Jean-Luc Pickguard

Five days in and I just went on ebay and snagged a four pole pickup for one of my musicmaster basses. I suppose this means I have failed the assignment.

Father's Got His Glasses On — Cab Calloway & His Cotton Club Orchestra

Charlie's Enormous Mouth —Frank Zappa

Watching The River Flow — Bob Dylan

Black Pudding Bertha — The Goodies

Up The Ladder To The Roof — The Supremes

Moves Like Jagger — Maroon 5

Life On Mars — Bowie

It sounds like you are using the same amp & footswitch I have. Did this work previously, or has it never worked for you? Is it the FS-4 footswitch unit you are using with the four switches marked valve, EQ, Compression, & sub Octave? Are you using a high quality shielded TS cable to connect the footswitch to the amp (the leftmost socket on the back of the amp)? The footswitch is supplied with a 2.5m shielded TS cable - if you are using that one, check it isn't faulty. Try other cables

I failed dismally last year having purchased several guitars, basses, pedals and other bits & bobs. Some highlights were: A Rickenbacker 4003 A Telecaster custom A Harley Benton Les Paul jnr doublecut A PFender layer Mustang bass An epiphone Thunderbird vintage pro A Yamaha Reface YC Organ Even with the best will in the world, I'm sure I will be tempted by a shiny object before too long, in fact I'm already thinking about whether I should get an HX Stomp.

Smash 'n' Crab — AC/DC

Bits and Pieces — Dave Clarke Five

Hubble Bubble (Toil & Trouble) — Manfred Mann

Could be the output socket. The ones on squiers are never the best, and I have had them fail with the signal intermittently cutting out. Now I always solder in a switchcraft or pure tone before that happens.

Nancy Boy — Placebo

No I'm afraid I didn't take any pics apart from the back of the pickguard, which is probably the most important bit to do. Both pickup cavities were straightforward, but shielding the control cavity was a bit fiddly as I kept the pots etc in place due to not wanting to remove the output sockets. I was able to shield most of that cavity but didn't go right up to the socket area. I ensured that the strips of copper tape slightly overlapped and each shielded area was grounded by being in contact with something already grounded.

I'm probably very replacable as a bass player, but the other band members might wonder why there are no rehearsal/gig recordings, no printed setlists, and why the website has not been updated.

That's what my missus used to say, but these days I find it easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. It is a beautiful bass. I did have an initial weird issue with the mono socket (and I did wonder whether this was why it ended up in CC), but once I had used logic and perseverance to troubleshoot and fix it, it has been perfect. I finessed the setup today when I was shielding and swapping the pickguard.

It did come from the Exeter branch. Another branch had an HX Stomp XL listed for £399 yesterday, but while I was thinking about whether to go for it, someone else bought it.

I'm looking forward to him discovering the term 'C✪ck Rock' and making a video about it.

I had a bit of time today so I have done the copper tape shielding, and as I would have to strip all the components off the pickguard for this I took the opportunity to try the black rickysounds pickguard. I started by putting copper foil on the back of the pickguard, but not quite up to the edges to ensure the copper doesn't show when it is fitted. Shielding the cavities was a bit of a fiddly job but I managed to get everything back together and working. I think the black pickguard looks rather good on the jetglo finish. I had a smidge too much relief on the neck, so it needed a truss rod tweak which gave me the opportunity to try my repro black truss rod cover for even more of a blackout/ninja/stealth/batmobile look, however I think I prefer the contrast of the original one so that went back on. I somehow managed to drop and lose one of the original TRC screws whilst doing this, but all was not lost as I had some spares that are close enough in size. More important than the aesthetics, the shielding has made the bass a lot quieter in the hum department, in fact I can't hear any hum at all now. Whenever I do a shielding job I always wonder why manufacturers don't do this to provide a better product.

Heath Wave — Martha and the Vandellas

Those tuners look a little wonky. Did 'he' work for Gibson in 1974?

Howe Long — Ace

Your Racist Friend — They Might Be Giants