Dan Dare

ERS's website has many gems - apparently, they have "the very best recording equipment in the world & the largest guitar collection in the country" (some members on here own more instruments than are shown on ESR's website), "the finest microphone & mic-pre collection in the UK" and "real music industry connections" (I assume that means they know people, rather than just having a few XLRs lying around). Wot a larf, eh.

Might it be worth checking out a double bass player's high stool? They have some back support. They're not cheap, but will probably cost less than changing your instruments.

My AG700 fans only cut in when the amp warms up a bit. It's thermally activated, as Bill points out. I should imagine Aguilar uses the same system on all its amps.

Or pee on them. Saves money. As far as calluses are concerned, you shouldn't be developing thick crusts on the fingers (which will then fall off, leaving a new, soft layer of skin exposed, as you have found. My fingertips - admittedly, I've been playing for 50 plus years - have slightly hardened pads, but they don't show obvious calluses. The skin remains elastic. As Dad observes, it takes time and you should ease off if it hurts. I'd be looking at the way you play, as suggested by others above. If you are aggressive and hook your fingers round the strings, pulling outwards as you pluck, you are more likely to damage the fingertips. Roundwound strings will likely make this worse, especially if they are high tension. You mention you are new to bass. It's a common beginner's error to employ too much force. Try to use more of a classical guitar player's rest stroke, where the finger pushes the string aside and comes to rest on the next string down.

Go outside London and the choice widens considerably. You need to check for ULEZ compliance, obvs. When I lived in the Smoke, I always bought vehicles from out of town and preferably those that had spent their lives in rural locations. Cars that have been predominantly driven in cities have a much harder life. A vehicle showing 50k miles that has spent its life sitting in jams with the engine running will have a lot more engine wear than one showing 50k that has been driven mainly at normal speeds on regular roads. The transmission won't have worked as hard out of town, either. And most people change oil/have servicing done at set mileage intervals - every 10k or whatever - which exacerbates the problem. Wear from highway driving is reckoned to only be about 10% as bad as that from urban driving. You should change the engine oil every 5k miles or less on a vehicle that spends its life in slow moving traffic, but very few people do that.

If you make modifications reversible, you shouldn't affect the resale value of an instrument. You're unlikely to add value to it, either, unless a buyer particularly likes what you've done. But that isn't really the point. I modify something for my benefit - playability, appearance or just because I prefer it. I don't really care what anyone else thinks. Had I kept my childhood toys in their original boxes and never played with or scratched them, they'd probably be worth a lot of money nowadays, but that does rather defeat the object of having them in the first place.

My '72 J bass is on its second set (i.e. the first replacement of the originals), so not very often. I do use flats and am not heavy handed.

I just keep them clean and have them replaced when the wear starts to be a problem. Obviously, you want them level, properly crowned, etc to begin with. It's often worth treating a new instrument to a fret level and polish, so you start out on the right foot. Unless you're spending serious money, the factory fret job will probably be adequate, rather than first class. If you tend to play in first position all the time, you'll find the lower 4 or five will wear faster, so they may need replacing more frequently. I reckon it's best to replace just those, rather than have the lot levelled down to match them (which will mean you need a full re-fret sooner). The only thing you really need to worry about is that when frets get very low, it can accelerate wear of the board itself because you have to press the strings more firmly to get them to note cleanly.

If you can suggest a better way to convey my meaning, I'm all ears.

You could have someone's eye out with that.

Don't listen to us (or anyone else). We, naturally, will tend to point you in the direction of what we like or own. Reviews can be helpful, but remember reviewers tend to like the king's new clothes. Not surprising, given that they spend much of their time reviewing variations on the same theme and are probably a bit bored by it. Some may even be constrained by commercial pressures. Go to a few decent shops and try things. Most important, take your time. It's helpful to go during the daytime in the week when they aren't busy. I ended up buying an amp that I hadn't considered because I tried a lot of things with my speaker cabs and instrument. I'm still happy with it several years later.

It's like much in life. We chase around, looking for "the one". When/if we are fortunate enough to find it (or realise it was under our noses all the time), we no longer feel driven to search. It may only be a temporary respite, of course - our desires and needs change over time - but we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

WD40 is silicone based. Not good for electrical contacts.

My most recent bands (haven't been in one since moving out of London last year) were the Soul City Senders and Streamliner.

Only you can decide. If the above is true, however, £187 isn't much to shell out for it. There's a reason something is described as B stock and reduced in price. Perhaps try to get a few quid back from Thomann? Or are you buying it to flip it?

I was fortunate in that I found the bass that suits me ('72 Jazz, found in a hock shop in the early 1980s) quite early on. It was the first quality instrument I bought and the third bass I owned, so I haven't had that many. I try other basses (and have bought the odd one over the years), but I keep coming back to the old favourite. It just works for me. I have a Mex' PJ as a backup instrument, a Bitsa P I assembled and a cheapish 5, but that's about it.

I use one of my C4s similarly. I thought about a C2 (because I'm a PJB fanboi), but couldn't justify it. My C4s are gig suitable and one is small enough to be fine for use at home.

Amen to this. I've encountered a number of musicians who appear to believe that "stuff just happens" - PA, lights, bookings, etc just materalise out of the ether. They don't seem to consider that the money to pay for the kit had to be earned. Perhaps their mums and dads bought them everything and they never had to worry where it came from. That was certainly true of one keyboard player I used to know. Great player, but expected everything on a silver platter. And they don't earn if nobody can hear or see them because there's no PA and no lights. You can turn out for any band because you've made the effort to kit yourself out. What are they going to do without your gear? They will have to buy their own or hire. Either way, it's going to cost them, so they may as well give you a few bob to use yours. Don't under-sell yourself. You've invested time, effort and money into acquiring your gear. Unless you're a hopeless player (which I'm sure you're not), you don't need to buy your way into a band.

In a band where everyone is an equal contributor (so excluding those which are essentially backing bands for someone, pickup bands, those with a leader who gets all the work, provides the PA and so on, for example), the best way I've found is for the following to be deducted and paid from the gig fee before it's shared out: Reasonable travel and out of pocket expenses. Anyone contributing jointly-used equipment is paid an agreed sum for its use. In bands I play in, for example, I supply a PA and monitors that cost me around £10k in total, so I charge a small amount for them to use it. If people aren't happy about that, I'm OK with their finding an alternative. It means less work for me and less to carry, set up, etc. Agents' fee, etc. Once that's deducted, divide the remainder equally. It's important for it to be agreed and clear from the start how fees are to be divided.

The problem is that you will short the + and - speaker terminals even if you follow your plan to wire the different configurations to different sockets. Try drawing both wiring types and see. You could break the shorts using switches, but forget to set them correctly just once and it's probably bye bye amp. I wouldn't risk it.

Is the difference between a 1x10 and a 1x8 really worth spending money on or taking the trouble to build something? A 1x10 is pretty compact, after all.

Neat looking rig. The mini line array plus powered sub option does give the best bang for your buck, imho, if you can afford them. Good ones are not cheap, as you point out. They're light and their modular nature means they pack up very compact and are easy to transport. As I say above, I often use just one of my subs and a couple of 10" HK top boxes (which are normally my monitors) for smaller gigs and it does a great job. I did pretty exhaustive testing/listening when buying my current PA a few years back. I went for Fohhn (XS22 subs plus LX150 tops), because I didn't want plastic boxes and because their back-up/repair is reputed to be very good (haven't had to test that out yet). They are also made in Germany, not China - a plus for me as I try to avoid Chinese stuff (try getting it repaired). There are plenty of other good choices - I also liked HK Elements, LD Maui, RCF Evox and some JBLs and EVs I can't remember the model numbers of. As is usual, you get what you pay for. There are more budget models available nowadays, which are OK, but a bit limited when you want to push them harder.

Fohhn XS22. A smaller good quality sub will beat a cheaper big one all day long. As you've found, big budget subs tend to be flub/flab boxes.