John Cribbin

Forget about it! Stain is designed to work on unfinished wood. To make it work on a previously finished surface, you would have to ensure that every bit of the old stuff is removed. That includes stuff that's sunk into the wood. Any wood that is not completely stripped will in effect have a partial seal that the stain will not sink into. You end up with a patchy ugly finish. The top is almost certainly plywood. To strip the existing finish completely, there is every chance that the top layer will be sanded through. You end up with a patchy ugly finish.

I'd email the people who make them. https://www.sandberg-guitars.de/support/contact/

Don't get to hung up on water based, check the specs. Most car manufacturers spray cars with water based paint these days.

Hopefully this doesn't upset the mods.... Go over to TDPRI (just for this topic obviously!). They have quite a few pickup winders there. One of the sub forums is for all stuff DIY. There's a pickup winding thread going at the moment. People there are almost as helpful as here!

I'll go along with most of the above, this would be a case where the term, polishing out value applies. If you don't feel you can live with the current finish, restore it to good playing condition as a project and move it on to someone who wants it as it is.

Bodge, I'm yer man! Go down to Poundland and get some stick on Velcro. Then head for the off licence and buy a bottle of wine. The order of purchase is not essential. From the velcro, cut Polo shaped pieces, one to fit around the toggle switch. Remove cork from wine and drill it so the toggle will fit inside. Stick other piece of Velcro to cork, et viola you now have a removable cover. To toast your success, by some strange occurrence you find an open bottle of wine conveniently within reach. Cheers!

A photo of what you're looking at might help.

The short answer is Switchcraft. Their sockets have been proven to last over many decades.

Your only option is probably to replace with the same cheap bridge for a direct replacement. That's not necessarily as bad as it sounds, the old bridge will supply parts for several repairs if needed .... I'd guess that a lot of issues may be screwed items being made of cottage cheese. These will be metric threads so replacement with say stainless steel parts will go a long way in the reliabilty stakes. Here's an overhaul video off Youtube, I've only done a quick drag and drop through it, but it doesn't appear to be difficult to take apart. Good luck!

Switchcraft used to, or maybe still do, an extended version of these for when a body was to thick for the one shown to be fitted. Maybe there's an equivalent fitting for pots?

I'd pull the jack socket and check for faults there first. The sockets have a reputation for failure depending on type. Once upon a time I bought an active Ibanez which ate batteries. Turns out the original socket must have failed, so some numpty replaced a stereo socket with a mono one. Thing was wired to be permanently on ....

Have you gone through the wiring? If you're lucky it's just a connection gone dodgy. I'd be looking at swoping the wiring between the farty speaker and a good one and see if the farting moves with the wiring.

Look at the number of threads across various forums with the, I've got a rounded hex nut question .....

Hopefully we can help you through with this problem. I'll also tick the box saying the pickups are unlikely to be defective, probably the least likely scenario. Bypass the electronics with wire is also a great idea. If that shows working pickups, worst case scenario, you rewire as a passive PJ. These are great for bypass work, crocodile clip leads about £3 for a pack on eBay: Are you able to post images of the wiring? Sometimes we can see the problem that way. Working on the KISS principal, have you tried a fresh battery, that can often be the root of a problem. Jack sockets are a weak point. You have a multimeter so with the lead out, do you get 9V from the battery at one of the jack connections. If so, plug the bass lead in and try again. The circuit should now be connected and you will get 9v at 2 of the 3 points on the socket. Good luck.

If you are happy to solder, you could look at reducing the 24 volt feed to the fan with a couple of resistors. Look up voltage dropping resistors to give you an idea of what's involved. It's been decades since I played with that stuff and the details are hazy ...

RoHS didn't start until 2006 .... So It's sometime after that.

Google varitone schematic to see the circuit. Normally it works with the tone control. There are various versions, but basically each position on the switch shows a different value capacitor in the circuit, providing a different tone response. Gibson was keen on these back in the day on their semis. By all accounts more were removed by owners, than fitted as an upgrade. It wasn't a popular mod. I used to have a Gibson 330 copy with a varitone, only two of the six positions sounded any good to my ears.

Gotcha .... I think! If your socket has blade connections on the rear like this: You could use spade connectors, they are rated at 15 amps, pretty sure that's how my Vox is wired up. You could also use an inline fuse holder if you wanted additional protection.

If I'm understanding you correctly, you would need to remove the 3 pin plug from the extension lead and replace it with a kettle lead plug. One of these: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/iec-connectors/7769122?cm_mmc=UK-PLA-DS3A-_-google-_-CSS_UK_EN_Connectors_Whoop-_-IEC+Connectors_Whoop+(2)-_-7769122&matchtype=&pla-476191938202&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5qS-qovN9gIVlZftCh1YHQLaEAQYASABEgLe0_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

This should help: https://orangeamps.com/product/pilot-light-bulb/

Glad it was the simple fix Dave. A lot of us have been there .... I'll bet loads of gear has been sold over the years as having defective electrics, because the lead has been left plugged into the instrument draining it.

Has the lead been left plugged in draining the batteries?

Two rams are let out into a field, a young ram and an old ram. On the top of a hill they see a group of lady sheep. Come on. says the young ram, lets run up the hill and become acquainted with a few ladies. Lets walk up the hill, says the old ram, and become acquainted with them all,

I'd suggest patience .... It's possible that the neck has darkened due to exposure to daylight and the wood under the tape has remained the original colour. I'd be leaving it where it gets daylight and see if it blends in naturally.

Try Mouser or Farnell, personally eBay works for me.