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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 call 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.

Good advice above. A quality DI will do the job in small to medium sized venues. In a smaller venue, some sound from the backline will reach the audience anyway. Most decent amps have an XLR/DI out, which you can set to use the eq setting on the amp, or flat. Quite often, the sound that works on stage doesn't translate that well to the room, so you may want to eq the bass differently in the PA.

I already play fretless. and they don’t do a fretless version of the BBNE2. It was my main bass before I started playing fretless and I miss the build quality and the weight, tone and feel.

Just last year I dropped in to a Hi-Fi shop and got chatting; one of the folks there said they had a system set up and would I like to have a listen. So, I sat down in front of the rather expensive, out of my price range system and he put on some music. I said it was a bit disappointing and was lacking something, it seemed a bit lacklustre and had no life; he said hang on a mo and went and tweaked some settings. Suddenly the missing stuff was there. I asked him what he'd done and he said he'd switched the mode of the power amp to Class-A.

Unless you have a poor record deck, low frequency rumble should not be an issue. My quite modest deck has virtually none (you have to press an ear to a speaker when the stylus is on the run-in/run-out grooves and there is no music playing to hear the faintest hint of it). Ditto surface noise. Once the music kicks in, both are un-noticeable. Look after your vinyl and pops/clicks should not be an issue. As I say above, different strokes for different folks. You do you, we'll do us and we'll all be happy.

It's the same with most things. The most extreme case of performance is probably cars: the difference between a supercar and a hot hatch; that last 10-15% can cost £1m+. I think the differences in Hi-Fi can be quite subtle. It's ironic that musicians will happily discuss upgrades, pickup sound, valve amps, digital vs analogue, feel, and so-on, but yet argue about whether a system's ability to reproduce those subtleties is a real thing or even relevant. I don't understand how you can separate the quality of the music from the quality of the reproduction.