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I have an Ashbory (Fender) and I find it a completely different instrument to a bass, so I'm not sure how practicing on it would be particularly beneficial. I'd suggest a Steinberger Spirit or Hohner full-scale headless bass. (My Rickenberger.)

I'm now 68, and although still in the music business, I retired from live playing a couple of years back. I was basically a freelance player all my working life since the age 17. Although I did the regular show/cabaret tours and static theatre runs (cruises in the early days), the rest of the time was filled out with depping. Even on shows I would dep out my show to go and do other dep work. Functions/sessions/pubs/weddings/corporate events and even other shows! It would break the boredom and often more/extra money. I was probably part of a scene with a few other Bassists (other musicians as well) who would share the work around and get calls from the same fixers or bandleaders. Most would be good sight readers, always good buskers/good listening ears and knew a lot of tunes. Quite often, on West End function gigs, the Rhythm section would do dinner music anywhere between one and two hours, so a knowledge of busking Jazz standards/show book tunes would be common as well. Although the fake book could be used if there were tunes you didn't know. Sometimes I would know days or weeks in advance all the relevant details, other times, like others have said, it could be very last minute and I wouldn't have a clue who I would be working with. All the same criteria were involved though. Good prompt timing, dress code, keep your mouth shut on gigs, keep up to date with popular tunes that most bands would do, including certain Basslines that tunes would be reliant on. Watching and listening on the gig for cues for endings, key changes, what key the tune might be in. Not overplaying or showing off. Band leaders would often hold up or down a certain number of fingers for the keys. Two up/three down etc... If reading was involved, always ask if there were any tricky parts that I should be aware of. It all became just second nature, with the occasional flying by the seat of your pants thrown in. Depping for me, was an important part of filling in the gaps in my diary, so it became a parallel way of life. As it was with many musicians from my generation. It was the normal, really, and all part of being a working musician. Some dep work/freelancing took me to all kinds of places in the World as well.

Around and under 200 quid. If it's a gig bag on a bus, I don't want to be worried about dings I didn't know Harley benton offered a mini, Need to check out string availability

Rain and Dole and Tea. Dave Greenfield & JJ Burnel

Fire And Rain - James Taylor

Electric scooters on the road, no regard for, and taking no responsibility for their own safety

Let us know how it goes @Blondy

Good luck today. Have a good one.

Just electric bikes in general. And even worse electric scooters. Mind you, I con't consider disliking them irrational. There's someone near me who rides his e-scooter on the road at night; yesterday evening around 10 they were going along the road, parallel with an e-bike.

JB-62CC Mini SP - Harley Benton https://share.google/PcjFJeHxomT5Dheq6 A 23inch scale Jazz bass might do the trick?

Any headless is about the length of a g-word. If your background is violins, and your fingers understand very short scales, a fretless Guild Ashbory is small.

Do you have any preconceptions about each amp SIMs tone or that you simply didn't like ANY of the amp tones it has? I only ask as I scrolled through the amp sounds and I was underwhelmed that I 'really' disliked the classic SVT sounds etc BUT I stopped listening with my eyes and happened upon a couple of amp SIMs that I thought were good and with a bit of tweaking (inc some cab tones) they were very useable; in particular the SWR SIM. I would never have delved into an SWR tone if choosing from any amp available but when I switched off my preconceptions I could really get it to work for me.

Have you ever seen the rain? - Credence Clearwater

Just got it, thanks for the heads up 👍

I've depped regularly and i used to be really good at remembering songs with no cheat sheets I learned 30 songs by The Jam for a dep many years ago, I had 2 weeks to do it but the shortest notice was for a band I'd done a few deps for but I got a call whilst eating my roast dinner abiut 6 pm. 'help, our bass player's car wont start and he's not coming. ' It was a 6.30 start, gig was 15 minutes away these days, i do use cheat sheets, especially when I dep with ska/mod/new wave/punk chaps, as they always ask me to learn something I haven't played before it's all usually great fun But as others have said, turn up in good time, make sure your gear works, look good, don't be a tw@t and you should be good to go

https://www.andertons.co.uk/hils-hnb3-headless-shortscale-bass--satin-black/ At £499, it may depend on your definition of "the cheaper side".

A very specific one. The electric mountain bike club who yesterday passed me twice while I was riding my non electric bike up hill and then hold me up at walking pace on a downhill trail where I should have been enjoying the reward of the uphill slog by enjoying the high speed jumps, drops, twisties and rocks.

Always up for some jolly cooperation

Heavy Cloud, No Rain - Sting