stevel

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.

Hi Josh, This is about a simple as repairs can get, although it's still best left to someone who has some experience soldering. A new connector can be had at several places in the net, for example RS components have a pack of 5 of them for £1.06, so about 21p each. The new connectors come with 6 inches or so of wire - you could either trace back the old connectors back to where they attach to the circuit board, unsolder them and solder in the new ones, or (slightly simpler, but less elegant) you could just cut the old connector off, join up the wires with some solder, then use insulating tape to make sure nothing shorts out. 10 minutes work either way once you have the connector, as long as you can solder - it shouldn't be too hard to find someone who can solder if you can't, or don't have the kit. Steve

The size was in the clue... 8025 = 80 (80mm square) 25 (25mm deep). And it's 12v. Current might vary a little, but shouldn't have much effect. So, it's one of these then: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/X-Fan-RDH8025S1-80-x-80-x-25mm-Axial-Fan-12V-Sleeve-Bearing/112777521421?hash=item1a4210690d:g:TfQAAOSwBOlahBNM £7.58, free postage. Bargain.

If it is in a 2016 bass, I would be talking to Fender about it - it isn't reasonable to have to replace the pot after only 2 years (or less!). They should repair it themselves, but might be equally happy to send you a $5 part for you to solder in, if you are happy to do so.

Definitely ask Squier first - it only costs an email! wanted ad has to be second - someone has got to have upgraded some of these in the past, and has a full set of 4 lying around doing nothing. other options.... There's one on ebay for £5.99, plus £2 postage, or a full used set of them for £16 (or best offer). Not sure what they're made of, probably a cheap steel, but the zinc plating makes it hard to weld it back on, so I would try something like silver soldering it, if you can find someone with the knowledge and kit (if you could let us know whereabouts you live, local folks might offer to help!)