discreet

Whatever - that's a fair diary and decent venues.

HB guitars and basses are great. The QC can be variable, but any faults are small and can always be easily fettled if you can do your own set-ups. I've modded three PB-50s now and they are very playable indeed and sound great with decent flats fitted. I also have a lovely CAR/maple Strat which sounds exactly like a Strat and has an insanely low action. Beautiful guitar and cost £56 brand new. Crazy. The bass in the OP would be great if you want a light fiver in your arsenal. And don't forget you always have a 3-year warranty with HB/Thomann.

Interested to know how effective it proves to be.

Great, now I'm into it! Just shows how 'looky' we are.

Wants me to create an account with onedrive, which I'm reluctant to do.

Well he does, you know...

That's a relief. The whole scenario was becoming almost unbelievable.

Woah! That I'd like to see! And then go home.

Understandable. Decades of exposure to flakes and fantasists will do that.

More like thirty seconds before the first number starts, staggering drunk. Male singers can be even worse.

So he's probably too old by most bands' criteria??

Worry not - I have one of those too, thank God - only the second I've found in 44 years. I didn't appreciate the first one, I thought all drummers were that good. Imagine my disappointment over the next four decades as the awful truth dawned..!

Wow. I'm sure it could also be adapted for use as a crossbow, in case there are any critics in the audience.

Yes, well... it so happened that the drummers in question were annoying, anti-social idiots whose drumming skills were questionable. Had they been pleasant, considerate people with a great sense of rhythm, things may have been very different.

Les Dawson the well-known accordion player??

You miserable bugger. I'm glad I played all those bum notes, now.

So that was you? Tight git!

Sorry, but I've spent way too much time driving drummers and their drums around. Extremely irritating, especially when they don't even keep their drums at the place where they live! It's like they deliberately do it on purpose just to be annoying! And then, when they extract the urine by moaning, being totally ungrateful, not ever offering any contribution to petrol costs and then, on top of all that REFUSE TO BLOODY PLAY IN TIME, it makes me feel like chucking it all in, buying an accordion and playing it outside Sainsbury's.

Oo-er John, you dark horse.

+1. And remember that most of this string noise isn't heard when amplified and particularly not in a mix.

Let's hope he can sing!

Oh no, that must have been a shock to learn about your low standards. But on the bright side you dodged a bullet, so...

Crikey. Gigging isn't very good for the environment, is it? But then neither is anything that humans do... I really hope we do ourselves in before we break the planet. It would be a very lovely place without us in it. Anyway, that could be for another thread...

Yep, car. Can very easily get my small amount of gear in my car which is a standard family hatchback. It's quite possible to do London gigs with a car if you spend time researching parking options and times on Street View. Bands in which I'm obliged to ferry about other band members and their gear (particularly drummers) tend to be very short-lived...

Absolutely. Absence of string noise is one of the many reasons I use flats.