itu

Check if the PCBA has any metal debris or burned areas (both sides). Is the speaker dis/connected? Any faulty connections? Test the speaker element functionality with a battery. 

You didn't mention how useful a torque wrench can be, especially with two rods. 

About tension: if you just change a G to a B, the tension may be very much equal. I use D'Addario tension chart, and there you can see that a suitable B has similar tension than a G. 

If there's a lot of metallic powder around, put the magnet to a plastic box. Everything sticks to the surface, and when you remove the magnet, well, you got the idea. 

The magnetic field is pretty wide but weakens really fast. Therefore if the sound is fine, just go and play. 

That bass looks serious! Hopefully we will hear some playing after you have changed strings. That number of strings, it may be wise to change one at a time and not stress the neck too much. 

Some players say Nickel RW is the set for the fretless. The response is more even than with the smiley stainless (which I use). 

7 hours ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

Curiously, Hohner's own website says these basses were first made in 1988 but this one has a 1987 serial, and there are a lot of posts online from people who claim to remember seeing/owning/selling them as far back as 1986.

1986 is right. I wandered through Denmark street then and bought my first real bass, a '74 Ric 4001 for £400. Hohner The Jack cost around the same. A Warwick Nobby Meidel was £500. Wals and Statii were more expensive, therefore I don't remember their exact prices. 

The earliest known examples of the lyre have been recovered at archeological sites that date to c. 2700 BCE in Mesopotamia. (OK, this sure is vintage, not some surf board.) 

Baroque, flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. (I think this old instruments may carry the sticker "vintage", too.) 

According to Wiki there seems to be some 4400 years in between these two. 

16 hours ago, NickA said:

And the new drummer is great.

What, one, and one only? 

11 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Human morphology has not evolved much since 1950. 

I still do not surf. I am a bassist. 

From ergonomics point of view our situation is far better than what violin players have to suffer. And I am very happy I have had the chance to choose from many shapes and scale lengths. 

I should reveal a thing that I made for years, but now I need to run to buy some food. 

For bass:

IE Nimbus has HPF and LPF for the effect, and they work really well. But it is quite hard to find and may cost a lot. Because the reasonable amount of the effect is small, any reverb is most likely good, but use it sparingly. That Behringer is worth trying. 

For vocals: 

Start from t c helicon. If the mixer supports stereo, consider a stereo unit, or mono for the vocals only. 

3 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Most of them are not professionally designed or built.

I could make a board look and feel very professional, but those continuous changes... and I have three of them in use: for lo-Z, hi-Z, and fretless bass. 

I am happy with compressors and... wait a minute... 

When you get the bass, check the setup and do string set tests to find the right combination for you. If the bass feels good in your hands, the right strings can do miracles (playability & sound). 

2 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

...they just seem to have such weird body shapes. I feel the same about single cutaway basses/guitar's. 

And I feel the same about those ancient surf basses. Sure here we talk about taste: a friend of mine hates the shape of the headstock of my Vigier. 

Search for the brochure, it may be here. Shows lots of details of the models. 

1 hour ago, juice said:

...also - I’m sure I’m not the only one, but try to get comfortable playing at x1.25 speed if you can because somehow live renditions tend to be slightly faster than the original...

Very good point. This is so common issue, if the drummer hasn't got a metronome. 

I bought a metronome to our drummer, and it is far easier to play gigs. He did a (long) list of songs and has written tempos to every song. Tama RW30 costs £30 and setting the tempo is quick. 

It seems that the core is round. If you are not careful when cutting it and then with installation, the winding may loosen. 

Hexagonal core keeps the winding better in place. 

Just saw an L2 in very good condition. It looks fun, if not funny, but I did not have to buy it. Well, the price was also steep, £4300. I remember the time when it came out and it was something special. It still is, and I wonder when will we get something similar in terms of invention. 

Also pound for pound my choice would be an inactive material. Look for Sr, not Zn. 

That watch may have had a Radium based material. 

Inactive can push pretty much light in the activation phase, and it decays... you know it is a lot like ADSR. It gets lower and lower during next hours. I have tested an inactive material that was visible for around 75 hours in total darkness after activation. Super-Luminova is a Strontium based material, but as it wasn't available as powder (powder was mixed with a printing material, kind of a paint), the material tested was from another company. 

Active material (most common and practically only available to consumers is Tritium) has a sustain and release time of 12.5 years. Actually you can see some glow for around 25 years, but the latter half is already low. 

Some data can be found here: 

https://www.rctritec.com/en 

https://www.nemoto.co.jp/en/ 

Listening your own playing is easy with a looper. Really helpful tool while practising. 

Tritium dots are functional for 12.5 years. I'd go for (Strontium based) inactive luminous material that can be functional for decades. 

6 hours ago, PaulKing said:

I ran it through spectrum analyser! 

I started to wonder that if you heard high end up to 600 kHz, there was something interesting going on. 

I try to nail the bass part in the very beginning. Then we (drs, b) can give the base to the others, as we are 11 in my main band. From that point of view it looks like I have not very much space, but actually more time to fix the tinier details (tempo and agogic changes, accents, colouring notes...). 

There's quite a lot of arranging within the band, and it is easier if the drummer and me can support arrangement work from the start. Besides many choices I do are subtle compared to winds (3) or singers (4) in the big picture. Not meaningless at all, but different.