TimR

Should have gone to specsacers.

Messenger bag. What on earth are people taking to gigs? I have two mains leads, three instrument leads, two speaker leads, a tuner, ear plugs, spare strings, screwdriver, pliers and spare 9v battery. Also I carry a music folder, music stand, marker pen and biro.

Solves the buckle rash problem.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1377812282' post='2192374'] Mine was tuned at the factory by experts. I'm not messing with it. [/quote] What he said.

How funny. It's about 5miles from me. I was at work otherwise I would have bought you lunch. I bought my old second hand Trace Elliot from them. Now that Machinehead in Hitchin has gone they're about the only shop around. Great range of MXR FX pedals. Not a great selection of strings though so I only ever drop in to kick tyres and fiddle with FX.

Rob, what kind of deposit have you put down? Have you paid by credit card? I think when dealing with a sole trader people should be a lot more wary that these things can and do happen. If I was building an extension on my house I wouldn't hand £40k straight to a builder and tell him to build it when he's finished his back log.

I don't get this 'commercial organisation' aspect. He was a sole trader who, like many people passionate about what they do, put more emphasis on getting his guitars right than the customer relations, finances and getting the product to market. He was hand making 18-20 guitars a year. Then his wife and baby nearly die in childbirth and his first child devolops a serious disease. So he changes to a PLC and employs a luthier to help him. People are still demanding their basses? Some of you have gone mad.

Wasn't the issue a communication problem. He says he's updated the phone number on his website. Surely the next step would be to contact him directly in the morning to find out what the exact problem and delivery date of the bass will now be. Moaning about it here is just going over old ground.

Ok. If you want to look at it in simple terms. The postage is a service and the item is a good. You've used that service and it's now gone. You can't technically sell it again. Although you could argue that you're just the middle man so the next user should pay the initial cost of getting the goods to you and then for you sending the goods on to him. You still have the goods and they're worth exactly the same as they were when you bought them. Morally; did you buy it to sell it on, or did you use the postal service so that you could try out the goods?

[quote name='planer' timestamp='1398873800' post='2438547'] That's one of the unfortunate things about forums, a lot are like an episode of Eastenders - some shouty people telling other people what they think they ought to do. If I'm selling something, it's my thing and I'll set the price. [/quote] I guess that's what the op is asking. How many of us are the Eaatender types and what kind of reaction is he going to get from us. I say just stick it up for what price you want and just ignore them. If it doesn't sell then drop the price.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1398855999' post='2438264'] It's because not that many people have actually done 10,000 hours. [/quote] Well it's slightly more complicated. It's about the quality of those 10,000 hours. If you spend 1500 of those hours practicing Mustang Sally from memory you're not going to get anywhere other than becoming really good at playing Mustang Sally.

Put it up for whatever you want. No one knows what you've done to it. If it's a bass you could have put new strings on or set it up properly etc. If it's an amp you could have cleaned the pots etc. People will only buy it for what it's worth. That's the nature of buying and selling and speculating. You speculated that you would get a good deal, buying second hand. You didn't. You now have to try and make good. I don't think anyone thinks you're being opportunistic if you put it up for more than you bought it for. People don't have to buy it. They're at liberty to knock you down based on the price they think it's worth with the knowledge of what they think you might have paid for it.

Have you read 10,000 hours? It's a good book. This interview with Sting is also an interesting read, just found it this morning. http://www.singingbassist.com/interview-with-sting-the-singing-bassist/ I'm a firm believer that if you're reasonably good at something naturally, you are drawn to it and will practice it more as it's something you enjoy because you are naturally good at it. In that way you make exponential improvements.

If you're an otherwise fit and healthy person you're unlikely to die from a tooth infection in two days. The fact that it was swelling up meant that you were already fighting the infection. Assuming you weren't running a temperature, although if you took paracetamol it can mask infection, you were probably fairly ok. The most danger you were in was that your mouth and throat swelled up so much you couldn't breathe. However, if you had a medical condition that meant your immune system was compromised then you'd not take the chance. I ran a 10mile race once with an abscess, wasn't as bad as yours but I wasn't very happy the next day

One would hope that the 'talented musican' would know the difference between a major and a minor, even if he couldn't tell you which was which and why. Yes there are pit musicians that can read fly sh*t but sound sterile. That's theatre for you though, and why Simon Cowell gets rid of the pub singers, theatre singers and cruise ship performers that people pay so much money to go and see. There's a few productions that specifically look for actors not from schools, but I digress. As you say it's not absolute and discussing it with examples where you can't hear those examples is fairly difficult.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1398806047' post='2437889'] Why do people automatically think that a little knowledge elevates someone within a band? It may well do, but it really depends on the whole package. And just because someone plays another instrument means nothing in itself. It all depends how they play and how competent they are..and there are huge degrees of competence... [/quote] It depends on what you mean by knowledge. I would say knowing how to play music would make you a better player than someone who doesn't know how to play. In a band situation it's very important to be able to communicate ideas quickly and efficiently. Most of us use traditional methods to do this. If someone tells me a tune is a 12bar blues progression in A, it's a bit quicker than them showing me every note in the 12 bars and telling me to stick to the three root notes. A better player isn't necesarily a better musician. It depends on what your definitions are.

[quote name='lowlandtrees' timestamp='1398757917' post='2437189'] The bass player has to work with rhythm as well as harmony and dynamics and communication and sound etc. The story (true or false!!)about John Paul Jones explaining to Jimmy Page about the difference between a third and a minor third (or something like that)sums it up for me. JPJ was initially the more advanced musician in that band having established himself as a musician before he was a great bassist. [/quote] Good post. Ha. That's happened to me. When you have to explain to the guitarists that it's a minor chord and you're not playing the root, you're playing the minor third as it's an inversion. They look at you open mouthed and you realise that it's you that is the best musician in the band and it may be time to find another band...

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1398023753' post='2429691'] I can`t remember where I saw this, but I read of something similar where the singer of a band was always complaining that the bass was too loud, so one day the bassist offered to turn down to appease him. No it`s still too loud was the response from the singer - until the bassist held out the end of his lead showing the bass wasn`t plugged in. Some get a "bee in their bonnet" about things at times, Pinball is spot on, get a neutral point of view. [/quote] I was doing sound for my brother's band and the bass was awful. Or at least I thought it was until I realised he wasn't playing what I was hearing. Turned out to be some super chorus reverb effect thing that the lead guitarist was using.

Ha. Yes. The bass player always gets blamed for the bass frequencies. Could be anything. You probably need to speak to them and ask them to let you know as soon as it happens so you can adjust or at least work out if it's the keys that are causing it.

IIRC Yes. When I was 19. About 25 years ago. We abandoned it. There's some serious rhythms going on. I might be able to play it now though.

My number one rule is that all the band have to buy in to the look and all have to be comfortable in what they are wearing. Wearing polo shirts or t-shirts with the band name are big no no for me I'm afraid. Excellent for turning up and setting up in and they've helped us quite a few times but not to play in. And all in the same shirts and suits is a look I would really avoid.

Yes. I don't think you're a tosser either. You did miss out on an opportunity to discuss what their actual thoughts and plans are though, rather than making big assumptions. I left a band and gave them the same assurance that I'd do the gigs we already had booked. They just immediately said no. Then got stressed when they couldn't find anyone.

Ok. So I can begin to see a problem. You guys want to rehearse and gig in the same week. So being in three bands means 6 days of playing. The way I dealt with it was to be a lot more organised with rehearsal time and I don't think I ever played 3 gigs in one week. Missing a rehearsal isn't the end of the world and if the band is tight enough I can't see the need to be adding a new song or more for every gig. I'm only in one band at the moment, we have a rehearsal with guitar, bass and drums to flesh out the new tunes, go away and learn them properly, come back add the singer and we're good to go. If we have a long break between gigs we'll have a rehearsal to run through the trickier tunes that we know we can trip up on. Other than that we just meet when we can. I can't see any benefit to tinkering with arrangements, whenever I've been in bands and we've done that it only leads to confusion and arguments. Learn a song, play it, job done. It's just a bunch of notes.