Dan Dare

Why no pic' on my posts any more?

Don't invest in anything you have any feeling for. You need to sell when the time is right to realise the best value from any investment. If you have fine instruments you are fond of, you may not be able to bring yourself to cash them in when you should. Grangur has it right.

Nah. Old Cliff may have the required religiosity, but he's too, well, nice. You need to be a bit more crazed about your beliefs to be popular with god botherers in the deep South (and preferably be partial to shooting anything that moves).

It's well worth adding a washer to the shaft of the boom extension pivot. Enables you to tighten the T bar properly and makes it easier to loosen. I do this to all my K&Ms.

Good advice. You can take one or both depending on how much nosier you need to make. As for makes, try the usual suspects.

Have a look at these - https://www.floormats.co.uk/safety-mats-playprotect. Just got three - one for the bass rig and one each for the PA subs. Heavy, inert rubber. Work well and a fraction of the cost of Gramma pads and similar.

I see it went for £63. About £60 more than its true value

Rather than modify the instrument, why not consider a pedal/external pre? You'll have to do some research/trying out - only you know the sound you're after. That way, you can use the Sandberg as it is when you don't want the more aggressive approach.

One man's "trolling" is another's fair comment. If you put something up for public sale, it is everyone's business. If it was advertised privately, you might have a point.

I agree that it should be no comments or all comments. No in between.

Rather than hack the TE about and risk the fact that replacing the speakers may not work, why not pick up a power amp to drive the BF? Older style (i.e. non class D) used PA power amps are cheap these days.

My local rehearsal room has SVT Pro heads plus 8X10s and although you can feel, as well as hear the bass, the tone is lacking, for me at any rate. Too indistinct, even if the weight is satisfying. My AG700 plus PJB cabs are much more pleasing to my ear. Guess I'm in the minority, too.

Fair point. Perhaps helpful and constructive. But "a good guy to do business with" (to quote chris_b's example) is not something I would call constructive. Too easy for someone's mates to post that sort of stuff. The one other thing I really object to is "bargain". Some on here are not that experienced/new to the game and could be influenced by that. I've seen used stuff advertised on here at almost new price and not everyone will necessarily be aware of that. If "bargain" or "good price" is acceptable, so should "too pricey" be.

Caveat emptor, I'm afraid. As Maude says, view the combined total as the price you will pay.

Why are only positive comments "good"? Surely all or none should be permitted.

I put a J Retro in my J bass and went back to passive after a few months. The East was impressive and made the instrument more versatile, but I just couldn't get that classic Jazz bass tone from it. It was close, but not quite there. This may be different, of course. You pays yer money and takes yer choice.

You'll just have to accept your fate, I'm afraid, which, like mine, is to be the one who knows how to do that stuff. I've tried, believe me, but I just cannot stand by and watch others mess up the PA when I know how it should be done and when I also know that, if I don't sort it, the sound will be rubbish.

You say you've come to it late and practice a lot. Have you been playing long? It takes a bit of time to develop good callouses. Also, you refer to your plucking finger singular. Are you only using the one? If so, I presume it's the index. Try alternating first and second fingers (I know Jamerson used only his index finger, but he was a one-off). You'll halve the amount of stress on the skin of each.

If you can find one, the Carvin class D heads have a valve pre that actually does something to the sound (as opposed to being there for marketing purposes). My spare amp is a B1000 and it's a nice head. Picked it up used for not much over £300.

The Ag' GS cabs are less bright and deeper/larger than the newer - SL or DB - ones, so reputed to have more bottom end. There's a guy selling a pair that look to be in good nick on eBay at the moment. In Basingstoke and collection only, so a bit of a trek from S Wales, but they look nice.

55 squids for a cap? Shouldn't that be Hysterical Parts?

This looks nice and clean - UK built - for you Trace lovers if any of you are near the South Coast - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Trace-Elliot-1X15-Bass-Cab/382860497751?epid=908710623&hash=item5924439357:g:OEIAAOSwCrtcl8Dg

That's usually caused by the fact that a low powered amp will clip and send what is pretty well a square wave to the driver, which destroys it.

I run my J bass with the tone wide open, but I like a spot of roll-off on the P with flats for that JJ sound.

On the plus side, Midgets and associated Leyland cars were very basic and easy to fix with pliers and a hammer by the side of the road.