Richard R

Absolutely this. If I am in the congregation then I can worship. If I am playing, running the sound desk or manning the video feed then it's work and that is what I am concentrating on. Even if the band are in full flight and you can hear the spirit moving in the congregation, if I'm on the desk then I am listening and making sure everything is working, not participating. Which is why too much time supporting is draining. The only time that is different is preaching. That isn't work in the same way as all the prep is done and then it's up to the Lord how the delivery shifts depending on the unknown needs of the congregation, and then there can be a very definite sense that one is delivering God's words. I imagine if I was as experienced playing bass then the same could be true of playing, but I don't think so. Preaching is being a channel for the spirit, all the physical aspects of worship are, for me anyway, enablers for the congregation.

My singing is usually tolerable for a few bars then goes all to pot. To those who keep saying "anyone can sing" then I have to reply "by the same token anyone can spin bowl". I would like to be able to sing, I probably could learn to sing, but I know it would be a hard slog and I would prefer to spend the time practicing bass 😎 Good on you @Sardonicus. Both for singing and for putting in effort to become better at it.

Yes, yes it is. And if your indestructible fretboard breaks Andy then the entire forum will be round your way with pitchforks.

Welcome to BassChat - about the only sane place on the entire bloody planet!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard

Welcome aboard!

Proper workshop. 👍

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

Splutters coffee everywhere!

It says on the web site that the fret slots might need to be wider as the material is harder than wood.

Never heard of Richlite. If nothing sticks to it, does that mean it's also incredibly smooth? I'm imaging playing with a fingerboard like teflon would be "interesting".

Very cool!

So, the $64,000 question: Do you get swifts if you only have the neck made? I mean, it won't be a full @Andyjr1515 guitar, so the swifts would be misleading. Maybe you get one? Or a couple of pigeons? Anyway, the neck will be fab and the pickups are very shiny, so this should be good. 👍

That comment sums up the best of BC. 👍

Thank you for all your organising @jebroad . The sports hall in our church halls would do, or one of the smaller carpeted rooms, but the parking and load in/out isn't straightforward. Parking may be getting better with the nearby carpark removing the 3hr limit, I'll investigate.

Well you're all wrong. There is even less place for humour in music than there would be for a dog turd in my pipe and slippers. As a recent convert to the Sillhill School of High Intellectual Theory I am firmly convinced that humour should be careful contained and kept for very rare and special occasions, as I believe orgasms are. I am now off to burn/melt my recordings of Half Man Half Biscuit, Tom Lehrer, Flanders & Swann, Kitt and The Widow, Peter Sellers, and Muse.

I've been wanting to try an Ibby fan fret for a while. I've played my friend's Dingwall, and I can tell it makes sense, but 37" was just too long. And he wouldn't lend it to me for the 6 months I would need to acclimatise.

Welcome aboard!

Just had an email to say that Joe Satriani is postponing the European leg of his tour until spring 2023. ☹ Hopefully still going to see Nick Mason.

Just skip the words on the livestream and sing twice as loud 😄

I went into this in nauseating detail when we started doing this, including long phone calls with CCLI and the PRS and PPL folks too. It's over 18 months now, so hopefully I've remembered this right! Churches are not required to pay royalties or PRS on songs performed during worship, or PPL for recorded music played as part of worship, when in the building. The copyright issues for a streamed performance are the royalties due to the writers from the viewers on livestream, and potentially your local recording of it. If you're using YouTube then that's covered by a blanket agreement between YT and the PRS. (Think of YT as being a huge pub that books a lot of bands. It's the venue's job to keep track of what is performed and to make returns to PRS. They do and apparently very well.) Some performance and recorded music may get automated copyright claims against the livestream, which just means that either you can't monetise your stream (which you aren't) or occasionally people in the US and Denmark can't see the stream or the recording. CCLI covers the fees due for the copying or display of the words of the song, it has nothing to do with fees due from the performance of the song. It also covers you for recording (i.e. copying) the song. If you don't display the words of the song on your livestream, and don't display on projectors in church, or photocopy from songbooks, then CCLI is irrelevant. You should pay CCLI to cover streaming the words on YT, because effectively you're copying the lyrics and distributing them. If you don't show the words for that song, then CCLI is irrelevant. CCLI streaming license covers you streaming songs from your own server or on a platform such as YT etc. If you are using your own server then you need the CCLI streaming license as you're recording then streaming from there. But the stance from the PRS people was that if you were streaming on YT, then it is YT's responsibility to make the PRS returns and a CCLI license wasn't actually necessary. Convenient, but not necessary. Again - think of YT as the venue making the return. So in short: If you perform it and stream it, the writer will get their royalties CCLI or not. If you stream the words as well, then strictly speaking you are distributing their words without copyright clearance, but YT won't block you. The writer won't get anything for your copying the words. I seem to recall there are a few we have done where the words aren't covered by CCLI, and I think we did put the words up. We always put the full song acknowledgements in the service description on YT anyway. Hope that helps!

Oh of course, the fun is in playing the damn' things.

But where's the fun in that? Especially for us spectators. 😉