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Many thanks for the advice: @Joe Nation, @PaulThePlug and @MartinB. When I googled a scroll saw, it came up with electric bench tools starting from around £100. I’m tempted, simply because it looks like a handy tool to have but it does somewhat inflate the cost of making the scratchplate. I think I could get a custom plate made for around £50. I’m just wondering how many times I’m going to want to do this and whether it is worth the investment. Otherwise I guess a coping saw with a fine tooth blade would fit the bill.

Not all of us can afford or justify expensive PA speakers/monitors, so I thought I'd share my experience of the cheap Thomann 'Fun Generation' powered speakers and invite anyone else to share info on other low-cost options. This is the 15" option, they also do 12" and passive versions of both. https://www.thomann.co.uk/fun_generation_pl_115_a.htm With refreshing honesty they rate them 600W peak/140W rms. I bought two 15" powered ones as cheap monitors. I regularly use one as a monitor and aside from not being suitable for putting my foot on, it's always delivered without fuss in many different situations. Thrre are two 'mic' channels with xlr and jack inputs. Annoyingly, line in uses phono sockets, but I just use the mic channels with the gain down (never had distortion issues). There's basic bass/treble eq, 90% of the time I leave these at 12 o'clock. I discovered the back plates with the amp, inputs and bt functionality are interchangeable between 15 and 12, passive and active. Just rewire the connections to the crossover. I swapped one over to make a 15 active and a 12 passive. That gives me the flexibility to use 2x12, 2x15, or one or two 12+15 pairs. I have used an active/passive 12" pair as PA for lectures with ease, and once or twice as a small pub-size vocal PA when our vocalist's Mackie powered speakers weren't available. It's not clear what the real world power of a single cab is - do you need the extension cab to achieve 140W or does that deliver a bit more? They are loud enough and the audio quality is good enough to be usable in everyday applications. I think the audio is at least as good as my 8" HH monitor. I would invest more if looking fo a small full-time PA, however. Despite the 'fun generation' name they are a different league to the cheap but similar looking 'party speakers'. I suspect they are sold with other name badges. Importantly they are robust, reasonably light and easy to use. Two powered 12s or even one powered, one passive would meet the basic monitoring needs of many bands for under £200, and they could save a small gig if your main pa goes down.

That's awesome, I'm super pleased one of my posts helped I had the same revelation when I moved to the lightest gauge possible and the Nickel rounds are just so musical. Keep at it, fretless is much a wonderful thing.

Nope, doesn't look like him either at all. He was George Benson bass player for those who wonder who he is.

Apart from the specs of Pino's signature, it was one of your posts which made me strung one of my Rays (actually, both, until Chromes 40-95 have arrived) with 40-95 nickel plated rounds. It's what I call revelation. Now, I'm in love with thin rounds on fretless. Albeit, I must admit it wouldn't work in my first year with fretless. Of course, it'd be different by different people. As to me, I needed quite a lot of time with flats to understand (to some extent) how fretless works. I reckon it's gonna be a journey as long as life itself, but it's one of things which keeps me interested in playing the bass.

Thanks! That's a fair bit closer than Derbyshire!

Why downgrade?

For me, on my fretless Jazz basses, I use Rotosound Swing 66 Nickel rounds with the lightest gauge possible. They are the best sounding strings I have ever used on a fretless. On a P-Bass, then I use Labella Deep Talkin flats and again, the lightest gauge possible. I find flats give more of that mwah sound and more pronounced vibrato. The lighter the gauge as well, the more expressive and articulate I find the bass is.

I like the idea of a swap shop. Can I swap my cheap Ibanez GIO ultra shortscale for for a 62 Jazz please?

I'm aware of the great reputation of previous roadworn series' but I do have to wonder about the pricing strategy? Perhaps it is just my dated perception with regard to associating quality with country of manufacture, but for this price range you're easily within the territory of MIJ Fender/Fender-shaped-object, and getting pretty close to Maruszczyk or Sandberg. Resale value notwithstanding, personally I would rather spend my £1400 on a more 'premium' instrument but is this an apples to oranges comparison?

Thank you for sharing this, I've never seen that before. Its interesting that John mentions that he suffered quite a lot with dead spots of fretless basses. This is something I've suffered with a lot as well, especially on Stingray's. I've actually found setting up fretless basses way more temperamental than a fretted bass.

My duo do Gangsters by the Specials '79 I don't like Mondays '79 The one and only Chesney Hawkes '91 IIRC a little artistic licence lol

AKA "The Raffle"

It appears that they are circuits from a SoundCraft PA unit and a StudioSpares Fortissimo 10" unit. I didn't use them because it was the driver that was broken in my PA top, not the crossover as I thought. They came from @Mottlefeeder in 2022 - no doubt he will avoid me all bash in case I try to give them back to him 😉