Happy Jack

I've bought gigbags for less than £150. I've bought pedals for less than £150. I've bought amplifiers for less than £150. Hell, I've bought basses (and gigged them, for money, in front of an audience) for £150. Robin Williams was wrong y'know ... it's double basses that are God's way of telling you that you have too much money. 🙄

I'm sure I have NO idea what you are talking about ...

My XR18 used to be mounted in a Gator 8U with wheels and a handle (like a suitcase). That ensured that everything racked could be in a single box with permanent signal & power connections, then towed easily across the car park with one hand. System changes last year mean that I do it differently these days, but my Gator was then listed for sale here for months. I withdrew it due to failure to sell, but I still have it if you're interested.

Of course, rough trade around Denmark Street used to mean something very different ...

If you want to A/B them, feel free to come over.

These differences carry through to the sound, as you'd expect. The AliKat body is very oil drum indeed. I have a Rockabilly slap piezo (bridge wing and end of fingerboard) AND an underfoot piezo, with the signals blended using an LS-2. I can dial in appropriate amounts of oil drum to flavour the sound of the strings. The Alcoa, whilst definitely an ally bass when played acoustically, sounds far more 'normal' once amplified.

They're wildly different, @PaulKing. The AliKat was built by a specialist aluminium worker with very little luthiery experience, whereas the Alcoa is clearly a luthier-designed instrument but using unusual materials. The AliKat uses OTT construction for the body (unsure of the strength, I imagine) and a wooden neck & scroll sourced from China. The Alcoa is 100% aluminium and the construction is more reminiscent of a plywood build.

Oh wow, I'm sorry man, like, y'know, what was the question again?

But the octave-switcher is instantly accessible at all times. If you're a one-hand player (my soul band has a bass player, natch) then you can select where you want to pitch those three octaves at any time.

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He'll be missed.

They'd need to come with a free weight-lifting course ...

All things being equal (which they rarely are) a pair of 10" cabs should be nearly 50% louder than a single 12" cab [arithmetically it would be (25x2) vs 36], but there are SO many other variables ...

Country music is really forgiving ... the songs tend to be about the story-telling aspect rather than how well you deliver them, so that relieves at least some of the pressure. It's also a very broad church. There's pretty much bound to be a number of singers whose voice you can emulate to one degree or another. There's a long list of country artists I can't get anywhere near, but I have no real trouble with Merle Haggard songs and I do OK with Hank Williams. Singalongs where you just know the audience is going to sing the chorus for you are also helpful ... Take Me Home (Country Roads), The Gambler, Wild Side Of Life, you know the drill.

Absolutely this ^. Mine is G.

Fascinating to see how many people are advising the OP to more-or-less just jump right in. Hmmmmmmmmm. My advice would be to find a local guitarist who's in the same sort of situation, and jam along with him for weeks, maybe months. Playing live with even a single real musician is MASSIVELY different from playing along to your favourite CDs. Once you can cope with playing live (for a given value of "live") start attending your local blues jam, see how you feel about getting up in front of an audience. That's pretty different too. After playing at half a dozen proper jam sessions you'll have no need to ask when you're ready to start looking for a band. Good luck.

Christ! There's a case too? 😨

Never knew Yes did covers. 😉

The strings are a necessity regardless but as for the rest the key question is, are you refurbing this to play yourself or getting it ready for sale? An easy starter is to hold the bass upright with the end-pin fully retracted - you don't have to use the end-pin, it's there to make the bass taller. If the nut is way higher than your eyebows then the bass will very probably be too big for you, but if the nut is anywhere close to eyebrow height then the fact that it's a 4/4 doesn't really matter. If you are physically capable of playing the bass, only then do you have a decision to make.

I didn't even know these things existed (I have two pairs of Xvive bugs, use them at every gig) and a little voice at the back of my head is saying "this defeats the very purpose of these devices". It's OK. Why should you listen to the voices in my head when half the time I don't bother to myself?

I have to assume that all the real bargains got snapped up quickly - what's there now is a set of reductions so modest that they barely qualify as a SALE SALE SALE GET YER CHEAP PA KIT HERE event. It's more a WE'VE KNOCKED 5% OFF THESE OVER-PRICED & SLOW-SELLING ITEMS.

The thing that makes the most obvious difference to the playing experience is the presence of the centre-block. Apart from affecting the sound (although not by as much as some claim) it obviously increases the weight of the bass noticeably, and has a marked effect on balance. If at all possible, try a genuine German-made Hofner in a shop first to get a better understanding of what you're looking for. Then try the hollow-body Chinese made, and only after that the one with the centre-block.