peteb

The trouble with that is strings, sticks, etc are low value sales with a low margin. Guitars do have a decent margin but can you sell enough to justify having all your cash tied up in sock? I think that many small shops do rely on repairs to keep going. That is not necessarily true in all (most) areas.

As someone said above, your English is far better than my Swedish...! As far as your reasons to leave a band - all I can say is you would have struggled to stay in a rock band in the UK in the 80s

You may have misunderstood - I don't think that he is referring to taking illicit substances here...

I can't say that depreciation isn't a factor when buying gear, although not a major one for me as I generally buy musical stuff with the intention of keeping it for a long time. Personally, I would always prefer to buy secondhand where possible (especially basses, slightly less so for amps)...

This is one of the many problems that music shops face these days - there isn't the demand for them to afford to carry too much variety of stock, yet this means that they struggle to build up a customer base of people who may occasionally need these items and who are therefore forced to get them online!

I'm not sure that is generally the case, depends on the band I suppose. From what he has put in the ad (the name of the band, etc) it seems that he is probably the frontman / band leader. Anyway, good luck to the guy. I'm not really sure what the point of this thread is - of all of the daft / incredibly unrealistic ads you seem to find on sites like Lemonrock or JMB, this one does not stand out as one of the worst (to me at least)...

Dunno about that – it’s a three piece blues rock set (not exactly Zappa-esque material or a 7 piece funk band complete with brass section) and IF he does have loads of gigs in the diary and IF he is any good, then it should be quite feasible for him to quickly pick up a new rhythm section. Of course, if I was considering taking the gig then I might be interested to know why the drummer was so quick to jump ship when the bass player left…!

If I lived anywhere near Plymouth with the same contacts I have round here (and if he was any good) he would have a full band with two phone calls...!

Am I missing something here??

When I was a kid, me and my mates used to hang out in the biggish local music shop in the next suburb to drool over guitars / basses we couldn’t afford and try out gear that we might be able to save up for. All the staff played in local bands and the place was full of local musos who would take the mickey out of us, show us how to play little bits and pieces and generally give us tips and advice. Fast forward ten years and I am friends / playing in bands with all the staff there and it’s me showing kids how to play the bass line to The Boys Are Back In Town and advising them on gear, etc. It was a really successful shop from the early 70s until well into the 90s. Of course, it closed its doors a long time ago…

I suppose that another USP is that although they are expensive to buy new, you can pick them up pretty cheaply secondhand. £700 will get you a quality classic US built bass that wouldn't be out of place on virtually any gig that you are likely to get.

I think that the selling point is that a Stingray has a pretty unique tone, which works well in most genres. Coupled with this is that Musicman have always had a consistent build quality, something you can't really say about Fender over the years.

So have I, not so much Harley events but definitely 'backpatch' biker club ones.

I have, many times

Cool - great bit of feedback from a punter!

But that is a different type of opportunity than what you would be looking for. There could have been a very similar opportunity available ten or fifteen years ago for a bass player to join the Killers...!

I don’t see what the problem is. The girl can obviously play and she is undoubtedly cute! She is certainly using her looks (in a pretty restrained way) to get attention for her bass playing. The same (on a much higher level) with Nita Strauss. There is no way she would be in Alice Cooper’s band if she didn’t look the way she does, but equally she would never have got the gig if she couldn’t hold her own playing wise! But so what… Ever since the beginning of rock and roll in the 50s, virtually every iconic male act has traded on their image, looks and sex appeal – be it Elvis, the Beatles, Guns N’Roses or hundreds of others. Why should a talented woman be castigated for taking advantage of their looks / image, when it is accepted that it is simply part of the package male artists usually need to be successful??

I got an email from the courier first thing the next morning and another to confirm delivery a few hours later. Remember that I bought the bass over the phone rather than online. If I was you I would give them a ring to check on progress / delivery.

I just bought a Jazz Bass from them over the phone on Monday. All went very smoothly and I had the bass the next day.

I had a similar issue with rather 'high cost ' bass (a Warwick Streamer Stage 1) at a bike rally a bit ago, in front of one of the biggest crowds I've played to in recent years. Fortunately I had a spare bass to hand and nobody noticed, but trying to change batteries in an active bass in a hurry backstage is certainly one of those banana skins that can trip you up if you're not careful...

I think that Blue’s original list was pretty sound, if a touch excessive on one or two points – do you really need a dedicated sound engineer / lighting guy for a pub band or is that just another mouth (or two) to feed?? I recently saw an article about this subject that I thought mad a lot of sense. I’m not sure who wrote it, but some pro who gets decent gigs, who said that there were three elements that he considered before taking a gig: the music, the hang and the money. ‘The music’ is obviously if the other musicians are of a good standard and if you like the music that they are going to play, ‘the hang’ refers to if you like them as people with ‘the money’ meaning was it a decent payer. For him to take the gig then at least two of those elements has to be in place, so for example he suggests that you might consider a gig playing music you don’t care for if it is with friends and pays well. To put it in context for my personal situation, I’m currently standing in for a band for a few months who are OK but possibly not the sort of stuff that I would normally play, but they are great guys and I’m earning decent money. On the other hand, me and some friends (who are good players) have been trying to put together a side project playing music that I really like but will probably not make much cash.

Nice clip, thanks for posting. Made me check out the original again as well, which I always thought was Jaco at his most accessible. Page's solo was cool as well...

Same difference...!

Not sure that he was ever quite up to singing 'Reach For The Stars'...

The thing is that Bobby Kimball was, once upon a time, one of the greatest singers around. It is quite shocking that he can actually sing that poorly...