Happy Jack

Country music is really forgiving ... the songs tend to be about the story-telling aspect rather than how well you deliver them, so that relieves at least some of the pressure. It's also a very broad church. There's pretty much bound to be a number of singers whose voice you can emulate to one degree or another. There's a long list of country artists I can't get anywhere near, but I have no real trouble with Merle Haggard songs and I do OK with Hank Williams. Singalongs where you just know the audience is going to sing the chorus for you are also helpful ... Take Me Home (Country Roads), The Gambler, Wild Side Of Life, you know the drill.

Absolutely this ^. Mine is G.

Fascinating to see how many people are advising the OP to more-or-less just jump right in. Hmmmmmmmmm. My advice would be to find a local guitarist who's in the same sort of situation, and jam along with him for weeks, maybe months. Playing live with even a single real musician is MASSIVELY different from playing along to your favourite CDs. Once you can cope with playing live (for a given value of "live") start attending your local blues jam, see how you feel about getting up in front of an audience. That's pretty different too. After playing at half a dozen proper jam sessions you'll have no need to ask when you're ready to start looking for a band. Good luck.

Christ! There's a case too? 😨

Never knew Yes did covers. 😉

The strings are a necessity regardless but as for the rest the key question is, are you refurbing this to play yourself or getting it ready for sale? An easy starter is to hold the bass upright with the end-pin fully retracted - you don't have to use the end-pin, it's there to make the bass taller. If the nut is way higher than your eyebows then the bass will very probably be too big for you, but if the nut is anywhere close to eyebrow height then the fact that it's a 4/4 doesn't really matter. If you are physically capable of playing the bass, only then do you have a decision to make.

I didn't even know these things existed (I have two pairs of Xvive bugs, use them at every gig) and a little voice at the back of my head is saying "this defeats the very purpose of these devices". It's OK. Why should you listen to the voices in my head when half the time I don't bother to myself?

I have to assume that all the real bargains got snapped up quickly - what's there now is a set of reductions so modest that they barely qualify as a SALE SALE SALE GET YER CHEAP PA KIT HERE event. It's more a WE'VE KNOCKED 5% OFF THESE OVER-PRICED & SLOW-SELLING ITEMS.

The thing that makes the most obvious difference to the playing experience is the presence of the centre-block. Apart from affecting the sound (although not by as much as some claim) it obviously increases the weight of the bass noticeably, and has a marked effect on balance. If at all possible, try a genuine German-made Hofner in a shop first to get a better understanding of what you're looking for. Then try the hollow-body Chinese made, and only after that the one with the centre-block.

They still are, yes. Andrea's number is in the post (above). I'm just depping for them on keys.

I've been using Xvive U2 wireless for a few years now and the battery packs are beginning to fade; they used to be perfectly happy to play 3-set gigs on consecutive nights without charging, now they struggle to reach the end of a single 3-set gig. Given how (relatively) expensive they are, I'm not happy and I won't be replacing like with like. My Joyo JW-3 bugs cost just a third of the Xvive price (at the time I bought them - I see they're a fair bit dearer these days) and have delivered a very similar perfomance level to the Xvive U2. I like the look of that charging-case system a lot. I play two gigs most weekends, sometimes three (hell, occasionally four), so having the bugs starting to recharge the second I put them in the case at the end of the gig works for me. Amazon today have a better deal on the Lekato equivalent so I've ordered one of those.

"The Neoprene padding is guaranteed not to react with any lacquer/finish" That turned out to not be the case when I first started putting nitro-finished basses on neoprene stands/hangers. Has something changed or improved?

I've not played both so can't really compare for you, but I followed this thread with interest. I got very close to pressing the button on the Squier VI until I fell down the YouTube rabbit hole of just how dreadful the bridge is and the amount of work needed to make a brand new instrument playable. So last week I bought https://www.thomann.co.uk/harley_benton_guitarbass_vs_vintage_series.htm It arrived yesterday and the first thing I needed to do was to tune it. Then ... well, I played it. That was it. Straight out of the box it was exactly what you want from a new instrument, everything as it should be, set-up perfect, intonation perfect, no dodgy fretwork or crackly pots, very nice sunburst and very nice tort for the p/g. It feels light (actually 7.5 lbs but it feels lighter somehow), hangs well on a strap, and in the hands of a good player - not me, the guy in my soul band played it all last night - it's a very competent bass as well as an excellent baritone guitar thingy with all due allowance for the tuning options. And it cost £185

Aha! An excuse to re-post one of my all-time fave YouTubes ...

I'm always on the lookout for interesting side-projects so I check JMB / Gumtree / FB every day in case something crops up. Looking at a singe page of JMB this afternoon offered me ALL of those tags above in the space of about 30/40 listings and I realised that the whole lot was simply washing over me.

Disco in 6/8 time ... the outcome is inevitable:

I have literally no idea what most of these mean, what sort of songs they are, what sort of bass-playing they require ... indeed, whether or not they actually need any bass. I suspect that many of the people using them have wildly different definitions from each other anyway. Am I missing something? Should I invest hours/days/weeks going down the wastepipe rabbit-hole of trying to understand all these things, or is it safe to carry on ignoring them?

Bass needs more strings ...

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

And here's the long-awaited debut gig ...