MichaelDean

Message Bass Direct and see if they can order them for you. I've ordered some Nordstrands through them before. Took a while, but they did arrive in the end.

Just having the cavity tape against the pickguard tape should be fine. Looks like there is already some tape by some of the pickguard mounting holes. I'd say leave that there and match the shielding on the pickguard. Then you know you've got continuity because the screw is holding it in place.

I bought a 60cm spirit level just this week as a cheap fret levelling beam. It's flat, a decent length and less than £20. So, I did my first fret job last night! Stuck on a strip of sandpaper with the superglue and masking tape trick. It was surprisingly easy and pretty rewarding. Not a perfect job - I should have re-checked the frets with the fret rocker before crowning, but now I know for next time. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001KOTNVW The worst thing I bought was some cheap strings from Amazon. I was disapointed to see that the Fender nickel roundwounds had gone up to £20+, so I bought some Adagio roundwounds for £13.50 as an experiment. Not worth it. They've gone dead quicker and felt quite rough for a while.

Ah, yes, the pickup prayer. Wire to wire, magnet to magnet, and bobbin to bobbin. We commit these items to the guitar, in the hope that our tonal goals are no longer aspirational. We swear that we will not change them on a whim. Unless someone else had a tip off...

I've not had any experience with the Overlord stuff, but I've also only heard bad things about them. Mainly seems to be that the metal isn't suitable for the tension required. I'd be tempted to give this Guyker system a whirl. https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJeKZIh

Love a good tangent. We had this when our daughter was born. We were told the weight in kilogrammes. Obviously the grandparents wanted that in pounds and ounces. A quick Google gave it to me with a decimal. Took a couple of days to notice it wasn't right. One of the other dads in the antenatal group only realised a few weeks later, after I'd told him about my blunder. They'd received personalised gifts with the wrong weight put on (why it needs to go on gifts is another of life's great mysteries...).

I'd say start with one. You can always add more if you need to.

But you're creating a faraday cage. That's the point of shielding. As long as it's solid all the way round, it should be fine. You wouldn't put more than one layer on the inside of a pickguard.

One layer should be fine.

@fretmeister Looks like the surf green is in stock. Everything else is due in, in the new year. https://www.dv247.com/en_GB/GBP/J-D-Bass-guitar-JB-Mini-SFG-Surf-Green/art-BAS0007169-000

I've got a real hankering for a Les Paul type guitar. I'd get a Harley Benton LP, some strings and a gigbag.

I did my neck in at a stag do while surfing a few years ago. Somehow hit a wave wrong. If I sleep on it wrong it becomes quite immobile the next day, I can't turn my head, and heavy things become a struggle. We also reached a breaking point with our daughter earlier this year. The only way I could get her to go to sleep was to hold her and pace the room. Might be 10 minutes, might be 50. It wasn't great for my back and it has gone once, just as I was dropping her at nursery one day. I was doubled over and barely made it home. We had to sleep train her as it wasn't sustainable anymore, which actually worked out well for everyone. Now we can just put her down to bed and she goes to sleep. I do have a sack truck for moving my gear long distances though. I bought it just before COVID, so it hasn't seen a great deal of use, but it does make taking stuff further much easier. There probably will be a time when I need to go full lightweight, or perhaps more modular maybe. I'm thankfully not there yet though!

Just spotted this on Andertons' website. Thought it might interest some people here... Doesn't look too shabby! https://www.andertons.co.uk/brands/soloking/soloking-mj1-classic-4-string-bass-in-lake-placid-blue

Wot @tauzero said. The idea behind it is that you don't send the reverb/delay straight into the input and distort those signals. It's probably more useful for guitarists than bassists. They (generally) stay clearer if they only get processed by the power amp.

It should be the same. They don't shape the neck and then roast it. It is roasted as a neck blank (or maybe even earlier in the process) before shaping.

How remiss of me - I haven't posted my 76 Mustang here! Refinished (not that well) by me, re-fretted with SS frets, tuners swapped out for Hipshot ultralights, KiOgon loom, strap from CatBurrito. It has toured the UK and Japan with me.

They'll be 18mm, the same as a Mustang.

I had an early PF500 and it never let me down. Didn't feel particularly light to me though. Might be because I had it mounted to the fliptop 210 cabinet though. Having played through a bunch of amps at the South West Bass Bash into one of @stevie's LFSys cabs, I found the Gnome was quite bright, the TC BAM was more neutral and the Elf was a bit darker and more scooped. I think of those, I'd have gone for the BAM. I could quite easily get an approximation of the other two from the TC. I'd like to try the BQ and BH ranges as well to see what they're like. I've heard the MiniMax MK2 has the fan noise sorted... This seems like a good deal. Do you need an effects loop? Have you ever used one on an amp you've had? I know I'm guilty of having coveted that option, but I've still never tried the 4 cable method with my bass. Only my skinny stringer.

Here's mine. I got into Wolf Alice a fair amount this year. There is a couple of Wet Leg songs in the top songs. I'm surprised that Taylor Swift was that high up. Not upset, but surprised.

Wow. That's stunning.

They do also sell them brank spanking new: https://www.fender.com/en-GB/parts/necks/roasted-maple-vintera-50s-precision-bass-neck-20-vintage-frets-7.25-c-shape/0999612920.html (out of stock here, but just a reference) In stock and UK based here: https://www.giggear.co.uk/guitars/guitar-parts-spares/guitar-bodies-and-necks/precision-bass-necks/fender-roasted-maple-vintera-50s-precision-bass-neck.htm

Nice! I've got my eye on an Antiquity Les Paul copy. Seemed really nice when I played it in store. What sort of doesn't react well? Can you be a bit more specific? Just in case... Your finger should be just behind the fret not on it, so the fret is doing the work.

So, you're an international touring musician but you're not earning megabucks, nor do you have an endorsement where they'll send you stuff wherever. The band you're touring with don't use IEMs and you want to set up a small board (say the ANT, a Helix Stomp and a couple of other pedals) that you can fly with and use whatever cab is available. Enter the ANT. If it's on your pedalboard, and you've integrated the kettle lead with your pedal power, that's one thing to set up. Plug in speakon to the cab, power, jack. Job done. Controls are all with you, so you can fiddle from a distance.

Even if, 10/20/30 years down the line, you do need a refret, that's fine. They're expendable parts designed to wear down and need eventual replacement.

Thanks for the tips @Andyjr1515, cocktail sticks worked a treat. Shame the rest of the process was such a faff! Perhaps not helped by my super glue possibly being a bit old... After a LOT of trial and error, I had to make the holes pretty deep, so that the carbon fibre maintained integrity. Glue that in, then cut the stainless steel to fit and glue that in. Let it dry and then file it down. Sounds simple written! Was not easy! Were I to do it again, I'd get carbon fibre with a thicker wall. This is just 0.5mm. 1mm would have made quite a difference I think. Despite the difficulty, I do think it looks good. There is still a fair amount of tidying up that needs to be done.