mrtcat

My drummer described himself as "a taller, slightly more muscular Brad Pitt lookalike" on a dating site. He's a proper ugly lanky streak of p**s but by law of averages he eventually snared a hot girlfriend. I guess these cowboys on Gumtree are working on the same principle.

Thanks for the help chaps. Wanted a piano part as I love the feel it gives to the song but I think it'll be a case of a slight re-jig to make it work without one. We don't do backing tracks to this point but was just thinking it may help fill out nicely as we only have 1 guitarist.

Hey all,

My band are looking at adding American Pie to our set but we don't have a keys player. Our drummer can play to a click without issue. Any ideas where I could get a piano part with click? Preferably a track with music panned one way and click the other.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and you'll undoubtedly be rewarded in whichever afterlife you subscribe to.

I think our ever increasing expectations are causing us to become more disappointed. Essentially the internet stores that are a one stop shop make us expect more from our local shops. Unfortunately in order to compete with the lower online prices (usually aided by the fact the online retail section has minimal overheads) the local shops are having to cut everything to the bone in order to be competetive. This means they can't sit on thousands of pounds worth of stock as they litterally don't have thousands in the bank to outlay on it.

Further to this you would probably find many online stores don't hold stock either. Instead they have a system that will order any non stock items (maybe flats) as soon as you place your order. As deliveries can be quick you don't ever know this has happened.

There are some local shops that do a fantastic job of helping and many offer excellent service which is purely a result of well managed and trained staff with a passion for giving good service. Places like the Bass Merchant, Bass Direct and many other shops survive as they go the extra mile and are true experts - icastle clearly worked in a shop that had it's act together.

Personally I'd rather my local shop had to order something in for me than either go bust and close because it spent out to get every conceivable item on the shelf or charge the earth for everything to fund a massive display of gear. As long as they endeavor to give a friendly and professional service I'll shop with them.

Yeah only take top spot if you know you'll be the best and most supported act. If you're not ready then be patient. If you think you can pull it off tho then do it as it'll be a great springboard.

I absolutely hate with a passion any band that doesn't show up for the whole night. If bands leave when we're on, after we've cheered them on during their set / lent them gear / got the crowd to give them a big cheer, then I rip them to shreds as they leave. I've even stopped mid song to draw everyone's attention to it before. I hate bands with attitudes and don't ever tolerate rudeness. Of course if they have another gig to go to then that's ok lol.

Our band does everything from loud electric 5 pce to acoustic duo. For acoustic stuff I use a P bass with flats. It sounds great and the flats / p combo gives a warm low sound that sits below the mix. In acoustic stuff you are there to add depth and rhythm but you're not competing with drums so you don't have to punch thru.

Acoustic basses don't float my boat one little bit.

Suhweet playing. I'll be in the practice room if anyone needs me.

I feel your pain. Drummers make a band in my eyes. Ours is a great drummer but a total plonker. He endlessly harps on about doubling our fee as he thinks £250 for 2 hrs in a pub is us being ripped off even if we only bring 5 people in. I'd like a happy medium between yours and mine.

We're struggling to get venues to commit..............maybe cos our drummer now says we don't play anywhere for less than £250

Amps and cabs live in the van which lives in the garage and only comes out on gig nights (1-2 times weekly). Basses come in the house for the benefit of stable temperature and humidity. Practice is done with headphones.

When I was a student amps would have been a feature but I kind of grew out of needing to show them off when I left uni. Amps are now a tool and if I weren't gigging I'd store them. Never understood people who use massive amps at home. Totally understand tho that I'm lucky to have somewhere secure to keep them when I'm not using them.

Companies are not obliged to allow people the time off but I find it sad that so many have policies and clauses to prevent people having a hobby / second income. I would hope that common sense was enough. If an employee does something in their spare time that, on occasion, requires a few hours off (in the OP's case this is something relevant to the day job too) then it's a really good management tool. By being flexible you can expect the same in return from the employee. If an employee doesn't play the game and only takes all the time then of course all flexibility with that person stops. As long as it's not constant issue and it doesn't impact on the overall running of business then as a staff respect / morale booster I would call it essential.

Our singer has just received a memo form his company to say they are now formalising their "On Call" system and he now will be on call 1 weekend in four. This means he has to be at home and sober all weekend in case they need him to attend a customer. Remarkably they say he will only get overtime for any actual call outs he attends. I told him to explore the legalities of this as it seems dodgy to me.

I can't offer advice as a pro musician as I'm a mile away from that standard. I can however offer advice as someone who employs people.

I don't quite understand why so many people believe that if you have a music degree and then can't make it as a pro you're gonna end up flipping burgers. I employ 27 people in my business. I do my own recruitment and much as I use CV's as to help in the selection process they are by no means the sole tool for deciding whether someone would make a good employee. Some of my guys earn up to £40K and many of them have just a light sprinkling of GCSE's. To blame the wrong degree for failure to get a job is ludicrous. I would look much deeper into an application if the covering letter intrigues me. In the case of the OP i would instantly see that he has worked hard to pursue something he really believes in. Judging by his grade 8 already I'd wager he's going to work hard to get his degree. The guys I employ who have virtually no qualifications have other things going for them that convinced me they would work well. These things can be seen by a potential employer as long as you present them well.

The problem comes when you encounter someone who spent 6 yrs to complete a 3 yr course. I believe that unless you wish to be a specialist (doctor, architect, structural engineer etc) then do a degree that you will enjoy and have the best chance at completing with a solid grade. Even if you can't ultimately make it in your chosen field you'll have already demonstrated a great range of transferable skills.

My advice would be to not go to uni purely to live a life of student excess. Blowing thousands on beer will not only add to your debt (which I believe to be manageable due to the student loan scheme) but also distract you from being the best you can be.

Finally, to answer the OP's initial question - No I don't believe the real musicians era is going to end. People have been fascinated and inspired by watching first class musicians play live for 1000's of years and I can't see that changing soon. It's kind of like valve amps. We all know they're heavy, can be costly to repair and there are more practical alternatives out there but we all know they rock. In the same way we know computerised music is cheaper / easier to produce but we'd much rather see someone play it live.

Our drummer is a PITA his classic lines are:

"We were brilliant tonight so we need to double our fee when they rebook us"

"I'm not doing an encore unless the pub pay extra for it"

"if we're playing more than three gigs a month next year then I'm gonna want march and October off"

I met him at the O2 in Oxford a few years back. His Loaded band were supporting Black Stone Cherry. He was just the most genuine "somebody" I've ever met and he was really happy to chat. He spent a good 15mins with me and my drummer just chatting about random music stuff. I was a massive gnr fan when I was a teenager and he will always be one of my favourite bass players. More so now cos I can respect him as a nice guy.

[quote name='leroydiamond' timestamp='1323810670' post='1467468']
Yea 180 euro is a significant outlay for sure. However would you give 180 euro for a a top class bass amp or your dream bass guitar? without a doubt you would. Now ask yourself this question. If you suffered significant hearing loss and/or tinnitus would you pay 180 euro to make a full recovery?. Well hears the deal, once your hearing is damaged its damaged forever. No amount of money will undo the damage. i would give every last penny i have to rid myself of hearing loss and tinnitus that has been self induced as a result of playing bass without the proper hearing protection. i used standard plugs thinking i was protecting my hearing. I was fooling myself. Now i use ACS moulded plugs and these have allowed me to retain the hearing I have left and continue to gig. Proper moulded plugs are the best equipment any musician can buy and should be an essential tool for all musicians exposed to loud music. The thing is you really need to get them before you damage your hearing.
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This +1000

I wouldn't buy an amp until I had some moulded plugs. I love my music and intend it to be part of my life til i'm too old to pick up a bass. Having a proper set of plugs that gives a very even reduction across all frequencies means you can wear them at concerts and other bands gigs too without compromising the quality of the sound so you'll wear them there too.

Don't mean to preach but using off the shelf plugs is like riding a motorbike with a bicycle helmet. Yeah it'll give a little protection but if your life depended on it you'd be a worried man.

Following REDLAWMAN's post about progressing, I'm really keen to find myself a good bass teacher for 2012. Anyone know of anyone in my area? I'm based in Bicester nr Oxford.

McFly are my guilty pleasure. I love the fact that they actually play well live and seem to really enjoy themselves. Pls keep this revelation secret for me tho as my mates would tear me to shreds.

Played a wedding nr High Wycombe last night. Both bride and groom are hardened bikers so wanted a rock covers act - we don't get booked for too many weddings as we're defo more rock than pop. The bride was like Nessa from Gavin and Stacey in a black leather dress and knee high boots and was 7 months pregnant. Thankfully everyone showed a great sense of humour when we opened with Billy Idol's "White Wedding". In talks with a promoter who was there who wants us to do a run of biker events next summer which is a good result.

Something tells me you may struggle to shift this on here....what with people knowing their stuff and all that.

any idea what you might be looking for in terms of lightweight amp?

I've had multiple warwicks including a really nice stage 1 streamer. The finish is incredible but a £300 rockbass that I had at the same time sounded pretty much identical so I think they need to find a better reason for the silly price tags they now put on their high end gear. I also have also struggled to find a nice warm sound from a warwick that can hold up against a fender or anything that sits as well as a stingray in the mix.

Bit late I know but we just got booked for NYE at a very busy pub / club in a market town for £500 for a 4 piece covers band. We had to turn down umpteen offers of £200 which we saw as a p### take as we usually go for £300 and have been getting really good reviews. We've seen other bands around us getting their prices squeezed lower and lower recently as the financial climate gets worse.

PM'd

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First up is the LoMenzo hyperdrive. Awesome if you like your metal, not so awesome if, like me, you are an old school clean sound lover. Very useable as you can blend as much or as little of the distortion as you want into the signal and you can isolate individaul bands of frequencies for distorting. True Bypass also. Good general condition but has small scratch on top and is missing one of the rubber feet. Looking for £35 posted including original box and manual.

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Second is an Aphex Aural Exciter with Big Bottom (oo er)
Really nice addition to your rack to brighten and tighten up your sound. Has been rack mounted so you can see where the litle bolts were. Other than that mint with original manual and power supply. Sorry but I dont have the box. Again looking for £35 posted.

Cheers for looking!

It would gall me a little for a keys player to tell me what to do but if the pick sounds better just be magnanimous. That way when there's somwthing about the keys/structure/drums/vox/etc you don't like you have every right to offer an opinion and have it taken seriously. If they ignore you then at least you know how it works and can work out your options from there. Give n take and all that....