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Sorry I may be a bit behind the curve here (I tried to read all the posts above but my other half was insistent on telling me about somebody, whom I have never met, kids latest news, despite the fact I was clearly reading something). I see @Phil Starr stepped in about the Warwick Gnome. I think they are far from transparent in the EQ sense. I have owned the basic 200 watt version and now own the iPro 280 watt. I also have two LFSys Monzas and the first time I tried the iPro through a Monza it sounded horrible to my ears. Fortunately, @Phil Starr clued me in about the Gnome’s baked in EQ profile and I now have the weirdest looking settings, which make it sound good through the Monza. Conversely it sounds OK through my Barefaced Two10S without the tweaking but that is because it is unravelling the Two10S’ default vintage colouring. It is definitely the antidote to vintage; does that make it HiFi? I have never found the jack out on the Gnome a problem and all my cabinets have speakon sockets. Just get a jack to speakon loudspeaker cable, available for very little on fleaBay and the like. If you want an effects loop, pre-post DI out and speakon sockets on a Gnome, you are going to have to go for the iPro 600 watt v2. It is still within your budget but is a bit bigger and heavier than the lower powered versions. It may still fit in a gig bag pocket though and it also benefits from 4 band EQ. I have no idea whether the baked in EQ is different from the original.

Interesting idea! I've built a bits jazz myself, from a rescued eBay AllParts body (a beautiful sunburst some guy had tried to mount everything on 3 times, including the bridge - took some fixing, but it's a gorgeous body) and a Warmoth ebony fretless neck I bought nearly 30 years ago, which had been languishing on a terrible Hohner body for years. Slapped in a pair of Squier jazz pickups I found and it sounds lovely, so I know where you're coming from - I actually repainted the Hohner body when I fitted the neck to it, just rattle can but it was a nice shade of midnight metallic blue. I've read some of the responses here and one of the ones which struck me as a good point was the sheer number of fender type basses out there you can get - and Squiers, too. I wondered if there might be any challenge / fun in finding a "good" chickenbacker from e.g. AliExpress, then upgrading it with better parts (making sure the basses were through necks, or whatever) - using the bass as a starting point. I understand some vendors do sell kits, as well, unpainted. You'd have to sell in places like Fakenbackers on Facebook, and you wouldn't be able to list here, unfortunately (IIRC)... they have other fake basses too though, there could be a USP in taking e.g. fake Dingwalls and making them far better basses. Could be fun finding out how to do things like round out sharp fret ends, improve neck condition, even finishing the kits, I guess. It is fun putting bits together and getting something playable out, no doubt. I'll probably do the same when I retire (when I'm not gigging)!

Don’t you lie to me - Chuck Berry

This is a good point. I honestly think the best solution at the moment would be a long-term swap with someone who wanted to try out a Stingray for a few months and left another bass with me in the meantime. That would be just about perfect.

There was of course that crazy design with flippable frets that went from fretted to fretless at the flick of a switch from Mickey Guitars of Toronto. There was quite a bit of noise about this system in the early naughties.

This has to be the most complete ad for a bassist. All you need to know and with good humour too! If I lived in the home counties I'd be tempted... Enjoy the keys Jack! joe

...that's me out then

Start a band and talk to people about it(people know people and some of those people play music). It's kinda what I did in my early 40's, and on a drunken night out in 2005 I found out that two of my then colleagues were actually very good musicians (and one a talented songwriter). We recruited a drummer and ended up in a band that lasted close to 10-years and which still occasionally gets together to play despite a couple of geographical challenges 👍

... is absolutely not required to replace me as the bass player in long-standing covers band The Junkyard Dogs. Based in Harrow, we've been going a long time (since 2010 in this incarnation) and the line-up has changed occasionally. As part of a serious refresh, I want to move sideways onto keys which of course means bringing in a new bassist. My God-like ability on bass is totally non-existent so any competent player would be perfectly capable of stepping in. We play essentially the hits of 1965-85 so there is no requirement to slap, tap or sweep, and very little call for relentless disco octaves everywhere. Getting all chordal on our asses or playing jazzy bass solos is pretty much contra-indicated. If you can sing then that's a bonus, but not a requirement. If you can play another instrument then that's also a bonus, but not a requirement. We currently play around 20 gigs a year but we're looking to gradually ease back up to our natural home, which is c.30 gigs a year. We go out for £250-£300 a gig, very occasionally £360, so this time next year we won't be millionaires. We try to rehearse every week (usually a Thursday but we can be flexible), not so much because we feel we need to but because we're a friendly bunch who enjoy each other's company. We're all in our 60s but - yet again - that's not a requirement. We have our own excellent rehearsal facility in Sudbury Hill, close to the Piccadilly Line, but for gigging purposes any incoming band member must have their own gear & reliable transport. If you're not up for this yourself but you think you might know someone who'd be a good fit, please feel free to pass on the details. https://www.lemonrock.com/junkyarddogs https://www.facebook.com/junkyarddogslondon https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTdLOzCAQkvIfkFdnhTLP4Q

Nicely put, my problem - and to be honest it was a problem - was that as a kid I had zero money as was largely the case with my family. Even my early 80's Satellite Bass was a stretch for my family, so I 'd look through gear mags and daydream about owning one of two basses, a MM Stingray or a Hagstrom Swede (I SO wanted a Hagstrom Swede....._ ..and that 'life will be better if.....' thing takes hold in the same way as s many other habits of thought or action take hold. And then in my 40's when for the first time in my life my incomings exceeded my outgoings, that thing came back and tugged at my consciousness. Took me close to 15 years to get on top of it. A great if expensive journey, but one from which I'm glad to have got to my destination 👍

My rule about this is that if you just don't care, sell it. If you have even the slightest hesitation, hold on to it until you don't anymore because any money you earn will eventually get spent and then you will have nothing anyway. And once the instrument is gone, it's gone.

You Talk Too Much - Sultans of Ping

what they just said.

Ditto

I did a gig on Saturday and one of the other players had a v7. There are definitely a few about in the wild but I suspect that those who bought them do not frequent bass gear forums. I didn't get to use it. I used the house supplied TC Electronic BQ500. It was perfectly fine given that I was running a Sansamp through the preamp anyway. Personally, I think that the Venture designs look nice but the product line is about 7-8 years too late to make a significant splash in the market.

The Passenger - Iggy Pop

Based on all the stuff I’m reading on this forum, can I assume to say that, at 57, I am about the average age here? If so I have a question: Can anyone recommend strategies for finding people our own age to play music with? Specifically, either originals or less common stuff like garage rock, shoegaze, trip hop, or Cavern Club/Hamburg-style beat. The only options I have found locally are either weekly blues jams – I’ve never had any interest in that – or ads for pub bands who want to want to play covers to get people dancing – also not my thing. I moved to west London 5 years ago and it’s become apparent to me that all the interesting stuff is in east London, but the people there are in their 20s and 30s so that’s no good either. Do I have to face the facts that maybe it’s time to hang up my bass strap and pass the torch to the young’uns?

If this was me, I'd either leave it as it is, or sand the headstock back to the wood and do it again properly.

I had a similar experience when I went from the KZ’s to the Sennheiser IE100’s. The sound is just ‘better’ all round to my tired old ears, and as they as less bulky they are easier to wear.

There's no harm in looking and while there are plenty of things I might like to own I don't actually need any of them. Having said that, it has taken just over 50 years of buying and selling along with several advancements in technology that have rendered many of the instruments I wanted when I was younger irrelevant, to get to this point.

One band I was in had this scenario. I took the amp home and measured 60volts to earth. It's not static. It's caused by the 0v of the transformer output not being at Earth potential as it's not grounded via the mains plug. The potential problem is a fault inside the amp causes a fire or the case to become live. An RCD detects an imbalance between the neutral and live. Which you won't get as the 240v side of the transformer is working as expected.