Dan Dare

The only and therefore best and worst purchase I made was a used PJB 4B cab. As it happens, I like it a lot.

My favourite is The Hissing of Summer Lawns, followed by Hejira, but I wouldn't argue they're better than any others. Just my preference.

You really have to try them to be sure. Fwiw, I find Markbass stuff doesn't have that "high sizzle" treble sound (that's fine by me as I don't like it). What it does do very well indeed is that solid, room filling sound. A guy I know uses a 2x10 MB combo. His band has two guitar playing hooligans with Mesa Boogies and you can hear/feel the bass in your chest over the racket they make. Very impressive.

One of these?

This thread illustrates a classic conundrum. Do I worry about keeping an instrument "stock" to preserve its re-sale value, or do I modify it to make it a better tool for the job? I'm in the latter camp. With a few exceptions, Instruments are not museum exhibits. OK, if you have Nigel Tufnell's Strat' with original tags, sales receipt, etc, etc, you'd probably be wise to flog it to a collector (who is likely a lawyer who can't play to save his life and is buying instruments to show off and/or as an investment) and buy something you can use with the proceeds. I bet that added Jazz pickup makes RickC's bass a lot more versatile.

True. A long screw that goes through the dodgy part into sound timber will do the job there.

Yep. Unlike a lot of hot young players people make a fuss about, he has the feel as well as the chops. Inspiring stuff.

I've found string life has a lot to do with how you put them on initially and how frequently you clean them. I always take them up to pitch gradually over several hours and clean the gunk off them regularly (I sweat quite a lot, so this is more necessary for me than it may be for others). As they lose brightness so gradually, changing them can be something of a shock to the ears.

in active or passive mode?

That is an excellent idea.

And as long as it doesn't overhang the edge of the cab...

Good advice from Bill as always. The upper wattage rating of an amplifier almost always means it can deliver that power in a very short burst (measured in milliseconds) and at a set/limited frequency. Steady state power delivery will be a lot lower. Few amplifiers have power supplies that are beefy enough to deliver high power over sustained periods. Any decent drive unit will usually be able to deal with short term peaks of twice its rated power, provided it is mounted in a well designed cab. And as Bill points out, a high power amplifier will ensure the signal you send to the cab is clean. If you drive an amp into clipping, that can be far more damaging to a speaker than feeding it high levels of clean power.

Asymmetry doesn't bother me, but poor design does, such as headstocks - see above - which don't give a straight pull of the string over the nut to the tuning peg.

I had a similar experience. Had a CD player stolen from my PA rack (I had left it onsite overnight on a 3 day job). Turned up in the local CC a week later. I got it back, but was told the same thing by the police when I reported it.

Thank you so much for posting this. Beautiful. That version of Let's Fall in Love was magic.

Design a good pre and add an IcePower or similar module and away you go. BF have already done powered cabs.

I have Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats on my 5. It's 34", but I'd say they definitely have enough un-silked length to fit 35" scale, unless it has through body stringing. Not the cheapest, but last well, feel nice under the fingers and sound good.

Never say never. Your gigging days may not be behind you. I'd definitely get one which has a preamp/line out, so you can add a power amp and cab(s) if you need to make more noise at a later date. All those you list will do the job, depending on what you want. If you like clean, I'd look towards the Edens, rather than the Orange. Hartke combos are decent and quite versatile. I've never been that thrilled by Laney bass gear, except their big valve heads.

Why not build two 2x10s? Easier to carry/transport. Make each 8 ohms and away you go.

That is staggeringly disrespectful of her. I would have had to stop her. I wonder what she would have said had you placed glasses on something she valued and started to fill them.

Me too. If someone comes on stage with a bass and asks "Where do I plug in?" without asking me beforehand if they can use my gear, I point to the nearest mains socket. Drinks on gear is a no-no, of course, especially as most has cooling fans these days, which will suck anything that spills into the amp and destroy it. One guy I allowed to use my amp put a pint on it. I tried and failed to catch his eye to ask him to move it (pretty sure he was ignoring me), so I went on stage mid-song and did it myself.

Fair points, but I would suggest something further. It isn't just the actual CNC machining that costs. That is a relatively small part of building instruments - it only really applies to making the components. Assembly, setting up, QC and inspection, which will be more intensive in the US (partly because the manufacturers need to justify the higher prices charged for US built instruments) is the greater part of the process. If it is done by people who are paid properly, that has to drive up the price. In the Far East, the instruments probably come off the production line and into the boxes with relatively little setting up or hands on input. I agree that the price premium is high for US-built instruments and have no doubt that there is an element of manufacturers charging more for them because they can, but I don't think that's all there is to it.