gary mac

I use fret erasers just about every day of the week and wouldn't want to be without them. I don't use them in isolation though, first off will be an emery board, then sandpaper: 240, 320, 400, 600 and 800. Then the fret erasers: coarse, medium, fine and super fine. Then metal polish and a buff up. Job done.

If they are really tight and assuming that you have the correct screw driver, try tightening them slightly. I know this sounds counter intuitive but it very often does the trick.

Damn it, sorry Jack, I forgot to warn you about her🤣

Thanks for the recommendation @Lozz196, much appreciated. Think Mr Writer is going with the Bass Gallery.

Another G&L fan here. That’s a nice looker.

Thanks Lozz.

Deoxit D5 is the one that I use most days. Sorts out the noisiest most crackly pots in no time. Money well spent.

I was put off downloading the free one, as many of the reviews claimed that it is pretty much unuseable. I was planning on going for the version that requires payment. You may have saved me £30

Not tried it but On Song has been recommended to me.

Busy pub for Saturday's gig. It was great to have an enthusiastic audience but did make me feel a bit anxious.

It's a great technique and worth posting about Even though I'm aware of it and try very hard, my pinky finger will not obey commands, it just sticks out at a jaunty angle and refuses to stay in line.

Feeling sad. The loss of a fellow mod, bassist and all round decent chap. RIP.

You got yourself a major bargain with that lot👍

My SB1 is getting an outing tonight for a local pub gig.

That's an interestingly different looking bass Jack. Very cool. Wouldn't mind one myself, which is a feeling I haven't had for a while, thought I was all GASSED out

Happy to take a look at it Mick.

Before ordering I would hold off and check whether you can get full size pots through the F hole. It might be that you can get them installed through the pick up rout but I'm not sure. I know that with some of the Epiphone guitars that I've worked on, installation was through the f hole aperture and that can be a tight squeeze.

Can't really answer that Kev, but at times during this project I was thinking that the bass was possessed.😕 One morning I came down to start working on it and overnight it had rejected the string tree that, had been living happily on it since its construction.

Sire weren't willing to supply parts to me for a customer's Marcus Miller that I'm attempting to fix.

.......just when I thought that I could put this behind me and get back to repairing well behaved basses and guitars. Ok. After Jack left it with me, I cleared my bench and set about having a look at the electronics. It looked like someone who shouldn't be left alone with tools had been at it. I tried to test it out with a multi meter and make sense of what should have gone where but it soon became obvious that it was too far gone to be able to save. As Jack mentioned, the bridge was a horrid thing, like something you would find on Fred Flintstone's bass, if he had one. So a more standard Fender style replacement was found and installed in the correct position. I then ordered a set of graph tech saddles with the built in pickups, a graph tech preamp and battery box etc. The saddles arrived within a couple of days, the preamp didn't. It was coming from Canada and eventually turned up about twelve weeks later. I set about installing it and although a fiddly job, it went smoothly enough. I restrung the bass, made all the necessary adjustments and plugged it in to my little combo. It sounded lovely, for all of five minutes and then the sound just fizzled out and died.😕 After checking and rechecking all the connections, it still wasn't working. At this point I contacted, via email, Graph Tech's technical department in Canada. A very helpful chap then started offering advice and attempting a diagnosis. This was a painfully slow process, due to the different time zones. We went back and forth over a couple of weeks, until he could not come up with anything else for me to try. At this point he offered to send out a complete replacement FOC. The replacement turned up very much more quickly than the previous one and I set about installing it. I was almost dreading plugging in, as this bass had now been through four preamps. Anyway, I nervously plugged in a cable, turned up the volume and it worked, just as importantly it stayed working and I was finally able to phone Jack with some good news. I had spent a ridiculous amount of time on this job and had actually given up on keeping track of the hours spent. I was just happy that Jack would finally have the bass in his possession and be able to play and hear it. I'm now enjoying a very similar experience with the preamp in a Sire bass.....happy days.

Enjoy that extra string Lozz

Keep us posted Blue, wishing you all the best.

Pm me some details Patrick and I can then give you an accurate price. Cheers.

Thanks Lozz