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It might have been a problem with early flip paint finishes, but I think the Gus had just had a very hard life prior to me buying it. As I said the chrome work was in a similar state and several parts including the truss rod cover and the one on the back that gives access to the intonation and action adjustment were missing. The Hiscox case it came it was so battered I've never dared use it to take any of my basses out of the house. I've now had the bass for a lot longer than the previous owner and it's been my regular gigging instrument when I've needed a 5-string for the last 18 years, but apart form a couple of dings on the headstock it's pretty much still in the condition it came to me after being refinished.

It's one and a half hours long. Haven't got time to watch that. I need an AI to summarise it for me 😉

Great talk about Mike Starr's bass sound here. It's mostly about the song 'Would?' but there's a great bit at 08:40 that's worth looking at/listening to! Click here> You Tube link to SBL

The other thing to remember is that not every record was recorded at Abbey Road or similar "professional" recording studios. My first venture into vinyl was recorded at a cheap 4-track studio situated in an outbuilding behind a musical instrument shop on the outskirts of Leicester. The equipment was basic, mostly repurposed PA gear and the only effect was reverb/delay from running a feed through a spare 2-track tape machine. Our instruments weren't much better being a mixture of very low budget and home-made. Our previous releases had been on cassettes that we had duplicated ourselves in real time and consequently we mixed the new recordings in the same way, forgetting that we didn't need to compensate for two generations of tape bounce before they reached our listeners, The end result is thin and weedy and very trebly and no amount of flash HiFi is going to make it sound better. In fact the worse the playback system is the better it sounds.

One small query... Why does it have to be hum cancelling? If you install proper copper foil shielding, you get a hum free bass. The Walnut/Graphite Jazz I've just had built is shielded properly and it has no hum at all from the Fender Pure Vintage 66 pickups. (The 64 versions in my American Original Jazz can be a little hummy at times with the standard Fender cavity shielding paint.) My American Professional II Jazz has the Fender V-Mod II pickups with the Alnico 2 magnets on the bass side and Alnico 5's on the treble side and that sounds suitably vintage with that warm bottom end, and is completely hum free. So top of my list for passive Jazz pickups would be the Fender Pure Vintage 66, Lollar 60s and Lindy Fralin 60s. All of these have the rich tone, thumping bottom end and clear yet not harsh highs.) Every time I've played a Jazz with 'Noiseless' pickups, they always sound flat and inert when played passive. When you switch the preamp on, it's another story, of course.

Bought a Vanderkley cab from Dave. A pleasure to deal with, he boxed it up really well for shipping and got it to me quickly. Thanks Dave.

There’s a few factors that I have to take into account. Looks: I’d happily spend £500 on a turntable, but the Mrs is big on interior design, so it has to match lookwise with the living room, and a sub £2k Rega or Pro-Ject is too minimalist (as are many decks). Sound quality: This is probably more important for the Mrs, as like you say, being a musician means my hearing isn’t even 80%. 😂 But don’t get me wrong, even us old deafies can tell the difference in quality. We just don’t hear the very top like we used to. Build quality: This has always been an important thing to both of us. I’d rather spend more on one good quality thing where you can see & feel the quality, rather than buy something that feels cheap & probably have to replace it after a few years. I know that there are many good quality turntables to be had for under £500, but I’ve searched high & low for a decent deck that ticks all 3 boxes.

Content vs sound quality I guess, subject to one’s musical preferences of course. For instance, I’ll listen to, let’s say John Mayer, on a crappy set of PC speakers and enjoy it. Whereas, I don’t care how good a system is, someone I don’t like (the list is extensive) will always going to have me each reaching for the off switch, despite the pristine reproduction.

Ive got a very modest set up that nearly all came from charity/pawn shops. The deck is an old JVC LA-10 which goes into a Cambridge 640P pre amp then into a Cambridge 540 Azure power amp. Finally the speakers are Missions. In total probably cost me less than £100 and sounds pretty decent. By no means high end or expensive but certainly sounds ok

I dont think thats right on the dots point. Dots inbetween fretlines indicate where to put your finger for the string to then hit the fret behind the finger (closest to the bridge) to pitch the note. With no fret (but a lined fretless board) your finger should be on the fretline closest the bridge end of the fret to accurately pitch the note. As far as the OP goes, its your bass so its really down to you. Is it one of those passing whims we all get? are you likely to sell the bass at some point? I have had irreversible mods done to a fairly pricey bass, I dont regret it as I dont beleive I'll ever sell it. If you love everything about it, apart from the fact it has frets, take it to a luthier who is experienced and good at de frets and get it de fretted, or buy a bass that comes close and de fret that. Jonny

Seems like a weird option in an amp! A pure class A amp is generally just that, because they're so inefficient and run so hot they tend to be only 20-30w (like the MF A1, or Sugden Masterclass - they're excellent, btw!). More powerful class As like some of the Pass Labs offerings are enormous and expensive beasts! A well designed class AB will run in class A for about 10% of it's rated power - frinstance my Bryston uses class A for the first 90w, the following 850w are in B... And as any fule knowz, you need power for proper bass reproduction!

Regardless of the other equipment used I'd say a big part of the tone on that song and a big chunk of his other work with Alice in Chains comes from brand new, fresh out the packet round wounds recorded before any of the 'zing' wears off.

The dot markers on my lined fretless are the same, in the middle not on the line.

I Summon Demons - Undead Prophecies

Some pops and clicks are already there the first time the record is played. That's because it's a crap pressing from the late 70s or early 80s made on recycled vinyl. Almost all the music I want to listen to that only exists on vinyl is in this format. It comes from indie bands putting out their own singles and albums where price is everything. There were plenty of bands back then for whom scraping together the £200-£300 required to record and press 500 copies of their single was the absolute limit of what they could afford and that was for hand-stamped white labels and a sleeve comprising a sheet of photocopied A4 paper folded around and stapled to the plain paper sleeve that the pressing had been shipped in. Most of these releases had defects before they'd even been played. If you were on good terms with your record shop you might be able to get them to play through all their copies trying to find one with less obvious problems. Also IME it didn't matter how well I looked after my records they would eventually pick up additional damage simply from being taken out to be played, usually on my favourite track. These days anything I buy on vinyl gets played twice only. Once to check the levels and peak signal and a second time to record it into my computer. If it is available on any digital format I would buy it on that format instead.

this calling - all that remains

I have been a fan of Neil's playing since the National Health and Colosseum II days. Here is my transcription of my favourite NM track, 'Down To You' from the Colosseum II album 'Strange New Flesh'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/down-to-you-colosseum-ii/

With more thought, I would pretty much agree with a lot of what you say - the BBNE2 is quite a pricey bass, and even if the OP got it at a bargain price, a Harley Benton fretless would probably be a better place to start. I would still disagree about the side fret markers. On a converted lined fretless your existing dot markers show you the note, and the line ahead approximately (for proper intonation finger placement varies depending where on the neck you are, and also for the pedants who are going to bring up equal/true temperance - a moot point anyway unless your guitarist/keys/horn players are doing similar) where your finger should go. It's no doubt better to have the dot marker over the line, but it's not necessary, and to say the dots are pretty much useless is completely wrong IMO - I adjusted to this almost immediately; good fretting technique on a fretted bass is to put your finger as close to the fretwire as you can rather than on the dot marker anyway.