Al Heeley

I give all my instruments a neck rub with those fine scotchbrite wood finishing pads, green (or grey) nylon like a pan scrubber, they do a great job of deglossing the neck without going thru the primer, and they leave the neck feeling really silky smooth and natural.

I'm pretty expert at not spilling beer, but I still get it wrong now and then. Oh well, practice practice practice.......

You can do a lot worse than start here with the Reranch 101 web pages - a lot of practical info on finishing guitars using different chemistries, lacquers, varnish, oil, etc. It is a huge subject, and you may also want to read through some of the Project Guitar forum posts on refinishing. [url="http://home.flash.net/~guitars/ReRanch101.html"]http://home.flash.net/~guitars/ReRanch101.html[/url]

[quote name='bassman2790' post='479629' date='May 5 2009, 06:49 AM']Do you have dimmer switches in the room you're testing the bass in?[/quote]smart cookie, also fluorescent tube lights are buggers for earth hum. Before you go mad resoldering, check your lighting. I also had problems once whenever the fridge thermostat clicked in. By plugging the amp into a socket in the room furthest from our fridge (that happened to be the pub down the road) the earth hum ceaased and the service was bettter.

Glad you got it fixed, you on the hunt for some new pickups now then?!

Are the pickups the type with the detachable plastic casing? Can you insert a shim so the plastic case sits up a bit higher but the pickup coils remain at the correct height? -or build up a bit more height on top of the case with some black plastic? Or fix a proper thumbrest to use that doesn't involve the pickups?

The quick connector pickups are a great idea, I boought 4 once to do this to one of my electric guitars - there's some companies already doing them, is it EMG? Only problem is on guitars with narrow channels drilled thru from pup cavity to control cavity as the quick connector would not fit thru and have to be wired up once the cable is threaded through the hole. However, this is only a problem when the guitar is first put together.

check your mains lead and plug for a loose wire, a short across the earth, anything like that. Try a different lead if you have one.

This is good practice for any guitar with or without a plastic scratchplate/pickguard. Get some of the self-adhesive copper foil and line your ctrl cavity with it, and also the back of the scratch plate, and include it in your earthing connections so what you have is a shielded Faraday cage for all your controls to help minimise hum, buzz, rf interference, etc.

I love all this! Are they discussing the merits of the 1953 Bumble Bee resistors as the real vintage tone year for that authentic tone roll-off? These go for 40-50 dollars apiece on ebay and some guitar parts shops, its incredible what people will spend their money on. [url="http://www.badscience.net/2006/01/sounding-out-the-hi-fi-kettle-leads/#more-202"]http://www.badscience.net/2006/01/sounding...leads/#more-202[/url]

Not sure I agree with some of your statements there. [quote]The tone pot appears to be wired as if the bridge volume.[/quote] No, according to your diagram it's taking the common feed off the 3 way switch so either pickup (or both) should feed into it. [quote]And the neck pickup has been wired to the bridge pot[/quote]You mean the earth wire? That can go to any earth, it won't matter, though the logical thing to do is go to the earth of the pot the live goes to so the 2 wires are kept together. [quote]the tone capictor is on the wrong prong[/quote]No, it doesn't matter, the middle prong is the sweep and either of the outer prongs could have the cap attached, then going to earth. Or the live could go to the left or right leg and the cap on the middle, it will still function, only some configs would have the tone control working in reverse. As long as the middle leg and one of the outer legs are used it will be ok. [quote]the Switch/Pickup prongs on each volume is on the wrong way[/quote]Here's where my money is.

Have a look at this diagram: [url="http://www.stellartone.com/files/ToneStyler13r_V-PV-S.pdf"]http://www.stellartone.com/files/ToneStyler13r_V-PV-S.pdf[/url] Note the switch wiring. Depending on the switch type, centre lug goes off to earth on the same side as the 2 hot wires connect. the hot to tone comes out the back of the switch. Maybe worth a quick check. You have to work out with a multimeter which lugs act as the common and which is for earthing. Not all 3-way toggles are the same.

I'm very happy with my EBMM, bought from a loyal BassChat member, but the only thing I dislike is the protruding straplocks it's fitted with. Seems to me this design is putting maximum leverage on the screws where you want to minimise it - it's not a featherweight bass. Wondered what my options were to get more flush-fitting straplocks?

The diagrams may be drawn a little different but they all represent the same circuit. Doesn't look like anything wrong with your wiring. Are these SD pickups, 4-conductor? have you got the red and whites soldered together and taped up out of the way? 1/2 vol neck could be some inadvertant coil tap with a leakage to earth somewhere.

New venue for us, Lockwood pub, huddersfield - has a lot of great live music. We're playing a strong covers set of rock and punk classics from the 70's to contemporary stuff. Sex Pistols, Stranglers, Ruts, Ramones, Undertones, Buzzcocks through to Green Day, Blink, Arctic Monkeys, kaiser Chiefs, Fratellis. Any of you basschat members in the Hudds area, come along for a bit of a knees up. Sun 3rd May, from 8:30pm

It needs a proper field test, thats only fair. Actually we have a gig coming up in 2 weeks and I'm on a plane to China, I think the plan is for Owen to take my spot on bass for this gig so it would be a somewhat fitting debut for her.

it really is a pig ugly thing, but then i think the Bongo is barf-worthy too, guess I'm a bit of a traditionalist oon the aesthetic design side.

The RickenBaker was about 95% finished, then it went on ice for a month while other stuff got done. Finally the nut is cut, the frets are filed and the trc is redone so that's about it really, and jolly nice she sounds, with that rick growl and woody percussive note, the both pup setting is particularly fruitsome.

Thanks a mill for posting this link- it led me down an enjoyable nights youtube trails taking in more Levin stuff, King Crimson, Bruford, old Yes clips, Wakeman, Squier and back to Hackett and some of the best live bits from Seconds out, finishing in a very talented Italian Genesis tribute band who were pretty much note and tone perfect. Great stuff!

so what do you use to polish your frets? I use a technique the great Patrick eggle showd me one weekend on a set-up course, with an old t-shirt wrapped tight round a cork sanding block and a little rub of burnishing candle - blue abrasive wax sticks they use on buffing pads. You can give them a great easy shine like this without the need to tape up the fingerboard each time. The other thinig i use that works really well is those 4-sided foam nail polish pads you get from Boots. Great little tool.

This is a good idea. Heh - funny how a little LED can drain the battery much faster than the pre-amp! Time to wedge another resistor in there, dim down that light a bit.

+1 for superglue and bicarb - its a Dan Erlwine trick. I've used it a couple of times on worn nuts. As a temp fix I use a small piece of foil folded over a coouple of times and just held in the slot by string pressure, useful only to see if raising the slot helps with the action. Funny one of my temp fixes has been superglued in place for the last 12 months and still going strong

:brow:

The Mighty Mites are usually supplied with a satin sealer coat. You could get a stain to yellow this - a little colron antique pine stain rubbed in with a cloth, then Tru-Oil over the top once its all dried? 3 or 4 very light coats then buff when fully dry with a fine scotchbrite pad gives a lovely velvet-smooth neck feel.

If you're putting heavier gauge on, I'd expect tension to increase on the neck, that would give more relief, not less, and higher action, so I'm wondering why the heavier ones are giving the buzz. I would normally expect lighter gauge strings to need a touch of truss rod slackening to maintain the same action.