neepheid

I bought my first bass because of Jack Bruce. It was an Epiphone EB-3. What became clear in various degrees of rapidity: 1) I am not Jack Bruce 2) an Epiphone EB-3 is only like a Gibson EB-3 in the most superflous of ways 3) I don't like the Epiphone EB-3 4) Come to think of it, I don't really like EB/SG basses (only took me a subsequent Epi EB-0 and a Gibson SG-Z to figure that one out) After all that, I did my own figuring out.

In my covers band there are some songs I dislike, but the crowd love 'em. You have to derive some satisfaction from getting people to dance/sing along to mitigate another tiny piece of your soul escaping As for the arguments - sounds more like you were in a band with the wrong people, rather than it being a generic feature of being in a covers band. Our singer put forward a list of songs recently and between us we vetoed 3 of them. No problem. No diva strops. I would say between us we use the veto sparingly - either there's a good technical reason (it's in drop C, and I CBA with a 5 string/stringing one of my basses BEAD/retooling the song to fit EADG) or we actually try the song in rehearsal and it just doesn't feel like it's happening for us. Songs also get ditched if we feel they aren't doing well with the punters. It can work!

Pretty sure those (and most) EMGs use blades instead of individual pole pieces which may explain the uniformity of the pattern.

I doubt very much that I will become notable enough for a signature bass. I don't stick to one particular bass long enough to ascertain what that signature might be. I already use a signature bass frequently (JC Sig). That's an awfully long winded way of saying no, sorry!

Not a hope in hell - these chancers are rich enough to send a roadie or tech out to buy them a bass. They can do one.

This sounds very familiar to me

That's almost the same situation as me, except my link between the two bands is the drummer.

I play in 2 bands, 1 original and 1 cover. Perhaps I manage because I don't have kids, and I don't think about my work and very rarely do anything about it between 5pm and 9am.

I think I am from your neck of the woods, I'm pretty sure I recognise the venue from your pic in the "how was you gig last night" thread and honestly my level of surprise would be determined by who was doing the sound...

Pish. I'm no sound engineer but even I know they'd go into separate channels, each with their own gain and level controls. "Blow the PA", bwahahaha

I don't get it - when we play they don't force the keyboard player to use an amp, just use a DI. What's the difference? TWO DIs? Is that the objection? Me = confused

I don't need them, so I don't have 'em. On the side of the pickup when playing the lowest string is fine for me. Also I don't wander around the length of the strings looking for changes in tone that not one bugger listening to the band is going to notice. I'm a lazy neanderthal bass player, more power to you technicians.

No, you don't need one. But if you want one, crack on. I don't think you'd gain much in terms of sound. What you might gain is an increase in care and attention applied to the bass's construction, hardware, fit and finish. Whether or not it's worth the price premium is really up to you. In G&L land, I have a USA CLF L-1000 and a Tribute LB-100. They are both fine basses which I am more than happy to gig. The USA G&L cost approx 4 times what the Tribute did. It is not 4 times better than the Tribute. If G&L did a Tribute L-1000 I would have bought that. What I do appreciate is the little differences - like the side dots on the USA made bass being installed into the neck exactly half way between where the fingerboard wood ends and the neck wood begins instead of being pre-installed as part of the fingerboard. The better tuners. The hard case vs. no case/bag at all. Although my situation is slightly different in that USA was the only way to go for an L-1000, I certainly don't need it - it was purely a want thing and there's nothing wrong with that. Just stay away from the Koolaid...

I don't have a #1 bass in terms of favourites so I'm going to talk in terms of expense. For someone I know and trust, I'd lend them my least expensive bass. For anyone else - big fat no.

Originals band - for the most part, sure, I'm partially responsible for its output. Of course, I'm not even sure I like some of the stuff I wrote sometimes Covers band - again for the most part it's agreeable rock covers for me, but there are one or two songs I play because the audience like them, not me

Pfft, I can wear a top hat and shades indoors too. Big whoop.

G&L were still churning out necks with filled holes until around 2016/17 - here's a wee thread about them with some background - they get referred to as "birthmarks" http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4288 Looks like the same sort of thing on the OP's bass.

As long as it works, I'm not bothered. I spend very little time looking at the back of the neck, and I'm working on not looking at the front much either

Yay, another lazy JC owner to keep me company

In a multi coil pickup (or multiple single coil pickups), wired in parallel means that each coil is treated separately and each coil is wired independently to the output - in parallel. Wired in series means that the end of the first coil is wired to the beginning of the second coil and the summed output of that goes to the output. Series as in one after the other. If you want a facile simplification - parallel is a thinner sound than series - probably better for things like slapping. Series is louder and has a thicker, beefier sound, accentuating bass and low mids. There's a lot more to it than that but that's your starter for 10.

I think my band's pretty good. That's clearly and demonstratably an unpopular opinion

That's a wiring diagram I'd love to marvel at. My rotary skills topped out at working out the 4 way for a Gibson Ripper (both series, bridge only, both parallel, neck only - stock is series/out of phase) when I used a different rotary to the stock one. Perhaps I'm selling myself short - maybe there's an element of CBA in my "beyond my ken"...

Because we're only talking 4 or 5 folk per band, it's a WhatsApp group chat for the 4 piece and FB Messenger for the 5. Plus Google Calendar for both bands for folk to stick in their holidays/other unavailability. Appreciate that's not really helpful for your situation, can't imagine it scaling up.

Wiring rotary switches is a right royal PITA. What you're asking for is a lot for a single rotary switch to handle. There will be no "easy-for-idiots" wiring diagram - I'd be amazed if you found something ready made on the Internet for what you're asking and it's certainly beyond my ken to create it for you, sorry. Are you wanting to use a rotary because you don't want to make extra holes in either the body of the bass or the pickguard? I'd say wire it up regular first and see how you like the sound as is before moving onto experimenting with series/parallel. I'd be surprised if you needed more than the ability to give each individual pickup a series boost - you can achieve that with push/pull (or push/push) pots if you don't want to make extra holes. As someone who modded a G&L Tribute L-2000 to give 27 combinations of neck/both/bridge/series/parallel/single/passive/active/active with treble boost (with mini switches, not a rotary FWIW) I can tell you that while it was fun as a technical exercise I found one setting I liked (both/single (inner) coils/passive) and generally left it at that - the only solace coming from the fact that at least I found a favourite setting which is not normally available on the stock bass. Could have spent all that time improving my playing...

I've always found bridge pickups to be utterly gutless and unappealing on their own and also found in most circumstances using both pickups together is the most polite and sterile sound that particular bass can make. So even if I have a bridge pickup it never gets used. Only 1 of my 4 current basses has more than one pickup. Still have a strange urge to have another 3 pickup bass for some reason though. Probably just how it looks and how relatively unusual that is in the bass world - no doubt I'd find one setting and stick with it (probably neck + middle on the Gibson G-3 I wish I had never sold...)