pineweasel

These are very neat but not new, they’ve been around since 2014

I'd be looking closely at the bridge. The A string saddle maybe? Or one of the springs?

Interesting to read about Live Dead 69. Not your average tribute band, it includes ex-Dead member Tom Constanten and other associates like Mark Karan, who played in Bob Weir's band RatDog. They are playing Europe '72 in full on this tour so that would be a good place to start.

I've used Hipshot detuners for years and found the tuning to be very accurate. There is a knack to the initial setup with a new string, and some graphite in the nut slot helps too. There's a video from Hipshot on Youtube that explains it all

A few that inspired my early bass playing: Night After Night - U.K. Livestock - Brand X Live in America - A Certain Ratio

They did do some nice Hand Stained models around this time, although they may predate the 2012 pickup change. e.g

Ah right, that's true. It was just a guess as I've seen the single B through body on some other basses. It does appear to be a locking strap pin, the "Reach Reducing Pin"

Through body option for the B string

Thomann is listing them for £1074 (apparently the full delivered price).

I’ve read good things about these basses, and now there is a lefty available: https://www.ibanez.com/eu/products/detail/ehb1005msl_1p_01.html Can’t say I like the colour but I would like to try one.

I bought a virtually new Sandberg TM5 with the original strings, and fitted my preferred 45 - 130 set. I did a full setup, although only small adjustments were necessary, and it plays superbly. You’re planning on a similar change in gauge so you should be OK. That said, there’s no harm is asking for your preferred strings to be fitted from new. Sandberg have a great reputation for customer service so they might be happy to do so.

Half a Double 4 by the look of it, and “Asia Market Only” https://pjbworld.com/cms/index.php/p-x-4-combo-amp-asia-only/

Be interesting to see what that Burns goes for. It doesn't look like it needs much work, and people ask quite a bit for decent examples, e.g https://notomguitars.com/products/1964-burns-vista-sonic-bass

A few Making Musics scanned here, along with other old music mags: http://www.muzines.co.uk/mags

Some great stuff posted. This is my era, I saw a lot of these bands in London back then. Here’s one of my favourites

I hardly ever use speakers at home. Most evenings I spend and hour or two playing through this

I like enjoying a pint or two while watching bands, so for me the most irritating thing is venues with a poor choice of overpriced beer. Smaller independent values are often pretty good these days, but the likes of the O2 are dreadful.

Can’t agree with this. Gimme Shelter is one of the Stones finest, and has one of the greatest intros ever

I’ve been enjoying guitarist Alex Skolnick’s podcast for a while and he has just posted a new episode with guest Percy Jones. Should be worth a listen: https://www.alexskolnick.net/podcast/2021/6/18/percy-jones

Interestingly StaffPad has been acquired by the owners of MuseScore, so we might see an affordable or even free version before long.

Notion has been around a while and is supposed to be good https://www.presonus.com/products/Notion-for-iOS

The Bootleg Beatles are the earliest tribute act I remember. Going since 1980 according to Wikipedia

This has been a fixture in my band's set for a while and always goes down well. I use an OC-2 for the verses. It doesn't sound quite like the original but it's close enough. Fun song to play, and some nice chords for the guitarists too.

Bowie’s Jean Genie. Trevor Bolder usually gets the blame for going to the first chorus too early, but if you count the bars it’s the rest of the band coming in too late.

Sounds like my Thunder 1A bass. Passive tone operates when the active circuit is off. "Equalizer tone" is the active tone control, treble boost one way, bass boost the other.