Dan Dare

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.

Yep. I used to use my old Fender Deluxe for low volume bass - recording and practice. Tonally, it was lovely, but had relatively little low end in the room (which didn't matter with a mic' six inches from the cone).

Ignore us, go and try stuff and buy what hits the spot for you. It's the only way to make a good decision.

The Beatles

Be cautious fiddling with valve amps, especially when switched on (even when they're not, the power supply caps can hold a potentially lethal charge). The internal supply rail is dc and usually high voltage. If you don't know what you're doing, take it to someone who does.

A decent DI box will usually get you out of jail (unless the PA is really cr*p).

Worth trying what Bill suggests. You are unlikely to get a lot of low end from an open backed combo, but for quiet living room playing, it could well suffice. As far as I know, the Classic, unlike some combos, does not allow you to disconnect the onboard speaker so you can use only an extension cab (for which there is a jack socket). You would have to rig something up.

Give it a few years.

I do hope so. All the talk of resonance, etc is meaningless when pickups are not microphones and do not function as such. To test this, turn your bass and amp right up and shout as loudly as you can at the pickups. Unless they are or have gone microphonic - due to poor construction, age, etc - you will hear nothing from the speakers. How can they "hear" the acoustic/unamplified sound of the instrument? Electronics and construction are what make the difference.

I prefer single coils in a J bass. They just have "that" sound. You can do quite a lot to get rid of hum and buzz with good shielding.

Absolutely. No substitute for playing live, whether at a gig or just rehearsing/playing together and being able to see the whites of each others eyes. My bands have been having online get-togethers. |It's better than nowt, but a pale imitation of the real thing.

I agree with those who say construction is what counts. "Tonewoods" don't benefit a solid electric instrument. They may look pretty, but can even be detrimental (as BigRedX points out). Pickups are not microphones. They sense movement of a string in a magnetic field and generate a tiny electrical signal. They don't "hear" the vibration acoustically by sensing vibrations in the air. As long as an instrument is properly constructed, the material it's made from doesn't matter (within reason, obviously - it should have sufficient rigidity). The key thing is that the pickups and strings are mounted solidly and cannot move in relation to one another and that there is no movement between the parts of the instrument (between body and neck, for example). There are plenty of expensive plywood basses. It's just that manufacturers refer to them as being of "laminated construction". If it works, it's good. If it's cheap and it works, it's even better.

Ah yes. Billy ProTools. Shouldn't the artist be called Painter n' Decorator? There's splashes of blue paint all over his face

The guitar player in a band I used to be in was a notorious volume monster. We used to turn his amp down whilst he wasn't looking or was away with the fairies taking a solo. The trick was to do it enough to prevent him from deafening you, but not enough that he would notice.

Because more knobs and switches = better 😊

The Gotoh 203 is my favourite BBOT (BBOB, to be accurate as it's brass). The bass plate is flat, although it curves up at the back end more than the typical BBOT, probably because the metal is a little thicker. 7 hole fixing, too, so a little more secure. Watch out for the supplied screws, though. Make sure you drill the correct size screw holes and don't use too much force whilst tightening. You can torque the heads off them (guess how I know).

It appears that body has been made from 3 planks glued together (common practice, especially for budget instruments). The cracks look to be gaps opening between the individual planks. Probably caused by the planks shrinking at different rates, glue drying out and so on. From the look of the woods, they are pretty different in terms of grain, density, etc. Strong glue, clamping etc should fix, but be aware there's a chance they could open up again.

I've got a Baby Burco I can lend to anyone who fancies doing so...