h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is a thread I've started myself just to talk guitars and related stuff. I'm hoping to be joined by Roadkill soon but feel free to join the party. As this thread may eventually become quite useful for troubleshooting etc, it would probably help if this was a TOOT FREE ZONE.
We'll start with some easy troubleshooting. If you have an electric guitar and it suddenly goes dead,before you cry and take it to the shop, check the jack socket. If the nut feels loose,the socket has probably just twisted round and pulled one or both wires off. All you need is a screwdriver to get the socket out, a quick dab of a soldering iron (and some solder) and a spanner to really tighten that nut back up.
Get into the habit of regularly checking your jack socket nut and tightening it the moment it starts to feel loose

*Tightens his nuts*

Hello there!

Yup, the lead goes all wiggly for a bit when you plug it in then goes dead on occasion. I kind of find it satisfying that I can repair my own guitar, it seems to me that you're not a proper guitarist unless you can do a few simple things like that and preferably a lot more.

Do you mind if I invite a friend of mine called tonemonkey into the conversation?

Like I said, check the jack socket. Why pay someone lots of money when most things you can do yourself? In the shop we used to charge £15 an hour labour and we were cheap compared to most shops.
Most things you can learn to do yourself so why not become a proper guitarist?
As I said at the beginning of the thread, the more the merrier, come on Tonemonkey, bring a bottle and your guitar. I had some tequila flavoured beer earlier. it was quite nice. We'll sit around the campfire and sing and play till it's way past our bedtime!!

Oh, I had some of that. A desperado, it was called. It was ok, I thought. Had more of a punch to it than normal beer. Which was good.

Inviting, shah!

Running by and saying hello!

I'm still a little busy by my space was on the back button, and I got intrigued. I agree, you should do most things yourself, I've changed pickups switches and pots, fret dressed (that aint so easy) blocked my trem and done regular set ups. I would say to most folks' let a pro do a refret though!

I wouldn't even trust myself to dress my frets either but most things you can do like intonation and stuff are non destructive and can be reversed if you really make a mess.
Oh yeah, 3-0 3-0 3-0 3-0. I'm going to go back and cheer for Croatia now, even if that might not tactically be best for England.
Shout "Ti si momak za pobjede" and if they do something really well, shout "To mi se dopada!" and as it is called Hrvatska in croatian, shout "Hrvatska Hrvatska!"

Did you actually watch the match? I have to say I didn't. Still, this new chape, Rooney or someone might be a good footballer but he does look like a bit of a thug.

I generally will solder at the drop of a hat, so anything that might involve that is good with me. It's just a matter of finding out how to do it, first, and so far it has not needed doing.

Well I don't finish work until 5.oo so I drove like an asshole and only missed the first 15 minutes. I got to see all three goals. I know what you mean about Rooney. He also appears to have crap ball control and just gets the ball where he wants to by sheer determination but boy can he finish!!

I've had to completely pull all the wiring out and start again on guitars before.
My Washburn has been resoldered lots of times because of the piecemeal way I ended up customising it.
It is very tidy though as I have a tag board for the Earth wires so they are not all lumped together on the back of a pot and every wire has heat shrink plastic over the top to prevent shorting. Also all the earth wires are green and other wires red (apart from the pickup wires which also include black and white)
The only company whose guitars are wired as neatly as this are Vigier, a French company. Absolutely top class guiatrs at not really stupid money.The most expensive one is about£1300-£1400 and that will piss all over guitars costing thousands more.