Mudpup

That's a great choice at a good price. looks really nice. Enjoy your new toy! :-)

Personally i would go for a used bass which will be pretty stable in resale value. USA built G+L basses are stupidly cheap for some odd reason - L2000's pop up for about that money and are really versatile but seem hard to move on if you need to. A Sandberg California may be a touch over your £700 budget but they are fabulous basses with great build quality. And finally a USA S.U.B would be on my list - they're getting a bit expensive now though IMHO - they were around £450/500 for ages and just recently seem to be fetching £600+ I would be happy with any of those. I definitely wouldn't buy a new bass though - the depreciation is too painful

Just had a thought though.... A Stingray has a slightly wider neck so getting a contour done on your bass is probably the only option. Unless you get a Sterling SB14 or USA Sterling - these have the narrower neck but are a bit more aggressive sounding

A 2 band USA Stingray? Probably cheaper to just get a forearm chamfer done on your own bass by a luthier though

It was a secondhand Macbook sold for £200 and he took out the insurance (without reading the exclusions!!!) so paid an extra 50p i think....

I can only comment on the hybrid tube/ss option as i've never had a full tube amp. What i can contribute is that not all hybrids are created equally. In my experience the class D hybrids just don't float my boat - I've had a Genz Shuttle 9.2 and a GK Fusion500 - but the solid state ones all bring some special sauce to the party. I think the power amp contributes as much to the sound as the valves do. I don't really do old school fuzzy distortion and prefer a clear sound so cant really comment on the drive properties of any of them. The ones that i have owned for a decent length of time are the Ashdown ABM600 and ABM500, EBS TD650 and 660 and a Handbox R400. The valve front end added something different in each one and with the Ashdown and EBS ones you could switch the valve in so you really could hear the difference that it made. The Ashdown ABM600 gave it a depth and thickness but retained a glassy sparkle if required (it can sound 'bottley' I suppose) - it's a fabulous flexible amp and i would have another in a heartbeat. The ABM500 couldn't do the sparkle and i couldn't dial out the woolliness in it. The EBS mainly thickened it up. Both the 650 and 660 had a natural clarity inherent in the amp and the valve warmed it up a bit. I preferred the 650 personally although they were very similar. The 660 sounded a bit drier, the 650 sounded bigger. The Handbox sounds quite different to all of the above (although i could get the Ashdown ABM600 pretty close). The valve is built in to the front end so i'm not sure how much other components are contributing to the basic sound. It has a sparkle and presence built in and just sounds really alive. It emphasises harmonics to the point that you have to be pretty tidy when you play as everything really seems to come to the front of the sound. Bearing in mind it only has a bass and treble tone control and a contour dial it's a pretty middy sounding amp with everything set flat and the contour off which probably contributes to that. The contour really helps to dial it back and effectively works as the mid reduction control. I like a pretty big clear upfront and defined sound in general with a bit of top end and the Handbox is the only amp i've ever had which i have to dial this out of rather than in to. My personal faves would be the Handbox and the ABM600 - i would be happy with either. Looking at your budget comments you should be able to find either for about £400/500 but the Ashdown will be more common.

Just a heads up - there's a bargain red USA Sterling on Faceache at the moment at £825. Not mine by the way and i'm not affiliated with the seller. https://www.facebook.com/groups/UKBassgear/permalink/2220373274762662/?comment_id=2220481194751870&notif_id=1617535872524660&ref=notif&notif_t=group_comment_reply

Snagged a strap from the grand strap clearout. Dead easy and sorted really quickly. Thanks Russ :-)

I have one of these - works fine on my Classic Lacquer Precision https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tele-truss-rod-crank-UK-stock-real-timesaver-/202652853522?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338268676&toolid=10044&customid=CjwKCAjwxuuCBhATEiwAIIIz0d0CzJ7EOgHPPsayBk3voXNE5N0SpnIld3MPzwQO03nbDqcSPscSlRoChgsQAvD_BwE

Its definitely an SKB - i have one exactly the same. But i think they're discontinued now 😞 https://www.canford.co.uk/Products/15-6871_SKB-1SKB-XRACK2-RACK-CASE-2U-shallow-263mm-mounting-depth Boschma made a similar one as well (i had one of those as well) - they're quite hard to find but theres a 3u one here for £45 which is a bargain imho https://www.flightcasewarehouse.co.uk/industry/product.asp?item=boschma-roto-rackmount-3u-shallow-flight-case-13133-9639 They're both brilliant cases with really comfy handles.

A friend of mine sold a Macbook over the weekend. He used Hermes and he dropped the parcel off at a local collection point in a shop. It was delivered today to the buyer. When they opened the box someone had taken the Macbook out and put some random junk in there. Probably happened at the shop or with the delivery driver in my mates opinion. He paid for insurance but he's waiting for Hermes to attempt to dodge it.

Welcome Mr Feet :-) Best give your wallet to your missus now.......