TheLowDown

I only use light gauge strings now. Heavy gauge makes the strings more woofy sounding, they're more fatiguing and harder on my fingers and joints, and less easy to control..

I use a leather strap like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leathergraft-Acoustic-Electric-Reinforced-Leather/dp/B01I764RN4/ref=sr_1_16 3.7 inches wide, comfortable, good inner suede leather grip, £21.

Because the general public are gullible and believe that they're getting something more for their money if they pay more. Such an effect can be clearly demonstrated with wines and other commodities, and the experts will lovingly heap praise on the expensive wines in their glass while turning up their nose at "cheap" wines, unbeknown to the fact that in the experiment they're drinking cheap bottles from Morrisons that's been repackaged. I't's amazing what price does to people's imagination in how they perceive things. Put the price up bit by bit, add lots of marketing, maybe even make it a limited edition, and wait for a fool to come along.

They're really good IMO. I have the 5 string and 6 string SS and I will be getting the HQS flats soon. Fantastic value for money when you consider that the D'Addarrios are more than twice the price and less than half as good.

The JPs(both 4 and 5 string) are passive, and JJs(ditto) are active. I'm really fond of that JP. I much prefer passive over active and P and PJ over JJ.

I like them for fretted because they're less harsh on my fingers when string crossing and they're less noisy. On fretless I prefer rougher SS rounds because it gives me more grip to be creative.

Number 1 would have to be weight(must be lightweight) with balance a close second. I've come to much prefer closer string spacing now. Things like tone and appearance and woods used are largely secondary.

While I like the look of some basses, I don't think i'd buy it unless it served a purpose and added something extra. Needs more than wants because basses are tools for me. That attractive turquoise hammer and burgundy lawnmower with green trim never quite did it for me either. I always found I got bored of looks quickly. After it sits in the corner of the room it seems to become more and more like part of the furniture unless it provides some extra practical value, because that practical value is the only thing that's important in the medium to long term.

I've seen various ones on Thomann for around £30-80, and which include a bass stand. For those standing, a quick but deceptively taxing exercise called the plank is useful for strengthening core muscles, which in turn help to take the pressure off of your back.

I quite like the Harley Benton B550FL for about £148. https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_b_550fl_bk_progressive_series.htm Is this an "Ibanez design"? I don't know what is meant by that.

I don't see any reason why humour shouldn't be in music. Music is a communication medium.

Perhaps the percentages shown are of the RAM that is being used rather than of total RAM available(8GB).

I would definitely close Edge if doing anything heavy. Edge browser uses an open source version of the Chrome engine, and which has always been a dog for RAM usage. I would probably advise a minimum of 16GB RAM on Windows for music processing which tends to be quite resource hungry, although you may get away with 8GB if you're frugal.

Can confirm.

Mine are in a narrow price bracket at the lower end of the scale, and the ones that I have serve their purpose. Probably the biggest obvious advantage of having a higher budget is merely having a wider variety of choice, but currently I don't have any reason to spend more than I have done.

It looks like an attractive design but I would have to read up about it to see if it offers any practical advantage.

When selling things I always found that I missed them far less than I thought I would. I would just keep the one that you got for your 21st and sell the others.

The vinyl van has long since passed. I'm very much into streaming now. not least because it drastically cuts down on clutter.

"Fender". Pass.

I just use PlayerPro on Android. It's a full music player that allows balance(for split channel recordings), equaliser, and ability to separately adjust pitch and playback speed. It doesn't have looping thought which is done in another app.

I lean it against a corner.

I would look at your diet because it's so often overlooked, especially adding foods that encourage good blood circulation and prevent inflammation, as suggested above. For the gloves, I recently got some fingerless ones for £2.95 being the cheapskate that I am.

I think the Harley Benton's are decent. Pretty much any under £400. The HB Marquess is particularly nice in playability, quality, and looks

I don't measure things like that because a bass is just a tool. Unless it helps me to become a better player, then I will consider myself unworthy of a Fedora or Dingwall or similar.

I've got a 0.115 for my B string on the 5 string. It's a vast improvement over when I was using a 0.135 and 0.130, all nickel plated. I'm using a stainless steel 0.128 B string on one of my 6 strings which sounds considerably better, brighter, and similar in timbre to all the other strings. The heavier the strings, the more woofy and vague the B string will sound, at least for nickel-plated comparing like for like. The 0.135 will start to sound woofy much lower down than the 0.115.