borntohang

Mike has back problems so it's designed to be fairly light - low 7lbs range. Strap button is on the back of the neck like his old EBs so the playing position is more upright than a Fender, but the tuners are Hipshot Ultralights to keep the neck from diving anyway .

The Indonesian made Standard Precision Specials all came with a jazz width neck. Great basses at a great price point - often hear they became the VM range but not sure how much truth is in that really. They certainly stand up on their own merits!

How? Unless the pot has specifically been wired in series as a bass cut (like a vintage Rickenbacker circuit) it will just be a standard Fender low-pass tone control which would not affect the lows regardless of cap value. I'm assuming OP would have mentioned an unusual circuit like that.

Unless you specifically wire it as a series cap for bass cut both values will allow the same lows through and just change the cutoff frequency of the low pass.

MIM Jazzes used identically-sized sets of pickups for a long time, but that was phased out in 2001 so shouldn't be the case here.

That intro has vibes! Could actually pass for a Dark Side-era Floyd track if the guitar was a little more languid.

I'm a little sketchy on model numbers to tell the truth, but it's either an ABM 210 or a 410 EVO IV depending on the size of the room. The 410 is obviously more fun but I've not used it in a while because it seems like overkill - I'm generally on IEMs so the stage rig is just for extra oomph.

Can't tell if the neck is wonky from that photo, but easiest way to tell is to use some string to check the outer string spacing from the edges of the neck. It'll definitely be a huge reach if that's a long scale neck on a Bass VI body - the Rebirth's have the bridge further back to the end strap button so as to reduce it. Hope it comes out well!

The Starcaster bass was only briefly in the Modern Player range IIRC, so I wouldn't expect a Squier anytime soon. Same for the Coronado.

Don't have the exact measurements to hand, but very much doubt the Classic will fit underneath. The Metros don't have much clearance at all and there are only one or two low profile power supplies specifically designed to fit underneath - I use a Truetone CS6 which is a great little box but even though its designed for the Metro only has about 5mm of clearance.

Great basses - I've got one in Inca Silver that I've been gigging stock. I actually bought it in the car park of a venue and walked straight onstage with it. Luckily it was a good one! I think changing the pots out is a good shout as the sweep on mine is fairly pathetic. I'm not entirely sold on the pickups but want to give it a few more shows to bed in before I decide whether it's crap pickups or something else in my chain not quite getting it there for me.

Big fan of the VTDI personally - I actually use pretty much the same rig as you with a CV Jazz into an ABM500. Ashdown do a version of the ABM preamp in a board format with the valve drive and compressor built in though and I think that'd be worth a look for you.

The Jaguars with black headstocks are short scale at 30". I don't think the new models have shipped yet for confirmation on scale length, but I'd be very surprised at 32" as only the VM Telecaster Bass and the Gary Jarman signature have had that scale so far and they both used the same neck.

I reckon that's 'cause The Smiths were traditionally the preserve of speccy students (even if we do work in advertising now,)and nobody outside of that demographic (or Mexico) has ever heard his solo nonsense so it never made it's way into the national consciousness like Amarillo or Tubthumping. You might hear Charming Man on BBC6 occasionally but nobody is screaming out for the Thursday night turn to do "Don't Make Fun Of Daddy's Voice" down at the Grimthorpe WMC...

Sansamp, Tuner and something else? Can't read the labels at that quality unfortunately.

Don't go with a single IEM or you'll end up damaging the plugged ear through cranking your mix to get over the ambient noise in the other ear. Honestly, the isolation isn't nearly as bad as people make out, but singers do go on about it if they haven't used them before - right up until they can finally hear themselves on a good IEM mix and then you can't separate them with a big stick! I think the ambient mic route is a solid call.

I suppose you only need to sell one!

I assume it's one of the British Bass Masters series, so could be anywhere between around £400 to £2500. Doesn't have the relic work that the NWR sig does, so it'll be cheaper than that one (£1500) but does have different pickups from the standard Jive so it's not just a stock model with a different finish. Maybe £500ish? I'd definitely be interested at that price range.

We played a gig in a cattle shed last year - corrugated iron and concrete floors, plus it still smelt of the previous occupants. Not the wisest venue choice I've ever seen a festival make. Manchester Cathedral was actually quite nice cause the nave where they have bands on is fairly short so we weren't totally stuck in the reverbs. Stadiums are universally atrocious. Concrete, metal, and plastic everywhere with horrible awkward angles to keep the sound in. Totally unworkable without IEMs I found.

I did a year or two with a big (as in 10 members) pseudo-latin group featuring some amazing players. We started off doing basic latin standards to moderate success, but after a few shows we had a chat about marketing and I pointed out that while most people don't actually like jazz, they do want to think of themselves as the kind of person who likes jazz. From there on we got a couple of good-looking singers and made decent cash off playing pop covers quickly arranged for three part harmony with a percussionist and a nylon guitar - maybe a trumpet solo if we felt flash. Unfortunately we just were a bit too early to get in on the youtube Postmodern Jukebox movement!

I like the headstock in a classic Burns/Shergold kind of way. The branding is a bit excessive but I don't know whether they'll actually print those covers like that?

Touch of overdrive, boost the highs, keep your action low, and pick hard to get some clang off the frets. Tone control all the way up. If you're wanting to get more specific he did use Hiwatts early on but basically all Hiwatt amps are built off the same circuit with different power sections anyway so there's not much in the guitar/bass distinction - anything valve and loud will get you there. He has an Ashdown signature designed to get that sound without blowing speakers.

I've used a Jag SS with the top four strings of a VI set as both a DGBE and piccolo bass tuning. It's a fun sound but not a VI really. I also found I had to remove the ball ends from a set of strings and slip the VI strings through them to keep them in the Squier bridge.

A couple of years back I depped with a soul group who had a particularly unpleasant keyboard player who was also incapable of holding his drink - after a week or two we were all thoroughly fed up with him and only one of the eight of us was still willing to bunk with him. On the last night of the tour we were booked into four doubles at a Travelodge, so we finally get in at 2am and discover to our delight that the hotel have given me and the guitarist two double beds in our room. After a fortnight in a van this was sheer luxury! We did the usual hotel room appreciation things (sink vs. kettle game, hotel olympics, spot the naked neighbour, etc) and then nipped back out to the van for the spare bags only to find the keyboardist and his unlucky roommate sat glumly in the foyer. "They've given our room away somehow. They've booked us a taxi to the next place down the road and we'll get a room each, but it'll be at least half an hour drive each way and we'll have to be up at 5 to book a taxi and make van call..." They looked so miserable that I actually felt obliged to offer them our spare double, but before I could open my mouth the guitarist looked over at me and right then I understood how people could believe in psychic communion, as our understanding was both instant and complete. "That sucks mate. See you in the morning." Slept like a baby.