knirirr

You may judge for yourself here. 😉 I made plenty of mistakes(*) but I think we didn't do too badly for an amateur band. The audience liked it and were pleased to have that sort of material played, and it was good to be doing it as a proper gig rather than a number here and there as the house band at a jam. (*) E.g. forgot what key I was in for the first few bars of the first solo...

Quite. I'm reminded of a local shopkeeper (now passed away) who didn't quite get this. I once had this conversation with him: "Do you see anything you fancy today?" "Unfortunately not, sorry." "Well, you must be blind then!"

I recently booked tickets for this: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/witneyjazz/t-lnrplpg ...can't resist a hard bop gig with 4 horns in the front line!

We did a wedding gig last night - nothing fancy, mostly playing background music as the guests arrived. No pay, as the BL had signed us up as a favour for the bride. One requirement was that at the end of our set, before a ceilidh band came on, the bride's father was to join us on stage to play some blues harmonica. As it happens he was clearly sober and pretty good at it.

I have only played it once, at a jazz jam. I didn't recognise it at first and realisation dawned when the chap sitting in on keys started singing "ride, Sally, ride".

Performers reading charts on a gig is a popular complaint in the jazz community, it seems, though no-one anywhere I play seems particulary bothered by it, and iPads are common. Even the pros use them, but they are usually discreet. I can remember heads/changes if I play them a lot, but if I don't for a few weeks I have to get the crib sheet out again. For the next gig we have lined up I can play 3/4 of the set without charts but stuff like this never seems to stick in my head.

This reminded me of something 30+ years ago. Some acquaintances on the undergraduate music scene were in need of some jazz woodbines and so asked a friend in another city to send them some hash. That friend put 1/2 oz. into a normal envelope, which arrived with the contents present and correct and a tear to the envelope repaired by the post office en route.

Luckily, I was taught soldering at school, so such things as replacing a pickup selector are fine. Strings, intonation, truss rod etc. are all easy enough as well. I wouldn't want to do anything involving cutting or filing in case I cock it up, though, so nut and fret adjustments are out, as is any DB work. Recently, I bought a cheap HB guitar thinking that this might be a good opportunity to practice a bit of fret adjustment without concern but it turned out that all the frets needed was a polish, and with a small turn of the truss rod it had perfect low action.

Fingers crossed that it's a false alarm. Within the past hour the package has started showing up on DHL's system using Thomann's customer reference and their UK depot's postcode. Perhaps the package wasn't scanned until it was collected, and that wasn't until this morning.

Having had some issues with a Harley Benton instrument I arranged to return it to Thomann, which took a while as their responses were often slow. Eventually, I was able to drop it off on the 24th at a local DHL collection point. The chap there scanned it and, when I asked, told me that the receipt would be electronic and I'd get an email. No such email was received, and according to Thomann: "Unfortunately, the tracking information does not show any updates on our end. It is possible that the parcel has not been scanned yet at the Service Point. As such, we would kindly ask you to contact the Service Point where the parcel has been dropped off at, for clarification or for the receipt. Without a receipt, it is not possible for Thomann to contact the courier for you." Has anyone else run into similar issues, or have any suggestions?

I have not done this, though Mrs. knirirr is a member of the local group so I have seen what they do, including being roped in once for a non-singing part because they were short of men. Apparently, being short of men is a very common scenario and you might find them attempting to persuade you to do that - I am frequently asked if I will return, this time to sing. All the rehearsal appears to be with the MD playing piano, and the MD's favourite players (which includes a bassist) are brought in at the last minute, usually being handed the sheet music and starting to rehearse on the Sunday before the Thursday when the first performance happens. So, being good at reading would be an advantage. I am told it is fun, though.

I have to keep reminding myself that it would cost 20x more but won't be 20x better, and I need that money for more important things.

Never having tried an LP of any type I thought I'd give this a go. Strung with rather heavy flats it gives an excellent jazz tone and I found it more comfortable than a Tele to play. Unfortunately, I must now resist the urge to waste money on a "proper" one. Perhaps foolishly, I agreed to try a jazz trio rehearsal on Monday so will try it then.

Their VX50 GTV (Nutube + modelling) turned out to be useful for me; it is very light indeed whilst still being loud enough to play with a clean jazz sound at pub jams. Only a 1x8" though so perhaps would not suit the OP.