Osiris

This looks interesting. The Classic Vibe range has a great reputation so hopefully that will carry over into the new Mustang. At that price it's very tempting https://www.kennysmusic.co.uk/squier-classic-vibe-60s-mustangr-bass-laurel-fingerboard-sea-foam-green

He doesn't look terribly happy about it, does he! Maybe it's the yellow drivers clashing with his bling hardware?

Realistically it's more like 20 seconds on Google if you're using sensible search terms But as someone pointed out earlier there are those who won't - or can't be bothered - to look, they're the ones that annoy me, especially if I've already gone to the trouble of putting that information into my ad that they haven't bothered to read. I have actually backed out of a couple of sales like that over the years as I won't - or can't be bothered - to deal with people like that. How long is it before you get a snotty message back saying something along the lines of "it's got a chip in the paint" to which you're obliged to point out that that was clearly started in the ad had they taken a few seconds to read it. I'd rather lose the sale than my sanity.

I'm the same as you in that I do my homework, as you say most of the technical information is available online so not exactly difficult to come by. When listing something for sale I try to put in as much useful detail as I can to try and pre-empt any obvious questions - but that, of course, only works on the assumption that the people actually read the description, and judging by some of the questions I've had over the years many people clearly don't. I usually try to politely say that the answer to their question is in the description. And you can guarantee that is someone asks for the weight of something it will be too heavy regardless. In much the same way that the nut width will never be what they're looking for!

@Clarky The TC MojoMojo has loads of low end available, there's certainly no loss of the bass frequencies with it. It doesn't need a clean blend, they only really come in to their own when you're into the realms of distortion. For a subtle Motown-esque drive you're unlikely to need it.

I do keep looking at those especially now it looks like they're remaking the silver version which looks great, IMO, it makes a change from the endless procession of dreary turdburst finishes . Trouble is I'm a fat, bald middle aged man so I think it's look utterly ridiculous on me.

Another vote for the TC Electronics MojoMojo, despite most of the YouTube videos focusing on running at higher gain settings it does a great, smooth, creamy low gain tone that will give you that Motown/valve amp just breaking up vibe. It doesn't get too gnarly or fizzy like some bass overdrive pedals. It has a 2 band EQ and isn't inherently voiced to have all the useful and useable mids scooped out like some of the offerings from DarkGlass and Tech 21. It easily holds its own against pedals costing many times as much. The full sized TC Spark Booster is also worth a look, despite the name it does also have some low gain drive built in although it doesn't go as far as full on overdrive, but you're not looking for that anyway! Put the voice switch into the mid bump position, dial in bass and treble to taste and job done.

How about a readily available short scale Precision, Jazz or P/J with traditional-ish body shape? I know there have been a few different models over the years like the Fender modern player short scale, and that Polish company that begins with M (that I can't spell or even pronounce) make some but they're very thin on the ground. There's very little choice in the £1000~ish short scale category other than a couple of variations of the Mustang so I think if someone was to fill that gap with a regular production traditional styled model they would sell loads.

@CameronJ I fully agree with that. I'm one of the ones who has had an issue with my stomp but I don't think that that automatically means that they're all ticking time bombs. I've been around the block a few times and realise that these things happen, it's a PITA but in the grand scheme of things it's not the end of the world. I seem to remember reading somewhere (it could have been an unsubstantiated claim online) that the electronics industry considers a failure rate of 5% to be acceptable, if that's true, the people making our consumer electronics expect to have a failure rate of up to 1 in 20 units. But I suspect that in reality the failure rate is lower than that. It happens, unfortunately.

Steve Harris is my favourite Rotosound endorsee, his big and punchy Precision sound with his trade mark clank is what drew the teenage me to the bass in the mid 80's and his tone still ranks as one of my favourite bass sounds to this day. He plays flats and I prefer round wounds but that's still the sound I try to emulate today, it just works with many forms of music, not just old school metal.

Cheers guys, If the new one starts doing the same I'll give both of these options a go and report back. Although I did reboot mine mid gig a couple of times to no avail. I'll also be getting a refund too if I'm that unlucky! For the record, mine was running warm but not hot, I wouldn't like to put a figure on the actual temperature but probably no more than 10 degrees above ambient in a warm pub.

Mine started dropping volume for a few seconds on a gig, but only once it had been on for a couple of hours. This makes me think it's probably a hardware issue. After resetting the global settings (I couldn't find anything in the manual about a factory reset, if anyone knows if and how this can be done please post the details here) I gigged it again the following week. The drop outs got longer and longer, up to a few minutes at a time which is obviously unacceptable on a gig so I used my Zoom MS-60B to finish the gig (and for the following gig). Anyway, it was all under warranty so it went back to PMT who will be replacing it once they have some more in stock.

I'll be getting a replacement Stomp any day now, it was covered under warranty so no issues in that regard. As for a DI out, that's not a problem. The MS-60B doesn't have an XLR out, that's true, I just use a regular guitar cable to the the combi inputs on our desk. Seeing as most gigs I do I'm rarely more than a few meters from the desk it's not essential to have a balanced signal. If anything the signal from the Zoom was hotter than the one from my Stomp, but that could simply be down to setting up a rough and ready patch on the fly. No issues with noise from an unbalanced signal either.

I had a spot of bother with my Helix Stomp recently, I ended up doing a couple of gigs using my Zoom MS-60B. I'm also ampless too. It's not Helix quality sound wise but it's certainly capable enough in its own right. I don't use a million sounds or effects, just a solid one size fits all bass sound. Once the band fired up the bass sounded fine and sat well in the mix, a sound similar to the one you use on your CD 😀 The cheap Zoom has a number of different amp and cab models which you can mix and match, there's even a decent Sansamp model plus various other pre-amps, EQ' s and a couple of really good compressors too and the essential tuner. The unit is metal cased and the size of a single stomp box so not obtrusive to carry around. They go for around £40-50 used. If you're looking for a back up unit I cannot recommend this enough.

That's a beauty, I want one

Interesting observation, I can't remember what the receiver is like for the 100. The one with the 1000 is plastic but feels reassuringly sturdy to me, I've not had any issues with mine in the 8 months or so that I've been gigging with it.

This has just popped up in the for sale section, it's just the transmitter only but then again it's only £30. This is the model our guitarist has and he's really pleased with it, if that's any mind of glowing endorsement

Obviously it would mean more of an outlay but if you each have your own wireless systems you have a degree more control over what you are hearing, for example, I run two identical outputs from my pre-amp (we're amp-less on stage) one of which goes to the desk and to the FoH, the other goes into the back of my LD transmitter. That allows me to have more bass in my personal mix without affecting what anyone else hears. You can adjust the volume of the individual channels from the LD receiver so I can have the bass sitting nicely over the top of the rest of the band. If you're singing as well you might want an additional mini mixer to help if you wanted to have the vocals and bass louder, but I don't (can't ) sing so it's not an issue for me.

That I don't know, I'm afraid, it's only me and the guitarist who are on wireless IEM's and we each have our own transmitter and receiver systems. Have a look to see what it says in the manual, I've tried to attach it here but I don't know if it'll work as it's a pdf. Can't see why not but I don't think I've seen anyone else attach one on BC before! If it doesn't work, pull a copy off the web from the LD website, they're freely available. LD Wireless IEM's MEI 1000 G2.pdf

@Les for cheap and cheerful wireless in ears I can highly recommend the LD MEI1000 G2 system, I use mine with the mandatory KZ ZS10's and have no issues with sound quality. The lows are deep and powerful without being bloated and the highs are clear, they can get a little sharp if you really push them but nothing a touch of high end cut on the monitor mix can't resolve. To my ear there a bit of a dip in the upper mids which I suspect is down to the ZS10's, but this is no bad thing as it helps ease any ear fatigue by the end of the night. My ZS10's were from Amazon too! Likewise @EBS_freak has warned me away from the cheaper wireless systems but after having a try out with our guitarists LD MEI 100 G2 (the 1000 is stereo whereas the 100 is dual mono, I think?) I was really impressed. I was expecting something that was probably going to be of a similar quality to FM radio but to my ears the quality is much better, maybe not quite CD quality but probably not far off. And once you're in the moment on the gig and are not focusing on the quality of the sound so much as listening to what's going on then you'll find you can hear everything clearly anyway, which is surely the whole point! I picked my LD system up new for less that £200 in the black Friday sales last year, but the going rate seems to be around £250 new, which is still a great price, IMO. I can't comment on how they compare to the more expensive systems as I've not tried them but for me and the gigs I do (weekend warrior with a mix of pub and function gigs) they're more than good enough. I suspect to get any significant improvement you're going to have to spunk around 10 times as much on a system, but for under £300 including the ZS10's, I think it's a no brainer. The LD also comes with a rack mount kit too.