Baloney Balderdash

Uhm? That's not Mud Buckers though (regular humbuckers), neither is the one in Ped's Mustang (Thunder Bird humbucker). HümbÅgg3r5 I5 ThÅ53!

"A Self Called Nowhere" from what might have been They Might be Giants's last great album, though a masterpiece at that that is, "John Henry".

Well, really I was just trying to score some funny points at your expense. On a more serious note I actually think the car wheel balance weights seems like a really brilliant solution. So much that I will definitely be looking into where to get such and likely try it out on a slightly neck heavy (or rather unusually light weight body) bass of mine. Even if personally I would probably fit the weights inside the control cavity, rather than outside to the back of the body.

The Harley Benton GuitarBass (take on the Fender Bass VI concept) that I own came with absolutely dead on perfect fretwork, even the nut slots were cut dead on perfect, and while that is not among the absolute cheapest basses/guitars that Harley Benton offers, it is not among their most expensive offerings either (which in any case are still in the budget/lower middle tier price range). I realize this is pure luck, cause certainly buying budget instruments is a bit of a crap shoot, although these days with pretty high odds for getting a more than just decent instrument, and talking fretwork in specific it needs to be a considerably higher priced instrument before anything additionally is done in the fretting process before shipping from the factory anyway, also Harley Benton instruments are generally known as some of the best value budget instruments out there, and finally Thomann got 30 days full, no questions asked, return policy, with shipping expenses for the return covered, so really nothing to loose but the initial shipping cost (which actually even will be free as soon as the order is above a certain value that most instruments, even budget ones, would exceed anyway). As for OP's question, yes, a proper setup should be considered needed for any bass or guitar when bought new, regardless of price, it's not exactly rocket science though, and there are plenty of great guides to be found either in written form with illustration or in form of video instructions on how to do this on the internet, just a YouTube or Google search away.

Just drill a series of holes through the fretboard all the way through the neck where the dot fret markers are now, and chop off excess wood from the headstock as well, then fill the control cavity with cement/concrete... Fixed!

I've always thought Dorian to have a very pronounced folky quality/character to it. Like traditional folk in specific. "Scarborough Fair" for example is in Dorian. However though the Dorian Scale can get quite jazzy too, depending on which notes in specific you chose, especially if some chromatic notes are mixed in as well, specifically from the Blues and Minor Scale in the same key. Still folky is definitely Dorian's inherent quality/character if you ask me.

Adding a shim won't allow for lower bridge saddles, only higher, also, not sure if it is this you speak about or not, but a shim won't cure a so called ski jump at the upper frets end of the neck either. Finally 1/2 a millimeter part shim seems overly excessive, you need much less than you might think. If the neck indeed got a ski jump (again not entirely sure if this is actually what you speak of or not), that is a kink upward angle at the upper frets end of the neck, I would send the bass back for a replacement.

Tim Hecker - "Hatred of Music I" from the masterpiece of an album "Ravedeath, 1972" :

Your loss! Being capable of engaging with the audience is actually considered a valuable asset in a front man...

Or firmly.

While that definitely would have helped you chose something closer to what they actually wanted to hear, and potentially perhaps even could possibly have had you pass their audition, it's mainly their responsibility and fault as far as I am concerned, and their loss if they miss out on a potential otherwise best suited candidate (not saying you necessarily was that, but in general) because of their lacking auditioning methods/procedure, that as I have argued in previous replies, at least judging from what you told us, really leaves a lot to pure coincident and doesn't really test/prove anything that would actually matter in terms of whether/how well a given applicant/candidate would fit into their band or not.

It's kind of a cliché, and I don't agree either, still in the context that was actually pretty funny.

Sure, fair point, however that doesn't change the fact that their method of auditioning would prove little about a given bass player's actual qualifications to play in their band, and that there would have been far more obvious and effective ways to actually test this (that is at least if the main objective is to find out whether the applicant/candidate's playing suits the band, rather than testing the applicant/candidate's ability to conduct research and solve riddles). Also the analogy is not quite accurate, as it is really easy to test a bass players ability in actual action, while that is not really a convenient method for testing candidates for a job in a bank. Also him playing Jaco tells absolutely nothing about how well he would fit into the band, neither on a personal, social, skill or playing style level, and neither really would him having played just about anything else, which is my main point. Enjoying and being able to play Jaco doesn't in any possible way rule out anything else (though, assuming it is done right and well, it at least does prove a certain level of technical proficient, unlike churning out root notes). Again though, true, we don't know the full context, so could very well be that this was not actually the only deciding factor, however, commenting on the actual information that we did get, that still doesn't make that particular method an actual valid way to test/prove anything whatsoever, except maybe for complete lack of skills (that is as a valid method to detect lack of skills, but nothing else, and beyond that otherwise to conclude anything concerning the nature of the applicant/candidate's personality, general taste, general personal playing style and ability to adapt and fit in, would be faulty logic, likely to be based on prejudices alone, hence my initial comment about them obviously being retards), which conclusively actually would make playing something that would require a high level of skills seem like the obvious and most logical choice. So alone judging from the information we were given it seems like the real reason that he was turned down was that he had too high thoughts about his fellow human being's ability to think rationally and failed at being able to read their minds (which sadly seems to be the shortcoming and following downfall of many a reasonable person).

The point is however that he is not actually Jaco, and just because he played Jaco doesn't mean that is the only thing he can do or that he can't also serve simpler rock tunes, or wouldn't have fitted into a band doing so. It's a matter of their inquiry not proving anything or being suited to test whether he fit into the band or not. For one I enjoy some complex jazz tunes as well as some much more simple rock songs. Their method of auditioning simply doesn't make any sense, there is no logical reasoning behind it (in that case it is at best faulty logic), and it is simply not a valid test, especially not for a bass player, as the alternative, as I wrote, would be him playing root notes for 5 minute straight solo, which would have proven exactly just as little (or actually it would in fact have proven even less). It would have made sense though if being able to read minds were their main criteria for a bass player. As I edited in in my original reply (while you were writing your reply): It's like in that ancient Icelandic saga where a woman is tested on her wits by being told to neither come naked nor dressed, neither fed nor fasting, and neither alone nor in company for a date.

Yeah, wrong choice, you obviously should have played "Smoke on the Water". Seriously what the flip did they expect, you playing root notes from songs solo in 5 minutes straight? Just doesn't make any sense. It's like in that ancient Icelandic saga where a woman is tested on her wits by being told to neither come naked nor dressed, neither fed nor fasting, and neither alone nor in company for a date. Makes me wonder how they auditioned their drummer and how he ever managed to pass. If they wanted a bass player who doesn't womble but serve the song, fair enough, but then you would think they would have wanted to actually hear you in the context of the band actually playing songs. I'd say probably for the best you didn't get the job cause obviously they were retards.

"Love is..." - Dinosaur Jr.

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Personally I like music that isn't stuck in strict conventions for the mere sake of conventions, or should I say lack of imagination or fear of sticking too much out from the norm, to the point where the result is the music equivalent to a mediocre mass produced assembly line product, ending up sounding exactly like just about everything else, with no soul or personality. That said more than anything I like each instrument to fit into the respective piece of music they happen to be playing a part in. There is definitely a time and a place for the bass to be flashy, just as there is a time and place for it to play nothing but root notes. But there is definitely such a thing as underplaying as well, where the music suffers and never reach its true potential because of it.

Easy, that's just listing all Royal Blood and Death From Above 1979's songs, starting from one end of their back catalog up until and including their most recent release.

This!

EHX 16 Second Digital Delay (the big flat black and white one with sliders) Maxon FL9 Flanger (the small 4 knob yellow one) Pigtronix, I think, phaser of some kind (Envelope Phaser?, not really that familiar with Pigtronix models) (the big green one with big yellow fonts). The small green one he pretends to be tweaking in that shot is likely either a Maxon or Ibanez Tube Screamer, but could also be a Boss PH-1 Phaser, the 3 knob blue one next to it looks to me like it'll be a Boss CS-2 Compressor, though it could also possibly be a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver, the one he is covering with his arm on that shot, under the small blue and the small green one, in between the Moog, which by the way appears to be the MF-105 MuRF resonance filter one, and the Whammy, from what I can tell by studying the short clip of the video that focus on the pedal board, appears to be the original big box EHX Big Muff Pi NYC, the small 3 knob purple one, I have no idea, but my best guess is some kind of fuzz.

Battle of the B Pop bands. Got to say there are some rather bizarre bastards in between. The Voyager song does display a genuinely solid musicianship and a pretty outstanding understanding of how you craft an absolute Eurovision pop banger, and you got to give them credits for successfully managing to fusion in aspects of genres otherwise usually not associated with this format, although unmistakably still pop (progressive Eurovision pop fusion?), but like everything else in this competition it is painfully overproduced and over polished, and the lyrics are toe crigingly bad as well. A genuine superfluity of cheese for sure.

Does that mean that cabinet building based on Celestion speaker units really was more or less nothing but qualified guesswork prior to 2008? Or have I misunderstood something (which is very likely, as I have very little theoretical knowledge of how to properly build a cabinet, or what a speaker's specs actually means, beyond frequency response, sensitivity and wattage, for that matter)?

When I tried the NYXL strings I thought they sounded too polite and lacking character compared to the regular XL strings, which in my opinion got a bit more of an interesting edge and personality. Now, the NYXL doesn't sound bad in any possible way, actually on the contrary my main issue with them is that they sound too perfect, so if you prefer a more polite and polished, hi-fi I suppose, tone, they might be exactly what you are looking for.

I think they are super cool looking.