BigRedX

IMO pretty much any modern bass will be well-made enough to be more than useable for recording. Go and try a load and buy the one that suits you the best.

It might be worth getting the acoustic treatment done before you consider spending serious money on new speakers.

It wasn't the most comfortable of instruments to play and the neck on mine had suffered from a serious break at some point which what been reasonably well repaired but then hidden under a much better re-finish so I didn't discover it until I stripped the finish off with the aim to have a more interesting colour... IME it doesn't really matter which way around the octave and main strings were. It only matters when playing with a pick if you only pluck in one direction - all up or all down stokes. And as I'm quite a physical player it was easy enough for me to pluck both strings even when playing finger style, although I preferred to play mine with a pick.

Bluetooth has too much latency for real-time audio transmission.

"Tone" as completely subjective. AFAIAC even playing pick with a pick some more mids are always a good thing.

Not really. Full of spelling mistakes (and they must be band if I can spot them) and a rather tasteless jab at Mark Hollis considering that he's passed away the year before the article was written and the author couldn't even be bothered to do a little research.

I just want to see a firmware update for the Helix/HX series that includes a MIDI triggered VCF and VCA with full and independent ADSR envelopes for each.

Hence the proliferation of "Straight Edge" bands. It's now more "radical" not to use drugs.

IMO the pre-shape is there to make the amps sound impressive when you try them in the shop. They have minimal use in real-world situations.

That's nice and big, but unfortunately I have no idea which I'm supposed to "get" from this image...

Here are the best bridge close-ups of the two 8-string basses that I used to own: Both have individually movable saddles for the main and octave string in each course. The second image is of the Carlo Robelli bass which has the same bridge and tail-piece combination as that fitted to the Dean and Schecter 8-string basses. As @Wolverinebass has said the best 8-string bass bridges used to be those made by Schaller which AFAICS are now out of production.

Even with my reading glasses on most of the "graphic" emojis look like anonymous yellow blobs, so I would have no idea what they are trying to convey.

IMO just about any guitar or bass that isn't made individually to order by a luthier counts as mass produced.

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Personally I found that to get the best out of the vibrato mechanism you need to stick with the lighter gauge strings that the bass comes with. Unfortunately I didn't like the feel or sound of the light gauge E or A strings for playing "conventional" bass parts and fitting Newtone Axion strings which sorted out the E and A rendered the vibrato mechanism almost inoperable. I eventually gave up on the Squier Bass VI as there were too many design problems that got in the way for my playing, most notably the very narrow neck. I upgraded firstly to a Burns Barracuda which suffered from the same string gauge/vibrato mechanism compromise but had a wider neck, and finally to an Eastwood Hooky which has the best neck width for me and no vibrato mechanism for me to be disappointed about. As someone who also plays guitar and owns two with very usable vibrato systems, I found the various mechanisms fitted to the commercially available Bass VIs far too subtle even with the original light gauge strings fitted. Others seem to get on fine with it, even with heavier strings. The only way to be sure is to try it for yourself.