Skybone

Some would be nice

Although the Hartke HA3500 is an old amp, it's definitely a good one to go for, as you'll find good ones on the second hand market.

Haven't they been toeing the line for some years now, especially after some of their wood stocks were seized by the Authorities.

At the moment, I'm not ruling anything out! However... after many years of playing only active's of numerous brands, I realised that I was unhappy with the sound of all but 2 of them. Switched back to passive's, and have no intention to return. I did own a G&L L2000 Tribute relatively recently, lovely bass to play, but couldn't get it to sound "right" for me. Never had a hankering for a bass with more than 4 strings either.

Thankfully, I've never had it quite as bad as the Dom, but I certainly noticed my finger tips peeling like mad when I used nickel wound strings. Changed to stainless steel, and never had a problem since.

A couple of the narrow roller banners, either side of the stage would be pretty cool. https://www.rollerbannersuk.com/premium-roller-banner/

One thing I did find with my last band, was that no one wanted to buy demo's, but they bought band merchandise. In fact, we made more from selling merchandise than anything else. Gigs didn't pay well (if at all), even low priced demo CD's didn't sell well (though we did shift quite a few at gigs). It is definitely worthwhile getting a batch of 100 t-shirts printed up to take to gigs, as well as a bunch of demo CD's.

One of the main reasons IMO, is that if you're a 4 string player, you don't have to 'get used to' the extra neck width of a 5 string. Another reason is that if you have more than one bass at your disposal, then you can save yourself the expense (and hassle) of finding another bass that you need to get used to. New strings are cheaper than new basses.

Glued in necks are usually known as set necks

Enjoyed that. In the "good old days" one band I was in made a couple of albums, did a 2 week tour and numerous gigs around and about. It was fun, some of it was tedious, some of it was relentless, some of it was just plain dreadful, but I wouldn't change any of it (well, OK, not too much of it). Latest band we've just got a new singer on board, and it's going well. The next step is getting another song polished off, then a recording session at the end of the month. Hopefully, we can start looking to get some gigs booked, and see where it takes us.

Happy new year folks! Hope it's a good one.

Yet we still do it. Why? Because of the creative aspect, because we don't want to play other peoples songs, or just simply, because. There's no money in it, it's hard work, but it's worth it because of the creative aspect.

Band wise: Do some recording Get some gigs Work on some new songs Contemplate some new gear

A through neck isn't quite the same as a set neck. Yes, the body wings are glued to the section of the neck which forms part of the body after the heel. A set neck is glued in to the body generally using a tenon joint just after the heel. https://goo.gl/images/QdYN76[/img]

The Epiphone Pro series (active & passive) are through neck & 38mm nut, the regular model has the bolt neck which is wider at the nut than the Pro. The only set neck version I'm aware of is the Tokai Thunderbird, which also has the wider nut.

You could keep an eye out for the "Blacktop" Precision from a few years back. That came with the "double J" humbucker pickups, but the body & neck of a P bass. It might be worth looking at the wiring to see if you can coil split the "double J" pickups, to give you a bit more "range" from them (I had a Vintage Modified Jazz, with the same pickups, wasn't that impressed).

I hear some good reviews of the Renegade's, though I have to say that I'm a big fan of the older, through neck Rockinbetter's (and the Bass Collection Californian). The current Rockinbetter badged basses are Chinabackers, though I have seen a few through neck versions.

Yup, another vote for the Fishman Neo soundhole pickup.

There's an Ibanez 2388B on eBay just now.

Surely the Yamaha is exactly the right sort of bass for ska? IIRC, most ska bassist used Fender P or J basses anyway.

Welcome! Remember spending far too many hours over the years, perusing the wares in Rushworth's in Liverpool (along with Hessy's & Curly's).

You need to use all the tools available to do your job, and if that means using open strings, then so be it. Don't see a problem with it myself.

Never too old, maybe just practice for shorter stints, but more often.