mike257

I've always found I get the most contact from JoinMyBand and Gumtree - some of the others (FormingBands and Bandmix spring to mind) want you to hand over cash before you can contact anybody, which limits your possibilities somewhat as most musicians are too skint/tight to stump up dollar just to send an email. Oh, and I'm including myself in that last statement!

That'll be ace. Even just having a stereo pair always on hand is a winner for rehearsals - it'd save me so many "so how did that song we wrote last week go?" moments!!

I'm getting pangs of regret looking at this picture Dan - I bet she sounds great through that rig!!

That looks great mate, and I love the colour! I'd been thinking about white for a body I'm planning to refin, but you might have swayed me here

Looking great! Can't wait to see this finished. I ran into the same problem with pot sizes when I pimped my Squier, couldn't fit my nice CTS one in the tone spot. Well... couldn't quite! I ordered a mini and still haven't got round to changing it, I've just got a pickguard that doesn't quite sit flat for now!

Nice work Ben, tons of space in there! You planning to get a recording setup working with the ready made 'control room'?

I haven't got a custom bass to write about, but there's one bit of band gear I'm getting very hands on with! I bought myself a big van back in January, which I'd started to fit out for band use - unfortunately the engine was a duffer, and I ended up writing it off and buying a van off the garage that do all my maintenance. It's an ex-Jarvis (British Rail workies) site van that they were using as a mobile workshop, so needed some 'alterations' to bring it up to the touring spec I wanted! Here's a few snaps of how the van looked when I picked it up.... [attachment=91149:vanNS.jpg] [attachment=91148:VanOS.jpg] [attachment=91150:crew-area.jpg] [attachment=91151:vanback.jpg] In a past life, it functioned as the mobile site office for railway workies, the front half had a desk for the gaffer to sit at, and the back section was two toilet cubicles! The garage had ripped out one cubicle and fitted a small workbench, but you can still see a fully fitted loo and sink on the left hand one! There's a full hot water system with massive tanks plumbed in, and all kinds of gubbins attached to it! After some long hours of stripping all this out, including lots of swearing, stuck screws that haven't moved in ten years, and use of extreme force, power tools and big hammers, I managed to remove the toilet, plumbing, sink and all the unneccesary bits, and relay the floor panels for what will become the 'luxurious' seating area, it was time to get started on making it look good.... [attachment=91153:layingcarpet.jpg] [attachment=91154:insulating.jpg] [attachment=91155:walls.jpg] [attachment=91156:carpetdone.jpg] Trying to glue carpet smoothly up a vertical wall is a royal pain in the arse!! Stuffed all the cavities with 'Space Blanket' loft insulation to keep us warm on road trips, and moved some wiring in preperation for the funky electrical system that is going in soon. With all that done, it was back to the garage for the most important bit - getting the back seats fitted! They're now in, on removable tracking so I can pop them out again, and to a very high standard too, with massive spreader plates under the chassis to take the load - they aren't coming out in a hurry! [attachment=91157:seatsin.jpg] Van is looking great, and took the kids to see Blackpool Illuminations (not so great!) to give it a test run. I'm now a billy no-mates in the front as everybody wants to sit in the new bit. As soon as I've got a weekend free, it's on to the next job - I've got a second battery and a split charge system that's going to power the internal lighting, the external spotlights over the load door, and the entertainment system. For now, there'll be an improved sound system going in the back, and when I've saved up a bit there'll be flat screen telly with DVD player going in. I might even re-fit the old water boiler that I've stripped from it so we can have a brew on the road! Oh - and if you want to hire me out for gigging, go here: [url="http://facebook.com/boomtransport"]facebook.com/boomtransport[/url] Mike

http://www.johnhenrys.com will probably have what you're after, they rent backline and stage gear for all kinds of tours/fezzys/tv shows.

There's loads of how-to's on the interwebs, most of them suggest long drying times and lots of oven bakings (and not the oven you cook your tea in, unless you want some unhealthy chemical cocktail as your next pizza topping). A good guide on doing it in one day if you're short on time/patience: http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/boxinaday.html

I turned 27 in July, and find myself wondering when will be time to pack in the whole originals band route. I've got a baby on the way, and two step-kids already, and my other half is definitely losing patience with the time and money it takes to sustain the band. Started trying to put my new band together almost a year ago, and after countless false starts and line up changes, I'm still two band members short of where I need to be. The frustrating thing is that I'm reaching a point musically where after years of learning and trying different things, I feel like I know what I want to do, and I'm finally really confident in the music I'm writing, and in taking the reins with the band - I'm just not in the position I used to be to throw myself into it in the same way. How do you reconcile it?

Just listening now - sounds great. Friend of a friend is in a dubstep band called The Corinthians here in Liverpool, I'll link him your stuff - sure he could point you towards some promoters/nights you could approach over this way.

I've got an Affinity P-Special that's probably about 13/14 years old now - it's always played great, and over the years it's had the bridge, jack socket, wiring, pickups, pots and scratchplate replaced, so now it sounds as good as it plays too. If you get one that feels good in your hands, it's a decent bass for the money, and easy to improve with off-the-shelf parts.

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1317378815' post='1390032'] I think I need to take charge more and start steering this thing. [/quote] That's the winner right there - if nobody is doing that, then everything just drifts. You don't have to have somebody ruling with an iron fist, but somebody has got to steer the ship!

[quote name='longtimefred' timestamp='1317326797' post='1389624']man its 4 dates, if it were longer than a week then i would suggest and agree with most of the sensible options here. But i would personally just get drunk and eat lots of dirty food for that amount of time and stay that way until you come home! With no pants on But if you want a sensible answer, i bought a little gadget called a Power Monkey, absolute live saver for charging phones and you can get some that charge ipods, laptops etc etc. Well worth paying for! But yes my proper answer is a LARGE amount of booze! Dont forget to pack your ego! lol[/quote] There's a dude halfway through the thread about to do a month round Europe! Thirty days of no-pants rocking out is going to be some serious chafing!

Oh, and if you've not got a tour manager going out with you, nominate one of you to be the sensible, business-doing, money-counting one - if you don't keep on top of what you've got and where it's going, you'll end up in all kinds of hassle!

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1317297729' post='1389155'] I would almost say it's a combination - they're not very well worked, so I'll find he's not fluent playing them; so we take a moment for him to work it out; and then some more time for me and the drummer to work out what we should be doing. I'd love to show a clip, but it's embarassing. He shouldn't be so f***ing amateurish at this point. Thinking back to last night, when it became apparent his first riff idea would need some more work he just moved on to the next; and the next; so I think we left with five-or-so new riffs, none of which were recorded, and none of which he'll remember. Two of which I'm going to keep for myself and work on, as I think they could go somewhere with some effort. I think there's a learn in there for me - as I could have said something more productive; but chose to simply tell him I wasn't playing certain parts. Need to kick myself in the ass for that one, instead of taking charge I took a sulk! In terms of writing, it's me and him - and that's not necessairly the two of us together. He's quite hard to pin down, so if I have an idea I'll just write the whole thing and bring it along when it's complete... at least complete in the sense that it's structured, has all the constituent parts, and I know it fluently. We're, almost unintentionally, trying to conflate song-writing with general band rehearsals - the exact things you chaps are keeping separate! That could be a practical idea - though if he's still hard to pin down, is there much point? [/quote] There's nothing wrong with combining songwriting with 'general' rehearsals, and we don't draw any distinction in my band - when somebody's got an idea, we'll have a crack at it, or if something happens in the room, we'll run with it for a bit. It sounds like somebody (read: you, because bassists know best!) needs to just be assertive in driving it along from a riff into a coherent song. Is the idea a verse, a chorus, or just a riff? Where can it go next? If you can quickly thrash out a basic song structure, then everyone has the opportunity to settle in to their parts within a couple of run throughs, and you can move on to fine tuning the little things like the transistions between sections when you've got the general shape of it together. I think you should get out your 'producer' hat, pretend like it's pre-production for your mega album, and kick everybody into touch to focus on the writing process. It's good that as a band you're quite open-minded about how your sound is developing - the more you write together and settle into a process thats working, the more you'll sound like 'you'. I've seen people boot too many good ideas without letting them develop to want to go down that road myself - it's better to let the sound come out of how you write, rather than trying to write to a particular sound!

I think if you're going to throw in new riffs all the time in rehearsal, at least one of you has to grab hold of it and give it some direction - we'll quite often write around a new riff on the spot, but you have to kick it into the shape of a song quickly. If we have an idea we really like, we're not against spending the bulk of the rehearsal getting it sorted, but the basic shape/structure of the tune has to comes pretty fast. I think there's a lot of discipline in putting an idea down and moving on to something else if it isn't working. Sometimes it's best that you take those new ideas and work on them outside the time constraints of the rehearsal room, and sometimes it's better to come back to them another day with a fresh head. Jamming on something for three hours and not even having the bones of a song is a waste of expensive rehearsal time. Is your guitarist coming up with these riffs on the spot, or has he thought them up at home, but just isn't very organised about presenting it to the band in a way that encourages you all to write around it?

I've recently used UPS via Interparcel to ship a bass to Cardiff, so that's almost international No hassle at all, rang ahead when they were nearby, collected and delivered on time, great service.

[quote name='Ukelele Salad' timestamp='1317278600' post='1388865'] Top tip! My mate told me when touring in France there's only one thing you need - French. If you speak it, they'll help you. If they think you're just another elderberry stinkpoo rosbif you'll be in trouble. Possibly a bit harsh on the French... [/quote] True story, it's well worth having a go at the lingo, even if it's just the basics. Most places in Europe you'll find people have an embarrasingly good grasp of the English language (and often a couple of others!) compared to our apathetic 'everyone can just learn ours' approach, but it makes such a difference to just be able to throw a 'please' and 'thank you' around. Never found the French to live up to the stereotype, and people there have always been acommodating and helpful when I've struggled with the words!

[quote name='Wooks79' timestamp='1317215585' post='1388178'] I'm sold on anything with maple neck and black blocks and binding [/quote] What he said.

You always need more t-shirts than you think you do. Pack spares or you'll have to start wearing your own merch - and unless you're in Iron Maiden that means you're going to look a right whopper. You'll always end up too hot in the van, even when it's freezing, so don't layer up for the travelling. Baby wipes, so you can have a festival wash if you can't get near a shower for a night or two. Take a cool box, stock up on road snacks at a cheapo supermarket - you can get enough food from Aldi to do a 7 hour drive for the price of a motorway services butty! We used to take bets on how much I'd spend on motorway food, I couldn't help myself. Goes through your tour budget in no time! Oh, and tour rules - the driver gets the best bed, and nobody f***s around with the sleeping driver. Everybody else is fair game. Sensible ones for the poster doing European touring - be aware of the road rules in different countries as much of mainland Europe requires you to carry warning triangles, hi-vis jackets etc in your vehicle. Oh, and the whole wrong side of the road thing too. Don't forget that.

I think Nate Mendel from the Foo Fighters plays some really great, melodic stuff that quite often goes unnoticed underneath all those loud guitars and showboating drummers (yeah, including the one at the front with the microphone ) Rarely, if ever, gets a mention on here, but a great player with some lovely lines under his belt.