tauzero

Active. Preferably with an active/passive switch. I generally leave the tone controls flat but it does come in useful if the tone needs some adjustment which I can do on the bass rather than going to the amp.

As Maplin moved away from being an electronics shop and became an electronic toys and games shop, so the expertise of the staff declined.

A couple of feet from me are two basses with Jazz-type asymmetric bodies sitting on two different types of stand, both of which work well. One is on the aforementioned Hercules stand, the other is on a Stagg stand with a pivoting cradle. I've got a few of the Stagg ones, I think they're great.

There's not much UK bass retail scene though. Basses tend to play second, er, fiddle to guitars in general music shops, but the specialist bass shops get mentioned quite a bit on Basschat, generally in positive terms, so plenty of free advertising.

Yes, same here. Even better when you can get round behind a group of people and take them by surprise. I also don't like having a lead decide to wrap itself around my feet, or treading on leads, so I went wireless for everything - rehearsals, gigs, open mics. Most of the time I use a Lekato WS-50 or WS-90 - 5.8GHz, dongles each end, good battery life, cheap.

Nice thorough description. Not sure about that crack along the fretboard, makes me wonder if the truss rod on the replacement neck feels an urge for freedom.

He who hesitates is less impoverished.

"Exceptions - direct replacement (or as near as possible) of faulty/stolen gear." - if the tuners are faulty it would be legitimate to replace them. Probably.

Also listed on https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts/channel-updates-16-october-2024

https://www.mediamole.co.uk/entertainment/broadcasting/information/freeview-full-channels-list-epg-numbers-and-local-differences_441854.html It would appear to be channel 284. Must see if it's on Virgin.

Now we've got a car that won't get charged for entering the CAZ, I may go and revisit PMT Birmingham.

The cheap EUBs started with the Palatino VE-500, then Stagg brought out or rebadged an identical one. I had a Palatino, later upgraded to an NS. The Palatino/Stagg/HB use endpins, the NS sits on a stand but has an endpin option. If you're switching between upright and something else, or have long gaps between songs/tunes, the stand is more convenient. I think you'd just have to change the bridge on an NS to switch to leftie (possibly just turn it round). You'd need to do something about the sockets for the side pieces to change the endpin types over.

It might come in useful for a psychology text book though.