Monkey Steve

Exactly - nothing about it smelled right, and there was a lot of pressure to give him the bass as soon as possible and not to pay by the methods I had specified. Apparently being able to reverse the PayPal payment didn't help his cause (and I never received any confirmation that it had been sent and was awaiting clearance) and there was also talk about getting the PayPal payment sent from a friend's account in Greece. Maybe he was just inexperienced, but I don't regret telling him cash only

I note that it's £60 for a signed copy, whereas they sell the book for £55 on line/in store. Amazon price aside, book signings are usually a promotional event by the author/publisher/shop to sell copies with a free signature as the incentive to buy it there and then. Shame that the market now means that they can charge a fee for meeting the author and getting a signature...though I suppose it's no worse than the backstage meet and greets at gigs that fans pay for, or the signed CDs sold by a band's website at a higher price than non-signed copies

maybe, maybe not - it could be the store, it could be the publisher, or it could be the author that is covering the expenses (and I'm guessing that Geddy won't be flying economy or staying at the local B&B). And sometimes the publisher/author has to pay the store to be able to hold the book signing at their shop. So only signing books bought in store might be the quid pro quo for the shop covering some of the expenses and hosting the event. Tend to agree that it doesn't reflect well on Geddy from a fan's perspective

I think of it like this Ebay has given away your name and address, PayPal confirms your e-mail address, and now a shady sounding character wants your bank details. It then becomes pretty easy to track you down on Facebook, which with a little bit of digging confirms your date of birth, and look you were playing "what's your pornstar name" which gives the answer to two of the most common security questions, and then LinkedIn confirms where you work. That's plenty of information for somebody to start making credit and store card applications in your name...

Ah, a variation on the Nigerian prince..:

But it’s not about clearing out your bank account in one go, it’s about taking a few quid each month from as many people don’t check their bank account and won’t notice its also a pretty basic phishing move, to ask for any personal info that isn’t required , no matter how little risk there seems to be in releasing it

https://amp.theguardian.com/money/2008/jan/07/personalfinancenews.scamsandfraud it’s exactly what happened here

The fact it hasn’t happened isn’t proof that it can’t happen

they would need access to my account for a standing order, but not to set up a Direct Debit - those are set up by the recipient, not the payee The safeguards in place only protect me against that after it has happened and I can get my money back

entirely possible

no he wanted my bank account details so that he could transfer the money - nothing to do with PayPal

great name for a band,,,

they can, by setting up a direct debit or standing order. You can then get the money back as it should be covered by the Direct Debit guarantee that all banks offer, but whether or not the bank can get the cash back from the criminals, and how quickly you spot what they've done - hassle i can do without

Possibly worth adding that the first time I ever sold a guitar on eBay, I got contacted by someone who was very clearly trying to launder money - the guitar sold for about £600, and could I do him a favour so that he pays £10,000 into my bank account and then I forward the change to a different bank account as it's easier than him transferring the money himself. Even said that he wasn't that fussed about getting the guitar as he was in Africa and my ad said UK buyers only and if I wanted a couple of hundred extra to cover my additional costs that was OK Again, from an ad saying PayPal only...so I'm always twitchy about "buyers" who either haven't read the ad or have read it and decided that the bits they don't like shouldn't apply to them. Why take the risk?

I was in South Yorkshire the other week and someone was telling me that they used to go and see Saxon in their early days when they were called Son Of A B#tch. She was new to the area and would go to a lot of pub gigs, and commented to her then husband that there was a local band she'd never heard of who must be doing well for themselves as they were on all the forthcoming attractions posters, often playing a few nights a week at the same venue, and then again at another pub for another few nights, and supporting a lot of other bands: One For The Lads Hubby explained that this wasn't a band, but an, ahem, one woman performance of an artistic nature, and not the same woman each time

possibly, but "complete stranger asks for bank account details" always makes me worry, especially when I've been very clear about making the payment in a different way

I always try and remain calm and polite when dealing with the idiots and annoyances - you never know if they are genuine buyers who may not be good at communicating, and have to say that with very few exceptions, the genuine buyers have been fine. The annoyances are usually a variation on "will you take half of what it's worth", whether in cash because they can give it to me now, or if I contact them if it doesn't sell. Or will I end the auction now if they pay me the current bid (like they think I will be grateful for them giving me the absolute minimum amount that I am guaranteed to get and will happily forego the possibility that people might bid more before the end of the auction). Maybe they are trying to take advantage of someone who may need the money in a hurry, maybe they just figure that if they don't ask they don't get, maybe they just can't afford any more than what they have bid and really don't want to lose the item. But that's OK, I can politely say no thanks. The only ones that ever get to me are those who tell me that I'm in the wrong for not selling to them at their price, lecturing me as though I'm breaching their human rights for not selling them the item for what they want to pay, and how I'll regret it because I definitely won't get more than that. Even then I'll tell them that I welcome their maximum bid at that price and explain how an auction works, so if they're right then they will get the item for the price they want to pay. Though the people who contact you to say that they don't want the item but here are a few tips for how to make my ad attract more views...they just bemuse me The one exception to my "genuine buyers are usually good chaps", which actually ended up being an OK sale, was one where the buyer didn't seem to read the "PayPal or cash only, bass can be collected in person or posted once PayPal payment has cleared into my bank account". While he was genuine, everything he tried sounded like a scam: Didn't have PayPal - can I give him my bank account details? No Doesn't want to pay for postage but doesn't work in London (armed with an All Zone travelcard I'd offered to drop it off anywhere near a tube station) so can I take it to his mate's place in Walthamstow and he will pick it up from him in due course? No, and you haven't paid me yet so how about sorting out that PayPal stuff and getting me the money before we worry about where I'm delivering it to? OK, he's sorted out PayPal and sent the money but because he's got a new account they've said that they won't confirm it to me until the payment clears from his bank account. He's booked his ticket to London for two day's time so can he pick up the bass then even though I won't have the money in my bank account - he can show me e-mails confirming that he's sent the payment to PayPal for processing? No. Just no. Eventually he did arrive with an envelope full of cash (and claiming that he had sorted out the payment he claimed to have sent by PayPal), so that was fine. Although on receiving the bass he was disappointed to find that there wasn't a strap attached to it and he would have to pay extra to get one...there wasn't a strap in the ad, nor any promise that one would be provided. I always suspected that if I had agreed to any of his requests then the bass would have gone and I'd never have seen any of the money. In retrospect I'm amazed that he didn't try what I now know to be the con of paying me by PayPal, then collecting in person and asking for his money back because i had no proof of postage.

so you have 9 days to go, and only one rehearsal between now and then? All of the suggestions above are good, but you also need to make good use of the remaining practice. You need to run through the whole set, and you need to get the whole band ready so that you don;t spend half of it bickering over how to end the songs you haven't played before or which key they should be in. I'd also suggest that just because everybody can't make more than one practice doesn't mean that the rest of you can't have an extra rehearsal - not ideal, but you can still work on arrangements and knowing the songs better, and doesn't necessarily need to be in the studio - you sitting down at home with the guitarist can be just as valuable

Nice choice - I don't have that one, but it's pretty much the eq stage that is in my Ampeg SCR DI pedal (with the distortion extracted and put into another stand alone pedal). I like it a lot because the ultra hi and low buttons mimic the eq shaping on my SVT-2 Pro (for when I don't have my amp). But it is for shaping the eq more than boosting the signal

all came with deluxe versions, and bonus discs with all the various B-sides from the time. Though, there's a noticeable difference in quality and I'm not sure they've spent much/any time remastering the bonus stuff

have you heard the remasters they put out a couple of years back? All the Patton albums. haven't heard the vinyl but the CDs sound excellent

I'd back BigRed X - the simplest solution if you don't want to mess with the basic tone would simply be increasing the input gain on your amp If that doesn't work for your set up then maybe something like an MXR Micro Amp (literally just a pedal with a Gain knob on it - I use it for very similar reasons, although it does depend on the rest of your set up, it can be a clean boost if it's a clean signal chain, or add more dirt and aggression if that's how the rest of your signal is set up) or a Boss GEB7 where you can use the sliders to increase the signal across the board (plus adds eq shaping if that's required)

Not the same cause, but for years I got a sore forearm from playing a Rickenbacker 4001 with a pick, because the bass has a sharp front edge, and over the length of a set that minor rubbing made my arm really sore. Same thing playing Les Pauls. And when I went back to playing my Ricky for a couple of gigs recently it came back to me at the first rehearsal. I struggled for years because old school wristbands simply don't cover up enough of my forearm, and wearing two or three looks two or three times cheesier. Simplest solution was longer wristbands: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nike-Unisexs-Swoosh-Doublewide-Wristbands/dp/B008C24NPQ/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=long+nike+wristbands&qid=1557923904&s=gateway&sr=8-3 Other colours and cheaper makes are available. Not cheesy looking (IMHO) and double up for wiping sweat off your brow. Certainly nobody's pointed and laughed at me, or in fact even commented on them.

I like the production, and loved the album at the time (and still do) but the high pitched, rap metal nasal vocals date it badly. He really hit his stride on Angel Dust. I missed Jim Martin after that

Back to the OP, The Real Thing does now sound oddly dated, largely because of Mike Patton’s voice