discreet

No.

Are you sure that round thing is a toroidal transformer..?

There are many options available used if you acquire a decent 12" cab, a reliable power amp and a Behringer BDI-21... Pre-amp can be upgraded as funds allow, i.e. VT Bass, Zoom, Helix, etc. Modular, cheap, upgradable and can be very powerful if you buy an amp than can be mono bridged.

Do that! At the very least it will be interesting and you'll definitely learn something even if you end up not using any of it.

Online help is available (and essential), but generally there are no short cuts. There are as many ways to do things as there are people doing them. Once you get a handle on it, you'll be fine, but it may take a little while. Baby steps, no flying before you can crawl, etc. etc.

The Hayman Company was formed in 1969 when Jim Burns and Ivor Arbiter went into partnership. Also involved was Bob Pearson from Vox (designer of the Phantom range) and two former Burns colleagues, Jack Golder and Norman Holder, who took care of the woodworking and truss rod engineering. Hayman produced three guitar designs but the 4040 was the only bass. These basses were good to play however, and produced sounds somewhere between a P-Bass and a Rickenbacker. Each Superflux pickup had eight adjustable screw pole pieces so it was easy to balance the output from the strings, and they benefited from the hidden 'Vibrasonic chamber' beneath. Joint string trees neatly feed the strings from nut to tuners. The bridge was a curious affair with a clear Perspex anchor and the steel saddles on a separate plate. The slab body had minimal curving to the body edge front and back and the overall shape is similar to the early Wal Pro basses that would appear a little later on. The neck was fixed using a standard 4-bolt plate with a separate chromed plate displaying the serial number. Lefties were made to order. The company morphed into Shergold, controlled by Golder and Holder, after Jim Burns pulled out. The confusion as to when production finished is due to their serial numbering system, which suggests some Hayman basses appeared in 1975. The Hayman brand name was applied to instruments distributed by Dallas Arbiter until termination of the contract in 1975. From 1975 to 1982 their guitars and basses appeared under their own 'Shergold' brand. In short, the Hayman 4040 and Shergold Marathon basses are very good indeed. I owned a Hayman 4040, sold it, regretted it. I also had a Shergold Marathon, sold it, regretted it.

There is no scenario in which you won't be tearing your hair out, however much you spend.

This. If you've not used a DAW before, any of them will seem daunting and unknowable at first. There is no option that doesn't have a fairly steep learning curve. Reaper is the most affordable and will do everything you need to do. YouTube tutorials are handy.

A commendable attitude, but the majority of audience members don't know what a bass is, or what it sounds like. Therefore they'll hardly notice a 'mistake' that lasts for a fraction of a second. You know this, of course. I play in the hope that there will be at least one person present who appreciates my efforts, but generally audiences are just a bunch of randoms with bad hair who've had too much to drink. They shuffle about uncertainly and bump into things. *Sigh*

I suppose if you use sandpaper you know the shim won't slip. I would imagine that even fine grit would provide plenty of traction...

This. Whatever it takes to get your point across.

The drummer or the dog? I can't eat rice - I'm basmatic.

I've got a Peavey TNT160 combo that smells of curry. Anyone interested?

Rediscovered 'Here Comes Rhymin' Simon' by Paul Simon. My parents played it a lot when I was a kid. Had cause to play it again recently and found it an emotionally shattering experience, which was unexpected. Especially 'American Tune'. Wow.

I've used FL Studio for years and it just keeps getting better and better. Free upgrades for life. But I would agree that the DAW people tend to recommend is the one they use themselves and have got used to over time. Anyone contemplating getting into this for the first time has to realise that there is a learning curve, especially if you're not familiar with studio processes in the first place. But FL allowed me to start simple and work up. Needless to say I've never outgrown it and probably never will.

Sounds good to me. Markbass are fairly pricey, but you get what you pay for.

Bloody hell, loads of old codgers still shuffling about, then. Anyone fancy putting together a band just for Saga cruises? A captive audience of like-minded seniors guaranteed! Imagine it - free Ralgex and all the Sanatogen we can drink!

As far as mid-20th century pop/rock goes... Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The bass was mixed front and centre on this album at a time when McCartney had been influenced by James Jamerson, a man whose name he wasn't to know until some years later.

Hey! Why didn't that come out as 'Pinktorpedoos Reaper'??

Wrong website again, I think. *Hides in shed and attaches car battery to nipples with jump leads* Ow! Oww! Ow! Ooh, yeah.

I'd pay to see that. Some people think playing root 8ths is easy.

Pretty much everyone on this bloody board is elderly and should know better! As said above, the main factor in keeping old bass players active is the advent of lightweight amplification that sounds as good as its chunkier predecessors, and to a lesser extent, the availability of much lighter basses. My current Jazz bass is 7.5lbs and imminent combo will be around 16kg. Why we weigh basses in imperial measures and amps in metric I don't know, but there it is.

Yes it does, thanks for your thoughts. The band I'm (possibly) playing with has a quiet, controlled drummer. They are not a rock band. So that could make all the difference. Mind you, there's nothing worse than having no headroom, or even thinking you may have no headroom, so I'm still not sure...

I can't tell if you're cute or not, hidden behind that sofa. Tsk!