Happy Jack

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.

What do you mean by "small places"? The GK MB110 is a 100W combo, but the TH350 is a 350W amp, so you're looking at two very different solutions. The TH350 will do anything from a quiet wine bar to a large, busy pub and the MB110 is far more limited. If money doesn't matter, buy the TH350. It has a volume control. You can use it quietly as well as loudly.

Nah ... they're impaled on a line of stakes running down the garden. Think 'end of Spartacus' ...

A quick Google reveals loads of photos of Ross playing a Jackson and a Musicman in later years, but the only photos I could find of him with Journey show him playing an Ovation Magnum II. A totally brain-dead thread from 2005 on the Ovation FanClub site focuses on the alleged sale on eBay of his alleged Viper 3 bass (seriously ) which he allegedly played on the Escape album. The accompanying photo of course shows a Magnum III (with knobs, not sliders) on which someone has scrawled some sort of a signature in black sharpy. It is all way less than convincing. If I were a gambling man, I'd bet the farm on the Ovation Magnum II and nothing else. Why do you need to know?

My basses are all now practising social isolation, and are kept on wall hangers at least two metres apart. But the real plague carriers are the valve amps ... dodgy characters with a dubious past, and they smell funny too.

Hmmmmm. Either you'd need some serious amphetamines and play everything ar ramming speed, or you'd be playing a VERY long gig.

Nah, they'd flood their engines.

...then the Black Gate opened, and forth came no Ring-Wraith, but a living man, the Mouth of Sauron. 'Greetings,' he cried. 'I bring a short statement affirming the Dark Tower's commitment to prompt customer service as we face the challenge of responding to COVID-19 together...'

That is an excellent piece of work, both as a statistical analysis and as a journalistic explanation. Well worth 10 minutes of anyone's time.

Only one gig so far, Marc, with the second coming up on Friday. First thing to note is that I thought I'd allowed plenty of time for these strings to settle to pitch - big mistake! For the first 10 days I was tuning back up a semitone at least twice a day to keep it honest. By the night of the gig they had finally settled and I relaxed, but I then discovered that playing three sets of rockabilly is really quite different from occasionally checking the tuning. I must have checked & corrected the tuning at least a dozen times during that gig. My blushes were spared by the inebriated state of the guitarist, whose own tuning issues did an excellent job of disguising mine. Next, the difference between very-well-played-in Silver Slaps and brand-new coated guts should not be underestimated. The gig was seriously hard work, and my fingers were aching mercilessly long before the end. Finally, I loved the tone and I have every expectation that these strings are going to settle in wonderfully over time. Cancellations allowing, I'll be gigging this bass every weekend for the next 12 weeks. More to come ...

Covid-19, you know what I mean, At this moment you mean everything ...