Jean-Luc Pickguard

Bye Bye Baby — Mary Wells

Mirror in the Bathroom — The Beat

Probably worth about £20 on a good day with the wind behind it. — then only for someone who needs a sacrificial bass-shaped-object to smash up on stage.

When I repainted a 1972 musicmaster bass body (that a previous owner had stripped) many years ago I figured it would be a good idea to fix the huge neck pocket gap before spraying. I nicked a wooden spatula from the kitchen and cut a piece out of that and glued it in. It came out a lot better than it probably deserved to have. The missus never did find out what happened to her spatula.

I did the gig last night with the newly shielded JMJ & it behaved immaculately. I still have plenty of the anti-slug tape left on the roll so I will do the shielding on other two JMJs over the next week. I already did the shielding on my competition Orange Classic Vibe mustang, but I don't think I ever did it on the vintage white CIJ — my first mustang, so I'll probably do that one as well.

I keep all of mine at home when I have a gig.

Southbound — The Allman Brothers Band

I've shielded one of the blue ones and whereas yesterday I noticed it was picking up a bit of hum which went up and down in volume as I moved the bass, now it is dead quiet. I was trying to rush the job though and managed to scatter all twelve pickguard and control plate screws across the floor and under the sofa. I managed to find ten so this bass now has two slightly mismatched screws. Oh well. I'll have to do the same (apart from the losing two screws bit) to the other blue JMJ and the black one or they'll never get taken out

What on earth do you need three of them for? Are you nuts? Oh wait — as you were! Cheers Lozz, I'll get up early tomorrow to do it to one of the blue ones — The one with the freshest chromes. You'd think Fender would pay more attention to this kind of thing on a £1200+ bass.

I have three JMJs but I have not shieded any of them with copper tape yet. Has anyone done this on their JMJ? If so have you noticed a noise improvement? I Noticed a definite improvement when I did my Classic Vibe Mustang. I have a gig tomorrow evening and I'm not sure whether I should be spending time in the morning practicing the songs or dismantling the JMJ I'm planning to play to apply some slug tape.

Sherlock Holmes — The Dirtbombs

Thomann might send you the correct psu if you ask nicely — or at least sell you the correct one and comp the postage. What you need is a 12v centre negative 3A PSU, however most suppliers seem to have centre positive ones which are supplied with a polity switching adaptor that goes on the pedalboard end — which isn't a particularly elegant solution.

When Thomann sent me a powered pedalboard with a non-uk plug I emailed them and they send me a new power cable for no charge. Maybe they'll be able to send you the correct adaptor if you ask them nicely.

In France — Frank Zappa

Fattening Frogs For Snakes — Sonny Boy Williamson

San Quentin — Johnny Cash

for restoration work these are good: https://www.voodoo-decals.com/

Are Reliced/Roadworn pedals a thing yet? If so this one should be worth a fortune, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225790579043

Crack The Window Baby — Tony Joe White

In your position I'd probably take a spokeshave to the kit guitar neck followed by some sanding to get a better profile. What's the worst that can happen?

The listing says it comes with the original case, but only an aluminium edged flight case is pictured. The sunburst looks a bit unusual, but could it have been a three colour burst where the red has faded from sitting in the sunlight for too long?

I Done Got Wise — B.B. King

Cab It Up! — The Fall

I've never heard a difference in tone or sustain from fitting a shim, however whenever I shim a bass I always use a thin piece of card in the bridge end of the neck pocket. This will increase the angle of the neck rather than just raise it. A thin shim applied like this will have as much impact on the height of the string at the bridge as a much thicker full pocket spacer like a credit card.

A Big Cunk O' Love — Elvis Presley