ambient

It could be that the original line was maybe played on a synth, so lots of sliding about which adds to the song. The 'feel' of the song becomes more important than the tonality.

There are a few here about harmony. Mostly these have been on various reading lists at university.

It would have been around Birmingham somewhere. He does go to the Robin quite often, and it was quite recent. The guy's 80, I hope I'm as active when I'm his age.

One of my students saw an ELO tribute recently, wonder if it was you? He said the band were excellent.

You're putting together a female fronted band, yet from the list of songs you mention, out of six songs there are two I've never heard of (that's just me though), three were originally sung by male singers, and only one by a female. I can see your problem .

I'm a professional musician, though most of my income is from teaching music. Most of my gigs tend to be bunched up. One week in April was pretty mad with a gig on the Sunday, then two in Paris Tuesday and Wednesday, then two more on the Saturday and Sunday. In fact April was my busiest month of the year with 13 gigs, including the highlight for me personally one with Steve Lawson right at the end.

Not that it's ever going to happen, but if I was in the market for buying any sort of vintage Fender then it would ever be from on here, which is policed by some very knowledgable folk, or from a reputable shop.

Isn’t it similar to Bumtree?

I had round wounds on my last fretless, there wasn't a mark to be seen. I agree with your choice in flat wounds, TI flats are beautiful sounding strings.

Steve also uses a fretless Modulus Q6, which has been his main fretless for years. The Elrick is quite a new bass, only a month or so old. His fretless Q6 does have a chechen veneer fingerboard, though the neck is a composite.

I use one maybe 80% of the time.

Mt two favourite fretless players are Steve Lawson and Michael Manring. Steve Lawson uses flat wounds, Michael uses round wounds. Two very different tones. Check out their videos on YouTube. I prefer flat wounds, for a darker sound, and they make for easier slides from one note to another, especially nice if you're using an ebow.

I'd rather be prepared personally, and wouldn't risk my very expensive custom Overwater in a Mono Gig bag, in the hold with a ton of people's luggage on top of it. I have an invitation to play some solo gigs in Iceland this year. I will simply plan that my bass travels safely in the hold, secure in a proper case.

I use one if I'm playing jazz. The band I play for has a repertoire of well over 100 songs. They use 3 different vocalists, each singing in a different key. My book for this gig is something like 250 sheets. It very much depends on the genre and the gig. I spent a summer a few years ago playing on a cruise ship, just pop and party tunes, the usual awful stuff. That was all reading from supplied charts. There were four books, two red and two blue. The singer just called out blue 21, or red 14 etc. A pub rock gig I'm guessing would look a little odd.

I wouldn’t risk couriering it, 20kg is heavy.

You can have the best and most expensive case in the world. If it's opened and the instrument is damaged then, that's the problem. Patitucci's bass was damaged after it's case was opened, possibly by security people. Steve Lawson's one Modulus bass was irreparably damaged about 6 or 7 years ago, again possibly after the case was opened by security people, his case was undamaged. I've got a Mono bag, personally I wouldn't want someone's heavy suitcase being stuck on top of it in a luggage hold. It's a great gig bag, and extremely well padded, but it's not robust enough in my opinion to protect an instrument during transit in a luggage hold of an aircraft. A far better idea is to phone the airline beforehand and ask.

Practically any bass is suitable for any music. You only need to look at photos of different bands playing in a style of music, and you'll see a variety of instruments being used. As has been said, turn the treble down and favour the neck pickup, play nearer the neck, maybe use flat wound strings.