Norris

Tim is a very nice chap and an excellent drummer (definitely rates as a musician unlike some!). My guitarist Danny Willson plays in Martin's band too. If it helps you to get the sound, Martin told me he only ever uses the bridge pickup and always with a pick

I never really had an opinion either way on Tom Robinson. However after seeing him play at a festival last year I was struck by what a thoroughly nice chap he is. Over the course of the set he recounted his experiences, the highs and lows - especially when he was virtually banned from the airwaves for being "Glad to be Gay", and later on rediscovering success with War Baby. He wasn't too shoddy a bass player either. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the festival for me

Here - have a close-up if you like

I just drilled a hole that was half way between the inner and outer dimensions of the splines and then pressed it on gently but firmly - once. And there they will stay. If they do come loose I'll wick some CA into the hole, let it dry and then refit them. The most robust way would probably to have a female splined insert to glue into the knob. There again you can over-think these things and it's not like I'm going to hang any weight off them

Amp (covered), multi-fx and lead bag in the garage. A couple of basses under the bed, empty cases in the wardrobe, a guitar or two in the front room. Everything else in the study - 3 of my basses, my eub, my son's bass, one of a mate's that I'm supposed to be fixing... plus the piano, keyboards, electric drum kit, flute, cornet, ukes, and the bits & bobs of the current guitar build. My trombone lives in the loft

"Tis another forum dedicated to guitar building that Andy and I frequent, but I don't want to detract from this fabulous forum

What I ought to add is that the knobs are ash capped in flamed maple like the body, so there was a glue-up step too It's all detailed in my lengthy PG thread

The pots had splined shafts, so I just drilled a hole in the middle and carefully pushed them on

I went very steady with it though. It's not designed for lateral forces. Here's the offcut to give you an idea how I mounted it...

Slight threadjack for conrext (and a little bit of showing off!)

Doh! Double post due to page split

Turn your own out of offcuts. On my Nozcaster I cut the head of a coach bolt then screwed it into an offcut, fixed it into my pillar drill, then went at it with shinto rasp followed by various grades of sanding stick. By clamping an engineering set square to the base plate you can get quite a consistent radius

Tips I've learned... Micromesh used dry doesn't lift lacquer (got the T-shirt too!), but keep wiping it on a monofibre cloth to avoid clogging Press ferrules in with a soldering iron. This softens the lacquer and avoids cracking. However don't hold it on for too long or the lacquer will boil (another T-shirt!) Nitrocellulouse is quite forgiving if you need to fix a dint. Spray into the cap and then paint it on with a very fine brush to build up the level, then flatten it back with the micromesh (T-shirt #3) Nice job btw!

I attend a class in Loughborough Leicestershire. Might be a bit far though. It's more of a club than a structured course. PM me if you want details

I cut about 3 different widths. I'm assuming that your fretboard is fairly flat to start with of course. The micromesh takes off such miniscule amounts that it's not going to affect the flatness of the board. I don't know about T-cut, I used Meguillar's - it polished it up nicely with no detrimental effects on the lacquer as far as I can tell

Ah - the Guitar Workshop in Ibstock, Leicestershire closed its doors for the last time on Monday

I used micromesh pads, cut them into strips as thin as I needed with scissors and didn't worry too much about sanding across the grain. It would have been nigh on impossible otherwise. Then a good polish with Meguillar's ultimate compound (T-cut would probably work just as well) and I have a nice shiny fretboard. It's not a bass though, which is why there's no build thread on here

I might just have to take my 1980 SB-1000 out one of these nights. I've never gigged it since it was refinished a year or two ago. It was my only bass for about 10 years, so it did a few gigs back in the day

42 gigs, all with the same covers trio, ages 51-66, usually £300 per gig

That sounds spot on @HowieBass. A fret dress and setup will help get the action lower

The last chord of the song

It suits some basses... I thought the original chrome tuners looked out of place with the brass nut and bridge so went for gold when I had it refinished. The old chrome tuners were really manky and pitted anyway, so refitting them wasn't an option

It will have paid for the repair after 2 or 3 gigs. Think of it in those terms and get it booked in!

Fabulous

We have a very varied list of songs, which comes from years of playing in various different bands. We usually describe ourselves as 70s pop, rock and prog. But then we'll play stuff from the 50s to 80s, occasionally dragging out the "sick list" (yes we call it that) if the occasion demands - think 10 Guitars, Come on over to my place, Sweet Caroline, etc. As you're starting out it might be worth considering some sort of theme tailored to your singer. Over time you can stretch it a bit. For covers try to stick to songs people know but that are not played by every other band around. They don't all have to be number 1s though. Natural turnover of songs will keep the ones that you do well and discard the ones that don't work so well