Dan Dare

Caveat emptor, I'm afraid. As Maude says, view the combined total as the price you will pay.

Why are only positive comments "good"? Surely all or none should be permitted.

I put a J Retro in my J bass and went back to passive after a few months. The East was impressive and made the instrument more versatile, but I just couldn't get that classic Jazz bass tone from it. It was close, but not quite there. This may be different, of course. You pays yer money and takes yer choice.

You'll just have to accept your fate, I'm afraid, which, like mine, is to be the one who knows how to do that stuff. I've tried, believe me, but I just cannot stand by and watch others mess up the PA when I know how it should be done and when I also know that, if I don't sort it, the sound will be rubbish.

You say you've come to it late and practice a lot. Have you been playing long? It takes a bit of time to develop good callouses. Also, you refer to your plucking finger singular. Are you only using the one? If so, I presume it's the index. Try alternating first and second fingers (I know Jamerson used only his index finger, but he was a one-off). You'll halve the amount of stress on the skin of each.

If you can find one, the Carvin class D heads have a valve pre that actually does something to the sound (as opposed to being there for marketing purposes). My spare amp is a B1000 and it's a nice head. Picked it up used for not much over £300.

The Ag' GS cabs are less bright and deeper/larger than the newer - SL or DB - ones, so reputed to have more bottom end. There's a guy selling a pair that look to be in good nick on eBay at the moment. In Basingstoke and collection only, so a bit of a trek from S Wales, but they look nice.

55 squids for a cap? Shouldn't that be Hysterical Parts?

This looks nice and clean - UK built - for you Trace lovers if any of you are near the South Coast - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-1X15-Bass-Cab/382860497751?epid=908710623&hash=item5924439357:g:OEIAAOSwCrtcl8Dg

That's usually caused by the fact that a low powered amp will clip and send what is pretty well a square wave to the driver, which destroys it.

I run my J bass with the tone wide open, but I like a spot of roll-off on the P with flats for that JJ sound.

On the plus side, Midgets and associated Leyland cars were very basic and easy to fix with pliers and a hammer by the side of the road.

I find there's little difference between my expensive (Babicz and Gotoh) bridges and a BBOT, to be honest. I do like to change a standard BBOT for the nicer Gotoh version, because it has two extra screw mounting holes and is better finished, but I can't honestly claim it makes any difference. They just look nicer. Agree with itu that you must tighten them down properly, but be wary of torquing the heads off screws (which I managed to do in a ham-fisted moment).

Bill, is it best to run drivers in parallel or series, or doesn't it matter? Or is there no hard and fast rule?

You're both wrong. The Morris Marina was the best car ever made 😁. I know. I had three of them.

Seashell's right. People need to calm down. Scott D has a living to make. If you don't like what he's selling, walk on by.

Got a set of Grover clover leaf tuners on my Bitsa P. Decent and won't break the bank - around £65. Google "Grover bass tuners".-

Interesting novelty? Yes. Viable product? No. Given that there are plenty of proven, stable materials to make bass bodies out of that don't weigh excessively, what's the point? There will be no performance advantage. At best, it will only look different. Given that it isn't likely to be cheap, why would anyone pay the extra over a body made of wood, mdf, ply ,etc?

itu is right. Doubling the amount of air moved should flap the old bell bottoms nicely and will give you options. However, if you don't want to spend too much (another Aggie won't be cheap), a used 8 ohm 15" cab should do it. I ran 2x10 plus 1x15 for several years and it worked well.

In my experience, people accuse you of being "opinionated" when they don't like what you are saying, but cannot produce any good argument to refute it. What's wrong with having opinions? We all have them, whether we admit it or not. The instances the OP describes sound like that curse of so many bands - Richard waving. Guitarists who blow the windows out, drummers who smash the kit to within an inch of its life, running away with the tempo (usually caused by the fact that people don't appreciate that their adrenal gland is in overdrive) and so on. The problem seems to be that many who play in bands view it as some sort of release from everyday life, cares and worry. They think "I'm free. There are no rules here to tie me down. Whoopee" and proceed to go berserk. It may be therapeutic for them, but it certainly doesn't make for good music. On the plus side, I suppose it's better than getting plastered and picking fights with strangers, which is what some who are not fortunate enough to have any other form of release available to them tend to do. If it isn't right, you have to speak up. Frustration and unhappiness awaits if you don't. If you cannot agree, it's time to go. Not worth wasting time trying to work with or round those who don't/won't get it. Plenty more fish in the sea.

Try Jack's Instrument Services in Manchester. They have an enormous range of materials they can make you a PG out of. As others suggest, best to use a carbon look-alike material. Carbon is harder to work and also expensive.

Interesting question. Regardless of the whys and wherefores, a singer should at least provide their own mic and stand. Not doing so is akin to one of us turning up without a bass, surely. PAs are sometimes owned jointly, sometimes by one band member. I have my own (means I can decide who I play with - plenty of people want you in their band if you have a decent PA).

Good suggestion. For really spiffing results, try ethyl mercaptan, aka the smelliest substance known to man. I used to play in a band with an industrial chemist and he put just a smidgeon in the loos of a pub that upset us. Place emptied in short order.

So you spent the day playing with yourself? Oooooer 😉