Happy Jack

Or, of course, a uke bass ...

If you'd prefer to describe a single 1/4" output socket as "two channel" then that's fine with me, Mike. Personally I'd find that really misleading!

I'm not familiar with Birdsong. The string arrangement is purely to deal with the very different length of the low B as compared to the main 4-string set. It's weird but cool, and fully functional, and it sits very well with the carefully worked-out tailpiece configuration designed to give a different break angle for each string. When playing the bass I am completely unaware of any difference in feel or compliance across the five strings - this is a very nice piece of work by someone who knows exactly what he's doing.

Don't know about the OP, but I have (what I believe to be) the first and only Greenboy Crazy 88 in the UK and I love it to bits. It's ideal for acoustic applications, DB and large-bodied basses, it's physically quite small (though surprisingly heavy), and its range is genuinely impressive ... it goes remarkably loud but sounds great at low volumes, and a low B doesn't worry it in the slightest.

Yup, but not sure you'd have wanted to be there Si. During the breakdown after the gig there was a genuine, honest-to-God mass brawl on the dance floor. At least three very big guys on each side (it was hard to tell), sundry womenfolk either yelling "he's not worth it" or berating their men for their behaviour, four enormous bouncers trying to break it up, worried drunks getting knocked over in the excitement, and smashed glass all over the floor. Best fight I've seen in years, very entertaining.

That's exactly what I said to Umut, and he replied "Huh?". I had to explain how Rics are wired to him ...

The bass is entirely passive, but the output jack is stereo. Plug in a mono cable and all you get is the magnetic pickup (which sounds absolutely fine on its own). Plug in a stereo cable and you get both pickups; feed that through a splitter cable and you end up with two mono inputs to the amp. I'm using an AI Clarus 2-channel amp and that's just perfect for the job.

More explanations in the text to this video:

God! I remember the good old days, when you could list a tatty Encore P-bass for £500 after breakfast and the courier would arrive to collect it mid-afternoon. £3000 Wals were flying off the shelves and Johnny Foreigner couldn't get enough of the low, low prices thanks to the collapse of the pound. And people said that Brexit had damaged the British economy! Pah! Everybody was buying and selling like there was no tomorrow, and nobody foresaw then the sterile wasteland that the Marketplace would become by 2018. Ah yes, 2016 was indeed the good old days. Or not, as the case may be.

Might be worth investigating a mixer controlled by a tablet, allowing you to do both/either.

Will you have a sound guy out front or operate the mix from on-stage?

Can't imagine what might have given you that idea ... Good luck with your quest.

I'll see your Stevie Nicks and raise you an Ian Hunter ...

Anyone mentioned Steve Hillage yet?

Maybe, maybe not. Unsupportive and/or controlling husband lets wifey audition for the role because obviously she's useless and (i) will never get the gig, (ii) can't possibly manage without hubby there to tell her what to do. Anyway, it'll shut her up for a while. Then gets all hurt and precious when it turns out that little wifey actually does just fine when he's not there to screw things up for her. Perhaps.

For some reason, I'm imagining everyone calling everyone else "Da-a-a-ahling". Probably very unfair, but there you have it. Don't blow this out after one rehearsal. It could go somewhere interesting and I imagine that you can afford to sacrifice another couple of evenings just to see? If things start to develop rapidly (which is what I'd expect with properly-trained classical musos) then you may find this initial nonsense disappears faster than a very fast thing.

What a rip-off ... no way is that a genuine Fender!

They're probably rehearsing in their school's Music Room. At least they're not banned from coming within 100 yards of any primary school ...

What could possibly go wrong?

Why does it not surprise me that you've owned such an astonishing selection? And I'm loving the idea of a bass called Gom Jabbar ...

Were TC the people who cheated on the particulate emissions test?