Jorn Overa

Okay, that sounds good. How clean is properly cleaned? The thing is fresh off a CNC, so it's quite rough. Would it need sanding down first?

Thank you both. Luckily, I have access to a drill press, so that's fine. As for fitting the dowel, what would be the correct procedure? Is wood glue strong enough for this?

Hi all. I've just bought some replacement machine heads for my jazz bass, and upon attempting to install them, it turns out they're a bit on the small side. Once I have the washer and nut on, they sit tightly enough, but there's a lot of space surrounding them. The only part that completely covers the hole is the washer. I'm guessing it's desirable to have as much contact between the shaft and the head stock as possible, so what would be best? Do you think it would work if I filled it in with dowel, and then drilled new holes? Would that be able to hold the tension? Thanks in advance for any help.

Thank you all for your assistance. I'll try a shim and look up luthiers. Cheers all.

Brensabre: I think you're right, they're not really inside the hole. Any ideas of how I could make them fit? Or does it not really work like that? And yeah, there are four large screws where the neck joins the body, which I'm assuming is what you mean by bolt-on. Ou7shined: I'm using standard tuning. The strings are Ernie Balls, gauges 45 65 80 100 130. Is this a regular set? And yeah, maybe a luthier would be a safe bet. BOD2: I've had a look at your shimming tutorial. Would you say there's any risk to doing this, especially before my gig? Thank you all for your help.

Hi guys. Thanks for your swift responses. It's an Ibanez SR305. I've just done the tests you suggested. The neck curves slightly away from the strings, and with the 1st and 12th frets held down, the strings are very close to the frets, but not quite touching. With the 1st and 24th frets held down, there's 0.14" clearance. And here are a couple of pictures of the bridge, as requested:

Hi there. I've got a pretty important gig next week, and there are a couple of problems with my bass which would ideally be sorted out by then. First of all, whenever a pick a string around the bridge pick-up, the string seems to be lifting the saddle and slamming it back down, making a rather nasty popping sound. I don't think it comes through on my amp, but it's distracting while I play. Another saddle-related issue is that my B and A string often 'fall off' their thread, meaning the action will suddenly be very low. The other issue is that I'm getting some serious fret buzz issues, particularly around the 3rd (on the E) and 8th and 12th frets (on most strings). I bought a set-up kit and some new strings, but it doesn't seem to have helped anything. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.