DaytonaRik

It's in the section below "How are pubs keeping you safe" which is a hyper link to a separate article. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52977388 However, the date of the article is 4th Aug which may be superseded by the guidelines given in my post below.

Different country @Bluewine - what applies to the UK may obviously not apply to other countries/territories

Yup - Pub-goers will be encouraged to book tables in advance- Live gigs and standing at the bar will not be allowed Guess that's pretty clear cut and definite!

Interested to see the steps taken to make this work in conjunction with the section of the guideline stating "...particularly if played at a volume that makes normal conversation difficult." So electronic drums rather than a tradition acoustic kit?

Soooo - a bit more digging through the online guidelines has unearthed this lovely nugget under the Entertainment section covering Restaurants, pubs, bars and take-away food services https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/restaurants-offering-takeaway-or-delivery#takeaways-4-5 It's still as clear as mud but this does at least hint that socially distanced indoor live performances in pubs/bars etc are now allowed under the guidelines? That said - the section advising that the volume of background music or playing music that might encourage shouting or making conversation difficult pretty much rules out a live band of most, if not all genres. I'm thinking our acoustic rock covers trio is more likely to be out gigging long before the fully blown rock covers band.

I've yet to see anything to lead me to believe me that pubs are now considered live music venues for the guidelines surrounding a return to live indoor performances hence my question. The published guidelines lack any sense of a definite yes or no i.e. this is allowed, this isn't allowed 😕

This was my take on the situation - that pubs were not be considered music venues therefore should not currently be hosting live indoor music events?

I keep seeing more and more FaceBook events from friends in bands announcing their return to indoor pub gigs but try as I might I still find anything definitive regarding this. All of the online guidance I can find still seems to indicate that only professional vocal and brass instrument performances are permitted indoors. Are pubs/bars/restaurants now considered to be music venues or are they still separate and prohibited entities for the purpose of live music? It’s about as clear as a muddy pool on a very foggy day!!! if anyone has any links to to appropriate online documentation it would be appreciated!

Indeed - this is something that I could be tempted by. His Phoenix T'bird is lovely!

I had a relic Limelight built and me spec was 'make it look as if Phil Lynott was alive and had been playing this P bass all his life still' - the result was superb! I could be tempted to get Rob from Brooks to make me a custom black flame top Thunderbird, very similar to the Gibson Blackwater/older Joe Perry Les Paul models finish.

There are plenty of low-budget digital solutions this problem - I'm a big fan of the Behringer XR18 https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_x_air_xr18_bag_bundle.htm?sid=0aaf6f9b655aa9c429f79b95925bab46 coupled with a set of active PA speakers or speakers/power amp will give you 6 x aux sends for monitors, 4 FX slots and 18 input channels. Other solutions are out there for not a lot of cash. Get the monitoring sorted and a lot of problems go away...including on-stage volumes

@TRBboy I've found that once someone can hear themselves properly through better monitoring (whether a wedge or IEMs) rather than backline then things start to get better in the volume-war stakes. What desk are you running? Does it have enough aux sends to provide individual monitor mixes for each band member? Guitars can be very directional and at least with a wedge pointing at their faces there is a consistency to what is heard compared to a cab behind someone.

We play pubs but I decided to invest the cash in a flexible digital system that gives us so many options for monitoring/FOH sound and went for the X32 rack desk with a pair of digital stage boxes - one upstage, one downstage. Every band member has their own dedicated monitor mix, we have enough spare channels to run multiple signals to multiple channels e.g. each guitar mic (Sennheiser 906) runs into two desk channels - the wedges are fed with a hard limited signal from channel A set so that some lift is heard - this means that lead patches don't jump up too aggressively but the uncompressed signal has plenty of additional gain to lift above the band through the 2nd dedicated FoH channel B which doesn't feed any wedges. We can also EQ each channel differently if there are feedback issues although inserting a graphic on each aux send feeding monitors has made this an unnecessary requirement. I'm lucky in that although no-one else contributed financially (a decision on my part to avoid the arguments) everyone else in the band has bought into the idea of lower backline levels and good monitoring leading to a much reduced on-stage volume giving way to better FoH sound that's easier to manage. I'd like to go completely backline free but the current compromise setup is working fine with both guitarists running at around 15w on-stage. In reality - it takes 10 mins to pop a few extra mics in front of the guitar cabs and with a digital desk you have a base setup loaded that needs tweaking for each venue then save it away to the desk for the next time that you play there...it really doesn't get much easier. This is complete contrast to an 'old school' guitarist I worked with in the past that couldn't get past 100w heads and 4x12s!!!

Just before the lockdown started myself, one of the guitarist and the singer in our rock cover band started rehearsing as an acoustic trio with a view to getting some extra gigs, playing different tracks/material etc. It's a wide and varied setlist - from The Foo Fighters through to The Cure but we're all having an absolute blast and looking forward to getting out there in the wild world as soon as we can. We've rehearsed exclusively remotely via JamKazam which has proved to be invaluable but hopefully we'll manage to get some socially distanced rehearsal time in before too long to tighten everything up - sometimes you just need those little visual cues.

He also explains EXACTLY how he get's his tone here...😉

Ahh - the immortal Geddy Lee chicken rotisserie's!

Now if I see a band with no backline I applaud them (along with my ears) for being progressive and forward thinking, to be able to realise that there are solutions to the volume problem.

I'll happily run a DI from a head/preamp into IEMs, wedges, FOH - whatever works. We play pubs but run a low-level backline mic'd with backline, kick, o/heads and snare going through the PA, maybe a full kit for a bigger room. Whatever works in whatever situation. If I had to choose 1 as a personal preference - it would be a preamp, no backline and IEMs.

And it’s made it to Derby 👍🏻

i'm very near to Sheffield and for laffs and giggles would happily get said instrument underway on it's journey south! Can anyone meet in Nottingham/East Midlands to pass it along?

Only if they provide my PA, my van, my rehearsal room fees, travel expenses, instruments etc then yes. If not...nope! All of the above don't come free...why should I or the band?

Post-Covid implying that it's somehow disappeared...which sadly isn't the case.

Part of me would love to convert my watch collection into a 60's SG!

The transition happened after June 1958 which is why the exact number for that year is unknown, but there may be a few bursts in the gold top column and vice versa. They would have, of course, been recorded in the now legendary missing day books. The non-centre split top is a giveaway as to those which were either officially refinished at the factory or unofficially after the event.

The Gibson day books for the latter half of 1958, '59 and '60 were lost during an office relocation. They do have the annual figures of each model, but not by type. Interestingly, Gibsons own records show 19 Explorers and 81 Flying Vs were produced in 1958. Another 3 Explorers were made in 1959, along with a further 17 Flying Vs making them infinitely more rare than the Les Pauls of the same era. For comparison, in 1958 434 burst Les Pauls were made, and 649 in 1959. Of those, only guitars made up to 30th June 1958 are accurately recorded with finish, model and serial number. As for total production numbers - in 1959 Gibson recorded the production of 34,123 guitars. Costs? Expect to pay from £150,000 upwards for a verified '59 Les Paul burst, and if you've won the lottery you can get a '58 Flying V for £256,000 from Emerald City Guitars, Seattle. There are reports that in 2016 a store in Denmark Street brokered the sale of a 1958 Explorer for $1.1m http://www.burstserial.com/index.php?/page/serial_log is a brilliant resource for burst Les Pauls