tinyd

I agree with #1 all the way. I find these things tend to work themselves out anyway - people move on, bands break up etc. Better that your friend has a reputation locally of being both a decent drummer and a decent person.

I didn't know he played on that - that means he's responsible (for playing, a least) one of my favourite basslines - Stratus. Nice!

A good way to practice charts is to get the iReal Pro app. You can download thousands of charts, change key, and the app can play a backing tracks in various styles. If you don't know how to read the chord symbols themselves then it's worth spending time learning this as it'll be a big help next time you need to learn new tunes in a hurry.

This guy seems to know a bit about technique as well

It looks to me like you're doing too much of the pulling with your fingers, whereas you should be using more of your whole arm. Geoff Chalmers does a far better job of explaining than I ever could:

I couldn't listen to too much Grime but then it's not aimed at me (old bloke). But I can appreciate how it appeals to "the kids". There was a great article in The Guardian the other day about Fight The Power by Public Enemy (30 years ago) and I remembered how it sounded to me at the time but I'm sure it sounded pretty discordant and noisy to a lot of middle-aged people. I think it's also worth making a distinction between music that has a bit of actual creativity to it, versus the safer, blander stuff that you get in all genres. The Grime that I've heard does seem to have something new (sonically at least - I don't really listen to lyrics). In general, I'd rather live in a world where people are creating new types of music even if I personally don't listen to them

I used to have a BassMax and now I have a J-Tone - I prefer it to the BassMax. It has a more even, usable sound and it's very feedback-proof.

I have a bass that's pretty much the same as this (slightly older). I can't say if it'll give you the sound in the clip, but it does have that 'vintage-y' sound and it's a generally really nice bass. I bought mine new in the early 90s and I haven't seen the need to buy another BG since.

The transferable skills are that the notes are the same, but finding them and playing them are very different Best way to approach is as a new instrument, especially when it comes to technique - it's worth spending time developing some rigour around fingering in particular. The quicker you get used to the Simandl-style 1-2-4 fingering and position shifting the easier it'll be, as trying to "stretch" like you might on a BG will leave you with poor intonation, and sore (or worse) arms and hands. In general, take it slowly, play less notes than on BG, and have fun!

My initial reaction is that reverb is likely to increase chances of feedback, but this isn't based on any actual experience on my part. Like @Bilbo, I have reverb on my amp but I've never tried it.

For some recent-ish stuff I really liked this album - https://www.amazon.com/Havana-Cultura-Anthology-Gilles-Peterson/dp/B01M21BI70 On the other hand, this album is a lovely set of recordings from the 1950s from the great Cachao https://www.amazon.com/Havana-Sessions-Cachao/dp/B000UZ4H3Q They were recorded late at night after the musicians had finished playing in clubs etc.

This is a pretty good 1-page fundamental guide from Bert Ligon: http://nationaljazzworkshop.org/freematerials/ligon/Bert_Ligon_Fundamental_Bass_Lines.pdf There are more here: http://nationaljazzworkshop.org/freestuff.php

The Miles Davis Prestige albums (Cookin', Workin', Steamin', Relaxin') are a fantastic set of standards as well.

This thread contains some great music, but given the OP's specific request for foundations to learn walking bass, then I reckon Frank's list is the place to start before exploring some of the more recent music. I'd add that most of the albums on Blue Note from about 1951-1963 will have tunes that are in the same style, and the recordings themselves are very good with clear bass. Once you get into the mid-60s, Miles's 2nd Quintet and John Coltrane Quartet took a lot of jazz into the 'modern' era. These lineups produced my favourite music, but in terms of learning walking bass they're a bit further away from "entry level", especially albums like Miles Smiles and A Love Supreme. For history and lots of written snippets, John Goldsby's The Jazz Bass Book is well worth a read.

It's not programmable, but if you're looking for really good quality loops to jam along to, Drumgenius is great. You can adjust the tempo and pitch by a certain amount as well.

If the bass line is a "signature" of the tune then learn it pretty much note-for-note, since it's effectively part of the tune's melody. But for other lines it's fine to play your own variants over the changes. One caveat of this approach is that you need to avoid the temptation to overplay. I've caught myself doing this loads - play what I think is a similar groove from memory and realise that I'm playing a lot more notes than the original. Cissy Strut is a good example of this - a lot of people put in extra notes that aren't in the original.

I bought one recently (a Laka one) and I really like it. It's fretless as well - I find the intonation itself good (i.e. twelfth 'fret' corresponds to octave) but tuning and fingering is, like you say, a bit tricky. I usually play DB now, but I used to own an acoustic BG and I think that the ukulele bass is a lot closer in terms of sound. Weirdly enough (given the size difference), I also find it closer in terms of playability to DB - maybe because on a BG I tend to resort to the standard BG playing style, whereas DB and ukulele both take me in a different direction.

I think that learning triads/chord tones is more important than scales (initially at least). Jamming along to the radio / Spotify playlist and seeing what you can come up with using root, third and fifth will give you loads of scope, especially if also use inversions of the triads.

One thing that's worth doing is to keep an eye out on basschat for people selling strings secondhand. It saves money and is generally a good way of trying strings out to see what you like. As @TheRev says, Spirocores are a good place to start if you want a bright-ish "jazz" sound - I had some in the past and they're good, although I've moved to Evah Pirazzi Weichs now which I also got secondhand.

It does depend on genre, but playing without a drummer can be a nice change of pace and like @spongebob says, it gives you a chance as a bass player to change style and focus more on rhythm. It's maybe a bit unfair, but there's some truth in the Chet Baker quote: "It takes a pretty good drummer to be better than no drummer at all".

For upright basses, the string height is usually measured at the end of the fingerboard - it varies a lot, but typical values are around 10mm for the E string down to maybe 6-7mm for the G string.

Doesn't answer your question but I bought a Tascam dr-05 a few years ago and it's great for recording rehearsals and gigs - problem with a phone is that no matter how good the software, the mics aren't much good for music. If you can scrape together £80 for the Tascam (or a Zoom H1) you'll get a lot of use from it.

There's a good book by Richard Williams on the influence of Kind Of Blue, you've probably seen if but if not it's well worth a read. My favourite nugget was the fact that James Brown's band lifted the horn stabs in Cold Sweat from So What.

Over the years I've increased my jazz listening and it's now about 80% of what I listen to. Of course, it's just another genre of music and it's not for everyone, but I think that unlike some genres, good jazz recordings can give you something new decades after you first hear them. I'm quite 'traditional' in that I think that the Coltrane Quartet (e.g. A Love Supreme) and Miles Quintet (Miles Smiles) recordings from the mid-60s haven't really been improved upon, but there's plenty of great contemporary stuff as well.

I have a j-tone which I really like. Might be worth getting one as they're very cheap and do deliver a usable sound.