tauzero

Catches of the case towards me, hinges away from me. All velcroed down so no pressure is applied to anything.

I've got an EHB1265MS (essentially a halfway house between 1005 and 1505) with replacement Aguilar pickups in, and build quality seems fine. There does appear to be some variation there though, others have reported some issues. Note: a few people have recommended moving the rear strap button so it balances better, and a previous owner has done that to mine. Low End Lobster compared an EHB with the Barts in with the EHB1505, and also did a pickup replacement, putting Aguilars in to replace the Barts. EHB1005/EHB1505 comparison: Pickup replacement: Bassworld review and comparison:

I bought my first Hohner B2 in the mid-80s, and initially had a problem putting my hand on the right place on the neck - I attributed this to the visual cue of the headstock which I was used to. I got used to it though. That went in 1988, and it was many years before I got another headless. However, when I did, I had no problem with hand placement. I later bought another Hohner B2AV to use as a spare. I hardly ever played it, but I took it out to an open mic night a few weeks ago and had exactly the same problem with hand positioning as I had first time round. Seeing as I play headless basses almost all the time now, my conclusion is that it's the way that it hangs due to the absence of a top horn that does it, not the headlessness.

Do you mean getting a sound which is a mixture of the two you describe out of one instrument? Or do you mean you'd use the DB for the DB sound and the EB for the electric sound? If the former, you could try a fretless with a piezo bridge as well as magnetic pickups, eg Ibanez SRF700, roundwound strings, and a reverb effects pedal to add some quite short reverb to give the DB feel to it.

I keep toying with the idea of a covers band doing rocked up songs from musicals.

After the Goldrush by Neil Young, with added bass and using the ukulele or a very fuzzy bass for the horn solo in the middle.

I thought they were guitarists.

Do you think @GHfingerblast qualifies for either of those?

U OK hun? Edit: Bugger, hadn't spotted @neepheid's post.

No problem with my wedding ring (or either of the previous two, for that matter) - and I was playing a 7-string tonight so not an issue with a wide neck.

That Vaccaro is a bit tempting. The Kramer not so much - a former vocalist had one and I had a play on it, didn't like it. The purple glitter paint on the Vaccaro would terrify me though, given my natural clumsiness it would be so easy to chip it.

From the POV of one who has been eased out - back in 2010, I'd been in a rock covers band for a year or so and things were looking quite good, gigs were coming in. Then they let me know no rehearsal next week, and the same the next week, and the week after that. Then the rhythm guitarist texted me to let me know I was being ditched. The politics were that the drummer and lead guitarist, who were brothers, had a mate who was a bassist, and now the band was starting to be successful, he wanted to join. The rhythm guitarist and the vocalist were rather trapped, as it was the brothers' band, and the rhythm guitarist didn't want to leave me in the dark, hence the text. All rather unpleasant for me. Self-indulgent bit follows - please feel free to skip it. As it happened, things turned out well for me after that, and the band I subsequently joined supported the other band at one gig. The guy who replaced me then got cancer, was himself replaced, and the replacement went on holiday just as a gig came in, so in 2016 I did a dep gig for them. And a few months ago they asked me to rejoin, and Mrs Zero ran into the wife of the lead guitarist who told her that I was the best bassist they'd ever had. However, I was settled in with the current band, and had no great desire to join a bunch of somewhat racist Leave voters as I could also see much potential for friction there.

Yes. Many many years ago, AOLers posting in newsgroups would quote the entirety of a post in order to add "Me 2". So This then got spoofed by non-AOLers who wanted to say "Me 2" saying "AOL" instead (and keeping the quoting down).

I think, being charitable, it's a tier 1 pass but a tier 2 fail.

Insufficient strings. And, if I were to be really picky, too many headstocks.

AOL.

Just a little additional note - holding down the strings at the 1st fret and the last fret and taking measurements isn't easy [1]. Get a cheap guitar capo and use that to hold the strings down at the first fret, then holding the string down above the last fret is easy and you have one hand free to use feeler gauges, business cards, etc. [1] My emergency system for doing it is left hand finger (any) holding string at first fret, right elbow on string above last fret, use finger of right hand to tap on string and see if it is just a bit above the fretboard. But that's only if I haven't got a capo.

Two things to bear in mind: Barrel jacks are consumables As a consequence of 1, make sure it's as easy to replace as possible. Soldering to the terminals while it's in place is almost certainly going to be a PITA, so see if you can pull it out far enough to unsolder and solder it from the outside, and if not, extend the leads sufficiently that you can (making sure to use some heatshrink to insulate the joins). When you do this, DO NOT FORGET TO THREAD THE NUT ONTO THE LEADS!

How well did it wear?

Yes, 4-pole. Genuine Neutrik plugs fit nicely. Even if you wanted to replace the sockets with genuine Neutriks, the plates themselves cost £4-80 and up from Ebay sellers, so the sockets are not just free, they're paying you to take them.

How would we find the time to scour the marketplace, Ebay, and Gumtree?

Warwick Thumb NT 5 in a similar stand - 44.6 of those quaint inch things, or 1132mm in proper.

Entering the 2023 gear abstinence thread in 2024 is cheating.

It does have fine tuners on all four strings which is nice. I keep being tempted but I'd rather have a viola.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/315056807149 and others - just search for "electronic wind instrument", filter on location and sort on price.