stevel

Yihua are one of the better cheapo Chinese manufacturers - I've got their WEP 937D, which comes in at £35 today (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soldering-Station-Welder-Rework-Repairing/dp/B074Z84TDL). I've had mine for about 6 years, soldered loads of stuff, still going strong and never met anything it couldn't do - I'd not hesitate to buy the same one again if mine gave up today. Yihua's stuff are generally clones of the excellent Hakko soldering stations, but at a fraction of the price. There's plenty of other clones of Hakko products, they probably all come from the same Chinese factory.

Definite case for buying a new bass. 😜 Of course, this one isn't worth much in it's current state, so you'd best keep it as a backup...

I'm surprised no-one has yet mentioned the biggest part of the mass of a bass... the body. If you're really committed to the idea of making it as light as possible, seems an obvious place to start. I recently bought a 2nd hand Hofner Shorty Bass for £75 - cheap as chips and weighs 2.3kg. If you can cope with the neck dive, there isn't much that'll be lighter.

Similar to the post above, De-Solv-it sticky stuff remover has removed residues that I thought were impossible. Widely available - try B&Q if you can’t find it.

Or get a used one.... search for ‘Kluson’ tuners. For example: https://reverb.com/au/item/1733855-gibson-kluson-ebo-bass-tuners-60s-chrome

OP - you say the input jack sits very loosely inside the guitar - it's only held on with a thin nut - if this gets too loose it might just be that the output jack is shorting out on the inside, possibly against the control cavity (if it is conductive) which would result in the symptoms you describe. Worth trying just to tighten up the nut. If you're not sure which bit I'm on about, post us a photo of your output jack so we can point it out.

I looked into this some time ago when refinshing my 'oil-finished Warwick'. I think something is lost in translation here, as when they say 'oil-finished' it is actually a beeswax and lemon oil mix that they use (there might be other bits in there too) - but they melt it to apply it (so that it penetrates further into the wood). This might be where the 'oil-finished' description comes from - as in that it was liquid when they applied it. It still doesn't go deep into the wood, as I got the old wax off with a bit of light sanding on mine. Ironically, I then re-applied the same finish Warwick did, in the same way (melt beeswax, add lemon oil, dip a cloth in it, apply to wood, run scalded hand under cold water), and it turned out absolutely beautiful. Of course, you have to occasionally (yearly?) clean and re-apply to keep it looking great. I preferred this finish to an actual oil finish as it's less permanent - if I want to change in the future, I'll be able to, whereas an oil finish is very hard to get rid of.

I had this same dilemma a few months ago. I've got a dozen or so cheap soldering irons in my shed, but still felt the need for something better. After extensive research, I ended up with a WEP 937D+ (https://www.amazon.co.uk/WEP-937D-Soldering-Station/dp/B015IZ3CIS) It's a (good) chinese copy of an amazing soldering iron (the Hakko 937), but at about 1/10th the price. So far, it's been amazing. It heats up in next to no time, and if it's not doing the job quick enough, just turn up the heat. Comes with a bunch of spare soldering tips too. I'd have saved a fortune if I'd got one of these 10 years ago.

I think you might be asking for the impossible here... The size and speed of the fan both contribute to how much air it blows around. You're stuck with a small fan, so the only way to make it shift a lot of air is for it to run at a high speed (and therefore it's noisy!). As you can't make it any bigger, you're a bit stuck. That said, fans do get noisier with age (and then they fail completely), so it might be worth replacing it with a new one - just be sure it blows air the same direction as the old one. So, looking at replacement options, and bearing in mind that it needs at least the airflow of the outgoing fan, EBM-pabst (reputable fan-maker) make 2 fans in this size and voltage: 614F: 24v, 1.1 watts 17.1 cfm (cubic feet per minute) 614F/39: 24v, 1.4 watts 19.4 cfm. The headline figure is the cfm - how much air it moves. Problem is, we don't know that figure for the old fan. However, the cfm should be related to the power consumption of the fan. We don't know how much power your old fan uses either, but we can work it out: Power=VoltsxAmps Power=24x0.12 =2.88w Now that's quite a powerful fan - no wonder it's noisy. It's pretty much twice the power of the 614F/39. The relationship between power and cfm isn't linear though, so I suspect this one will output more like 28--30 cfm. And I think it would be unwise to go with much less... As EBM Freak has already stated, most of the fans that are quiet(ish) but still give a reasonable throughput are 12v ones for computers - if you can find one that shifts enough air, why not fit one of those (with a suitable resistor, of course)

Here's the spec of the original fan: HOWARD 3-15-1301 spec supply voltage: 230 vac blades: 5 body material: metal size: 76 x 76 x 38 mm width: 1.5 in, height: 3 in, length: 3 in So it's not quite 80mm square. I can't find any fans that are 76mm, but 80mm ones are common place - if you have the room to fit an 80mm in there then that's probably the easiest approach. The original fan was around 26 CFM - 80mm fans shouldn't have a problem shifting that much air, so the only other selection criteria really is the quality of the bearings (ie how long it'll last!). Good luck...

For the body, have you thought about a beeswax finish? Simple to apply - once you have finished sanding, quick rub down with white spirit, warm up the beeswax until it's melted then dip the corner of a cloth in it and rub the wax onto the body - just slather it on. Once the whole body is covered, buff it to a clean finish - you can't go wrong as there's nothing that more beeswax won't fix! This kind of finish does get a little grubby after a year or so playing - a bit of lemon oil, and more beeswax has it looking perfect again in 5 mins. And you get to feel the grain of the wood, unlike most finishes. If you have a nice wood for the body, this kind of finish is a great way to show it off. Better for the environment too, Plus, most likely cheaper than pretty much any finish other than bare wood!

Might be difficult to avoid scratching the neck using sandpaper. I'd get a little file to do the job - doesn't need to be anything special as the metal is quite soft. Google 'needle file' - plenty of them around, and cheap too. Toolstation do a set of 6 for £3.65! Pick the best one for the job then spend the rest of your life trying to find uses for the other 5! No? Ok, that might be just me then...

Most people use lemon oil to clean fretboards - seems to work pretty well. A small bottle (50ml or so) will be all you’ll need - otherwise it’ll go off before you use it all. Pickups wise, there’s a huge choice, so it depends a bit where you get them from. Plenty of people upgrade pickups, so there will be some Squier precision on ebay at some stage. You’d probably also find some out of a Mexican Fender, which might be a small step up, or an American Fender which is probably the same thing, but perceived by most to be better than the Mexico ones. Towards the expensive end, you could look at the Fender custom shop pickups - I have got the ‘62 pickups in my P, and they sound really nice. All the Squier/Fender options are going to give you a similar tone, maybe even an improvement (but don’t expect huge leaps!) Somewhere in the middle (price-wise) would be Seymour Duncan (check out their quarter-pounders - very well regarded). These should give a slightly deeper tone, at least that’s most people’s perception of them. In reality, I suspect they just don’t generate as much mids and highs, so it seems like a deeper tone. There are others - Nordstrand, Lindy Fralin etc, but the cost of them will be more than your entire instrument, and there are far better ways to spend that amount of cash on it before you get to these kinds of pickups. Whichever way you go, do pop back and let us know which route you took, and what you think of them. Steve

For a generic overheating problem - is the fan working properly? More specific things to check - when were the valves last replaced? Have you tried other valves to rule out a bad one?

I think he might've tried that already... Mike - is it possible that only part of your switch is faulty? Have you tried connecting (for example) the wire currently on #1 pin to the #3 pin? Or maybe moving both #1 and #2 wires to the pins on the other side, to see if they're working? I've you've got a multimeter, 3 minutes playing around with it will tell you if the other pins are working without having to solder anything. It'll also give you the answer as to wether it's a momentary or latching switch (you might have to test the working one to be sure). Steve

OMFG... Basscabman - where do you live? There’s got to be someone close by that would be willing to help out in exchange for a pint. Maybe 2 pints...

I suspect a grounding issue - something should be earthed but isn’t, or more likely shouldn’t be earthed but is. Do you have a wiring diagram? And, what bass is this we’re discussing?

Try the quick & easy fix first - electrical contact cleaner spray - it chemically removes the kind of corrosion (oxidation) you get on electrical fittings. That solves a good many problems like this without ever having to replace anything. If it doesn't solve it though.... Take your pickguard off carefully, and have a look at the pots in question - there'll be some markings that will give away what you're looking for. Generally speaking, for most pickups they'll use a 250k pot. Then you've got the choice of audio taper or linear taper (audio=logarithmic scale, linear=ratiometric, go for audio if in doubt), then you need one with the right shaft - take the control knobs off your pots to find the answer here (split shaft, solid shaft) and the right length (short, medium, long). Then you need to find someone that sells what you're after. Lots of choice here, random selection in no particular order: https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/ https://www.axesrus.co.uk/ https://www.allparts.uk.com/ https://www.northwestguitars.co.uk/ (I have ordered stuff from all these places, never had a problem with any of them) And finally, you need to choose how much to spend. No matter what you spend, they'll all be incredibly close to each other in terms of quality. CTS are a common choice, as they're what would be found in a high end Fender (CTS = Chicago Telephony Supplies, who were taken over by Fender in the 60's), and they'll be about a fiver. You can get cheaper ones - Alpha are good, they'll come in around £2-3, or you can get some ridiculously expensive pots that claim to give you extra 'tone' (with free snake oil). Either way, they'll pretty much all do the same job. Soldering them in is simplicity itself if you have ever soldered anything before (just be careful not to heat up the body of the pot too much when soldering earths to it). If you haven't soldered anything before, get some practice at it first, and someone to help who knows how to solder - it's not a difficult skill!

Last nights gig was.... cancelled! Nothing fancy - just a small open mic night at a local club, but we had spent 4 hours polishing off a couple of songs to add to our set list. One hour before the gig, we’re told it’s been cancelled by the local council after a single (yup, just one) noise complaint from the open mic 2 weeks ago! I wouldn’t mind, but they’re about 3 miles from Heathrow - noise isn’t usually a problem for these folks.

Might be worth just trying a rubber - one of those special ones for biro ink. They’re quite a hard compound compared to a pencil rubber, and are usually blue. That will get a lot of the ink off without damaging anything - after that you’re onto the solvents & sanding etc. Good luck!

Just an idea... (and only springs to mind because I'm trying to do this!): Put a 3 (or 4, 5, whatever) way selector switch in there, and wire it up to different tone caps to get some distinctly different sounds out of your bass.

Your old knobs are most likely to be metric 6mm shafts, whereas the CTS pots are 1/4 inch (=6.35mm). Easy answer here is to get a 6.4mm drill bit, hold the knob securely and drill a larger hole in it. Don't forget to take out the locking grubscrew first.