Dan Dare

Have you actually tried any of them? If not, you need to. What suits you may not suit us and vice versa. They are probably all much of a muchness in quality terms - they are similarly priced/sized. You simply must try them to see which you prefer.

Sellers don't need to "justify" their rates. If you don't like the percentage they charge, don't sell through them. It's a free country and they are in business to make a living, surprisingly enough... The advantage, when you sell an instrument through someone with a retail outlet, mailing list or whatever, is that they can put your instrument in front of many more people than you can. "Leaving it on the shop floor" is often beneficial, provided it's a desirable instrument, because so many will see it, so I don't know why some are disparaging that. How many people are going to come to your home and look at it through the window?

There is no price list for vintage instruments. It depends on what the seller will let it go for and what the buyer is prepared to pay. That looks a reasonable price to me, unless you are buying to sell it on, in which case, you should pay more...

I have the matching guitar strap.

If it's genuine, he'll probably do better selling on the 'Bay than to Gruhn.

"Fun in the sun" with "scantily clad free spirited laydees"? Free STDs for all. Whoopee. Everything's fine in America, etc (now, where did I put my assault rifle?). We can do without your pity, thanks all the same.

Smoking, drinking, eating, etc on stage? Would you do the same at work?

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.