Fixing Gav's Bass

Whilst Gav is away getting hitched or something, I've been having a go at his Bass. This was a one-evening project, rather than a year-long experience. Really all I did was solder a previously disconnected grounding wire back to where I assume it must go, and give it all a good clean. Several years of built up grime on the neck were replaced by a nice 'dressing' of lemon oil. Bridge cleaned and lubricated. Body cleaned. Nut lubricated with Teflon^TM grease. Tuners tightened. Tarnished pickup poles detarnished (Well, I managed to lessen the tarnishing anyway) Wiring checked, etc.

I'm sure that only one pickup worked before I started, which was why I was fixing it anyway. Unfortunately I forgot to test it out beforehand. Anyway, they both work well now!

I also recently treated my 'Stratocaster' to a bone nut. Thankfully, I avoided contracting anthrax whilst carving and sanding the bone. It went quite well, but I think that I will have another go at it in the future (replacing the one I already did).

Some photos of the finished article

Multitasking: Playing a guitar and smoking a fag.

Thrashing it. Plugging it into an amp actually revealed that my soldering was not too bad. No terrible humming noises at all.

Before Gav got his grubby mits on it.

Nice new plastic bits.

I did the back too.

It's done!

The strat wiring kit arrived this morning, so I spent this afternoon wiring up the guitar and finishing it off! It works! Photos and maybe even a sound clip or two to follow!

Strat innards on their way again

After emailing StewMac over their error, they have apologised and (hopefully) sent the correct parts this time. They even said that I could keep the pliers (fret pullers), which is nice. I don't imagine it would have been economic to have a game of trans-Atlantic pliers tennis, the pliers having originated in Germany, been imported to the USA, sent to me in the UK, only to have me return them to the USA again! I also don't imagine that I'll be doing any fret pulling any time soon.

Mess up at StewMac

I got my stuff delivered from StewMac today. Unfortunately good news doesn't always come in small packages, as the suspiciously small package that perched precariously on my letterbox contained no Strat wiring kit; It did however contain a pair of pliers that I didn't order. Handsome as the tool is, it will not bring a Strat to life, and I fear that it will soon be winging its way back over the pond. I have of course emailed StewMac, and await their reply. I was hoping to get this project finished before Gav's birthday, in 6 days time. It ain't happening for this birthday!

Plastic knob update

A woman from Allparts keeps phoning me when I'm out, leaving messages about the knob, as it's now become available; Unfortunately the credit card I used when I originally ordered it has since expired. In any case, I ordered a set of white Fender knobs a while ago, which were cheaper, and will look better.

I sat down to fix the electronics last weekend and found that the lot, possibly excluding the pickups, is in a sorry state. The pots have a furry tarnish, and I seriously doubted their usability before they spent a winter in my shed. The whole lot was so seriously manky that I went to Stewmac and ordered a new set of innards. Plus some Guitar Grease (graphite nut lube), and a bone nut for my own Strat, which I guess will no longer be vegetarian after the operation; Guitar magazines tell me however, that a bone nut will sound like a £1000 guitar. Hopefully I can avoid contracting anthrax whilst shaping the nut, which I imagine is winging it's way across the Atlantic, or whatever it's called nowadays, as I type this. Even more hopefully, it will arrive quite a bit less than a year after I ordered it, unlike the case of the pink plastic knob (One of Sherlock Holme's less publicised cases?).

Tiny plastic knob. Currently it's in Japan. Should be in U.K.

I emailed All Parts. They say that the switch tip is on order and is currently on its way from Japan.

This guitar is going to have a bigger carbon footprint than a wookiee chimney sweep.