Firing band members

[yorks5stringer]

Just a reminder of when I got the sack: started to notice FB posts on a Monday about the gig the rest of the band had done unbeknown to me over the weekend. Excuses were 'the stage was too small" and 'the organisers wanted it low key'. Drummer confirmed excuses were BS. Band and I then went our own seperate directions...

[miles'tone]

I've never been sacked from a band. This is probably because I haven't been aiming high enough 😄

Edited June 10, 2022 by miles'tone

[Lozz196]

I’ve only ever been fired from one band. It went from rehearsal 1 with the new set up where the project/band leader remarked that the drummer and I could clearly play anything to about rehearsal 4 where he came up with the idea that we should buy our own rehearsal studio for £30k. So as there were 5 of us that would be £6k each.
The drummer and I both said no, so clearly our playing ability wasn’t as important as our wallets as we were both fired.

We still laugh about it today, especially as the project/band leader did get his £30k studio and did two-thirds of three-fifths of feckall with it.

He’s been working on this album now since 1995!

[SteveXFR]

3 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I’ve only ever been fired from one band. It went from rehearsal 1 with the new set up where the project/band leader remarked that the drummer and I could clearly play anything to about rehearsal 4 where he came up with the idea that we should buy our own rehearsal studio for £30k. So as there were 5 of us that would be £6k each.
The drummer and I both said no, so clearly our playing ability wasn’t as important as our wallets as we were both fired.

We still laugh about it today, especially as the project/band leader did get his £30k studio and did two-thirds of three-fifths of feckall with it.

He’s been working on this album now since 1995!

 

That sounds too much like my last band experience. They'll get that album released by the end of the century. 

[Lord Sausage]

Been firing band members since I was 14. Not had to do it though in the last er......lots of years because I struggle to find the right people.

 

My best experience though was getting fired from a band I wasn't even in!

[bass_dinger]

20 minutes ago, Lord Sausage said:

 

My best experience though was getting fired from a band I wasn't even in!

Details, please!

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

No, they wouldn't play anything as common as a Marshall, they had Cornford amps. 

Basically, they saw that most bassists who play arenas use Ampeg SVT heads with SVT 810 cabs so obviously that's the only acceptable thing for me to use.

They asked which famous bassists use solid state Orange amps (that's what I use) but they'd never heard of Sergio Vega (Deftones), Troy Sanders (Mastadon) or Geddy Lee (you know).

To be honest i've never heard of Cornford Amps. 

I;ve heard of the first 2 bassists but dont really know much about them but i am def a Geddy fan.

Mate let me use his Orange all valve amp (1970's version) into his 810 cab which i think was a Hartke cab. I was blown away with the tone using my Geddy Jazz. Full, thick and warm but nice and defined. Its what put me onto getting another all valve head again. Something a bit lighter than an Orange tho. HandBox WB-100 i'm currently waiting on.

Dave

[SteveXFR]

12 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

To be honest i've never heard of Cornford Amps. 

I;ve heard of the first 2 bassists but dont really know much about them but i am def a Geddy fan.

Mate let me use his Orange all valve amp (1970's version) into his 810 cab which i think was a Hartke cab. I was blown away with the tone using my Geddy Jazz. Full, thick and warm but nice and defined. Its what put me onto getting another all valve head again. Something a bit lighter than an Orange tho. HandBox WB-100 i'm currently waiting on.

Dave

 

The Cornford amps sound like Marshalls but cost twice as much.

I really want an all valve head but can't justify it at the moment 

[Lozz196]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

To be honest i've never heard of Cornford Amps. 

I;ve heard of the first 2 bassists but dont really know much about them but i am def a Geddy fan.

Mate let me use his Orange all valve amp (1970's version) into his 810 cab which i think was a Hartke cab. I was blown away with the tone using my Geddy Jazz. Full, thick and warm but nice and defined. Its what put me onto getting another all valve head again. Something a bit lighter than an Orange tho. HandBox WB-100 i'm currently waiting on.

Dave

I think Orange amps & Jazz basses are a good pairing, Dave, the warmth of the Orange stops the Jazz from being too harsh.

 

Wow, I just wrote out a Christmas Cointreau ad from the 70s in respect of bass amps!

[peteb]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

To be honest i've never heard of Cornford Amps. 

I;ve heard of the first 2 bassists but dont really know much about them but i am def a Geddy fan.

Mate let me use his Orange all valve amp (1970's version) into his 810 cab which i think was a Hartke cab. I was blown away with the tone using my Geddy Jazz. Full, thick and warm but nice and defined. Its what put me onto getting another all valve head again. Something a bit lighter than an Orange tho. HandBox WB-100 i'm currently waiting on.

Dave

 

You do still have the Mesa amp, don't you Dave??

 

I'm surprised that you haven't heard of Cornford Amps. They're great, but very expensive... 

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by peteb

[dmccombe7]

13 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

You do still have the Mesa amp, don't you Dave??

 

I'm surprised that you haven't heard of Cornford Amps. They're great, but very expensive... 

 

Will always keep my Mesa Mpulse but waiting on the Hanbox WB-100 amps to be upgraded and my name is on the list to get one hopefully soon. All valve HB head.

Cant say i've ever heard of Cornford amps tho.

I'll need to pick up a class D  as a back up but not sure what to get. Will need to be a cheapie tho. I have the MB Nano thing but its only 200 class D  watts so not exactly the loudest of amps. Did see a nice Eden 500 on here yesterday at a good price.

Dave

Edited June 10, 2022 by dmccombe7

[peteb]

11 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Will always keep my Mesa Mpulse but waiting on the Hanbox WB-100 amps to be upgraded and my name is on the list to get one hopefully soon. All valve HB head.

I'll need to pick up a class D  as a back up but not sure what to get. Will need to be a cheapie tho. I have the MB Nano thing but its only 200 class D  watts so not exactly the loudest of amps. Did see a nice Eden 500 on here yesterday at a good price.

Dave

 

I would have thought that the mpulse was as good as anything Orange ever did, even the old ones! There's only so many opportunities to use all the amps you've got. As I've mentioned before, I got the HB R-400 as an alternative to a Class D amp as I've decided that I'm just not prepared to accept the compromises that you have to make for Class D technology. Much as I would love to try a WB-100, I don't think that I would use it enough to justify buying one. No matter how good it is, I can't see it being that much better than my mpulse or R-400! 

 

There are certainly a few bargains around for s/h Eden amps. I recorded an album using an old Eden once... great amps!

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by peteb

[SteveXFR]

I quite like old GK amps they're pretty decent value now.

I rarely turn up my Orange Terror 500w past 2 on the master volume so I'm thinking of changing it for an old GK.

[dmccombe7]

HB WB-100 will be my main amp with the Mesa as a back up just in case. I like to take a small portable head with me just in case. You just never know when a tube amp might fail on you. I had a few issues with the Mesa last year but tech just gave everything a clean and seemed ok but master pot is getting a bit worn he says. Problem is he couldn't locate a spare for it from Mesa. 

I think the Mesa is more versatile than the Orange all valve head but the full valve tone is so nice. I originally looked at the HB R400 until i heard the WB-100 and at only £200 more plus VAT and import tax its worth getting what i really fancy. That way i have the Mesa hybrid and all tube HB.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

16 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

I quite like old GK amps they're pretty decent value now.

I rarely turn up my Orange Terror 500w past 2 on the master volume so I'm thinking of changing it for an old GK.

Had a GK 1001rbii but couldn't get a decent sound i liked from it. I think we digress from the OP a bit. Apologies for that.

 Dont think i've ever been fired altho back in early 80's i had auditioned for another band and accepted and my mates found out and said they had asked another bassist to take over. Not sure that constitutes being fired but i've left quite a few bands LOL

Dave

[peteb]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

HB WB-100 will be my main amp with the Mesa as a back up just in case. I like to take a small portable head with me just in case. You just never know when a tube amp might fail on you. I had a few issues with the Mesa last year but tech just gave everything a clean and seemed ok but master pot is getting a bit worn he says. Problem is he couldn't locate a spare for it from Mesa. 

I think the Mesa is more versatile than the Orange all valve head but the full valve tone is so nice. I originally looked at the HB R400 until i heard the WB-100 and at only £200 more plus VAT and import tax its worth getting what i really fancy. That way i have the Mesa hybrid and all tube HB.

Dave

 

I made a point of getting my mpulse serviced every year, just in case. 

 

These days, i carry round a little TE Elf amp in my gigbag just in case. As a 200w Class D amp, it isn't really loud enough, but it is small, sounds OK and will get you out of trouble in an emergency (I also have a DI box in my gigbag). 

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by peteb

[Stub Mandrel]

14 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

I rarely turn up my Orange Terror 500w past 2 on the master volume

 

Me too!

[Stub Mandrel]

12 hours ago, peteb said:

These days, i carry round a little TE Elf amp in my gigbag just in case

 

Me too!

[nilorius]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Me too!

Me too, with Aguilar tonehammer 500.

[FinnDave]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Me too!

Same here.

 

[dmccombe7]

Markbass Nano for me.

[uk_lefty]

23 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

They then booted me a few hours later saying it was because they wanted to play 3 gigs a week and knew I couldn't do that. This was back in January this year. No one is getting 3 gigs a week at the moment let alone a new band. I'd rather they'd just been honest. 

Maybe they were being honest, but they're just completely deluded? So, so many muso types are unfortunately.

[uk_lefty]

I got fired from a band once by email. I was quite relieved, it was never what it claimed to be. Two female singers doing funky jamiroquai type stuff, I signed up, auditioned ... The audition was an odd experience. We went through a number of weeks trying second guitarists, drummers and a keyboard player and I stuck with it through all this because the singers were good. But. The material was all over the place. The guitarist basically loved the Stereophonics so it was about four or five Stereophonics songs. The girls were amazing singing 80s power ballads, we did two but guitarist refused to do any more. We settled on a line up and rehearsed for a few weeks. The guitarist's behaviour was odd in how he treated people and how quickly his "ideas" changed. Me, a guitarist and the drummer got fired after a few weeks. The email read something like "you all rock and you're amazing musicians but there's just too many different ideas and it's hard to keep everyone happy..." 

 

It taught me a lot about being in a covers band: set out your stall early on what the direction is and stick to it. Or, play to the strengths of your biggest asset (in this case the singers).

 

And a lesson I learned more recently: If someone turns up all enthusiastic but just wants to do the songs they know and love from a different genre to the band direction BIN THEM NOW because they will never, ever stop.

[Woodinblack]

19 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

And a lesson I learned more recently: If someone turns up all enthusiastic but just wants to do the songs they know and love from a different genre to the band direction BIN THEM NOW because they will never, ever stop.

 

Yep, learned that. Got a guitarist for a soul group, he wanted to do rolling stones songs.

[TimR]

26 minutes ago, uk_lefty said:

Or, play to the strengths of your biggest asset (in this case the singers).

 

And a lesson I learned more recently: If someone turns up all enthusiastic but just wants to do the songs they know and love from a different genre to the band direction BIN THEM NOW because they will never, ever stop

 

Yes. Going through this at the moment. Fairly new female singer. Guitarist thought she be great as a rock front lady and tried to get her to sing songs from when he was a teenager, about 5 years before she was born. We've eventually steered him round to what she knows and likes. Sometimes for things to work, everyone has to change what they want to do. And I think the band is much better for it.