Dan Dare

So true. In cycling, there's an expression - "light, strong, cheap. Pick any two". Building yourself helps, but even then, a few kappalites or equivalent, plus a proper cab or two to mount them in, won't be cheap. Any lightweight head with sufficient power won't be cheap, either, even used. The most economical way to lighten the load is probably to use ones existing head/amplification (unless it's a SVT) and build some lightweight cabs. Even the heaviest head won't weigh anything like as much as an old school cab.

I like his attitude and can relate to it. Being ancient, I've paid the bills and have enough to live on, so am more interested in playing decent music with like minded souls.

Tears of a Clown and What's Going On.

Interesting. Back in the day, gig fees were low, relatively speaking, for better known acts as performances were often mainly about generating record sales. All different now, of course, with downloads and the rest of it.

+1 for Chromes on a P for versatility. They do a bit of brightness if you need it. Re. the OP, why struggle? Stick with your Jazz. I keep coming back to mine. One day I'll learn my lesson and stop buying other instruments, realising they don't do it for me as well as the old beast and selling them on...

There are bass combos that have angled basses so you can angle them upwards to face (EBS for example). One of those would do you for both PA gigs and those when you need backline.

As the miserable git who runs the PA, I try to bar drinks on stage. Nothing worse than trying to clean up a load of cables, stage box, etc after someone has kicked a pint all over them.

Things not to do in a music shop? Don't be a know-it-all tw*t...

Long scale is commonly taken to mean 34" (which is the J/P bass length).

Keep it clean and, er, that's it.

It's naff.

"No returns". Not bloody surprised...

Maybe my B1000 will become collectable...

I expect discreet will be along shortly...

This. Not cheap, but will do the job properly.

To be fair, some of the nonsense music shop staff have to put up with would try the patience of a saint. Not really surprising some develop a cynical attitude. Was in a well known shop in Denmark Street today, just looking, as they say. Played a few nice Martins and had a friendly chat with one of the staff. There was another guy in at the same time, asking all manner of daft questions, not listening to the (helpful) replies and generally being a pain. I should imagine that's a far from rare occurrence.

I see. Thanks again.

Thanks. Have done that and checked the "do not send me notifications" box and it makes no difference.

Thank you. I see, on opening the notifications section, that the default is to send notifications/pop-ups on every thread and that you have to disable this individually on every one if you post on it. There is no global disable option. That's a faff. Think I shall be a lot more circumspect about using this forum in future. Cheerio all.

Despite disabling notifications in the notification settings (and saving my preference), I still get the annoying little pop-up at the bottom of the screen every time someone posts on a thread to which I've added a comment. Anyone know how to stop this? It's driving me up the wall.

Agree with Yank for the most part. I did a winter in Meribel many moons ago. Good fun. You need to view it purely as an earner. Unless you're accomplished skier, I'd resist trying to blag a ski pass/use the facilities. If you fall and injure yourself and cannot play, it's work out of the window. Most punters will be plastered/semi-plastered and will want to sing along and dance to whatever is popular, so don't be precious about material. High art it ain't... As long as you keep them in the place and drinking plenty, the venue owner will be happy.

If you're spending that kind of money, go and try some and ignore us. We all suffer from confirmation bias. I bought my present head after comparing it with others. It was one I hadn't even considered prior to trying it.

Those headstocks by Overwater et al are fine. Form following function - straight string pull, decent break angle over the nut, not overly large/heavy (and therefore less risk of neck dive). It's an instrument, not a fashion accessory after all.

I wonder if the fact that it seems to apply to MIM basses may be due to the fact that they are made in a country with a hot dry climate. Bringing them to Blighty, with our colder conditions and higher humidity, may cause an issue due to the different rates of expansion in the woods of the skunk stripe and neck.

Agreed. I like the way they sound, too, but have to concede they are not immediately impressive. Often, stuff that is impressive on its own has been designed that way for showroom appeal (a reason I think one sees such a large amount of recent, expensive kit for sale - people find it isn't so good in real world conditions).