Skybone

Local Gumtree, and the good old Ad's in the local Music Shops / rehearsal spaces.

Not dealt with them personally, but am aware that he has some very nice kit. He used to be very active on the D*A*M forum when I went on there. IIRC, he used to work at Vintage & Rare on Denmark St. Some of the other forum members bought pedals off him, and were very complimentary about him.

I thought that TC Electronic were owned by Gibson, obviously not anymore...

The Rumble 500 is on my "possibles" list as well.

Yup, sounds like a trip into Glasgow's musical emporiums would be highly recommended, maybe contact them first & see what they have in stock and what you can try out. I agree with getting a modelling pedal, something like the Zoom B1/B3/MS60-B, Vox Stomplab in the interim. You can try out different amp & cab models & tweak them to get sounds you like, as well as using them with headphones/mp3 inputs etc. Similarly, I'm looking at amps as well, but here in the Highlands, we have even less choice than you. Though saying that, you said you want something light and portable which would rule out a valve amp immediately IMO (as much as I like them!). The current crop of Class D amps with Neodymium speakers sound ideal. Having had amps with 15's in the past, I'm looking at combo's loaded with at least 2 x 10's. I've been using an old Peavey amp with 2 4x10 cabs in the rehearsal room we use, and although it's old and knackered, it sounds pretty good. The band is pretty new too, having only had 3 rehearsals so far (hence looking for a new amp). I like the look of the Ashdown Rootmaster 420 2x10 combo and a few others, and regularly check eBay & the local Gumtree for anything second hand.

As has been mentioned, a hint of reverb on both bass & guitar should fill things out a wee bit. What sort of guitar does your guitarist use, as in Single Coil or Humbucking pickups? Single coils have their advantages in the spectrum with multiple guitarists, but can sound thin when on their own (unless he utilises more than one amp), where a guitar with humbuckers will sound "fuller". Saying all that, it can also just give you more space for fills & runs.

Try Bandcamp.

Stick a couple of picks under your scratchplate, so they're nice & handy if you do need to use them, and in the meantime, keep practising with those fingers.

The only time I shimmed a neck, I used an off-cut from the plastic packet that the new strings came in. It worked a treat!

I bought a Fender MP Jazz and a Warwick RockCase from them a few years back, no issues whatsoever, it arrived after about 3 days from order. Well packaged etc. I bought a few guitars from iMuso which were taken over by Musik-Produktiv, again, with no problems.

And there was me thinking it was the new mobile phone handset from RIM.....

Yup, after many years of thinking that active's were somehow "better" than passive's, I realised that they all started sounding the same, whether expensive or not-so-expensive, old and not-so-old. Tried a few passives out, and got such a wide variety of sounds, I haven't touched an active since (apart from my L2000, but that's always in passive mode anyway!).

Or, set all the EQ's in the mid position, turn the sub off (for now), and dial in a decent sound. Add sub to taste after that.

I thought it was "All About That Bass"..... I'll get my coat.

[url="https://youtu.be/vFwYJYI5GUQ"]https://youtu.be/vFwYJYI5GUQ[/url]

EBay's rules & regs state that if the seller put's an item up for sale with no reserve, then it's a sale, ad that it's all above board & legal. The seller will be charged the listing fee and the selling fee no matter what. Not sure if the buyer can open a dispute against the seller if no money has changed hands.

Servisol or A N Other electrical contact cleaner.

Ooooops... NBD Part 2. Got home last night to find that my second natural Rickenfaker had arrived. Must stop buying basses!

Yes... Really started to notice that the tinnitus [b]wasn't[/b] going away around 6 or 7 years ago. Hey ho.

I still say that, if I had the money and could justify the purchase, I'd still buy a Ric.

When you say you've "lubed the pots", what did you use for that? I'd recommend that you go out and buy yourself a can of Servisol (or other brand of electrical contact cleaner), and spray not only the selector switch, but the pots as well (into the little square "cut out" on the tab side of the pots). When you've sprayed the contact cleaner, make sure to "work it in", for the switch, spray the cleaner on, waggle the switch around a few times, spray a bit more, waggle again, for the pots, spray some in, roll the pots back & forth, spray a bit more, roll back & forth again, etc. I used to have a Gibson LP that would regularly stop working or go crackly for no reason until it had been given a good squirt of Servisol.

The Shure PG57 is a fair bit cheaper than the SM57, and just as good for mic'ing bass and guitar cabs.

"Go figure"...