Cato

I got decent at fretless just by having mine as the most reachable bass for home noodling. Most of the time I don't do the 'mwah' thing at all, I'm just using it to work out or practice lines that weren't originally played on a fretless. I don't want to get into the whole lined vs unlined thing but my personal experience was that having a lined fretless meant that I could intonate notes more or less accurately from day 1, albeit requiring a bit more concentration and care.

And we're definitely talking earholes?

Dear Dr @Ricky 4000 I've got my set square out and my nipples are around 1 inch to either side of my ear lobes. Should I see my GP?

I've had a few Mexican Fenders in the last 20 or so years, I know everyone's experience is different, but I've never had a bad bass or guitar from that factory. My Baja telecster is one the favourite guitars that I've ever owned. As said above the Goldfoil design looks flawed, the pickup looks too narrow for the string spacing, even if the bridge and nut were perfectly placed the outer strings would be right on the edge of the pickup. I'm not making excuses for the factory, obviously they should have noticed the issues during QC, but they should also have been picked up at the R & D phase before production had even started.

I can't see what the issue is. I'm sure he's not the first youtuber whose planned to buy themselves nice things with whatever money they can make on their channels.

Recognition at last! Congratulations sir.

It's another one where he's talking to that bloke who looks like his American identical twin. The first time I saw one of these I was really confused. It took me a while to realise that he wasn't talking to himself while putting on a American accent

Despite his clickbait titles, he's generally not that negative about anything. My guess is that like many people he hates the horse shoe pickup surround but then goes on to be mainly positive.

Heard this on Radio 1 the other day. Definite 80s vibe.

Nothing to be ashamed of there, regardless of the painful reality, it looks like you're having a great time. Maybe you should make it a 'thing'.

I've always fancied a BC Rich Mockingbird bass, I think it's one of the nicest guitar shapes out there, althhough I've heard neckdive can be an issue. I also keep an eye out for Ibanez Destroyer skinny stringers, a lad at scool had one and I fell in love with it.

I don't think I have a fixed number 1 bass. I'm pretty happy with each of them individually, they all do what they're supposed to, the jazzes sound like jazzes the P soumds like a P. I rotate through my modest collection as the mood takes me. That's why everyone needs more than 1 bass.

Not sure if it strictly counts but many Ibanez endorsees don't play 'off the peg' versions of their signature guitars. Ibanez has a Japanese custom shop that until fairly recently has only made high spec guitars for endorsees. There's a bit more about it here. https://www.ibanez.com/usa/special/50th_Anniversary/japan-custom-shop.html

I think probably depends on factors like the guitar maker, the price point of said model and whether the artist actually wants one. Many Fender sigs for example are not actually played by the endorsee, they stick with their original favourite guitar that the sig is based on and probably have another 2nd favourite vintage guitar they use as backup rather than the sig. I'd gues that with Janek Gwizdala being quite niche and his model so expensive that he's unlikely to have been given it completely free.

I discovered that yesterday after @asingardenofmentioned it. I honestly thought Gibson had killed it off. I downloaded the most recent version from bandlab.com last night and it's as simple to get started as I remembered. Within a minute or two of opening it for the first time I was putting down tracks on the 4 track recorder. I'm going to have a proper go on the 32 track at the weekend. If @ped's friend is looking for a free DAW they can download then start recording more or less immediately I'd say Cakewalk is a great option.

I'm not a bagpipes aficionado but isn't it basically a very loud recorder with a badly intonated backing track?

I couldn't make head nor tail of Ableton before I went through the tutorials. It's definitely not a plug in and start recording scenario. The easiest recording software I ever found for PC was Cakewalk, but it got discontinued a few years back. It might be possible to find an old CD copy on ebay, assuming your friend's PC/laptop has a CD drive.

I've never actually tried it. I suspect there must be a way. I'll give it a go when I get the chance if no one can give you an answer in the meantime.

The focusrite scarlet range is very simple to use and comes bundled with with protools lite and Ableton Live, or did when I got my 2i2 a couple of years back.

I quite like the basic concept (although why not just have 2 pickups) but I find that kind of aimless, random sounding jazz noodling quite hard to listen too.

Pink Floyd is about as far down the prog road as I've travelled. I tried to listen to Rush after their excellent performace at the Taylor Hawkins tribute, but I couldn't get used to Geddy's vocals.

Another vote for the Zoom. They're a great and inexpensive entry point into the world of effects pedals, also good enough to gig with.

I've not had a look at mine but I'd be very suprised if there was anything more than the standard black shielding paint you get in most pickup/electronics cavities. I definitely wouldn't describe my 1st gen V7 as a noisy bass though. Generally speaking, active basses do tend to be quiter than passive and humbuckers are usually quieter than single coils, so, on paper anyway out of the two Sire models the OP mentions the M2 with it's active electronics and humbuckers should be quiter than both the active and passive versions of the V3 with it's single coils.

I can cope with a high action. I learnt on a bass like that and in those pre internet days I never learned how to adjust it. What trips me up me is basses with an action so low that anything other than a feather light touch causes massive fretbuzz. My technique just isn't that subtle.