SpondonBassed

Yust!

It's where you have to poke them to get that response that bothers me.

Yes. They're called muting pads. Some models of Musicman bass had them built in and were fully adjustable for each string independently, The Fender "ashtray" as found on the older models had a fixed foam mute concealed within it that acted on all of the strings at once. Both types act on the strings at the bridge, like palm muting. You can easily experiment with a wad of dense foam under the strings at the bridge for yourself or you can buy any of the commercially available versions of muting devices as a commercially available accessory. Strings come in a few varieties nowadays but broadly speaking, there is slightly less sustain with tapewounds than with roundwounds. If you ever come across superwound or pianowound strings these give extra sustain. Slappers love 'em but they've got to be extra hot on their muting skills because of it. It's all just noise otherwise. A well practised player can use a variety of muting methods with the palm at the bridge end and the fingers of either hand in combination. It's a good skill to have. Muting adds more to the mix than you'd think.

Deacon Blue, Dignity. Oi! Ricky Ross! You can NOT have it both ways. "He never lets on but I know 'cause he once told me" Is it never or once? Make your flipping mind up.

Aha! Braced but not belted. Nice one.

Is Silvia any good for metal? Heeheehee (Sorry Silvia)

No scarf joint necessary? It looks like the grain runs in favour of an angled headstock though.

Last time I saw you posting with packaging content, you had @Silvia Bluejay in the box "for scale". Mind you, It was a decent size for the DB that came with.

Some of us are anti-streaming remember. I don't do it as a rule.

It's a nice problem to have though isn't it? I don't carry my music with me nor do I stream. I had my fill of that with cassette tape and Walkman clones. I can see how some members might have a completist attitude in that they'd have to have all or nothing of the body of work that The Beatles did but where would you stop? With the Fan Club recordings? With the lost recordings of demos recovered? With foreign language versions of their hits? I've felt I should have their entire works in the past but despite having the means, as we do today, of compiling the whole collection with relative ease, I don't do anything about it. That said, I probably haven't listened to the non-hits so much. It's not quite the same as with an artist such as Bowie where you hear a song and although you can't relate to it until you've heard it through a couple more times, you know the time you invest in listening will be rewarded. I'd be more interested in having his entire works. This because I feel I can always "get" the essence of a Beatles tune relatively quickly but with Bowie I'd like to have his tunes on hand to really get under the skin of them. Weeding out Beatles tracks wouldn't be too hard for me. I would start with all of the top ten hits because I have heard them over and over. I will continue to hear them over and over too. That leaves the ones that I may not have given much of my time to in the past. Okay they're not perhaps as deep as Bowie's stuff but they were ten years before and I was still a young child. It's as if Pop Music was maturing alongside of me, becoming deeper and more sophisticated, a bit* like myself. *I use the term, "a bit", loosely. When I say "loosely"; I mean "not at all"

It's a little known fact that an obscure band by the name of Ultravox, I think they were called, had a slight hit with a song about Rigsby's cat. Compared to The* Beatles their back catalogue is a bit thin though. *We can go back to using the definite article with band names and not get condescending remarks from whippersnappers now can't we? Phew TFFT.

I should think so too. Oh wait. "Macca's tweeness". It's the hearing you know... With us old boys it's always the second thing to wither away.

Welcome Bob.

It will be quite a different story after your cheque has cleared though... Heeheehee Cheers Bert.

Frère Jacques?

I wanted a way to have the ends of the frets inboard of the fretboard edge slightly as opposed to flush with them. It could work well. Cheers.

It doesn't mean you can't use it over a recorded track with attenuated bass when you've played through a couple of times.

Nice colour.

I'm no slave to the stave myself. TAB me up spotty!

Have you tried doing a search for 'isolated bass'?

Before the Internet, we used to call folk like that bar room orators. You know, like the bloke down the pub that knows more than everyone else but won't buy a round of drinks because he's on unemployment benefit...? It's all talk on their part. You have actually made something.

Welcome Devon. I think you answered your own question in your second last paragraph. You aren't the only one. Although you ask for guidance, no-one can decide for you. As you know, until you are playing with others, you are at a loose end. The best I can offer is for you to have a go at as many genres as you can comfortably stomach. Playing is a different experience from listening and you may get value from genres that you might otherwise overlook.

I feel for you mate. If I wasn't surrounded by my family's junk I'd have loved to help (I'd have a DB as well). BobTheDog's suggestion is a good 'un if there are no takers. All the best.

Definitely worth it.