JoeEvans

I think there's at least one two-string ACG out there too. I don't think I could live without octaves myself!

I've got a 1962 Precision, it's definitely authentic but it's had quite a bit of work done over the years including several neck replacements, various different bodies and a range of different electronics. For a while it was most of a 1969 Jazz, then later an excellent 1980 Stingray, and I believe it spent some time in the late 90s as a genuine Gibson Les Paul guitar, having had the neck, body and pickups replaced. As you can imagine, with that heritage it's extremely valuable.

GIF has to be gif not jif, because the g is for graphics.

GIF has to be gif not jif, because the g is for graphics.

I saw BB King in a big venue once, he was playing through a tiny little amp beside him on the stage (couldn't see what it was but I'm guessing an old valve amp, 20w or something). The amp was mic'd up. No effects, just guitar, lead, amp the size of a shoebox, and his guitar tone was incredible.

I don't like painted necks at all but looking through this thread I don't think that can be an irrational hatred because so many of us don't like the horrible sweaty, sticky things.

@Singular Audio any plans for a pedal like this with a DI out?

The Axstar is a great bass, really well built and fantastic sound - lots of 80s slap character or plectrum attack with round wounds on, or huge fat dub sound with massive sustain with flats. I had one for a while but sold it to buy an ACG medium scale headless (Border Reiver) which is kind of the ultimate for small basses in my mind but costs a fair bit more...

I really like my TE Elf 1x10 combo. Great on its own for rehearsal or small gig, run DI from the back into PA for bigger gig to maintain a familiar tone. I might get a 1x10 cab to make a mini stack at some point but might not bother, bigger gigs always have good PAs these days...

I've been doing that with bikes for decades - I've had one bike that's been my favourite since 1993, except only the rear derailleur is left from the original bike, and I bought that in about 1997 to replace the original... But it's definitely still the same bike in its inner essence.

I would always upgrade the instrument first - you get so much more pleasure and satisfaction from playing a good instrument. Buy secondhand, perhaps on here, and you should be able to sell it on for pretty much what you paid sometime down the line. £300 should get you something good enough to gig with. You could then sell both old bass and amp, and buy a slightly better secondhand amp.

I've got the Elf 10" combo which I love. I'm currently planning a louder band and looking forward to adding a TE 1x10 speaker to make a cute TE mini stack. I was a huge Trace Elliot fan back in the 90s and it's nice to see the brand doing well. It's also mildly ironically amusing to see the brand doing well with tiny, lightweight amps and cabs...

How about adding an Elf 1x10 combo? Then you can do small gigs with just the combo, medium gigs with the head and cab, bigger gigs with both, and huge gigs using just the Elf amp as a preamp into the PA?

I think that will all work fine, along with the excellent advice above. You might also benefit from a couple of little monitors in your set-up, to allow band members to get a slightly different mix in different parts of the room, and to help manage mic feedback. The Thomann 'The Box' ones are great value.

On my Tokai, the neck is superb, the hardware is functional and the original electronics were crap - the Bartolinis were a huge improvement, but the passive tone control doesn't do much. So you might also need to contemplate doing something about that.

I have an 80s Tokai jazz which I put Bartolinis in many years ago and it sounds great. But it's fretless with flats on so a slightly different thing...

Turmeric is a well-proven anti-inflammatory which is also cheap and free of side-effects. A teaspoon a day in a smoothie would be worth a try although obviously might turn out not to help in any one particular case...

Some older albums in their original form still sound better to me in terms of production than almost anything since. I'm not a huge metal fan but AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' sounds better than any guitar rock album I can think of, for example. But there are plenty of other much-loved albums that sound horrible to me and I can't imagine how anyone approved the final mixes.

Yes - as I say, it's a totally OTT solution...

I still like the idea of a bass with a rechargeable battery and a USB C socket on the back to charge it. Or just an XLR out and phantom power. Both totally OTT as solutions but for some reason I'm drawn to an easy external power source.

Bass players: I'd never take my favourite bass out to a gig, it might get a tiny scratch on it and that would be really upsetting. Also bass players: just taking this one out the back to go at it with a rusty bike chain and an angle grinder for a lovely authentic-looking relic finish.