Cheap band mates

Well, personally, I don't think it's ever realistic to EXPECT someone else to have the same opinion on it as you do. If you want to spend the money on your own gear that's all well and good, I wouldn't ever expect anyone else to want to do the same. If this is something that is quite important to a person I would suggest finding band mates who also think it's important. They're out there at every instrument.

Even though I love gear, it's not nearly as important to have top end gear as this thread would lead on. A Mexican strat or epi les paul and a blues jr with some pedals would sound great to 99% of people out there.

I love having the rig I have, but I make no mistake in thinking its helping everyone else out. It's helping ME out.
 
Muad'zin said:
What annoys me more is being closed minded. Our band has a drummer who plays very well but she's unwilling to discuss anything if she has made her mind up. She flatout refuses to even discuss playing along to a clicktrack. Because in her mind it takes away the spontaneaty from a performance.
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She is immature, and unprofessional. I'm guessing she refuses to play with a click track because she is afraid it will reveal that she is really not all that good. Speeds up, slows down, bad off the fills, etc. A click track is a tool, but it is a common tool, and ALL professionals can play to a click track. Not everybody likes them, (I find them annoying) but if you aspire to do any recording, if she cannot play to a click track, she'll get the boot. Refusing to discuss topics that impact all band members is a sure sign of prima donna syndrome. She's not ready for prime time.
 
I'm in the same situation as some of you in that I own the PA, In Ear Monitor Rig, Lights, & Truck. A total investment of $60k. I own everything but the drum kit, bass amp & bass guitar.
The bass rig has an intermittent noise issue & I've asked the bass player numerous times to get it looked at, 4 years later he still hasn't taken care of it. A couple of years ago we were going to cover a song that had a slightly distorted tone, but he refused to spend $60 on a stomp box. It gets frustrating to see that the bass player isn't willing to invest in his gear, he puts 100% into setup & strike, but less in learning new material. If he can't find the tab, he struggles with new material. Occasionally I have to show him the correct way to play his parts.
If there were a bass player available in my area, I wouldn't hesitate replacing him.
Btw he takes home approx $12k a year playing 1-2 weekends a month.
Thanx for letting me rant.
 
ianx said:
I'm in the same situation as some of you in that I own the PA, In Ear Monitor Rig, Lights, & Truck. A total investment of $60k. I own everything but the drum kit, bass amp & bass guitar.
The bass rig has an intermittent noise issue & I've asked the bass player numerous times to get it looked at, 4 years later he still hasn't taken care of it. A couple of years ago we were going to cover a song that had a slightly distorted tone, but he refused to spend $60 on a stomp box. It gets frustrating to see that the bass player isn't willing to invest in his gear, he puts 100% into setup & strike, but less in learning new material. If he can't find the tab, he struggles with new material. Occasionally I have to show him the correct way to play his parts.
If there were a bass player available in my area, I wouldn't hesitate replacing him.
Btw he takes home approx $12k a year playing 1-2 weekends a month.
Thanx for letting me rant.
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Thank you! Haha that's all I was doing was venting amongst gear friends lol. My bass player has a very similar issue.
 
Hmm. I was at the other end of the spectrum. I had bandmates who had excellent equipment. But many didn't really have talent to play. They were competent, but I needed more than that: flexibility. I would re-produce a song for different ends to make them more interesting to the 'cover' crowd. Acapella bits, dip into similar (read: same chord progression) songs in the middle, doing Dylan in the style of Metallica, etc. When you're working with a few folks who need a week to get 'Jesus of Suburbia' down pat, asking what I want to do is...painful.

It's the reason I punted on bands. The talented ones you should be playing with are the absolute worst ones to be around (for whatever reason...)

But I do miss it...

R
 
Muad'zin said:
What annoys me more is being closed minded. Our band has a drummer who plays very well but she's unwilling to discuss anything if she has made her mind up. She flatout refuses to even discuss playing along to a clicktrack. Because in her mind it takes away the spontaneaty from a performance. I happen to think it makes for a consistent performance. You can give a brilliant performance when you're in the zone, but chances are when you're not in the zone people will notice that too. Band has a bad night = bad performance. Whereas a band that plans out their entire show, the show elements, chats with the audience, cues their light show in sync with the lightshow will still perform well if the band members are having a bad evening. Consistency is a quality of its own. I must have heard about 90% of every U2 show ever played thanks to bootlegs and they seem to be very consistent from night to night. And they have been using clicktracks since like 1984. Never mind that playing along to a clicktrack would allow me to control my Axe as well, freeing me up from having to stomp switches and allowing me to give a better performance.
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My old band played to a click track for years. My drummer was all for it, even though he hated listening to it for the entire show. But I have to tell you, we had one gig that had really shitty power, and it was screwing with our sequencer so we played the show without it, and after years of playing with a click we decided to stop using. The show had much more energy than the shows we had played for years with the click. Even people who had been coming to see us for years began commenting on how we had seemed to step up our game and take our performances to the next level. We still kept our structured show, we just ditched the click and sequenced backing vocals and filler tracks. Luckily though I had a drummer that was extremely accurate without a click.
 
IMHO you were so good because you were trained to lock in together. Playing with a click does not mean to play on the click, it's the drummer's or band duty to decide when it's time to play behind, on top of before the beat.
 
Muad'zin said:
There's a difference between being cheap, because beer and tattoo money are more important, and being very short on cash. Us GAS addicts have to keep that in mind. Also, we may be crazy enough to sink every penny in our equipment, I know I am, other people will have different priorities.

As long as you get a decent tone out of your rig I'm happy. And I'm enough into making your own gear to know that just because something is expensive doesn't always make it better.

What annoys me more is being closed minded. Our band has a drummer who plays very well but she's unwilling to discuss anything if she has made her mind up. She flatout refuses to even discuss playing along to a clicktrack. Because in her mind it takes away the spontaneaty from a performance. I happen to think it makes for a consistent performance. You can give a brilliant performance when you're in the zone, but chances are when you're not in the zone people will notice that too. Band has a bad night = bad performance. Whereas a band that plans out their entire show, the show elements, chats with the audience, cues their light show in sync with the lightshow will still perform well if the band members are having a bad evening. Consistency is a quality of its own. I must have heard about 90% of every U2 show ever played thanks to bootlegs and they seem to be very consistent from night to night. And they have been using clicktracks since like 1984. Never mind that playing along to a clicktrack would allow me to control my Axe as well, freeing me up from having to stomp switches and allowing me to give a better performance.

Anyway, it's not the discussion I would mind. I could live with a compromise being made. It's the flat out refusal to even discuss things that annoys the shit out of me.
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Most drummers who refuse to play to a click, can't play to a click. I used to have a drummer that could play to a click and purposely fall behind, rush the beat or be right on the beat in different sections of the song to add feel. We also changed tempos by jumping from one tempo to another, ramping up or down and sometimes start at a tempo and then have it ramp up by 10bpm by the end of the song. Always sounded consistent but also still captured emotion. It sucks once you've played with a good drummer bc it makes it difficult to play with others that aren't as talented.

Another issue I have with drummers is recording on an electronic drum kit. Majority of them refuse but aren't willing to invest the time or money to get their kit setup properly for recording like tuning the drums, replacing heads, muffling, making sure nothing is squeaking, buzzing, vibrating, rubbing or bumping. If an electronic drum kit is setup correctly, they can capture most of the drummers nuances. They always complain about Edrums not feeling or sounding natural. Well keyboardist have to deal with not playing a real piano and guitar players aren't playing all acoustic music. Also when was the last time drums, guitar or bass sounded natural? Putting a mic in front of a guitar cab sounds nothing like what a guitarist hears playing in front of their rig. Close micing a drum sounds nothing like what a drum sounds like in a room. Compressing a snare to accent the attack doesn't sound natural but it sounds good. Majority of music listeners have no clue what an instrument sounds like naturally and what usually catches a listeners attention is something very unnatural like Jimi Hendrix as an example.

Another thing that drives me insane is when I let band members use my gear, so we can sound good but then they don't take care of it. Accidentally leave it at shows. Spill drinks on and into it. Plug the cables in wrong even after I've put labels on all jacks, plugs, cables and instruments, so 1 goes to 1, 2 goes to 2...

I've also been in bands with great writers but think they can play an instrument bc they mastered Guitar Hero and they put way more time into video games than into the real instrument and aren't even bothered when they perform and sound bad in front of a paying audience.

My list of gripes could fill this entire forum haha.
 
GotMetalBoy said:
Another thing that drives me insane is when I let band members use my gear, so we can sound good but then they don't take care of it. Accidentally leave it at shows. Spill drinks on and into it. Plug the cables in wrong even after I've put labels on all jacks, plugs, cables and instruments, so 1 goes to 1, 2 goes to 2...
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Luckily my mates are very considerate about the gear. The other guitarist (TOG) is considerate, but scatterbrained. I think he's borderline ADHD haha. At band practice this weekend, he plugged his guitar in to the line out jack of his own practice amp, without even looking. The only reason I caught it before he turned it on was because I plug his amp into the mixer.
 
I respectfully think that an expectation of reliable and correct gear isn't to much to ask. Not to mention really doesn't fall into GAS in my book. I admit i am completely new to being in a band (joined my first band a month ago). However I a member/participant in a non musical sense, for the last decade, as roadie, sound man, guitar tech, and at times stage manager/manager.

Saying "hey, lets bring the right gear for the job" isn't unrealistic at all. If I show up to a clients workplace and I need to drill some concrete, don't show up with the right drill, or even drill bits. Than expect to borrow it from them, or them to supply it. Generally they are gonna fire my ass. I am not saying there aren't some situations that might be exceptions, say If i agreed to be labor to help drill a well. However the bulk of the time they expect preparation and the right tools for the job. Not only so i can do the job but be efficient.

The same goes for music in my book. If you have a hearing problem, or specific preferences that can be uncomplimentary to the sound. Then its your responsibility to make sure they are met. Its not your band mates job to provide you with the correct tools so you can do your best performance.

Now on the GAS side of things, i realize people might look at my other gear choices and go why did you buy another PA, or why did you buy another mixer. But that's become a preference to have the correct tools for the job. As i am tired of having under powered pa's or not enough channels, or to reduce my setup time and troubleshooting requirements when shit don't work.
 
Desmo808 said:
Luckily my mates are very considerate about the gear. The other guitarist (TOG) is considerate, but scatterbrained. I think he's borderline ADHD haha. At band practice this weekend, he plugged his guitar in to the line out jack of his own practice amp, without even looking. The only reason I caught it before he turned it on was because I plug his amp into the mixer.
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Man I have done that plenty of times, the more tired and worn down the worse it is. I started color coding my cables and equipment, as well as others to help speed the process up. Helps speed up troubleshooting too.
 
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