Dan Dare

$500 should get you something nice, especially if you buy used. Have a look at the usual suspects/brands. Steer clear of anything off-the-wall or unusual. You will find something conventional much easier to sell come upgrade time. If you're playing gospel music (which it appears you may be), a Squier P or J bass is a good starting point. Plenty available used at reasonable prices. Do you have any musician friends who can help or advise you? If not, then visit as many shops as you can, try plenty of instruments and ask a lot of questions to help inform your search. Unless you need a wide variety of tones, I'd get a passive instrument - less to go wrong, no batteries to fail in the middle of a gig and cheaper. itu's string recommendations above appear to be for a 5 string. Think 40-100 or so for a 4 string. You don't need silicone cables. A plain one will be fine and 10 feet is a little short, unless you are standing right next to your amp on a small stage.

This.

You can always get the cheap neck and use it until you find something nicer. I built a Bitsa P bass a couple of years ago. Using decent parts (Squier body courtesy of eBay, Seymour Duncan p/u, Grover machines, Gotoh bridge, etc), it cost me around £230. Works very well.

Well spotted. Skulduggery afoot, methinks.

I can't remember the name of it, but I once saw a film clip which featured TH playing "live". At one point, the camera briefly caught some extra off-stage musicians, including a bass player.

The words "great" and "cajon" do not often occupy the same universe 😉

Bill, as usual, is spot on. A simple sensitivity figure, with no information about the range of frequencies reproduced, is meaningless. Tweeters/horns are much more sensitive than bass drivers, so if one measured the output from that alone (to use an extreme example), it would likely be very high. However, it wouldn't tell you anything about sensitivity where it counts for a bass cab - in the low frequencies.

The key words are "decent sound engineer".

L series. Lovely instrument and very desirable. Hope you get it back. Courier "losing" it sounds extremely dodgy. I'd involve the boys in blue if you haven't already.

Possible it was not played live and a different instrument was used for the actual sound recording? It all sounds just a little too perfect for a live take.

Buy a snare drum? Snares against a thin piece of wood are never going to sound the same as snares against a stretched drum skin.

I notice they haven't used a capital F in "fender". Perhaps it's made from an old fender (one meaning of which is the frame around a fire that prevents coals from falling out). That could explain the scorch marks.

Could be a refin'. Looks suspiciously pristine for a MIJ Squier, which are getting on a bit now.

The stickiness could be due to the fact that the factory has put a coating on them to prevent corrosion in the packet. A wipe down with some alcohol will cure that.

This. If you need more volume, add a power amp and extra cab and drive them from the TE preamp. You'll get the same tone but louder. Job done. Don't be daft like us and spend all your hard-earned on gear if what you have does the trick.

That instrument does have pretty hot pickups, even though it's passive. I wouldn't think it's wiring. If it was, the problem wouldn't normally be intermittent. Are the pots or the output socket worn?

If you use wire wool, STICK MASKING TAPE OVER THE PICKUPS BEFORE DOING SO. Apologies for the caps, but if you don't, you will end up with a "fur" of wire wool fragments on them that you will never completely remove. I speak from bitter experience.

If he has a Polytone head, I should think that will be ideal for jazz guitar. That's what they were originally intended for. The head is largely what governs how it will sound. I'd look into the neo driver option. Is the existing cab a 1x12? if so, he should be able to replace the drive unit for much less than £150 - Watford Vales has the Celestion Neos at reasonable prices, for example.

It helps to wipe them down thoroughly with a spot of alcohol. Takes the dead skin, grease and gunk off and less faff than boiling them.

I'm sure you all know this, but the Shuko is not really a two pin (maybe connector would be a more appropriate term) plug. The flat metal plate with the hole in at the top between the pins is the earth. So you will need to earth if you switch to a 3 pin UK plug.

"Rip it apart"? Hardly. Comments above are sensible/reasonable. Yes, it's compact, but there are mini-heads out there with DI outs (TE Elf, for example, which sports an XLR out) that offer giggable output levels already.Are you a Quliter rep?

gjones, I feel your pain. I think the problem is that many don't realise we actually play. They think that, if we stop to talk to them, the music will keep playing (when they shout at each other whilst their music system at home is playing, the music carries on dunnit?). Either that or their weekly diet of Britain's got No Talent means they think it's all karaoke.

It's really a pre/DI with a small power amp for low level practice. Phil Jones does something similar.

It's a Sodoffski...

I've rumbled him. He's Wallace. That's the bike and sidecar from A Close Shave. "Cracking bass, Grommit"