Thanks, yep I just put a dab of wood glue dead center so it doesn’t pop out when I loosen the strings.
I’ve been hitting up a bass a week the past few weeks to condition and check truss rods. Spring feels like it came on early this year. I’m not used to 70 degree type days this early on, I think the beard is gone tomorrow. We just aren’t going to get really cold again imo (below 15 degrees or so).
Moving from the Arizona desert to the Atlantic coast in France has done wonders for my basses. Once set up after a string change, they remain pretty stable. Only the occasional minor tweak.
Well this is a pain in the ass:
Truss rod cover screw broke with half in the hole, under normal tightening. It was about half way in. It’s not quite flush but it won’t turn if I grab it with needle nose pliers.
Hmm, kind of small to tap it. Not sure what to do.
Minor annoyance for now but a pain if I want to sell it like this.
Today was a twofer. I wanted to swap strings on my 734 (oiled the fretbaord again while there were no strings on). There was a bad clacking the last week or two that I thought might have been technique but it was only happening on the one bass. Threw on a set of nickel SIT roundwounds. I like the feel of these rounds more than the stock strings. I also got my spring tuning done on my G&L today too. While I had the strings loosened, I taped it up and scrubbed down the fretboard with a green scrubby pad to get the built up gunk off.
That’s very dull to deal with @howard
Options as far as I see are;
I’ve had this happen and it’s a tedious job. 
I’d be curious how you get this out, update please.
Not out yet 
I tried loosening it with a small drop of machine oil to penetrate down the threads but it didn’t help. Then I tried getting a pin vise chuck and a drill chuck to close on it but no luck, due to the recess. A normal screw extractor bit is too big and I would be terrified due to the headstock being thin.
I may, no joke, end up cutting it flush and painting the inside of the recess slot black.
wow, bummer. I don’t suppose there’s any way to drive it all the way thru and back fill the hole either.
Yeah, not enough grip to turn it, and it’s tiny and sitting on hard maple. It’s in there.
probably a bad idea, but you could get a plug cutter and basically cut around the screw, then pop it out, refill the hole with a dowel.
…or… just paint over it.
Yeah - a screw extractor does just that, and then you either dowel, or cut a plug from a blank and fill it in. But this is in a recess on a headstock - it can’t be more than 5-10mm deep with wood there. Smallest extractor I know of is for a M4 screw, and this is like a M1.7.
yes but in this case i mean get something wider than the screw, and cut out basically around the screw and a few mm of wood all around it, pop it out, and refill with a dowel.
but blowing out the back of the headstock would be a real risk.
That’s exactly what a screw extractor bit does, it’s a hollow tube.
Ahh I see the confusion; there’s two types. One is the counterthreaded bit that screws into the metal and lets you twist it out. I’ve always thought of those as bolt extractors.
Then there’s the woodworking thing which is a hollow tube with teeth, like a very thin plug cutter.
I’m not real picky about bass maintenance except for keeping them clean and dust-free. Keeping them in their case or gig bag takes care of the dust but I also leave them out quite a bit. I just use a basic microfiber cloth to keep after that dust. I always wash my hand before playing and wipe the strings down afterward if my hands were sweaty. I don’t clean maple fretboards at all. Rosewood fretboards get a tiny, tiny amount of linseed oil if I see any gunk building up but that’s rare. Frets that don’t get as much use might get that greenish oxidation. That goes away with super light pressure from a fingernail buffer or even a pencil eraser. When I lived in the northeast US and also played more frequently I needed to adjust the neck maybe twice a year when the seasons changed. Here in the SW I find that intonation is trickier. Right now, with the doors open, our humidity is reading 16%. I don’t fully understand the science but I know that when I check intonation it varies a bit more frequently. I don’t worry about my bolt-on necks that much but the one neck-thru makes me a little nervous. In the past I would have a music store or just someone more experienced than me adjust necks and intonation but now I do it myself. It isn’t the mystery I used to think it was.
I was gonna say this too, then fill in with some wood like stuff or something.
That’s not a bad idea. However the plug cutter wants to ‘walk’ as you engage the bit.
If you ever want to be certain doing this @mgoldst cut a hole the same size as the plug cutter (Forster bit is best) in a piece of scrap material. Use the scrap material as a guide to stop the bit walking around. Clamp the scrap piece so it doesn’t move.
You can use the same method if you want to drill a bigger hole ie holesaw hole but there’s no centre for the holesaw dril bit as it’s already been hogged out. 
Went by Ikebe’s luthier shop tonight and got the dreaded “Well, this is difficult.” Which idiomatically in Japanese means “This is impossible.” I did the requisite “How much would it be?” and got the confirmation “It’s difficult” as the only reply, meaning “Sorry dude, can’t help you.”
Welp black paint it is then.
Maybe double-sided adhesive tape could make it look almost normal 
Haha, yes, it took me a couple of trips to Japan and several meetings before I started to be able to decode this “polite vagueness” for what it is
Sorry to hear about your troubles!
