Jean-Luc Pickguard

Tears Like Blood — Pure Retribution

I'm a sucker for a maple fingerboard on a Fender, and of the player mustang basses, this and black with maple, are the only finishes that I like enough to consider buying, and this came up at a price I'm happy with before a nice black one. The grain and matching of the individual pieces on the body of this one are very good as well, although it doesn't show too well on my snapshots. In fact, the matching is so good that you have to look very closely at it to realise it isn't a one-piece body.

Bah! You got me. I clicked expecting something about N'awlins funk.

Now I have had a chance to get used to the player mustang, there are a couple of issues/niggles with the electronics. Nothing major but enough that I'm going to attempt to fix them. First, when switching to the jazz/bridge pickup soloed, sometimes this results in no sound whatsoever. The neck pickup and middle position are fine. After considering whether to replace the switch with a blend pot or another switch, I decided that I'd prefer a better switch, so I have ordered a short switchcraft one. I'm thinking that it might have been better to order a right-andled switchcraft, but I'll see how the short one is when it arrives. Cleaning or messing about with the existing switch wasn't an option as in my experience any fix will only be temporary. The second issue seems to be a widespread issue with the player mustangs due to how they are wired. When the volume is at any position other than full, turning down the tone results in a big loss of volume. The best explanation for this I have been able to find is that these basses use a 50s style of wiring where the volume control is wired back to front, and the fix for this is to swap around the two wires at the volume pot: 1. from the output of the switch, and 2. to the tip of the output socket. I will try this mod, and replace the switch when the new one arrives, and report back on whether this fixes the issue. Factory wiring: Proposed modification - desolder the two wires marked red at the volume pot and swap their positions:

No Sleep Till Brookside — Beastie Boys or Buddy Hollyoaks — Weezer

Crossroads — Robert Johnson

She Hangs Brightly — Mazzy Star

Don't Come Back — Simi Stone

Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky — The Monkees

Weird At My School — Pixies

Ice Cream For Crow — Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band

Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat — Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band

When I was looking for a Reface YC, I saw a YC and a CP separately listed on ebay which were being sold as 'spares or repair' where the unit powers on and the lights come on but no sound is output. Having read the relevent manuals I have discovered that if you press the lowest D (second white key from the left) and keep it pressed when turning the keyboard on you can deactivate the internal speakers, and if they have already been deactivated the same operation will reactivate them. I wonder whether some refaces have been sold at a knockdown price as non functional when they are actually fine due to the owner inadvertantly switching off the speakers? Edit - A Reface YC sold today for £125 where I suspect this might have happened.

Play better venues?

Scum — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

The Fat Man — Fats Domino

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens — Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five

There are many places called Telegraph Hill. A telegraph hill refers to a natural elevation chosen as part of a semaphore telegraph communication system from the late eighteenth century. In this system, messages were relayed over long distances in stages, from one semaphore station to the next. In my song, Telegraph Hill serves as a metaphor for the communication between two people, illustrating how their ability to communicate has diminished over time. If you want to sing along, hit the ‘subtitles/closed captions’ icon on the YouTube player to display the lyrics

Earth From Orbit — Izabella Khalo

Window Seat — Erykah Badu

Fresh Garbage — Spirit

Will It Go Round In Circles — Billy Preston

I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten — Dusty Springfield

Your Girlfriend's Dead — Finnea O'Connell