Jean-Luc Pickguard

I came out after playing a multi-band charity gig at the Grove in South Wimbledon on a Sunday evening to find my car had been broken into. A bass rig for all bands to use was setup onstage before I got there and no storage area in the venue meant I had to reluctantly leave my Ashdown rig in the car. I originally though I'd lost my rig but it was still in the car. There are still scratch marks around the CD player though where the daft b'stards tried to nick it - why anyone would want that old piece of junk is beyond me but they didn't get it as its bolted in from the back. Blummin' nuisance to get the glass cleaned up & replaced.

I prefer guitar amps raised as the bass frequencies often can mush into the bass region otherwise - especially with humbucker guitars. Anywhere you play is likely to have beercrates and failing that a spare chair/stool which do a perfectly good job though. One more thing to carry - no thanks. Saying that, an idea I had once (which I didn't do anything about as I though it was a daft idea on reflection) was for a gear box to hold cables, mics, pedals / bits & bobs about the same size as a speaker cab and styled to look like one in tolex with a fabric panel to suggest a speaker/baffle. Even though this is a daft idea, some guitarists would probably love this as it could. [list=1] [*]raise their amp up [*]Give a home to loads of bits & bobs they probably carry around in asda 'bags for life' [*]look like they have a bigger rig (& therefore a bigger c**k) [/list]

My '81 Precision has a few bits of birdseye in the neck, but nowhere near as much as that. Does it disprove the myth (at least I think its a myth) that birdseye necks are less stable? Before this, the nicest 'bonus' figuring on a standard model guitar/bass I've seen is on the neck of my mid-80s casio midi guitar which is much like a MIJ fender strat but has an extraordinary amount & depth of flame in the neck.

Mr Fagina

Precision in the traditional place with a passive tone/volume.

[quote name='bluesparky' post='965958' date='Sep 23 2010, 06:51 PM']...literally a bed sheet with the band's name written on it with a sharpie minutes before the went on stage.[/quote] Yep - been there done that when I was much younger! My mum wasn't happy - I didn't think she'd miss a sheet. Last one I did I used a dustsheet from B&Q & carpaint, but the ebay link above looks worth a look 6" x 2" for under £30 - bargain.

[quote name='bumnote' post='965256' date='Sep 23 2010, 08:37 AM']is it the dressing up that bothers you.[/quote] Surely that's the best bit?

[quote name='Johnston' post='964882' date='Sep 22 2010, 08:21 PM']Don't have them problems with tab. 4th fret on the A is always 4th fret on the A. [/quote] Which string's the A again ?

He only THINKS he plays through all that gear. The soundman really takes a DI straight from the bass into the desk where its processed via a £100 multiFX pedal. Of course the tech couldn't say that on the video or Chris W would find out.

If there is a difference between being in a tribute band or backing a tribute singer, no one cares. Playing originals in a pub to the staff, four punters and a dog but with your credibility intact is much better.

[quote name='Beedster' post='963881' date='Sep 21 2010, 10:25 PM']Badass bridges, good on Jazzes, crap on Precisions. Simples [/quote] That has been my experience - The precision with a BBOT has a punch to the attack which seems to get lost with a high mass bridge. I prefer the jazz with a badass II don't know why though maybe there less low end punch in the attack to start with. That could be bullhsit though

I before you ditch the EMG hook it up to 18v by using 2 batteries. I was going to get rid of mine as I though it was a bit characterless, but it sounds huge with this simple upgrade. The batteries last ages as well so its not as if you're always going to be changing them. The easiest way to get 2 9v batteries to supply 18v (as long as they actually fit in the space available) is to buy three 9v battery clips from maplin & solder them together like this: from: [url="http://home.comcast.net/~mgollihur/emgmod.html"]http://home.comcast.net/~mgollihur/emgmod.html[/url]

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='962037' date='Sep 20 2010, 11:59 AM']Whats the colour scheme? Not checkered is it?[/quote] Knowing Wayne it'll be Sunburst

A few interesting points raised - thanks for everything so far chaps. Yes the target market should be broader than pub bands and every type should be catered for. I'm sure function bands will have different reasons for wanting a site than a pub band and different requirements, so those will need to be identified and addressed. Do bands who use a MySpace or Lemonrock account consider it their website? My perception is that a Wedding band certainly wouldn't, and neither will a lot of other bands. Maybe I'm wrong though, just as some people with bicycles don't need a car. I think what I would be offering will be sufficiently different to the social media services in that the main branding will be the band's own. If a band wants to use the site to build a following and get gigs, the best website in the world won't do it for them, but if they use it as an integral part of their marketing efforts - ie web address on all posters & flyers, cards CDs, letters, forum posts etc it should help multiply those efforts. Double opt-in email Newsletters and maybe an onsite fan forum (if they can develop a fanbase) may be useful as well on the site to make the fans feel like a community.

[quote name='spinynorman' post='959759' date='Sep 17 2010, 06:21 PM']The difficult thing about creating a great looking website isn't website layout and content management, it's graphic design, photography, video.[/quote] Making a website look great is only part of it. Usability, accessibility and visibility to search engines is important. Certain SEO principles are a no-brainer but it's amazing how many people don't bother with alt tags, unique page titles, meta descriptions, correct hierarchy of headings etc - usually the same people who build something fugly using tables for layout with spacer gifs, [quote]...Having dealt with the technical building job, they're then looking to me to provide things like a logo, photos, video. If, as is generally the case, what I can do is mediocre, the site will still look crap, however well it runs technically.[/quote] Descent designers will ask you if you have these things already and supply them if not. They would need to be budget for them though. Its not within a web designer's remit to be a photographer - that's a totally different skillset, so a photographer would be brought in and would need to be paid. [quote]What I would like is for someone to say - I'll design a band logo and a theme for the site, take some good pictures of the band and build it all into a working site for, say £250.[/quote] At that price, a supplied logo as part of the package would need to be very simple, the budget wouldn't allow for much more than the band name attractively rendered in an appropriate typeface possibly with a few tweaks or embellishments, but if a band aren't already using a logo, what are they putting on their posters & flyers? If a logo is designed as part of the web package would the band expect a pdf version as well to put on their printed stuff? A web designer wouldn't normally take the photos. They could supply a photographer, but at a cost. For business sites, licensed stock photos are used a lot and they can be as cheap as £15 or so for a dozen decent pics at the ideal resolution, but obviously that isn't appropriate for a band site. If all you have are live snapshots taken by mates with point & shoots, any designer who knows how to use photoshop properly should be able to improve your photos with cropping, colour & contrast correction etc - or even something funky like turning them into cartoons, paintings or polaroids. [quote]However, I am realistic enough to think it is unlikely that anyone could do that and make a living.[/quote] Awwwww! If you hadn't have said that I would have asked whether you wanted the moon on a stick With my system built, it could probably be done within the budget you mention (but with simple logo, & customer supplied pics.) Once the customer sends text content/pics/mp3s/links to youtube vids and answers a few questions - the aims of the website, how they want the site to look, any specific colours & style - dark/light/clean/grunge/cool/professional/60s/70s/80s/classic/modern/retro/colourful/monochome/metallic/textured/flat etc Then the steps I would take to create the site would be: [list] [*]set up the site nuts & bolts (mostly automated) [*]select child theme for colour scheme & layout [*]create & upload custom site background [*]create & upload custom logo background [*]edit pics & upload for display on pages, image slideshow & gallery [*]upload audio [*]copy/paste page content, add pics & media to pages [*]SEO stuff [*]test & launch [*]send customer user logon details & pdf manual to update content, add gigs etc [/list] Using the system I am building to streamline the design & build process, I would hope it would be possible for a professional, unique & blummin' nice site build to be achieved within half a day from receiving the customer questionnaire, text content & photos. If so it could possibly come close to or within the price point you mention for a full setup & build service. I think I might prefer this approach rather than having people do their own set-up. Hosting, domain registration & support would need to be factored in - maybe the first year could be included in the base price & subsequent years half that?

Talcum powder & silicone rubber

[quote name='mep' post='958861' date='Sep 16 2010, 09:49 PM']Lemonrock £10 a year (I think), job done. But you didn't want to hear that did you?[/quote] If that is all people want then fine, that's why I started this thread as a bit of informal market research to gauge whether there is a market. If most people in bands don't know or care about the differences between a profile on a social network and a website, then perhaps there isn't much of a market for this. Better I find out now. Thanks for all the replies so far chaps.

[quote name='Stingray5' post='958381' date='Sep 16 2010, 02:51 PM']I had a feeling (oo-er missus!) and dug around a bit and can tell you it's Gordon Edwards on bass. You might be interested to know it's also Cornell Dupree on second guitar and Richard Tee on keys. The three of them, of course, all being members of Stuff. [/quote] Wow! Cheers. I've never heard of Gordon Edwards or Stuff before, but I think I need to have a listen to some of their tracks.

I am occasionally asked for a ballpark price for creating a professional website for a band with the features they need and the a facility to manage it themselves. Ballpark figures are usually difficult without a defined project scope, but as band websites often have similar requirements I can usually get a good idea of what is needed and give an answer based on a few options. Unfortunately my reply is often followed by a stunned silence as the cost of doing it properly and keeping my business in profit tends to frighten people off, especially when they realise that on top of the design & build cost they also have to pay an annual fee for hosting either to me as a hosting reseller or to another hosting company. As band sites often have similar aims and requirements, I'm thinking it could be worth providing a platform where band's can have professional looking website with the functionality they need and customisable design, but without the cost of a fully bespoke project. I first had the seed of an idea to do something like this following a discussion with Si O-G. Sadly I never had the chance to ask him whether he would like to be involved in it, but I hope that in some small way this would be able to stand as a tribute to the selfless help he has given people over the years as when I think of band websites I often think "what would Si do?". My idea is to create a platform based on a content management system loaded with a custom theme and selectable child themes which change the colour scheme and look & feel. Every band has its own personality & style which it should be able to get across in the design of its website, so I would put together varied styles to be sure of having something for everyone, and also provide features to enable people to further customise their design without needing to know all the techie stuff. As standard each band's site will use a subdomain URL (such as [url="http://bandname.blahblahwhatever.co.uk)"]http://bandname.blahblahwhatever.co.uk)[/url], but it would be possible to provide an upgrade to allow people to use their own domain and/or order a domain to use (such as [url="http://www.bandname.co.uk)"]http://www.bandname.co.uk)[/url]. Features I'm thinking about including to make this as useful &amp; flexible as possible would be [list] [*]When first set up, several pages will exist with default placeholder text, which can be replaced with the real text and then new pages created in the CMS [*]A gig listing system [*]Band News / Blog / Journal with tags & categories [*]Selectable Display fonts for Headings and Band Name in Masthead [*]upload custom site background to replace default in theme [*]upload custom logo to replace band name in masthead [*]Homepage image slider with animated transitions</li> [*]Photo Gallery with lightbox display (when you click on a thumbnail a large version of the pic appears) [*]Dropdown menu which is automatically updated whenever a page is added [*]embedded MP3 players [*]Site search [*]Contact page [*]Various widgets which can be added to the sidebar - eg latest tweets, pic gallery, upcoming gigs etc [*]Youtube/Vimeo video embedding [*]Social Media share links on each page for driving traffic from facebook, myspace, twitter etc [*]"For Dummies" type printable pdf manual, plus online version covering all admin &amp; editing functions plus content tips [/list] Other features which may or may not be included, or could be offered as part of the premium package or as addons [list] [*]Own Domain Name [*]eCommerce to sell Merchandise / CDs / MP3 [*]Forum to build a community of fans [*]A service to create additional custom theme, background graphic and/or logo if a band wants one [*]A service to populate the site with the bands initial content as if I'm creating a bespoke site [/list] Issues I will have to address would be things like: [list] [*]Getting a good balance between too few & too many options [*]Keeping the admin as simple and jargon-free as possible without sacrificing flexibility [*]Even though the plan will probably be for online documentation and a printable manual to be available, I won't kid myself that people will always think of actually looking at it, so I could set up a support forum to provide support to users and hopefully users would help each other out with common issues they may encounter. I could maybe provide a user-to-user marketplace for hooking people up with their custom logo graphics & backgrounds in the forum [/list] I'm currently looking at this as a skunkworks project alongside my full time freelance business at the moment. I'm in the early stages, but I should have a something ready for testing within a few weeks and once I've done some initial testing with some dummy sites in varied styles (I'm jotting down some fake band names for this), I'll probably be looking for beta testers to have a play with it &amp; provide feedback and ideas. In the meantime any comments or ideas would be welcome. I would be interested in hearing peoples' views on this idea: Does this sound like a daft idea or do you think people would find it useful? With a target market of pub bands in mind, what price ranges would make this seem like [list] [*]Too cheap so the perception is that it can't be any good [*]a bargain [*]Too high for people to consider? [/list] What additional features (non essential to the standard package) might add value in a premium version? This project is at a very early stage, so nothing is set in stone, I have a name for this & registered the domain name for branding it and will disclose that when I have something worth looking at. I want to provide a service people will enjoy using and get a lot of value from, so any input from people here which would help with those goals will be most welcome. Thanks for reading this rather lengthy post and, to anyone who replies to the thread, thanks for your input.

Grant Green's 'The final comedown' on Blue Note Blue Break Beats vol1 has just played on my iTunes. What a groove! I'm sure the bass has to be Willie Weeks - the tone and phrasing reminds me of his playing on the Donny Hathaway Live album - one of my favourite albums. Anyone know whether it is actually Willie Weeks? or maybe someone else with a similar style? Here's the track is on YT: Any other bass playing cropped up unexpectedly on a track that make you jump up & say to yourself "that sounds like whoever?"

If I saw one for that price and there was nothing seriously wrong with it and I liked how it played I'd have bought it - sounds like a bargain to me.

I've always thought that Boss is more [b]boss[/b] than Roland.

[quote name='Telebass' post='892920' date='Jul 12 2010, 04:20 PM']In order to fit vintage bushings to current Fenders and Squiers, I cut up a plastic shampoo bottle into strips, wound the strips around the bush, then pushed that all in. Worked a treat. However, that's a bigger difference than you are having to overcome. Otherwise, plumber's tape.[/quote] but what do you do with the shampoo?

squirt a bit of araldite in there & hold it together for ten minutes & it'll be good as new. Nah - take to someone who knows what they're doing - I bet Si (Old Git) will know the best place near Cardiff to take it. If it was mine (S London) I'd on the way to the Gallery or Charlie Chandlers or Feline depending on how far I could be bothered to travel.

I probably needed a setup - most shops take 'em out of the box and hang 'em on the wall.