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So, having sorted out the damage to the back, it was time to figure out what to do about the damage on the front. This wasn't as bad as the great big hole, but it was ugly, and in a very visible spot on the front of the instrument. Here's a picture of it after I'd finished the sanding, the black lacquer dust that got into the grain makes the detail of the damage easier to see in a photo. I decided that, as with the hole in the side, I was going to have to make a bigger but neater hole if I was going to patch this cleanly. First I drilled two 20-mm diameter holes centered on the existing screw holes for the Roland GK pickup. I used a forstner bit, so the holes are completely flat at the bottom. The drill stand meant that I was able to make each hole exatly 3 mm deep. Once that was done, I used the router base for my dremel to join the two holes up and create a uniform 3-mm deep channel where the gouge was. In theory I probably could have done all this with the dremel, but the plunge functions of that router base are really wobbly and unreliable, so I prefer to pre-drill and then have it set at a fixed depth. Here's the finished channel, and the maple inlay piece I shaped to fit inside it. This was scrap rock maple from an old guitar build, painstakingly shaped and measured out, not – as it unfortunately looks – the stick from an ice-lolly that I fished out of a bin. This was glued in with the help of an enormous brick of PTFE (non stick!), trimmed to shape and planed level. The plane I used for this has a blade that I ground into a slightly convex shape, so I can use it on surfaces like this without worrying about a sharp corner digging in. And here's the finished patch. (I fixed that little notch in the right hand side of the bridge cutout).

Legal liability aside, I would not feel comfortable with the moral responsibility if it did indeed turn out to be a genuine alarm and someone was injured after I disabled the alarm. With my fire warden hat on from work, I’m appalled. A key rule is never to re-enter a building in a state of alarm until all clear is given. That is the responsibility of a Fire Marshal or Incident Controller; the person should be familiar with the premises and be fully aware of all the potential hazards therein. A company cannot simply outsource the role of Incident Controller / Fire Marshal that does this to its customers and visitors to its premises. On the evidence available it’s hard to see how Pirate can demonstrate that they have an effective emergency action plan is as required by law; clearly if they have one, it is not working.

The Markbass CMD 101 Micro 60 is a cracking litle amp - more than enough for living room/garden noodling and enough for an open mic night. An easy one hand lift, too!

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The Inside Bell https://rumble.com/v6wpwb0-the-inside-bell.html

It was a spam, same type, probably same person, quote a long post, put a spam link in the end, comment 'thats interesting' or something at the end, and noone notices the spam.

Loving that colour, nice one

Those systems are hardly worth setting up!!

Congrats P-T-P! That looks lovely, especially the P&J setup with the stacked concentric controls and through body stringing. Love the grain on the fingerboard too. Is that the all-rosewood neck option?

If the place was on fire, that’s have a huge tragedy on their hands, so you’ve done the right thing. If it gets them to reflect on their policies it’s a good thing.

Classic vintage mania. Excessive prices for what it represents (peak Fender) rather than what it most probably is (a knackered old bass that needs a lot of work).

It’s a sad thing, but he was very brave in admitting that nowadays he can’t play like he used to. It was also very humbling how he sort of named Charles Berthoud as the sort of ‘heir apparent’ who has gone on to expand what you can do with the instrument, where he couldn’t any more. Is it me, or was Victor looking quite gaunt and ill in that video?

Ah, thanks. Now I have the full name I know who was being spoken about, but only by name, I've never seen his videos so I wouldn’t know he wears a glove. Mark