dannybuoy

I'll get mine from the US if the price is too high over here. Either by finding a dealer on eBay willing to ship to the UK, or just going with the cheapest and using a parcel forwarding service.

And one recorded direct instead of from a camera phone!

The bridge, case, headstock logo and neck plate all look correct. The uneven bits elsewhere could just mean it was a Friday afternoon job down the factory!

The NG3 already has the same preamp, I think the only difference is the colour and scratchplate!

Nice one. Those gig bags are standard by the way and they are very nice (even though they could do with being about 1cm longer inside!).

Exactly, and a cab sim is superb at doing just that! Just think of it as a unique EQ purposely designed for what you are trying to achieve. You can only go so far with for example a Big Muff tone control or preamp/EQ - e.g. most preamps don't feature LPF/HPF controls, just bass/treble shelving, which sounds quite different. All I'm saying is don't write it off it you haven't tried one!

Only £389!

Wasn’t expecting that feature set though, thought it would just take the blueprint of the B7KU. At least we now know why he had hired a DSP engineer!

The best way to get a great clean sound is to distort it.

Looks like an IR cab sim, headphone amp and graphic EQ have been added!

Maybe it would, but I see the Accountant as more of an overdrive pedal with a bit of compression thrown in for good measure! If you want a boost for solos etc then in some cases a bit of extra compression is very welcome to help you stand out.

Anyone saying they aren't useful can't have tried one in combination with distortion. Just as a guitar through a fuzz pedal going direct into a PA or headphones sounds awful, so does a bass - yet it sounds great going into an Ampeg 810. If you want to recreate that sound for live FOH or with your FRFR monitor or IEMs on stage, a cab sim is just the ticket!

Well there's dirt and then there's dirt. Some are darker, distort the lows more and work perfectly well with flats, some are more adept at blending in distorted mids and upper harmonics, when you really need rounds. e.g. a SolidGoldFX Beta would sound pretty much the same with flats or rounds, but a Darkglass B3K would sound pants with flats.

A clean boost would give you an accompanying volume boost which might be a bit unmanageable playing live, so I'd go for a drive pedal personally, one that's fairly transparent that could be dialled back to a clean boost. A TC Spark Booster would fit the bill, I've been meaning to try one as it's getting a rep as a fine bass overdrive in its own right, but the toggle switch lets you just use it as a boost pedal also. The Earthquaker Westwood is a new 'transparent overdrive' pedal out that also looks good, but really there are tons of low-gain bass-friendly overdrives out there, prepare to be overwhelmed with recommendations (both good and bad)! Another recommendation that's slightly unusual is to use a dirty compressor like the Fairfield Accountant.

Fender's site pees me off. Whenever I get an email from them the links are broken because it just redirects to the UK home page!

Sure but if you really want to dull the upper harmonics, the tone control would be more effective and quicker to try than a string swap!

Unlikely.

If I play an open E, it glitches to the octave above after about 1.5 seconds. If I play the same note on the low B it can hold the lower octave for several seconds. Open strings have more upper harmonics since your finger isn't in contact with the string, it's those that confuse the tracking as it can't tell if you're playing an open E or an E at the twelfth fret, so it bounces up and down trying to lock onto the note.

1. The cheapest you can find, they're all pretty much the same! However I have one daisy chain that has shorter than standard connectors which have trouble fitting in some pedals... 2. You might be able to squeeze those on a Pedaltrain Nano+, otherwise look at the larger Metro ones. Their site has a pedalboard planner app so you can check for yourself! 3. The Pedaltrain boards come with velcro but the stuff the supply currently is not sticky enough and keeps coming off my pedals (never had this issue with the board I bought from them years ago though). Most branded stuff should be better in quality, but many people swear by 3M Dual Lock, similar to velcro but is more of a mushroom shape than a hook and is much stronger!

This. I don't possess any magic, various analog octavers I've had have all glitched on sustained notes on open strings, yet been pretty stable on most fretted notes apart from the odd one here or there. Setup might be something to do with it, my action isn't that low and I have no string buzz to throw it off.

Sounds like it's a good time to try a new bass if you've had that one for so long... but I would try and visit a few shops and play as many basses as possible first as it sounds like you have GAS for the SR just because it was refreshingly different to your old bass. You might find you really gel with a Jazz/Precision/Stingray/Thunderbird/whatever even more than the SR!

Mine died a couple of years ago... It was several years old, out of warranty, and I bought it used, but I took it into PMT (as they are an Orange dealer) who sent it to Orange for repair and all I had to pay was £25 to cover the courier costs. Worth a try!