BigRedX

Exactly. I use a Helix and no amp. It's as much or as little processing as I need between the bass guitar and the PA amps/speakers. At one extreme it's just some EQ and maybe a bit of drive to allow the bass to be in the correct place in the mix. At the other it's making it sound like almost anything I want. And anything in between. Also I can go from one to the other at the press of a footswitch.

Only covers bands need their own PA. Originals bands play venues with in-house PAs and engineers. Since the mid 90s the only venues I have played with an originals band that didn't have their own PA were ones that do not normally put on live music and for those we hired in a PA.

I'm lucky in that exhausted my cravings for second hand exotic basses from outside the UK in the days when getting them was cheaper and easier. At the moment all the gear I am interested in is new, and either made in the UK or has an official UK distributor. On a separate note, I lost part of my business and ultimately a whole client due to problems shipping stuff outside of the UK after we had left the EU.

Bass > Line6 Helix > PA. For me personally, an individual amp is redundant. I only very rarely play gigs where the bass doesn't go into the PA (about 5 in the last 40+ years of playing in originals bands). Having no amp means less stuff to take to gigs, less stuff to potentially go wrong, less stuff to potentially mess up my sound. For one band where we have ditched the backline entirely, it has lead to a better sound FoH and much better sound on stage.

If you were properly purist you'd just have an upright bass and no amp.

Most of these bands with one or no original members are essentially covers bands in everything but name.

This thread makes me sad. The idea that what was once a relatively expensive musical instrument has been reduced to having no value, and people are actually destroying them as entertainment. I would love to have a proper piano. We used to have one in the family (it originally belonged to my Gran) but when my sister who was the last owner decided she no longer wanted it, I said I'd have it, only to work out that I wouldn't be able to get it into any room in my house without taking down actual walls! I think it left behind in her garage when she moved. On the other hand it should probably also serve as a cautionary tale for those paying over-inflated prices for "vintage" Fenders and enormous amps and cabs. There will be a time when no-one wants them either.

I was twice in a band between 1988 and 2002 that went through: 6 Singers 6 Guitarists 3 Bassists 4 Drummers (including one who was in the band on 2 separate occasions) and three line-ups where the drums were provided by various combinations of sequencers and loops 3 keyboard players, plus several line-ups where the synths and samples were all provided by sequencers. I ended up being the longest serving member having been in the band twice as the bass player and once as guitarist. Between 2010 and 2015 The Terrortones had a total of 8 different guitarists and 5 different drummers...

https://markshreeve-tributealbum.bandcamp.com/album/berlin-a-tribute-album-for-mark-shreeve

You may want to experiment with the positioning, but IME the volume pedal normally wants to go before delay or reverb, so that any ambient tails don't get cut off.

In the days when I used to do graphics for on-line use, the company I worked for employed someone whose job was specifically to break whatever the devs had produced, so that they knew what need fixing in order for the site to work both as they intended and as end-users expected.

Unless you only use Amazon very occasionally or manage to find products that ready have "free" delivery Prime should be a no-brainer. I have to admit I was sceptical the first time it was pushed in my direction, but later went back and added up what my additional postage charges had been for the previous 12 months, and for me Prime more than pays for itself to the extent that all the other services that come with it are effectively free. Plus because it's used primarily for business purchases I can claim my Prime membership as a business expense.

So long as the new site is actively linked to the stock inventory, then it is a massive improvement.

Personally, I can't see any aesthetic reason for not having the neck the same colour as the rest of the bass.

Why would you even want to do that? Serious question, as IMO it looks horrible. I like the stain, but it doesn't go with the natural wood colour.

Why would you need two EQs? Just one as you are no longer fighting against the baked-in sound of the cab(s).

Of course it's simpler to ditch the on-board pre-amp completely, not have to worry about batteries and use the tone controls on your amp that will be running off the voltage supply they were designed for.

Zoom are weird though. They don't even include MIDI on many of the multi-effects units.

When you do scan it, include rulers on both the horizontal and vertical sides, as IME almost all scanners are not exact enough to produce a template that will fit without some adjustment, and not only that but they will out by different amounts vertically and horizontally.

IME Rotosound are completely and utterly incapable of making consistently decent strings other than 34" standard gauge 4-string sets. I went through four 36" scale low B strings before I got one that wasn't dead on fitting, and for years I thought there was something wrong with my 30" scale Burns Sonic as I couldn't get a proper note out of the E string. As soon as I switched to Newtone strings, the E string was fine.

Absolutely. And IME it's even more important on basses then it is on guitars. I have 4 basses and each is strung with a different brand or gauge of string to get the best out of it.

That's what the channel fader in the desk is for. Give him plenty of vocals in his IEMs and mute him FoH.

Just buy the correct length strings for your bass. Newtone here in the UK will produce exactly what you want (if they don't already), and especially for short scale strings they are far better than the mainstream competition in tone and price.

No. Play harder, form some blisters, pop them, and when they heal you'll have much harder skin. You do need to keep this up otherwise you'll have to go through the process all over again.

If backing tracks are unsuitable for FoH it is because they haven't been mixed on a PA, but just on home studio monitors which rarely show the true extent of the bottom end. We do all our initial mixes at home, but the final levels and EQ setting are done in the rehearsal room running through a decent medium-sized PA.