Jean-Luc Pickguard

La Grainger — ZZ Top

Captain Peacock in My Pocket — The Stooges

Abraham Martin and John Inman — Marvin Gaye

Most of mine have had a little modding, even the JMJ mustangs which I opened up & shielded with anti-slug tape. My Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbirds have had the tuners repaced with Gotoh GB-640 tuners and I've fitted thumb-bleeders (the little pointy indicator thingys) under the knobs. My Gibson non-reverse thunderbird has a babicz bridge. Anything that came with a flimsy (ie destined to fail at the least convenient moment) output socket got an upgrade to a switchcraft or pure tone. Probably the smallest amount of modding was on my guild starfire II — I wasn't keen on the white switch tip so I replaced it with an amber one.

These in nickel should work from James's home of tone: https://www.homeoftone.co.uk/products/pickguard-screws-for-fender-styles-nickel edit: just noticed James is out of the nickel ones at the moment so it might be worth shooting him an email to see if he has a spare few kicking about or an eta for new stock.

Passive — preferably on a single pickup bass. I just don't feel the need to tweak the tone any more than a passive tone pot allows. Also I don't like batteries in basses.

Or you could use firm neoprene-type foam under the pickups and not bother with springs.

I've always liked the look of a stingray, but have not been tempted to aquire on as I mostly play short scale basses, and I don't get on with active electronics. When I heard about the (passive) short scale stingrays I checked out the sterling version online thinking it would be more to my taste, but the metrics just look a little off, so I decided it wasn't for me after all. Yesterday a short scale musicman stingray appeared onscreen when I was idly looking at ebay and it doesn't look oddly proportioned like the Sterling. Am I imagining things or do the metrics of the EBMM look way better than the Sterling by MM version? In addition to the better proportioned bridge, it looks like the US version might be using a smaller control plate where the Sterling uses a full size control plate as used on the long scale basses. Whenever I see the Sterling version I can't unsee how oddly large the control plate appears to be — it reminds me of a toddler stomping around in his dad's boots.

Daddy Sang Bass — Johnny Cash

Papa's Got a Brand New Haggis — James Brown

I have an early 80s Fender bass case which has a split alongside the handle. I've not attempted to fix it yet as it currently lives in the loft. I have seen various youtube videos which show how to fix splits in ABS (car bumpers etc) and the variety of different solutions has put me off attempting a fix in case I chose the wrong method. I'm torn between using a soldering iron with an old (but clean) bit to melt the plastic together, possibly embedding staples to hold the crack together, or using a solvent — eg breaking up pieces of spare ABS and dissolving it in acetone to make a kind of slurry/putty that melts into the area around the crack and holds it together. I'm not convinced though by the method that uses black cable ties, melting them with a soldering iron into the crack as I'm fairly sure that they are made from nylon rather than ABS. For a crack in the foot area of a Ric case, the Rickysounds kit looks like a no-brainer and should make for a tidy repair, but I would probably be inclined to also use the soldering iron method to seal the crack to (try to) prevent it from spreading further before fitting the parts in the kit.

The blue one is so tempting, but over time I seem to have acquired vintage pro thunderbirds in all of the original colours — Sunburst, black, & white, so I already have more of them than I need.

Was I the only one who after seeing the defret job, checked whether the tuners were fanned out at jaunty angles?

Suzie Queue — Creedence Clearwater Revival

Hollow Hills — Bauhaus

Had a great rehearsal on Wednesday evening, the first for a while with everyone present. For a change I took my Faded Pelham Blue Non-Reverse Thunderbird which was a lot of fun to play and sounded good to me through the ABM600, but very different to the JMJ mustangs I usually play. I recorded the session with my Zoom H2n, here's 'Down In The Tube Station at Midnight' 08 Down In The Tube Station At Midnight.mp3

Maybe I'm Wrong — Blues Traveler

Whiskey In My Whiskey — Felice Brothers

I acquired one of these in Sienna Sunburst a few weeks ago. The Pickups sound good to me so I had no compelling reason to upgrade. I decided to keep the wiring as volume, tone & switch however the stock switch was a bit temperamental and I discovered an annoying issue with these basses where unless the volume is at 100%, rolling down the tone also affects the volume. To fix these issues I replaced the loom using a more suitable circuit. As the pots were not CTS and the socket was not switchcraft I built the loom using new components — CTS pots, Orange drop cap, puretone socket, and switchcraft switch. I also shielded the cavities with copper slug tape and fitted a thumbrest in the 70s position and fitted a Fender Hi-Mass bridge. I have not swapped out the tuners but I will look into whether I can safely fit a spare set of Hipshot lollipops I have in my bits box (the same type as the ones on my JMJ mustangs minus the relicing) I believe I will need to ream out the holes in the headstock to accomodate these so it won't be a reversable operation.

Although I wouldn’t be inclined to ship items overseas, other people here *might* be happy to send items internationally. If you see something listed for sale that you are interested in, you can send the seller a message to enquire about international shipping.

My Love Explodes — The Dukes Of Stratosphear

Another Saturday Night — The Drifters

Would this one break the budget? https://www.andybaxterbass.com/products/1966-fender-precision-candy-apple-red

If you can post a video on youtube demonstrating what you have experienced with the envelope filter, and start a topic on the effects forum here, it should be easier for someone to comment on whether it is likely to be a fault. I think there might be a few people with that pedal on here. In response you your enquiry about sending items to Greece, I probably wouldn't want the hassle if I was selling any gear.

Troglodyte — The Jimmy Castor Bunch