk someone is going to have to agree to buy your share out.

So two years ago we moved into Northamptonshire and one of the things I really wanted was an outbuilding / shed so I could do lots of woodworking etc. At the time I was building pa cabs (BFM included) as a sideline income. The place we found fit the bill perfectly and had a huge shed and the house / garden was exactly what we wanted. So after being on the market just three hours we made the offer and bought it. [attachment=198777:IMG_6975.JPG] Last year we had a little girl and I also gave up cab building. I needed somewhere to practice without waking littl'un and the shed seemed like the perfect space. This spring I finally got round to pulling my finger out and making use of the space. The shed was already lined, insulated and had full electrics. I built a frame inside, insulated with acoustic insulation, used what seemed like 1,000,000 genie clips and floated acoustic plasterboard and then had my first ever go at plastering. The end result was pretty decent. I still have half of the shed as workshop and as you can see a really useable practice / recording / band rehearsal space. Found a drum kit for £80 on gumtree and with the addition of some decent drum heads we are up and running! I made some window inserts from an old memory foam mattress and some acoustic foam and used a whole mattress on the inside of the door. The result is we can have full band rehearsal in the shed and you can't hear a thing from the house. [attachment=198778:IMG_6969.JPG] [attachment=198779:IMG_6971.JPG] [attachment=198780:IMG_6973.JPG] Just finishing our first band demos this week

We never play for free. I wouldn't expect the guys in the bands I play with to do it and they wouldn't expect me to. NYE is a working and earning night or a quality time with the family night. Landlords can offer what they want (cash, beer, food etc) and in all fairness only they know what works for their business but I have no qualms in politely turning them down. The pub trade is in tatters largely which is why so many landlords try it on and why many of us look elsewhere for gigs.

The Swan in Wantage Oxfordshire is the easiest gig ever. Always a good crowd, pa, lights and sound engineer provided and the bar staff always friendly. Not a huge payer but a really good showcase venue.

Hi all, trying to do a demo or two for my band on a shoestring. Recorded this in my shed using a focusrite interface into reaper then tried my hand at mixing and mastering myself. Honest opinions welcomed / needed. [url="https://soundcloud.com/tom-caswell-3"]https://soundcloud.com/tom-caswell-3[/url] BV's are still to be added and I'll obviously remove the blooper at the end before it goes out anywhere.

At uni I did a study based around board sports where one foot leads (think skateboarding where some people put left foot at the front of the board and others the right). Essentially we all have a naturally preferred way of doing it. You can learn to do it the other way round and to a high standard but ultimately your long term progress is slower if you are fighting your body and doing it the less natural way. I think everyone should embrace their pre programmed tendency and that's why left handed instruments make perfect sense. I imagine that the reason it's uncommon in more traditional instruments is purely down to old beliefs that being left handed is a sign of something evil. That said I'm left hand dominant but find playing right handed far easier. I do however have to work really hard at slap bass as my non dominant hand is having to do far more complex stuff.

Used to play in a function band with a guitarist who used a les Paul and it was gash at the funky chic type stuff. Great for rock tho.

[quote name='el borracho' timestamp='1439328305' post='2842007'] an old Mini with the passenger seat taken out to fit the cab in! [/quote] Haha that's exactly what I did. Sometimes my girlfriend had to sit in the back seat while my trace combo sat in the spot where her seat should have been lol.

Love St Ives, we camp at Gwithian every year and kitesurf at the bluff. The wife and I went on holiday with our drummer, his wife and our guitarist to Kos two years ago and a bar in the town had a live solo guy on every night. He usually played guitar and sang to backing tracks and was ok. The bar had drums and a bass and an amp set up as he'd get any muso's up to join him. Needless to say we got up on the 1st night to do 1-2 songs and ended up doing 2 hrs solid. By the end of the fortnight we'd done six nights and essentially drank and ate there for free whenever we walked in.

Yeah I have to say this is a fairly alien concept to me. From the age of about 14 I used to work my arse off doing paper rounds odd jobs etc to fund basic gear. I always thought that if I wanted to play with a band I'd need an amp etc. As I got older I got better work and so could afford better gear. How do you rehearse?

That's awesome, great job. I bet that was a tricky shape to cut out too. What's it made of and more importantly what does it sound like? Did you use parts from another bass?

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1439050651' post='2839673'] Massive +1. Pisses over BF and Bergs. [/quote] Having built bfm cabs and fearful cabs to a professional standard and also having owned barefaced and berg cabs I can happily confirm that this is not my experience. Yes the fearful cabs are very good but so are all the others and the barefaced and bfms were the winners for me.

I found the dxrs plenty loud but a bit harsh. Try something with a 2 inch hf driver yamaha dsr, rcf art 325/425/725) and you should find it works nicely.