Monkey Steve

the argument does depend on how complicated your set up is. One ex-lead guitarist of mine's set up was a tuner and a Tube Screamer (in fact a Tube Screamer 808 clone) - no matter how accurate a Tube Screamer impression your digital box is, there's no justification for it in that set up. In fact that had replaced an old (and quite poorly) Boss multi-FX board that he realised was killing his natural tone. Not that he's a luddite - his current band require a lot of different tones and his set up is now a Kemper amp, and the only effects he uses are the ones that the amp throws in. So, horses for courses

I knew it was going to be a slog when I explained (it was my amp) that there was a slight lag in switching between clean and dirty channels, so if there were any songs where he needed to change channels mid-song he would need to select the clean channel and use a fuzz box (which he had) for his dirty sound. He launched into a (I kid you not) five minute rant about how that was unacceptable fault with the amp and that I should take it back because he knows about building amps and there's no reason why there should be a lag, just going round and round in circles about how this was appalling and what a terrible company the manufacturer must be to have made such an awful amp, etc. Just completely focused on making this one point over and over again, that he shouldn't be expected to change what he was expecting to do in order to make up for some deficiency in the amp. His drummer had to shut him down and explain (like you would to a five year old who refuses to get on the bus because it's blue and he only likes red ones) that this is the only amp that he will be able to play with for that gig so it doesn't matter how good or bad it is, he's going to have to use it. And no, he wasn't going to drive 45 minutes home to get his own amp and 45 minutes back again when they were already late for the soundcheck and due to be on stage in an hour.

The last time I sent a guitar I went to my local Mailbox Etc, and I have to say they offer a great service. They asked what i was sending, found the cheapest courier, knew what exclusions there were on the couriers own insurance (I think it was £200 for musical instruments and i was sending one worth £650) and offered me separate insurance that would cover the guitar. As I recall (it was a few years ago) it worked out at about £20-30 more than if I'd gone to the courier direct so not the cheapest cover but not an unreasonable extra cost.

Oh God, yes, this. Did a gig once where we brought the backline and the guitarist from the support band, having turned up late to do their soundcheck in the first place spent literally three quarters of an hour endlessly tweaking the amp, his pedals, his guitar, etc, before insisting that they play the whole of three different songs which have different guitar sounds in them so that he could be sure that he was happy. the rest of his band were mortified, and apologetically explained to us that while he's a great guitarist, there is something of the OCD/autistic spectrum about him and they just have to let him get on with things. And then having completed their soundcheck they put down their instruments, to be told to pick them back up again as it was time for the show to start.

Yes, depending on the terms of the cover. It's one thing for the insurer (or courier company on behalf of the insurer) to sell general cover for unspecified goods being shipped to a specific value, for which there is a limit if the goods happen to be musical instruments. It's another for the insurer/courier to sell you cover specifically for a musical instrument to a certain value which is limited to paying out a lower value. That said, the only claim I can reasonably see being upheld would be a refund of the insurance premium paid. Though I'd love to see somebody challenge it to see if the Courts agreed that having accepted the premium in the first place the customer might reasonably have assumed that they had cover and so would not have been able to make an informed decision to obtain cover elsewhere (the root of the PPI pay outs)

It's been around for a while. It's always struck me as odd. First, insurers love to charge people money to insure their goods. I'm amazed that nobody has spotted this gap and offered a very expensive rate of cover as soon as you mention "musical instrument". If the volume is large enough to justify a specific exclusion, then it's probably large enough for an insurer to make a play for the business... However, insurers are cautious by nature. If they are flat refusing to insure the risk then it shows that they have no confidence whatsoever in the couriers not dropping the package and breaking the headstock off your vintage Precision. If they won;t insure it, then that's a pretty good indication that they can't be trusted to deliver it safely

I wouldn't say my playing has ever improved just because I've left a band. But I can definitely say that: My mood has vastly improved. Partly my fault for always clinging on in bands that were obviously going wrong for some time, in the hope that somehow the annoying (usually) guitarist would one day wake up and be a much better human being. By the time I quit it's been such a relief to be out of there; My playing has sometimes improved in the subsequent band that I've joined. In one particular case simply because the musicians in a new band were of a much higher standard and I had to keep up

In terms of multi-FX, I tried embracing the new technology years ago, and just couldn't get on with it - a Zoom bass pedal when they first came out and were dirt cheap. It wasn't that they weren't OK, just that they were really fiddly, and you were choosing between pre-determined settings rather than tweaking a knob to get things just right. I'm happy to concede that a modern version will be vastly superior and I've seen bands (and band mates) using them live without any problems. But I don't feel the need to try them again. I don't use or need a lot of effects (though I have more than I regularly use) and the ones i do have do exactly what I want. In fact the only pedals I've gigged with lately have been a tuner and if I don't have my own SVT with me, a Tech 21 VT pedal, so I'm not exactly flying the "analogue" flag. But I don't see either the stand alone or analogue pedals disappearing any time soon. Not because of any refusal to use multi-FX from me, but because guitarists tend to be believers in the Holy Tone Grail and will spend endless amounts of money chasing it. Just look at the amount of boutique distortion pedals on the market, and the premium prices paid for vintage pedals that have a certain reputation and scarcity.

I'm pretty much with you on this. Would I buy one myself? Unlikely Do I care what preference other people have for the finish on their bass? Not in the slightest. I mean, I know it's the death of social media if we suddenly all stopped loudly shouting our opinions about what other people do, but honestly, who cares? The planet would be a very dull place if we all liked the same things.

Yeah, I don't know what it is - the little finger isn't making any significant impact on what you can hear me playing, but adding the movement has a massive effect on cutting down/out the pain in my forearm, and the lack of pain means I can be far more consistent in my attack and tone. I should probably declare that triplets isn't something I do a lot - a cover of the Trooper in one old covers band and possibly in a new one is about it - so I don't know if this would work for longer sessions... I should probably also declare that on top of a history of tennis elbow (fortunately long past) I also have a much more recently broken and badly mended little finger which has completely messed up that tendon. This may or may not have an effect

Yes - I have real trouble playing prolonged, fast triplets with three fingers as after a couple of minutes my whole forearm with be in pain (but my fingers are still playing fine) I've also had issues with tennis elbow. Funnily enough I've largely solved it by using all four fingers (the little finger just thickens up the hit of the ring finger so it still sounds like a triplet)

Had this at a gig once - the singer had brought a guitar to the gig as a backup for our guitarist, a very unpleasant looking BC Rich (they were quite popular with metal bands at the time). We're on before the headliners, play our set, and as we're breaking down and loading our gear out of the back door into assorted cars the singer asked who's taken his guitar as it's not where he left it by the side of the stage. We check that none of us or our mates has picked it up and put it into the wrong car, but there's no sign of it. Singer goes off to see the promoter, who tells us that the only people with access to the stage other than us and our "crew" are the soundman and the headliners (setting up) but he can't say for sure as he doesn't know who everybody is and somebody might have sneaked up and looked like they were helping us carry stuff. Singer checks with the people on the door whether anybody's come out with a guitar (no), asks people in the crowd if they've noticed anybody coming onto the stage (no), so the only way anybody could have got it would have been by coming back stage, in from the street. Just as he's about to ring the police, our one proper roadie, a huge biker (think Opie from Sons of Anarchy) pipes up "I've found it lads". He can see it lying in the back of the headliner's transit van, an unmistakably shaped and luridly painted guitar in a van that is otherwise completely empty. "Don't worry, I'll take care of this" says the roadie, gets the singer to block in the transit with his car, and then, grinning, goes off to "have a word" with the other band... suffice to say, we got the guitar back

I usually try to take my best (or most appropriate for the gig) gear, so it's not that stuff is too nice to gig with, it's that it's not nice enough

I put plenty of dings in my brand new basses and don't lose sleep over those so, no, it wouldn't worry me Reminds me of a mate who asked a well known UK pickup manufacturer how they managed to get the "distressed" finish for the p/u that he was thinking of buying. "Easy mate, we chuck it on the floor and kick it around for five minutes"

I don't think this stands up, because the mechanics are completely different Playing with a pick means only moving your wrist, and with only very limited movement at that, whereas finger style is moving a whole different set of muscles

Oh, the one band member who is never to blame, not even for the mistakes that he knows he made, he's always got a detailed explanation of why that was in fact the fault of somebody else in the band

When I started I only used a pick, for speed and consistency of tone. Over the years I’ve developed much better finger and slap technique so now I’ll rarely use a pick, and when I do it will be where the speed is too fast for my technique to provide a consistent tone or occasionally where I’ve been rehearsing for too long and I started getting cramp in my picking hand

Personally, I learned most when i got started playing the bass by going round to a guitar playing mate's house and playing along with him. Great for understanding the dynamics and timing, etc, and with an experienced guitarist who would gently point out where I'd got things wrong. Then on to bands within months of getting my first bass (in fairness I had got a bass because all my mates played guitar so i could get into a band pretty easily). Beyond the first few weeks where i was just starting to work my way around the fretboard, I learned far more being in a band and writing my own bass parts (and working out how to play them better) than learning other people's songs. However, the opposite applied when I learned the guitar. After having a guitar for years, I only started making significant progress by learning covers - showed me so much about chord structures and changes. In summary, there's no right or wrong, and it's probably best to let him try a few different things and see what he responds to

In terms of the quality of the medium and allowing for differences in mastering, etc, CDs probably hold the advantage in terms of reliable reproduction - there's a neat idiot's guide level summary here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-11-21/vinyl-streaming-cd-what-is-best-audio-quality/8693498 But for all that there are too many variables in the signal chain to laud one over the other, and in the end it's going to come down to personal preference (back to the point about super fans being the ones who buy most of the vinyl and a lot of them never actually play it, they just want the records). Vinyl will sound "warmer" if you have the right set up and want it to sound that way. Whether or not it was intended to sound "warmer" in the first place is another debate. And people get used to what they know - I know a lot of people who claim that high end audio equipment doesn't make the slightest bit of difference, based on them assuming that what they hear on their equipment is what the record sounds like and that's the end of it (I amazed one musician friend by playing a 5.1 mix of one of his favourite albums - he then came back and insisted that I play the early mixes of his new album on the same system, somehow assuming that it would magically transform into 5.1, and regardless of that, now understands that my hifi makes music sound better than plugging speakers into his laptop). It's always been the case, but I suspect that most people just don't care enough about differences in quality to seek out CDs or vinyl when streaming services have what they want. And it's not like MQA is setting the world alight either regardless of the quality (although a lot of that seems to be the clumsy licensing issues that have got the hifi community's back up...I'm seriously thinking of getting an MQA DAC before too long) So I think that CDs have got a while to run yet. But Jazzmanb may well be right in the long run, as the great unwashed simply won't be used to buying physical formats, and the ones that care enough about the sound quality of digital files will be able to explore that. What I do find interesting is the response of the cleverer musicians - Nine Inch Nails for instance understood very early on that there was money to be made by exploiting the super fans and made stacks of cash by issuing limited runs of new releases on vinyl and deluxe or special edition CDs.

Not had a Gretsch bass, but did give in to my GAS for one of their Electromatic hollow bodies a few years ago. Have to agree with Roger, it looked great bit felt and played like a bargain basement version of the original. It was certainly playable, and I persisted for a few months, but never loved it, and sold it on.

Ha! I had that in one band. I'd been roped into a punk covers band to play guitar when their old guitarist left and they had a gig booked in three weeks time, on the basis that I owned a guitar and it couldn't be that hard could it? I turn up with pads full of notes and sheets of downloaded tabs that I'd worked my way through and corrected, to find that the band - a couple of enthusiastic amateurs who'd never been in a band before, plus the drummer, my mate who is brilliant, but not a fan of old punk rock (and had only joined because it was a load of people from work). Spent the first practice (wasn't really an audition, I had a guitar and said I'd do the gig so I was definitely in) telling them that the songs were in the wrong key, or had the wrong arrangement, or didn't go like that. Fortunately I was replacing a very below par guitarist, so even my average guitar playing was an improvement and they just went with what I was saying.

Exactly!!!

I'm the person in the band who notices and remembers all of the mistakes - doesn't matter how well the rest of the gig has gone, I'm the one shaking my head because I played a bum note in the third song. One of my guitarist mates is exactly the same - I saw him playing at a festival a few weeks ago and there's one song where he switches to finger picking for one section, and he choked a couple of the notes. I guarantee you that we were the only two people in the place who noticed, but it's all he could talk about in the pub afterwards, how he'd choked those notes, kept coming back to having made that one mistake in an hour long set. If I'm playing the bass in a well rehearsed band then I'll still be very disappointed in myself to stuff something up...though I once came off stage effing and jeffing about my bass having stopped working completely half way through the last song (dodgy wiring) and muttering that even allowing for that I hadn't played well at all that night. the singer was taking to a journalist in the dressing room, who both turned to me with a puzzled look, saying that they'd noticed the bass not working, but everything else on the night was spot on as far as they could tell. I have many similar stories - just says to me that as long as the singer gets the chorus in the right place, the crowd are happy.

How band members handle musical differences when an issue has been thoroughly debated and the (rest of the) band has agreed on a solution: The spoilt toddler's flat out refusal - they don't care what everybody else wants to do, they are giving up their time to play in the band so why should they be expected to do anything they don't want to do? The never quite letting it lie, bringing it back up again every few weeks to see if they can get their own way after all. Particularly annoying when it's a song arrangement that they play as agreed for a few weeks and then go back to their original version, to see if anybody complains this time. The passive/aggressive: appearing to agree that they have lost that argument, and then showing that they were right by playing the song or arrangement that they don't like as badly as possible (or in one instance, never quite finding the time to learn the songs that they didn't like). Funnily enough, this has happened in a couple of bands, with the lead guitarists (isn't it always?) thinking that they were proving their point about how their choices would have been much better, and the rest of the band thinking that they weren't very good if they couldn't play those songs properly and sacking them.

OK, just re-read the older thread (which i remember, just not who posted it) That one was left with the OP just seeing out the current bookings and then more than likely going to jack it in. Has that changed and you now want to stay? (also, where did the keyboard player come from? he wasn't mentioned in the previous thread...possibly he wasn't relevant to your gripes) If not and you've still got one foot out of the door then left them get on with it, and hand in your notice when you get back from holiday, or even better, do it now. I wouldn't kick off about the PA, though it's maybe a better strategy to quit after your holiday as they're more likely to take better care of it if they think they'll be using it again soon than if they know it's the last time they're going to see it. But given it's the second time you've posted on it in the last month, clearly you're not happy and doing the adult thing and having a grown up chat about it hasn't worked, so what's the point in continuing?