TimR

The things we do for Basschat research. Just weighed my bass. Ibanez SR400. 8.6lbs. Always considered it to be very light.

The landlord of a pub should have done research and booked a band that the normal crowd will like. The crowd will tell him pretty quickly not to book the band again if they’re rubbish or he will sell a lot of beer if they’re good. Hence you get re-booked. If we’re being booked for a party then the person booking us will have seen us play and book is on that strength. Again, Covers and Originals are no different in that respect. If people are asking you to come back or asking if you do private gigs, then you’re doing something right. Otherwise, don’t blame the audience for not appreciating “your art”.

I think a lot of originals artists flog a dead horse. If your music is popular and people come to your gigs without you having to bribe them or lever them out, you build a following fairly quickly. Then that’s great. But I think you need to recognise that your mum will come to any gig whatever you play, it’s your sisters mates you need to convince. And in a covers band, if people are requesting that you play something they know, then learn some different tunes.

He said 16 people in his conservatory. But I know he’ll just sit on your sofa and play. It’s just like having a mate round your house who can play guitar and sing.

[ cue out of tune upright piano ... with heavily damped strings and occasional yelping noise from first year boy trapped inside.]

Nice. Leave nothing to chance.

What did you get from Santa? I have a set of stings - I sent Mrs Santa a link and she sorted so exactly what i asked for. and An iRig HD 2 - again the link worked well for Mrs Santa. I’m not one for liking surprise presents as usually they’re close to what I would have liked, but not exactly what I wanted. How did the man/lady with the white beard get on at your house?

It’ll be refreshing. Hard work, listen lots, but worth it.

Steve Nieve is their keyboard player. It wasn’t him, in fact I just remembered the guy didn’t even try it out and said he couldn’t play. Was just sent to pick it up. Seems he still has a spare that he uses for parts.

@Reggaebass Elvis Costello is an amazingly versatile artist. His keyboard broke one tour and they searched the small ads of Loot to find a keyboard the same as an emergency replacement. My dad just happened to be selling his. Their roadie (or whatever) turned up at our house with a handful of £5 notes from the box office takings. 😂

It’s not just that. What happens in the worst case scenario and your admin dies? You have to build everything from scratch.

You can have multiple managers and admins of a page.

I’ve just put a fresh set of Bass Centre Stadium Elites Stainless steel strings on my bass. I’m not playing thrash but if I was I’d be putting fresh set on every few weeks. In the 80s we were using Rotosounds. They lost their ‘zing’ very quickly. Don’t forget the spandex trousers.

I agree. It’s way more faff. I think it illustrates that if your drummer is going to do all those things. The last thing he’s going to do is check a metronome. In 35 years of gigging I’ve never seen anyone use one live and only seen drummers use click tracks when playing to sequencers. A song should breathe. Light and shade, and slight shifts of tempo.

No point in having a metronome in that case then. 🤔

Unless everyone comes in together, a count in by anyone is pretty much surplus to requirements.

The guitarist started a song off far too quickly on Saturday night. By the time we got to the chorus the drummer and I had pulled it back to a sensible speed using a mixture of raised eyebrows and accentuated head nods.

Thanks. StewMac have them new for under £50. Seems both the Warwicks and Ibanez also suffer from random snapping as well. That’s crazy.

One of my machine heads broke many years ago. I bought a set and replaced just the broken one. The E string. Kept the others a spares. Last night I had another failure. Again with the E string. The post just shears off at the bass. Seems to be cast aluminium. Not the best design. The fault seems to be over time the tension in the string pulls on the post and must strain the gearbox or something. All the other posts have about 90 degrees where the tuner is very tight. The rest of the rotation is free. I’ve now replaced the D and the G and obviously the E but that leaves the A as I’ve already used the spare ‘A’ tuner on the E string (if that makes sense) The tuners are handed for top and bottom. The bass is probably 15 years old. Anyone else seen anything similar? Should I just order another set or upgrade somehow with a different manufacturers? Any suggestions welcome.

When my tuner broke I had to order a pack of 4. They weren’t hugely expensive and they come ‘handed’ for the top and bottom. To be honest with you, another Of my tuners broke last night (I’m about to post another thread) but you’d be wise to replace all 4. The other tuners on my bass aren’t right, they have tight spots. I’m guessing they have worn internally over time.

No it couldn’t.

My worst experience regards timing was when the drummer counted and then proceeded to play Moon River in 4/4. We had ‘learned’ it specifically for the couple’s wedding anniversary for their ‘first dance’! I’ve never seen anyone waltz in 4/4 before or since.

Without a doubt. I spent 10 years in a band with a drummer who tried to play everything too fast. It was hard work holding the tempo down. One gig was so bad that I gave up and went with the flow. By the end of the song the singer was glaring at him as she couldn’t sing any of the words. It wasn’t until I did a few dep gigs that I found out how proper musicians play. I left the band pretty soon after. Although I played a dep gig last month where the drummer was speeding up in a lot of songs towards the end of the gig. I put that down to his age and getting tired as he’s normally spot on and it was fine in the first half.

It’s whoever starts the song that sets the tempo and everyone’s job to keep time. If a song has to change tempo then anyone should be able to do it. It’s all about communication. If everyone is following a stubborn drummer then the song won’t breathe.

One band I was in was booked having been seen in a pub. The bride’s family all sat on one side of the room, the groom’s the other side. The only activity on the dance floor were kids running up and skidding along the polished wooden floor on their knees. Afterwards the groom came up and thanked us for an awesome night. No one from either family ever danced and we had been booked because we put on such an entertaining show that they could sit and watch.