Monkey Steve

B, all the way I've been in bands with people who were excellent to hang out with, really nice blokes, but their playing wasn't up to scratch and as much as we willed them to get better, and as hard as they worked, they never got to the level required. If it holds the band back then they should be dispensed with as soon as possible. If you're just forming the band then it's not like they've invested months of their time so better to carry on without them. As for how to tell them, look him in the eye and tell him he's not good enough. Not from a cruel perspective, simply because it's the truth and dressing it up doesn't help anybody. It also doesn't leave the door open. He may disagree - I've certainly played with some awful musicians who thought they were great - so have some examples of stuff that he messed up If you want to give him another try, maybe a chance to learn the songs a bit better, that's fine (assuming that everybody agrees) but I would give him feedback ahead of this and let him know what he needs to improve on, and what he's missing that you want to see, And while i wouldn't go with option C in it's entirety, it does no harm to set him something to stretch him a bit - if everybody else has the skills to pick up a more complicated song in a week, then he has to be able to keep up

well, I have, sort of, but I did so at the same time as the drummer and we pretty much knew that the band would almost certainly collapse without us (and it did) It's excellent that you've left on good terms. In my case I left it open that the band could start looking for a new bass player, although I did quit in the middle of a row with the lead guitarist (basically "I'm not enjoying this any more, you need to look for a new bass player") but their heart wasn't in it once the drummer quit with much less amicable sentiment (same lead guitarist, different argument "I'm never playing with that c#nt again")

I didn’t say that did I? my earlier post specifically said that I’ll spend my money on what I want and it’s nobody else’s business - why do you then read my comment about why I want a bass as a criticism of anybody else? however, the comment you’ve taken exception to was to do with the point in the OP about whether people take their expensive gear to gigs or take the cheaper stuff for fear of it getting damaged, and has nothing whatsoever to do with non-gigging bass players

this, all day long If I didn't want to play my bass in front of people, there's no point having it. And if it picks up a dent or two over time, that's character. I've bought and sold a few over the years, but I've never bought one as an investment

on the topic of violent crowds, me and a drummer of my acquaintance were discussing an old band mate that played rhythm guitar with us, who despite being at the low end of very average on his best day, has had no problem in finding a succession of quite busy pub covers bands to play with. Lovely bloke, sometimes absolutely awful guitarist, but he's never been sacked (sometimes bands have broken up around him...including ours, though he wasn't at fault) The drummer's theory was that to the guitarist's advantage is the fact that he's built like a brick outhouse, which will make any trouble makers in the crowd think twice about starting anything, and he's more than capable of handling it if they do. This may also explain why he's never been sacked...

I never feel guilt about spending lots of money on something I thoroughly enjoy playing. I don't have any other call on my finances - no kids, etc - so I'm not going to feel guilty for spending my own money on exactly what I want to. I don't need to justify it to anybody, and i love the expensive instruments that I have, I'd say from a playing perspective (and I'll concede that deep down that may include some of an "owning nice stuff" perspective). And much as we all like to point and laugh at the person who can barely play who has bought the top of the line bass, it's their money, and they're doing no harm. That said, I do point and laugh at a mate who can barely play guitar who buys very cheap guitars Of course i would say all this, given that I'm about to pay the last £5k on my new Wal...and having first picked up an instrument in the 1980's there really was a noticeable difference in quality between budget and expensive instruments, which may have stayed with me I've had to sell instruments in the past when my finances were less stable, and I'm very pleased that I'm not in that position any more (fingers crossed). I've played rough pubs and I've always taken the instrument most appropriate for the gig in question. Never thought about cost, but also, these days I wouldn't play without instrument insurance...but back in the day when I only owned one bass, it never occurred to me, and like @BigRedX says, it would have been a major financial issue to get a replacement if that one was broken or stolen Mind you, I have sometimes felt stupid after spending money on an instrument that I then didn't really get on with...stupid, not guilty

I have some experience of this. Formed a new band, the guitarist who was a nice enough bloke and a decent enough guitarist warned us that while the rest of us are keen to book into the studio for the same session each week, his work means that he might be late or may need to rearrange the days from time to time. All perfectly valid - can't predict where he'll be working or what job he'll be on which might need to be finished that day (he did something in the building trade for a boss who didn't tell him what he was doing, or whether he'd be working, until the night before). We're expecting that he'll be on time most weeks, or maybe gets there a little after the rest of us. What quickly emerged was that he was always late. Without fail. We usually saw him for the second half of the rehearsal, and not infrequently for just the last hour. Partly it was to do with him sometimes having to work late, but partly it was to do with him thinking that we didn't mind if we showed up two hours late each week - he'd told us that it might happen, so as far as he was concerned he had free reign to do whatever he wanted until two hours into practice. Really didn't help his cause the week he let slip that he'd got home from work, done the weekly food shop, and then it would be unreasonable of us to expect him to come straight to the studio (where we'd all been sat twiddling our thumbs) before he'd sat down and eaten his tea As our drummer eloquently put it while sacking him, it doesn't matter what the reason for him being late is, only what he offers to the band. He could be off curing cancer - brilliant - but if that means he's not in the studio then he's of no use to the band, and the rest of us had got fed up of paying to sit around not playing in the studio pretty quickly So I think you need to very clearly understand whether last night was a one off that will not occur again this century, or something with a good chance of happening every couple of weeks. especially if it happens too late for you to cancel the studio. And if it might happen on days when you have gigs arranged then can you take the chance?

so, that was contestant #2 from the first week, who didn't show then because he got the date wrong, and hasn't shown this week because he's running a bit late at work? This is exactly what auditions are for - to try before you buy. Imagine if he'd shown up last week, you asked him to join, and then found out that he rarely shows up for booked rehearsals

yes, but your reply to me said that you don't pay VAT at all. I didn't suggest that VAT was paid on the full sale price, only that the final sale price would include the VAT that has to be paid

As it was explained to me some years ago by somebody in Denmark St,, the rule of thumb is that shops will typically offer you about 50% of what they can sell it for. That isn't 100% mark up as the full price includes the VAT that will have to be paid when they sell it, and then you have to factor in the storage cost, a possible future discount if it doesn't sell for what they are expecting, paying the salespeople, etc. It's always been the case that you could get more selling it privately, and eBay made it much easier to do so, so for a lot of years second hand music shops have struggled a bit, and were often buying from people who needed the money in a hurry Good explanation here from a different place offering the same thing - nice of them to be so open about it: https://www.guitarmania.co.uk/we-buy-any-guitar-2/?v=79cba1185463

I was introduced to Rob by a mate, and he's a top bloke, they do great work, and I've spread the word and given them more very satisfied customers. Very reasonable prices on the maintenance and repair work too

not a great start from either contestant For #1, not having done any prep would set off alarm bells. The one redeeming point would be that you don't seem to have given them full details for a guitar part to learn or a cover to learn, so maybe he wasn't expecting to have the songs nailed down. But an audition is for somebody to impress you and show what a good musician and bandmate they will be. If they haven't impressed you then they have failed, pure and simple. And in my experience, the people who haven't done any prep for *insert weak reason here* either overestimates their talent, or underestimates the level of commitment it takes to be in a band If his playing on the night was OK but not enough to ask them to join then there's nothing wrong with a second audition. I've asked people back before, usually because the band couldn't make up it's mind. That then always fed back into the stuff about having done the prep - rather than taking advantage of the second chance, the ones who have come back have simply repeated the promising but not good enough performance from the first audition, and made it very easy not to offer them the gig - in one memorable case it highlighted all of the stuff we didn't like from the first audition rather than improving on the stuff we did like. Only ever had one person who took offence at being asked back - spat out her dummy that if we didn't like her singing enough at the first audition to offer her the spot in the band, why would she waste an evening coming back? Fair enough - made the decision to keep looking very easy. #2, could be genuine, but doesn't show much commitment or enthusiasm. That said, musical ability and organisational skills are often mutually exclusive, so I'd probably want to at least get them into a studio and see what their playing is like. If they cancel a second time then bin them

I was there too (though my impression of Megadeth was much better than yours...I may well have been much drunker than you...I've got a CD of the radio broadcast and it's not stunning) and the two things I remember was Newstead not playing (I'm a bit fuzzy but in those pre-internet days, I'm sure there were rumours that he might still be doing the tour despite having joined Metallica) and there being some delay with the gear at customs which meant Megadeth went on late

I don’t want to spoil your cherished memories, but that gig was in 1987 and Newstead had left F&J at the end of 1986

Depending on where you are, Knight Guitars near Weybridge/Byfleet are superb http://www.knight-guitars.com/ The website is mainly focused on their own custom built guitars, but a big chunk of their work is repairs and servicing, with clients including Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend (and me)

First concert - Hanoi Rocks, Guildford University, Two Steps From The Move Tour 1984 Last concert - Helmet, Islington O2, October 2019 Best concert - A tie between Nine Inch Nails on the Downward Spiral tour, Town & Country Club 1994 and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones at the Astoria 2 (possibly then called the Mean Fiddler) in 1997 Worst concert - Smashing Pumpkins farewell tour, Wembley Arena 2000. Good riddance. i was just one of many leaving the show early Loudest concert - Airbourne, No Guts, No Glory tour, Hammersmith Apollo 2009 - no hearing, no consideration for the crowd. Close second - Super Furry Animals at the Guildford Civic in (Google tells me) 1999 - so very unpleasantly loud, half the crowd were hiding behind pillars and the other half left Seen the most - almost certainly Motorhead, if only because they seemed to play festivals that I was going to every year Most surprising - Nine Inch Nails - see above. Knew nothing about them, or industrial music, just awesome. Honourable mention for Skid Row at the Joint in Las Vegas in 2015 - was expecting them to be awful, with a non-original singer, coming on after a dreadful Great White, third on a hair metal bill that we were only going to because it was a mate's 40th and she loves that sort of thing, but they were superb Next concert - The Lounge Kittens, Union Chapel, end of this month Wish I would have seen - missed Faith No More with Chuck Moseley at the Marquee (only found out about the Introduce Yourself gig the week after they played), and I turned down an offer to see Bowie in, I think, 1999, although he wasn't that well regarded at the time

I've had a couple of 5 string basses new from Warwick - the latest a Custom Shop Stage 1 that I got three or four years ago, direct from Warwick not via a shop. Never had a fingerboard protector. Pretty sure that the strap locks came in a plastic bag, not a full package Never had non-Warwick strings. In my experience, the low B sound is massively powerful, and usually needs a bit of dialling back (admittedly I've always has $$, not the same as on yours) The tapered B used to be a bit of an issue, because the tailpiece wasn't wide enough to hold non-tapered B's, and using non-Warwick strings used to involve a bit of violence to get it to fit, either on the string or on the tailpiece. No such problem on my current bass so it looks like it's been addressed. However, it might explain why somebody might mix the strings and use a Warwick low B with a set of D'Addarios. But it wouldn't explain why Warwick would do this, and I'm with everybody else that I can't see Warwick putting on a set of D'Addarios in the factory. Even if the shop did a full set up, there wouldn't be any reason to change the strings

If you can't find a bag with more room, try adding something to the top/bottom so that the bass wears against that rather than the bag. I had this with a Warwick - nothing unusual, just that the straplock at the bottom end worked it's way through the bag after months of being carried around. I solved it with some card wrapped in gaffa tape that sat at the bottom of the bag, so that bass wore through that and i could replace it cheaply and easily every couple of months.

hmmm...the announcement doesn't seem to be saying that they won't actually be playing any more gigs, only that they won't be doing any more full tours Pretty sure Ozzy's tried that line a couple of times too

Fingers crossed he's not the guitarist's best mate...

good plan although... Had an issue in a previous band when we sacked the singer and couldn't immediately find a replacement. The plan was brilliantly simple - we should all try singing all of the songs and then we can work out who suits them best. unfortunately one of the guitarists heard this as "say which songs you fancy trying and as long as you're not rubbish you'll keep them" and he bagsied about 80% of the set. None of which suited his voice. No amount of recorded evidence would convince him that he wasn't superb. On some level he could hear it, but it was clearly down to where the recorder was placed that explained why the voice on the tape didn't match the voice in his head, right? good luck

tricky one that - always much easier to tell somebody that their singing sucks if you're not the one that will be singing as their replacement. It'll be interesting to see the BL dynamics - will the guitarist be strong enough to sort it out, or too polite to say when the vocals aren't up to scratch?

go with an open mind - you have nothing to lose except a few hours of your life What I would suggest is to be very honest (in a polite way) about things when you are there. In particular, if they are all a bit rusty, see how well they can improve If you are concerned about the musical direction, perhaps also do a bit of band leadership - take the lead in suggesting what other songs could be covered. That might then flush out the other personalities. And sack the keyboard player. Your previous experiences are not unusual

Learned to play using a pick, and that was pretty much it for the first few years, and certainly for my first few bands. Never paid much attention to bass players or techniques if they weren't needed for what I was playing. Beyond buying a couple of Stu Hamm albums after seeing him in Joe Satriani's band...which got played a couple of times and then ignored because, well, I just don't enjoy listening to that sort of stuff - I'd rather sing along to a chorus than admire the musician's technique. Which isn't to say that I don't admire great musical skill, more that I want to admire it in service of the song But over time I've got better at playing the bass, and have picked up other techniques. For me they are tools, and it's better to have the right tools if ever I need them, even if I don't need them right now. YMMV - there isn't a right or wrong

I have a set of Schallers on an acoustic bass - an Ortega, which came with them. I find them overly fussy to use compared to the Dunlops that I have on all my other instruments - pulling out and sliding the lock off sideways rather than just pushing in and popping off the lock on the Dunlops...had to retype that several times to make it sound less dirty... Happy to put it down to personal preference, but Dunlops for me. The Schallers are perfectly stable