Dan Dare

I use an AKG WMS 420. Based on the D5. Plenty of level and good feedback resistance. Less than half your budget.

Little Mark 3 or the 250 if you don't need volume? They do warm/smooth well.

I found Thomsatik flats too soft. They're now on my fretless. I settled on D'Addario chromes for my fretted in a slightly lighter gauge than I had been using for rounds. Not expensive, widely available and quite bright when you need it.

Re. the question about old guitars clapping out, it only applies to classical instruments. Because of the way they're constructed and the fact that they're very light, they don't last well. Steel strung is a different story - my 50 year old Martin is still going strong.

Reet Purple. Yorkshire based prog rock.

The beauty of PJB is you can slave it up if you need more power. The preamp is excellent. I have a Flightcase and add a power amp and cabs for more volume. Sounds great.

Exactly. I am the sound man for bands I play in (because I own the PA), as well the bass player. They use my kit on the understanding they help me with it. If they don't like that, I hire a gopher to carry it and charge.

If you're not bothered about weight, Moos is right. Lots of good old heavy stuff going cheap. There's an old Peavey World Tour head with an 8x10 at the rehearsal rooms I use and it sounds fab. Effortless and fat. Wouldn't want to carry it, mind.

Line 6 Lowdown's a lot cheaper than that. Mine only made £46 on eBay and it was mint with a cover. Would do for very small jobs only.

It's directly proportional to the weight of the rig...

Sir Norman is the boss. He'd sound good playing a Satellite bass through a practice amp

It's played with a pick - you can tell by the attack. It's so heavily processed it isn't possible to hear what's going on. Sounds like a Gibson type of bass - humbuckers. Other than that, dunno.

Clever, compressed to death machine music. No doubt he'll do well making commercial jingles

I tried the combo a few weeks back and liked it. Didn't buy as decided to get a lightweight cab and use with my existing head. A combo isn't as flexible as a separate amp and cab and if, as you suggest, you may need more power at a later date, I'd suggest the LM3 (which is being sold at a good price at present) the way to go. You don't need to use MB cabs of course. Perhaps look at a decent used cab or two?

Gotoh are reliable and not expensive.

I'd agree with Stevie. I went shopping for a compact combo and compared the GK MB112 with the Markbass 112 combo. MB was well ahead in terms of tone and clarity and went louder without struggling. Approaching twice the price, so ought to have been, mind. In the end, I bought neither. Bought a Phil Jones C4 Piranha cab to use with my existing head for small jobs - found it out-performed both.

My 72 J (see my picture). Had it 34 years and it was the only thing that stood between me and not eating for some while.

Ditch the Rotosound rounds? Not nice sounding strings imho. Clanky and harsh.

Early ss amps used large amounts of negative feedback to give acceptable distortion results. That was reckoned to give them their flat lifeless weak sound.

I'd leave the credit and debit cards at home and go to a well stocked shop and spend a few hours playing with the toys there. I did that recently and ended up buying kit I didn't expect to own and which I wouldn't have chosen on the basis of what I've read or heard others say.

Al Capone. Oh, sorry. That's Prince Buster.

For DB and Tecamp money, how about a Phil Jones head? Two channels, too

Not sure about the cab. Head decent. I'd look at used, as others suggest.