Adrenochrome

My preference would be to take the fret noise down a bit using eq etc as described above. I like a bit of 'clank'

To directly answer the question, without making judgements on others, I think that musicstands look rubbish for a covers band. The main exception is when depping but even then I make efforts to have the music stand to the side and low enough to be barely visible to the audience. Of course the occasional part of a lyric, or particularly weird musical hint is often taped to the back of a mikestand, PA speaker or monitor; and this IMO is fine as the audience can't see them.

YES! Luckily in Delirium all 4 of us sang. Instead of singing lead on one, I sang about 4, and our lead guitarist sang lead on most of the others and I think our drummer sang one. I also did backing vox and other harmonies on all the songs that I usually don't do. We had time to re-arrange the set to make sure we did every songs in our repertoire that had ever been sung by the remaining 3 of us, and it was really hard work. If you only had 1 singer you'd be screwed! We've also had it where our lead guitarist lost his voice and I did all the harmonies, which I generally knew anyway. This was a lot less stressful and actually quite fun.

When I started I just wanted to make music and have fun. Didn't matter if the song was written by the Stooges or my lead guitarist (or even rarely myself). I started gigging about 15 years ago with a set of mainly originals (always for petrol money), and then we were offered a pub gig so we expanded the the covers to make 2 sets of music, about a 50/50 mix. I nearly fell over when the landlord gladly gave us £150 quid and wanted to rebook us, as our set had only been put together to please ourselves! 3 of those gigs paid for our first PA system. After 3 years there was a change of name, slight change of direction from garage-rock to hard rock and we recorded a 4-track EP of which I'm still very proud of all the bass parts. During this time we still went out occasionally as a mixed covers/originals band playing pubs, and probably did more originals gigs with other bands. So I ended up as the only wage earner in my family of 4, and I could only afford to play music if there was enough money coming in to fund my hobby. Every band I've been in has written [i]some[/i] original music. My own creativity has waned quite a lot but I never have trouble coming up with basslines for other people's ideas, and always enjoyed arranging - probably the same as most bassists! Most of the best players I know in covers bands also write killer original music, it just doesn't seem to get aired much.

[quote name='bassbiscuits' timestamp='1417531957' post='2621417'] Unless i really can't get something locally, I'd far rather buy from a real shop. As someone running a shop once said: "if we've got two of the same guitar in stock, one of which is brilliant and one which is just ok - which one do you think we'd sell mail order?" [/quote] I think that businesses the size of Thomann are way beyond that. According to an earlier post they ship almost 10,000 units a day. Do you think they really have everything 'out' and have time to check which item is better/worse? I don't. When their prices are that cheap, with (usually) excellent service I can't afford not to use them.

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1417524451' post='2621279'] Well until other bands then start doing those songs you've just 'educated' them with [/quote] Yes we've done well with some slightly heavier stuff, alternative/metal/grunge stuff and then you start seeing 'your' songs creeping into other bands' setlists. When there are a handful of bands covering [i]similar[/i] artists it seems to help acceptance by the conservative landlords and pub audiences. Let's just see how long it takes for 'our' stuff to become classic rock, and the cycle continues...

How good would a full covers band setlist be of these 'alternative versions' where the 'famous' version is better/more distinctive than the original

Speaking personally, I've had great mixed sound as long as it's my amp that's DI'd, and not a DI feed from before my amp. Having my cab miked doesn't add much but then I don't have vintage tone anyway.

At most 1-4 band line ups I've been to the bass has been okay/good. At big festivals it is usually terrible, for shame . It's so bad, and frequent, that I have my own name for it, "lazy festival sound". The bass is usually there but very muddy and ill-defined, snare or kick drum way too loud and guitars too quiet apart from solos. Almost like the sound engineer(s) just avoid having to work hard with all the mid-range sounds required and just drop most of it.

[quote name='pst62' timestamp='1417338868' post='2619184'] Judas Priest - Diamonds And Rust. (Joan Baez) [/quote] I'm planning to do this in our acoustic set, maybe with nods to both JP and Ms Baez's versions. Some good shouts, and TSOMs version of Emma was very powerful live.

Of all the bands on North West Bands (which includes a lot of bands including quite a few from Yorkshire), the most common covers are: Song Artist Count 1 Dakota Stereophonics 251 . 2 Sex on Fire Kings of Leon 238 . 3 Teenage Kicks Undertones 218 . 4 Valerie Mark Ronson/ Amy Winehouse 183 . 5 Wishing Well Free 166 . 6 You Really Got Me Van Halen 166 . 7 Hard to Handle Black Crowes 162 . 8 MUSTANG SALLY ANYBODYS? 159 . 9 Paranoid Black Sabbath 150 . 10 USE SOMEBODY KINGS OF LEON 147 . Obviously this is not just rock.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1416423940' post='2610099'] Break even? All I know is after a gig, I have at least $100.00 cash in my wallet that wasn't there before the gig. And I had fun earning that $100.00. Blue [/quote] As far as I understand it (and 2 of my cousin's are pro musicians) there are a huge number of things that can be claimed as expenses - CDs, jeans/T shirts to wear onstage, lessons (even fuel to get to lessons), equipment, having a PC to book gigs. The end result is that for a normal pub player, we never have to pay tax. And of course, if I'd bought those jeans and CDs anyway, I've had a great time and have enough spare cash to repair my amp or buy my next set of strings without dipping into my [i]own[/i] money then I'm very happy

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1416343868' post='2609296'] One point that's probably slightly overlooked is this money is all cash. Erm. Obviously we're all declaring any profits we happen to have made by the end of the year. [/quote] I'm sure the pros are. For us pub players we barely break even when all costs are taken into account.

Yes, a great player and very influential from the 70s onwards.

I've played CGCF with a 50-110 set with no need to change the truss rod or anything much with the setup. The low C is a bit floppier than a 'normal' E but other than that, no big difference in feel.

[quote name='hollywoodrox' timestamp='1415842653' post='2604468'] What type of 80s metal I wonder... [/quote] +1, this was my only initial thought. There's a lot of difference between Poison and Cannibal Corpse for example. And it IS possible to get regular, reasonably well paid gigs playing metal covers in the UK.

Alice In Chains - Nutshell Opeth - Coil (I'll be playing these tomorrow)

Just the usual for someone who's been gigging a few years: Electrocution. Amps of all kind blowing up. Fire. Extreme drunkeness. Tripping over wires and going flying. Cut hand bleeding everywhere. Extreme wind on a very enclosed stage area (food poisoning). ...just the usual stuff

Normal tuning is Eb with a lot of drop C# songs so 45-110 strings. If I was in standard I'd usually use a 40-100 set. Medium-high action for rock/metal, about 50% of songs played with pick even though I'm fingerstyle by inclination. I'm fairly heavy handed and generally raise my bridge pickup and lower my neck pickup. No great science involved - it's worked for me for many years.

Sorry to hear that (both Pete and Spike), I hope you're back playing soon. I'm now semi-retired from music for health reasons. Luckily my acoustic side-project will still have occasional gigs, and I should be up to occasional depping in the New Year.

Again I wish I could find the research on this , but it's been pretty much proven that they make very little difference to the sound of an electric solid-bodied bass.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1412235484' post='2566917'] The thing I find surprising here is that there are more people with 11+ basses than people with less than 3 basses.. I guess the statistics are skewed somewhat as we are a community of bass enthusiasts prone to collecting instruments... I would imagine that the vast majority of bass players the world over only have one instrument. [/quote] I can't think of many active bass players that have only 1. Most guitarists I know have at least 1 bass.

1. Get used to playing your bass with only very occasional glances down to check position at the most. 2. Make sure you can hear your singing clearly. 3. Sing your parts whenever you can eg in the shower, in the car etc.

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1412021428' post='2565025'] ...But people can be a bit snobby. Behringer get a rough deal as well... [/quote] I think a lot of it [b][i]isn't [/i][/b]snobbery. I've played quite a few gigs and used/borrowed/seen a LOT of budget to mid range stuff. I have seen quite a few Behringer speakers fail, as well as some of the wiring in their amps/stompboxes; doesn't mean it's all rubbish but they do/have used some 'inexpensive' components. Also used a Behringer desk in one of my bands which sounded ace. I think Ashdown amps sound good (I had one for a few years) - the blue coned speakers can be a bit muddy which does suit some people. My amp ate loads of fuses BTW which also seems common.