tauzero

And no taking your wife, either, in case she tries to outdo your girlfriend.

No, because it is you who committed the act.

One must consider two factors - the act itself, and any premeditation. In this case, there was no premeditation, so a prima facie case fails if that was the sole criterion. However, there is the act itself, and in this case, it was perpetrated not by the (self) accused but by his girlfriend (whether with or without the knowledge of his wife), without any direct solicitation by the accused and apparently without his intention being to cause the purchase. I think a caution would be appropriate, and congratulations on the choice of girlfriend.

She might be a bit cross about his girlfriend buying him a bass.

It's better than the alternative.

5A sounds like a cross between a foghorn and an organ. A bit like the spaceship in "Close Encounters". 5C is along the same lines but with several halls' worth of reverb added. Is it switched into bass mode?

After a little puzzling, I realised that you meant scratchplate, not fingerboard.

That might be simply what that patch does. I'll try it myself in a bit and see what it does.

The impedance of the Stingray pickup is quite low, that of each Ray4 coil is more than double. Connecting them in parallel and installing a 2-band clone EQ (Retrovibe Stinger or one of the DIY kit ones) would give a pretty close approximation of the Stingray sound - the pickup and preamp interact far more on the Stingray than on other active basses.

What appears to be wrong? I got caught out because you have to pair it twice, once for audio and once for control.

I was using a TC BAM200 (maybe 130W into 8 ohms?) with gain near maximum (blow clipping) but volume around 12 o'clock, 5 string bass with the EQ fairly flat and mostly quite well above bottom E. Nothing wrong with how it sounded - had only used it for 15-30 minutes, and I'd used it before with no issues.

You have my sympathy. It does point to that speaker not being suitable for, well, anything, except as a large and very expensive paperweight.

Screws are #4-40 x 1 1/4" (it says in the EBMM parts description). https://www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk/A2-ScrewBolt-PhilFillister-UNCoarse0.1120.html has them 1 3/8" long which would need cutting down slightly (for which a nut would be highly advisable, put nut on first, cut bolt, take nut off so it reforms the end of the thread). Edit: Head description is Philips Filister, thread type is UNC.

I was thinking in terms of relative measurements rather than absolute ones - an inexpensive and easily reproducible means of comparing amps, at distortion levels that those of us that don't like overdriven amps are happy with and at those that those who do like overdriven amps are happy with.

Welcome. And in answer to your question, in-ear buds are fine for bass. For further information, you can spend a couple of days reading the IEM bible thread or just read the first post in it.