Monkey Steve

The two best drummers I've ever played with were opposite ends of how they interacted with me. For one, who I've been in bands with since we were teenagers, we know how each other plays, and how to communicate with each other during a song (a mixture of eye contact, sometimes speaking or mouthing an instruction, sometimes with playing cues, and sometimes just with a massive grin as one of us (usually him) does something a little unexpected to deliberately make things, ahem, interesting and see if the other one can follow - not often done during a gig, unless the mood was appropriate). Very easy to read the room with him and make changes in dynamics to suit how things are going. The other, who I would say is technically a better drummer, had none of the communication skills - no eye contact, no talking or playing cues, so no way to read the room and vary things during a gig. However, he will play exactly as expected every single time, so as long as the song dynamics have been properly worked out in advance, you know exactly what to expect. All the work is done in the rehearsal room, and when you get to the gig the drums are set in stone. I personally prefer #1, who allows for a bit of variety if the occasion demands (and would not do so if the occasion did not) but I've never had a problem with #2 Back to the OP, if there have ever been any issues - something that doesn't work live or something that could be done better, with these two it's always been taken back to the next rehearsal. Depending on the mood sometimes it's a full post mortem of what went wrong at the gig, sometimes it's a gentle "I think we could do that better, let's try it like this..." In the OP's case, I'd suggest it needs to be the full post mortem, and proper talking to explaining that he cannot do it any more

since when were we pandering to drummers?

nah, skip it, just get a DI box and go through the PA

couldn't tell you though I'm not a massive fan of Fender necks in general (but have only ever played one Jazz which was "meh" so, again, I've never been on a quest to find one I like and YMMV)

well, the other thing to add is that you're not alone here. I had a chat with the drummer from a former band of mine a couple of months ago, in a very similar situation as you with a fairly new baby, and he just wants to keep his hand in - isn't expecting to be out every weekend like we used to be, just wants to find a band where everybody is happy to get together once every few weeks, maybe play the odd gig here or there

yeah, while it's not affected me, I do know mate's in bands that have been affected by members having restricted access to their kids following a separation. Tends to depend on how flexible everybody(including the band and the ex) can be: In one (reasonably well known) band the person affected was the lead singer, who was the BL and key to them continuing. Everybody was happy that they simply don't arrange rehearsals for the days that he has the kids, and as it's regular it's not an issue. he also seems to have enough give and take with his ex that doing short tours is fine. In another (less well known but a very busy tribute act) band the problem was the lead guitarist who expected the band not to play and to turn down gigs if he couldn't make it. Oh, and he didn't like playing outside of town. Driven by not having a great relationship with his ex who was completely inflexible, but when he spat his dummy out that he was offended that they were even considering getting a dep in for gigs that he couldn't make, that was the end of things. So it can work, but if it doesn't you're probably best off being the one that stands aside

I've never especially liked Precision necks - OK, functional, but uninspiring (don't ask me to explain, it's all just "like" or "don't like"). Every MM I've tried has has a very P-like neck profile (understandably so) and leaves me a little disappointed. Shame, because I love the pickups, and they look good. YMMV - I've never seriously looked into buying one, and there may well be ones with necks that I would get on with, but I've never had MM GAS.

This. I know so many guitarists who are dismissive of the role of the bass...until they find themselves in a band with a really bad bass player. Two words: melody and drive Funnily enough singers, espeically good ones, tend to be the opposite, having much more appreciation for the role of the bass in laying down the melody that they are singing to

My first serious bass (after an Encore Coaster to get me started) - £800 for a 1975 4001, mapleglo with black trim - gorgeous - back in about 88/89 I think. Spent the next few years replacing all the bits that the previous owner had changed to be non-Rickenbacker (mainly bridge/tailpiece and pickups), and it's needed a couple of re-wirings, but it still looks great, and sounds exactly as it should, Plus a fantastic slim, fast neck. Back in the day Rickenbacker had a UK office who were brilliantly helpful, and couldn't be further from the reputation they have now. Was my main (sometimes only) bass for most of my 20's, but barely used since I discovered five strings and there was no going back. I have kept a lazy eye on one of the rare as hens teeth 4003 five strings coming up for sale, but they go quickly and expensively so had resigned myself to never getting one...until... https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2018/02/04/rickenbacker-unveils-the-2018-4003s-5-5-string-bass/ Much to complain about - 4003s so no shark fins or binding, and the pickups looks, ahem, interesting, plus no tailpiece so the looks are all over the place...but it's close to what I'd like and I'd love to give one a go and see what it plays/sounds like.

If we're providing all the kit then it's: Drums start, and while he's doing that the rest of the band do the heavy lifting - put cabs, PA, etc in place Once the drummer has completely finished, and in particular has got all of his cymbal stands in place so I know exactly how much space he's going to take up and isn't going to start putting things on top of my gear (why do drummers always do that if you give them the chance? I remember one gig where the drummer had completely finished, I set up, went for a slash and when I came back he'd moved the whole drum kit six inches to the right, so that he was on top of all my leads) then get the leads out and plug in everything in front of the amps - everybody for themselves If we're playing a multi band gig and I haven't brought any backline then it's: plug all the front of amp stuff into a DI box In both scenarios I then tune up, and then wait patiently for the sound man to get round to checking me, while the assembled guitarists spend the next hour noodling away and twiddling with all the knobs on their amps and stomp boxes

I've never trusted anybody who boasts about beating any price - there always seems to be an asterisk explaining that they don't literally mean "beat" or "any price" and they don't promise it for all of the stuff they stock I once (1980's) went to a music shop round Denmark St with a mate who was looking for a drum machine. He found what he was after in the now defunct Soho Soundhouse on Soho Square, which had a sign up advertising it as "Best price in Denmark St - we'll beat any quote!" Excellent He asks the salesman "so what is the best price in Denmark St then?" and the salesman calmly explains that they do not actually have a price for it, he'll need to go and ask one of the other shops for a price, come back, and the Soundhouse will sell it to him for less than that. He flat refused to actually give a price. So my mate went to another shop who were selling it for what he was expecting to pay and bought it there. More recently (early 2000's) I went to Denmark St with a guitarist friend who wanted a new guitar, and having always loved SGs found one that he really liked, a Pete Townshend signature model, in a shop that also boasted about beating any price. Rather than buying it we went for lunch in a pub and he bought a copy of Guitarist, and checked the Peter Cook advert which had it shown for a lot less (as they always did). Back he goes armed with the advert and the salesman very reluctantly rings up Peter Cook's and asks "So it's in stock? And it's new? It's not damaged? It's not ex-display? And it's got a case? And that's not damaged? And it's definitely in stock? OK, thanks". He then crafts a lot of excuses for why he can't actually beat Peter Cook's price because those are completely unrealistic, but he did get within about £50 and chucked in more of the free extras (strings, leads, etc) that they write off as overheads, and my mate took the "a bird in the hand beats two that you've got to go and collect from Hanwell" approach to the offer.

I can only remember refusing to go back to one place My old punk covers band, and we would play fairly regularly in a couple of pubs in the middle of Woking and get a good turn out. The singer gets us a gig at the Cricketers, a pub that's a couple of miles outside the town. We played a couple of places in the area that had a good crowd regardless of who we brought so we were hoping it was one of those. It wasn't. What it was was an awful place to play - big pub divided up into small rooms and long, thin bars with alcoves, no space for bands (after we'd set up in one alcove - the only spot big enough to fit the drum kit - you couldn't walk past us to get to the rest of the bar...though that turned out not to be a big consideration) or entertainment, no promotion, just a magical belief that if they put bands on, people will come. But nobody would ever come the two miles out of town to go there , and nobody did. We played to one empty bar, with two old fellers sat nattering to each other in one of the other bars, and only one barmaid and a couple of our mates actually watching us. We were awful - one of the worst gigs I've ever played, mainly because of the complete lack of any atmosphere that got to the whole band - we just didn't want to be there and played like it. The landlord apologised, said something about being a bit disappointed by the turn out, and would we like to come back again in a few weeks? OK, we weren't very keen but figured we'd give it another go and if they're paying us, why not? Not that we were getting a lot, we didn't need the money and were playing for fun, but a few quid to cover petrol and beer was always appreciated. We go back and it's exactly the same - a couple of regular punters who stick to another bar because they have no interest in the music, a couple of our mates who've made the effort. the only difference was that we played pretty well. The landlord, clearly with an entertainment budget from the brewery that was to be spent no matter what, asked us back. We politely declined. I moved round the corner from there a couple of years ago - it's now a chinese restaurant, and seems to be much busier than the pub ever was.

I've only ever used them when I bought a new Warwick - they come strung with them (obvs) and with a spare set. IMHO they're fine, if unspectacular, and I'm happy to leave them on until they die at which point I'll replace them with my usual D'Addarios

Pretty much the whole of the first album by this lot say "Summer's here" to me for anyone wanting a more Summer-specific track there's this:

dedicated fan of the Boss TU-2 and 3 pedals here (the current one in my bass set up is the TU-3w, just because it's black!) Reliable, handles low B without a problem, and can be set up so that switching on to tune acts as a kill switch for the signal to the amp

I just got Def Leppard's remastered collection Vol 1 - actually for the first two albums which haven't previously been remastered, but it goes up to Hysteria. Easily the weakest of the bunch - you can hear the progress from raw heavy metal to overproduced pop as the albums progress, and while Pyromania's electronic drum sounds are very dated now, it's the full AOR production of Hysteria, drowning in saccharine backing vocals, synth lines and electronic drums that marks it out. Not that you'd know if from the accompanying book, which seems to think that the astounding album sales (can't dispute that, they shifted a lot of units, no mistake) means that it's one of the best rock albums ever made...I humbly beg to differ...

I'm doing a bit of this - having had to replace my laptop a few months ago I lost all the iTunes stuff on there, and thought that rather than just loading up the same old favourites I'd work my way through my CD collection, save everything to an external hard drive and load most of them only my phone. I'm currently up to G, have used more than half of the memory on my phone, and am reconsidering the policy. But I am rediscovering a lot of old stuff that I haven't listened to for ages. Some good... The ones that so far have stuck out as being awful are the Gene albums, Olympian in particular. i don't understand how I quite liked them back in the '90's rather than seeing them for the watered down Smiths knock off that they clearly were. There may well be many more in there - I haven't actually played most of the stuff that's made it on to my phone, let alone the rest of the alphabet to come...not looking forward to Molly Hatchet, who in my youth I loved as a southern rock band, but on re-buying on CD a few years back just seem to be very loud country music

Haven't seen this one but it's a common complaint from me when watching music documentaries. The Killing Joke one ("The Death & Resurrection Show") skips through whole periods that were important, or at least very interesting times for the band with barely a reference to what they were up to (pretty sure they didn't even mention the Courtauld Talks, I'd have loved to hear them try to explain that one) and in a similar vein, the documentary on Youth (er ..."Youth") which is supposed to be about his career as a producer tells you very little about the work he's done. From that point of view I have to say that the Oasis one ("Supersonic") does a brilliant job. Even if you hate them, it's a great watch.

God, yes, Grace. I'm with you - tried to see what everybody likes, but just don't get the vocals and the music is all a bit meh for me (same with Neil Young's vocals, although I generally like the music, and after years of persevering I seem to have got to a stage where i can tolerate the vocals)

It might work for some if everybody is committed to it, and I have had a band who worked like that for quite a long time and it was fine, but sadly my experience is that it quickly turns into a nightmare where even one member of the band isn't playing the game. For instance one lead guitarist from an old band would never reply to texts/emails/phone calls asking him to confirm the dates that he could make. When we did hear from him he would complain that we hadn't had rehearsals for ages, assuming that the magic rehearsal fairy would know when he was free and book the practices. Never once occurred to him that he could/should book the practices, his only involvement was to complain that somebody else should have been doing it, and simply couldn't understand that the person who had been doing it couldn't book anything until he confirmed when he was free (I have a much longer rant about those who see "being really committed" to a band as meaning "as long as I don't have anything else to do that day"). These are the sort of band mates I can live without, and in this case, started living without quite quickly because the band ground to a halt. But I have had better experiences - one band would only book week-by-week, but we would rehearse every weekend, either on the Saturday or Sunday, and in either the early or late afternoon slot at a particular studio. Everybody knew to keep the weekends free for it so in general we could agree on a time each week and as long as the studio has a free room when we could all make it, it worked out fine. Again, comes back to the question of commitment.

It depends, and varies from band to band I'd echo Phil Starr in agreeing one time and day that is the regular rehearsal slot and set a level; of commitment and an expectation that everybody is going to turn up unless they have a really good excuse. I have had some experience of bands who would spend days trying to round everybody up to agree on the date for the next rehearsal, and they've never lasted very long, simply because the one person who spends time herding the cats/spoilt-toddler-like-musicians gets fed up, stops doing it, and nobody else picks it up and it all falls apart. YMMV Having set the ground rules, anybody who can't make it has to let everybody else know in plenty of time so that the band won't get charged if we don't turn up (in my experience, usually 48 hours notice). For one band I was in the rule was that if you dropped out too late for the studio's rules, and we cancelled and owed them a week's money the next time we went in, you had to pay it. As long as people give some warnings then you can at least make an informed decision of whether to show up. I'm usually more annoyed by people just not showing up or ringing to cancel on the day, and have plenty of experience of turning up to find that we're going to be a man down, and the whole rehearsal is wasted. And I've done it too - usually when rehearsing in London and only finding out that my train in from Surrey isn't running when i get to the station an hour before rehearsal. It then comes down to practicalities - what will we get out of a rehearsal if somebody doesn't show up? If it's practising to get sharpened up for live shows then we need a drummer, but can possibly live without one of either a guitarist or singer. And the band can make do without the bass player if I'm the one who has to skip it. But if we're writing stuff we can do without the drummer (albeit that if we're writing stuff then we possibly don't need to hire the studio to do it) One band with two guitarists had one who was more prone to skipping practices than everybody else (often for perfectly valid reasons) so we used the time to go through and work out arrangements for one guitar. In general I can usually make do without a singer, either with somebody else standing in, or just working on arrangements and playing without them But for some bands it just didn't work without everybody there and it was better to skip that week if somebody couldn't make it. Alternatively, a mate of mine in a signed band will rehearse three times a week regardless of who is there - he was telling me that he had a rehearsal a few weeks ago where it was only him (lead guitar) and the bass player, and he wasn't going to skip it because they were playing a couple of big festivals the following weekend and he hates cancelling practices

+1 for Strings Direct - my default, good comms, always let me know when to expect delivery if it's not being sent out immediately, and while it's not dirt cheap the prices are usually pretty reasonable and you get bulk discounts (albeit that this can be a little modest)

Bit of a no win situation during the gigs - if you don't go with the drummer, even if the drummer's wrong, then you're the one that looks like you're making mistakes. I like the flexibility to vary the tempo during a gig depending on how things are going. The best drummer I ever played with, not necessarily technically but certainly for rapport, we could push each other, or pull each other back to control the tempo, and we tended to agree on the changes required (and if we didn't, we could have a word after the song and it was instantly sorted out, no arguments or macho nonsense about who was right). Clearly that's not the case here... Sounds like you've got a classic case of "I'm the one who plays this instrument so I'll decide how I play it, not you" pig headedness. Unless you have a clear band leader who can lay down the law, I suggest that the only solution is to give it a good airing, bring it up with the rest of the band at the next rehearsal/ahead of the next gig (and having carefully briefed everybody else beforehand and made sure that they agree with you) so that everything's clear and he knows what's expected of him. That said, an old band of mine tried it once (not exactly the same problem, but a similarly fixable one if the band member had paid any attention to what we were saying) and it didn't solve the issue. However, what it did do was make it very clear that they had to do better, so when he was replaced he didn't have any argument - he still thought that what he was doing was right, but we'd made it very clear that we didn't want him to do that so it was time to part company.

Not sure if it counts as ridiculous, but the one that always made me annoyed was when i was playing guitar in an old school punk covers band we quite frequently got asked "it's my mate's birthday, can you play Happy Birthday?" Is it by the Sex Pistols? Beyond that we never got any inappropriate songs, it was usually "do you know *some obscure song* by *some obscure punk band*?" Er, no. My ex's Dad was quite a big noise in his local masons and they genuinely don't see that only allowing men to be masons is at all sexist. Because (as they see it) they put women on a pedestal, to be looked after and cherished, and they shouldn't have to dirty their hands or bother their pretty little heads with things like business. So wives get invited to all the functions, and are well fed and watered, getting flowers and chocolates, etc. Of course what that actually means is that when it is their husband's time to host (i.e. pay for) an event the wives will be left to run it all (because women have a much better feel for that sort of a thing) and compete furiously to out do each other.

great point, it's not whether the digital ones sound exactly like the analogue originals, it's whether it's the sound you want. It's all subjective. Two amp modelling examples. Playing the guitar in an old band, I had a really old, 1970's Marshall valve combo which was completely uncontrollable, until i put a Sansamp in front of it doing a Mesa Boogie impression. Sounded brilliant, just like a Boogie... Then i got some money and tried an actual Mesa Boogie...the difference was very noticeable. And I bought the amp as i much preferred the real version, but until that point I'd been very happy with my Sansamp version, and nobody had ever made any negative comments about my guitar sound (only my guitar playing) For bass, I've had an SVT 2 Pro for a while now, but rehearsing at studios in London where the backline is provided, there's not much incentive to bring the Ampeg on the tube, so I got a Bass VT pedal. Does a great, if not 100% accurate SVT impression. So much so that I haven't brought the SVT to a rehearsal or a gig in over five years - it a back breaking hassle, the sound man is going to want to DI me anyway (although the SVT does allow that) so I just bring the Bass VT pedal. never had anybody make any comments about the sound not being all it should. If i was providing the backline I'd probably dust off the SVT, and i won't be selling it any time soon, but I don't care enough about the "authentic" sound to worry about it.