BigRedX

While still not ideal, that sounds a lot better than the situation you and the bass were in previously. Can you give an indication of exactly how far out the tuning of the fretted notes are? A few cents or something more serious and definitely noticeable when playing two note chords or drones? Remember that the tuning/fret position of a fretted instrument is a bit of a compromise between what is mathematically correct and what sounds right. Guitarists will often slightly alter the tuning on certain strings depending on what chords they are intending to play. The other thing to watch is that you are not pulling all the fretted notes slightly sharp as you fret them. This is something I have to watch when play the bass VI as the 30" scale means lower tension strings which are more susceptible to this. Fret each note carefully and see if by bending the string at each fret (in both directions) you can lower the pitch of the note rather than just raising it. If you are fretting the note perfectly bending in either direction will always raise the pitch. However if you are pulling or pushing the note sharp as you fret, bending in one direction will cause the pitch of the note to drop first before it rises. Unfortunately if this is the case, all you can do to avoid it, is work on your technique (like I am). Finally, if the tuning problems are more than 10 cents, and not a result to your playing technique, then I suggest you take the bass to a decent luthier and get them to look at the nut and ask for a fret dress explaining, and hopefully demonstrating by playing, what the problem is. BTW what sort of custom build are you considering? I would love a custom Bass VI incorporating on all the things I like from the various models I have played and getting rid of the those that I find makes playing one harder work than it should be. Unfortunately for my preferred luthier (Simon Farmer of Gus Guitars) we are looking at in excess of £6k for one with all the features I want...

But more importantly remember that in the early hours of the morning "fast food" is anything but. After numerous occasions where I've thought a burger is just what I need on my way back from a gig, but by the time I've waited 15+ minutes for it to be made, I'm really not feeling like it anymore and thinking that if we hadn't stopped we'd be 15+ minutes closer to home, bed and if I was still hungry something decent to eat.

I think there are two separate issues at work here. Firstly there is the actual concept and design of the Fender/Squier Bass VI. Out of the box the instrument is perfectly playable if you are a guitarist looking to do some tic-tac bass or doubling up a guitar part on a 60s style recording. However a lot of modern bass players want something that is capable of being used as a stand-alone bass instrument, and unfortunately it's guitar-based heritage does not necessarily offer what a bass player wants. (This is why I have ultimately abandoned mine in favour of first a Burns Barracuda and now the Eastwood copy of the Shergold Marathon 6-string bass, but that's a completely different matter.) Out of the box (IME) there is nothing wrong with the action on these basses, but the fitted E and A strings are a little on the light (and therefore floppy) side and the whole bridge/vibrato mechanism while fine for doing MBV impersonations on a guitar is not really a sensible design feature on a bass. This is why as bass players we fit heavier strings and need to shim the neck. And as the OP has done replace the original wobbly bridge with the StayTrem version. The neck shim is only needed if you want to raise the bridge in order to increase the break angle behind the saddles to reduce the compliance of the strings. However once you have done that and fitted heavier strings there are a whole load of extra adjustments that need to be done to return the instrument to it's playable condition. The second issue is (as Andyjr1515 has already hinted at) that often the wrong things are adjusted to correct the problems that develop. It is important that the adjustments are made in a logical manner and only the right items are adjusted. While adjusting one thing may affect another, it should be sorted with its own adjustment. So in order: 1. The shim is there (on this instrument) to allow the bridge to be raised to increase the break angle over the saddles cure the floppy feeling of the lower strings on the Bass VI. Unfortunately this setting on the Bass VI is entirely subjective, and I get the impression that many people do it having been told it is a requirement without actually realising exactly why they are doing it, or what exactly they are aiming for. I've found that having the tops of the E string saddles approximately 17mm above the top of the scratch plate (combined with LaBella round-wound bass VI strings) gives the right feeling for me. That won't apply to everyone. 2. The truss rod is only there to adjust the straightness/relief of the neck. Any other effect is has is entirely separate and while require a different part of the instrument to be adjusted to compensate. Swapping from the factory fitted strings to either the LaBella or Newtone will almost definitely require the truss rod tightening slightly, but all you should be doing is correcting the change in relief caused by fitting heavier strings. 3. The intonation should only need adjusting because the new string are heavier and therefore the saddles need to be moved back very slightly to compensate. The OP has fitted a StayTrem bridge which I believe has a slightly greater range of adjustment, so there shouldn't be any problems here. Just work through the problems one at a time and use the correct adjustment for the correct part of the instrument and the OP should get be able to get it back to a playable state. If the OP does ultimately decide to get the bass looked at by a professional, they should explain to them the reason for fitting the shim and the higher than usual bridge setting, as I would suspect that a lot of luthiers would not necessarily know this and decide that removing an "unnecessary" shim and lowering the bridge would sort out all the problems and the OP will be back to where they originally started in terms of set-up which is not really what they want.

I play in two goth/post-punk bands. For the longest time one of our songs in progress was called "It's Friday I'm In Loughborough"...

Having had another look at all your photographs and descriptions, I would say the problem with the intonation is directly related to the very high action and that is most likely due to the neck being at the wrong angle in relation to the body. Remember that the intonation is there to compensate for the stretching of the string as you push down to fret it. The higher your action is the more you have to push down and the more you have to compensate by moving back the saddle. Follow my instructions and first get the neck angle right, then the action and relief and hopefully the intonation will sort itself out.

@Dankology I've just got my Squier Bass VI out of storage and comparing it to your photographs there is something very wrong going on with you bass. I've shimmed the neck on mine (a piece of 400gsm business card that sits in the end of the neck pocket closest to the neck pickup and extends back as far as the closest screw holes, so roughly 25mm x the width of the neck) and I have a more noticeable tilt in than is than is evident in you second photograph of the neck where it joins the body. The result of this is that my bridge is much higher than yours. I'm measuring 17mm from the top of the scratch plate to the bottom of the E strings. The whole point of shimming the neck is to get a much greater break angle over the saddles to reduce the compliance of the strings and therefore tighten up the feel of the low E and A strings in particular. Yours still looks like my Bass VI did when it was new out of the box before I'd added the shim. I have the LaBella Bass VI rounds on mine (I'd already stopped using it in favour of the Burns Barracuda before I got my first set of Newtone Axions) but the low E is only a 95 as opposed to 100 of the Newtone and fits perfectly in the nut without modification. and I doubt that an extra 5 thousands of an inch will make any noticeable difference. Action on mine is 4mm at the 12th fret and it would got down at least 1mm if I adjust the truss rod as there is slightly more bow in the neck then most people would find comfortable. Your bass looks so far out I would stop whatever adjustments you are doing and start again from scratch. Also that way you won't be making the wrong adjustments for the wrong problem. Firstly take off the strings and remove the neck. Check that your shim hasn't moved and if it is in the correct place maybe replace it with a slightly smaller one that doesn't fill quite so much of the length of the pocket - as I said mine fits between the body end and the next set of screw holes. Having done that replace the neck and without fitting the strings adjust the truss rod so that the neck is perfectly flat and straight. Then using a long straight edge along the frets to the bridge, raise the bridge until the saddles touch the bottom of the straight edge. Without any relief to the neck I would say you want the tops of the E string saddles 15mm from the top of the scratch plate. If you can't raise the bridge that far without lifting the straight edge off the frets at the top end of the neck, then you need a fatter shim. Once you have get this right, wind the bridge up another 1-2 mm. Now you can restring, tune to the correct pitch, and then leave the bass for a day. The next day come back, and check that the strings are sitting at the bottom of the nut slots (as I said on mine, out of the box, the slots were wide enough for heavier strings). If not widen them slightly without making them any deeper until the strings sit properly. Then, and only then, slowly adjust the truss rod until you have just enough space the slide a business card between the strings and the 12th fret while holding the string down at the 1st and 21st frets (if you are very hard player [like me] you might want a little more relief than this). Do not worry about the intonation at this point, if you are using the truss rod to get the intonation right you are doing it wrong. You might need to adjust the bridge up or down slightly to compensate for the change in relief. Only once you have got the relief and the string height right should you start to adjust the intonation. The bridge on mine is straight to within 1mm between the highest and lowest strings, so therefore when you you set the intonation you should get each saddle going slightly further back as the strings get thicker. On mine with the original Squier Bass VI bridge to high E string saddle is about 2.5mm from the front of the bridge and the low E string saddle is 3.5mm from the back (I had to remove the spring on this saddle to get it far enough back). That's about 6mm difference between the position of the high and low E saddles. I haven't checked the intonation recently, but when I was using it as my main Bass VI, I was playing plenty of things high up on the neck on all strings without any noticeable tuning issues. The only other tuned instrument in the band where I use this bass is synthesiser, and person who plays that has very good ears when it comes to tuning and notices problems I never hear. Once you have made all those adjustments, if you still can't get the bass in tune (and have tried another set of strings to rule out the possibility of a faulty string in your current set), please come back with the following photos: 1. Strings in the nut slots 2. Relief at 12th fret while holding the string down at the 1st and 21st frets (you may need someone to either hold the string or take the photo for you) 3. Bridge height 4. photo of the top of the bridge showing the saddle positions. HTH, and good luck!

Android is terrible for music apps as the OS doesn't give MIDI/audio data the priority it requires and there may well be noticeable latency. If you decide to use the Windows laptop, don't use it with a DAW unless you also require the audio and/or MIDI playback facilities. Instead have a look at Cantabile along with whichever virtual instruments you decide to use. You may however also need to invest in an audio interface rather than rely on the laptops built-in sound card.

The Newtone strings are heavier than the ones the Squier comes fitted with and therefore the saddle(s) will need to be further back. It may be that the bridge simply doesn't have the adjustment room required for these strings. I'll check with mine when I get a moment, but since I got the Eastwood Hooky Bass it's gone into storage so it may take a couple of days.

The only thing I would say with using a phone of tablet for the sounds is that the consumer grade connectors these devices sport (lightning, USB-C or other mini USB, mini-jack), are not really suitable for a gigging environment.

I personally don't like instruments with bolt-on necks. They always seem cheap to me as when I was starting out apart from Fender, all the other bolt-on necked instruments were nasty, virtually unplayable tat from the far east (yes I have discovered plenty of other "quality" bolt-on neck instruments since, but back in the 70s this was the perception). And yes it's a cost-cutting exercise but then again Jim Burns was able to design and build budget heel-less set neck instruments in 1960 in the form of the Burns Sonic guitars and basses, so there no reason not to do it.

What about David Essex in "That'll Be The Day" and "Stardust"?

Your almost certainly going to be technically a better player than me, and I've managed to persuade people play music with me on stage and in the studio for over 40 years now. The thing you need to remember is that at a gig any mistakes are over in less then a second, and unless you bring the whole song to a grinding halt within 30 seconds of it starting no-one in the audience is likely to notice.

I think (as others have said) the OP needs to ask themselves what exactly do they want out of playing bass/music? If you're not enjoying being in this band, maybe you should leave and let someone who is more tolerant of all the less fun parts of gigging take your place. IMO unless playing music is a major source of your income, you should only do it because you like it. Sometimes that does mean accepting that not every aspect of music or being in a band is fun, and often you will need to put up with the boring bits to be able to do the bits that you actually want to, whether that is playing a song over and over again to be able to nail a particularly tricky section, or travelling for hours to get to gigs. It's difficult to give specific advice in cases like this because everyone and their musical situation is different, and what is acceptable and works for one person is complete inappropriate for another. Maybe for the OP if you weren't in this band, what would you be doing and would you be enjoying it more?

If it is easy, check the status of the memory back-up battery. I've had several devices of similar vintage die over the last 10 years due to the battery running down. With a bit of luck the battery will be easily replaceable and not directly soldered onto the main board in some relatively inaccessible place (I'm looking at you Peavey).

Bass, Line6 Helix Floor, 3U Rack case containing the computer and interface for running the backing, Stand for the rack case on stage, Bag of leads and bits, And for the smaller gigs or when I am unsure of the quality of the foldback an RCF745 powered cab. For big gigs, if I wasn't also in charge of the backing, I'd just take the bass and the Helix.

That looks like the front door is open and the recipient's foot on the right.

The only thing I'd say about the module in the OP is that the sounds don't appear to be editable, so unless you you find enough of them usable as they are, you may well be disappointed.

By your initial definition, I don't play bass as I use a 5-string in one band and a Bass VI in my other. Where do you place post-punk "bass" players like Peter Hook and others who rarely venture below what could be done on a drop-D tuned guitar yet choose to play a bass rather than a guitar? What about all those down-tuned metal bands with their 7 and 8-string guitars? What about bands where the keyboards or some other instrument (not bass guitar) takes to low register parts?

But these changes are edits or a change in feel. You don't get he orchestra completely re-writing the second violin part on a whim

The way that I look at it, no matter how poor the amp I am playing through is, it's still better than playing an electric bass with no amp.

The thing with recorded "rock" music, is that's its almost never performed entirely from a pre-composed score, in the way that classical music or a musical is. Often significant portions of a recording will have been improvised in the studio, and the version that ends up being released is just the combination of notes that the musician(s) played on one particular take. Fills and passing notes in particular may have been different every time the part was played, and if the person who "wrote" the part played it differently every time who's to say the version that appears on the released recording is any more definitive then any of the takes that didn't make it because something else was deemed to be sufficiently wrong? And what of parts that have been composited together from multiple takes? Either because the musicians didn't have the technical skills to play the whole song consistently in a single take, or because the musicians and/or the producer decided that they'd like to mix and match the part from various different versions, which can sometimes result in a great sounding part but which is far beyond the average musician's ability to play as a single continuous piece. A prime example of this is Fripp's guitar parts on the Heroes album which are stitched together from multiple unconnected takes at the whim of producer Brian Eno. And then consider the differences between the "definitive" studio version and what the band actually play when they perform the song live. Parts will often change to make them easier to play consistently (especially for musicians who also sing), or because without all the intricacies and overdubs of the studio version compromises need to be made in order for the song to have the same impact when played with just 3 or 4 live instruments. Check out the differences in the bass line on Thin Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town" between the studio and live album versions. Which one is the "right" version? This is why I always find threads like this perplexing. Much of the time for baselines in particular the minutiae of the part are totally random. I don't play in covers bands any more, but when I did, my philosophy was always that if I couldn't make out what was going on with a bass in particular section, so long as I played something in tune and in time that was in keeping with the "spirit" of the rest of the part it would be more than fine.

If you can hear the part well enough to be able to work out the tab is wrong then you should be able to work out the right thing just by listening. If you still can't get it exactly, then it probably doesn't matter. Play something that fits with the other instruments and no-one except the bassist who played to part on the original recording will know. And is @Rich has demonstrated notation is easy to follow. You don't need to be able to sight read if you are going to learn the parts, so take your time and work it out one note at a time.

If you need to ask for other people's opinions on a public forum where the rest of your band can potentially see what you have written, then you probably need to go.

I buy the basses I want. So long as I can afford them the price is irrelevant. I've spent anywhere between £35.00 (second hand Futurama III Bass in 1982) and just under £3k (Custom-order Sei Offset Flamboyant Fretless Bass in 2008)

Unless you are the songwriter, arranger or producer, as a musician you should fit around the music. Musicians with a "signature sound" will have been picked specifically for that sound by the songwriter/arranger/producer.