3below

Great result, and apart from your time = the fun, very unlikely to build that without a speaker for £70.

Never mind what is Alt Rock, my life was changed when I watched some BBC? documentary, the moment of enlightenment was 'Yacht Rock', before that I was just listening to rock music...

110,000 miles on mine now, BF dubster, Bass amp,mixer, Singers LD PA system, stands etc, bags - all fit in the boot with the seats still up. @Phil Starr a really good informative read

I stripped my 77 P bass, the wood underneath was very good. As @Brucegill states, it should be easy to strip as time has done most of the work for you.

I only dealt with non functional and low / intermittent output ones. The piezo strip ideas are worth exploring, however the thickness might be an issue. Just made me wonder about drilling suitable size holes into a bridge foot and then gluing piezo cable or rods in.... hmm..... I also played with piezo film elements, likewise making a 'professional' package was difficult. Has got me thinking about the BC DIY DB pickup, must stop thinking, do not need any more stuff in my life!

My experience came from my own being intermittent. Eventually I took the 'nothing to lose here' approach and took it apart which eventually resulted in my understanding of the construction and how to rebuild. Subsequently I rebuilt / fixed a few for some BC members and summarised my experience in the thread quoted. Methods 1) and 2) are non destructive and free diy, they may or may not effect a cure for @MikeyMcMikeMike. Nothing to lose though . @sandy_r You are correct in your comment about the internal construction. It is very similar to the Takamine Palathetic pickup. I have thought about making my own diy Realist, very little skill needed. The biggest challenge has been finding small piezo elements at a sensible price. They are available but are ££.

Help is here (you may get lucky). https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/467506-fixing-faulty-realist-pickups/

Replacement neck was considered, however the magic was eventually worked. The price was very fair in relation to the instrument value. New fretboard, better quality rosewood and stainless frets. The end result is excellent. For something with a standard neck a replacement neck may well be more cost effective, equally well, your fretboard may not be damaged beyond repair and the costs could be lower.

With a single action truss rod the ultimate bad result of this situation is that the fretboard cracks and parts company with the neck. Personal experience with a USA bass, sorted by Jon Shuker and came back better than before.

Originals band in my early 20s, then other life stuff like yours. Now in another originals band in my mid 60s. Never too old the challenge as always is finding the right people and music.

^This, so very, very much. Really solid advice, and not just for music.

So much good advice in the previous posts. I just accept I make mistakes, so do others. At my musical level I am not practising 10 hrs a day (and not likely to, ever), If another band member wants to call me out needlessly, so be it, that is their problem not mine (my two current bands are not like this at all btw). In my final 'proper career' job I learned not to worry about the sh*t thrown at me, some of it may be warranted - learn from it and act on it, some may not be, ignore it and move on. Musically I have people around me whose judgement is valid and I trust them. At some point, age, memory, hearing or worse will get me and I will cease being a reasonable bass player, at that point someone should tell me and I will call it a day. Until then, at my level, this is supposed to be fun, keep it that way.

Two surprising rigs (at low volume), Telecaster copy > Stagg 20W transistor combo, unbelievably good lead and chords. Bass wise, G&L SB-1> Fender super 60 guitar combo, mic up & record, just thick and lush.

Have you played back recordings and evaluated what is going on? I have found this very revealing with my playing (even poor recordings are helpful) and it has improved my approach on several pieces. In both of my current bands we have reached the point of hand up and saying "I'll take that one" for blunders or "What do you think sounds best here?". Depending on where your band culture is, and the personalities, a more gentle lead in to getting self criticism / evaluation may be the order of the day.

Before pressing the red button it is worth asking the question "is she fixable"? With time, explanation, coaching etc could she become good? If she is fixable then ask yourselves the questions, "do we have the time and willingness to invest in her, is she worth fixing in terms of what else she brings to the band?". A sound piece of advice I was given many years ago was that (most) people do not want to come to work to do a bad job. Whatever the outcome I always remember that people need to be left with dignity and a sense of fairness. You never know what will come round.

The lack of length behind the saddles is my (main) gripe with the three point bridge. How hard (and not expensive) would it be to change the casting so that the E string does not rest on the silk or where the winding is not yet correctly established. P*&# poor engineering. Saying that, the rest of my SG bass now fitted with a Hipshot bridge and machines is really good, especially the fretwork.

Bought a Mod Dwarf from Kevin. Great communication, rapid arrival and well packed. Super deal. Thanks.

That must have been some hefty impact. As suggested fixable, but not at that price (unless there is something I do not know about W Kist basses).

Agree about safety issues and the Earth wire is essential. I just took the link as a further pointer to check the earth/ground connections. In an ideal world (no experience of inside TE equipment) you would be able to check the power supply on its own, then the power supply board shown above without any downstream connections.

That suggests a ground loop problem to me even though it has good ground/earth connections (as expected in TE kit). Have you undone the G/E connections,cleaned, contact sprayed and then re-fixed? This thread is relevant https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/trace-elliot-gp12smx-bass-preamp-hum-problem.56245/ This is going to be a tricky one but should eventually be fixable. FYI, my amp fixing is from being a Physicist/Engineer - not an amp tech, no serious electronics background, just learned as I went along.