BassJase

Bloody lovely fella and obviously very interested in making sure every transaction goes well. Good guy to e-chat with and everything absolutely as it should be. Cheers hombre, you da man....

I paid £40 for one of these.....!

I say go for it, you got nothing to lose by doing the gig and it could be a great experience. Sometimes over-rehearsing makes the songs sound too sterile to me anyway, and none of the songs on the list are particularly difficult. (If there was a bunch of Rush or Primus tunes then I'd be concerned!) You can get the tabs for them quickly on bassmasta and learn them all within a 2 or 3 days, then do the gig and see whats what.

If you're all good with a router then maybe getting some ferrules and making it a thru-body stringing with a new bridge? Also, if you're after something to basically start afresh with, on fleabay they sell Jazz "kits" which gives you a natural unfinished body and neck (plus all the guts) for about £110. You can also reshape the headstock as it comes with a basic "paddle" shape, and then you get the option of doing whatever you like to finish it and probably get a lot of satisfaction doing it all yourself.

I really liked the vid snatch Urb put on, I think GW talks a lot of sense in it. But I do think what a lot of people are missing is dynamics. Having a lower or higher action doesn't means dynamics, thats down to the volume on your amp and the way you play. My basses have been called "unplayable" by other pluckers, but if you play with the desired touch there shoud be no loss in clarity, response or volume.

"I love the onstage bit, but the long, lonely, yet over populated days, randomly timed petrol station meals, daily plops in broken and filthy venue/petrol station bogs, over saturation with booze (my fault, I know) and the cumulative effects of late nights, early mornings, unfamiliar sleeping locations and extra insomnia (on top of the usual) due to the left over adrenaline from the only good bit of the day start to really get to me about a week and a half in. Not to mention that same joke which gets told three or four times a day. Why do they do it?!" This sounds like every tour I've ever done, and sounds like the same complaint of every person I've talked to who've also toured a bit. If this is just too much to deal with, and I know how rough and bloody uncomfortable it can get, then touring isn't for you. I slept in the stairwell of a tourbus for 3 weeks in January of 2007, and slept on top of the amps in the back of a tranny for over a week in July 2006. Plus all the other crappy short-stints here and there which were nothing short of damned-awful. It really aint pretty, especially with very sparodic shower facilities and eating crap food.

Gonna be devils advocate with this one and I say if you need the cash, flog your gear. There's always more gear out there, and yeah your current stuff might be hard to replace, but it won't be impossible. And perhaps the experience of selling your gear and then (possibly) having to buy new stuff in the future might actually be a good experience or lesson for you in itself. When I was 18 I swapped an EB-3 for a second hand Nady wireless pack worth about £50. Bloody stupid thing to do, but it sure as hell taught me to find out how much gear is worth before jumping in headfirst..... But I'd also definitely say keep just one bass, just in case you fancy a noodle in the future. Just keep one in a case somewhere and forget about it, then its always there waiting in case you get the urge again.

Yeah cheers fellas, and thats a good idea CK but to be honest I only want something cheap and cheerful, its gonna get knocked about a fair bit over here so I don't want anything I'm gonna be precious over!

Right, well I'm living in southern China for the forseeable future (at least a year anyway, maybe 2) and when I came out here I brought a 5 string with me for the 4 gigs a week I'm doing. I like it and everything, but its not the most comfortable bass to play and it weighs a lot more than any other bass I have, and I now realise that I only use the 5 string for about 6 songs and I want a cheap-ish 4 string to use as a main bass. Ideally something like a Jazz or Ibanez or Cort or something would be great. I've been to a couple of music stores here and they only sell stuff like Gibbo's and Fenders and Warwicks, none of which are in my price range (somewhere around £200 would be perfect.) SO.... Does anybody have any eBay links or anything that might help me? We can get eBay here but it looks completely different and is mostly in Chinese (and when I try to access the UK eBay site it comes out looking like a spreadsheet with no photos!?!!) Any help really would be much appreciated.....