CHW

My thinking is that it's like any clique- on the inside, open and welcoming. On the outside, ignorant, cold and **** off to the world.

2nd text sent- saying that I assume they are sorted, pointing out that I'd spent time learning songs and that it would have been nice to have been informed that they no longer needed me. We shall see if there's a response

[quote name='Coilte' timestamp='1411638033' post='2561353'] Yes. This sounds only too familiar. Regardless of anything else, it never ceases to puzzle me why they dont have the decency and "thought for others" attitude to at least send a text saying that my services are no longer required. On the plus side, it is a bonus to find out about their unprofessional attitude before you got involved with them. [/quote] The ridiculous thing about it is that they seem to have a really pro level attitude about them. Looking at their website, etc all seems great. I have a sneaky suspicion that they may have looked into my current band- which as I said earlier is not up to much and then decided that they didn't want to see me, even so- a courtesy thanks but no thanks text would have taken 30 seconds. (I promised myself quite a few years ago that I'd never, ever learn Livin' on a Prayer- I now know the bloody song note for fecking note)

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1411628166' post='2561223'] Can you ring them back? Probably wouldn't achieve much other than getting a definite yes or no but it might make them squirm a bit! [/quote] Sent a text- polite and non arsey, it so far been ignored. I was tempted to send a pic of my kit all packed up in the back of my car as if to suggest I'd been waiting to hear all night but decided against it.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1411596545' post='2561142'] True, how about this one for example; [i]"Your in a band, what's the name of your band? I really love live music."[/i] Really, cool, what was the last band you saw? [i]" I saw Billy Joel at The Bradley Center about 15 years ago."[/i] In this case, they're into live music to the degree of seeing a live act at least once every 15 years. Blue [/quote] Again though- you cannot judge. From that info they could well have been massively committed to going to see live bands for the first 25 years of life, then families intervene and all of a sudden you are looking after 3 kids. It doesn't mean that you love live music any less than you did 15 years ago, you are now 40 with wistful memories of your gig going past?

It's a difficult thing to respond when anyone says I'm into "x, y or z." You have no idea just how into that thing they might be? even if its the same thing as you, you cannot really guarantee a great meeting of minds. I am into tennis- meaning I play twice a week, watch Wimbledon avidly, play in the 6th division of the Cheshire League, have been to Wimbledon a few times. I also cannot tell you the names of most of the players, follow no-one particularly, don't know much about racket technology, but do own a stringer. Someone who listens to car radio may be seriously into music in the sense that it may well be very important to them- a 40 minute escape twice a day, cocooned away from everyone and chance to work up to a stressed day at work and conversely chance to unwind afterwards. However, it may mean they like to hum along to a few tunes now and then.

My most "expensive" bass is a modern player Jazz bass, which was still well below £500 and it definitely sounds better than any of the £80-£150 basses I've had kicking around for years of various ilk, That said, I've gigged with a battered old encore precision copy, an Epiphone short scale bass, a Wesley 5 string and a crafter precision copy. The only one that really didn't have a good sound was the Encore- even so it has a special place in my heart as it was the bass my parents bought for me aged 15 after months of cajoling.

It's the only + because I have actually quite enjoyed the challenge of learning something pretty much perfectly.

I am in the midst of thinking about looking for another band, my current one has so many difficulties that many here will be familiar with- not learning songs prior to rehearsals, guitarists who are decent players but clueless on how to set up their gear or play together as a band, a singer who really doesn't cut the mustard. etc. etc. On the plus side they are keen, reliable and a decent bunch of blokes which is why I've stuck it out for as long as I have. Last week I made contact with a band looking for a bass player and had a discussion with them on the phone and arranged a day to audition (which was today). They then sent me a text with 5 songs that they wanted to audition saying that they would be back in touch to give me the time and postcode of the rehearsal studio. I then spent a week working on 5 pretty much note for note versions of the songs never to hear back from them. I don't really see why a courtesy text say thanks but no thanks wasn't forthcoming, and thanks to them I have wasted several hours of transcription, research and practice learning 5 songs. Am absolutely fuming.

Trying to keep up with Nuno, during the 1st three extreme albums 1989-1992 ish

If you were wanting a bit more creative input maybe the 2nd one would be more attractive?

Covers Band. We rehearse once a fortnight. My preferred method would be for everyone to have learnt the structures, chords, riffs and licks beforehand. Thus making the practice about putting all of that together. Unfortunately it tends to be the 2 guitar players sorting out the above together (usually one has learnt it, the other hasn't.) while the drummer and I twiddle our thumbs. The singer downloads the lyrics and works his way through them, usually not getting the phrasing right. I, point blank, refuse to learn the full arrangements of songs, as I either end up teaching others it, or even worse- it gets changed around and my time was wasted. The only reason I get away with this is because I am pretty quick at picking things up on the fly. The drummer claims he doesn't look at songs before rehearsals, but I suspect he does, either that or he has a great memory of stuff he's heard once or twice on the radio.

I have nothing but positives to say about PMT in Manchester- I've bought several bits from them, ranging from a couple of quid and a few packs of strings up to a just short of 2K purchase. On each occasion the service (whether I've bought on that day or not) has been friendly, and professional. I almost struggle to believe the story a few pages back with regard to the PMT store where the staff would plug in a bass, slap it about like Mark King for a couple of minutes before handing it over. I remember this happening in shops 20 years ago but I thought we were way past that.

There also seems to be a lot more of the "Ipod squad" People turning up with an Ipod and an SM58 and singing along to backing tracks- totally sound adjustable, and consistent for the pub.

I played the pub circuit back in my late teens and we could always fill venues, generally the upstairs function room of a pub, charging a couple of quid on the door to the local sixth form students(of whom I was one of), and a few aging rockers. When I returned to gigging after uni, I ended up joining a ceilidh band. This was very different to a trad "Rock" band scenario as most of the tunes were learned by the band prior to any practice, the practice was acoustic and therefore in one of our front rooms, practice was purely about arrangements, gigs were village halls, marquees, function rooms or outdoors and were booked for weddings, birthdays, fundraisers and events. I did this for 10 years happily averaging a gig a month, taking home £40.00 for not a huge amount of work. Returning to the pub scene in my current band, I am finding it very different. Pubs seem to struggle to come up with £200.00 to pay a band pubs are empty in comparison to how they were when I was a kid (smoking ban?)

Jeans, and Black (music, or biking for the shed builder, oriented usually) T Shirts. ---Classic Rock Band Don't think we'd manage much else Half the band complained about the Santa Hats for a 21st Dec gig

I played in a ceilidh band for 10 years or so, and while none of the places we played were too grotty, we had some massively inappropriate stages and venues. We played at the large hotel in Goathland- in an L shaped alcove in the corner of the room, none of us could see anything of the audience We played at numerous weddings etc where there was no stage, people ended up dancing through the band kicking over all sorts of kit on countless occasions. On a village tennis court- all the audience were on the other side of the fence. In a breeze block walled sports hall In a tiny village hall, for a 40th party where more people were in the band than came to the do.

Double post

I've never really thought too much about this before but on reflection, I'd probably struggle to take a p bass to a metal gig. It just doesn't seem quite right, and I have no justification as to why. Maybe the attraction of a p,j or sr is just how many genres of music they would not raise an eyebrow in. Never in fashion, but never out of fashion either.

[quote name='winterfire666' timestamp='1395759859' post='2405889'] All the ones near to me are useless. we currently use the extention at my dads house but he is thinking of downsizing And its not ideal.Does anyone know any good places in the manchester area. [/quote] We've been using [url="http://www.shure5studios.co.uk/"]http://www.shure5studios.co.uk/[/url] for the last 5 or 6 months, coming from an old fashioned dive. It's not perfect yet, but it's being developed week in week out.

[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1395699140' post='2405346'] Hmm. I don't really get that philosophy. Why not just buy the best instrument you can afford? [/quote] If you are an earner I have no issue with anyone who takes that decision. It's your's to make. However if a mate comes to me and says he fancies giving the bass a go -no matter what he could or couldn't stretch to I'd never suggest he goes out and buys an Alembic. I'd feel it was a waste of money if he didn't get on with it (possibly led by me?) As a parent who had a daughter come up with exactly that 4 years ago we ended up buying her an Epiphone EB0 short scale. I could have stretched to more, but wanted to see her invest herself in it, before I invested my hard earned. Ultimately I think that the Epi will suit her longer term bass needs, she has little interest the options a higher quality instrument might open up, and the Epi is perfectly giggable (both of us have gigged it). If she wants to buy a better bass in the future, that's entirely up to her at the time.

As a 1st bass, I'd never encourage anyone to go out and spend more than £250 at the max. However. That 1st bass will have limitations that anything 400and up will not have. When anyone starts out. They are trying to get to grips with the mechanics of playing. Coordination, techniques, picks, fingers, thumbs. There's no point in spending a lot of cash on a higher end model at this point. However, at some later point, the fledgling bass player starts to seek tones, sounds, better playability, better weight distribution. This is when the original bass is outgrown. We may keep old faithful, mod it a bit, experiment on it, but in essence. It's been dumped!

I'm no major expert in any of the three genres, but as a bluffers guide you can be throwing in riffs around the root, 3rds, fifth, 7ths and octave all day long and look like you are playing far more complex lines than you really are. For the Reggae and Punk stuff it's more about the groove than the notes IMO, while for rock you can't really go wrong with roots, thirds and fifths. If you want to be a bit more creative, get rid of the bass, and listen to the songs without bass on them- then mentally compose the lines, singing them in your head, then pull out the bass and play them- chances are you'll not have strayed far from the Root, Third, Fifth and Octave anyway but you might have a good few chromatic runs in that you might not have thought of with your fingers on a fretboard.

Back in my Barman days, which is nearly 20 years ago, we were all told not to go anywhere near a £50 note, the reasoning being given that, the fakes are better than any other note, as the forger can invest a lot more in the production of said note. Not sure how true this is TBH, but you don't really enough of them to be able to make a judgement call, I suspect the suspicion around scottish and NI notes can be linked to similar issues, rather than an ignorance of their legality in England

[quote name='spacey' timestamp='1392841903' post='2373463'] I can tell a covers bands proffesionalism within the first 6 seconds of the start. If I hear only 4 clicks and bang off they go and up go the lights , you know it will be a good band. Hear people get on stage and start plucking strings, bumping bass notes, or wait for someone to tune the guitar whilst the rest play random song parts and I know, it will only get worse. [/quote] worthy of being printed off in huge font and stuck to the walls of every rehearsal studio in the country Additionally, no-one wants to hear the drummer see if he can get that Joey Jordison fill bob on while waiting for the guitarists to find "that" sound- "it's in there somewhere, or at least it was when I practiced at home yesterday"