youre right about everything.  it takes time to gel, turnover is a pain, and theres no quick fix.  but while all this is a nuisance, its also a blessing.  people that arent whole commited to being in this band are leaving.  better have them take off before you rely on them and then bitterness gets the better of everyone.  

the big suck is that this is supposed to be your living if im not mistaken.  and this can really drag that down.  

but if you and the singer and guitarist are focused adn compatable, then the rest will come in time.  and you just need to plug away.  and keep the writing gigs to pay bills

This thread should read: The Agony of Playing for a Solo Artist.  

I know exactly how you feel Side. One of the solo artists I played for constantly had problems with guitar players.  It was a never-ending nightmare trying to find the right person who had the right sound, tone, dynamics and just overall musical intuitiveness needed etc. For awhile, we had the same guy but, after he left we were in constant search and it seemed like every 3-4 months we'd have somebody new fill-in to play shows. Very frustrating as you can imagine. We never did find the right person and after awhile the band folded because of that and many other numerous problems. I don't want to sound presumptious here but, it sounds to me like your singer is the problem. If she's hoping for what she had in the past, then that's not fair to all of the new members. Besides, all that does is reinforce a lack of confidence in everyone. Perfect thing for ruining a band. When I look back at my experience with this, my singer was rigid towards anyone new. She never learned to trust musically and/or personally. It made things very difficult and as a result of that it created more problems. She would say the same things as you mentioned earlier that your singer had said like, this line-up isn't the same as what I had before yadda, yadda, yadda. Well, after an extended period of this kind of crap going on, the rest of the band quit. We thought, #$%$ this, who needs this kind of B.S. Anyway, don't mean to sound negative, I just don't want to see anyone go through what I went through with crap like that. My advice to you: If this continues, I'd bow out gracefully and pursue other projects. Better to save face than to stay in a situation your not happy with. I hope this helps you out. Good Luck.  

One of 2 things is happening here.  If 1 or 2 people stay and everyone else is coming and going it is a pretty safe bet that something is wrong with those 1 or 2 people.

OR

The band has poor auditioning/interviewing skills and are hiring members that are really not compatible with the band.

Well, update time... Some good may come out of this.

The band leader has decided for the forseeable future to bring in a different "star" guitarist for every gig. This means the core band rehearses together, but then at the gig, a "name" guitar player will be featured on the gig. These will be players who already have their own thing and are already established in their own right, so they wouldn't want to join up full time. But they'll be able to play one-off gigs with a name singer.

At first this sounded like a bad idea to me: potential for train wrecks, lack of band cohesion, needing to play simpler songs, etc. But after thinking about it, this is a networking goldmine. It means that I'll get to play with a different top-notch player in the bay area at every gig. I definitely wouldn't need to get charged up for a gig, since this is the ultimate in future opportunity. If I play well, maybe I'll get some additional gigs out of it or at least some good word of mouth.

Anyway, not to personalize the thread too much. But there's an update. Things seem more promising than they did yesterday anyway.