Skybone

I'm a bit partial to a bit of Rickenbacker-esque-ness.

Your Classic Ric Sound May Vary... I think the Ric is a very mids oriented sounding bass, though probably the higher miss. IMO it does sound great in a 3 piece because of the mids. For me, a P bass is more 'low down' thump, great for bands with more than 1 guitar, or guitar & keyboards. It does of course, excel in most situations, but there again, I don't play a P bass. Nik could always buy that Tech21 YYZ pedal in the For Sale section. 😀

I would disagree about scooping the mids, I'd argue you need to boost the mids & have a fair bit more treble than bass to get something resembling the "classic" Ric sound.

For something similar to what you're looking for. You should be able to find a Squier badged J bass on the second hand market, in Good condition, for a fraction of what you were thinking of spending on a new one. Saying that, you could also have a look out for a Vintage brand J bass, which get very good recommendations from people as not only being well made, solid instruments, but damn fine players too. Get a decent bass, and save yourself a few quid too. https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Vintage-VJ74-Reissued-Bass-MN-Sunset-Sunburst/2EYN

Scour the second hand market?

We weren't given the choice!

The years of playing recorder in Primary were forgotten once you left Primary.

To be fair, in the 3 years that we had to take music at school, I don't recall a single thing from the lessons. Certainly don't recall touching any instruments (stop sniggering at the back boy!). 40 minutes, once a week, well wasted. Now the kids are back in school, from what I'm being told, they actually get to choose the instruments they want to play, and actually get taught as well. Son has picked drums & bass, he's already tried to nick one of mine!

Sansamp VT500 Head & some sort of cab to go with it (Barefaced? Ampeg? Ashdown? etc.)

Looks the same as the one I had. They were around at the same time as the Rockinbetter, possibly even slightly preceded them, very late 90's / early 2000's to mid/late 2000's. This seems to be a very early version of the "MkII". The MkI had a different bridge, and a "J" style bridge pickup cover which was mounted directly onto the body (no chrome plate). The MkII introduced the bridge that's now synonymous with the "Chickenbacker", and also the chrome plate/cover for the bridge pickup. The later MkII's had the checker binding, and the "toaster" style neck pickup cover. It is a damn fine instrument in it's own right, if you enjoy playing it, enjoy playing it and to hell with whatever anyone else thinks. I never had any issues with any of the hardware, the tuners worked great, the strings could be intonated without major surgery, etc. The only "possible" issue, is that if you want to change the neck pickup, you might need another scratchplate, as the "replacement" pickups designed to fit the "other" bass are slightly longer. The bridge pickup is not a problem though. A most excellent gift! 👍

Don't forget that while he was doing Echobrain, he was also a member of Voivod.

Does your fuzz pedal have a "Mix" control, so you can blend the clean & dirty signal? If it does, great, put more clean signal through. If not, then maybe look at finding a fuzz pedal that has that ability. Unfortunately, any distortion pedal robs the low end from your signal, so although it will sound cool in isolation, in a band mix, there will be no distinct "bass".

The only thing I'd change after having one built would be the pickups and a case. Other than that, I'm very happy with the one I had built (see avatar).

If you're worried about your bass coming off your strap, then why not invest in: Other Strap Locks are available of course, some prefer Schaller's, some prefer Dunlop's, some prefer one of the other solutions available. Straps are a personal thing, do you want cheap, do you want comfy, do you want padded, do you want grippy, etc., etc. If you just want a bas(s)ic strap, then a plain, 3" wide leather strap is easily the best you can get. Grippy, comfy and cheap, at around £15. If you want padded or something else, there's plenty of options, like the ones mentioned above. I use a Mono M80 GS1. Wide, padded, grippy and comfy. Not cheap though, but not the most expensive either.

Very true. I'm not keen on the J Bass neck, but it still looks great.

That's nice. The Flower P3 looks very interesting.

Difficult just now... Our rehearsal room has only just re-opened, as the owner's had to get some alterations done, in order for him to get permission / insurance to re-open (that's what he's told us anyway). Our old singer left in April, so we're looking for a new singer. Thankfully, there's a few people interested in the role, we had the first audition (and first rehearsal since March) last Friday. Good singer, decent range, confident etc., will he want to be in a band with a bunch of guys old enough to be his Dad? Next audition / rehearsal is around 3 weeks away (weekends away booked etc.).

Again, pub & club venues don't always have the monitoring that gives out enough welly to be heard over the over-eager drummer. Some sort of amplification is essential, be it an amp/combo/FRFR setup. All IMO of course.

Might just be because I play bass, but I always find that bands that don't have a bass player are missing "something", no matter how good they and their songs are (likewise, I also find that bands like The Royal Blood & Clatter are missing "something"). Except maybe The Doors, but they did use a session bass player on some of their studio albums.

Bats or the fans?

It only goes to 9 because it's a pre-decimal Vintage Reissue?

Coloured Ball Ends & no silk, could be Dunlop steels? Not a fan of Nickel strings, due to the skin reaction. Kind of a half way house from flats sound wise IMO. Much prefer stainless steels.