Just a thought or two:
I have a small bandsaw. I buy my blades from Tuffsaws (wouldn't go anywhere else now). I use it for all sorts of things and, looking back, it should have been my first machine purchase. It's so versatile and relatively safe compared to a table saw, and I can get really good results with it. It's the 'one record' I would save from the waves on my desert island!
Blades need a bit of thought and planning though. The big 'extra' with a bandsaw is the ability to cut curves well: slowly, cleanly, fairly quietly and safely. A different blade is needed for tight turns, and you need strong dust extraction, as the dust doesn't clear as well as with rip cutting (generalization), because the teeth are smaller.
But I'm often tempted to cut curves, particularly discs and drum shapes, using bigger blades. This works, as you can 'nibble' away at the cut, BUT it has a bad effect on the blade: cut a circle that way, and the teeth set on one side will inevitably wear more than the teeth on the other. If you do cut circles or curves, you'll find you naturally want to do it with the centre of the curve on the same side each time - usually the side away from the spine of the saw.
Cut twenty thick circles in plywood, chipboard, MDF or hard hardwood, and the blade will 'get used to it'. It will still cut well, but if you then want to go back to cutting, say, veneers, you might have a torrid time, as it will no longer cut straight, no matter what you do to the fence or the guides or the tension or the tracking.
Several people on here have made jigs for resharpening blades with Dremel-type tools. I haven't tried it yet, but you'd need to do something like that (and pretty well, too) if you want to go back to clean straight cuts again with that blade.
I've tried with a worn blade off the saw - I can't feel the difference between the teeth on the two sides with a fingertip, but I can't make it track straight no matter what I do. I've looked with a magnifying glass, but can't really see it either. So I'm reduced to labelling blades - new sharp ones for straight cuts, and older ones for curves.
There are far too many variables for me to give you a recipe of use that will casue this, but bear in mind that it happens.
Tuffsaws will sell you excellent blades, and they are particularly good because they can be thin kerf, meaning you make less sawdust and waste less wood, but unless there's an overarching reason otherwise, keep the "big" rip-sawing blades for just that job.
I don't believe there's such a thing as a general purpose bandsaw blade. It's true that middling-sized blades will do a range of tasks, but once you've done a big session of curve cutting in tough or thick stock, that's all that blade will do well in future, unless you resharpen it.
E.
PS: I learned about bandsaw geometry and setup from Steve Maskery's bandsaw DVDs. Really helpful, and a recommendation if you have Christmas money left to spend and want the things demystified! Disclaimer: Steve's a friend, but I hadn't met him when I bought the DVDs years ago!
PPS: Personally I think there is a world of difference between setting up the BS350 (and SIP) type of machine, and the cast frame ones the Americans often have.
The latter are really very rigid, to the extent you can ignore a lot of the checks you need to do every time with a steel box-frame design. As you tension the small box-frame ones, they bend appreciably, changing the alignment and the geometry. To get good results consistently, you have to pay more attention to alignment and adjustment each time you change the setup. It's a rarely-mentioned nuisance with small Chinese bandsaws.
So check settings for each cutting task, especially guide blocks/rollers, and especially when you raise or lower the top guides (as you may need to move both sets of side ones sideways). If you use a zero-clearance throat insert, you may need to make a set of those too, for the same reason, as the blade will move sideways WRT the table as the tension changes.
