Rich

Rubber Bullets - 10cc

Saturday Night Fish Fry - Louis Jordan

Can you post a pic of it? I was about to recommend one but then it occurred to me that it might be the one you already have.

Breakfast in America - Supertramp

Watts The Frequency Kenneth? - REM

Feel Like Jumping - Marcia Griffiths

I would, if it makes the right sound (see above re: my Schaller). If you get one, drop it in and then decide against it, or change it further down the line, you can sell it on probably for what you paid for it (assuming you get it used).

I had cheapáss J pickups in my similarly cheapáss ska bass, they were errrrrrm okaaay I suppose... found I was using only the neck one, then remembered that I had a hot Schaller J neck one in the spares box so I fitted that. It was like the difference between very chalky chalk and extremely cheesy cheese. You would never have dreamed that they were both basically magnets with bits of wire wrapped round them. And I don't just mean in terms of loudness (the stock one was 6-7K, the Schaller is 13), the tone was different too. The stock one sounded like a normal J, but the Schaller is more like a slightly compressed P but really really aggressive. Not necessarily better but different. Perfect for my needs. So my longwinded answer to the OP is hell yes it makes a difference.

Apologies, it turns out the one I had was the plain Trakmaster, not the Pro. This is a screen grab of the manual section of the Trakmaster. Apologies for the poor quality.

I'm using an old wardrobe, as per 4th post in this thread:

And Dream Of Sheep - Kate Bush

The Ugly Bug Ball - Burl Ives

My current one is 4U... I could probably get away with 3, but the amp is a Shuttle so this means the case is still pretty light. I had a well-loaded 6U at one time, now that sucker was heavy!

Yes, absolutely. Quite how he sings over his basslines, I really do not know. 'To Be With You Again' is simply mindboggling.

Any updates?

I've failed miserably already.

My pleasure old chap nice to meet you

I also had a Focusrite Platinum Trakmaster Pro for a while. Beautifully pure-sounding, lovely EQ and still the best compressor I've ever used. Channel strips are brilliant if you want an uncoloured sound.

No kidding!

I did the separate pre/power thing before and would happily do it again. I had a Trace GP12SMX pre (my favourite preamp ever) and a Soundtech class D power amp, gave me the basic Trace sound at a much lighter weight. It'd be fun to have two very different pre's in the rack and make up a foot-switching system between them. Mmmm... got me thinking now...

Yup, my first bass was one of those too. I paid £20 for mine in 1982, off my school metalwork teacher. I still have it, although it's borderline unplayable these days. Looks good on the wall though.

Q. How much do people care about post acknowledgements? A. They complain when you say 'Thanks'... I'd noticed it. But it only occurred to me yesterday that I hadn't acknowledged it, like I had everyone else's.

Just got home after meeting up with Patch to swap my money for his Barefaced cab. A nice easy and friendly transaction, and a smashing new cab for me. Thanks Patch

This entirely. There is a BIG difference between busy and overly-busy. If the song can carry busy playing, then go for it. If by being busy you're going to bust the groove or tread on others' toes, then back off. I saw a jazz combo down at the Old Duck** in Bristol one night, the bassist had a nice old Jazz and my first impression was that he could really play, but it became apparent that he just didn't know when to stop. He took a solo, which was very impressive, but he just kept doing it. He widdled away all over the sax solo, he even kept on in the drum solo when all I wanted was for him to STFU. After a couple of songs my opinion of him had totally changed, and I just wanted him to stick his nice old Jazz where the sun didn't shine. ** as all you Brizzlers will know, its actual name is the Old Duke... but I had a Brazilian friend some years ago who called it 'Duck' and it's kind of stuck. I agree. For my money one of the greatest recorded basslines of all time. See my previous comment: "if the song can carry busy playing, then go for it".