WHILE my sourdough cools I take a look at Karen’s guitar to find out what the problem – no sound – might be.

I try the obvious and plug in with a decent cable. Nothing. A bit of shoogling, though, and I hear a crackle…a crackle of hope!

On removing the jack plate the socket is wrapped in insulating tape and there’s various oddly placed lumps of solder. Not only is one of the contacts held on with the tape, but a huge dollop of solder attaching a random piece of flex has burned through the core shielding and seems to be shorting out the while shebang. A bit of a fucking mess.

There’s not much spare wire and it’s a tight space but I decide risk cutting off the botched wiring, unwrap and strip then add some heat shrink before resoldering the jack socket. It works!

I’m finished just in time for my first Zoom guitar student of the day.

Karen comes to pick up the guitar which, incidentally, is a rather nice 1978 USA Fender strat then I get on with making the pledge pins. Still some way to go.

After lunch pin production continues and I edit up the video from Friday’s BBQ rib prep to spin into tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.

I have a break when my late afternoon guitar student arrives at the same time as the plumber to look at putting an outside tap at the back of the house.

No time for a walk –besides, it’s horrible weather – as I need to get my ducks in a row for the livestream…