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+1 to @ezbass and @LukeFRC a preamp that you are familiar with will help you rapidly get a usable tone with unfamiliar kit (unless you a very unlucky). I use a VT bass Deluxe as my go to DI tool, the Laney Digbeth pre looks really useful with the tilt control. Disclaimer, I have not tried one so far.

Plan M (Plans A, B, C.... used so far), Try a used set of TI flats (when they appear on BC) and turn the tone control up. As per @chris_b the TI flats on my SB-1 are about 10 years old, on my SG bass about 8 years old. Neither bass lacks bite or gets wooly. Stating the obvious, with festival type gigs, what you hear on stage and what the audience hear are probably two different things. I played two (small) outdoor festival gigs this year. In both, the onstage sound could be identified as a bass and I could hear the notes I was playing, nothing more than that though. In both I was later complemented by audience members (and other bass players) on the bass tone. Thank you sound engineers

Yes, playing whilst dead could be a challenge. No idea of the effect of the Beta blocker on my bass playing but it certainly affects my cycling. Takes me about 5 miles to get warmed up, hill climbs are done 'running on empty' even at the start of a ride.

This seems an excellent way forward. Easily DIY and no alignment problems unlike the old inserts and epoxy. In the unlikely event of this repair going wrong (e.g. stripped screw holes) it is repairable again. Having done this sort of repair I would cut and finish the dowels to the exact size before gluing and fit them flush.

Most likely. Alignment needs some thought. This repair is well outside my experience.

Apologies and now deleted.

Self promotion placed in the wrong place now deleted. Apologies! Here is a cold and damp band at The Kerry Lamb on August 25th.

And there I was playing at the Kerry Lamb on Sunday, outdoors on a lorry trailer, cold and wet plus the other Kerry pub also had a band on. I am told people enjoyed it and we will be back.

Having once owned a JB EB3 type bass, the bridge is certainly JB. The neck joint appears similar to the bass I owned, neck through. Beyond that who knows,the headstock on mine was inlayed John Birch. I am surprised the bass has lost the JB hyperflux pickups.

The last two points make me want to do some experimental work which is why I got into Physics. Some measurements (sustain /decay times, spectral frequency distributions) of BBOT and high mass bridge fixed to an immensely rigid beam would help establish just what the effect is.

Having had a quick look at some of the maths involved it won't be me doing it any time soon. 45 years ago it was within my grasp, but 'use it or lose it' springs to mind Some light reading https://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys406/sp2017/Lecture_Notes/Waves/PDF_FIles/Waves_2.pdf

This is correct and has made me think further. Rather than being concerned with "delivers more energy to the body" it might be more direct to state "less energy lost in the bridge". Reflecting on this my earlier conclusion "transferring more energy into the body should decrease sustain" needs to be qualified somewhat. In its simplest form I see this as a 3 part system. Energy input (string) > coupling medium (bridge) > energy sink (body-neck). Start with a 'physics' bridge that does not absorb energy and is decoupled from the body. Now couple it to the body-neck, this will increase energy losses, resulting in less sustain. A real world bridge is more complex (surprise!). Simplistically, with the 'good' bridge more energy can go into the body-neck, if the body-neck dissipates the energy more slowly then the 'poor' bridge then sustain will increase. However, if the body-neck dissipates the energy faster than the 'poor' bridge did the sustain could decrease. I feel that this needs some maths to be certain.

Yes, on several basses. I used the *bay copies, perfectly good. I really like them, it takes out the risk of cutting nut slots too deep. On anything I build in the future it will be my first choice of nut. Someone should make quality nut files at a sane price.

Pick away, at nearly 66 I am way less sharp now than I was in my early 20s, (I now tune my basses more often lol). In real world basses I think @BigRedX is on the money with that explanation.

I can't, but I can explain the opposite. In a former life I was a Physicist although it seems a lifetime ago. I would tackle this analysis through an energy balance approach. The string is plucked with a an amount of energy E. Some is absorbed by the surrounding air molecules. Some is absorbed into the neck and body through the contact points - bridge, fret. Eventually all the input E has been dissipated and the string stops vibrating. Transferring more energy into the body would allow greater energy losses into the body. In Physics world we want a bridge that is decoupled from the body and it absorbs no vibrations (energy) from the string. Ideally all the frets should also be decoupled from the neck. This means that all input energy E (from plucking the string) remains in the string and is then lost through air resistance and elastic strain energy in the string. The string will heat up slightly as a consequence. In Physics world we would also have the strings surrounded by a vacuum to minimise air damping losses. While we are improving the instrument we should also dispense with magnet or piezo based pickups since these also absorb energy. This bass has the ultimate physics and engineering basis. It is however unplayable in the real world. My conclusion: transferring more energy into the body should decrease sustain.

Same effect with my RM500 1/15 combo. Blues band 1, 6 piece with horns, 2 1x15 cabs, 150+ audiences, no problem,plenty of go. Blues band 2, 3 piece, rehearsal today, as per @stewblack had to crank the volume quite a way. The power increase at 4 Ohms (two cabs) is quite noticeable. It is a really good piece of kit to get instant 'good' sounds with different basses. In terms of bang per ££ (used or B stock) they are just phenomenal.

It is still in my possession and I like @TheRev I fully endorse the build quality, hardware,finish and sound, you also get the bonus of an ebony board. I have a fretted one as well and the same comments apply. Both of these are the Indian built versions. There is very little difference in the build quality of these and my late 80s USA G&L SB-1. The neck reminds me more of a Jazz bass neck than P bass, I have small hands, I could imagine it seeming 'small' if you had very large hands.

^ This, plus cut small and open the hole out with small incremental adjustments (rasp, half round file). If you do go way too big, epoxy plus sawdust makes a useful filler. My weapon of choice is a router plus adjustable bar. Perfect holes every time (my fingers were crossed as I wrote that). 🫰

Time is what you have less of when you retire. I wonder how I fitted everything in when I worked.

Steve very kindly sent me some Gibson 3 point bridge saddles for 'free'. A donation to our local children's hospice will be made. Many thanks to a top chap.

Headstock is glued to the neck with a scarf joint as found on many basses. Reduces the potential for headstock breakage with an angled headstock. More than happy with both of mine. The fretless fitted with TI flats has a very pleasant plummy tone. Passive, pickups left standard. Fretless model has side dots at frets 3,5,7,9,12 etc. I had a dot inserted at fret 1 (same as my Warwick fretless). On my fretted one I fitted DiMarzio Model Js, very versatile, records well, tight bass notes (TI flats again). Both of these are the Indian made models, excellent build quality.