bandGeek

Why buy new gear? It’s just going get beaten up while you’re playing, anyways. If you buy used gear from people who treated it well, you can save yourself a lot of money. eBay is a fantastic resource for doing just this.

I’ve personally bought several nice pieces of musical equipment (Ampeg bass amp, Line 6 guitar amp, Washburn bass, Epiphone Flamekat guitar) from eBay and I’ve had good experiences with all of them. The only piece of equipment I had trouble with was the guitar amp which showed up damaged due to shipping, but I was able to return it and get a full refund on my purchase (and later bought a bigger amp).

One of the most important features of eBay’s system is theseller rating. This tells you how many people have rated this seller positively. You can also read people’s comments about their interaction with this seller. Some sellers are actually “stores” on eBay and these people make their living selling their stuff online, so it’s in their best interest not to screw people over.

Pay careful attention to whether the seller is showing a stock photo of the piece of gear or an actual picture of the gear that they took. It’s always better to see the actual picture because then you can get some idea of the kind of wear and tear the equipment has.

Make sure to look into how much shipping will cost you, when figuring out the cost of the piece of equipment you’re buying. Especially for something large like an amp, shipping can be pretty expensive, if its not included in the sale. Fragile things like musical equipment do sometimes get damage in shipping, so its always good to find out from the seller and the shipping company (FexEx, UPS, etc.) what will happen and how you will be reimbursed in case of damage.

The obvious disadvantage of buying gear online is that you can’t hold it and play it before you buy it, so I’d recommend going into your local music store and finding the piece of gear you’re looking to buy and trying it out before you fork out the cash and wait for it to show up in the mail.

In my experience most people on eBay aren’t trying to cheat you. If you’re smart and do your research you can save a good chunk of money buying your gear this way.

While this site mainly tries to focus on the nerdy aspects of being in a band, there are a few common sense things that might be helpful to things. When playing a gig, how many times have you driven two hours to some venue only to realize you have no extra guitar strings or the venue doesn’t have enough mic stands for your horn section. Here’s a list of things, other than your instruments (if you forget those, you have bigger problems), that bands should try to bring to all shows….

• extra strings (extra guitars if you can)
• tuner (and extra batteries)
• extra picks
• extra guitar cables
• extra mic stands (especially if you’re a ska band!)
• notebook and pens (for mailing lists, writing set lists, etc.)
• your merch!
• some cash to make change when selling merch
• power cables (for amps, keyboards, etc.)
• power strip
• band-aids (some of us tear our fingers up while playing)
• finger nail clippers
• duct tape
• demos/one sheet (to give to other people who might want to book you)

If you want the draw the attention of a label or promoter, there are a few specific ways to publicize yourself that will really get results. Let’s face it; e-mailing venues three times a day or scrawling shameless plugs on a label’s MySpace page is not self-promotion.

One such way to acquire attention is to submit your music to print and online magazines for review. Now, it’s important to note that this is, by no means, an easy way to promote yourself. Submitting a CD will, however, expose you to new audiences and will give you more ammunition for self-promotion; I mean, having a magazine say that your lyrics are “poignant and well-spoken” is an effective way to make an impression.

Step One: Record Something Good—You might have to drop a dollar or two, but get yourself recorded in a way that represents your band. Don’t skimp out on this step; if you want reviewers to take you seriously, construct a clean recording that doesn’t compromise your talent and songwriting ability because you wanted to get it done quickly and cheaply. Also remember that it’s better to showcase your four or five best songs than to cram as much as you can onto an eighty-minute disc.

Step Two: Put It Together Professionally—Nothing screams “amateur” more than a CD-R with your band’s name scribbled on it in Sharpie, shoved into a plastic sleeve. Again, you might have to spend a few hundred, but get your disc duped by a company who does this sort of stuff professionally; they are easy enough to find on the internet (google “CD Duplication”). Slap some album art together (here, simpler is always better than complicated and cluttered) and get it printed on a two-panel insert and tray card. Foot for some on-disk printing and have it all crammed into a jewel case. Trust me when I say that your album’s artwork will make some kind of impression on your reviewer.

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We have a new author here on bandGeek, Dane. He’s an old buddy and bandmate of mine since highschool. We played together in Captain Supreme, the old ska band I was in. He’s a great drummer and a great writer. When he’s not working with the skins or pens he’s a high school English teacher. Welcome, Dane!

One of the coolest music sites I’ve come across in a long time is Last.fm. This site takes advantage of a tool called an audio scrobbler (cool word…) to track what people are listening to. You sign up for an account, install a scrobbler plugin into your music player (iTunes, Winamp, ect.) or install the Last.fm Tool and then the meta data about the music you listen to will be sent to your personal page. Check out my page for an example. It’s a lot of fun to be able to see what your friends are listening to (I caught my bassist listening to Kelly Clarkson) and to find recommendations based on what you’ve been listening to. They also have a nice online radio station that you can customize based on genre, similar artists, or any number of other tags.

What can this site do for you band? The site has a page for every band that gets listened to. On this page you can edit a wiki-like description of your band, upload pictures, and see how many people are listening to your music. Here’s the page for Davenport, because of the potential issue of multiple bands having the same name (which is a problem for my band), this page represents two bands, as is stated in the artist description. Another nice feature is that you can upload your mp3s to the site by calling yourself a label (this is what they tell independent artists to do) and then whatever music you choose to upload will be available for preview on the site. Also your songs go into rotation on their online radio station. According to the stats I have, Davenport gets between 40 and 60 plays a week.

Last.fm is a fun site for musicians and music fans alike. There seems to be a pretty good community on the site and it’s defiantly worth playing with a bit. Enjoy!