I need advice regarding a band situation

[yngHL]

Long story short - Joined a band a year ago playing covers, the bass player and i wanted to eventually do originals so we peeled off together about 6 months ago. During that time we've come up with a bunch of material which i love with the shared goal of recording an EP.

When we recorded ourselves something was off but i couldn't put my finger on it. About a month ago i played around on his bass and noticed the strings were cooked and the neck was all over the place. Sure enough he hasn't changed strings since he bought it 6 years ago and the intonation by the 12th fret was about half a step out, i had finally found why our recordings sound a bit off. I asked him to change his strings and service his bass before we record, stressing the importance of both instruments being in tune with each other. I even showed him on my tuner how badly intonated his bass was. He's taken this personally and feels as though i'm attacking his playing or musicianship in some way as well as putting pressure on him to spend money, i've stressed this isn't the case. He's now gone cold on the whole EP idea and wants to play casually. Am i being unreasonable here? I'm an amateur so if anybody with a bit more experience can weigh in that would be greatly appreciated.

Other things to note is he's been using his phone to tune this whole time, i've asked if he could buy a proper tuner or at least tune from my tuner and i can tell it doesn't go down well. He also likes to pump his midrange to where i struggle to hear myself in the mix, once again when i ask if he can tweak stuff a bit to try, it doesn't go down well.

Give me some wisdom please, extra brownie points if we can turn this into a political thread.

 

[Matt300ZXT]

Fuck that guy. He's happy to have a poorly maintained instrument and just doesn't care to fix it. His heart won't be in it. Even if you fixed it for him or whatever, he'd find some other excuse down the road to be lazy and sloppy. Move on from him. He probably the cock like Sharvell Dan and his liberal cohorts.

 

[RaceU4her]

id choke him out with a mogami cable

 

[skoora]

Move on. Insufferable, intransigent personality. It will be non stop frustration. The fact he gets bent out of shape about simple suggestions that any musician would acknowledge are reasonable, shows he’d be impossible to work with.

 

[japetus]

Bands need team players. If he isn't even open minded enough to have a properly intonated instrument, what can you do? It's not a case of money, you can properly intonate and set up a $150 Squire. If you are open and honestly explaining this to him and he is offended...just move on.

 

[NowYou'rePlayingWithPower]

Little red flags usually mean bigger ones later.
Sounds like a waste of your time.

 

[VonBonfire]

Guy is a complete waste of time. Do your cover band deal and ghost him beyond that. Let him figure out why you moved on. Find different players.

Bands need team players.

This is why I don't have a band anymore, it's just my project done my way and if you don't like it, goodbye. If I want your feedback I'll ask for it and that won't happen until I respect you on a musical, and personal, level. This way when I have some d-bag who is a problem child he doesn't torpedo my whole project when he walks or gets canned. He's just the help.

 

[phillybhatesme]

Forgive me, but up until like 5 years ago, I had no idea how important a good setup was and I've been playing since like '95 or so. It's possible the guy is clueless and therefore defensive.
Good luck, but if you two jive creatively, I'd try and figure out how to get the info to him in some other, more creative way.

"Oh man, this action is so high, I'm surprised you can play as well as you do."

 

[yngHL]

Fuck that guy. He's happy to have a poorly maintained instrument and just doesn't care to fix it. His heart won't be in it. Even if you fixed it for him or whatever, he'd find some other excuse down the road to be lazy and sloppy. Move on from him. He probably the cock like Sharvell Dan and his liberal cohorts.

As a north leaning republican democrat you get a brownie point

 

[yngHL]

Thanks for the comments turns out I’m not going crazy. The fact that something so simple was blown up like this had me doubting myself.

Another thing I’ll add is that his output jack has been cooked the whole year, every time we jam his bass will cut out at least once.

This is a hobby and passion for me but I still like to do things to the best of my ability.

 

[yngHL]

Forgive me, but up until like 5 years ago, I had no idea how important a good setup was and I've been playing since like '95 or so. It's possible the guy is clueless and therefore defensive.
Good luck, but if you two jive creatively, I'd try and figure out how to get the info to him in some other, more creative way.

"Oh man, this action is so high, I'm surprised you can play as well as you do."

I get it. I’m lucky in the fact that I got to work with a luthier for a short while so I know the importance of this stuff. I have friends who have played everyday for 20+ years who still don’t know how to string a guitar properly.

I’ve been as gentle as I can be, even offering the luthiers number so he can have it explained by a professional. We jive creatively that’s why is so disappointing but it’s a waste of my time to put all this time and money into something only to have it done half arsed.

 

[Soundstorm]

I’ve learned the hard way to only invest time in people that are on the same page as me. Not just style but goals, work ethic, and attention to detail. Otherwise you just end up butting heads or worse, carrying them.

 

[311boogieman]

Yeah man, if he doesn't come around quickly I'd ditch what could end up being a long term problem.

Besides, bass players are a dime a dozen.









j/k of course

 

[phillybhatesme]

I get it. I’m lucky in the fact that I got to work with a luthier for a short while so I know the importance of this stuff. I have friends who have played everyday for 20+ years who still don’t know how to string a guitar properly.

I’ve been as gentle as I can be, even offering the luthiers number so he can have it explained by a professional. We jive creatively that’s why is so disappointing but it’s a waste of my time to put all this time and money into something only to have it done half arsed.

Yeah, I don't disagree with you. It's real unfortunate and surely frustrating. Good luck with the situation.
It really sounds like this dude has no idea that maintenance means more than just string changes.

 

[NowYou'rePlayingWithPower]

I get it. I’m lucky in the fact that I got to work with a luthier for a short while so I know the importance of this stuff. I have friends who have played everyday for 20+ years who still don’t know how to string a guitar properly.

I’ve been as gentle as I can be, even offering the luthiers number so he can have it explained by a professional. We jive creatively that’s why is so disappointing but it’s a waste of my time to put all this time and money into something only to have it done half arsed.

Sounds like they're someone ego driven. It's up to you on whether or not you plan a long term relationship/partnership with this person. If you want to maintain it based on your creative levels; find someone else to point it out to them or just fix it when they aren't looking A member of the opposite sex seems to do the trick for most when it comes to flattery or criticism. Just saying...

 

[yngHL]

I’m curious if anybody has experience with this in a recording studio space. If you rock up with a beat up instrument in that condition do they call you a donut and send you back out the door or will they actually record?

 

[NowYou'rePlayingWithPower]

I’m curious if anybody has experience with this in a recording studio space. If you rock up with a beat up instrument in that condition do they call you a donut and send you back out the door or will they actually record?

Depends on the engineer probably more than anything. It's your money, and is it worth their time? A beat up instrument is one thing most won't or should have any issue with including old strings which a lot of bassists prefer, but something out of tune/sync with other instruments is going to cost you $ with someone else's time to fix, if they even want to bother and dependent on their workflow. Would probably be leery of someone who actually wanted to take that task on instead of being upfront with the issue off the bat.

 

[NowYou'rePlayingWithPower]

If it means that much to you offer to pay to have their instrument setup and move on, tbh.

 

[cobrahead1030]

It’s hard to make a gap in experience & awareness work between bandmates. If they’re not willing to listen to something that basic, it’s going to be a long bumpy road.

I’ve jammed with some guys over the years who were skilled players & writers. But if they can’t comprehend the basic fundamentals of their own gear, it ends up being a long road to nowhere.

A decent recording engineer in a studio will likely have a few generic instruments on hand. If you show up with one that’s problematic, they’re probably going to hand you one off the wall & tell you to play it.

 

[valve]

buy him a fretless bass!