Jean-Luc Pickguard

I like Fenders and I do like the fender logo on the headstock, but there's nothing wrong with Squiers. They're not just for beginners — plenty of people who own and play Fenders also own and play Squiers. I usually take two basses with me to a gig. For one gig I took a black Fender JMJ Mustang bass, and a 'Competion Orange' Squier Classic Vibe Mustang bass. Both basses were set up by me with D'addario Chromes. I played the Fender for two sets and the Squier for the last set. Both performed admirably; neither was hard work or uncomfortable to play, and no one complained that the sound went to shīte when I changed bass. In fact more people were up and grooving during the last set when I was playing the squier.

Hocus Pocus — Focus

Fistful Of Steel — Rage Against The Machine

Miss Lila Bear has put on her best pink frock and has been excitedly awaiting her first dance with her new friend, Grizz.

Dust In My Pants — The Birds

Rock 'n' Roll Dalmatian — AC/DC

Its not quite the same as I no longer own a double bass, but the stock strings that came on my NS-design CR5-M when I bought in 2006 are still going strong.

The Thomastik 324h set are the hofner-specific set, so this will be a manufacturing defect. I'd suggest contacting Thomastik-Infeld: https://www.thomastik-infeld.com/en/contact

I don't think I'll be able to put my guild gigbag in the washing machine as it is well padded and more rigid than a typical freebie case. The bicarb seems to have reduced the odour, so I'll keep it like that for a few more days.

Bargain!

That will certainly be worth a try if we get a sunny day soon, otherwise I could stash it in the loft until summer arrives

I saw this Guild M-240E Troubadour on the cash converters website when they seemed to be doing a Dutch auction as the price was dropping by £20 every few days. It got to a price where it would have been rude not to press the 'buy now' button, so I did that. It arrived the next day very well wrapped but on unpacking it there was a definite odour. After a wipedown with kitchen roll slightly dampened with febreze and then a piece dampened with water, the guitar is no longer malodourous, but the gigbag is taking a bit longer to destink. I've used approximately half a bottle of febreze so far on it inside and out, and it is currently sitting zipped up with an open tub of bicarbonate of soda inside. It only has a trace of the smell now if I get my nose right up against it but any other tips to get rid of a weird smoky smell from a gigbag will be gratefully received. If it was a tatty old gigbag I'd put it in the bin, but apart from the smell it could pass for brand new, and its a good quality well-padded bag with embroidered Guild logo. The guitar itself it lovely. It is parlour sized and has a solid sitka spruce top and a DeArmond Tone Boss passive soundhole magnetic pickup which sounds surpringly good. There was a bit of rattle on the low E string as the fingerboard was almost dead flat. I had to remove the pickup to get to the truss rod adjustment, but after a tweak and refitting the pickup I now have a little relief in the neck and the guitar plays very well with a good lively feel and bright tone.

The Sad Bag Of Shaky Jake — Humble Pie

Brake My Body — Pixies

Sit Down — James

Senses Working Overtime — XTC

William Hill It Was Really Nothing — The Smiths

Rise — PIL

Ridiculous! if a squier topped the list they could at least spell it correctly.

A Walk in the Black Forest (Gateau) — Horst Jankowski

Short and Curlies — Rolling Stones

Diggin' My Potatoes — Leadbelly

Not available in the UK yet, but I've just installed Mullvad VPN on my iPad so I can pretend to be in the US & watch it on netflix.

I prefer flatwounds so I put a short scale set of status hotwires on mine, as I had a spare set, but as they are no longer available, I would probably use ECB81S Chromes if I got another mini P.

Hot Poop — Frank Zappa