Happy Jack

My guess would be, I'm looking for £1000 in cash. If you insist on a trade then I need an apparent trade value of £1200 because I know that I'll only get £1000 cash when I sell it.

I'm talking about your PLI (public liability) as a performing musician, not your home or car insurance. There must be plenty of Basschatters who have PLI, either through the MU or direct with an insurance company. Many agencies demand it as part of registration with them (along with PAT). How often have you faced actual, real-life, honest-to-God claims against that policy? Please note that I'm NOT interested in anecdotal accounts of what someone else told you had happened to a mate. I'm talking to current Basschatters, and asking you if YOU have ever had a claim against your PLI.

Where & what is BaDaBoom? Is this the big nightclub place in Berlin?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ovation-Magnum1-bass-guitar-a-rare-example-of-this-classic-sought-after-guitar/283508470713?hash=item42026bf3b9:g:jd4AAOSwLW9c-Rp~ Lovely basses, and very rare on eBay. I already have this model in fretless, and the vendor is quite correct to say it's bloody heavy. Despite this, I'd still be after this one if it weren't for those photos of the headstock. Looks to me like not one but two splits. That could easily be a trick of the light, and if I was anywhere near Sheffield I'd go along and check this out.

Do these things come with a magnifying glass?

My Thomann Millennium cajon (not a kit) uses four lengths of copper wire as the snare, with the two in the middle being 'modified' by a simple piece of self-adhesive velcro tape. The hook-tape is stuck to the inside front panel, and the loop-tape is then velcro'd to that whilst also damping the two central wires. You can get more/less snare sound by adjusting the arrangement.

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.