Happy Jack

Hah! That's The Eagles mate, good band an' all but I'll give that a miss. Now if it was Joe Walsh touring with his own band and his own music I'd be on it like a shot.

This one's unique.

I didn't think Steve imported from the Eurozone anyway.

No acoustic bass that I have ever played (and that's a reasonable number & selection) has ever been capable of being heard properly against even a single 6-string. Against two guitars rather than one you're wasting your time, unless both guitarists are prepared to strum very gently. If you need something to play acoustically in live situations and you'd prefer not to (i) amplify or (ii) buy a DB, then I suggest a Guitarrón mexicano. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitarrón_mexicano

Can't agree Mickey. I prefer both So What and But Seriously Folks. I bought So What on the day it came out, took it home along with my best friend and we started to play it. It took us nearly half an hour to get past Welcome To The Club ... we played it at least five times running before we let the album run on.

You were at school with a young Joe Walsh? Really? Respect, mate ...

If you've only just discovered Joe, then back-catalogue a bit further and check out The James Gang.

Anything that allows me to achieve great length without loss of signal ...

Absolutely this ^. It's ridiculously common for the auditioning band to be less familiar with the song they have chosen than the auditioner, who will have spent a lot of time actually getting it right. "I think you'll find it goes to the solo after that verse ..."

Happy to reassure you, mate. Yes, you're insecure. Next?

Very puzzled by the suggestions that you should only ask the singer to prepare two songs. Unless you're doing originals or very obscure covers, any decent singer should have no trouble at all prepping at least a dozen songs ... all he/she needs to learn is the melody, the rest is down to how they present the song. If you ask each singer to turn up at a 2-hour slot having prepped two songs, you'd better hope they're also a great conversationalist, since you're going to be spending three quarters of the 'audition' just chatting. You could start the weeding-out process by asking each applicant how many songs they would like to prep. I would discard anyone who only wanted to do two!

How long will your visit last?

It's a Pilenwerfer!

Personally speaking, I'd give it Das Boot.

I'd join in with this thread, except that you wouldn't exactly be enthralled by a photo of 10 Comfort Strapps ...

If that's the number of subscriptions, 3.44 billion seems rather large ...

I suspect he'll be unhappy with that ... oh, I think he's saying something to the referee ... and now there's some sort of disturbance amongst the fans ... they're all in the centre circle and there's a bit of pushing ... well this is something that nobody likes to see ... and as the Stukas dive in to bomb the last pockets of resistance ...

It goes back to the days of touring bands heading overseas with a truckload of equipment, especially before the Common Market (as we used to call it). To avoid being charged duty going in/out of various countries, you'd start with a Waybill of some sort, a docket listing (in detail) all the kit you were transporting. You'd be checked on arrival in each country, and as long as you still had it all when you checked out then nobody would hit you for Import Duty, whether in Spain, or the States, or coming back home. A decent 4-piece band might be carrying, say, six guitars and three basses, plus a ridiculous amount of other gear. The chance that anyone would bother to check serial numbers was pretty remote. Now compare that with a tourist arriving at Heathrow with an expensive hardcase for a bass, strolling nonchalantly through the Green Channel and whistling ...

The shielding on that mess must be a thing of beauty.

The US won't charge you anything for taking a bass out of their country (unless it takes your suitcase over-weight and into excess baggage). UK Customs will charge you Import Duty on the cost of the bass, and then VAT on the cost of the bass PLUS the Import Duty. That said, I brought a bass through Heathrow earlier this year, declared it on arrival, and they were quite helpful on the assessment, especially since the UK£/US$ rate had moved sharply against me over the period.

I remember the days when I was an important customer ... that was quite fun. Didn't last long, mind.

There was an old man of St. Bees, Who was stung in the arm by a wasp. When asked "Does it hurt?" He replied "No, it doesn't, I'm so glad it wasn't a hornet."

Two bars, then ...