SubsonicSimpleton

I think that what you are experiencing is normal - certainly I have the same experience. When I got my plugs I went to an audiologist who tested my hearing in a proper soundproof booth, both with regular headphones, and also with a device that tested hearing via direct bone conduction. Basically the thumping noise is being transmitted through your skeleton, but isn't attenuated by your plugs (which only attenuate air conducted sounds) and because the conducted sound hasn't been attenuated at all it is more noticeable, rather than having suddenly appeared (like bumping a fader 25dB on an instrument in a mix might take it from in the background to in your face)

Sei Flamboyant maybe? lots of pics here http://www.seibass.com/

Based on my experience, in order to sucessfully progress from playing at home as a hobby to playing with other people in public you inevitably have to meet and deal with a good number of idiots/dreamers/flakes/egomaniacs/substance abusers before meeting people who have the magic combination of some musical ability, some motivation and who are reasonable and pleasant human beings - my guess is lots of women give up on playing in bands before they really get started, because they (arguably quite sensibly) come to the conclusion that life is far to short to put up with this nonsense. There is certainly no shortage of female performers in evidence locally, they do tend for the most part to be either solo performers or band leaders.

Where in the UK are you based?

Well at the next bass bash you could organise a blind audience fingering and get answers.

If the singer is struggling with some tunes, it might be worth running them all down a semitone to see if that gives their voice an easier time over the duration of the gig.

Before considering the question of 'do you know what you are buying?' I think it is worth answering the question 'why am I buying this?' If you consider an instrument as a musical tool to be played, gigged and recorded then it doesn't really matter about the provenance as long as it inspires you with how it sounds and responds to your input - if you bought a cleverly faked pre-CBS strat that was in reality an MIJ Tokai, that sounded amazing and inspired your playing and writing to new heights would it matter? (assuming you never need to sell it for financial reasons) If you are viewing instruments as collectors items and financial investments then originality probably matters more than whether the instrument is even playable. @Beedster makes a good point about being picky about where you choose to look, but you do have to bear in mind that sometimes honest people get hoodwinked (google Music Ground trial and do a little research into the owners and their ownership of multiple businesses on Denmark street) and can end up passing on fake/stolen instruments without malice or knowledge of what they are doing, so a ten page feedback thread with only glowing positives isn't necessarily a guaruntee that what they think they are selling is indeed what they say it is, or were told told by the previous owner. Personally I would be more inclined to look at luthier built replicas and modern production models that are not affected by vintage/collectible fever.

Sell the things that are likely to become dated and be superceded by newer technology - amps, speaker cabs, multi-fx, wireless units Keep the things that are less generic or unlikely to date badly - instruments you like, rare/unusual/essential pedals, quality leads, microphones etc Don't sell your on the gig lifesaver kit of useful spares and tools, but do make sure that you store it away without leaving batteries in it. IME the small things really add up over time, and although you might not notice them much buying them piecemeal over a long period of time, it really hurts if you need to replace them all at the same time due to theft and can be really difficult to source replacements for out of production products.

I'd thought for years this meant lengthy after hours boozing sessions was the key to a better sounding band

Quick bit of google fu turned up this video by the authour of the above linked ad 🤣

Lots of cheap generic bowlbacks in circulation with that headstock eg https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Deluxe-Roundback-Electro-Acoustic-Guitar-by-Gear4music-Blue-Burst/5K2 image search turned up this maybe it is your guitar https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/zpower-bowl-back-acoustic/1257322020

If the name is established with a good reputation, changes in personnel are not that important assuming you want to fill the diary - value of the brand eclipses the actual product (bit like when the major cola manufacturers decide to change the recipe of their product)

You claimed that rap music that is disrespectful to women is very popular, I expressed the opinion that MTV bling 'n' beaches rap is largely irrelevant to the general poulation of this planet beyond 12 year old virgins with no access to pornhub and backed it up with some evidence. In Rick Beato's video, one of the main discussion points is that everyone is fed up with music that has been quantised and tuned to the point it resembles a processed cheese slice, and the reluctance of the music industry to take risks on music that still contains human imperfections is at the root of the problem - look at the list, both in terms of the artists on it and the detail of their incomes and draw your own conclusions.

https://www.billboard.com/photos/8465835/highest-paid-musicians-money-makers I'm failing to see the economic dominance of the MTV rappers here. Technology has changed the music industry, and the old rich white men who make the decisions have consistently failed to understand the changing world around them and make good decisions - they might still be able to control many of the mainstream media outlets and dictate for the most part what gets shown, but that doesn't mean it is what people want, or are indeed willing to spend their money on.

Rethink your plan of never playing in a band - it isn't compulsory to play gigs if you want to enjoy playing music with other people, so discarding this as an option outright is limiting your experience. Of course playing music with other people has it's own set of challenges and complications, but if you don't give it a try you'll never know what you are missing - if you have a friend who can strum an acoustic guitar and sing, providing a bassline to fill out the sound and drive everything along would be where I would recommend you give playing with others a go rather than dismissing the idea completely.

And how many women and gay men are buying the product? It's no secret that sex sells, and no secret that the largest commercial market segment for rap is mostly suburban american white teenage boys, so no real suprise there tbh.

Women have always been more important to the music industry than men, because historically they spend more money on buying records - 'girls just want to have fun' has always been true, women are very amenable to spending their money on enjoying themselves and things/activities that make them feel good. The moment that women don't want to dance to your music and don't view you as desirable, it's game over pretty much. During the golden era of rock and roll society was much more sexist, racist and homophobic than it is now, so I'm not sure why anyone would be suprised that peoples expectations have changed and they are voting with their feet and wallets. There are plenty of old songs that are very sexual in terms of their lyrical content without being directly disrespectful or chauvenistic, so it is possible to embrace the full range of the human experience without alienating anyone, but you are unlikely to find them in the back catalogue of Led Zeppelin, ACDC or the Red Hot Chili Peppers IMHO.

Have you considered using a pair of monitors with limited bass response? You would still have to make decisions on your bottom end on headphones, but you might get a clearer picture of what is happening in the midrange using something like mixcubes/auratones - no crossover or reflex porting does have advantages. As a quick, cheap and easily reversible experiment, you could try plugging the ports on your monitors, and/or running a high pass filter on the main bus to get an idea of whether reducing the amount of low end energy in the room is going to make your life easier. If that brings a positive result, it might be worth making a trip to have a listen to some single driver speakers.

My P bass has neck dive a plenty if you sit down and balance it on your knee(no suprise here as the knee cutout is nowhere near the center of gravity), but no neck dive when worn on a strap(which is much more important IMO). For a P bass to be affected by neck dive on a strap it would need to have a very lightweight body, and you could counteract that with a set of ultralight tuners easily enough.

Technicality is pretty easy to measure IMHO, but ultimately who cares? Whether we are talking about photography, cinema, sculpture, painting, pottery, glassblowing, music or any other art form that you care to consider, technique is always necessary to create the art, but it isn't the deciding factor of whether it resonates with us and evokes a reponse.

One other point worth mentioning is that Behringer doesn't seem to put much effort into iOS developement, and their track record on bugfixing and timely updates for new iterations of iOS is pretty poor - might be worth giving this thread a read https://forum.musictribe.com/showthread.php?11342-Best-App-Platform-for-remote-control-of-X32-mixers Hopefully someone else will weigh in when they see this thread, I'm pretty sure that we have a couple of X32 owners on here - just to be clear, I thought that it was worth mentioning the big price drops as @EBS_freak noticed this a couple of weeks ago and we were speculating why in another thread. I don't own an X32 myself, so I'm not suggesting that you make a buying decision based on my advice - the extra expense of the producer/compact version isn't necessarily a negative, when you look at some of the solutions that other people are suggesting for remote control.

I think you need to use an external router on the X32 rack for wireless remote control, so I don't think the same anxiety about poor quality built in wireless applies in this case. Given the price cuts even if you are set on having physical faders it's worth looking at the cost/risk/benefits of used vs new (producer version is under a grand).

Check the prices of new units at gear4music - Behringer have been making some very aggressive price cuts recently. Might be worth investigating the remote control apps for the X32 which are freely available - if using the remote app would work for you, and 16 inputs is sufficient, the rack version might be worth consideration.

Don't underestimate the importance of correct nutrition when it comes to putting in a top notch musical performance. A dozen pickled eggs washed down with three pints of guiness is my personal recipe for musical success, but don't forget the cork - unfortunately being held in the Hague on charges of illegal use of biological weapons on civilians is somewhat hampering my availability for gigs at the moment.

Your a gent Paul, apology graciously accepted, I thought that maybe I owed you an apology for being too blunt as I've had several bad sleep nights in a row, and things can go a bit sideways when I'm sleep deprived.