Jean-Luc Pickguard

Give Aaron Armstrong a shout. I expect he would be able to make something to fit your exact requirements. http://www.armstrongpickups.co.uk/

My CIJ Mustang is a great bass, but my JMJ takes it to another level. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the stock fender flatwounds suit it.

The pic is of a Gibson, not an epiphone. I don’t like them - they look like they were designed by a committee. And the pickguard is fugly.

hit parade? ...more like 5hit parade!

Melvin's so quiet he said eight words last year; and six of those were 'airport'... My favourite live album, I never tire of listening to it.

Say what you like - the chap that built it won't mind as he is dead. He was a bass custom builder and the seller bought up his entire estate

My back is hurting just looking at these

Yes the GZR is the Geezer Butler signature pickup. You'll have to ask EMG why they based it on one of Bobby Vega's vintage basses. All I know is that I like it a lot. If you need more info on this, try putting the words "geezer butler bobby vega emg" into the google machine.

I think it used to be something vintage - maybe a hofner or similar. The value is probably in the included hardware for restoring a similar model rather than the butchered body/neck.

I recently installed an EMG GZR passive P bass pickup into my '81 precision which has made it much more enjoyable to play due to the rich punchy tone that wasn't available with the original pickup. It has alnico magnets and was voiced to emulate the pickup in Bobby Vega's 1960s Precison.

At last, an instrument our favorite guitar improver can't make any worse

I wonder whether this is where Ned Steinberger might have got inspiration for the headstock on my CR5M upright?

LaBella make a danelectro-specific set of flats which are perfect on my longhorn. LB760FDLHS - 42, 56, 65, 83

I always use a strap as it is just more comfortable when sitting. Each of my basses has its own strap and I don't change the length when going from standing to sitting. My preferences are comfort strapps - I use the XXL ones on my thunderbirds, and decent suede ones (Levys or similar) colour matched to the body for most of the others.

Thanks chaps. I found the option on ebay to cancel and was able to mark it as "buyer requested to cancel" I still had to pay 30p of the PayPal fee out of my pocket and can't do a second chance offer to the other bidder without losing the discounted final fees. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

I had an unopened set of my previous favourite strings going spare which I listed on ebay when I got the 'Free listing plus Max £1 final fee offer. Someone bid on them and in the dying seconds someone outbid them by a quid and promptly paid. A short while later they messaged me saying they made a mistake and didn't want the strings as they just realised they are tapewounds not flatwounds even though the listing was clearly titled and the strings were described correctly. If I cancel the transaction I don't think I'll get back the full paypal fee. Also I've checked the terms of the Max £1 final fee offer and if I offer the strings to the first bidder on a 2nd chance offer, I'll have to pay the full final fee as the offer won't cover it. How should I cancel the auction & transaction so the winning bidder gets his money back without it looking like I'm the one backing out of the deal - so I can minimise my losses due to this timewaster.

This would be a perfect subject for a reputable guitar improver to convert to a four string for someone with a perchant for giant foam hands

Are those tuners supposed to be bums or titties?

Don't let a certain "Guitar improver/bodger/ruiner" see this or we might be seeing a rash of six-stringed saz conversions on ebay for fat-fingered saz players with more money than sense, and a corresponding lack of the seven-stringed variety.

It was relisted and someone actually bought it

yes they are: https://hipshotproducts.com/products/hb3-bass-tuning-machine You'd need to check there's room on the headstock for the large footprint of these though, I think the HB1s are more like the ones usually used by EBMM: https://hipshotproducts.com/collections/bass-tuning/products/hb1-bass-tuning-machine-1

Kebab sticks sound like a very good idea - I'll have to try using some next time.

I just use cocktail sticks - cut off the pointy end and jam in as many lengths of the stick as possible in without using glue. Not sure whether its better or worse than any other methods but I've never had a bridge fall off.