Paul S

I suppose if all these cricket puns don't work well in Latvian, just do a translation with Googly.

I wonder of the fretless is a keeper?

Bet they don't cost peanuts, though.

To increase your options, if it doesn't have to be Precision shaped, although still sounding like a precision, it is worth considering a Hondo II Professional H1015 - the double cutaway job. Necks are brilliant, sometimes they have DiMarzio pickups. Bridges are generally crap 3 point jobs. Weigh a ton but that might not be an issue for you. Sometimes they can be picked up for peanuts. Also a Westone Thunder, although prices for these have rocketed recently. The 1A, particularly, sounds huge. If you were really lucky an early Peavey Fury might come along. They can be usually picked up for very little and are a quality USA built bass. 'The best precision bass Fender didn't make' I have seen written. V. slim neck, aggressive pickup with a superb tone.

I could do with an extra option O eventually. 😊

I found it useful. I mean, next time I am in New Zealand (assuming I'd be let in) and need to send a 2.8m long parcel I know who to use. 🧐

This is going to be a popular ... YYZ, Rush. Don't care for Rush at all as I struggle to get past the vocal. Quite like this one.

Is this tone appraisal whilst actually playing or have you heard recordings played back and find it lacking? I just find it hard to imagine you need more bass. For me and what I am aiming for - blues rock 3 piece - guitar bass drums - I set my eq for a slight bass cut, slight low mid boost, slight high mid cut, treble flat. Weeny bit of drive that fattens the sound, plus a smidgeon of compression. Then vary the tone knob depending upon the song. But maybe the tone I aim for is different to the one you are? I don't know - all so very subjective.

Are you talking about this in the context of playing in a band or by yourself?

Played a 45 minute slot at Orwell Quay, Ipswich, as part of the Summertime Ipswich festival. Well run event, great stage and sound. We played well, went down well, picked up a few new followers. Smiled all the way home Note to self - I've had the Squier JV Precision longer than any other bass, after kissing so many frogs for so long before or since getting it - it is The Prince. Why do I still look?

2pm today, Ipswich harbour my lot Toredown are playing a 45 minute set, part of Summertime Ipswich. Come and heckle!

A modelling mic. So if I sang into it and set it up with a Paul Rogers sim I'd sound like him - is that how they work?

Excellent! Cradle of Judas is particuarly appealing.

The answer for my circumstances is 'it depends'. My band is a blues rock trio and a good gig for us is one where there are punters who are into this genre and you get that wave of appreciation back. Money/size of venue are side issues - none of us in the band play for the money but for the enjoyment. This year we've had a couple of marvellous gigs supporting pro blues bands who are touring - we get to play on big stages with fab sound to a larger appreciative crowd than at a small pub. But for very little money - we only just cover our costs. We've also played a couple of gigs at a very small music pub where the management and the punters like us a lot and they are great gigs that pay 3x the support gigs. But put us in a town centre pub where the usual pub fodder is expected and we get zero interest - one place guitarist Alan was putting his heart and soul into a solo and there was a punhter stage left playing a fruit machine. So we've stopped doing them.

Bands that have gigged and lasted more than a few rehearsals. A fair bit of overlap between some of these, 4 were going concurrently at one point. Still The Thrill. Short lived blues rock band with 2 guitars, keys, drums, bass and vocals. Keys and drummer were just plain weird. This morphed into: May Contain Nuts - with new drummer and no keys. Standard pub band fare. Lasted 5 years until singer got a Napoleon complex. This morphed into: 5 Shades of Grey with a new singer. Xerocks - heavy rock covers, 2 guitars (one sang), bass, drums. Great potential but internal friction saw if off. Illegal Tender - odd covers, mainly but not exclusively 80s stuff. 2 guitars (both sang) drums (he sang, too), bass. Immense fun. Ran it's course over 5 years, band leader decided to pull the plug after a period in limbo after some 'musical differences' became apparent. Retrograde (awful name, just awful) - 80s rock covers with male and female vox, guitar, keys, bass, drums. Quality band, huge potential that went down the pan once the singers became an item, leaving respective partners, wanted to change the band. Wayward Sons. Pop/rock covers band (not the famous one, although we coined the name before them). Guitar, vox, keys, drums, bass. Excellent band. This morphed into: Just Jovi - unsurprisingly a Bon Jovi Tribute band. Same personnel as above. Another quality band I am proud to have been a part of, huge potential that was rarely reached as everyone had other projects ahead of the queue. I stood down during lock down for assorted reasons, mainly because my heart wasn't in Bon Jovi music. Tore Down - my one current band, 3 piece blues rock playing music I love and my favourite of all those. Long may it continue!

I used to use one of this type of thing when I had a cab. Cheap, lightweight packs away to nothing but sturdy enough to do the job.

Not surprised - you are right up at the dusty end, always a worry.

Indeed, I have done it before and been out of sorts all night.

Don't you usually stand the other way around? Edit, I don't mean facing backwards obvs.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a case that didn't fit one. Pretty much any generic case would fit, plus the scores of fitted ones for P or J basses. My current fave is the SKB-44.

Do you mean annals?

Exactly so - earplugs to attenuate the volume. Or, in my case, I use my app. to reduce the volume of my hearing aids. Our set up came to £2K on the nose - 2 x EVOX 8s, a new desk, leads etc. I bought it and the other guys pay me a depreciation cost each year - working on the stuff losing half it's value over 3 years, they each paid me £110 a year. Coming up to 3 years now, so then they'll pay me £55 a year for 3 more years, assuming I am still alive and gigging. When you look at it that way it isn't much.

I'm certainly a massive fan of the EVOX 8 units my band use. As I keep saying, I feel they are a quantum jump in our FOH and on-stage sound, portability, speed of set up/breakdown and can't recommend them highly enough.

Wot he said.