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Damp cloth (smooth texture), hot iron. Cloth on the dent, apply steam. It is quite surprising the depth of dents that will respond to this treatment. If this does not work then it may be remove the finish as above. Before using filler I would attempt the damp cloth and iron technique on bare wood as well. You could then oil the neck - which oil is another debate in itself - Tru oil or Tung? Hope it goes well.

My rockbass corvetttes (for stupid cheap money, and I mean cheap) are very good. They are both comparable quality to my two 'vintage' USA basses. Quite what you would get for 10x or even 15X more £ must be open to debate. The quality of Chinese / Korean kit just keeps getting better and better.

Met Chris (plus small daughter) today in mizzle and windy Mach. Great discussion about common interests and a little about bass playing. Many thanks for your generosity Chris and I look forward to meeting over a meal and wine. Thanks, Francis.

According to website (and what I see with mine) body is alder. Lash out, spend another 30 ~ 40 quid on some pickups. You will then have a lightweight, no neck dive, slim fast neck bass. Mine came free in a hiscox case [size=4] [/size][size=4].[/size]

Wayne - DIY (destroy it yourself) for that kind of money, should be a simple easy job. What do you think? Good advice from Mr Foxen, you can use higher voltage and capacitance values to good effect.

Pretty impressive effort. The pic is superb, I will use that with my students, just reminding them about polarised caps. Much good advice above, hopefully simple replacement will result in good to go amp. Hope all ends well. As an afterthought, you can get nonpolarised electrolytic capacitors. These will not be terminated by incorrect connection. Whether the values you want are available is another matter.

Looks very similar to a 77 blue one I had around that time. Binding still fixed firmly? No paint sinkage?

Does this mean a set of low use TI flats will be up for sale? If so name your price, they are my strings of choice.

Jazz box, shorter scale 24.5" ? As above I would suggest heavier strings, 10s or 11s. I tend to use 12 or 13s on mine. Like you I also had problems getting mine to intonate correctly. Eventually I took it to my local luthier and it came back perfect and has stayed that way since. This was one guitar (or bass) that defeated me on setup (he also sorted my G&L bass that also defeated me). Sometimes there are complex issues that we mere mortals can not solve, however the evidence above suggests big strings. Make that guitar top work hard

Left field suggestion - Peavey Tour 700. Light(ish), graphic eq, adequate power, cheap s/h, reliable. I prefer mine so much I sold the Marshall VBA.

Used mine for celidh band folk, jazz, blues, punk, metal and all points inbetween. Loved the sound, was not enamoured with build quality 1978 ish bass.

Far too often. Usually by people playing my basses through my kit. Why do they sound so much better? On a more seriously disappointing note, my 1980s Fender strat, a thing of beauty, maple neck, ash body to die for. Compared with my Yamaha Pacifica £60 knockabout which I have at work. I set both up, you can guess which is the best guitar, and by a fair country mile.

Try Peavey Tour 700 - s/h at about £200 to £250. I preferred mine so much the VBA 400 went on elsewhere.

Just noticed, the guitar has 'tunomatic' style bridge, originals had strat non trem style bridge (not exactly same). Wonder why the difference? - cost. I really want/need one GAS is developing.

So near and so far for me, just wish the starcaster was 32 or even better 34 scale length. There we go, can't have it all.

I am so disappointed, I thought I was so lucky my basses stay in tune. I thought they were endowed with special qualities. Now it seems other basses do as well, lots of them. Ah well, you can't have it all.

Unlucky this time Sometimes you get lucky, typically up to $32 I have got away with it, sometimes well above. I have taken the hitt as well. The handling fee is just 'gouging', a well known treatment of the customer in the UK sadly.

As mentioned and you have done, raise the action, I would also suggest TI flats, no lack of bass and growl on my G&L SB1 and Kramer DMZ4001 - both P style basses. I did also own the real deal many years ago, no lack of bass with that either (Acoustic 370 might have helped somewhat). Final resort - Graphic EQ ?

[quote name='4-string-thing' timestamp='1375730854' post='2164932'] I saw Wilko when I was 15 or 16, it was 1978 or 79..... It remains one of the best gigs I've ever seen, and I've seen a few! [/quote] ditto and Norman is the bass player I want to be (when I am not being Andy Fraser) however lack of talent (and effort) precludes these ambitions.

[quote name='throwoff' timestamp='1375039246' post='2156071'] Mine has a paint crack running from the neck pocket out. Not from a drop or ding it just happened at some point. I have read several reviews on basses around the same age (07-11ish) with the exact same problem. [/quote] This is quite common on many bolt on neck instruments - the corner acts a (large) crack tip. This concentrates stress and thus starts a paint crack which is initiated by small movements created at neck pocket by playing the instrument. Aircraft (comet) and ships (liberty) failed in a similar way... a bass failure is unlikely to be catastrophic however.

My daughter, a long time ago (aged 3 at the time) decided my USA Strat should become reliced ...... Despite a polyurethane solid colour finish thicker than an orange skin, the damp tablecloth and iron technique removed significant amounts of dents. I have also used the same method on a very beaten Yamaha bass neck (poly finish again). The dents that can be removed are surprising.

That is so disappointing, especially when it is something special and getting more and more irreplaceable. Good luck, hope it re-surfaces, it is not as if a DR103 is something you can mislay or overlook easily.