Jean-Luc Pickguard

This is a cheap and easy fix. Replacement black socket plate: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254904703742 £2.49 delivered Switchcraft socket: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224080289916 £3.90 delivered - don't be tempted to get a cheaper one Snip off the old one and solder in the new one. If you don't have a soldering iron it is worth investing on one but if you ask around someone you know is likely to have one, or if you post where you are located, a fellow basschatter might be able to help. By the way it is an output socket — not an input.

Unless you are planning to do a DIY job with rattle cans it would probably be more cost effective to sell the sunburst highway 1 body and buy a black one from somewhere like Northwest guitars where a body already finished in black should be cheaper than a pro refinish: https://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/precision-bass-electric-guitar-body-2-piece-usa-alder-black-gloss/

I don't even like this kind of bass but even I know I ringer when I see one. I reckon its a harley benton beat bass with the headstock reshaped, an ebay fake decal applied & teacup knobs added. Putting it in a hofner case is a nice touch.

There's a good write up about this track on Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/john-paul-jones-re-record-when-the-levee-breaks-1278309/

This one illustrates why you have top be careful when putting together a bitzer to ensure it doesn't end up looking like it has been designed by committee.

I managed to resolve this without buying new pickups. The route was only a tiny amount too small for the EMG-JX so I carefully used a very small flat file to remove a fraction of a mm from each end and tidied up the corners with a small round file, and the EMG I originally wanted to use now fits - Woo-hoo! I also have an EMG BTC system eq/preamp which I previously used with these pickups so I have fitted this as well, however the bass has holes for four pots and the BTC has volume, balance and a stacked bass/treble pot so there's an empty hole. I considered fitting a DFA or producer knob here - ie a spare pot not connected to any thing, but instead I have ordered an EMG kill switch as it looks like a lot of fun for £20 I tested the pickups and BTC with the EMG-supplied switchcraft stereo socket wired in but hanging precariously out of the control cavity, so I still have to solder in the original barrel socket to make it neat. I've lost my box of heat shrink tubing so I can't complete the job yet. I'm hoping that I'll find where I put it before the kill switch arrives.

I love the sound of vinyl, but as I haven't owned a turntable since the 80s I have to make do with listening to MP3s while the missus is fryng some bacon to get the same effect.

A neck pickup would the right length. The different spacing between the pole pieces isn't too much of an issue, but the distance between the mounting holes is also different so I'm wondering whether it will fit in the route.

pic updated

I'm fixing up a bass with PJ pickups that has a dead J pickup (the bit the windings are connected to is actually snapped off so probably not worth trying to repair). The plan was to drop in a set of EMG-X PJs I have that were recently removed from another bass, but but the EMG J pickup is too long. The original bridge pickup is only 92mm long rather than the standard 95mm and there's not a lot of wiggle room in the pickup route so anything about 94mm or more won't fit. I don't want to take a dremel to the the EMG pickup or try to widen the route as I know it won't look good, so I'm going to look for a passive pickup instead. Does anyone know of a Jazz bass bridge pickup (up to about the cost of a tonerider) that has the same pole spacing and mounting nubs spacing as a standard bridge pickup, but is only as long as a neck pickup. This pic shows the dimensions of the desceased pickup which needs to be replaced. Its the same as a standard bridge pickup except shorter.

I can’t see from the pic, but if the screws are even slightly proud of the wood, screw removal pliers might work to get those out. I had a broken off tuner screw in the headstock of a bitzer and had tried everything to get it out. Ordered mini screw removal pliers from amazon and managed to get it out in about a minute.

Does it come with a quiver full of arrows?

PM'd!

As you can fix it yourself, its worth doing that in my opinion. I bought a new squier bullet mustang guitar last year, and the first thing I did when I received it was to shield the cavity with copper tape and replace the stock jack socket with a pure tone one. The stock one was working fine, but in my experience the flimsy ones used in squiers are likely to be the first thing to fail.

JMJ Mustang with Fender flats straight into a focusrite interface then into Logic pro X with this:

I wouldn't call them lightweight, but they don't feel excessively heavy to me either. My tobacco sunburst one comes in at around 9lb using the bathroom scales method, and although I've not weighed it, I'm pretty certain that my alpine white one will be about the same, but it's asleep in its case at the moment. One caveat is that I replaced the tuners with a set of Gotoh res-o-lite GB640 on each, which may have reduced the weight by a fraction. There's nothing wrong with the stock wilkinsons; the Gotohs look ultra cool and complete the 60s vibe for me. They are great basses and sound as good as they look.

I prefer flats and choose the lightest guage of whatever brand I buy. I try to play with a light touch and let the amp do the work as much as possible and find the reduced tension helps get the string moving easier. I have various different different sets on various basses. EB cobalt flats 040-95 on the thunderbirds, thomastik JF344 on the precisions, Fender 9050L 045-100 on the mustangs, status hotwire flats 040-100 on the Guild starfire, The danelectro-specific LaBella 760 FD flats on the longhorn (.042 - 083) and an ancient set of picato double ball flats on the Hohner B2A. I tried a few sets of old strings on my Squier SS jag to see what worked best after I changed the pickups and the ones that came out on top were an ancient set of TI-JF324 that were previously on one of my mustangs.

I'm not sure what you mean by the current neck being warped and the truss rod not being what it used to be. Have you had the neck checked out by anyone? - How is the neck warped? – is it Back bow, forward bow or twisted? - How is the truss rod different to how is was previously?

Or dear it looks like some fool has bought it

At least there's no danger of it having tuners set at a jaunty angle.

It really needed illustrating as well as confirming

Guild starfire I

No this is for my guitar pedalboard. There's no space left on my bass pedalboard.

Is the Gear abstinance challange for bass gear only? So far this year I've bought a multifx pedal (Zoom MS-50G £50) and an acoustic guitar (Vintage Statesboro parlour - a blummin' bargain at £30) so if it isn't bass-only I guess I've failed the G.A.C.