fretmeister

That bass is huge! 🤯

Anybody who is a string number snob is a weapons grade cretin. All the "Jaco only needed 4" nonsense... well Bottesini only needed 3... because the original double basses only had 3 strings. I play a 4 a lot, and a 5 when I need it for the low notes. A 5 is very useful when I'm playing in reed and brass friendly keys. I'm in B flat or in E flat quite a lot and jumping octaves can ruin the direction of a piece

That's just not true. A grippy strap can fix neck dive but it's still an unbalanced neck heavy instrument. I have some of those straps and I've had basses where the neck still dived. A properly designed and built bass shouldn't have any neck dive even if the strap being used is super slippy silk dipped in lube. Old large plate tuners are a culprit. Swapping to Ultralites or similar can lower total bass weigh by as much as half a pound on a 4 string bass, but what is more important is the position of that weight loss. The loss is all at the end of a long lever so the effect on neck dive and general comfort is quite amazing. It's simple fulcrum physics. Sticking a couple of pounds of metal at the end of a long bit of wood was always going to be a design flaw. It's just a seesaw with a prop forward at one end.

I had no idea they did a super short 5 string!!! I want one now too! As long as they are lightweight enough anyway!

I always use one. In my band I swap between fingers, pick, and slap and the dynamics of those 3 styles are really different. Perfect finger style settings are deafening when I slap on them. So I use a compressor to help control the differences.

There's a couple of excellent facebook Helix for Bass groups. Well worth posting questions on there. Lots of people gigging the entire helix line with a variety of amps / PA / FRFR etc. https://www.facebook.com/groups/helixforbassists/ There's also Dr Tone Secret Bass lab https://drtone.theblackcreekband.com/preset/ Lots of presets to try for all the HX kit.

His guitars are fantastic. If I was going get a custom Les Paul made I'd be using him without a doubt. He preserves all that is great about the original but makes them much more comfy and easy to play.

There is amazing music in every generation. The issue is that now we have reached saturation and it's difficult to find it. Put some effort in and you'll find it. Probably won't be on any popular radio show, but now there's hundreds of internet radio stations as well as spotify and the like. I grew up on a mainly metal and rock diet. Tastes change and I'm listening to old RnB but even things like youtube then recommend something newer and quite often I'll like it. I discovered Vulfpeck and Cory Wong in a very round about way. Saw Joe Dart on a magazine - I silently mocked him for the shades and leather jacket travolta thing. Then I heard him play, and he can really play. So I listened more and then when Cory Wong (who was only a touring member of Vulf at the time) did some solo albums, with Sonny T on bass I was interested. With the spinoffs from all that I've now got about another 8 albums I really like to listen to. There will be loads of stuff to your taste out there. Just have to look a bit harder, but also make use of the algorithms on the streaming services to suggest stuff.

Can you swap the Scarlett to Line level rather than instrument?

That bridge, the string cover and the headstock are all making my teeth itch. Lower horn is bang on though!

If the lower horn was shorter it would be perfect.

Micro Thumpinator can really help with mushy boom too.

The EMGs are really noiseless. I have them in several basses. The original J series EMGs were designed to sound like 1960s fender pickups, and they do. They are not super hot output like more modern pickups, they are just a great J sound.

I like battery for backup, but there's no denying battery waste is a big problem. So I'm cool with that. I've had other mains only pedals for years - and some battery ones that will consume a 9V in under an hour so they are effectively mains only.

I like them a lot. Nice small enclosures, easier to connect. All good!

Won't sound like a jazz with regular humbuckers. Stacked hum cancelling ones will though.

Used Sandberg California II TT4 would be perfect.

Mine is last before the amp with my octave just in front. That way the thump kills all the subsonic crap from the octave. I stole that idea from Dusty Hill. He had a subtle always on octave to thicken his sound up and the thump stopped anything below a low A getting through. So he didn’t have to turn it off. this is basically my chain. For today anyway!

There’s no rules. Half the fun is trying different combinations. Modulation in to drive sounds very different to the other way round. Trust your ears.

Line 6 Stomp. All the sounds you'll ever need.

"Used by MM at Ronnie Scott's...." So it was probably a loan / hire amp then? Not his personally?

https://myvolts.co.uk/ do a wide range of voltage changing cables. Definitely worth a look.

The active PA cab won't sound the same as your regular cab. the PA cab will be designed to be as close to FRFR as possible as PA cabs are, and the bass cab will be far more of a sound shaping device. I'd expect to EQ the PA cab very differently to the regular bass cab. If that is an issue for you.

They are close enough in tension.

Black wins. Geddy P all the way.