tobiewharton

Cheers all - good to hear that durability seems better than it first appears. Will check out the Protec too.

Thanks NJ. I suspect that a short scale Mustang fitting snugly counts out medium scale basses unfortunately. Heavy duty with neck cradle is a must for me as must handle the road and lots of gigging. Cheers, Tobie

Anyone?

I went for this deal recently too. Very impressive indeed. One thing to consider is that it can only accommodate slim power supplies - I'm using it with a Voodoo X8, just attached with dual lock. Really tough case and good-sized and designed board and the extra storage in the base of the case is great for leads etc. (leads with UK plugs won't fit).

Anyone found quality single or double gig bags with neck cradles that properly fit medium scale basses?

I bought a Mono M80 recently and I'm not very impressed with it. It's not as solid as I expected, there are plastic strap clips, the neck cradle is too soft, the handle doesn't feel as stout as I'd like and it's not the most comfortable to carry on the back. Storage is well designed and plentiful and I bought the Tick bag 2.0 with it to expand further. I moved on a Fusion Urban when times were tight and sorely regret it. That was a brilliant bit of kit; no corners cut at all and just so reassuringly tough. Storage was excellent too although the option to expand storage in a similar way to the Tick for the Mono is far more expensive. The Fusions seem to be hard to come by these days. Interested to hear other views/comparisons/preferences.

Lovely looking bass!

EBS Reidmar are the first amps that spring to my mind.

My votes would go to Yamaha, Cort and Ibanez for quality and consistency. S/H their more basic models will be not too far beyond budget. I've no personal experience of Hartley Benton instruments but notice that they often review well. Set-up and reasonable quality strings can elevate a cheaper bass enormously but, unless you do it yourself you'll be adding a significant bill to your budget (£50-£80 including strings). This is lost money. Therfore, imo you'd be better off getting a S/H instrument that doesn't necessarily need a set-up and strings and would retain the majority of its value (try first if at all possible); if I had to hedge my bets I'd go for Yamaha, having never owned or played a bad one. All the best to your daughter as she embarks on this exciting but dangerous quest!

The Boss can be a little noisy but is very capable and imo unbeatable in its (new) price range. Spectracomp is incredible value but a different beast in terms of having to became au fait with the TC ecosystem in order to get the most out of it. I'm not a pedal deep dive guy and have personally found the Keeley Bassist to be the most intuitive, really effective and nearly noise-free compressor; I always found the MXR more finicky, though it's very popular for good reasons. Both of the latter options can be had s/h for around your budget although admittedly the Keeley is harder to find. All the best in the search!

That's a sexy looking instrument!