tauzero

Finishes like that terrify me, as I know it would only be a matter of time (and not much of it) before I chipped it, hence my preference for natural. Looks lovely.

My two four-string Thumbs, apart from one being a defret, are unmodded. Ditto the 5-string Thumb, the Ibanez SRF705, the Esh Poseidon V, and the Dean 10-string. Other basses have had replacement pickups or preamps. Other than the Cort Space with the faulty pickups and the Sei Original that had a preamp fail early on in its life with me, I could have lived with the sound of any of the modded instruments prior to their modification.

While it may seem shallow, looks are important. Especially something a little out of the ordinary (I have allowed two FSOs into the house, one Variax and one Sei). Part of this is that it should be a natural finish, I dislike paint, especially as I'd probably chip it. Number of strings - five (I have two wonderful 4-strings and more 6-strings than I'll ever use). Headless preferred but not absolutely essential, though the threshold of acceptance for a headed bass is higher than that for a headless, obviously. Once I've got that far, it's time to play it. Neck must be shallow. Not bothered about string spacing, anything from 16 to 19mm will do. Preferably two pickups and active, though I do have one passive and one single pickup bass. It should also make a reasonable sound.

It would be a shame to lose old threads if it's not necessary, they can often be useful references. I've found a few answers to things I wanted to know in threads which have been dormant for ten years or more.

Which reminds me, for the bassist who would like to go headless

as long as the bassist in question owns at least one headed bass.

How about something for the bassist's other half? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371058353975

They'd have to be germanium diodes, and you'd need pretty hot pickups as they'd need to output more than 200mV which is where Ge diodes start conducting. I have in the past built an active version of this in a guitar with a transistor amplifying the signal so it was pushed to > 200mV, and then took it out again because it sounded shit.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235680587374 is the auction

Good passive-aggressive T-shirt when the other "bassist" at an open mic night is a guitarist who owns a bass: (I wore it last night).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/183302664558 or almost any other from https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2332490.m570.l1313&_nkw=bass+mug&_sacat=0

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.