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As in money you mean? I don’t think there’s an absolute answer to this in the same way that I couldn’t say “how much would you do a gig for?” For me depping comes down to whether I can make it work with the rest of my life/gigs/work/ other commitments as much as anything else. It might involve other factors too - like whether the gig is close or far away, whether it’s a gig/venue with a decent reputation, how much notice they’ve got to learn the set etc and whether the dep is actually mates with the band or if it’s just work etc. I agree with the comment about having a run through. I’ve never rehearsed with any of the bands I dep with - it’s another time commitment and expense that might put off busy musicians. I’ve just learned my stuff at home and at most just run thru any unclear or difficult bits in the soundcheck. I wonder if the focus on “a pro player” is making things more difficult. There’s a lot of professional standard players who are still mostly combining music with other work, and depping might work for them.

Asked to play bass behind two acoustic guitarists tonight. They fist-bumped me so it probably wasn’t terrible was aiming for a dark jazz bass sound was sounded disconcertingly toppy through PA - more playing around needed

I have an SB14 which has been converted to fretless. It came with and still has the switch

Nice She’s quite good at double bass. also Kate Davis and post modern jukebox

My old SB14 had the switch

Wet Wet Vet

The Birdie Song - The Tweets

Rolf Alice Frank Ferdinand Meth Gibbons

The old SB14s (the original Sterling series) were very close to the US Sterlings - all they were missing was the coil selector switch. I'm actually still looking for a CAR one! Most MM replacement pickups are made to replicate the Stingray pickup - the Sterling pickup is more like a 4-string version of the pickup in the Stingray 5, with alnico magnets and a phantom noise-cancelling coil. Delano do an alnico MM pickup that'd probably a closer match to the Sterling than the Nordstrand. As for a replacement EQ, the Retrovibe one gets very close to the original Stingray preamp and it's stupid cheap. I'd actually leave the stock circuit alone as it's close enough to the original and maybe just upgrade the pickup.

That's really helpful, thanks 😁

Yes I know I posted this picture on the Warwick thread a few weeks back, but I was just running through a few things this afternoon ready for taking the new (to me) Warwick Streamer 5 and TE stack out for their first gig together next week, and the combination just sounds like everything I have ever wanted. It's taken me almost 30 years to finally get the set-up I lusted over as a teenager and it's exactly as I hoped! Has anyone else done the Warwick + TE combination?

The Cobras ... though we have no new video up yet ... but if you want to book us ...

Yeah, i thought this was quite a common practice. Thanks, ill bare that in mind.

Ride A White Swan - T Rex

I've been playing all evening and absolutely loving the sounds I'm getting from it. Dirty channel on my Revolt preamp pedal, both pickups on full, and it sounds huge.

It was exactly one of these that re-stoked my love of the Jazz! Picked one up in March last year - lovely Firemist Silver, which is more of a light blue if I'm honest... But WOW! The feel of the neck, the sound of the pickups, the matching headstock and the lovely stacked knobs! Truly beautiful and almost impossible to put down! It does feel like a genuine vintage bass, for the most part. Since then I have added a few more Jazz basses: a 2003 Am Deluxe QMT, a 2010 Victor Bailey, a 98 American Standard and 2 x American Pro II's (the most recent being the Dark Night, which will serve as the last bass i ever buy - still no one believes me hahaha) I started off on a Jazz many many ago (Mexican Standard J - still at my parents house in Ireland to this day) but decided the P was way more punk back then hahaha. Always preferred the look and the feel of the Jazz but preferred the sound of the Precision - maybe that's why I love my pink Mark Hoppus Mk 1 so much! I agree with some of the above posts around them sounding a little less full when compared with a P. They definitely need a bit more tweaking when trying to get them to sound more bottom-heavy but I do find them to be incredibly versatile when it comes to dialing in some different tonal options. It has taken me a long time to learn that the trick is NOT having both pickups and tone all the way up. I like swapping back and forth between J's and Stingrays live. I do find myself having to play a little bit lighter when playing with fingers and swapping from P or Stingray to a Jazz, as I find the Jazz pickups are a little less forgiving when it comes to 'digging in' - never a problem with any of my Precisions!

Hotone Bass Press or AMT Electronics WH-1B - I preferred both of these to the Dunlop too. The Bass Press is discontinued now though I think. Hotone have a newer wah, but no idea if it’s any good on bass. Looks like the AMT is still in production though! https://amtelectronics.com/new/amt-wh-1b/ The recent additions to the Morley range look quite small as in they’d fit on one of the long thin Pedaltrain boards, but they still take up a lot of width.

To file without the right tool (a real nut file), use an A string (in your case) with some sanding paper (800 grit or more) wrapped around it.

Whats the name of the band, I'll look you up. Nothing wrong with 60-ish musos slapping a double bass in punky billy bands 😀.

I've had both the USA and the SB14. The SB14 gets you 90% of the way there in terms of both sound and feel. The finish of the neck isn't quite so premium but the dimensions are pretty much the same. It has cheaper tuners. The USA sounded a touch fatter and just a bit more 'grown up' I would say. The top end was sweeter and it had a bit more booty. All the non USA Sterling stuff I've had was a good approximation but when you play them next to the USA ones they come up a tiny bit lacking sonically (I've had a few 2 and 3 band USA Stingrays along with a USA Sterling and also a USA S.U.B, SB14 and Ray34 - The USA S.U.B was miles better than any Far Eastern ones) If you're thinking of upgrading the pickups and preamp you're going to take it further away from the classic Sterling sound unless you find a genuine USA set of electrics somewhere. I think most people would stick a Nordstrand pickup in there. Bearing in mind an SB14 is probably about half the price of a USA Sterling on the used market (£600ish against £1200ish?) and is so close I would probably just leave it alone and stick with it. A £600 extra spend doesnt stack up to a 10% improvement in my books. Although having said that you'll probably always wonder what you're missing.....

A pro doesn't want (or need) a run-through, or to have to prepare anything. You'll have more success if you have good charts and the dep can just turn up and sight-read the gig.

It’s quite hard to find a reasonably priced, decent P, or P/J medium scale these days. The Ibanez Mezzo has been discontinued and the Squier Jaguar H is a bit marmite (I think it might have been discontinued as well). I recently had a near miss with an 80s Aria P/J and that gave me huge GAS for one of those 80s Japanese medium scale basses. There seemed to be so many of them back then. A lot of the Matsumoto produced Ibanez and Aria basses are commanding a premium these days, so I was delighted to see this Greco Atomic medium scale P/J for sale on Reverb for around the £235 mark. I took the plunge last week and it arrived yesterday. It’s actually in amazingly good condition for a bass from the 80s (I think it genuinely is from the 80s). The worst knock it has is where it obviously got put down with a bump or dropped on the end strap button, which caused some of the poly to chip off around the button. Apart from that there are some minor dings and scratches on the body that haven’t gone through the poly, which has aged from white to cream. There is a very slight hairline crack off one side of the neck pocket that looks pretty innocuous. The Jazz style neck is in great condition for its age with no significant dings and no cracks, or repairs. It’s carved from a single piece of maple which might make it vulnerable to headstock cracks/breaks but it is fine. The rosewood board is in really good condition with no gouges, or wear and the frets are fine, with no sharp ends . It looks as though it has Gotoh machine heads (marked Made in Japan). In common with the rest of the hardware, there is some pitting in the chrome but it’s all serviceable. It appears to have the original electrics: full sized pots (Vol, Vol, Tone), which turn smoothly without crackling. On the not so good side, the bridge was in a mess. The A string saddle was on the wrong way round so that the string was not sitting in the slot but crossing the adjuster screw and spring over the edge of the saddle. The D string saddle was upside down, with the Allen sockets on the bottom of the screws. It had the top 3 strings from a tired medium scale light gauge set on it and an E string which was .110” long scale bodged on and sitting proud of the nut (too big for the slot). The pickups were crazily high on the bass side and on inspection all the screw heads were cheesed, so clearly not functional. There is a slight twist in the neck/fretboard, according to my local luthier, which he doesn’t think is too tragic. After adjusting the truss rod (that fortunately seems to work fine) it is pretty straight. Adjusting the rod is a pain because the hex socket is at the heel end and there is no cut out in the body, so you have to release the strings and undo the neck screws to get at it. I gave it a quick once over yesterday afternoon: sorted the bridge saddles, lemon oiled the neck, adjusted one of the machine heads and put a set of barely used D’Addario nickel medium scale lights (45-100) on it. I also replaced all the pickup retaining screws, which enabled me to set them to a sensible height. All of that done it plays and sounds pretty good. I took it to a band rehearsal in the evening and I was very pleased with it. I still need to sort out the nut, which is a bit high and get the intonation set. It is incredibly light and really tiny, so a great bass for long gigs. It will certainly do fine as a back up to my Maruszczyk medium scale ElwoodI. In fact my bandmates asked why I had brought a toy bass. In short I’m well pleased so far. I will add some photos when I have reduced them in size.