I joined a rock band as a bassist recently. We’re a three-piece and going in I thought the singer had some chops. But it’s become apparent to me after a few rehearsals that’s he is too often a TERRIBLE singer. Some songs he sounds great on, others just painfully out of tune. But he does write really good songs. I’m in a quandry now, I enjoy being in the band and I have creative freedom and am encouraged to come up with ideas and suggestions. I’ve worked hard over these last few weeks to come up with new bass lines that I’m happy with. I don’t want to cause friction but someone needs to say when things aren’t working. So I’m planning to chat to the drummer on the way to rehearsal tomorrow. I just can’t harmonise with someone when they are so far out of tune, and I love singing harmonies!
I need some opinions on my 1991 Giannini hand-made acoustic guitar. My wife bought this for me back in about 1993 and since then it has spent a lot of time in closets in it’s cloth bag. I got it out about ten years ago or so and discovered that the back seam had separated. I suspect the glue just dried out. Took it to a shop and they repaired it. Back into the closet, sadly, as I was more interested in playing my Strat.
So now here we are in 2026 and there is a crack along the back. See photo below (the crack is just to the right of center:
I tuned the guitar and it doesn’t seem to be losing tune much, other than normal stretching. I want to take it to a shop to at least get the tuning pegs cleaned and lubricated and new strings put on, and I’ll ask their opinion on the crack, but thought I’d ask you all if you think it should (or needs) to be repaired. The market value on one of these is probably in the $400+ range undamaged.
I have a pair of cracks in my acoustic. The luthier I took it too said the first thing I should do is get an acoustic guitar humidifier and store the guitar in its case. That will stop the problem from getting worse.
For repairs, he said he charges ~ $300 for a 6 inch crack. This is a lot higher than I expected. He was very upfront that he was swamped and wasn’t looking for business, and it’s possible he was pricing himself out of the work.
FWIW, this is in Chicagoland.
This thread has been dead for awhile so I’ll revive it.
I’ve been playing in a band for the last three years and we started off as a Strokes cover band. We’ve branched out, but still play a lot of Strokes (we’ve covered about a quarter their catalog). The Strokes haven’t done a lot of touring lately so we were so happy to see them play in Seattle last night. Fantastic show! Nick dropped out, but his replacement was excellent. With that said, the two guitarists I play with could’ve stepped in…they are pretty amazing.
We didn’t get one of the opening bands: The Garden. Twin brothers “playing” while a lot of pre-recorded music played. It was basically punk and I would’ve loved it with an actual band playing, but with the prerecorded music along with their drumming and small bit of bass playing, I’m not so sure. It was odd.
Prerecorded punk? Wow, that’s a weird concept. Hardly in the original spirit, surely! 
It was punk karaoke at times when both brothers were not playing any instrument. It was very odd. Plenty of the crowd was into it and it does seem like they are semi-popular. Not for me.