Woodinblack

Your rats are more obliging then ours. Here is our rats travel bag... Oh I seem to have dropped a plectrum..

While I don't disagree with your point, I am not convinced by your analogy. You don't send lab rats out, they stay in labs and you experiment on them. Its canaries, you send them down mines (or in pubs) to see if they die of a lack of oxygen (or abundance of something else). But yes, as you were

Long term? Nothing like that here, if an instrument isn't going to be played it might as well be sold.

I have, many times

It makes absolutely no difference. Connect it to the place that is most convenient to you, and the first place you can. Generally you would put them to the same pot as then you know where the wires are if you want to move them but it certainly isn't worth the effort of moving them and makes no electrical or sound difference.

To continue the pedantic nature, my wife is also an American, but doesn't have that issue, because that is only a USAdian americanism, and my wife is one of the other North Americans

That is the worst list ever. Malted milk near the worst and jaffa cakes in the top ten? correction, jaffa cakes in the list at all???

It occurs to me, of the basses I have that aren't for sale, I don't possess anything with a scratchguard / pickplate.

Thats pretty bad. No, nothing that ends with a y, like chocky or biky or something like that. Unless you are 5, then it is ok. Still, nothing is as bad as people in the last 5 years using the term Glasto for glastonbury. That is punchable.

That would mean that you couldn't be a good songwriter for quite some time, even if you were writing fantastic songs, because there is no way of deciding if they dated. And what sort of timeline? Like 'Get knocked down' by chumbawumba? Or 'Boom boom boom' by the outhere brothers? So someone like kate bush would be a terrible songwriter as not many of her songs have been covered. Or Peter Gabriel / Phil Collins etc. OK, so Mustang sally would be good songwriting, but Sledgehammer would be bad? I don't know, it all seems subjective to me.

Tricky one isn't it, if you use both. I guess it would have to match the bass you picked up most

If there are only 10% you haven't heard of that surely makes the list quite good doesn't it?

Basically any brown burst bass (or guitar) is going to look pretty dreary. Put a tort guard on it and basically you have arrived at the 1980's nissan sunny with a vinyl roof. Or maybe a cortina.

I had a sub ray 5, it was very good, but not really the bass for me. Well worth the money though. Also played the OLPs, and they are good. Frankly any bass in the £500 region is going to be great now. I have had lots of basses in the up to £500 range. One group I just gigged a Squier P, then when I realised it was doing my arm wrong, a Geddy Lee Jazz. Eventually ended up that group with the ibanez and basically stayed there. To be honest, my wrongo, apart from its visual issues is a good solid bass, and I would happily do any gig with it. I had a harley benton jazz which was a great bass, not even for the money. I would still have it now but weighed probably as much as my car! The nut also needed doing, but the neck was brilliant - it was teh best 4 string jazz I have had (including fenders). I have a jazz, a fender aerodyne, but will probably move it on soon as I am getting rid of all 4s apart from my oldest ibanez. Its not as good as the HB was (apart from weight), but it looks better and has Fender on the label. That said, I have just bought a shuker. OK, it wasn't new, I am too tight for that, but it was the most I had paid for an instrument. Is it 6 times better than the G&L next to it that I have for sale for £350? No, of course it isn't, but it is better, it is the best bass I have ever played - it plays like a dream, it is paid for by my gigging and I find it a piece of art. I got it because it was beautiful, not becase I thought it would make me better. Or would even sound better. For me the sires aren't as good, the necks are too big and I found the controls a bit cheap feeling. Nothing you can't cure though. The Classic Vibe fenders, certainly the early ones, they are great. But if I really needed to find a bass that was cheap and I could live with as my only bass, I would be checking the weights on the harley bentons for a new one of those.

Makes sense. It seems very much when you listen to 'drop whatever' song, they are often playing that tuning. As you said, as it breaks the relationships between the strings it makes the songs a bit imobile

I wouldn't. I would just go for a 35 if I found it more comfortable, certainly wouldn't do it for any other reason. My best b string is on a 33". Never got the 35" thing, it is just an arbitrary measurement, the 34" scale to start with was just a guess. So does it have to be BEAD? Can it not be drop C, like queens of the stoneage stuff? Like everything down a tone, and then the bottom string down another?

Yeh, keep at the back and bring hand sanitiser !

I must admit I don't mind that so much, its more those stickers you get on PCs when you buy them that a lot of people don't take off, like the advertising tickets. I have nothing against rainbow bears.

I wouldn't even have a factory one on any of mine I just dislike stickers. Still, not as bad as stickers on laptops.

Well, yes, once you have written how it plays like butter and it is the best playing bass EVAR! then you need a reason why you want to sell it. I think it only looks odd when you say 'i have to sell as I need to repair my car' and 'will trade for a xxx'

i have seen the same dingwall combustion that i traded 4 years ago up for sale 4 or 5 times. Its up for sale on facebook at the moment. I still have the bass I traded it for. Technically it wasn't a great trade financially, but it worked out well for me! I am not one for selling much, although I have a lot up at the moment. I will have that Shuker that I bought last month (the 6 string) up for sale once I have replaced the preamp as it isn't right for me at all, the neck is too wide, I should know I don't cope with string spacing that much, but it served its purpose of showing me I wanted a shuker as the one I have replaced it with isn't going anywhere!

Yep, a couple. Rexes Hollow is the main one. Watching the calendar tick our cancelled gigs away, this year was a good one too, montecute festival, VE day festival, lots of ourdoor ones which would have been nice and just started going to the weymouth gigs too!