Norris

First of all put a few drops of water in the dents and keep adding more as it soaks in. Then lay a quite damp cloth over the top and use a steam iron on its hottest setting to really heat it up. Rinse and repeat a few times. Leave it overnight to dry out and the wood will rise up as it dries. You can pop out a dent up to 2-3mm that way. Then you have less to sand out to get a smooth finish. Of course it depends how deep the dents are.

Black tuners and gold swifts!

I'm building a g****r which is why there's no build thread on here. I thought I'd better start off with a toy before moving onto a proper instrument

I'm not sure where you live but if it's anywhere near North Leicestershire there is an evening class at Rawlins College in Quorn on a Monday night. It's more like a club than a structured course. You can build pretty much anything you want within a pretty well equipped school workshop. There are three experts on hand to advise you, the main one being luthier Colin Keefe (ex-Eggle guitars, now independent). Fees are 80 odd quid for a ten week term of 2 hour sessions. If you're interested search for "Guitar Building at Rawlins College" or drop me a PM and I'll put you in touch. They have a page on Facebook and a website afaik. Numbers are limited obviously. Many members have been attending for years and are very knowledgeable and supportive too

[quote name='GarethFlatlands' timestamp='1488399757' post='3248691'] Any advice on what size bit I'll need? [/quote] One that will fit into the tightest radius you want to cut i.e. the sharpest corner. Also find out what size collet (the "chuck" size if it was a drill) is on the router - there a couple of different sizes

For finer grained wood such as maple you could try some 0000 grade wire wool but it snags too much on ash

If you're dyeing the wood you'll probably want to source a clear grain filler if you're intending a gloss lacquer finish. Dye, fill, then lacquer.

If your body is ash you'll find that the dark debris from wet and dry paper will stick in the pores of the wood. It even does it with finer grained wood such as maple. I've had very good results with 400 grit sterated aluminium oxide paper that I got from eBay. It's Silverline brand and came in a 5m roll. It's remarkably clog-free on non-oily woods. Part number 993057. You'll probably want to use something like 120 grit for gentle shaping and then use the 400 for final finishing

Great to see some progress again. The middle wood looks like you've done the dark strips in a V shape because of the perspective - that's a cool idea that I might steal one day

If you're going to use a router for the first time I'd get a bit of advice from your mate on how to use it. I'd make a template out of thick MDF first, exactly the size you need for your pickup. Then using a short top-bearing template following bit, practice on some scrap wood first. Make the template big enough that you have room to clamp it without getting in the way of your router. Only take off a little bit of wood on each pass. Work in a clockwise direction to go with the bit rotation. Keep the bit moving to avoid scorching from friction. Hold the router firmly and be careful - flesh cuts much easier than wood!

Apart from a bit of switch cleaner on the contacts and blowing the dust out there's not much you can do in terms of preventative maintenance on an amp. Usually they either work or they don't. Valve amps may differ where you have some adjustment to make sure the valves are working optimally, but not on solid state amps

Very nice

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1487953190' post='3244543'] Two Bon Jovi bass lines for me, unsurprising as my new band is a Bon Jovi tribute. First one is 'Keep The Faith'. Getting it to bounce along nicely took me a long while. Now it is 'Homebound Train'. It is the bass playing equivalent of saying 'red lorry yellow lorry'. Making my fingers very sore it is. I always get there but sometimes it takes longer. I have gained much respect for Hugh McDonald since I started scrutinising his parts (so to speak)! [/quote] I have the same with Livin' On A Prayer. It's the relentless repetition of the riff, requiring concentration to keep it on track. The toughest I've had to learn is Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group. Five or six minutes of riffs with hardly any the same twice. That was a case of breaking it into sections and nailing each one before combining them - as well as trying to cover the bass and keyboard parts together (G/B/D trio)

If you've already checked the neck relief, you can check for a high fret by using a straight edge. Grab a credit card or something, centre it on a fret and then see how much it can rock backwards and forwards against the adjacent frets. If the frets are level it shouldn't rock, especially if you have some neck relief. You can buy luthier "fret rockers" for the purpose, but a credit card should give you enough of an indication - better still if you have an old one you can cut up as ideally it should cover just 3 frets Edit: Use the edge of the credit card to check (just to be obvious )

A titanium fretboard might be a bit of a challenge

It's more expensive to chrome plate than nickel because of the processes involved. I can only assume that gold plating involves even more processes, adding to the cost

[quote name='fleabag' timestamp='1487972917' post='3244808'] How do you mean repackaged ? Thats not a term i've heard before [/quote] There are custom pickup makers around that could either make pickups how you want them to sound and in the shape/size you want them; or possibly remove the covers from yours and fit the gubbins in covers the size you want. All within limits of course. If you have an Aerodyne I assume that's Jazz pickups? What type are you wanting to fit?

Could your pickups be re-packaged to fit the existing holes? It might work out cheaper and needs no intrusive surgery

That's ok. I've incorporated loads of other people's ideas anyway Anyway I have TWO of them I still have some other bits to do first but I do keep thinking about that grain filler now the ash back is ready for it! Loads of real life stuff coming up which means I'll be struggling for time - but I'm still itching to pop that lid!

A quadrant cabinet scraper can help with rounding over in awkward places, especially if you cut it down a bit. It is quite easy to put a gouge in your top though It certainly helps to get a roundover started if it's too fiddly to get any power tools to it though

I'd buy second hand and save some of the budget for a setup by a decent guitar tech. Don't sniff at Squiers - try a few different basses, but make sure a Squier is among them

I was going to be the keyboard player in my school band but seeing as I didn't own a keyboard anyway and we decided that a bass player was more important. So I became a bass player. Being a bass trombonist at the time helped. We started off with two guitars, bass and vocals going through one small combo amp. We had that opened up by customs on our way to our very first gig in Germany - we were all part of the school choir doing an exchange visit with a woodwind band and performed the two songs we had written at the farewell party ) think that I'm the only one out of that band that ever carried on playing after we left school

You'll have to try a Ric and a Thunderbird for the holy "quinitry"

Despite being an old git I quite like a bit of Grime

See if you can borrow a Daisy Rock bass for your next rehearsal