Dan Dare

A pleasure. Try to take your amp along to compare the inbuilt pre' with whatever the shop suggests. You may find there isn't a great improvement unless you spend a bit. Denon stuff is pretty decent for the money.

That's been a standard budget recommendation for some years. See my previous post about levels, though.

Cables can be the hi-fi world's equivalent to tone woods in solid electric instruments. You can pay a fortune for them and although it can be argued they can improve sound quality, you won't get a higher signal level by swapping them out. As a cartridge produces such a tiny signal, it needs to be boosted by a phono preamp (which is what you have in your amplifier). The preamp also corrects the frequency balance - low frequencies are minimised when cutting records in order to reduce the amount the record grooves modulate. If they weren't, the stylus wouldn't be able to track them (look up RIAA equalisation for an explanation). You may be able to get a phono preamp that produces higher output than the one built into your amp (you would have to run it into a line, not the phono input). Not sure about that - you'll need to do some research - but you may have to accept that vinyl is not going to produce as high an output as streaming, CDs or DAB. Stand alone phono pre's can be pretty expensive. Have a look online for reviews and recommendations in places such as - Best phono preamps 2021: budget to high-end | What Hi-Fi? and ask a few decent shops for advice (keeping your b/s and snake oil filters firmly engaged). Have fun.

How? If you are selling something, new or old, you want to get as much as you can for it. The price of everything is dictated by supply/availability, demand and whatever people are willing to pay. That willingness is governed by quality (real or perceived), desirability, value (again real or perceived), fitness for purpose, fashion and so on.

That might be the case if we bought at the factory gate, but we don't (and in most cases can't). There are shippers', wholesalers' and retailers' mark-ups to add to the equation, in addition to various taxes, import duties, etc, etc. As far as the term "justified" goes, there is no ultimate arbiter governing the cost of instruments or anything else. Prices of just about everything are dictated by what the market will stand/is prepared to pay. If I ever sell my vintage J bass (my daughter will probably be the one to do so after I croak), I shall get as much as I can for it. That will be whatever a willing buyer is prepared to pay. If someone falls in love with it and wants to throw a ton of cash at me, I shan't turn them down. It's the way the world works. When you sell something, are you prepared to accept a price that is "justified", or do you want to get as much as you can for it?

Fender used alder for purely pragmatic manufacturing reasons. It was inexpensive, readily available, easy to work, took finishes well and was not too heavy.

I was wondering whether you work for one of the big instrument manufacturers there.

Thou doth protest too much. If people want to buy (or buy into) something, it's their money. Their reasons for deciding how/where to spend it are theirs. It's not for anyone else to accuse them of being "gullible", etc. I note you live in China. Do you have an axe to grind here?

Very true. It's always been the case. Back in 1962, I was prevailed upon to go to the local grammar school, rather than the technical high school (which was my choice). I was 11 at the time, so had little say in the matter. I hated the place and couldn't wait to leave. My parents, like so many skin-of-the-teeth middle class English couples, were convinced that learning ancient Greek and Latin would better prepare one for a life of shuffling papers and that getting ones hands dirty at work was infra dig. That attitude is all too common in this country and is why there is a dearth of engineers and technical craftsmen/women, whilst we are over-run with people qualified in humanities, etc. We need those engineers and skilled people to save the world. The media studies brigade aren't going to do it for us. I've often thought that one of the main reasons I ended up playing music is that it was one of the few opportunities I had to pursue a craft skill.

No to all of the above. The more "degrees" there are, the more employers insist on them as a condition of employment, no matter what the job. This forces young people to run up large debts and spend extra time in education simply in order to get a foot on the first rung of the ladder. Many universities have become a bit of a racket these days. Most charge as much as possible and some so-called degrees have questionable value.

Does that include a terraced house in Middlesbrough - Cheapest Places to Buy a House | UK Top 20 | Move iQ?

The Double 4 is nice, but pretty pricey. Although I'm a PJB user and fanboi, I'd probably go for the MB as a purely practice amp. You've more chance of finding a used one, too if you want to save more.

P bass is the simplest to wire. Diagrams all over the 'net. Buy the parts and do it yourself. Should take around 15 mins.

It's what Americans call a stone

Given that retail markup on many musical instruments and equipment is around 100%, that's about right.

is he a friend of Dorothy then?

Oh dear

I'm trying very hard not to buy stuff. It's so tempting because there are some real bargains about as people get rid of things to try to generate a bit of ready cash. So far, I've managed to resist, but I may still weaken.

Have a look at the back of the sleeve of Zappa's "The Man from Utopia".

Sounds like a collab' between Abba and Guns n' Roses...

I did a similar thing for my parents when their neighbours wouldn't stop their noisy all night parties. Took a 3kw PA round to mum and dad's place and cranked it in the small hours during the week (having first warned the other neighbours, who were also peed off about the noise). Did the trick.

I bet they were all trees, though 😊

Treewood.

Headphones have to be the way to go for the bass. The problem with low frequencies is that they travel through the structure of a building. This is especially true of older ones, with wood floors, joists, etc. Moving cabs away from shared walls, etc, does little to alleviate the problem. Even when I play quietly, with the cab well away from walls, my neighbour (I live in a terraced house) can still hear/feel it. Not sure whether speaking with the neighbours will be productive. If someone knocked on my door and said "I've just moved in next door and may make a lot of noise", I'd be unlikely to be overjoyed.

This is complicated. There are so many things at play. Others have addressed the issue of instruments made in high wage economies by craftsmen/women who are paid properly vs. those built in highly mechanised Far Eastern factories staffed by people who are paid the equivalent of a tin of beans a day. Price and "value/worth" are not the same thing. Modern manufacturing means you can buy a budget instrument which will be as good a functional tool (albeit with a bit of fettling) as something handmade and expensive. If that's the case, why doesn't everyone play a Squier (other brands are available)? The list of reasons is long - pride of ownership, scarcity, desire to own something unique or unusual, disposable income, fashion, resale value, etc, etc. If people want to treat themselves to something nice or expensive that makes them happy, that's great. It's their money after all.