peteb

I had that with a Stingray once. I couldn't find the rattle anywhere and ended up taking it to Chris Dobson (who builds Alpha basses). After he had identified what the issue was, he fixed it by dripping superglue into the tuner.

In this case, I think that it was pretty obvious how it was going to play out. If you work for a small company where things are not working as well as you think they should, you don’t go and confront your boss and say ‘you’re rubbish and I want you to start doing things that I tell you to’. You either leave (maybe set up in competition) or you try to start changing the culture of the company in small ways to help improve things. It doesn’t matter if you are in the right or not, they are just going to get someone else to do your job. They might go bust as a result or they might prosper with your replacement, but either way you have still lost your job and probably are not going to get a decent reference from them. Equally, if you want to people to listen to you and do the things that you suggest, it helps if you have a track record of some sort and a decent CV that you can point to. Until you have got that behind you, there will always be some idiot who won’t be prepared to listen to you because they think that they know better. If you’ve played loads of gigs with some of the better players in town, then guys like this guitar player will be much more inclined to listen.

But surely you realised that was always going to happen?

I don't know if any one has seen the Know Your Bass Player YouTube channel (a couple of senior US session players talking to various old bass players), but there's an interview with (I think) Rick Wills where they talk about the mods they've all done to their old Fenders. They all agreed that a bass isn't really 'yours' until you've drilled a hole in it! I've always modded every Fender that I've ever owned (and a few Fender 'inspired' basses) - a few quite substantially. The secret is to try and make it so that you can get back to its original state if you decide to sell it. I lost quite a lot of money on a 70s P bass that I had modded. Everything that I did to it made it a better bass, but unfortunately I also stripped the olympic white paint job back to natural wood, which not something that you can easily reverse!

I have Barts on both of my passive Fenders (Precision & Jazz bases).

oops, double post

To be fair, it's only a fact because you say it is - we haven't heard the guitarist's side! Now, I think that you are probably right and what he is doing is totally unreasonable / incompetent and that he is pretty clueless. For me, the interesting thing beyond your own particular circumstances, is how musicians in different but similar situations can navigate band politics when these types of things arise.

The thing is that I don't know whether you are right, because I haven't seen your band play and I don't know (by reputation or otherwise) any of the musicians involved and you can't point to any past track record to say that you are the one who is in the right. Everyone commenting here is taking your side because you are a regular poster on this bass forum, but no one really knows. For what it is worth, what you say rings pretty true and I image that it's likely that you are right, but I certainly can't say that for certain. But the bottom line is that you find yourself without a band because of a falling out with the de facto band leader for whatever reason. For me, the interesting thing is what an inexperienced bass player can take away from this thread and how they can learn from your hard-earned experience.

Well the OP has been forced out of a band because he has had a fallout with the guitarist, who was in effect the band leader. This seems to be because of the guitarist's timing issues, but I don't really know who was actually at fault there because I've never seen them play.

That was my point about six pages ago! It is very hard really know how to take these types of thread - I've never seen these guys, so you really don't know how good / bad they are so you don't know who is in the right! I've played with guys with big egos, but never where they have issues like this. It was inevitable that it was going to end this way.

Well, that was sadly inevitable

I think that it has been pretty well documented that Page's drug use and Bonham's drinking had taken their toll by the time In Through The Out Door was recorded.

Page was by all accounts on a bit of a downward heroin spiral at the time and the band was starting to fall apart. I would love to have seen them at Earl's Court in 75, when they were at their peak.

Page was by all accounts on a bit of a downward heroin spiral at the time and the band was starting to fall apart. I would love to have seen them at Earl's Court in 75, when they were at their peak.

Page was by all accounts on a bit of a downward heroin spiral at the time and the band was starting to fall apart. I would love to have seen them at Earl's Court in 75, when they were at their peak.

Page was by all accounts on a bit of a downward heroin spiral at the time and the band was starting to fall apart. I would love to have seen them at Earl's Court in 75, when they were at their peak.

Page was by all accounts on a bit of a downward heroin spiral at the time and the band was starting to fall apart. I would love to have seen them at Earl's Court in 75, when they were at their peak.

I really wanted to see Zep at Knebworth in 79. Unfortunately, I was just a little too young...

This sums it up pretty much. I have played in many 'power trio' types of bands and the secret is getting as full a sound as possible and learning when you play busier parts, when to keep it simple and when to leave gaps. It also needs the guitar player to develop his approach to playing in a three piece. Some guitarists love the freedom it gives them, but some prefer to have another guitar there and the possibilities that gives to work as a team. Pedals are not the answer (at all) and the type of bass is pretty much irrelevant. It is just something you learn how to do and a slightly different approach to playing in bands with more instruments on the bandstand.

That used to be my local back in the 80s! I do like a decent blues jam - shame that they didn't start the jam there 20 plus years earlier...

Yea, I sold my 78 P bass to buy a Guild Pilot in the mid 80s. Not the best move I ever made, although I did recently buy my old P bass back (for 5x what I sold it for)!

Probably the best thing for it and certainly easier than carrying it down the stars. I assume that he gigged it the next night without any issue...

Yes, it can quickly become a bit Spinal Tap. I know one band (not exactly the best band on the circuit, but I did dep for them a few times for my sins), where the BL's girlfriend used to come to gigs and rehearsals and then started to email band members with notes on their performance, good and bad. To be fair, he did dump her not long after she started doing that...

Catch 22 again - do you want to leave the band and pull the gig and for them to blame you and tell everyone that it was your fault? I would do the gig and see how it goes.

To be honest, that all sounds a bit chaotic. I agree with Mart to do the gig and then reappraise the situation. The trouble you have is that you haven't done a lot of gigs over the years, so you are not known to a wide pool of musicians who might want you to join their band. It is a bit of a catch 22 situation, do you stick around to get your name better known or do you leave a dysfunctional band?