Jean-Luc Pickguard

its a bit naughty using the word 'fender' in the listing title

I don't think he did that - my understanding was that Peter Cook (not Dud's mate) made the bodies.

Roxanne?

Aged white pearl or Black on a bright red such as candy apple red or darker transparent red. For a slightly lighter or more muted red like fiesta red, aged white pearl or solid off-white.

“we don’t play that song, but the next one has some of the same notes”

This is the bass which inspired the musicman bongo

Ha! I've just had a look around the room and the ones that are visible do indeed make a total of nine. There are however also a thinline tele, an eastwood warren ellis tenor guitar and four ukuleles (two nice Kala tenors & two cheap sopranos) also hanging up around the room.

I find the comfort strapp & neotech neoprene straps to be particularly comfy. I have tried a wide leather strap but it was quite stiff & was uncomfortable where the edge dug in at the shoulder. My '81 Precision is approximately the weight of an imploding star & the slight bounce of my (fender branded) neotech strap makes it feel less heavy. The extra long comfort strapp is a perfect length for a vintage pro thunderbird so I will be getting one for my other vintage pro.

Fender Precision '81 Cherry Sunburst Hohner B2A ('86) Fender Musicmaster '71 (refinished lilac) Fender Musicmaster '72 (daphne blue) Danelectro Longhorn '90s blueburst Bitzer fretless Precision Sunburst, ebony unnlined fretless Fender Highway One Jazz 2003 red with J-Retro & Kent Armstrong Jazz lipsticks Squier Jaguar SS Candy Apple Red with EMG-X PJs Kala U-bass SMHG-FS NS-Design CR5M (2007) Daisy Rock Stardust Elite Magenta Burst on Pearloid Another Daisy Rock as above Fender CIJ Mustang Olympic White with aged pearl PG 2007 Fender JMJ Mustang 2018 Daphne Blue Epiphone Thunderbird Pro-V Natural Oil finish Epiphone Vintage pro Thunderbird sunburst with cool Gotoh Res-O-Lite GB-640 tuners another Epiphone Vintage pro Thunderbird sunburst (an ebay accident!) Tanglewood Rosewood Reserve Acoustic (currently for sale at the Gallery) - unless I've forgotten any that makes the current total 18 - but at least half are stored out of sight from the missus.

I think they showed a longer edit of the bass bits on the episode of repair shop shown today & currently on iplayer the original decal would have been applied over the laquer so it wouldn't have taken much for it to have been scratched off

The thomann thunderbird bag https://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_gigbag1_bass_heavy.htm is a bit oversized for both my pro-v & vintage pro epiphones - the spec lists a centre length of 127 cm - maybe that will fit?

Instrumentals?

i got my copy for a quid from a charity shop in Torquay.

Something that has made a massive change to my playing & is remarkable value for money is my much used Zoom H2n (& before that the H1) handy recorder. In the dim & distant past, recording rehearsals & gigs was a much more involved process and the sound quality was fairly hit & miss. Having a good recording of every rehearsal which can easily be shared helps a lot with practicing new songs & remembering the arrangement and fiddly bits of a song.

He might have more luck getting a good price if he moved it to the archery section. If the tuners turn OK after a bit of TLC & lubrication they might be worth a few quid to someone who needs some for a playable relic bass.

Rubbery red strap locks from grosch bottles & the similar ones in different colours from ebay/amazon

If you can get your bass to Camden, the chaps at the Gallery would do an excellent job.

Thanks - I've been googling and it looks like the RB45 set is unsilked at both ends. I did find a page where someone mentioned that new swing bass sets don't have the silk at the bridge end any more, but i've not been able to find any pics to confirm this and on their page on stringsdirect it mentions that they are silked at both ends. The strings I'm trying to ID do seem to be made from stainless steel rather than nickel plated.

These strings sound phenomenal on the epiphone thunderbird vintage pro I (accidentally) bought on ebay a few weeks ago. I asked the seller what the strings were but he says he never changed them so thinks they were the original ones - I'm sure they're not the original factory set as those wouldn't have had silks and would have a nickel sheen to them that these don't. These have red silks at the head end, but no silks at the bridge end. The ball ends are E-red A-blue D-white and G- red(again) I've not used roundwounds for almost 20 years but these are perfect for this bass, so it would be worth getting a spare set if I can identify them. The colour of the ball ends suggests they are rotosounds, and the red silks suggests swing bass, however I'm not 100% sure as I thought rotosounds would have red silks at the bridge end as well. Any ideas?

I voted No as I have been listening to a lot of vulfpeck today

The electronics & hardware should be straighforward to repair, however the twisty neck could be more challenging. Its a bolt-on so it would probably be more cost effective to swap out the neck if the existing one can't be sorted out and a replacement is available. Brandoni guitars in Wembley bought up a load of stock including necks when the Eko factory which made Vox guitars in Italy closed down. It would probably be worth getting in touch with them (if they're still around) to ask whether they have anything suitable.

For a flightcase to be covered against damage by the insurance offered by most couriers it would probably need to be inside its own flightcase.

i've never tried groundwound strings, but I like the idea of a set that feels like flats but sound a little more like rounds. Who's tried them - or swears by them? Which ones are good, or not so good, and why?

[pedantic]there's no chrome on it - the hardware is all nickel plated[/pedantic] 😜 I agree that it looks great in any of the three colours. Both of mine are sunburst but I'd quite like a white one.