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You can take the tubular wings out of these Aria basses and they pack down pretty small but you are always going to be limited to the 34" scale length of a bass. An alternative is a Kala U bass but they are an acquired taste.

Played a local pub (to the drummer and myself)on Friday night, The Yew Tree in Norton Canes (South Staffs). We are, as they described, a light rock band doing 60's, 70's 80's and 90's covers. We got there around 6ish to set up but found that they were still serving meals and they use the stsge area for bigger groups, so hung back 'till 7pm. This gave time for the lead singer to grab something to eat. We started at 8.45pm and although the place was not packed but was busy and the audience were appreciative. Started the second set just before 10pm getting a similar response but having people from the 'sports bar' in the back of the pub popping in to listen as well. Finished just before 11pm. Now we had cleared the tables from the stage when we set up and we put them back afterwards as they seemed a little short staffed and this together with the punters telling the landlady that they had had a good time and were pleased to have been able to hear the music and still be able to hold a conversation with friends. The landlady had also enjoyed what she heard and was over the moon with the resonse and comments from customers to the point that she recommended us, via an internal WhatsApp group, to the other 200+ pubs in the chain and said she will book us again. Sorry for the long post and sounding a bit euphoric but this is only our 4th gig as a band, The Context, and we acquired it via a 30min set at the Yew Tree open mike night in April. They booked us there and then.

The Axstar is a great bass, really well built and fantastic sound - lots of 80s slap character or plectrum attack with round wounds on, or huge fat dub sound with massive sustain with flats. I had one for a while but sold it to buy an ACG medium scale headless (Border Reiver) which is kind of the ultimate for small basses in my mind but costs a fair bit more...

Following intensive research, the MM humbucker likes a preamp 😂

That's going to be a very cool bass.

Because - Beatles

Well, a MK2 edition would be most welcome, take what they've learned with the Plethora and apply it but unfortunately they haven't. Smells of resting on laurels to me - because the functionality it has would have been genuinely impressive 13 years ago. I still appreciate it for what it is, it's still super handy, and the Spectracomp in default guise is very useable. The Spectracomp Toneprint in the BH amp is the main reason I got a standalone Spectracomp for my pedalboard.

Another request; I don't know this band but it sounds like decent enough 80s Pop (although the album is from 1995). Italian band Dirotta Su Cuba featuring bassist Stefano De Donato on the tune 'Liberi Di Liberi Da'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Liberi-Di-Liberi-Da-Stefano-De-Donato-Bass.pdf

Tanglewood Elf, these come up second-hand in the classifieds occasionally. Or maybe a Uke bass?

...with a maxi headstock! I just like longer scale.

Thanks again 42hz! What I need to consider is that for convenience I already regularly use a couple of built in one-knob comps which are fine when fine will do. I've read good things about the default Spectracomp print, too, although I've also read some of the dumbest conceptualisations of compression on bass forums! That a fully configurable digital three-band compressor, accessible by USB and with an existing editing program, produced by one of the world's largest music equipment manufacturers, remains uneditable even after some 13 years on the market rather blows my mind. But a tiny head with built-in tuner and comp and which fits in a gig-bag pocket would be handy for those rare occasions I need more than just a little combo. I've been very tempted to write it off because of what to me is a glaring omission of functionality, but convenience is increasingly my primary concern as time goes on- even if it does mean having no idea what parameters are being affected by the single-dial operation. Thanks for checking, 42.