DiMarco

It all depends on what it is you do not like about your sound. If you are looking for just a more powerful version of your existing tone the Cali76cb compressor Steve mentioned will solve that. I never play without it. The attack is more spicy with it and the bass just sits more comfy in the mix of instruments. The usefulness of any other effects you might want to try really depends on the style of music you play. I'm a rocker so besides the compressor I have a couple of dirtboxes, nothing more is needed in my case.

Dig newer tunes too?

Speakon Splitter, NL4, 1 in 2 out - Pulse (pulse-audio.co.uk)

I totally recognize the problem. C string sounding sharper than the others. I had this with Warwick strings and D'Addario's. Since switching to Fodera Custom Steels that problem vanished though. These strings are marvelous! Even being stainless steels, they do not sound overly bright and have those nicely even mids I am always looking for. Give them a go the next time you need new strings.

Reaper is VERY powerful for its pricetag. Been using it as a sidekick to Cubase, which is higher priced but comes with a lot of good plugins. YMMV, ofc. AND you need an audio interface that comes with ASIO drivers. Don't forget.

Afraid the Fender ones aren't very good, I have a couple but never use them. Instead, I've been using these: CRI PP (cordial-cables.com) What I really like about those is they do not curl up on stage at all and the plugs are great quality, plus they are quite affordable.

I've been using a laptop trolley for the bits & pieces and the backup amp for years now. Maybe an idea... I toss the mic stands straight into the car. They don't need protection.

It's not the age of the musicians. It's the era the music was written in. Everything stopped being interesting after the nineties. Dinosaur me.

I don't know... This is my custom built Jazz. Rear coil is at 70's position. Front coil a bit further from the bridge than 60's position. Neck pickup intersects with the E string at 70's position but runs closer to the neck towards the G string side, for a more even sound across the strings. I mostly use it with both coils on in series. Big ballsy tone that way. Second fave tone on it is with just the front coil of the bridge pickup engaged. It gets that Jazz Bass upper mids growl that way. That said, I mostly play this "jazz" which has 70's pickup positioning and an awesome onboard preamp. No more Fenders for me this one covers it all.

Impressive cave you got there. Welcome! I'm from an even smaller nation and our 'popular' music is well erm... mostly crap. I don't know what they have been feeding these Brits to make them come up with so much awesome music. Maybe it's something in the water.

+1. Love Dan's vids for that exact reason.

Maybe it's just me but most pedals are WAY overpriced these days it seems. Don't add up the prices on your pedalboard it will scare the hell out of you. Polytune, Alpha-Omicron, Cali76cb, on my board to name a few. Maybe I should just switch to Helix and stop using pedals altogether.

We already know the first batch from China was rubbish. Comparing those to a japanese ME says nothing really. That said, do try before buy - or get a money back guarantee when buying online. Chances are you will receive one of the early models. I can't help but wonder what results throwing a Sadowsky pre into a Sire bass would yield...

Anything under 5kg/11lbs is care free. The bass in my avatar is over 12lbs and as heavy as I will ever go. Broad leather Levi strap of course makes it perfectly manageable.

It never looks pretentious Rich. Fivers are very common no worries. But if you bring a six people will expect you to solo 😀

It's not that simple. There's baffle, vertical column or not, cab size vs speaker resonance freq vs port size, phase coherence if there's a hf unit, etc. etc. Fascinating matter! Also "sounding better" is highly subjective. On stage I like a cab with good dispersion so I can still hear what I'm doing when moving about.

Might this be it, @ped? FFFFFF33 looks like two digits too many? The search field inside the div has a transparent background.