Vermoulian

Obviously I haven't been here in a while since I'm only now posting in this thread from several years ago, but like many, I drifted away after the change. This (Backstage with the Band) was my favorite forum here, and the Band Management forum on TalkBass had a lot of similar discussion so I tended to go there. But today I noticed the HC Forums link in my bookmarks and thought, I wonder what if anything is going on there? I'm a little surprised but pleased to see that the forums are still going, if much reduced from what they were, so I'll probably drop by more often now.

Singing harmony is not intuitive for everybody. Sometimes people can get better with work, but some people just can't do it. I know a singer who's good by herself---I was in a musical play with her and she did great on her solo song---but absolutely could not sing harmony with one other singer. Could never find the harmony note; she went all over the place. Just something in the way her brain or ear was wired, which was a shame. Harmony vocals can really set your performance up a notch, but no harmony is better than bad harmony.

I think there are two things going on here that should be considered separately. First, there's the guy who has his own (potentially impractical) artistic vision for a band. Following an impractical vision, or producing something which will probably have a limited appeal, is not necessarily delusional in and of itself. In my experience, real artists have a bubbling fountain of artistic urge inside them which compels them to express themselves through their artistic medium, and in that case, they're going to make their art no matter what. Even people who are not strongly driven artists occasionally have flashes of artistic inspiration that motivate them to do something. Gotta follow that muse. However, one can often find a level of delusion in such people regarding the potential appeal of, or marketability of, such a project. Also, there are lots of musicians who I think are better described as practicing the craft of music, as opposed to making art. It's not hard to find projects which were probably conceived something like this: "Hey, I love [genre X]. I'm going to start a band to play [genre X], and everybody will love it! I'll be a star! At last, the perks of fame and fortune will be mine!" It's hard to admit that nobody wants to hear what you're doing (which may have nothing at all to do with how technically good or bad the project is). Trying to sell people on something they don't like, or even something they don't know they like, is a hard slog, and one for which some people forming bands are not prepared. There's a separate potential level of delusion in the OP, which is whether a given musical community can provide the necessary collaborators to realize a particular artistic vision. That may be a variation on the foregoing situation, i.e., "This music is so self-evidently excellent, everybody will want to play it, even if they've shown no interest in [genre X] before." It may also involve ignoring inconvenient realities like, if there was a singer with the talent and experience to do [whatever], he/she would already be in a band and everyone would know about him/her, but we don't, so it's not realistic to expect such a person to materialize suddenly.

A couple years ago I decided to buy a decent PA to use with my cover band for gigs where we had to supply sound. Thanks to information found on this forum, I think we got it right the first time: 1) Post the gear. Two JBL PRX612m and one PRX618S-XLF; Allen & Heath GL2400 mixer. Our guitarist brings an Ashley graphic EQ and a dbx compressor (I don't know which model). We have in-ear monitors, except our guitarist who uses a little EON powered cabinet. Vocal mics are an EV N/D257A, two SM58s, and an Audix OM7. We put SM57s on the guitar amps, and have Sennheiser e604s and SM57s for drums; the drummer has a Beta 52 built into his kick drum. 2) Post the application. 80s-alternative cover band, mostly smaller gigs, or larger gigs where high volume is not necessary. 3) Offer a brutally honest assessment of the suitability of the tools for the job at hand. Just humble and honest assessments. We have been deliriously happy with this set-up. Given the demographic of our target audience, we don't generally have to shake the building or blow the roof off with volume. For small gigs we often use just the 612s for vocals and tracks supplementing live instruments; often we mix those from the stage on a little Mackie mixer one of the guys has. For outdoor gigs or larger indoor gigs we bring out the sub and the big mixer. From what I read on here, I know that that system is probably not considered enough for outdoor gigs, but it's worked great for us and we have not so far had to push it to its limits. 4) Frame your report/critique with a brief description of your experience... so we know where you're coming from. I'm mainly a player---I've been playing in original and cover bands for close to 30 years. As I have matured, however, I have come to appreciate the importance of having a really good PA. If I could do things over again, I would have bought fewer guitars and basses, and invested in quality PA gear sooner.

I'll provide a different perspective. I've had lots of guitars that fall into the "whenever I play it, I like it" category, and I do NOT think that that phenomenon (by itself) means you should keep it. I had an Epiphone Sheraton that was a really nice guitar, but it tended to sit in its case. A few times a year, I'd think, wow, I should play that Sheraton more often, and I'd pull it out and play it, and think to myself, "Wow, this is a really nice guitar." But then it would go back into its case, until the next time a few months later when I thought, "Wow, I should play that Sheraton more often." I finally recognized this pattern, and when I needed some money I put it up for sale. I was worried that I'd have regrets, since it had some nostalgic value, but that was a year and a half ago and I have not missed it at all. I'm sure if I still had it I would pull it out a few times a year and play it and think what a nice guitar it was, but there's not some big empty void in my life because it's gone. Hopefully, as a player you get to a point where you can tell good guitars from bad guitars. At that point, ALL your guitars should be good guitars, guitars you like. That certainly doesn't mean you should never sell another guitar! If you have a guitar you absolutely love, by all means keep it. If you have a guitar you need to cover something you play in a band, well, you probably shouldn't sell that unless you can immediately replace it with a new guitar that will do the same thing. But if you have a nice guitar---a guitar you like when you play it---but you just haven't bonded with it and/or you'd really prefer to have something else, why not sell it? In fact, I'd say all the people oohing and aahing over it in this thread just indicate that it's a popular guitar and you'll probably be able to sell it for a good price without too many headaches. All these guys who claim they'd never sell it---hey, this is their chance to buy one! Bonus for you! Also, don't get too caught up in the "don't sell it in this economy" business. I don't want to be too conspiracy-theory, but there's enough uncertainty out there that there's no guarantee that things are going to get better anytime soon. If you can sell the guitar at a good price (indeed, at a profit!), don't look a gift horse in the mouth!