EssentialTension

You can get used to the switch by buying a capo and putting it at fret 2 on a 34" scale bass tuned down to D-G-C-F. With the capo you now have a roughly 30" scale bass tuned E-A-D-G. After you get used to that, buy a Fender Mustang bass or similar. Story has it that the bass on Hendrix' All Along the Watchtower is Hendrix playing a Fender Mustang.

Except LIberace could actually play the piano.

Chord tones are primary

Playing in relation to scales one is perhaps more likely to think in terms of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Playing in relation to chord tones one is perhaps more likely to think in terms of 1-3-5-7-9-11-13 (while of course taking account of any diminished or augmented tones in the relevant chord) and the bassist may want to outline the chord tones more than the scale tones

Not even Liberace?

Plug in and play, I don't have this thing called 'your sound'.

Always four, and a Squier Bass VI.

For anyone who hasn't seen it ...

I corrected it for you.

Didn't Dino Danelli become the fake Paul after McCartney's death? It would explain why the drumming is so good on the first McCartney solo album.

Sometimes it's a McCartney thing, but if not Macca then it's Ringo usually.

Solves a problem that didn't and doesn't exist.

The B:assmaster is fantastic but not cheap ... then again it's much cheaper.

Looks ok to me.

A good drummer is familiar with the use of brushes and beaters as well as sticks.

Open string notes are four notes (or more) that are available in all positions. I don't understand why one would never use them.

Some material of possible interest here: Fender stock bass strings in the 50s/early 60s

... it seems neither did anyone else.

Bridget Kearney previously played with Joy Kills Sorrow ....

Good idea.

Tension (at a particular pitch and scale length) is dependent not on gauge as such but on mass per unit length of string ... and mass per unit length of string depends on nature of construction, not merely on gauge. Hence, the same gauge but different construction can lead to a different tension. Gauge is not a measure of tension.

Dying words: when musicians turn their last albums into self-eulogies

I regularly played through a MAG300 and two 1x15" cabs between 2004 and 2009. They sounded good to me and never broke down but some people don't like them. You'll have to decide for yourself.