Monkey Steve

I love my Ricky 4001. Fast, slim neck, looks brilliant, makes "that" clank, and mine's a s/h 1975 model that's been beaten to crap. Only issue I have with it these days is that it only has four strings, so it rarely gets played in a band.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1501245198' post='3343553'] Well, I certainly don't think my band is any better musically than other regional bar bands, far from it. We are however IMO better at certain things like booking. We also have a young female front, lead guitarist and lead vocalist that sets us apart from many other blues/rock bar bands. She alone keeps us away from what I call " 4 old guys on stage" syndrome. We're also drama free and ego free.The only time we see each other is at gigs. We don't take ourselves that seriously. I've been in bands that had drama and ego issues and IMO it's laughable and a big joke. Also the main reason nany bands fall apart. BTW, you guys refer to drinks a lot. We don't see much of that at all. You get a DUI over here, your looking at 10 grand minimum after all is said and done. Blue [/quote] welcome to British drinking culture! Drunk driving is very much frowned upon, and (in theory at least) you can get a prison sentence just for sitting behind the wheel of a stationary car if you're over the limit, and beyond that is completely socially unacceptable (not that people don't do it). Speaking personally I always understood that the choice was drinking [b]or[/b] driving, never both, so I never learned to drive. I have never regretted that decision. Possibly the other thing (and I'm speculating here) is distance - typically we don't go too far to drink and if we don't have a sober driver it'll be within train, bus or taxi distance to get home. So we can concentrate on drinking and not worry about needing to drive afterwards. However, I had a chat (in a pub) about this not long ago with a friend who is from your side of the pond - she was telling me that her sister (who has had a drinking problem since teenage years) has now recognised that she is an alcoholic and has stopped drinking booze and started going to AA. I, only half jokingly, told her how I couldn't imagine how to cope with a social life where i couldn't drink any more - a lot of seeing friends, playing in bands, etc involves being in the pub at some point, and how can you do that if you know you can't ever drink alcohol? She patiently explained to me that 1. it is possible to go to the pub and not drink alcohol (still not sure I believe her on that one, unless you're the designated driver); and 2. the idea that going to the pub means shoving beer into your face until you: a) puke; b ) fall over; or c) puke and fall over, isn't the culture on the other side of the Atlantic, and that people will go to a bar just to meet friends and have a coffee or have a meal. You are a strange people.

start from where you want to get to and work backwards: It's not "I've got $100k, how far will it get me?" it's "I want the band to be playing X nights a week at Y sized venues, getting paid $Z, how much investment do I need to get there?" It's going to be the interaction between X, Y and Z that sets a lot of the rest. And to find out realistic numbers you're going to have to do a lot of market research.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1500647029' post='3339368'] Yeh - I get that. My day job is in IT and (whether I like it or not) I'm a much better and more productive IT geek than I am a bass player. So, it's become a matter of personal "policy" that music will never become an income stream that I need to rely on. That's not always been the case for other people in bands I have played in and then "I don't want to do that gig" or "I'd rather go to a car show that weekend" makes me the bad guy... [/quote] I see it as a three way split. 1. Those that have to do it for money so want to play every paying gig 2. Those that do it for fun but playing gigs is more fun than not playing gigs so are happy to commit to whatever comes along 3. Those that do it for fun but will only play gigs when it's fun for them, and want to pick and choose and will put other social arrangements before the band when it suits them. I'm firmly in camp #2, and the only issues I've had with those in #1 is when the band isn't getting enough paying gigs and they've had to leave - one for a functions band and one for playing on cruise ships. Those in #3 rub up just as badly against #2s as #1s (this sounds worse than intended, should probably have used A, B & C), albeit that #2s probably express this through lots of ongoing resentment and complaining rather than quitting the band because they need the income from the missed gigs. this isn't aimed as a criticism of #3s - life will get in the way, especially (back to the thread) family considerations. But they often need to work on how they deal with the rest of the band - one that springs to mind (wasn't in my band, fortunately) told his band that he thought it was completely unreasonable of them to expect him to play a decent paying gig that had been in the diary for months, the week before Christmas at a long standing venue because he and his girlfriend had bought tickets to go to a pantomime (a bit of a jokey Christmas treat) because not going to that would leave him out of pocket - no realisation that cancelling the gig would leave everybody else in the band out of pocket. If he'd had enough sense to check the band diary before booking the tickets it wouldn't have been a problem, and he wouldn't have been sacked.

I haven't done this, but I did once do a gig where the set up was odd (a really strangely sized stage area at one end of a much bigger room, like we were crammed into a nook at one end) and because the guitars were mic'd through the PA we set the guitar cabs up facing the players, angled so that they could hear them - more like monitors than backline. It was a multi band show and i was in one lot playing bass and one playing guitar and it was one of the best on stage sounds I've ever experienced. What you say makes a lot of sense - I think a lot of how we set up is tradition rather than practical, plus not a lot of people use two cabs for gigs where the backline is also the FOH sound.

[quote name='Freddy Le Cragg' timestamp='1500547778' post='3338593'] Ed Tudor Pole was in a season 2 episode as well. [/quote] I did a gig with him once - really top bloke

[quote name='bartelby' timestamp='1500480425' post='3338146'] or, selling you a completely inappropriate product because they get the best commission from it. As the FA did to me when buying my first house. [/quote] exactly! There have been a lot of changes to that now and commission has been banned on a lot of products, and as a minimum must be declared so that you can see how much the adviser is getting from the insurer/lender. But even if they are selling you the product that they genuinely think is the best for you, it depends on how good an adviser they are in the first place. Not to do with mortgages, but I recently had a project at work where we paid for an IFA to give advice to some people affected by a tax change, and there was a definite "house style" so that they gave everybody in a particular position the same advice. On speaking to some of the individuals afterwards it became apparent that it really wasn't the best thing for some of them to be doing... Sorry, somewhat off topic...I could rant about this for a while so best I don't get started... Best advice, whether getting a mortgage or selling your bass, use somebody you trust, ideally from a recommendation by somebody you trust.

I've got a mate who works as an extra for the stuff shot in Northern Ireland (not for the last couple of series though) and he was there when Mastodon did their bit. If it's anything like when they showed up then it'll be far more about the producers thinking "this'll be cool" than any specific marketing plan to expand the "brand".

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1500220947' post='3336282'] Because your buying one, they're buying hundreds, millions of pounds worth. That's how it works, they get offered deals not available to the man on the street and get a commission or a one off payment from the lender or the home owner or both, the lender still gets a monthly saving and the FA makes a living, but of course you know all that as its not rocket science as you say [/quote] It should also be pointed out that while there are some deals offered by lenders only via brokers, there are also some deals offered only direct to borrowers and not through brokers. Using a mortgage adviser is far more about them knowing the market than an assurance that they can find the lowest rates - there are estimated to be about 6,000 different mortgage deals and where they earn their money is knowing which lenders are best suited to what you need (for instance who won't lend if you are buying a flat over a shop, who is more likely to say yes if you have a less than stellar credit rating, etc). Using the wrong adviser may not save you any money if they aren't looking at the right products... back to the point, it comes down to whether the shop can generate a higher price than a private sale, do they have a better range of regular buyers, etc, and whether you want the hassle of having to do everything - check out the numerous threads on eBay cons, courier issues, etc. I don't think there's a right or wrong, and there's certainly no guarantee of one way being better financially, so I'd suggest that it's more to do with saving yourself the time and trouble.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1500044803' post='3335347'] They obviously can't stop people paying cash at private parties, weddings, birthdays, bar mitzvahs etc. [/quote] no, and (in light of my earlier post) I don't see it as a push from HMRC to stop musicians getting paid in cash, but rather that companies (pubs and clubs, etc) will overreact to be on the safe side.

[quote name='Les' timestamp='1500039456' post='3335297'] Not sure the odd fluff really matters as long as it's glossed over. It happens, see Levins tale above. It's about attitude and confidence, I'd rather see a band jumping about or playing standing on the tables and generally interacting with the crowd than watch a static neck gazer who doesn't look up but doesn't make a mistake. It's a live show, it may be more important to do the back flip rather than hit the right note. Les [/quote] why is it always one or the other - why not do the back flips and hit the correct notes?

I was reading a legal briefing at work this morning (my job is just that interesting) around a new offence coming in the Autumn where companies will be liable for potentially unlimited fines if their employees assist in any criminal tax fraud, however loosely. This isn't aimed at pubs paying musicians in cash, it's designed to help with the high profile stuff like Jimmy Carr and footballers' image rights, by going after any tax advisers who recommend these types of schemes, but the drafting would cover any situations where cash is paid to an individual who does not then correctly declare it for tax and NI (which is criminal tax fraud). While in isolation I'd be very surprised if HMRC went after pubs paying musicians in cash (as others have said, that's not really a big tax evasion issue) it does neatly link to the Taylor Review's view on the "hidden economy" (i.e. cash in hand payments that never get declared) and the guidance around it is all about companies analysing where there are risks that their employees might be doing something that helps somebody else avoid tax. In this case the cash payments might be seen as feeding the hidden economy, and the Companies (pubs, venues, etc) might put a stop to it not because HMRC care, but because it gets flagged as a potential risk if HMRC do decide to care about it at some point in the future.

[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1499884158' post='3334334'] One of the best sounds I've heard in a good while was Blackberry Smoke at the Ritz in Manchester. I was standing near the desk, and I watched the sound engineer adjust a very few things during the first song, then pretty much stand there with his arms folded the rest of the gig. BS have gears, and they took the band sound up and down, from full-on rawk to verry simple and quiet, from the stage itself with guitar volume controls (yep, them ) and their hands. Then I went to see Alter Bridge at the Arena, and it was literally painfully loud at the sides of the Arena, and exactly as above: stupendously overloud kick, and indistinct rumble instead of notes from the bass, and everything else was a buzzsaw. Horrific: we left about halfway through. Which was odd, as the support bands sounded better (quieter), although the inherent kick/bass problems were there, too... [/quote] Had exactly the same at an Airbourne gig a few years back. Me and a couple of mates had seen them before at the Astoria and they were excellent, so dragged a few people along on the next tour, can't remember, it was either Brixton or Hammersmith. Support were fine volume wise, then on come Airbourne and the sliders seemed to get shoved to 10, just a physically painful wall of noise. half the place seemed oblivious - no doubt some meatheaded "if it's too loud you're too old" response, and the rest of us were wincing and after a few songs the crowd was noticeably thinning out. never felt the need to go and see them again - it may not have been their fault, but it does fit with their image so we all assumed it was a deliberate thing.

back to the OP, there are a few different things around the "no more cash in hand" idea. Clearly it's a tax issue from HMRC's perspective, but there's also a welfare issue - that where the income is undocumented there is no way to check that people are actually getting the minimum wage, and beyond that ensuring that people are getting the correct NI credits for state benefits. The £6bn of missing tax isn't just what would be collected if payments currently made went through the books, it's what would be collected if the correct minimum pay went through the books. This whole topic comes out of the Taylor Review into the gig economy, which isn't necessarily the same as the cash in hand undeclared for tax payments, but the same welfare issue applies. And it isn't the workers who are demanding to be paid as being self employed, but it's the companies insisting that their employees are in fact self employed so that they don't have to pay employer's NI and worry about things like the minimum wage.

My reading of what Blue is saying (correct me if I'm wrong) isn't about whether the audience notice the mistakes/poor performances/bad arrangements/etc but rather whether it's OK to not worry about it and not want to improve [b]because[/b] the punters didn't/won't notice. And they don't - I have stories - but that's not the point. It's about "the punters won't notice so we won't try" rather than "the punters didn't notice so we got away with that one" right? As the one person in every band who walks off stage remembering every single mistake made I've had to have the difference drummed into me - always practice hard and get as good as you can be, but don't lose sleep over a fluffed note when it's too late to play it correctly. Personally I hate the "nobody notices how good we are so we shouldn't try" attitude, and I've just joined a new covers band being put together by a couple of semi-pros from an originals band on the basis of "we're much better than the pub covers bands I've seen so let's go out and show people how it should be done". Arrogant? Certainly. But really appealing to have such a ""let's be excellent" attitude. But I do find the "punter's won't notice so lets not try" is often a justification from people at a certain level, and from personal experience it's in a lot of lead guitarists at the pub covers band level, not worrying about whether they can get note perfect for all of that really well known solo because the crowd always clap when the band plays that song so he must be alright. Possibly a bit Dunning Kruger - they think they're a great guitarist, everybody tells them they're great, so they don't need to bother getting any better. And it's why they never progress beyond pub cover bands - it's very self limiting to be known as "fine for a pub band". But it may well be the limits of their talent, so that's OK. Whereas the much better semi-pros and pros I've played with are far more critical of their own performances (and their bandmates' performances) and will practice technique for hours so that they don't have to practice bits from songs for hours to get them right. Which isn't to say that lesser musicians don't practice just as hard or have the right attitude, and talent will ultimately limit the level that people get to, but I do agree with Blue that those at the top typically have the talent [b]and [/b]the hard work/right attitude.

[quote name='JimBobTTD' timestamp='1499879849' post='3334296'] I went ahead and ordered. Warmoth will sort out the necessary certificates for export. As I shall be importing, I shall need to sort out the import certificates. I shall update the thread when it is time. At least then, there will be a first-person account of importing! [/quote] Great idea - all the commentaries I've seen say it's all about the export end that needs documents so it would be excellent to find out exactly what is involved Here's hoping it's not too painful

As I understand it, it's not the fees that are the issue in isolation, it's the time and trouble involved in making the applications to get the certificate - effectively documenting every stage of the instrument's manufacture and being able to prove where the wood came from. Makes it impossible for sellers who simply won't have that information (although I believe that they can get a simpler documentation if they can prove that the manufacture pre-dates the new regulations). If Warmouth are happy to provide the cert then it should just be a matter of paying them and waiting for the neck to turn up once it's been through Customs - there's nothing that you can contribute to the certification process. As an aside, a friend of mine was discussing this with a very high end custom guitar maker, who's solution for any non-EU sales is to include the cost of a return ticket in the purchase price. In theory it solves the problem as you are allowed to take your own personal instruments overseas...but as the OP states, some of the stuff on the internet is a bit contradictory, not least because different countries are interpreting how this works, and it may still mean that some sort of certification for personal travel is required. So hold on to the certificate when it arrives

[quote name='KingPrawn' timestamp='1499642362' post='3332726'] That's what I thought. Aside from making the musical transition. There's a huge environmental change. We playing traditional Irish/ Celtic folk music, which is a passion we all share. I'm thinking it's such different worlds. [/quote] Is it actually the reading that's the problem, or the technique of the playing? I don't have any direct experience of this, but was once in an originals thrash band with a classically trained rhythm guitarist, which by coincidence followed being in a covers band with a classically trained lead guitarist. The one in the covers band was one of the best guitarists I've ever played with, knew all the theory going but importantly knew when and how to apply it. the one in the thrash band was the opposite - whatever we played he applied his classical technique where it didn't belong and it sounded awful. So I'm intrigued at whether it's being tied to the dots that's the problem - you want more groove/feel/whatever you want to call it coming out of the interaction between the instruments - or if it's that the dot-readers techniques aren't working for the music yet? Whatever, I'm not sure there's much of a solution other than thrashing it out in the rehearsal room until it starts working better.

A couple of bits of recommended listening that you might want to appropriate... One an old band of mine pinched is The Ataris cover of Boys Of Summer - always went down excellently. Another ripped off The Hanson Brothers' cover of Get It Right Back (not Hanson - this is NoMeansNo singing songs about ice skating in the style of the Ramones - brilliant stuff) China Drum did a great metal/punk version of Wuthering Heights Also from an old band from my teens, we used to do a cracking version of Remember You're A Womble. Great bit of glam rock when you replace the violin part with lead guitar...

+1 for Chas & Dave! They opened (or at least were playing when we arrived) at Status Quo's "final" London concert in 1984 at Selhurst Park - the second gig I ever went to (and I discounted it from being a festival for my earlier response but it was an all day affair) and they were brilliant. Excellent at entertaining a big crowd Edit - I'm pretty sure they played Sonisphere the other year too, but I have no memory of seeing them there so possibly i was watching something else at the time

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1498572812' post='3325610'] It's true; it's all in the fingers..! [/quote] The drummer from the band i was playing guitar in that I refer to above was also the drummer in a later band i was playing bass in, and one day at rehearsal when the guitarist had gone out for a smoke I picked up his guitar and ran through some of the old songs. the drummer says to me "it's true what they say about the sound being in the fingers, you sound exactly the same on that set up as you did in the old band". This was not meant as a compliment.

clearly an amp that doesn't work properly is an issue, but +1 for all the suggestions about eq. Rather than focusing on what you can't afford, how about focusing on what you can do? If the amp really is a big problem then Subaudio's suggestion of DIing might be the way to go, at least until you can get a better rig. If the amp makes a noise, just not a good noise, then maybe a cheap eq pedal can help, or upgrading the pickups, etc, In my own case (and sorry to bring a guitar story to a bass forum *hangs head in shame*) I really wanted a Mesa Boogie for a band I was playing guitar in but couldn't get anywhere near affording one and was stuck with an old Marshall from the '70's. Lovely amp in many ways, but control over the eq was not a strong point. But what i could afford was a SansAmp that did a really quite good Mesa Boogie impression and that did me for some years. When i could eventually upgrade to a Boogie the difference was really noticeable to me...but not to the rest of the band and the crowd never seemed to notice. get creative with what you can do to fix things, until you can afford the gear you really want.

yep, Allianz and Musicguard both have it as a standard option

Personally I've done OK in the finances vs GAS battle over the years. What I have noticed is that bandmates on far tighter budgets than me have tended to be much more selective and discerning: do they really need that bit of kit, do they really need that name on the badge, etc. And when they have made a major purchase, having had to save up for it, they've tended to take a lot longer to find exactly the right instrument at the right price through scouring the small ads, rather than jumping at the first one they see. But to echo what others are saying, the better gear doesn't make you a better player - the best argument is that it responds better to a better player than the cheaper stuff. Case in point, an old band of mine had a pretty good but skint lead guitarist and a very average but cash rich rhythm guitarist. The lead guitarist was forever repairing his amp, and scouring eBay for a replacement amp for the set up he really wanted that he could afford, which took some months and eventually he got a broken one that he could repair - he could not have afforded a working version, But he always sounded great, no matter what he played through (as long as it was actually working). The rhythm guitarist would watch bands on YouTube, and go down to the local music shop to get a new amp or guitar based on what his favourites were playing in the videos, on what seemed like a weekly basis. he was convinced that the new kit was all that was holding him back from being a much better player, and it became a running joke that he'd come in with the shiny new kit, declare that it was the bestist ever and that he'd never need another new amp or guitar, and then within a week or two would start nitpicking and finding faults, and then there'd be a new amp or guitar. he never got any better than bang average no matter how much expensive gear he bought. So stick with it, don't worry about your current gear (I'm sure nobody else that plays with you does) and upgrade as and when it's practical. Good luck with the new business.

I think the whole article is based on the wrong metric to justify it's claim that fewer people are playing the guitar these days - all it shows is declining sales on new guitars in the US. i did a bit of googling, which showed me a widely mis-quoted figure of 2.7m sales taken from an industry sales website (trying to sell people the data) and clearly marked up as "figures for illustration only, not correct", and then found this which backs up the figures in the article: https://www.statista.com/statistics/439911/number-of-electric-guitars-sold-in-the-us/ A couple of points: The "decline from 1.5m to 1.0m sales per annum over the last decade" is true, but in fact sales have been pretty stable since 2009. Next, this shows nothing for non-US sales. How have, say, electric guitar sales in China done over the same period? And surely second hand sales have a huge impact on this. We now have 40 to 50+ years of approaching critical mass for guitars - there have never been more guitars on the planet at any previous point in our history and it's never been easier to sell a guitar that you don't want any more. I think this last point links neatly in to the problems that shops are having - the supply of dirt cheap second hand guitars for them to sell has almost completely dried up. I remember having exactly this conversation with somebody in a shop on Denmark Street over a decade ago who was really struggling to keep his business going - why sell to a shop who will give you 50% of the s/h price when you can sell it on eBay and get 100% of the s/h price? They were relying on people who either needed cash in a hurry or didn't have a clue about how to sell it themselves, and people who knew what their guitars were worth tended not to come in any more. I'm also a little sceptical about the "kids don't want to learn the guitar any more" line. The decline in sales tells us nothing about how many people are starting to learn the guitar - we can't see if that 0.5m drop in sales is £3k Les Pauls or £300 Epiphone starter kits. And it says nothing about how many kids have bought a second hand Epiphone starter kit on eBay from somebody who's now graduated to a Les Paul. I think we're biased - we were all kids who wanted to learn the guitar/bass and probably hung out with other kids who wanted to be in a band so we know loads of people of our age who wanted to play the guitar/bass, but very few of my friends and colleagues that I do not know from bands play an instrument, or played when they were younger. But I have two colleagues whose sons (early/mid teens) who take playing their guitars very seriously indeed. And I'm very suspicious about using the number of people going for lessons as the way to measure this when, as the article states at the end, there is plenty of material on line to teach you how to play without needing to get your parents to stump up. I'm not saying that it isn't on the decline - I have no way of telling - but the article doesn't seem to back this up either way. In summary, it may be right or wrong, but I don't think the data supports the conclusions that the article is drawing. The only thing it really tells us is that the big manufacturers are not doing as well as they used to, and that shops are suffering, but as for the reasons, I think it's a bit more complicated than anything the article says.