HowieBass

Well looking at the advert and the guy using it, it's very 'now' and hip....

Had you not already said so I would have suspected the earth wire... where does it sit in relation to the mounting screws? The other possibility is that the bridge baseplate isn't completely flat (I suppose that if it were the bass body with some kind of bump you'd have had a similar gap with the stock BBOT).

Sounds like you'd be perfect for a Joy Division covers band

Wow that was some Christmas present! She's a keeper (and I suspect so is the Markbass)!

I thought that although the downloaded content doesn't just disappear if you cancel a Spotify premium account you'll be unable to listen to those tracks when you're offline - in effect it becomes locked (via some kind of DRM mechanism?) - otherwise you could just sign up for a month and download loads of content then cut and run? The payment for Premium gives you ad free access to the Spotify library and the ability to create offline playlists (and hence listen when offline) but the minute you stop paying so does your ability to enjoy offline playlists.

Yeah, looked at that and thought "I bet that'll be loud"

There's also Grooveshark for free streaming music (and probably similar others) though it'll clearly serve up fewer tracks http://grooveshark.com/

Another of 'Uncle Mat's' (as in built by Matsumoku - a very decent Japanese factory). Enjoy! Link here to the Matsumoku resources site for the Super Bass series http://www.matsumoku.org/models/ariaproii/bass/sb/sb.html

Is that a reverse goatee?

When I wore rings on the third finger of each hand they never got in the way of my playing.

If the relief has changed because of the damp air I would expect it to return to 'normal' once the basses are in a dry room. 'Jangly actions' sounds like fret buzz to me suggesting less relief; slackening the strings will only make it worse. If you intend to get the basses back up into the attic once it's dried out after the plastering then I reckon you really need to get some low level heating back up there.

Well played sir! I think a Dingwall Veall Special might be called for!

Yamaha BB425 going for silly money at GAK right now - a PJ that's well liked by many http://www.gak.co.uk/en/yamaha-bb425-standard-bb-vintage-white/48076?gclid=CPiK5-jgpMMCFQHMtAodPU4AmQ

I set all of my basses up to the Fender spec which in brief suggests 6/64" at the 17th fret for the E and 5/64" in the same position for the G (no capo holding the string down so make sure the nut slot heights are correct) with neck relief set to 0.012" at the 8th. Adjust sparingly to taste from there. You could just lower the action until you get some fret buzz then back off again - I find there's a paper thin transition from obvious fret buzz that you can clearly hear, then on to note choking with a lifeless tone, and then on to notes ringing out cleanly as the action increases.

Squier Deluxe Jazz Active 5?

You could have just a single effect in a patch that does essentially nothing (or try a very subtle chorus for fun) but set the patch level to add the volume you want or have a preamp only in the patch, use little gain but up the level.

Have you set any patches up of your own? The factory presets (certainly the case with the Zoom B9 I have) tend to be over the top and are useful only as starting points but with my personal patches I've gone for more subtle colourings. I assume the B3 has a bypass (tuner) mode so that'll be the place to start where you make sure the sound of your upright isn't adversely affected by the B3 running 'clean'. FWIW I use my B9 with an electric fretless and use both detune (as a chorus effect) and reverb. There's no reason why an upright can't sound good running through effects. I've posted this on here before but check it out... http://youtu.be/0N2UOxkcs8w

BTW I expect you'll find around a millimetre variance in pickup position regarding where it gets screwed into the cavity... (ooh errr).

Squier VM P = 69.8cm from the nut (fingerboard side) to the front edge of the EA pickup.

I've got two Squiers, one bought sight unseen from a UK retailer which has stores and an online presence and the other from another BCer on here - no problems with either of them. Bought a Vintage V4 P bass online that was horrible with numerous faults and that got sent back immediately for a full refund. YMMV.

I've got the 4 string version of this, bought it secondhand via eBay; mine had a poorly positioned bridge (probably why it was being sold) and it wouldn't intonate correctly (using the side dots as reference) so I ended up moving the bridge a few millimetres further back and it's now perfect. You're right about the sound not being like a Jazz, but then the Bartolinis aren't single coil design so that'll be a major influence (they'll be series wired humbuckers which aren't as trebly). The preamp is a Bartolini MK1 design, it is a swamp ash body and the fingerboard radius is 15 3/4". The serial number on yours indicates it was made in 2011. In summary, no Jaco tone but a hell of a lot of growl on tap!

I imagine if it's tilted back there's not going to be as much still coupling the combo to the floor, the edge of two feet or back edge of the unit itself? I know one way to purposefully decouple a hi-fi speaker from the floor is to raise it on spikes so maybe tilting would achieve a similar effect? This might mean you may as well try a tilting stand (to see the difference in tone maybe start with it on a something like a sturdy chair or similar).

Great looking bass and I bet it sounds as good as it looks - and that's what you call a chunky bridge!

With a string held down at the first and last frets, a relief of about 1mm is actually rather a lot - I set my basses up with about .012" relief (measured at the 8th fret) which is roughly 1/3mm though you're right in wanting to get the nut slot depths correct especially if you measure the action without fretting the strings. You can use a length of old roundwound string as a makeshift file to deepen a nut slot if it's only a small adjustment required.

With mine I've made it so it's just about equal to pickup height - there's an argument that it should match the height and curve of the fingerboard but I never play over the neck so for me matching the pickup height makes more sense - fortunately the height of the pickups on my Cort are set pretty much equal and the volumes match (to my taste). I've also got the same situation with my Westone Spectrum LX.