The right way... and the left way!

D'oh! Tonight I figured I could grab 15 minutes, nip out to the studio and get a couple of quick tasks done. The first one went fine - a quick spray of laquer on the headstock. I decided to go for a more gloss finish here, and was able to give it a couple of coats as it drys within a few minutes (I hope! that's what the tin says). I masked of the fretboard, but I let some of the spray hit the back of the neck in the hope of getting a soft edge between the two area's - as if it's been worn down.

While that was drying between coats I figured I could hook up the controls to the pickups. They're all wired from the other night, so now the laquer on the body is dry, all I needed to do was solder the two halfs together, and the body would be done - 10 minutes...

A cool trick us to use a tuning fork - touch the pickup wires against a jack plug, then hold a ringing tuning fork over the pickup, and you check that it's all working - it was. I then wired the EB pickup to the controls, and put the jack in the socket. It worked (YEY!), but something was odd - the volume control worked backwards!!!!! Quiet where it should be loud, and loud where it should be quiet. That was just odd... Maybe I'd wired it backwards? But I was starting from a pre-wired Jazz control plate. Was it wrong? I rewired it the other way round, but the audio taper was wrong, so it just sounded awefull... Then it clicked... What if the plate I bought second hand on ebay) was from a LEFT handed bass? The controls would be reversed!!!!!! AAARRRGGGHHHH.

The plate was bought on ebay, and the seller had stripped a few instruments, and sold them on as parts. A quick check of "completed listings" found the culprate. Sold the same day as my control plate -  a left hand Jazz body. AAARRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

It's not the end of the world. I got three nice knobs, and a jack socked for about what they're worth. I just need to get some new pots (and I had one anyway), so I'm only out a couple of £, but it's SO frustrating. The pickguard should be on by now, but instead I need to rewire the whole thing again.

D'oh!