Happy Jack

Unless you have complete control of the band (and probably a wireless in-ears system) then IME you should forget about just putting the band through the PA - use the PA as sound support for the band, but keep the backline. Very few pub-rockers are happy to play without backline, and smaller gigs don't need PA support anyway. Besides, what are you going to do about the drummer? We've ended up with a position where we retain the backline but keep the volume level on-stage (for want of a better location) fairly low, achieving the desired level on the dancefloor by then adding overall through the PA. This also gives good flexibility between the start of the gig (six people standing near the bar) and the end of the gig (100 whizzed-up punters singing Mony Mony three feet in front of us), with the on-stage volume not needing to be tweaked. One last thing - you'll need a set of ears in the crowd either to operate the PA or to send signals to the band as to what needs to change. My bands are lucky enough to have @Silvia Bluejay out front with a tablet running the PA, and occasionally making offensive (and borderline obscene) gestures when the band annoys her.

Good Lord. In the time it would take most people to learn how to use that interface, they could just as easily ... erm ... learn to play bass. Mind you, I loved the 'Groove' button which automatically adds constant eighth notes to whatever you're playing (because we all know that's what 'groove' is, right?) and then every track can sound just like U2.

Thing is, many people really are stupid / ignorant / lazy [delete as applicable]. Someone I know very well noticed three weeks ago that certain websites were still selling Product X at 'normal' (i.e. pre-Lockdown) prices. He needed a couple, so he bought half a dozen and immediately listed the spares on eBay at double the retail price. All sold within three days. So he went back to the original website and bought another dozen at full, normal retail, then listed those too. They all sold within a week. So he went back to the original website and they had finally sold out, but he found another website selling them at a slightly higher price. He bought a dozen of those and has now listed them. For context, he has so far made over £400 cash in clear profit on sales to date, and will nearly double that if the rest of his stock also sells. He is doing absolutely nothing wrong, and he has no special knowledge or access that no other punter has. I don't know whether to admire his entrepreneurial spirit or be appalled at his greed.

At least the Fender neckplate looks genuine ...

Shoulda swopped da valves, man ...

In a word, "clumsy".

I would love to ... if only I had half a dozen gigs under my belt! I didn't think it would be fair to spring such a different bass on the band two days later in Richmond, so I stuck to the usual Mike Lull T-bird. My first gig with the Ric was a not-very-good one in Hampshire three weeks later, followed by three much better ones at weekly intervals and everything beginning to click rather nicely ... and then the whole world went to 5h1t. I could have written something as the world went into Lockdown, but sat to relate I went down with a nasty case of man-flu (or Covid-19 as we calls it round 'ere) for two weeks and instead I did the square root of f***-all. I could write something now except it's been over a month since I played it in anger. Ah well, Game Over Insert New Coin. Reset to zero when the lockdown is lifted.

To Hell with that! Did you succeed? Did it work? What does it weigh? How does it sound? What do those knobs do? Why is it that colour? Is it any good for metal?

Erm ... what?

You're in touch with your Inner Yoda?

Yes, I was a bit puzzled by that. What is a "saw rasp", why is it "such a great tool", and why don't Homebase stock them?

You're not really on-board with the whole GAS thing, are you Pete?

The bass is buried underneath ...

The FDeck unit is an amazingly simple but effective piece of kit when using DB (it's called that because the original circuit was designed by a guy called Francis Deck = FDeck). It's as near plug-in-and-forget as anything you're likely to find, and the louder you play the more you'll appreciate it. Are you based near London at all?

Obvious question - what pickup system(s) are you using? IME any amp/head that's going to work well with DB and a piezo pickup will offer input impedance of greater than 1M Ω and the specs won't be slow to let you know this. Those Ampegs don't mention input impedance in their specs.

Judging by their website, you may have revealed their best-kept secret Roger. It's clear that they really, really don't want people to know that they sell DB cases ...

https://tomandwill.com/collections/strings-accessories-cases-double-bass Pretty sure you didn't mention "cheap".

Just a brain-dead vendor trying to get around eBay fees for Reserve Price & Buy It Now.