Owen

Same. Twice. Grim.

Yep and yep

Without a doubt. But very few of us are paid exclusively for things which only bring us joy. I am actually in the privileged position of enjoying my job, but there are many aspects of it which I would happily trade for sitting in a theatre pit playing Fame.

Yep, sight reading is constantly reading new stuff. Which, if you are a "trained" classical player, you are doing all the time. Many orchestral concerts are likely to be a 3-hour rehearsal in the afternoon and then a show in the evening, and that is it. It might be repertoire you are familiar with. It might not be. I do not play multiple instruments. But for me, sight reading is tied into the physical parameters of the instrument I am playing. I started reading on a 'cello. The top string on a 'cello is A. I have not played the 'cello in any meaningful way for over 40 years. When I am under pressure and not thinking, I have been known to read A at the top of the bass clef but play my open G on the Double Bass. But not on bass guitar. I have also started playing a 6-string bass with a bottom F#. This means that what my hands are used to has changed, and I cannot sight-read reliably on this. I can follow chord charts when I concentrate, and it is getting easier - but I would not take this 6 string to a paying reading gig because I know that the pathways between my brain and my hands are not in tune with each other. The older I get, the more I realise that none of us perceive music in the same way. I have some students who listen to ......... stuff I would not choose to listen to. But they REALLY relate to the energy and noise coming off what they are hearing, which does nothing for me. I know people who are multi-instrumentalists, and their approach to any instrument is that they pick it up, and it makes sense to them (Keys, Bass, Guitar, Drums, Reeds and Brass), so the reading is an extension of that for them. I am not wired that way, so relating the written to the instrument would be a whole new learning process.

I have never had any interest in Gibson basses. But that is lush!

Reading is big and clever. However an awful lot of written bass guitar parts are written by people who are not bassists and do not understand the function of bass. Expect lots of left hand piano parts etc. Reading for popular music is sometimes about taking the pitch but editing the busyness.

Windows/Mac blah blah blah. The lack of ffaff (that's Welsh for faf) for recording with a Mac was eye opening for me coming from Windows as well.

That must speak with the voice of Thunder!!!

That will be a capable and good sounding system. You could spend LOADS more and only get tiny incremental gains. I was in a church over the weekend with a system which was SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive. And yet, they could not spot the massive bump at 100hz which was drowning the room in mud.

It is always the way.

I have one on one of my basses. I love it.

As MattP said, Newtone Heritage strings. Your search is over.

Evrything is going to be fine. And given your geographical location you will be safe for the for sale forums due to shipping and tax.

My Overwater 6 weighs 10 1/2 lbs. I know there are heavier out there. But I have solved the weight issue by never playing it standing up. I am aware this might not answer your problem. I would go with a JMJ and be done with it. We project so much on to basses (I am the worst) but the JMJ will be functionally the same and you will make some money on the sale/purchase.

You would expect at least one of those would come out of the woodwork. Having said that, I would not sell my 4 string one. But my 5 string one is available!

I feel sad now

The items wanted section is a weird one. Every time I ask there, within 24 hours, someone has come up with it. Do people scour it constantly?

If I had more money than sense then I would happily drop 5 figures on a bow. A really nice bow is a joy. I would also get chests like Bowspeed have. They look lovely.

Do what you feel. I have owned one and realised that I REALLY like doing a side to side vibrato. This does not work well with roundwounds and fanned frets. Adapting to the fanned frets was easy peasy.