John Cribbin

Europe's still fine. Ordered from Thomann last Monday, received Thurday, cheaper than anywhere in the UK.

I've used Peek for decades to remove tarnish, this will give you an overview: https://www.thepolishingshop.co.uk/peek-products

Absolutely the Switchcraft one, best £4 you'll ever spend on a guitar.

Rethink ... Just noticed Bassassin's comment that these were active. I can see that that there is a stereo barrel jack fitted, that is the norm for an active bass. I'd guess, it was active, the electronics failed so it was converted to passive. Now we're stuck with four holes, so lets knock up non standard wiring so we can fill all the holes ... How about picking up a cheap drop in active module from ebay, or stay passive with standard VVT wiring?

OMG that is pretty much the worst wiring / soldering mess I have ever seen in my life. It must have been done by a chimp on crack. Well I've never come across a Vol,Vol,Tone,Tone without a 3 way switch and like you Google doesn't seem to find one either. Must have been a unique Hohner thing. My gut reaction, they had the bodies tooled up for an active version and rather than retool for a normal VVT they lobbed in another pot ... Can't figure out the wiring from the pics, so maybe a bit of logic can be applied. OK, whoever done it used shielded cable, so the three braided wires go to the body of volume pot. Right, the red wire that comes into the body, comes from the pickup, so the white core should go to the centre lug on the pot. So, we're left wth two wires. This is where I'd be taking a leap of faith ... The lug that is folded back and soldered to the pot body is the earth. Now we already have three earth braids, so it's unlikely that either of the two remaining wires go there. Look at the other volume pot and tone wiring and try and copy the wiring layout to the broken wiring. At the end of the day, it's two wires and two solder points, should be easily sorted with minimal trial and error ...

Here's a good place to play around: https://www.seymourduncan.com/resources/pickup/wiring-diagrams Dial in what you think you'd like and Seymour Duncan will give you the wiring diagram.

The important bit for a fan is it's CFM rating (Cubic Feet a Minute). That's how much air the fan pushes over the board. I'd guess the £2-3 ones are 12v not mains. Personally I'd look to pay for a good one not a basement bargain cheepie ...

Well, I've got two, a Dremmel and a clone, Both mains powered. I don't use them very often, but when I need them, nothing else will do. The Dremmel does feel a bit better quality in the hand, but either do the job. Last job was cutting down some bone down for a nut. The accessory range is great for cutting, sanding, polishing. I do have a tile cutting jig, that was slow but did a good job. Not sure I would fancy one for routing out a guitar other than tidying up after drilling out most of the wood with a more heavy duty tool. I suppose a hobbyist may use one on a regular basis, but as infrequently as I use mine, I wouldn't be without one.

Lots of different PCB connectors out there, so unless you can find out which brand they are spaced for it may be difficult. JST and Molex are common brands. If you can measure the diameter of the pins, you should be able to source single connectors and make it work.

Well you can use stainless steel strings on your nickle silver frets (which are 2/3 copper and contain no silver). Next question may be, how much is a refret!

You've run into 'that' problem .... Guitars produced in the USA and Mexico use imperial sizes and pretty much the rest of the world uses metric. So we end up with shafts on the pots with two different diameters and number of splines. As you seem to have found, the vast majority of guitars sold in europe come from Asia and so most of the aftermarket parts are metric. If you have an authorised Fender dealer locally, they should be able to supply the correct knobs. The other option would be to Google, Strat USA knobs, hopefully that will bring up a Spanish supplier for you.

OK, you've already seen the basics online and that's where I would direct you. I must have been soldering stuff for 45 odd years. I started with a 15 w iron, pretty much back in the day that's all you got other than an industrial piece of kit ... I probably got away with that for 30 odd years, it's fine for small stuff, nonsence on soldering to pots, but somehow I managed ... A few years ago, I bought A Hakko solder station clone on Ebay, wow I wish I those were available back in the day. So what should you buy? Hmmm, If you're working on PCB's a 12-15w iron is all you need, but if you're working on bigger stuff like pots, you'll need a lot more power. It's a balancing act, to many watts and you risk damaging stuff, to little watts and you won't achieve a good bond. That's why I opted for a solder station, it covers all my needs and should last a lifetime. If you can budget for a solder station go for it, you won't regret it. Temperature, well that's down to the type of solder used. I use the old fashioned 60/40 cored lead solder. Works at a lower temp and flows nicely. That solder is banned in a lot of commercial manufacturing on H&S grounds. The modern replacement is silver solder I've not tried it, but it needs a higher temp and apparently doesn't flow as well with an iron. There's another advantage to a solder station, you just dial in the correct temp for the nedium you are using. Working with pots, cleanliness and a good key goes a long way to make a successful joint. I use a glass fibre pen to lightly key the pot surface and wipe over with a drop of naptha to clean and degrease. Maybe overkill, but it makes me happy. Rewired a Tele last week and tried a new toy. Came across something called liquid flux, just put a little drop on the cleaned pot and then did the soldering. Seemed to help the flow. My 10ml bottle will probably last a lifetime. A third hand tool is really useful for holding stuff in place and heat shrink tubing has a multitude of uses. The real key is practice, get some wire and a few old pots and go for it. You can clean the pots and reuse them. Once you're happy with the results, go for the real thing and good luck.

Cost is all relative. The last bone nut I had cut and installed cost me £50, it would only take two nuts for the files to pay for themselves. I bought a set of the Hosco ones a year ago and they are easy and efficient to work with. Keep your eye open, sometimes they comes up on offer over here. The other option is to order from Philadelphia Luthier, they are good value and ship quickly to the UK. Of course you run the risk of being hit by taxes on arrival....

These days, eyes and ears. In the past a HSS bit worked fine to measure clearances.

My first thought would be, why do you need these? Pickup height should be adjusted to sound best to your ear, no guage will tell you when the guitar sounds best. If you do want brass, just buy some brass rod from a model shop if you have one locally, or on ebay. Personally, one of these fits 90% of my setup needs:

Any chance of some photos of the wiring, that might reveal something.

A couple of years ago I picked up an Ibanez where the nut was slightly rounded, but would not move. Not wanting to risk rounding the nut further, I gave it the smallest squirt of PlusGas, best penetrating oil I've come across. Next morning, one easily adjustable truss rod. Give yourself every edge for a good result.

I have seen where people have knocked a torx bit into the screwed up hole and then screwed the offending nut out. Not tried it myself, but it's apparently worked for some. Worst case scenario, put higher tension strings back on and play away ...

Didn't think anything was checked anymore when bought online? The last two guitars I've bought online a Fender and an Ibanez, from two different suppliers, were in factory packaging that had clearly never been touched since leaving the factories. Sounds like it could be as simple as a loose bridge earth wire. Of course if you open it up and try and resolve, you run the risk of voiding the warranty. I'd be sending it back just to be on the safe side.

Whatever you do, don't try and stain it. Stain works by soaking into the wood. That wood has previously been finished, so unless you sand down to the point where all the finish has been removed from the wood, you're going to end up with an uneven blotchy finish where the stain penetrates differently from area to area. The top is almost certainly ply, so you're likely to sand through at least the top layer of ply before you remove the finish. If you want to keep the grain, I'd opt to spray a topcoat the colour you want.

OK, I like to work on the KISS principal, the simplest solution is often the right one ... Have you tried a different cable, just in case the one your using isn't connecting fully with the socket on the new harness. With the lead in and the volumes up full do you hear any clicks through the amp when you tap the pickups? Try all the knobs and switches. If you hear nothing at any point with a fresh battery, then something is dead somewhere ... Other than a failure of the active unit, the most likely problem is a bad connection or a faulty jack socket. Do a close visual check and look for a loose wire. On an active bass, the jack socket will have three connectors. One will connect the tip of the jack plug, the other two connect to the barrel of the jack plug, it's that connection which connects the battery and powers the circuit when the lead is plugged in. If you short those two connections, you may be able to power the circuit if the socket is faulty. Photos would help, sometimes the problem can be seen rather than heard. A multimeter is a great piece of kit for this kind of stuff. You can easily pick up one on Ebay for less than a tenner these days. I've got one at least twenty five years old, sometimes I may not use it for a few years at a time, but every time I do it pays for itself. Good luck.

This may sound a bit stupid, but have you tried a fresh battery?

Have a close look at the terminals when the socket is in situ. Is there anything touching that could cause a short?

OK try this ... It's a matter of substitution .... The Delano chart lists what colour wire does what. Google the Bart wiring chart, now you can identify what colour wire does what in each brand. Personally, I would then draw a basic chart of the switch / connection points. So for example, if the Bart says hot is Blue and connects to the second terminal and the Delano hot is Red, mark that connection point Red on the chart and work your way around until you have identified where all the new wires go. Double check everything before you unsolder the existing pickups. I'd remove and replace one pickup at a time just to help prevent any confusion / mistakes.

Here you go: https://www.delano.de/downloads/installation_guide.pdf