BigRedX

Most of my screwdrivers are magnetic by default. It helps to pick up the screws.

Everyone has a pre-amp in a box. Usually it's part of their amp.

To most of the audience it's a guitar.

I currently own 4 basses. Only one is active and it is run with all the tone controls centre to their centre dente position. I'm seriously thinking of removing the preamp and wring it passive. Of all the basses I have ever owned two-thirds of them have been passive. The only active basses I have owned where the electronics did anything useful (IMO) were the Pedulla Buzz and Sei Flamboyant both of which were fitted with ACG01 Filter Pre-amps, the 1985 Overwater Original fitted with the Overwater filter pre-amp and the Lightwave Sabre whose pickups don't even function without power.

No.

Why?

Being able to play a number of different instruments - albeit mostly badly - and the fact that I have in the past spent considerable time trying to make synths sound like other instruments and using other instruments to try and control synths or produce synth-like sounds, means that now I can see that the easiest and most efficient way of producing various sounds is to use the instrument that produces them in the easiest and most efficient way. Also in a live situation being able to reproduce those sounds exactly every time becomes very important. Back in the 80s when I first started seriously dabbling with controlling synths from my guitar or bass or trying to make my guitar and bass produce more synth-like sounds I quickly discovered that for me the learning curve for developing enough keyboard technique to be able to play the parts I wanted was far shallower than the one required to modify my playing technique to get the synth sounds to trigger accurately and more importantly in a way that could be replicated every time I plugged in my instruments. I've also found that for all the good guitar and bass synth demos that are on YouTube, if you couldn't see that a guitar or bass is being used to trigger the sounds you wouldn't know that they weren't being produced by a keyboard player. Notwithstanding the fact that most of these demos require a huge number of takes in order to get a performance that is suitably glitch-free for public consumption. That for me completely negates the point of using a guitar or bass to control a synth or produce synth-like sounds. It's not easy/good enough to be repeatable, and for me the things that make plucked stringed instruments so expressive are all the things that simply don't translate when trying to do pitch to synth and instead produce unwanted glitches in the sound or pitch instability. I would definitely be using a keyboard synth for some songs in my current band were it not for the fact that at the moment we are concentrating on keeping the equipment we use at gigs as simple and easy/quick to set up as possible. Until we regularly get more than 30 minutes for setup and sound check those songs that will have to wait and the songs we play live will be those that we can do with the existing instrumentation.

It's the one that used to belong to me. It's from 1985 according to Chris May. Does that make it "late"? The other Original I used to own was from 1983 and had the pickups in the same place. The battery box is on the back under where the bridge is on the front.

If I'm putting a bass or anything else up for sale, it's because I don't need it anymore. What happens to it after it has gone is no longer my business and TBH I really don't care.

The position of the controls in the photo above is probably very close to my standard setting when I used to own that bass. Volume on full, neck filter to bassy, bridge filter to trebly, balance slightly toward the bridge pickup.

Everyone's string preferences are different, so a thread like this can only be a series of recommendations, and unfortunately the OP will have to work their way (expensively) through them until them find a set that suits them. IME Rotosound are incapable of consistently making good string sets that aren't standard gauge for 4-string 34" basses, so even if you've been getting on fine with their sets on your Jazz they probably won't suit your 5-string. Plenty of people on here like DR strings. I've not been able to get on with any of the ones I tried. My recommendations for good 5-string sets would be Warwick Red Label, Warwick Black Label if you want a taper-wound Low-B or LaBella Steels although I believe they are changed the design since I last tried some. I stopped using the LaBellas because while the last set I had were better than the Warwick Black labels they weren't twice as good despite the fact they cost twice as much.

@Al Krow I think what you want out of "synth bass" and what I want are two very different things which is why I wouldn't have bothered with anything synthy for the example you posted in another thread and why I am not satisfied with any of the synth bass pedals because none of them will give the control, evenness and consistency of sound that I can get from using a keyboard synth, or even better by programming it in my DAW. And I am a bass player. I just haven't limited myself to solely the bass guitar for producing bass sounds. I'm "lucky" in that I have enough technical ability to be able to choose the most appropriate tool for the job, and from experience a plucked stringed instrument is not always the best choice. And having said that my technical ability on all the instruments I play is pretty limited, so IMO if I can do it anyone can!

Most of the time my band book a small rehearsal room and set up facing each other. However from time to time, and before any really important gigs we book the big room and set up as we would on stage all facing where the audience would be. From experience it is important to do this so we break any unconscious visual cues that we might have been using when playing the songs and can work on how we are going to project to the audience. What we actually practice: Generally we will work out a set order for the next gig and run through it to make sure that the flow is right. If we plan on changing the order from this we'll either do the whole set again in its new format if there are a lot of changes, or just the short section that has changed if we've just moved one or two songs. Then we'll work on any new songs that we have on the go, and after that if there is still time go through the set again. Often we don't use our full 3 hour booking because we would prefer to go when everything is sounding good and there is no more work to be done, rather than carrying on just because we have time that we have paid for.

IME buffers are only useful if you have a very long lead to your amp, and nowadays most people in this situation will be using a wireless system which essentially acts as a buffer.

And an actual keyboard synth will do the job even better.