Happy Jack

If he sings while reading the lyrics from his mobile phone, best drop him. If he starts a song at the wrong speed and in the wrong style, and says "Oh, I was doing the Beyonce version", best drop him. If he sings into the wrong end of a mic boom stand, best drop him. If he starts searching the mixer for the Autotune function, best drop him. If he has a persistent sniff, slightly glazed eyes, and strangely jerky movements, best drop him.

Somebody better tell Trump ... he's got a bunch of unused tariffs burning a hole in his pocket.

That's not a bad reference, but I much prefer Michael Naglav's book Hofner Guitars Made In Germany. The text is in German, but much of it carries an English translation on the same page. There's a matching volume that has a wider field, Schnepel & Lemme's Elektro-Gitarren Made In Germany. Again, the text is in German, but the book comes with an accompanying booklet with the complete English translation. In each case, what makes these books so useful is the [cliche alert] German thoroughness with which they have been researched [/cliche alert] and the very detailed photographs.

Deedee has everything you'll need on this one.

Lovely. Just lovely.

That looks more like a fridge-freezer than my fridge-freezer does.

You can now easily source a high-quality Class IV head with a good DI that will weigh not much more than a Radial JDI. Take that to your gigs, preferably with a lightweight 1x10 in the boot of the car, and you're sorted for all eventualities.

Maybe you could try not storing your bass gear in the shower ...

If only it had been a Barefaced ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-48363680

All we need now is Music Outlet to be selling a Rickenbacker bodged by you-know-who and that would be all the boxes ticked ...

Hats are automatically 'cool' when worn on stage, no matter what a plonker you may look like in the car park. I have gradually accumulated bands where a particular type of hat is actually part of the official persona of the band ... a Stetson for the country band, a flat cap for the rockabilly outfit, etc.

I hate it when I detect expenses.

In truth, I have seen a few fretless basses that had fewer frets than this one. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Red-Fretless-Jazz-Electric-Bass-Guitar-With-EMG-Pickups/382949902598?hash=item592997c906:g:Tn4AAOSwRFNcg55m But at least it has EMG pickups worth £70. So that's nice.

+1 for the Guitarron. The body is undeniably very large but the basses are surprisingly light and the neck is much shorter than a standard bass so the bulky body is less of an issue than you might think. Guitarrons are really very loud. They're designed to be played outdoors and to compete with (usually) two 6-string guitars or even a 6-string guitar + trumpet. Before committing to battery-powered amps (which bring weight, complication, and batteries that always die at the most inconvenient times) it would be worth trying out a guitarron, if you can find one in a music shop near you. Hobgoblin Music would be a decent bet.

And more to the point, what sort of handles will it have.

I also wrote the first review of that bass for Bass Guitar Magazine. If the bloody thing ever comes available to buy, I would be seriously tempted. It was lovely.

Those cabs are not the same, Kev. The cab police will be along in a minute to explain why you shouldn't trust your ears ...

Hmmmmmm ... that looks more like a dodgy refin than a factory original in wonderful condition, the relocation of the side dots looks like the luthier was having an off-day, not sure how or why the EMG pickups would sound more 'modern' than the original SGC pickups, and the description fails to mention that the control pots have also been relocated. Reckon I'll pass on this one, thanks.

Fixed.

Nope. Use the head set at 8 Ohms and run it into one cab. That's the perfect solution. And don't forget that you have a volume control! Whether or not you have the impedance matched correctly matters a lot if you're using most/all of the power on tap. If you're playing at significantly reduced power levels then you're unlikely to hit a problem anyway.