BigRedX

You need an extra long case. I've owned two Originals, one came with it's own flight case which judging by the stickers on it had actually been on some flights, and for the other I was able to source a suitable hard case from my local musical instrument shop amongst their stock of spare used cases in the days when they used to have such things. Both cases were the same internal size (within a few mm) so it would appear that it is a standard, albeit one that isn't very common. Unfortunately I don't have either bass any more so I can't measure them for you. Alternatively you could ask Overwater. IIRC they still make basses with the Original shape as a custom order so they should know of a source of suitable cases.

How easy was it to get the fingerboard back on properly aligned with the sides of the neck?

IME it depends on both the bass and your playing technique. Tapered B-strings suit my 5-string basses and how I play (quite hard), to the point where I have been considering getting Newtone to make me a custom set with a tapered E string as well. You get more choices with non-tapered strings, but if you can find a set with a tapered B that works for you and gives an improvement in the feel and sound of the string then go for it. Remember also that just because a particular type of string works on one bass, it does not immediately follow that it will as good on a different one.

ImgBB is a decent replacement for Imgur.

If it's just for recording a gig and the mic feed isn't going to be sent to FoH then knock yourself out. Your best choice will be whatever would be used on your rig in the studio, and trust me it's not a kick drum mic. Record both the mic and the DI, and if you have enough tracks/processing power a safety DI direct from the bass too. Whoever is mixing the recording will be able to use the source(s) that sound best for the overall recorded sound

Calling @Andyjr1515

Even though the recording wasn't up to much, apparently the lyrics did make him laugh!

Which is the point I was trying to make earlier in this thread. It was fine if you were a big selling artist signed to a major record label , but for those of us without record label backing, trying to make our recordings available to the public and maybe played by John Peel or Tommy Vance, meant having to use a budget studio, and then getting our record pressed at a some cheap pressing plant using recycled vinyl as this was the only way we could afford to release it. Compare and contrast with a digital file whether it is on a CD or a download there are a lot fewer obstacles to audio fidelity. The music I've released on digital formats sounds loads better even though much of it was recorded at home rather than at a proper studio simply because the production process doesn't place limitations on the sound.

My shitty vinyl effort is a Porky Prime Cut! Back in those days I think almost every UK pressing I owned had been cut by either Porky (George Peckham) or Bilbo (Dennis Blackham).

It might have been a problem with early flip paint finishes, but I think the Gus had just had a very hard life prior to me buying it. As I said the chrome work was in a similar state and several parts including the truss rod cover and the one on the back that gives access to the intonation and action adjustment were missing. The Hiscox case it came it was so battered I've never dared use it to take any of my basses out of the house. I've now had the bass for a lot longer than the previous owner and it's been my regular gigging instrument when I've needed a 5-string for the last 18 years, but apart form a couple of dings on the headstock it's pretty much still in the condition it came to me after being refinished.

The other thing to remember is that not every record was recorded at Abbey Road or similar "professional" recording studios. My first venture into vinyl was recorded at a cheap 4-track studio situated in an outbuilding behind a musical instrument shop on the outskirts of Leicester. The equipment was basic, mostly repurposed PA gear and the only effect was reverb/delay from running a feed through a spare 2-track tape machine. Our instruments weren't much better being a mixture of very low budget and home-made. Our previous releases had been on cassettes that we had duplicated ourselves in real time and consequently we mixed the new recordings in the same way, forgetting that we didn't need to compensate for two generations of tape bounce before they reached our listeners, The end result is thin and weedy and very trebly and no amount of flash HiFi is going to make it sound better. In fact the worse the playback system is the better it sounds.

Some pops and clicks are already there the first time the record is played. That's because it's a crap pressing from the late 70s or early 80s made on recycled vinyl. Almost all the music I want to listen to that only exists on vinyl is in this format. It comes from indie bands putting out their own singles and albums where price is everything. There were plenty of bands back then for whom scraping together the £200-£300 required to record and press 500 copies of their single was the absolute limit of what they could afford and that was for hand-stamped white labels and a sleeve comprising a sheet of photocopied A4 paper folded around and stapled to the plain paper sleeve that the pressing had been shipped in. Most of these releases had defects before they'd even been played. If you were on good terms with your record shop you might be able to get them to play through all their copies trying to find one with less obvious problems. Also IME it didn't matter how well I looked after my records they would eventually pick up additional damage simply from being taken out to be played, usually on my favourite track. These days anything I buy on vinyl gets played twice only. Once to check the levels and peak signal and a second time to record it into my computer. If it is available on any digital format I would buy it on that format instead.

Really whatever you want, but you absolutely should not be using a kick drum mic as the frequency response is wrong and you'll be competing with the kick drum sound. The reality is that unless you are playing huge stages with your own sound engineer, any mic on your bass rig will be mostly for show and the main proportion of your FoH sound will come from the DI. Remember also that a single close mic on one driver in your rig is not picking up the same sound you hear from the whole rig when stood a few feet away from it. Save the mics for the recording studio and if you like the sound you are getting FoH from your DI signal path stick with that.

IME for the vast majority of musicians and composers, having a full time job is completely incompatible with making music for anything other than a bit of fun. You need to be able to be flexible with your time, often with no prior notice, in order to make the most of any opportunities that come you way, and also not be so exhausted at the end of the working day that you can then spend the rest of your waking hours working on writing, rehearsing, recording or playing gigs. From personal experience I have had the most success in my musical activities when I was able to be flexible with how I spent my time, first in the 80s when I was a student and then unemployed, and more recently since I went self-employed 15 years ago where I can set my own work/music split. I tried to do the same in the 90s when I had a "proper" job and it completely and utterly wore me down to the point that when the band split I did no new music for the next 3 years. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I guarantee you that they are rare or that they had some kind of financial safety net to fall back on or an organisation with musical contacts behind them. IME every new artist who appears out of nowhere has either already spent years being ignored or has an organisation behind them with strong music business roots.

IME the biggest improvement most HiFi enthusiasts could do would be to give their listening environment some proper acoustic treatment. You might be able to minimise surface noise with expensive playback equipment, but there is nothing you can do to eliminate pops and clicks caused by damage or defects to the actual grooves of the record or fix a pressing that is off-centre. Most of the vinyl I want to listen to is 40-50 years old and exists in runs of no more than 500 copies, so trying to find a pristine example, if one even existed in the first place is an exercise in futility. The best I can do is record it onto my computer clean up the audio the best I can by drawing out the pops and clicks in the waveform and then sell the disc on to some other sucker.