SubsonicSimpleton

Making a solid body from scratch isn't particularly difficult - the first time I did a project like this, I asked around the local shops to find a cheap donor that was uneconomical to repair (got a full yamaha guitar with massive crack in the body but everything else present for £20) and then used the neck, pups and hardware, and made my own solid body from timber sourced from a local timber merchant. The big question is what scale length and nut width do you want? At 34" there should be plenty of potential donor basses with the right shaped headstock and choice of P or J width available cheaply, at 30" your choices are a bit limited.

Yes as far as I am aware - I looked into this in some depth a while back, and IOS restricts the outgoing current to a very low level to prolong battery life, as far as I'm aware it isn't possible to hack this limit (and probably not that smart even if it was possible due to the flimsy nature of the lightning port and low power output of standard ipad chargers).

The official Usb 3 dongle linked in the OP can be bought cheaper from PC World (£30 IIRC) but not every branch stocks it. Do make sure that you check what you are buying carefully, as PC world staff are pretty clueless and it took them 3 attempts to give me the correct device. It works with any class compliant usb device according to apple, I can confirm that the zoom B3 works fine (I have both the B3 and this adapter). There are however a couple of important caveats; Firstly ipads are restricted to a very low power output on the USB bus, so any USB device needs to be either powered by it's own power supply, or you need to use a powered usb hub between the ipad and usb device. Secondly although ipads do some things very well, file transfer definately isn't one of them, so if you want to transfer stems to/from the ipad, be prepared for having to mess about with complicated workarounds.

Looks like a small fractional bass to me, not a 3/4 - the stock is all from a primary school, and the other instruments are not all listed as fractional, but the cellos look on the small side also, and the violins are all childrens sizes.

1. Do you prefer buying from a music shop or online shop? Sundries online(wider variety and better prices), instruments/amps in person 2. Do you prefer to try before you buy? definately if possible 3. In your experience what is missing from most music stores you have visited? staff with a clue primarily in the larger stores, while I would love to see a more interesting range of instruments/amps in stock, the old pre-internet days ain't coming back anytime soon and the local independants near me who mainly sell used gear all complain about how difficult it is to buy stock in nowadays. 4. How far would you travel to go to music shop depends how much I'm spending - bigger the pricetag, the farther I'm willing to travel 5. What would attract you to a music shop ie range, price etc quality of service, interesting stock, interesting characters, decent banter - unfortunately having all those things doesn't automatically translate to sales There are a few small independants still operating in this neck of the woods, but they have had to branch out to survive, the rehearsal places have also diversified, so now they are competing with each other in terms of offering on site lessons, repairs and sale of sundries. I went in to Northern Guitars(very long running used music eqpt independant) in Leeds a couple of weeks ago and they've gone from two floors of used instrument/amp retail to one floor of retail and converted the ground floor into a bar - directly monetising the social hub aspect with food and drink sales seems like a smart move.

Make your decision based on actually playing at least a couple of examples of both type of instruments. Make sure that the acoustic double basses you try have been set up by someone who knows what they are doing - go visit a DB specialist luthier like Laurence Dixon not a general strings dealer whose primary business is violins. The only EUBs that come close to the real thing in terms of sound and physical landmarks are expensive, and there are a number of quite spendy products that don't don't really sound like a proper DB either - you really need to make your own decision on this, as I've met people who are quite happy with their choice of EUB, but my own reaction upon hearing/playing them was "yuck" - it doesn't matter if your taste coincides with mine, as you will have to live with it.

Nobody here can dance like me, everybody claps on the one and the three

The Hildersine bag is a good low cost option IMHO, decent amount of padding and it is quite lightweight, you will be able to fold it up easily enough. The main drawback of this bag is that there are a limited number of handles, no problems to carry the bass with one hand while opening doors etc, but when it comes to loading/unloading your bass from vehicles you might fing yourself wishing there are more grab points. The handle issue is a non-issue if you have a vehicle with a flat load space. The secondary issue is zip quality on the pockets is pants, although the main zips on mine have held up fine. After 3 years heavy use my bag needs a repair to one handle (should be a couple of quid at the local cobblers), the bow pocket zip is fubar but otherwise the bag is perfectly serviceable. The Westbury 22mm bag is better quality and comes with a bunch of handles which make passing the bass over rear lips on car load spaces or posting the bass through the front passenger door of a small car to load it upside down on the front seat nice and easy as you never need to stretch to reach a proper handle. The padding is substantial, but the downside is that the bag ends up being quite heavy in itself. I can't speak to longevity as I only used this bag for a couple of weeks when I was loaned a bass, but the build quality seemed very good. Although the hildersine padding spec seems close to the westbury(20mm vs 22mm), the foam in the westbury case is much denser and would provide better shock absorbtion/dissipation in the event of a bump IMHO.

https://www.gear4music.com/Woodwind-Brass-Strings/3-4-Size-Electric-Double-Bass-Amp-Pack-Black/2906# must be a mistake surely, but just in case anyone wants to try their luck.......

Is it this one? https://www.gear4music.com/Woodwind-Brass-Strings/3-4-Size-Electric-Double-Bass-Amp-Pack-Black/2906# The advertised price of £19.99 must be a mistake, but if anyone sucessfully orders and gets delivery at that price do tell. Looks to me like a rebranded Stagg, so its an OK option if you are not paying much, but according to the combined knowledge of owners here and over on talkbass, they generally benefit from some modification and better quality strings - have a look for the stagg megathread in the EUB section on talkbass if you want more info.

What type of music are you interested in playing?

Happy to hear you've sorted the fine detail - now you just need to get on with making some music.

4/4 mittels on a 3/4 bass are only a little more tension than 3/4 weich - 3/4 mittels might be heavy going both for your hands and the machine heads. This set of used strings on ebay is definately spiro mittels (easily identified by the ball ends and silks) but no idea whether they are 3/4 or 4/4 (no affiliation to seller) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Used-Double-Bass-Strings/282772814352 I would definately have a good read of that EUB thread before committing though - if regular 3/4 strings were a good idea, Bob Gollihur would probably be recommending tried and tested sets on his website, and he is only listing the strings specifically made for the NS EUBs, so I expect that there may be issues with DB strings causing failure of the EUB tuners or the through body stringing and small posts on the tuners killing strings. Stringzone have NS strings listed at £120, so you have options.

You might also want to double check your string identification, this image on Bob Gollihur's website shows the difference between the specific NS strings Daddario make The silk colours are the same as Daddario orchestral DB strings to my eye, but the silks will be longer on a DB string.

If you go with spiros, bear in mind that the string set that most US double bassists refer to as mittels is the S42 4/4 set. Maybe worth asking about this in the NXT megathread over on talkbass, as the design of the pegbox and tuners and the way the strings are fitted to the instrument means that you might run into issues with strings that you wouldn't encounter on a DB.

You just need a high public profile

It isn't compulsory to like everything within one large genre - much as it isn't compulsory to like every song/album that a band releases. Imagine only listening to St Anger and never hearing Master of Puppets and forming your opinion of Metallica on that basis. IMHO there is music worth listening to in every genre, but there is also going to be plenty of stuff you won't like, so it is worth digging through the poo to find the diamonds - youtube/spotify is probably a better bet than listening to radio stations.

Carol Kaye is very much a jazz musician, and she moans regularly about playing jazz with other musicians who noodle about on a scale without referencing the chord changes. If you wanted an example of a simple chordtone driven bassline, "New Years Day" by U2 is a good one - lots of root and third spelling out exactly what the chord sequence is.

This will be excellent for knocking down low hanging conkers - it will now be unnecessary to bring a step ladder with you when you take your p-bass out to the park for a spot of conker gathering in the autumn, I'll take two.

Get some proper moulded ones and don't be put off by the up front cost(I use ACS pro, but they are not the only company). They are more comfortable and attenuate the volume level much more evenly than generic christmas tree plugs or foam ones, and you don't need to take them out to be able to hold a conversation with someone.

Are you sure he wasn't in anyway inspired or influenced by the music of Domenico Dragonetti who incorporated the idea of using the harmonics on the double bass as part of the tune rather famously (in classical double bass playing circles at least) somewhere around 150 years before Jaco. Skip forward to 1:20 to get to the bit where the harmonics start being used prominently

A luthiers suppliers is probably the easiest option, but you'll pay more. Last solidbody I made I used Luan(which is sold as "maghogany" in lots of general timber yards) sourced from a timber merchant - it did require a bit of faffing about finding a plank that looked like it would be stable long term without obvious flaws and provide a two piece blank, but it ended up being inexpensive and I'm happy with the result. If you want to go ultralight with something like paulowinia, you might need to engage some lateral thinking to source it and buy it from a company that uses it day to day (surfboard manufacture was the best UK option last I checked several years ago), and if their supplier isn't sending them planks that are big enough to make a blank from, you'll have to accept making a blank from more than two pieces.

Yes German grip - I can't really help you out with specific advice on what might be worth getting as I only play French grip, so my recent experience auditioning bows might not translate. It is possible to replace the adjuster on bows https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VIOLIN-BOW-SCREW-FINE-QUALITY-MATERIALS-PEARL-EYE-CHROME-MOUNTED-UK-SELLER/221832921733 Both my bows have a similar arrangement of steel screw going into this little brass eyelet, which I'm guessing is the part that has stripped - maybe ask the person who did your rehair if they have access to spare parts, it might be a simple quick fix to get your existing bow back in service.

Well if the adjuster has stripped, you might be able to repair it, but it would seem like a good time to replace it if you are enjoying arco. Are you playing french or german grip?