BigRedX

This most important question you need to ask is: "Is there anything you'd rather be doing than playing music?" If there is you probably don't have what it takes.

You need to have drive, determination and the ability to put all your waking time into being a musician - whether that is actually playing or doing all the background work and networking that is going to get you noticed by people you hope will give you work. In many ways technical ability (so long as you have attained a certain competent standard) on your chosen instrument is less important than being the sort of person people want to be musically involved with and the ability to say yes to any new opportunity no matter when or where it is (so long as it doesn't conflict with something else you've already said yes to).

So long as it looks right to go with the rest of the bass and it is structurally sufficient, I really don't care what the fingerboard is made out of.

But the optimum string height will also be dependant upon both the relief of the neck (and where the lowest point is in relation to the neck length) and the gauge/tension/compliance of the strings, and to a certain extent the scale length. Unless all your basses have EXACTLY the same amount of relief with the lowest point in EXACTLY the same place on the neck and you use EXACTLY the same make/type/gauge of strings on all your basses the right string height on one bass may not be the right string height on another. My system is to raise the action until I get no fret buzz on any string at any fret I am likely to play. If that result in an uncomfortably high action then I'll look at the neck relief, but otherwise that it is.

For me the correct string height is the point at which I no longer get any audible fret buzz through the amp when I really "dig in". The numerical value itself is irrelevant.

Unfortunately I don't recall who it was but it definitely wan't Pino. It might have been whoever played bass on their second album (Get Us Out of Here). He was only on stage for the new songs that had bass and IIRC Alfie played the bass part on "My Room" on an Emulator keyboard. TBH I don't know what all the fuss is about Pino Paladino, he may be a decent musician and a nice bloke, but IMO he's got terrible taste in music. I don't think I have liked anything he's played on from a musical PoV. He's only on one track on Doot-Doot which is the weakest one on the album, and his contribution doesn't really add anything to it.

Before buying a board work out what order you want your pedals, and how accessible each one needs to be from a performance PoV. IME anything that needs to activated mid-song is best placed on the front row where you can activate the foot switch without worrying about inadvertently hitting another one. Save the upper row(s) for pedals that are either always on or those that only need to be turned on and off between songs.

Worst gigs: Propaganda at Rock City on their first major UK tour after "A Secret Wish" came out. Sounded nothing like the album. It was as if a bad rock band had decided to do a set of Propaganda covers without bothering to get a synth player (or two) in the band. Vocals were almost completely inaudible apart from the shouty bit in Duel/Jewel. The NME reviewed another gig on the tour and gave them a royal slagging off for the same reasons. The following week they published a letter from Propaganda's session guitarist complaining about the harshness of the review, with the following week another letter from one of the actual band telling him to shut up and that the NME review was totally right! Fleet Foxes at Nottingham Trent University on their UK tour after their first album. Musically it was fine, but every song was punctuated by ages of dead space with the band tuning up, engaging in banter between themselves and the front row of the audience all of which was totally lost on me and everyone else who wasn't at the front. Would have left after about 20 minutes when it was obvious that this was going to be the pattern for the whole gig, but was there with friends who were surprisingly into it. I have never been so bored at a gig in my entire life. Best gigs: Bauhaus at the Ad-Lib Club, Nottingham 1980. a few months before they released "In The Flat Field". The only time I have seen them play "Bela Lugosi" which they opened with. One of the most intense performances I have ever witnessed by any band. Finished with "Dark Entries" after which the whole band seemingly leapt off stage through the audience to get to the "dressing room" at the back of the venue and were gone before we really realised. No encore, although nothing really could have followed that. Freur at The Marquee in London. At the time Doot-Doot was my favourite album, and unlike Propaganda Freur delivered that great electronic sound faultlessly. Polysics at the Islington O2 Academy Bar. Even the two support bands - The Age of Jets and Kid Carpet were brilliant. Polysics were fantastic, and I went on the see them as often as I could including going to New York to catch them at CBGBs.

TBH I was surprised that it's still going. These days the sorts of artists that get booked for Jools Holland's programmes have little musical interest for me, so I'll stick to my normal routine of avoiding the actual show and instead, check through the recommendations in threads like this in the hope that there will actually be someone that I like (there hasn't been so far in this particular thread).

IMO a back-up instrument should be the same as your main one. Failing that it should play the same and be capable of the same sounds to the point where you could and would be happy to play the whole set with either.

Keep them separate. A synth even if it is just doing bass sounds is not a bass guitar, and has a much broader bandwidth and will require EQ'ing separately. It sounds as though your band is on the verge of needing your own personal PA engineer. It's certainly been my experience that the moment it's not obvious what musician is playing what part that you need someone who does know to mix for you.

If the replacement is needed for that actual K&M stand then get in touch with them IME they are very good with able to supply spares for their stands.

Doesn't meet one of the key requirements of the OP, as adding a carbon fibre skin will make the bass heavier.

IMO there is something very awkward about that body shape that doesn't "flow" at all.

@ambient Out of interest how would the second third and fourth examples you posted be read by a musician playing one of them?

There a plenty of popular songs that use either standard preset sounds or very slight modifications of them. The above is prime example. The other really well-known one is Van Halen's "Jump" with IIRC is the first preset on the OBXa. There was a pointing the late 80s and 90s where artists were desperate to get any new synth so they could go through all the preset sounds and get the best ones on their recordings before anyone else did.

IME any sticker that isn't going to damage the finish in some way is going to come off at the most inopportune moment.

Any standard notation application that supports Postscript or EPS output and then edit/assemble the results in the desired manner using Adobe Illustrator or any other vector graphic program. Technically on a Mac it should be possible with any notation app using the "Print To PDF" function, but I suspect that some will produce a flat composite bitmap image rather than editable vector graphics. IIRC you already use Logic. Have you check what sort of output you get when you print to PDF from the notation window?

Says the person with some sort of mutant rabbit inlay on the bass in their avatar... 😉 Unfortunately since the Prince connection, Gus have become a victim of their own success, in that from what I can gather Simon is spending so much time making variations on purple guitars that he's not needed or had time to update the website. IMO they are one of the best guitars or basses made out of any kind of material, but due to the wooden core for the body and neck and the aluminium tube(s) they are no lighter than any normal wooden instrument of a similar body size.

Hurtsfall have just done two decent paying gigs where be played 8 and 6 songs respectively (that's 40 and 30 minutes on stage). We have 10 songs in total that we can currently play although the two weren't included in either set might be a bit rusty!

Also if your playing your own songs, I've found that audience members who've enjoyed your band also like to have a set list after you have finished playing.

My Helix is my set list. For one band I have the presets for each song in the order we are going to play them, and simply select the next Preset to know what the next song is since each Preset is named for the song it is for. For my other band we have the songs in the correct order on the computer that provides the drums and second synth player. I have a footswitch that runs a macro to close the current song and load the next one in the list. This in turn sends the appropriate MIDI program change message to the Helix which displays the name of the song.

Maybe, but by then Duran Duran were less popular, so the Aria is the bass he's best known for. Remember also that he's playing a Rickenbacker in the Planet Earth video...

In order for "boutique" instruments to become an investment that need the Wal effect as follows: 1. The majority of examples need to be basically the same with just minor cosmetic variations. 2. There need to be a couple (at least) of big name users who have a distinctive sound. 3. Demand needs to exceed supply.

It's television. None of it is real.