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So far no one has mentioned those chinese basses with two necks on different sides of one body, like brand Busuyi: "8-string bass, 5 string fretless."

Guild Pilot bass was available with interchangeable fretboards, Novatone. Magnetic attachment. A short lived idea. talkbass.com/threads/crazy-project-still-in-the-works.482904/

No worries, Sir. I would love to see your necks available in bigger amounts. Status no longer exists, but @Kiwi does!

pickups - blend - vol - tone stack - output Pickup hots should be connected to the blend (double) pot which most likely is in the centre of the picture. (It is followed by the Vol.) Neck PU goes to another centre lug, and bridge PU to another. You can start the trial by connecting the plain preamp with a battery to an amp. Turn the amp volume up a bit, and touch the lugs of the blend pot. You should get some hum. Turn the pot to understand which way it works. You can also turn the other pots to get an idea what they do. Most likely T/B.

I think Ibanez MC-924 (AJ) made for Alphonso Johnson was one of the first ones with a vertically half fretted neck. Ashula is a horizontally half fretted. I had a white Ashula, but as I converted it to a 5 string, my bandmates were asking why the sound was changing within a song. I converted it back to a six and sold it. I think the idea is nice but there are obvious problems. If the song requires quite a big area from the fretboard, the sound changes can be bad for the music (record something and listen to the result). Sound is dependent on the electronics, too. That's why the change between the fretted and fretless notes can be substantial: one adjustment may not be ideal for both worlds. Fretless board after frets in a vertically divided board requires neat work from the luthier. When the fretboard ages, it may be complicated to level everything to original specs. I am not quite sure if a two neck monster would still be a better option if the instrument was light (like Basslab?). Putting both instruments to one single neck is an interesting idea, but I couldn't live with it - I am too old to learn new, or even old tricks. And no, I am not a very good player. My thinking of the instrument is maybe ancient and slow: from 4 to 5, from fretted to fretless, all changes require changing my attitude to the song and playing.

An old fart like me remembers hifi stuff that were equipped with tone defeat switches. The only thing was that there usually was something hidden behind that switch, like bass boost. Flat, what is a flat response if it wasn't measured? Even better, could the system (amp&cab) be equalized to flattest possible? I belong to the group of people that wants the electronics of the bass to be lo-Z and adjustable (if not transparent). Hi-Z electronics usually colour the sound and cut highs so much.

...and underplating is usually nickel (Ni). Still in a place like plug and jack the wearing resistance should be substantial. If the base material is hard, it helps the coating a lot (and the other way around). Otherwise coating a piece of cheddar with diamond like carbon (DLC) results like it was coated with carbon like diamond. No support, no hard surface.

Just add @Kiwi carbon necks and there are custom pickup makers here, like @The Guitar Weasel.

If you are not into doing your own stuff, loan, steal, and arrange. Like Paul Anka did his lounge recordings. I think nothing is sacred in the blues scene any more, a song in major can be arranged pretty easily to the blues/minor scale. If the owner of the rights is nice (and you to them!), even some words can be changed from the original. Our band wanted to change few words from an old punk song, as we wanted to make a bossa nova of it. Like we were young and played punk then, now we are middle aged people with kids. We wanted to make the song very laid back, but the changed words was the final straw. We weren't given the possibility to publish it. (Even though the original artist gave a thumbs up of the idea and our arrangement.)

Oh dear, 8 weeks! But the quality is outstanding. Very nice to see so many phases of your work.

It is called flash gold (plating). The thickness is in the scale of micrometres, sure it will wear out in active use. Gold is so soft, all materials around it are harder.

Again you make the building process look like it was easy. All details are thought through, like fret ends! Can you give an approximate building time of this beauty? If this was the fifth bass this year, how many are you planning to do by the end of 2025?

Peavey has used those VFL pickups for some time. Vertical Flux Loading or something like that. @kodiakblair sure has more knowledge on those, too.

Mains transformer would be doable to replace. I think you have one nice Selmer set. It may have only some historical value, but that head could interest people - think about an ampeg Portaflex. Those cabs have old Goodmans elements. If they aren't working, they may be replaceable. Our Amps & Cabs specialists will help you with them.

@Bassassin knows!

Sorry, I meant the load resistor, and a switch (in the jack) that chooses between the resistor load and the cab. But as you use Speakons, that's not an option. Your amp will not only sound good, but looks good, too.

Are you going to put some extra safety resistor to the output, in case the cable is disconnected? Do the connectors have suitable switches?

30 W x 16 ≈ 500 W QED

My bandmates wanted a different sound to certain songs. I put an SWR Interstellar Overdrive to the Glockenklang Soul power amp in. I can say that the power amp sounds really good with another (good sounding) preamp, too.

...and their playing happens at the ear's most sensitive frequencies.

My first bass lesson was a shout: "Where's your cable!" Now I carry at least one in every gig bag I have. And one for the g-word player who...

Pino Palladino (fretless MM) using roundwounds. Louis Johnson (fretted MM) using flatwounds - and slapping. If there were rules, just break them.

Those orange pictures cannot be seen here. Convert them to jpeg.

Some want to tame tiny technical errors in their playing (volume based, not wrong notes). This may also help some fx like octavers when in front of the unit. If you want to use all of the potential available of the fx you have, I would put the comp to the end of the chain. Then your playing affects effects (?) before you compress the result. Think about an envelope filter that squeaks after dynamic changes in your playing. I suggest you to try it right after the bass, after an OD/dist/fuzz, and after the fx chain. Turn knobs bravely to get an idea of how a comp really works. It can be an effect or a peak tamer. Many want the comp to cut the peaks (less peak volume), but also to push more vol to the sustain phase of the note (you know ADSR?). That way the volume sounds louder than it actually would be without a comp. Do trials and read more about compression from Sound On Sound articles.

If you haven't tried different strings, it's really hard to judge the instrument's abilities, and performance. Some strings are a match with the bass, some don't. I like 120, too. It (GHS SS RW, exposed core) was the best sounding B string in a Quantum 5 SPi.