BigRedX

IIRC the Ovation Magnum basses were both bolt-on and glued.

Speaker cone diameter size has no direct bearing on the sound of a cab.

IME the EQ settings on the amp are both to get your "sound", but also to compensate for the short comings of a typical bass cab. If you use a different cab you need different EQ settings on your amp to get the same sound (if you even can). Therefore if "your sound" is what you hear from the cab, then your cab is an essential part of the signal chain. If the PA engineer is going to bypass the cab, then they might as well bypass your amp too (and many of them do either by putting the DI box before the amp input or by asking for a pre-EQ DI out of the amp). Then your amp and cab(s) is simply a personal monitor and all that time you have spent choosing the perfect amp and cab(s) combination is potentially wasted on the people who are the most important - your audience; as your sound will be mostly at the mercy of what the PA engineer thinks is right. For bigger stages unless you are anchored in front of your rig, you'll probably be able to hear more bass guitar in the foldback, so the rig has now become for show only... Of course it's nice to own good quality musical equipment, but if you get to the point that I did where my very expensive choice of amp and cabs made zero contribution to what the audience was hearing, and on many stages zero contribution to what I was hearing, then you start to question if that money spent was worthwhile. Especially if it is also large and fairly heavy, taking up valuable space on stage, in the band van and in the rehearsal room.

Have a look at this thread. Also I believe that Jens Ritter has made at least one bass from a single piece of wood.

If that wasn't the one I tried in The Gallery in about 2005, then it was very similar. And I would totally agree with @Russ's comments. I thought it looked great and tried very hard to like it because of that, but I found the sound very underwhelming, and I wasn't that impressed with the playability either. Construction-wise, to me it looks as though it could have come from the late 70s at the very earliest. @Andie84 is that what your Dad's bass looks like?

Just remember that there can be a difference between "stereo" and two channel, and the latter is what you want. Some stereo signal paths never truly isolate the left and right signals which means there is always the potential for bleed between the channels, especially when chaining multiple effects together. I play Bass VI in one of my bands which means I'm swapping between "bass" and "guitar" sounds. I had been considering a similar set up with the two types of sounds being processed separately, but then it occurred to me that I'm never playing both at the same time, so I simply change patches (or in the case of the Helix "snapshots") when I change from bass to guitar and the Helix does all the required processing. I don't even both with dual outputs. I supply a single feed to the PA, and simply make them aware that they will be getting both bass and guitar type sounds from that feed. Since everything has been EQ'd and balanced in the Helix they shouldn't need to do anything other than EQ for the PA and balance me up against the rest of the band.

It strikes me that the "features" that are being toted as advantage of bolt-on neck construction are there to correct the deficiencies in the design and build of the instrument in the first place. If the heel and/or the neck pocket have been cut properly in the first place your bass should never need a shim. Any bow of the neck due to climactic conditions should be adjusted with the truss rod. Shimming the neck is not the answer in these cases.

Playing low will date the music too, eventually.

I've already sorted out my "tone" before it gets to the amp or speakers. I don't want additional "colouration" to my sound. For a start every time I do an equipment share gig with a different bass rig, I'd have to re-EQ everything to get it to sound right, and what happens with the PA sound that is going to bypass the cab(s) and maybe the amp as well depending where the Di feed is taken from?

Ideally not bolt-on mainly because for me it restricts the upper fret access - although plenty of set-neck and neck through options aren't particularly good in this respect either. The differences in sound in the context of a band mix are minimal and not with getting bothered about IMO, so go for what suits your playing style the best. Of course if you never venture above the 12th fret then it really doesn't matter at all. BTW to the OP, why aren't you interested in set-neck as an option? And where do you place constructions like the Gus Guitars and basses, where the underlying construction is set-neck, but then the whole thing is covered in a carbon-fibre skin which makes it look like a neck through. And IMO necks are wonderfully resilient, and unless the wood has been poorly chosen anything that causes the neck to break is likely to affect the body too.

Hardly minimal. I could distinctly hear at least 3 (maybe 4) simultaneous synth parts plus the drum machine throughout most of the song. On the other hand it does explain where J-Pop band Capsule got most of their inspiration from:

However that means in order to get your proper sound you always need to use your complete rig, and if it's going through the PA then one of the speakers needs to be mic'd up otherwise you are loosing what is to you, an important part of the signal chain.

IMO amps and speakers should simply be a method of getting an instrument level electric signal converted into sound waves loud enough for the audience to hear. They should not add any "colouration" to the sound. The fact that they do is entirely down to poor mechanical and electronic engineering. I don't want amps and speakers to give me "my sound" I want my sound to be created and defined before it reaches the amplification stage. That way there are less variable to have to consider.

Can you check the PSUs for the interface and powered monitors? Do any of them have a plastic earth "connection" on the plug?

@Andie84 Can you please post some photos? There was an Eccles one-piece fretless bass in for sale in The Gallery some time around 2005. IMO it looked more 80s than 60s. At the time I couldn't find any information on it either. IIRC @ped or @Kiwi might have some more information?

Is your computer a laptop with a class 2 (double insulated and no earth) PSU? It may be missing a ground connection somewhere in your set up.

Once you get to the point where money is no option and you have a suitably large road crew, the need for a bass rig on stage for anything other than show becomes completely redundant.

Is that the one that was for sale in The Gallery some time in the early 2000s?

If I could properly define it, I'd be a highly successful songwriter. As it is is I'll just have to put up with that unexpected rush I get when a piece of music comes together, for no obvious reason.

In Isolation headlining at Carpe Noctum in Leeds at the Lending Room. Nice venue with a decent sized stage good PA and lighting rig, and full support from the "It's Goth Up North" crowd.

I've been using multi-effects since the late 80s and compared with what was available back then and how much it cost in real terms the Helix is an absolute bargain. Also when you consider that I paid less new for my Helix and FRFR cab than I did for my previous bass rig which was mostly bought second hand some 10 years previously. At the time I bought my Helix I looked at the cheaper versions and decided that although one of them might be adequate for my needs there was always the chance that some time in the future I'd need a feature that was only available on the top of the range model. It turns out that the digital "scribble strips" over the individual foot switches have been absolutely invaluable, and I don't really know how I would have managed without them.

Exactly.

Line6 Helix Edit: Having said that I rarely use any of the bass amp (or cab) models. The great thing about modelled amps and cabs is that the worst that can happen if you put the "wrong" kind of instrument through it, is that the result won't sound particularly good. Use your ears rather than your eyes when it comes to selecting an amp or cab sim. I mostly use one of the EQ modules rather than an actual amp, as they tend to be more versatile. When I do use an amp sim most of them are "guitar" ones an have been picked for their distortion sounds more than anything else.

Back in 2008 I spend a very pleasant few hours at the Sadowsky workshop (when it was still in Brooklyn) playing all their demonstration instruments. Firstly I should say that I have yet to come across any J-style instrument that I really like, so my comments will be biased... On the whole they all played nicely, but so do most other high-end J-style basses. Also IMO they all sounded much better with the (highly regarded) Sadowsky pre-amp switched off. From what I have read this pre-amp is a major selling point of these basses. I wasn't that impressed with the difference it made to the basic sound. Ultimately these are Jazz bass copies with some refinements made by Sadowsky. If that's what you want from your Jazz bass, then you will probably like them. Myself? Out of all the Jazz bass copies I've played the one I have liked the best (although not enough to actually buy one) was by Mike Lull.

I would tend to agree, but then again the only bassists I actually like as musicians are Peter Hook and Mick Karn, and while they don't do "bass solos" in the accepted sense, what they play is very much front and centre in the arrangement/mix of their respective bands.