mrtcat

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1350988515' post='1845831'] I doubt we can know how much of an undersell it is..... going rates are all relative....bla bla.. But you should all have..or all SHOULD, sit down and discuss what you will go out for under certain parameters and conditions. I wouldn't blame the guy who goes out and gets the gigs so much..I blame the rest of the guys not setting understood and agreed guidelines. Some guys are very active and others not so,...for all sorts of reasons, but the guy getting gigs needs support not a bollocking. Accept that you didn't have a decent system in place..and therefore fulfil it/them thru gritted teeth..and then get an agreed price structure for future dates. We do this with a online calender..where everyone updates it and then I send out confirmation e-mails with price and any detail for a quick check by all. I expect them to come back to me within 24 hrs latest...and they do..if they have any probs as I am telling the venue/booker we will confirm within that time [/quote] This. In our early days I went out and found us gigs only to be blasted by other members who couldn't be arsed to go looking but wanted more cash. i know the op isnt issuing a bollocking or being unreasonable (quite the opposite as he's seeking some objective advice) but anyone actually booking stuff needs a pat on the back and he'd probably really benefit from having some guidelines. FWIW we do pubs for £200-£300, parties for £300-£500 (plus travel) and weddings for £600-£900. We're essentially a pop rock covers band (4pce) and although we're pretty entertaining we're realistic that we're not as slick as a big 6+pce function outfit and 60% of our gigs are pubs.

Ours cost about £40 and is made from a black cotton sheet with iron on printer paper from staples. I just printed the letters, cut them out and ironed them on. My wife tidied up the sheet edges by stitching a hem all round. The top hem is a big loop so we can either run a pole thu it, pin it up or gaff tape it to the wall behind. Since this pic was taken we splashed out another £5 to have our website address ironed on. Works a treat as now any pics taken of us in pubs don't havre dart boards, lamps, brass tack, specials menu etc in the background [attachment=121743:IMG_3523.JPG]

Anyone gigging near solihul tonight? The wife and I are visiting my folks there and they'll no doubt be tucked up early so we'll head out if anyone's playing.

[quote name='Sean' timestamp='1349731667' post='1829911'] Nitromors isn't even blemishing the finish! Heat gun tomorrow night. The neck is sanding off really easily though. [/quote] What's the finish? If its nitrocellulose or similar it'll rub off with the appropriate thinners.

Hi loki, do you fit leds for other people or do you only do your own basses? If you fit for others would you retrofit front dots and how much?I've got a yamaha neck I'm about to use for a build with 12 dots. Very interested in this.

You can't educate pork. Play boyzone and Val Doonican and you'll be bombarded with punters. Whatever you do don't play decent music.

Green Day and The Foo Fighters were hands down the best of the festival. There's definately a reason they're the biggest names there.

The lady is getting the "mate rate" by way of a free Dj. If your guitarist also wants to waive his gig fee that's his call but if he or she expects anyone else to drop their fee then their not being fair. We're playing my best mates wedding in a few weeks (I'm also best man) and I'm giving him the services of our band as a wedding gift. I have however offered to pay the rest of the band. Two have said they don't want my money but one does. I have absolutely no problem with this as its only fair and he's never asked me to play for free.

I firmly believe there's a right price for each gig. It all depends on the venue, the band and various other factors. To some venues on some days you will be worth £x and at another venue on another day you will be worth £y. The thing is the money / enjoyment you get has to make the effort worthwhile for you and your bandmates. So when the venue and band agree a price which works for both parties then that is the right price. This may be £200 or it may be £1000 but I guess what I'm saying is all gigs should be looked at individually. I always make people's financial expectations one of my first questions when auditioning musicians or joining bands. Money doesn't really bother me but I've been in a band where we rarely gigged as drummer wanted £100 before he'd pick up sticks. Likewise I wouldn't want to be playing week in week out for a tenner each. The thing that really annoys me tho is venues who expect every band to bring in tons of punters. Bands and venues both have a responsibility for promotion and if run well a venue will have regulars because the venue will be paying the right money to the right bands every week so people would know its worth visiting the venue.

You may be a little overweight but they're c###s and you can diet.

You did the right thing. It's one thing to strive for quality it's another thing altogether to only accept record like quality in a band that's meant to be fun. Then to come close to swinging for each other is madness. Unless its a punk band where fighting goes with the territory.

Get there super early as anything that's actually a bargain will go in a flash.

I had a Stage 1 Streamer ans a rockbass corvette. Both sounded great which ultimately led to me not liking the streamer which cost me exactly 10 times what the rockbass did.

[quote name='TPJ' timestamp='1342781264' post='1740790'] Doesn't mrtcat on here build them? He also does BFM cabs. [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/144296-bill-fitzmaurice-builder/page__view__findpost__p__1291757"]Says so here[/url] [/quote] I have indeed built a few of these. I have one myself that I use regularly and it's a smashing cab. I'm afraid I'm not taking any building orders at the moment though as I just accepted a job on a project in Greece building a watersports centre for Uk company Mark Warner. If it goes well will have three more to follow so will be out of UK mon to fri for the forseeable.

Killer band. Great live show. Taylor Hawkins once squared up to our drummer when he (our drummer) was drum tech for spinal tap at live earth. Makes me think he may be a dick as our drummer is a really nice chap who wouldn't hurt a fly.

Steve Moore is a legend. This is a proper old vid but he's made a very tidy career in recent years as a result of it. I saw him live in vegas years ago with Rick K and The Allnighters and didn't know whether to laugh at first.

Blocks on P basses look killer to me.

Not my bag at all. Thought drummer was good but rest were dull dull dull.

Wholly agree with OP. I find a lot of these guys seem keen to demonstrate technical ability in preference of using that ability in conjunction with confidence in their imagination. That said when it comes to "groundbreaking" new material you generally have to wade through plenty of guff before finding something that is both new and actually good to hear.

If it's what his regulars have asked him to do then absolutely fair enough. Most of us are bored of playing them anyhow. If it's just his personal taste then by all means he has every right to request you don't play them but on his own head be it. We know too well how some of the less music concious punters in many pubs will be miffed if they don't get what they want.

We do weddings, functions, pubs, beer festivals and parties. I am solely responsible for our FOH sound as everyone else in the band would happily settle for a crappy cheap system. I'm an authorised BFM builder (although my day job has recently curtailed much of my building - to be fair I am usually bombarded with enquiries for custom built gear by people expecting a bespoke build to be far cheaper than an off the shelf solution) so as you can imagine all our cabs are self built. I have 4 x BFM DR200s and 8 x Titan 39's, a mackie 1640i desk, a Behringer DCX2496 crossover (best on the market by a country mile due to it's brickwall limiters), a Behringer DEQ2496 (again exceptional value as it has RTA function built in which is essential with BFM cabs), three crown XTi amps (1 for subs, one for tops, one for monitors) and a bunch of rack mount plugins (reverb, eq's, compressors etc). We get tons of bookings on the back of the sound quality. I always start by soundchecking drums, then add bass so it fits nicely on top, then guitar and finally get vocals to sit on top. To be fair these days most settings stay the same and I just tweak to combat venue acoustics. As I built all cabs myself and scoured ebay/gumtree/basschat for electronics our entire rig cost less then a pair of mackie subs and tops (Mackie SRM450's are undeniably the worst speakers I've ever heard - so so harsh). Is it any good? Oh hell yeah it's f###ing killer.

Enjoy. You'll slay them with the cheese they want and you'll love it!

[quote name='ken_white' timestamp='1345835761' post='1782324'] The trouble i got with my drummer is he's my brother and i can't kick him out. He has trouble keeping time, And it throws everyone out, and to top it off he has a massive ego and will argue with any help or constructive critism! He just plays the same roles out of time! we're only a covers band, but i spend hours practicing and trying to get things perfect, and feel quite deflated when i play with him. Any suggestions?? I'd love to play with a brilliant drummer!! [/quote] Very tricky but you either confront him, put up with it or leave the band. You know him better than we do but if it were me I'd seriously consider the last option as you're clearly frustrated.

We just shifted our drummer out as he was a complete @r$3hol3. He was always banging on about wanting more money and then would cancel gigs last minute if it was too far away or not paying enough. Turns out he cancelled a gig to rehearse with his old band as they're doing a one off reunion gig next month. When I found out I told him to try get his old band back together cos he's done with this one. Now to find a replacement. Luckily we have a solid dep (the drummer from my other band) who's killer but he can't do two bands so he's only a temporary fit. Been advertising recently but had no real promising takers. One guy asked for an audition today but turned him down as he said he had no kit and his wife wouldn't let him buy one. He said he knew someone that would lend him one for gigs as long as that chap wasn't using it himself. WTF!!!!!

When learning covers for my regular band I usually do it by ear and then practice by playing along. I've now joined a second project (another covers band) and the standard is really high but several songs are going to be played in a totally different key to the original recording. Is there a piece of software or hardware I can get hold of that will change the key of a song so I can practice along to it at home?