John Cribbin

Personally I would have gone with Telecaster type knobs, ie held on with grub screws, but .... No, no way, never superglue. Once upon a time I inherited a shower unit where the knobs must have come loose in the past. The owner 'solved' the problem with superglue. Had to destroy the knobs to service it, so if you're not that bothered ... PTFE tape might work, I've used a bit of paper in the past, you just need to increase the grip a bit.

The answer is yes, no, maybe .... Depending on who you ask .... Some swear that only tubes made in the 50's sound good, others hear no difference. But yes there can be differences, some people will hear them clearly, some a slight difference. It's normally the power tubes which work a lot harder where differences are more audible. Unless you are looking to fork out for NOS tubes, JJ and Tung Sol are well regarded for current production tubes. It's fairly well accepted that the Tung Sol 12AX7 is possibly the best sounding modern tube, but like everything else, others will have a different opinion.

I've always figured it's a factor of a given design. If there was a simple solution, it would have been designed out at the R&D stage.

Don't ignore the option that the socket could be faulty.

Were you watching, 'Can't Pay We'll Take it Away' while putting it together? It might have been repossessed ... I'll show myself out ...

I hear Darrin Huff has offered to build the new server.

For decades I've been spraying a drop of contact cleaner on a cotton bud and doing the same thing. Probably get a box of 200 in Poundland.

Well, most people would say can't see the issue with the existing ' simple cheap and reliable' option, pull the lead. A simple push pull on the volume, or the Fender S1 would do the job to cut the battery + feed. of course you would have to religious in your end of session routine, if you forget to hit the switch, it's gonna stay powered.

This post is like deja vu for me ... Good luck getting a reply from the UK suppliers, even providing the part numbers I didn't get a response and I'm not the first. Yep the continental suppliers have the parts, but can't sell to the UK. I ended up buying some dirt cheap tuning pegs on Ebay from China and canibalising the parts so I could do a rebuild and keep the original color. One day I'll even find some B200 bridge saddles, even though they are supposed to be an available part. If you do find someone wiling to supply original parts, please let us know ...

That power supply is fine it's universal 100-240 volts. It will happily work over here, just need a travel adapter and job done.

The only thing I can suggest is some form of voltage spike which has blown the circuits. For at least the last 20 years, all my electronic stuff has hooked up to the mains behind 'surge protector' plugs. Cheap way to add a bit of electrical safety. This kind of thing, available everywhere:. https://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-13a-4-gang-unswitched-surge-protected-extension-lead-2m/8068g

Can you take the neck off? Often the answers are hidden there.

Being bored on a wet and cold day .... I decided to play with the big G search engine. Looks like Fender also do truss rod washers in brass. Given the choice. I'd probably prefer brass to nylon or steel. But as I'm not an engineer ...

Well nylon wouldn't have been my first choice, but if you look at the description of the Fender ones, they are nylon ....

Check out Ebay, pack of 10 similar size black nylon washers £1.99 for 10 delivered.

Stop emptying your chamber pot out the bedroom window, we have toilets in this day and age!! Think of it this way, that file you submit is your CV. As an employer, which will impress me more, a well presented document or something scribbled on a piece of paper? A laptop running Reaper will bring you into the modern age. At the moment those nice Reaper people are giving away free temporary licence's due to Covid. Is there a learning curve? Naturally, but on You Tube there are complete courses you can watch on how to use your DAW. Get stuck with some function or other, Google will find the solution. No need to wade through a 500 page manual these days. I've recently bought a Focusrite 2i2 interface, it really is plug and play. Technology isn't going away, jump on board you won't regret it.

OK, I'm bored as well so I'll play! Your signal chain comprises, guitar, lead, amp. So you need to eliminate two items before you identify the one that's giving you the issue. My first port of call is the connectors, clean the cable plugs and the in/out sockets, dirt/corrosion are common culprits. Have you a spare cable to try? They can break down and cause issues. Different guitar/lead into the amp may help remove that as the cause of the hum. Can you try the setup in a different room? Transmissions from electronic items can be picked up and end up coming out the speaker. Is the bass active of passive? If active change the battery. That should get you started ...

Think it was the 80's when brass nuts became the next great thing. That fad lasted 5 minutes, tells you all you need to know about brass nuts ....

As for parts. I can usually find whatever I need on eBay. Scrubbing the tolex with soap and water is the way to go in my opinion before you finish it. I have used two products on the cleaned tolex which bring them up better than new in some cases. Armour All or Aerospace Protectant 303. Armour All is a stock Halfords product and is half the price of 303.

If you're saying that you can't raise the saddles higher because the grub screws are running out of adjustment, you can always buy some longer ones on eBay. I've replacing some of mine with stainless steel. A pack of 20 depending on length will cost no more than £2-3.

Welcome to the forum. First the simple answer, anything can be fixed. How much and is it worth it, another thing entirely. Lets be clear, electricity kills. Knowing nothing about elecrtronics and having no electrical test equipment is not a good starting point. At least with the unit unplugged from the mains, you could look to see if there is a fuse or two. If you were really lucky to find a blown fuse you could try to replace it with one of the correct value. The caveat here is fuses don't blow for no reason, replacing a fuse won't cure any underlying problem. Looking at your picture, there is a large doughnut shaped thing with a nut and bolt on the top. That is a torroidal transformer, if that's gone you're looking at a good £100 to replace, plus probable shipping from the states, if it's available. That transformer is wired up to a Poundland terminal block, it didn't leave Trace Eliott like that ... So it's probably had one failed transformer already. Has that one gone as well? Is it part of a failed repair? Who knows? Well that would be an tech with test equipment. Personally, if it's not a fuse I'd consider it potentially not worth repairing. Sell for spares would be my plan.

Take a look at your strap. A wide padded one won't reduce the weight, but it may spread it and make it more comfortable. As a last resort, there's always air guitar ...

There's no problem using more than one wire in the ground connectors. As long as their is a continious ground it makes no difference. Standard wiring convention would be to run a ground between the pots. However the pots are screwed on a metal plate, so that will maintain the earth.

You picture is pretty blurred, but I'd suggest your assumption is spot on.

Currently from outside the EU, you can import £39 worth of gear tax free by post. Over that, they whack on VAT, import duty on the whole amount and the PO add £5 for the pleasure of calculating how much you owe. However, if you bring stuff in personally, you get £390 worth of gear tax free. So from Jan next year, forget the booze cruise and get on the bass boat ...