Monkey Steve

years of experience have taught me that if you're the organised one who takes time to sort out schedules and calendars and ring round to check what everybody can and can't do, the rest of the band will switch off, expect you to do everything and take no responsibility for anything. But they will complain loudly about what you're doing wrong, especially when they are the problem - "we haven't had a rehearsal for weeks!" that's because you won't confirm any of the dates that the rest of us have suggested for it, etc. Honestly, dealing with musicians is like trying to explain particle physics a group of toddlers with learning difficulties (I'm not allowed to say "retarded" any more, right?) - a work of infinite patience for no gratitude. Calendars and diaries both on line and off, e-mails, texts and phone calls, agreements that gigs can be accepted unless dates are blacked out...all fail when one or more of the band thinks that they can do whatever they like and someone else will do it all for them. My main gripe is band mates who just won't respond, but you tend to work out after a fairly short while what's the best way to make contact - some won't respond to e-mails but will always answer the phone, etc. But the worst, and fortunately this has affected muso mates far more than me, are the ones who don't think that bookings apply to them and aren't definite until they're actually on stage. Mates of mine have tales of guitarists who will regularly ring them as they are on their way to the (paying, well advertised) gig to say that they've forgotten and won't make it, or simply that they're off doing something else and meant to mention that they couldn't make the gig after all but didn't get round to it until now. The best one was a mate's band who had booked in their regular Christmas gig at a pub they played a lot, some months in advance. It was in both the paper and on line band diary so was set in stone. Two weeks before the gig the lead guitarist tells them that he's going to a panto that night so they'll have to cancel the gig (he doesn't have kids, it was just him and his girlfriend going). The rest of the band tell him exactly how unimpressed they all are about letting down a good, paying venue, and he says that he's paid for the panto tickets and it's unreasonable of them to expect him to write off that money (but it was perfectly reasonable for him to write off their pre-Christmas pay day). So they got a dep and sacked him as soon as they could find a replacement.

from experience it depends on the band and the type of music. there's one drummer I've been playing with off and on for about 30 years, from my first band to the one I played my last gig with a few months ago, and we know enough to sit down with all our bands to discuss the best approach to recovering from a mistake - everybody makes them (we're not pros) and the rules tend to be that everybody gets in line with the drummer if he messes up the beat (very rare) because that's what the punters will actually notice, and if it's not him then we adjust to whatever mess the singer has made of things as, again, that's what the audience will actually notice. Nobody cares if the bass player or guitarist makes a mess of things so everybody else just powers on regardless and the offender has to catch up. One band in particular suffered from a singer with a complete inability to work out where he was in the song and no sense of timing, and was forever coming in early/late, singing over the guitar solos, extending or shortening lines. But was a brilliant front man and worth working round. And another with a lead guitarist with the fully functioning c##t gene that all lead guitarists have (oh, the stories...perhaps that's another thread...) and a less than ideal sense of rhythm. In fact it led to the break up of two bands - the drummer and guitarist also played in another rock covers band at the same time, and at a gig on the same weekend that I'd sent an e-mail round our band saying that I was quitting because I'd had enough of the lead guitarist, for the first time in living memory the drummer missed a hit (but kept in time) playing the final song at the other band's gig. The guitarist missed his queue, they limped through the rest of the song and then he stormed off stage and had a rant at the drummer. So the drummer had a rant back about exactly how much of a c##t the guitarist was, and that was the end of both bands.

I seem to recall that the reason behind the clear out of a lot of the long established businesses wasn't directly the fault of Crossrail, but rather the landlords taking the opportunity to jack up the rents in anticipation that the area would become the swinging heart of hip London once the "regeneration" was complete. that was certainly behind the Intrepid Fox having to leave, and Crossrail issued a polite but firm statement telling the disgruntled punters to please stop sending them abusive e-mails because they had no designs on the pub and were not responsible for it's closure.

Bloodstock was a great "welcome back" and I saw them at the Underworld and the Sheffield gig too and they're really on form. No suits and ties though😱

Bass. And pedals. And a really good sound man. Always buy him a pint. I've played loads of gigs without an amp, or with borrowed backline. On the minor league circuit in London it's fairly usual for the bands to share gear and for the bass to be DI'd as standard and you can use the old knackered 30w no name combo if you really want to hear yourself on stage but it won't sound like that out front. So much as I love my SVT Pro II, in practice I'm far more likely to be playing through one of the pedals I've got that does a really good SVT impression (Tech 21 VT, although I've just got an Ampeg SCR-DI which is superb) ahead of the DI box I'm also with some of the above in that a big chunk of he sound is in the playing - how hard I'm hitting the strings, pick or fingers or slapping, etc

Akercocke are mates of mine and well worth going to see - they were excellent on the recent tour. Plus the 5th November is Scanlan's 50th birthday so you can watch as he swaps his cowboy boots for tartan slippers and asks for some sanatogen on the rider rather than jack daniels Points deducted because the new bass player is actually a rhythm guitarist

Two separate incidents sum it up for me. First, when I got my current Wal and took it to its first practice the drummer saya to me "wow - now I understand why they cost so much". Next, playing a gig, at the bar afterwards a punter says to me "was that a Wal? I've never actually seen anybody playing one before, but it sounds exactly like it does on all the records" For all that they look gorgeous and are great to play, it's all about the electrics and the sound

I've done OK in Macaris in the past, although I'm not really the type to haggle, and it's more like getting free or cheap extras like strings, leads or cases. Thing is, their competition is right round the corner, so they don't need to try very hard to know if they are cheaper than the rest of Denmark Street (and I don't know if it's still true but in the old days half the shops were owned by the same people so there was no point trying to play them off against each other for the best deal). Long gone are the days when they all said "we'll beat any price", mainly because the internet made it a whole lot easier to find the cheapest price. It was bad enough for them in the days that Peter Cook's small ad at the back of Guitarist would have them weeping. If they're also cheaper than a quick google of GAK then they're probably pretty confident that they'll shift them at that price. If you were serious about buying them both then that was probably your best card to play. Or try Wunjos - they always used to love a haggle, whether you wanted to or not.

[quote name='Misdee' timestamp='1476995306' post='3159167'] From my own point of view, though, much as I would love a Wal bass (and for me it would have to be the classic Mk1 shape) I would balk at the prospect of paying just shy of five grand for one. For me, as someone who remembers the 1980s as if it were yesterday, it's just not a five grand bass. [/quote] I feel your pain! I remember the days when the Bass Centre's Wapping shop was full of Wals...mind you, I also remember walking into a shop in Denmark Street that had a choice of 8 string Rickenbackers for £1,400 and thinking "bit pricey, and I don't like the colours" Oh, the basses I wish I'd bought... And when I had the cash for a custom bass recently (and ended up paying Warwick more than the standard cost of a new Wal) the other factor that put me off was the need to get a couple of years of future calendars to plot the delivery time. Well, that and the lack of a thru-neck... But it is worth keeping an eye out for second hand ones - they don't come up especially regularly and tend to still be on the expensive side but much cheaper than a new one. My Mk 2 Five string cost me a little over two grand from the small ads, bought about four years ago from a musician who'd been given it by Ian Waller in the '80's (so, basically a straight £2k profit for him)...admittedly it had been painted matt black because his former band objected to "going on tour with him playing a sideboard" and the electrics needed a bit (*a lot*) of TLC, but a mate who's a luthier restored it all for me at a very reasonable cost (£100), and it must be said, with a dash of good will and assistance from Electric Wood in sorting out the electrics and the set up.

I'm a little late to this one (and the boat has sailed for the OP's choice of purchase) but in defence of an acoustic bass I have to recommend mine - an Ortega KTSM-5 http://ortegaguitars.com/product-finder/acoustic-basses/acoustic-bass/show/Product/ktsm-5/ktsm-5/ (I love that one of it's features is that it's "electrified") It was mainly motivated by wanting to find an acoustic 5 string for messing about with at home, where writing on practicing with band mates it better done at lower volumes, and obviously I picked the prettiest one (and I have no idea who Ken Taylor is or why he deserves a signature - it seems to largely be a prettier, more expensive version of their standard acoustic bass). Big, deep body so (as mentioned above) plenty loud, to the point that I have to hit the strings quite softly if my neighbours are in, and holds it own against acoustic guitars or electrics through a practice amp in my front room...but I haven't tried it in a busy pub. Also, the size makes it awkward to play standing up, not helped by it being quite neck heavy (in common with other acoustic basses I've tried) and the strap button being situated underneath the neck so the bass feels like it's trying to twist away from you. Action's a bit higher than an electric too, but great for practicing technique - it soon lets you know when you're making a mess of things. Not a lot of practical use, but excellent fun

my day job is in "environmental services" and it may not be complete bullsh#t that GAK do get paid for waste cardboard. If they are generating skiploads of the stuff (and they might be) then they may have enough to interest someone in buying it from them - there is a market for recyclable materials (otherwise nobody would actually recycle any of it) albeit not a very profitable one. There's no way they'd get a fiver for a single box - it's more like £70-80 per ton. If they don't do this then as per other posters, it will be commercial waste and they have to pay either the Council or another authorised commercial waste contractor to take it away. Although...are we sure it's shop policy rather than the salesman seeing the opportunity to get the cost of a pint out of an unsuspecting punter?

I'm currently on my second Mk 2 five string - always regretted selling the first (needed the cash at the time) not just for the excellence of the bass but also for the circumstances of buying it. I had the money, right at the point in (I think, if my memory serves) the late 90's or early 00's that Wal had just stopped supplying shops and moved to custom orders only. So after ringing around the London shops to no avail, I made a call to Pete, who responded with his his best plumber's impression and sucking air through his teeth "ooh, no, you'll have to wait about six weeks for us to build you one...but what are you after?" Well, a Mk 2 fiver. To which he responded "if you want one in walnut and can get here this week I can help you out". Trip to High Wycombe the next day, to be picked up by Pete at the station ("you'll never find us, easiest if you ring me when you get there") and back to the workshop where he presented me with a bass to try and the explanation that they'd built it for a customer in South Africa who had just put off his trip to collect it for six weeks and they could get another one built for him by then. Gorgeous bass, I'll take it. "How would you like to pay?" Waves credit card. "No, we don't take those...can you get cash out on it? See, you'll want a case, and then there's the VAT so that's well over two grand, and if you write me a cheque I have to put it through the books and all sorts and it's a lot of hassle for everybody. But if you give me, say..." Pete looks at empty wallet "...£1500 cash then it saves us all that trouble doesn't it?" I didn't have to think very long. Drives me to the bank, cash withdrawn, bass secured... "Now, I can't give you a receipt because that'll go through the books, but I can give you a 'valuation' and that's enough for any insurer if you want cover for it" Writes out the not-receipt. If my insurers had ever had to pay a claim and contacted Wal to check they would have found no record of the bass with that serial number being manufactured. I do wonder how many other "undocumented" Wal's there are out there. Then Pete asks "when do you need to be off?" Er, no hurry, I just want to avoid the rush hour. "Great, lets go to the snooker club!" And we spend the rest of the afternoon in Pete's favoured watering hole chewing the fat and getting quietly drunk, him insisting on paying for all the beer, what with him now having a very fat wallet. He then made me promise to bring the bass back in a month or so's time so that they could make any tweaks required after it's settling in period, and if could maybe get there a bit earlier to give us some more time in the pub...the bass didn't need tweaking but I still made the return trip. Just to make sure there was nothing that an experienced professional like Pete could spot that I'd missed, you understand. Great bloke. Sorely missed (as was the bass, less sorely missed now that I have a replacement).

I know - not a casual purchase, and a lot of the extras were me thinking "well, if I'm paying that much to start with I may as well she'll out a few extra quid for what I really want..." The star of the show is really the through neck. If they did a Streamer $$ with a through neck back in the day when you could pick up German made models for under £2k I could have saved myself a lot of cash... Still, it is true love

Strictly speaking the new bass day was a week ago but it's the first chance I've had to post anything. Warwick have saved me the problem of taking nice photos to show it off by posting it as a standard order at their Custom Shop: [url="http://shop.warwick.de/?&lang=en&modul=shop_new&site=shop_overview&&ctree=D0746768001321517432A47035|D0780229001321517432A47059|D0908509001456247613A144|D0942386001456248287A168&modul=shop&site=article_details&article_id=D0360487001472733994A94659&article_category=D0942386001456248287A168"]http://shop.warwick....01456248287A168[/url] I'll be really miffed if anybody else orders one Essentially it's a Masterbuilt Stage 1 with a few tweaks - maple neck, $$ pickups but retaining the Stage 1's 3 band eq, matched headstock and a custom chaos inlay at the 12th fret. I have now learned that the difference between a Masterbuilt and a Custom Shop order is simply whether you ask them to change anything on the standard Masterbuilt template. The Good:[list] [*]pure porn to look at. Stripey maple, my own design of inlay. You know you say to yourself that if you had the cash and could order a bass to your exact specs...well, I had the cash and it's exactly what I wanted. You may hate it, I don't care. I know I'm right [*]the neck. I ordered this one because I'd had a corvette $$ with a thru neck and it was the best bass to play I've ever owned...but never loved the shape of the bass. So slim, so fast... [*]the noise. With the humbuckers set to series and the extra bite from the maple, it's a really aggressive sounding beast. I hit the strings pretty hard so I've had to drop the p/ups a little from the slightly more polite set up it came with, and it's brilliantly balanced across all five strings, and the alnico MECs respond really well to changes in attack and different techniques. [/list] The Bad:[list] [*]There's a second cavity in the back that just holds the batteries. This wasn't discussed with me before the bass arrived. [*]In fact I'm a little disappointed overall with the custom process - it largely consisted of me telling them what I wanted by e-mail, asking their opinion on choices and getting no response, and then having the repeatedly check and amend the order form because it didn't actually match what I'd asked for the first few times. I got no updates while it was being built, it took two weeks longer than the six to eight week build time estimate and I got nothing to warn of the delays - I had to chase, twice, to ask where it was. The first picture I got was the link to the Custom Shop page, the day after it was dispacthed. [*]On the subject ot the batteries, I'm not a fan of the new USB charger and rechargable battery option. I had no idea that this was now the standard custom shop option so it was a surprise when it arrived and I could certainly live without the extra gubbins in the main control cavity and room for the battery in there instead. [*]No sign that the side dots glow in the dark as promised [*]Not specific to this bass but why does Warwick insist on fitting a tailpiece that is not cut wide enough to hold most low B strings? [/list] The stuff I'm undecided on:[list] [*]The satin finish is going to take a little getting used to. The neck feels a little odd, sort of slightly plasctic-y rather than the warmer, more organic finish that the oiled wood on my old Warwicks had. Not a big thing and not a hindrance to the playing, just a bit peculiar. Reminds me of the finish on a Voodoo Les Paul I used to have. [*]The headstock seems on the small side, and is certainly slimmer than my old Warwicks. Not sure why this nags at me. It seems to be a scale thing, with the broadneck models having a larger headstock and the slimmer/standard necks like mine being scaled down a bit. [*]I had assumed that the 3 band eq configuration would be the same as on my old Streamer JazzMan model, but it's completely different, with bass and treble on the stacked pot rather than volume and sweep. My fault for assuming that they only had one config rather than checking what the lay out is for a standard Stage 1. Not a biggie. [/list] The minuses are very minor and nit-picking. I have a gorgeous bass that is amazing to play and sounds fantastic. I've been grinning to myself for the last week, every time I get home and see it in the rack...

Looks amazing. I'm currently waiting on delivery of a custom Stage 1, but a very different choice of wood and electrics..:currently thinking that I should have ordered a maple board...

I've had two Wals (only one at the mo) with different top woods, and I have to say I couldn't notice much difference (although, not helped by there being a five year gap between owning them so I've never done a direct comparison). Thing is, as mentioned above, the star of the show is the electronics, and with so much control over the eq you can easily get more treble into a "mellow" wood and more bass into a "brighter" wood. I don't doubt that there are tonal characteristics that come from the top wood, but the electrics make it so easy to get whatever sound you're after that you can just override anything you don't like - it may well be that my two had completely different tones but I managed to get them both sounding like "me" In summary, get the pretty one.

I sold on one bass because it was too light for my personal taste, so seems appropriate to bring it up here - an ESP LTD B-415 SM. Thru neck, really slim and fast, and EMGs for a great balanced tone across all the strings. personally I prefer passive p/ups for a bit more character and the hardware was a little flimsy, but mainly I prefer a bit of heft to the bass. But personal prejudices aside, I couldn't really fault it for playability and sound. Also, very pretty

Thanks guys. I've been "lurking" for a while and thought I'd finally jump in. As and when I've had queries over the years I've usually been able to find an old thread of yours that answers it.

New to all this but it seems like a groovy place to hang out. Been playing bass for about 30 years now...dear God, how did I get so old? Started off in thrash metal when that was brand new, but quickly moved on from "we're going to rule the world" to "it's a great way to spend the evenings" with a proper job to keep me in beer and bass strings. Over the last decade or so I have occasionally cheated and deviated from the true path of righteousness...a drummer in a punk covers band said "we need a guitarist, you've got a guitar, how hard can it be?" Turns out it's not very hard at all. And I learned that when you go out playing Sex Pistols and Clash covers at the weekend, people pay you actual cash money. I currently have more guitars than basses...please tell me that this doesn't make me a guitarist. I may have to sell some on principle, or more likely buy some extra basses just to get the numbers up. My last lot was back on bass in a "classic rock" style band with a load of death metal musicians (who insisted it was "classic rock", I think it was just "heavy metal") some of whom are quite well known in that sphere, so at least six people in Camden would recognise them. Didn't manage to persuade any of those six to come and see us though, and we split up after our singers inability to Just Say No got the better of him. Lovely feller. Don't lend him money. But we got a nice demo out of it. Discussions are ongoing about a new band with some of the old lot, less "classic rock" and more "extreme metal" or at least a bit more unpleasant in nature. The one advantage of age and having a proper job is that you can afford nice stuff. My current bass line up is a 1975 Rickenbacker 4001 (my first proper bass - never getting rid of that one even though I rarely play a 4 string any more), a Warwick Streamer JazzMan 5 string, a Wal mk 2 5 string (that I bought from Dean Garcia of Curve fame - he got given it by Ian Waller), an Ortega Ken Taylor model 5 string acoustic, and I'm currently waiting on delivery of a Warwick Custom Shop Streamer Stage 1 5 string. Ordered but not paid for before the Brexit vote...they didn't get me the invoice in time so it cost me about £650 extra when the exchange rate dropped...so much for German efficiency... Oh, and a 4 string EUB from Far West - an early RedHead I think. Clearly I am a single man at present. As and when I get to play live that goes through an Ampeg SVT 2 Pro, with some Marshall and Warwick cabs.