Skybone

I'd also suggest that your guitarist should spend some time at rehearsal dialling in his EQ to get it sitting in the band mix. OK, this is going to take a bit of patience for the rest of the band, but by doing it, he'll get a sound that will fit in with everyone else, rather than start on the endless trek of buying new gear. I assume that his EQ was set to sound Good on his own, rather than fit in with the band. I would also suggest that the miss should be boosted rather than scooped, which should give him a better overall sound. Also turn the Gain down, and use the Master Volume.

Cool looking pedal. Actually, Blacky builds his own pedals, and has a 'Blacky Blower' distortion pedal: https://bywaudio.com/index.php/product/blacky-blower/ Joe's Pedals has been going for a while. IIRC, he used to work in one of the boutique vintage guitar shops on Denmark St., but went out on his own, selling pedals from some of the more smaller pedal builders.

Very nice indeed. Enjoy!

Most played bass is my faithful old Rockinbetter RickenFaker. Most played, because I've had it longer than anything else I own. Bloody good bass too. Favourite is my relatively new, custom built 4003W-a-like. Beautiful bass, but I haven't played it too much as I've only had it a few months.

I'm using an HD500x, and although the effects on it are pretty much all guitar oriented, you can still get some good results, thanks to being able to split the signal path. Saying that, use a careful ear when setting them up, and it'll sound great in a band mix.

Congrats on your new arrival... and yes, take the damn stickers off! It took me 20-odd years of lusting after one to get one, but when I did, I was sold. One thing I will say, is that you may have to adjust your playing style slightly from playing an "F" style bass to the "R" style bass. A lot of people think that they can just dive straight in and play as normal, unfortunately, it's not that simple, and a lot of people find themselves in possession of a long-sought after bass that they just can't get on with. The best analogy is getting out of a modern family car, and into the classic car from the 1960's or '70's that you always loved. The car does the same things, but you have to adjust your driving style to suit the car, not the other way around. If you watch video's of people playing Ric's, you will notice that most tend to play between the neck & bridge pickups, rather than between the bridge pickup & the bridge. Well worth trying.

Sorry to be a bit of a nit-picker here, but I always thought that the point of the StingRay's pickup was where it was because it gave a very clear, defined sound. A beefed up rear J pickup. In fact the StingRay is known as quite a trebly bass (though it can do low end very well). I am assuming your meaning by the term "clarity", you mean that you'd like a fuller spectrum of sounds from the pickup, not just "quite trebly". Don't forget that, the the Precision bass split coil pickup is a humbucker (one coil wound in one direction, the other coil in the other direction = no hum), and will also give a fuller spectrum of sounds when it's EQ'd right. Might not look quite as "cool" as a big, beefy, twin coil pickup, but it's been doing the job for a long time with very few complaints (and that's before you look at the aftermarket replacement P pickups!).

I'm a bit partial to a bit of Rickenbacker-esque-ness.

Your Classic Ric Sound May Vary... I think the Ric is a very mids oriented sounding bass, though probably the higher miss. IMO it does sound great in a 3 piece because of the mids. For me, a P bass is more 'low down' thump, great for bands with more than 1 guitar, or guitar & keyboards. It does of course, excel in most situations, but there again, I don't play a P bass. Nik could always buy that Tech21 YYZ pedal in the For Sale section. 😀

I would disagree about scooping the mids, I'd argue you need to boost the mids & have a fair bit more treble than bass to get something resembling the "classic" Ric sound.

For something similar to what you're looking for. You should be able to find a Squier badged J bass on the second hand market, in Good condition, for a fraction of what you were thinking of spending on a new one. Saying that, you could also have a look out for a Vintage brand J bass, which get very good recommendations from people as not only being well made, solid instruments, but damn fine players too. Get a decent bass, and save yourself a few quid too. https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Vintage-VJ74-Reissued-Bass-MN-Sunset-Sunburst/2EYN

Scour the second hand market?

We weren't given the choice!

The years of playing recorder in Primary were forgotten once you left Primary.

To be fair, in the 3 years that we had to take music at school, I don't recall a single thing from the lessons. Certainly don't recall touching any instruments (stop sniggering at the back boy!). 40 minutes, once a week, well wasted. Now the kids are back in school, from what I'm being told, they actually get to choose the instruments they want to play, and actually get taught as well. Son has picked drums & bass, he's already tried to nick one of mine!

Sansamp VT500 Head & some sort of cab to go with it (Barefaced? Ampeg? Ashdown? etc.)

Looks the same as the one I had. They were around at the same time as the Rockinbetter, possibly even slightly preceded them, very late 90's / early 2000's to mid/late 2000's. This seems to be a very early version of the "MkII". The MkI had a different bridge, and a "J" style bridge pickup cover which was mounted directly onto the body (no chrome plate). The MkII introduced the bridge that's now synonymous with the "Chickenbacker", and also the chrome plate/cover for the bridge pickup. The later MkII's had the checker binding, and the "toaster" style neck pickup cover. It is a damn fine instrument in it's own right, if you enjoy playing it, enjoy playing it and to hell with whatever anyone else thinks. I never had any issues with any of the hardware, the tuners worked great, the strings could be intonated without major surgery, etc. The only "possible" issue, is that if you want to change the neck pickup, you might need another scratchplate, as the "replacement" pickups designed to fit the "other" bass are slightly longer. The bridge pickup is not a problem though. A most excellent gift! 👍

Don't forget that while he was doing Echobrain, he was also a member of Voivod.

Does your fuzz pedal have a "Mix" control, so you can blend the clean & dirty signal? If it does, great, put more clean signal through. If not, then maybe look at finding a fuzz pedal that has that ability. Unfortunately, any distortion pedal robs the low end from your signal, so although it will sound cool in isolation, in a band mix, there will be no distinct "bass".

The only thing I'd change after having one built would be the pickups and a case. Other than that, I'm very happy with the one I had built (see avatar).

If you're worried about your bass coming off your strap, then why not invest in: Other Strap Locks are available of course, some prefer Schaller's, some prefer Dunlop's, some prefer one of the other solutions available. Straps are a personal thing, do you want cheap, do you want comfy, do you want padded, do you want grippy, etc., etc. If you just want a bas(s)ic strap, then a plain, 3" wide leather strap is easily the best you can get. Grippy, comfy and cheap, at around £15. If you want padded or something else, there's plenty of options, like the ones mentioned above. I use a Mono M80 GS1. Wide, padded, grippy and comfy. Not cheap though, but not the most expensive either.

Very true. I'm not keen on the J Bass neck, but it still looks great.