DaytonaRik

Our drummer is also a drum teacher and uses a metronome for every track

I am blessed with not only a great vocalist, but also one who is a GIT graduate and can play guitar/bass with the best of them!  She has a negative level ego - very shy but she is slowly gaining confidence.  She helps carry gear, is always on time, prepared and frankly the band would be lost without her.

I have a number of guitars that I should dispose of as I've pretty much moved exclusively to bass but 2 were gifts, one is an instrument spec'd to my exact requirements no longer in production and the last is a lovely 30 year old Godin that is just a joy to pick up and play.  If owning them brings you joy/happiness and it's not to the detriment of your family then keep hold of them.

Although I'm a user of IEMs we have a few guys in the band that still don't "get it" - so managed to snag a bargain in the form of a pair of 1 x 12 HK Audio Power Works monitors - one passive one active.  A couple of superficial marks but at £150 I'm really not going to complain!  I have no doubt that they'll keep the drummer happy and able to hear everything nicely.  The previous owner had been using them as an FRFR guitar setup so that's always an option too.

No matter how talented the individuals, if they're a bunch of shoe-gazers my attention span is about 1 drink and I'm done.  I've always tried to entertain - my theory is that I'm not likely to bump into anyone in the street so be the entertainer, play a pub like it's Wembley, be a bit OTT, take the wireless mic into the room and make an impromptu 'B' stage at the far end (IEM's help!), run around, stand on seats/tables, they'll remember you.  Of course, if you have at least half-way chops to back it up then it's even better!

49 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

I do have a surefire way of getting guitarists onto IEMs... I guarantee they'll be on them within two gigs (as long as the rest of the band are on IEMs)....

Do tell me more!  Neither of them are going to go Kemper or similar at any time soon but neither are they dinosaurs - they're both more than happy to keep back line levels down and happy to use monitors to fill in missing sound elements.

Myself and the vocalist are already on IEMs, drummer is happy with a wedge or IEMs having used both. 

1 hour ago, EBS_freak said:

Guitarists just don't seem interested at all.

This!  One of our guitarist tried IEMs and just didn't seem to 'get' it.  Shame!

Last order took 5 days including the weekend - never any complaint here

As I sweat like the proverbial pig in a cesspit I have a bottle of isotonic sports drink in a cycling bidon near me nicely chilled with with loads of ice near me.  I may have a single bottle between sets but that's about it as I'm always driving.

The benefits of a desk with multiple aux sends - at rehearsal on Monday guitarist A asks guitarist B to turn up because he can't hear him...woah there buddy!  Tim, would you like a little of Phil's guitar in your monitor?  Oh, good idea comes the reply.  Job done, volume wars prevents, everyone is a happy bunny!

It takes 5 mins extra to set up a mic in front of every sound source and the benefits far outweigh the perceived hassle.

21 hours ago, jrixn1 said:

I've never used any other in-ears, so I'm unable to offer a comparison.  

I do care about my tone and quality, but I'm only playing Motown etc on a P bass, so it's not something which requires a super bassy tone.

So the 215 sound good to me and I'm happy, but noting that I don't know what I'm missing out on.  Perhaps it's a bit like the Zoom vs Helix!
 

I went from SE215's to 64 Audio A3 - this was my opinion and it still is...

"Well - the A3s arrived and it was straight upstairs to try them with some audio - my word! It's like seeing an Imax cinema screen after watching a black and white TV. I can hear things in a mix that were just background noise before - bass lines pop out and become easy to distinguish, vocals sit pretty much in the front of the mix too. I really can't wait to try these at a rehearsal soon. Worth every single penny. I never had a problem with the fit of the 215s and the generic olives but these are something else."

I like a neutral 'engineer' style mix where I can hear everything so the A3's suited my needs perfectly

17 hours ago, KevB said:

This is an interersting point. I didn't mention it while you were in the band but the rest of your band mates wanted me for a side project they planned to do outside of TL. I turned up to run through some songs and asked them to turn down twice at the session (small village hall) due to the stupid gtr volume levels and I was still at approx twice the vol I used to gig at with my previous classic rock band. I told your band leader that we were never asked to turn up. He looked at me and said 'Well I would have'. Texted him next day to tell them it wasn't going to work out and quit the project.

I read your comments re TL's sound being excessive with interest - I've been trying to tell Simon this for three years but it fell on (very) deaf ears every time.  I'm just glad I'm an avid user of IEMs otherwise I'd have finished off what's left of my hearing long ago!

I know that Mick can be a loud drummer but I found that at gigs it could quickly escalate into a volume war between guitar back lines instead of keeping those down and using monitors to fill in what you can't hear.

4 minutes ago, discreet said:

I joined a pro function band for the money but in the end it wasn't enough. Miss the cash, but not the band!

I know what you mean - when you're fed up everything becomes an excuse to call it a day - little things grate like dumping gear in stupid places, commandeering too much stage real-estate, being inconsiderate, insistence on ear-shattering levels because that's 'my tone' instead of relying of FoH and monitoring...grrrrrr!

In the new project things couldn't be different, we're all respectful, keep levels down, put each other first - just how a band should be.

14 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

One could guess that the level of Thin Lizzy content didn't gradually sneak up on the group?

I mean my last group the number of Jam covers did creep up because the drummer liked the Jam, but it would have been less surprising if we had been a Jam tribute act!

 

8 minutes ago, discreet said:

Yes, I too wondered about this...  I do sympathise with anyone who is not having fun in their current band, but I would ask the question... if you don't like Thin Lizzy, why did you join a Thin Lizzy tribute band..? Did not their name give it away somewhat..?  Mind you, regularly travelling 100 miles for a gig is a giant pain in the bum, I know that for sure. It grinds you down after a while, especially if it's no fun when you get there.

No, I knew it was a Thin Lizzy tribute band.  My point is that there was insufficient interest in the material to offset the pain in the backside that the travelling became.  When in three years you get two gigs on your doorstep whilst the b/l is home and in bed whilst you've not unloaded the car yet grates after a while!   Had it been music I really enjoyed listening to and playing then the travel would have been an inconvenience, not just another reason to stop/look for something else

I quit Think Lizzy who had around 30 gigs booked for 2018 for a few reasons

1. I'm not a Thin Lizzy fan!
2. Out of 80 gigs we played, only 2 were within 10 miles of where I lived, the rest were an average of bout 100 mile round trip - funny, but the b/l's average trip was about 10 miles each way...go figure!
3. Other hobbies/interests
4. I wanted to spend more weekend time with the significant other
5. I had formed another project which involved less gigs (10-12 a year MAX!) and contemporary material that I actual enjoy

The biggest bugbear was a combination of travelling 100 miles every other weekend to play music I wasn't really enjoying playing - I guess I could have put up with one or the other, but not both.  Once that resentment kicks in then you know the writing is on the wall.  I tried discussing the problem of travel with the b/l but the idea of gigs nearer to me always seemed to fall on deaf ears.  He was genuinely shocked when I called it quits.

Music is a part of my life (albeit a very important part), but not all of it.

As a former guitarist - the smaller the better!  Thunderbird is 38mm and fits like a glove.  My LTD 414 is 39 and a bit and feels just dandy, but the T'bird tops it all the way

3 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Interesting point.

Guys, how much rehearsal is reasonable for a 5 gig a year band?

Blue

Exactly the same as any other band - until it's as good as it's going to get.  It doesn't matter if it's 5 gigs or 50 gigs, I'll learn the parts to the best of my ability and expect everyone else to do the same.  The gig count has no impact on the amount of time it takes to bring a project up to scratch.  It still takes X hours to learn 25 songs whether you're going to play them once or one hundred times. I play in a works house rock band - we do 1 or 2 gigs for our employers a year at the summer BQ and/or Xmas party and we still put 20-25 hours rehearsal in before each show because that's what it takes.

On 31/01/2018 at 07:14, LeftyJ said:

I like the look of that SG II. Is it just me though, or does that nut look really narrow compared to your SG to the left? I don't recognize that one btw, the mix of a gloss finish, dot inlays and chrome covered pickups has me wondering. Is it a modded Special, or maybe an Xtra Slim?

The Xtra Slim had the smaller pick guard so I'd go for a modded Special

Oooh - hadn't realised we were including guitars in this - my 2007 SG Standard - pretty much mint.

Or you can add your own relic on top of the Limelight supplied relic!  I wear a few bangles/bracelets etc and it soon added that authentic 'genuine' roadwork look on top of Mark's original work

13 hours ago, Bluewine said:

I have no problem with up to scratch musicians that want this sort of thing.

I have a problem with a band that does 5 gigs a year and expects top notch candidates. Why? I think it's expecting too much and offering too little.

Blue

Retribution consists of 1 x drum teacher with 30 years playing experience, 1 x guitar teacher with the same, 1 x bass player with about 33 years experience, 1 x guitarist with about 30 years experience and a relatively new vocalist who is also a GIT graduate and has around 20 years guitar experience and about 5 years as a vocalist.  We must have thousands of gigs between us, but in this project we'll play 10-12 times a year.

We all wanted a fun project that we could fit in around other commitments - bands/personal life/hobbies/work/whatever

It could be a chance to play a small number of gigs in a different genre, with different personal, maybe closer to where you live.

Saying any band doesn't deserve top notch candidates is a bit of a slap in the face to those of us who after years of gigging hard want to put our feet up now and again

Sold my Tokai Hard Puncher to Nico and it couldn't have been easier.

Excellent comms, a very understanding guy to deal with, super fast payment - everything you hope a BassChat  transaction to be and more.  Can't recommend hi enough.

RIk

"Under the Equality Act 2010, any organisation supplying a service to the public is under a duty to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that a disabled person's experience is as close as possible to that of someone without a disability."

They could argue that any non-disabled person would have their fingers in their ears at a little mix concert so the experience was the same anyway 😜

As the original owner/commissioner (in Lynott spec) I can only reiterate the comments of @foxyFuze  - it's one hell of a bass and anyone who buys this will not be disappointed.

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Dang! Need to get me one of those (a bass playing g/f, that is)!  

Problem is that they keep wanting to play your Thunderbird!