Happy Jack

So, elk then?

If budget isn't an issue, take a look at Acoustic Image and their Clarus range. Anything aimed at people who double on DB tends to allow for the sort of possibilities you're after. If you choose a 2-channel amp, then you can 'reserve' one channel for your clean sound when sharing. AI kit is pretty dear, but their aftersales service tends to be excellent and no-quibble.

I usually end up walking through the tables ...

Good idea, but not sure where to start. I did start a conversation with a certain well-known and highly-recommended English luthier but it petered out quite quickly ... IME yer average high-quality luthier is not great at communication, and besides I'd rather like this neck to be finished this side of the next Millennium. I'll happily listen to recommendations though.

I have a 35" scale Mike Lull P5 (i.e. a 5-string Precision) with a fretted neck. I want to experiment with a fretless neck on this bass, but 35" scale fretless necks seem to be very hard to come by. [Potential silly question alert] What is to stop me from buying a standard 34" unlined fretless neck from Mighty Mite or Allparts, and fitting it with a 1" spacer at the heel to make it 35"? [/Potential silly question alert] If I mark the dots where I want them with a black Sharpie or similar, then I'm guessing that so long as 12th fret position is at 17.5" then the intonation will be fine. What am I missing?

Long, shiny ones ... mmmmmmmmmm

Alternatively, buy this from Amazon and get free delivery. £7 for delivery on a non-fragile £39 item is simply extracting the urine.

Elvis came down in a flying saucer and took all the forums. Wow man! I'm really enjoying this home-made mushroom soup. Turned out way different than I expected.

Not liking the break angle on the through-body stringing.

Good to have you back, David. 🙂

20091523278 - 7lb 9oz I wonder if that means that this particular bass (that looks like a S/No to me) has been individually weighed for the listing. If so, then credit is due for supplying a key spec that most manufacturers/retailers gloss over. Unfortunately I must then deduct that very same credit for failure to mention the scale length! 🙄

No no no! Those woods clash! And as that for that red bucket chair, darling, well really ... 😂😂😂

Wow! That is a shedload of money ... what use will you actually get from all those stems? Are you planning to issue your cover of Yessongs anytime soon?

I'm loving the idea of the band leader announcing to a bunch of half-cut office workers on a Friday night in Huddersfield, "and now it's time for our Captain Beefheart medley".

Your start point shouldn't be "what materials are available" ... try starting with "what do I want to use this EUB for?". Simandl and similar is wonderful stuff if you're going down a particular route but if what you really want to do is to play simple 12-bar blues or 2-feel country lines, then I suspect you'll find Simandl horribly OTT and off-putting. That is just my opinion and several much more competent upright players will be along any moment now to tell you why I'm wrong. And yes, you can combine the Simandl method with playing blues, country, rock'n'roll, rockabilly ... it's a method after all, you can apply it to anything. All I will say is, the best investment I ever made when learning upright was to get an introductory lesson from a good teacher. Literally on Day One, get someone to show you how to stand, how to hold the bass, how to pluck, how to finger the strings. Get the really basic stuff sorted from the start, and you won't have to spend years unlearning things later.

This sounds to me like a covers band playing pubs to punters who get steadily drunker as the evening wears on ... pretty much like my band The Junkyard Dogs then. Much as I love the blues, and much as I admire the work of John Martyn, very few of these recommendations could possibly be considered 'crowd pleasers'. I spent YEARS trying to get through to the Dogs that "we play what we want to play and if you don't like it, well tough titty" is a rather soggy sales pitch. A few years ago we finally reached the stage where we could play three straight sets of crowd-pleasers which the band ALSO wanted to play. Guess what? We are fully-booked every year, turning down gigs by mid-Summer, and pretty much all those gigs are at £300 - a decent rate around here for a pub band.

Edit: It helps that the drummer and I can contribute decent 2-part harmony BVs where needed.

We do all of these (and more) as a 3-piece, no problem. https://www.lemonrock.com/junkyarddogs?page=songs

Phone quality these days being what it is, I don't see why not. I always use a Zoom (H2 or H4n) but then I have them knocking around anyway.

@Teebs, that is just outRAGEous and I love it to bits. Who knew that TE kit was scaleable? Now awaiting the audio clips with great interest ...

In the Home Counties your best bet is probably Join My Band. Finding bands is easy. Finding good bands is hard. Finding good bands who think you are the answer to their problems ... well that's another thang entirely.

https://hackaday.com/2017/05/08/a-queen-mystery-the-legend-of-the-deacy-amp/?fbclid=IwAR1m4Ik_uQrQTEbcBV4mMnosn5dEfSf36xcpVA2LZCYJX3bzNJpCwjTMdgg

Paging @FinnDave ...

I tried one of these in the Warwick Custom Shop in New York some years back. I was never a fan of Cream, I don't like Warwicks (we were there because @Silvia Bluejay is a BIG fan), and I hate SG-style basses, so I expected to really really dislike that bass. It turned out to be one of the nicest basses I've ever played. After half an hour of delightful noodling, I was so impressed that I asked the price. When I heard it was $4500 I lost interest very quickly. 😂