jposega

Check to see if Bassstringsonline.com will ship one to the UK and for how much.

Different alloys of metal react to different players sweat PH which can change depending on weather/climate/diet/etc, the amount of crud that comes off your hands, particles from the environment, how they were packaged, and whatnot.

Fanned frets good, but unless you figure out a string set that'll give you tensions for your E-C that are close to what you get by playing a standard scale bass, you'll end up with really plinky, twangy high strings. That means finding some extra light strings, which might mean needing a plain-steel C to balance well with the rest of the set. If you want fanned and 5 and a Dingwall, get a Super J or Super P.

Just play. You'll play worse if you worry too much about technique. Let the engineer worry about miking. The only thing I can recommend is to be mindful of your breathing. I don't know how many acoustic instrument takes have been trashed by a sniffle or someone who holds their breath through one section only to breathe out really loudly once they've nailed the passage. It's really bad with acoustic guitar and violin, not as much with bass, but just be mindful that you aren't huffing and puffing, coughing and groaning behind your bass. Most important though is to practice beforehand, know your parts, come prepared, be nice to the studio staff, have fun, and tune often!

There’s a big thread on TalkBass about the HX. Worth reading to get people’s impressions, which are generally extremely positive.

Look for something in the 22” scale range, they intonate better and the string tension is nicer. Same great tone and fun playability but just better. Not sure if any in the under £200 range are longer than the typical 20” scale.

Most accurate way to measure scale is inside edge of nut to 12th fret. That measure multiplied by 2 is your scale length. Cuts out any variation due to bridge saddles being intonated differently.

Maybe not necessarily smaller when using standard cables on either side. A lot of pedals with top jacks end up narrower than these Nano ones.

The newest version of the MXR 10 Band EQ looks solid

Broughton Broughctave: it’s easily the best spin on the OC2 in existence today.

Yes, always for every style. Live and in studio.

Not a single pitch shifter is going to do exactly what you want, which seems to be re-tuning your bass so you don't need a second bass for gigs. Sure, you can get great pitch shifting that tracks solidly, but the tone will just be all wrong. Many players get away with using the Digitech Drop to go down to Eb or D, but going from E down to B just isn't going to sound good. The further from your home tuning you go, the more unnatural the tone will be.

Stratocaster wiring with a neck on off switch would allow for this, but then you’ve gotta decide if the pickups should be in series or parallel in each position.

This, exactly. The owner of the world-famous Rastaburst Dingwall got an NG3 and swapped the wiring around to try this out. Turns out he preferred stock. I've only played one Combustion, an early model 5 string with high action and flats. My SPj5 and ABZ6 covering all my needs.

The Bass Whammy does reportedly track the low notes better. I loved mine but downsizing to cross the ocean meant it had to go.

Why, why, WHY in the flying eff do musical gear companies think that a bunch of ad copy BS is going to sell gear? Someone once said 'Talking (or writing) about music is like dancing about architecture." If they want to sell stuff, they should post a damn video or soundclip.

Yup. Average out the cost of your travel insurance plus what you might pay for a really nice flight case and suddenly buying a seat for your bass doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

SM7B with a Cloudlifter or similar booster. Excellent rejection, nicer tone than a 58 or 57. Gotta be right on axis, but it's good for vocals and recording speaking voice as well. And snare. And guitar amps. Great on stage and in the studio.

You don’t need the iLok itself, just the iLok License Manager software. As a ProTools user, I get the hate for the iLok but sadly also it’s the only way to legitimately run ProTools, unless there are workarounds out there I haven’t bothered looking up. EDIT: I downloaded the trial and it’s awesome. Instead of running a parallel channel with a bunch of plugins trying to mimic the B7K metal tone, I can drop one instance of the Neural plugin on my bass channel and get the sound I’m looking for. Sounds just like the pedals I’ve heard in tons and tons of videos. I’ve never owned a Darkglass pedal, but I’ll likely buy the plugin for £99.

You don’t need the iLok itself, just the iLok License Manager software. As a ProTools user, I get the hate for the iLok but sadly also it’s the only way to legitimately run ProTools, unless there are workarounds out there I haven’t bothered looking up.