And Then Sometimes, All Is Understatedness

Well, it's going to be another bitsy-kinda-time this week, but I've got a face-on to get The Kooky One sorted out before another weekend. Woodwork is still out, but I should be able to do the rest here and there, which is good to think.

I've been having a lot of fun with the Zoomy Ultra Fuzz thing and The Tatty Adonis One, but really need to get my Jazzmaster involved in the mayhem, as mayhem and Jazzmasters share a fluffy soul. Jazzmasters and flangers are pretty neat too, just twirly rather than fluffy and more in need of parental guidance.

As for the wood chopping, once the Kookiest of Ones is sorted, next week will hopefully take a different slant - the holes in The Fabulous One, the teardropping of some wood and all that gore and plasma up the walls, not to mention the claret.

And we never mention the claret.

So today, or what's left, I'm-a-paisleying mar geetar, so I am.

(I am such a linguist.)

***** Musically Inept Interlude *****

And before I got around to putting this up and out there, I did actually get the paisleyification under my belt, as you can hopefully see. A whole lot of lacquer yet to go and some grain filling and sanding too, but you can get the idea, I'm sure. I had a bit of help with the fotos, from my self-appointed art director...

La la laaa

Not Very Much Lots of an SG, But..

Well, please don't take this as a plug to try and flog the thing - I hope you don't think me some kinda cynical get - but I gave The Tatty Adonis One a good go yesterday, tweaked it to bits and my god that is some guitar.

One pickup, simple as 'eck, but the clarity of the Mojo Wide Range 'bucker is just stunningly cool and when I finally get around to getting an SG there will be one of those babies at the bridge, make no mistake. The neck is just lovely in-the-hand too and the frets are lovely and shiny. What more could a boy want on a wet and windy day?

And speaking of getting an SG, well obviously it was top of my mind yesterday as I seem to have acquired - or will soon have - a rather bashed-around-the-edges PRS SE One. Which is nothing like an Epi SG apart from that it is Cherry coloured.

Another single pickup jobby.

I have mentioned before that PRSi aren't really my cuppa, but the one that has always caught my cornea is the One. A single P90 Les Paul Jr type of thing, but with rounded edges. I've always struggled with the idea, tbh, and if it had been a double-cut rather than a single, it wouldn't be happening at all, but I know I'm shallow so whatever.

On the Big-Pluses-List, I know I like the pickup, let's face it, I've used them a few times before, so it is a bit of a win on paper.

Single pickup guitars, a theme re-emerging.

As for other things, I have yet to start the paisleyification of The Kooky One, but I have coppered and corroded the scratchplate. It needs a lacquering, which I might wait for the weather to dry out before I do that, but once that is done a quick bit of solder and the Mojo harness can be introduced to the lippy and Gretsch pickups and all will be well and waiting for the body.

So finishing my Kooky monster this week might be pushing it after all but at least I've done something. You know how I need to be seen to achieve, I should be on the apprentice.

As for today, well, not too much will happen as there are other spratlings to Spry Crisp and Dry, but this week, it is going to be good. Eventually.

La la laa

Nostalgic Memories of Having The Horn

This is nowt like I mean
But such is life...

Well, I know it is getting a bit silly, but after my years - decades - of longing for a Les Paul and that frustration finally being sated, I've really got the hots for a nice SG.

I've probably said before, but my first 'proper' guitar was an Epiphone SG and I've always regretted flogging it, but there we are. It  wasn't a good one even, it came from my Mom's catalogue over 38 weeks, had a bolt-on neck and perhaps the dodgiest, quietest pickups known to humbuckerdom, but after my plywood 'Axe' with it's painted fretboard, to mine eyes it was something special. It was made of wood for a start.

Even if I only got it because I couldn't afford the repayments for the Epi Cherry Sunburst Les Paul on the page opposite. I was still paying off my Adidas Ivan Lendl trainers at the time and wasn't exactly flush.

But I got the SG, and I really loved that guitar, polished it, hardcase like a coffin and a change of strings every week despite it being crazy quiet and having to play most of the time with five strings as the high-e would only last minutes before giving way. I gigged it for a while too, before I flogged it and got my Jazzmaster as I just thought it wasn't good enough at the time, after seeing the chap in the Real People playing a Gibson that looked so much more chunky and dare I say grown-up and 'manly'.

Which shows how much I knew.

It was certainly louder, even if I thought not having black plastic pickup covers looked a bit strange.

And over the years I've always fancied a real SG - a Gibson - which is where I find myself again. But to be honest, if I could get hold of an old (late 80s) catalogue Epi with it's black plastic covered pickups, bolt-on neck and string cutting bridge, super shiny cherry colouring and all, that would probably do me fine.

I mean, I know the set-neck Epi G400s are far better guitars than mine ever was and if I tried I could sort meself out with a 'proper' SG soon enough, and my original was probably the equivalent of the cheapest of the cheap Baldwin ones these days, but there we are.

If I'm honest, I would love a Gibson or a nice Japanese Tokai or Burny, but deep down and deeper down yet, it is that old Epi I really miss.

I'm not on my own though, craving your crappy early guitars - it's why people pay money for things like Top Twentys and Satellites and the like now - but such is life.

Daft really, I must be feeling my age or something.

La la laa

Tatty, Kooky, Fuzzy and Titch

Well, what can I say - that there Zoom Ultra Fuzz arrived and it is a bit of an addictive thingie. I can sound like a pedal with a flat battery going thru an underpass without any kinda hassle, all while a plane takes off from behind the curtains, demons cry with extravagant flatulence and dogs are called from all over the county.

It gets worse if I try to play something too.

That is a good thing.

The Flanger also arrived, though with a teensy glitch, but that will be fun when I get it going too methinks.

As for other bobbins, well I had a bit of a stock take, thought about cutting the grass, shopping and other things and the net result is that I have sanded down the body for The Kooky One so that it is pretty much ready to be paislified.

There is only so much real life I can take.


I also spent far too long playing The Tatty Adonis One and marvelling at the sound of that there Mojo Wide Ranger. I realise somebody will buy it now, they always do just at the point I begin to think I may be able to hold onto it.

But The Kooky One: For once I have all the bits and as Mr Mojo did me the wiring loom, I should be in clover when I get that far. All of which means I'm hoping to have it done next week, which would be cool methinks.

After the neck version, I'm quite all-a-bubble to find out what the bridge-focused Gretsch pickup sounds like, particularly when pick 'n' mixed with a couple of lipstick toobz.

But first I need to get the paisley on there. I must admit, I've sorta missed doing that.

La la laaa

Fuzzy, Yet Flanging Too

Well, I've been away a couple of days, so nowt really to report on the Progress of the Jooks, but I am going to order a new blend pot for The Ronin One today, which will be exciting.

Well, for me anyway.

Other than that, I'm hoping for a couple of new arrivals. neither of which are guitars or have elements d'boutique as they are pedals made by Boss and Zoom.

Never though mass consumerismisational stuff would happen to me.

The first is uber fuzz from a Zoom Ultra Fuzz. I've never tried one, but been told that these go above and beyond in the fuzz dept. so that means it has to be worth a try. I found a couple of YouTube vidz to fall asleep too, as you can see.

The Boss is a Flanger (HF-2) as basically, I can't imagine fuzz without flange, and Boss pedals are just predicable and good. So what can go wrong.

I realise I keep buying pedals and then using them twice and then selling them, but such is life. It hardly stands me apart from the flock.

Other than a bit of tinkering, I can't see me starting The Fabulous and Kooky Ones until next week as real life has jumped up and started waving, but you never know...

Elsewhere in footyville, it saddened me (though not for too long or muchly) that The Wulfes went down last week. I'm sure we'll smell see them soon, one way or another, but there we are.

What I won't miss is The Villa if they go down, but I can't quite see it happening, not least because my Baggie boys are no doubt mentally on Weston-super-Mare beach already and we play them tomorrow, which should be enough for them to stay up, I would think. Nice to finish above them for once though.

La la laa

Introducing: The Ronin One

Well, another week in paradis mislaid,
Vanessa, where art thou now, bab?

As it happens, this week is likely to be pretty much Jooky-light, but I'm pleased to be able to introduce you to The Ronin One, a solidly maple homage to Gibson's classically ignored Marauder.

From the top this has...

1. A Solid maple body that weighs a tonne at least.

2. A maple/rosewood neck, and a right big chunky thing it is too. Feels lovely.

3. A genuine pair of '70s Gibson pickups, one humbucker and t'other a single coil. These are stamped with dates in 1978, which would have been a great year if Ipswich hadn't beaten West Brom in the cup semi-final. (Can't be arsed to check whether that was '79)

4. A chukkie headed blend knob rather than a switch, which gives some great tones and looks groovy.

5. An acid-strewn corroded copper finish that looks rather prettily spesh to mine eye..

And there we are.

I have to say, as far as the pickups go the jury is still out. I'm not sure whether it is the blend pot I've used, which gives 70:30 at either end rather than 100% on or off (if that makes sense), but they are a lot quieter than I was expecting. I'm thinking I'll swap the blend switch though and see how we go. In fact, this is pretty 'done' but I'm going to tinker with it for a while longer as it doesn't feel quite what I expected. The neck though is a revelation and a beautiful piece of old Rosewood. It just feels great to play.

But there we are. Anyway, I'm keeping this one for a while so I'm going to try to find out what it is that is niggling me (a fine excuse if never I've heard one).

In summary, sex on a stick.

La la laaa

Weekend offer and Pretty NGD

Well, bit of a weird week and next week looks to be more of the same, but there we are.

On the plus side I got my wee The Tatty Adonis One sorted, and rather brilliant it is too

And as I'm in a good mood, you can have it for a stoopidly reduced £249 delivered in a hardcase, Mojo Wide Ranger and all, if you are quick smart...

And of course my rather gorge Les Paul Studio arrived in all it's Lemon zesty finery...

I've tarted it up a bit and dodgy fotos apart, here it be..

La la laaa

Ronin Along...

Well, I'm all rather chuffed with meself as I've managed to make The Ronin One work. Blend pot, 70s pickups and all.

I think the thingy that shocks me most is that it is simply amazing that you need to connect wires in the right place for the thing to make a noise, such an old fashioned idea, it has no in-built intelligence, your electric guitar
maker.

I'm not entirely convinced by the tuners, so they will probably be swapped, but I can't really tell until I go out and buy some more strings as I have run out again. But there we are, I can do that, I'm empowered and everything. Until then I'll just sit and blend the clonks a screwdriver wheedles out of the pickups and dream of better days.

Speaking of which, next up is The Kooky One, so with a bit of luck I'll be able to get going on the body later today. I'm going to break a habit of a lifetime and make sure I have all the parts before I start, just to see what it feels like.

Other than that, I've given The Tatty Adonis One a bit of a tweak here and there and it sounds deevine. I'm loving that there Mojo Wide Ranger, I can see those popping up again in other Jookies.

So with a fair wind at my back, hopefully there will be some WIP and a bit of an introduction later this weekend. That would be a good end to a shonky week, methinks.

Elsewhere, I gave my Les Paul a bit of a spoodle yesterday, and a string change. I've been having some probs with my hand, so I thought I'd try some lighter strings - don't think I've used 9s in years - but I was a bit wary of the low strings being a bit wussy.

So, catching up with the rest of guitarville, I thought I'd try a hybrid set where you have the lowerer three from a pack of tens and the higherer ones from some 9s. (I know you can buy them pre-done, but whatever), and it actually worked for me. Never thought I'd put 9s on a shorter scale guitar, but you can get used to these things when you have to, I  guess. Not quite sure what I'll do with the other half of the set, but it explains why I haven't got any left for The Ronin One.

Next week I'll be putting spider gossamer on my Jazzmaster. One to look forward to.

La la laa

Thinking Kooky

Well, The Ronin One is still scattered across the kitchen table, but hopefully I'll get a chance to sort it out soonishly or at least this week.

The Les Paul is distractedmakingly lovely, but is now back in it's case until we am marauding, so maybe I can concentrate without getting all pentatonic.

As The Ronin One is nearly there, I'm allowed to think about what is next and it seems to be The Kooky One - mainly because I need a neck for The Fabulous One as I decided I wanted a big headed rosewood of board one, instead of the maple/maple jobbie I'd got lined-up.

I can't remember if I said, before or even many times, but the final line-up of specifications for The Kooky One is...

1. Ash bodied in an offset direction, to be treated to a lovely blue paisley finish.

2. Maple/Rosewood neck. I have a truly lovely one so I'm all proud of it. It even fits, which is better still.

3. Gretsch humbucker with a couple of Lipstick single coil pickups to give some spangle among the jangle.

4. Mojo wiring loom, CTS pots, PIO cap etc. I know it is cheating but MarcyMarc puts the wires in the right places which is a definite step forward. The caps are of course to-die-for too.

5. Wilkinson Steel Blocked Trem. I love the sound of The Tatty Adonis One, so more of the same.

6. Wilkinson Tuners, iirc. They are in a box somewhere and I can't be arsed to check.

7. Corroded copper scratchplate, as it should 'tone' neatly with the paisley if I get it right. (I mixed the acid a bit strong and melted the plastic before - oops)..

8. Gretsch knobs for the classy among us. Well, you. I'm a no-hoper-beatnik-crusty-with-a-dog-on-a-rope in the fashion stakes.

And that is about it.

How hard can it be?

La la la

Ooo-ah, Pretty Thing

Well, today was meant to be all about The Ronin One, but then the posty came and brought me a new toy to play with...and isn't it pretty?

It is a 1992 Les Paul Studio, that started life in the black, but has been refinished in Peter Green/Gary Moore/some-rich-geek-who-owns-the-original-now style with a glorious vintage lemon look. It has a maple top, ebony 'board and mahogany everywhere else that it should be and after a couple of tweaks-to-taste, it plays  beautifully.

It makes a change for me to get a guitar and not instantly have a list of things I want to change, but for once somebody beat me to it.

Tuners have been swapped for a nice and solid set of Grovers, and the pickups are a pair of Gibson Burstbucker Classics, which sound brilliant thru the 'British 60s' model on my little Mustang amp - can't wait to put them thru my AC30 if it ever stops raining.

The wiring has even been upgraded with a loom from my man Shugz which no doubt explains why the knobs and switches are worth having too.

Sad I know, but I'm loving it.

On the flip side, it has had a neck break fixed at some point, fixed well, so not an issue and it is showing it's age here and there, but I'm unlikely to complain about such things - they are just something else I won't have to do meself. (Not that I routinely break guitar necks, you'll understand.)

So for once, a guitar to just play...

Though I have now taken the scratchplate and switch surround off, but there we are.

Hardly motorcycle maintenance, just a little bit of Zen.

But The Ronin One.

Right, tis soldering time.

I have in fact already soldered everything in place.

It just doesn't work and it seems I have confused a couple of wires.

Black and white, they are so close if you are monochromatically challenged.

So I need to swap them around.

Just one more Black Magic Woman and I'll be right on it...

Doobie-do-da-da-doo-doooo.

La la laa

A Marauding Kinda Day, I Feel

Well, today is all about The Ronin One, bless it's little Marauding socks of time-tinged cotton.

I won't go over the-story-so-far, but suffice to say that all we are in need of is some wire between the two 1978 vintage Gibson pickups, some twirly pot things, a blend pot and a jack socket. Then it will be a guitar. Simple, innit.

It isn't The Ronin One that I've been thinking about though, instead it is The Pearly Dewdrop One, which is the name I'm giving to my first Jookily Carved guitar. I know, I've been putting it off for years, but we're here now.

This is going to be a Vox teardrop shaped body, with a Strat neck and probably a waxed rust finish or maybe a bronze top. I'm not sure yet.

Either way it will boast a Bare Knuckle P90 at the neck and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbucker at the bridge. Controls will be Tele-like  and I'm going to go for some sort of fixed bridge, haven't quite decided what yet.

As for doing it, well I'm assuming that there will be a swarm of dead trees along the way, but it basically needs me to rout the neck, pickup and control hole-things. Once they are OK (I hear you laugh), I'll cut the teardroppy outline out.

All of which will go simply and straightforwardly and cause no pain at all.

We know that from past experience.

I gave it a name in the end so that I'd keep going on it, but I wouldn't expect to see this in the very nearest of futures. But that's the plan...for what it is worthy of.

But not today. That is soldering and then de-bugging and hopefully a bit of noisy strumification on The Ronin One.

I feel very grown-up, finishing things before I start something new. Only The Ronin, Kooky and Fabulous Ones to do then before I can legitimately start chopping the wood.

Possibly.

La la laaa

Sold: The Tatty Adonis One

Here in Jookyland we’re rather pleased with The Tatty Adonis One. The body has a stunning corroded copper finish, and the sounds that can be squeezed out of a single humbucker are rather amazingly cool. It is rocktastic yet twangy too.

For the record, the guitar features an alder Strat Body, smothered in corroded copper.

A Maple/Rosewood Telecaster neck give it a certain something else.

The Tremolo is a Wilkinson one with a steel block for added sustainingness and a push in starter handle for those times when you are too tired to screw one in.

Tuners too are aged Wilkinsons and are rock solid.

As for the pickup, it is a prototype of Mojo Pickups stunning sounding Wide Range Humbucker.

This along with a Mojo wiring loom featuring CTS pots and a PIO capacitor means you can squeeze ever tone out of the guitar. The tone knob does something useful, imagine that.

Overall, this is a stripped down and battered rock guitar, that can twang and jangle too.


*


To be clear, The Tatty Adonis One is an utterly unique guitar, and there will never, ever, be another made. It is signed and numbered, entirely hand built and finished cooler than a slo-mo run across the pebbled beach at Portishead. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.


Technical Stuff:

Type: Lulu’s Copper Top

Electrics: Mojo Pickups Wide Range Humbucker

Guitar Type: Fender Stratocaster

Construction: Wood body, maple/rosewood neck, Corroded Copper Finish

Strings: Nickel 10s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: Volume, Tone

Special Stuff: Certificate of Authenticity, Builder Signed and Numbered, All Wrapped with our Trademark Jooky Wrapping.

Serial Number: JGE#51

RSP: £799

SOLD SOLD SOLD

Introducing: The Tatty Adonis One

Well, I've been trying to get a bit of perspective about all this Jooky bobbins, after realising that the look on somebody's face as I described at length why it was I am totally made-up to be able to buy pre-rusted screws, perhaps wasn't rapt attention tinged admiration at my cleverness and wit. I think it was the pat on my head and run-for-the-exits departure that swung it.

I realise I can get a bit 'detail', but such is life.

Odd in one so slack though, has to be said.

Speaking of which, I am rather chuffed to be able to introduce you to The Tatty Adonis One, which after a number of false starts is now a reality and vapourware-less.

From the top it boasts:

1. An alder Strat body

2. A maple/rosewood tele neck

3. A Wilkinson Steel Blocked Trem with added zing

4. A set of pre-aged Wilkinson Tuners

5. A corroded copper finish

6. Some rusty screws that I love

7. A Mojo wiring loom - CTS posts and PIO capacitor with Jooky on the side, bless, and best of all

8. A prototype Mojo Wide Range pickup.

All of which means it looks, plays and sounds dee and vine.

As for the Wide Range pickup, I think I mentioned that I got to spend some time with an original '70s Tele featuring Fender's WRs, and that I was impressed. They were quite single-coil-like for a humbucker, nicely jingling in the clean department and getting raw and P90-ish when things got a bit more meaty. I'm pleased I did that as it makes life simpler when I talk about the Mojo ones. I also tried one of the newer reissues which are lovely guitars, but the pickups in them are basically meh. Nowt like the originals at all. Why would they do that?

So I have a context, what does this Mojo Wide Ranger sound like when compared to the '70s original?

Well, for a start, it handles the cleans beautifully. It is a bit pokier than the original Fender ones, though not massively and perhaps that is down to the magnets in the originals fading over time, I don't know. Whatever. The clarity is the first thing that hits you, no sign of mushiness and even when you up-the-gain, it has a real cut-thru tone to it that is awesome.

Speaking of the tone, the tone knob (which I've recently discovered you are allowed to turn if the occasion demands) gives a really wide range (tee hee) of err, tones.

Full on there is that real Tele-meets-a-P90 bite, but down a bit you get something Stratty with maybe a bit more of a punch in the middle. Nearly all the way down you get something almost jazzy (and the one three note jazz-lick I can remember sounds pretty nice. I might smoke a Gitanes off the back of it.)

The thing that most impresses me about it, is that it has that sort of gritty undertone the original had that makes it quite distinct from other single coils (and it is definitely single coils I find myself comparing it to, not humbuckers) but it has the power of a humbucker too. Really quite special, has to be said.

I think it is hard to describe pickups without turning into a wine taster, but there is definitely a lot of different noises to be made, so I'm really rather chuffed as that is what you need in a single pup guitar, let's face it..

I should record something, but then it probably wouldn't do much more than amuse, so I probably won't. You'll just have to wait for Marc at Mojo to start selling these things proper-like, and find out for yourself. But if I was to treat myself to a new Fender, I'd definitely be knocking on the Mojo door for a set of these as they really nail the original tone. Bang on.

So in summary, The Tatty Adonis One, uber cool. Mojo's Wide Range Humbucker, truly excellent. I love my life.

La la Coool.

Cool As Funk

Mojo Wide Range Humbucker
Cool as Funk

Well, it's funny how the fates conspire. Sometimes even at the fade-out it seems that it goes horribly wrong.

I only popped out for ten minutes, I swear, and by the time I got back an hour later I'd missed four separate deliveries.

None of which I can collect until next week, and one of them quite definitely the Dirty Fingers pickup for The Tatty Adonis One..

So that is that stuffed, my last hope for a finisher for the holiday, gone for the sake of a loaf of medium sliced white, some Smarties Cookies and a bottle of pop.

Gutted.

Or rather I was until Marc at Mojo Pickups sent me this picture of the prototype Wide Range Humbucker he is sending me, and the Dirty Fingers were quickly forgotten as this is what my Tattiness most definitely needs.

So that should be here next week, fitted moments later (ahem) and clover thy name is Jooky's err, bed. Or something.

Cheered me right up, it did.

As for the paislification of The Kooky One, circumstances beyond my control meant that too is one for later next week. I can't help feel that there will be a glut of Jookies come May, and then I'll start mithering about having too many guitars again.

Speaking of which, it isn't a Les Paul, but I've seen a bit of an oddity on Ebay I may have to snap up, but we'll see how high it goes (hopefully not out of reach - a tee and a hee) as it looked rather cool in a functional, Gordon Smith on Steroids kinda way.

Never a good sign is it? Browsing around Ebay, looking for something to do...

La la laaaa

Getting Short With The World

Well, so much for a nocturn de soldering, should have known that was unlikely. but then if I wasn't able to convince myself of the unlikely, where would we be now?

I don't know in truth, but it might have been warmer.

Anyway, we're into the last day of the holibobs and it is looking more than likely that I won't finish anything at all. Which is annoying considering how close I am on a couple of them, but there we are.

The BDSM One is still god-knows-where-but-not-where-it-should-be according to UPS as well, which is all tres bugging. Remind me not to do the export thing again. The balance of payments is somebody else's problem from now on.

As soldering today is probably not going to happen (note the 'probably' - it is that spark of hope again, the one that kills me everytime), I'm going to start on the body of The Kooky One. The paisley is likely to be turned into a cuddly Judas if I don't do something with it soon.

In other news, I've got a little travel guitar coming this way next week. It is a Hofner Shorty, which looks fun. I don't think it will end-up Jookified (but who really ever knows..?) and I have half an eye on the brats being allowed to play it so that they don't come near my Jazzymistress anymore, but we'll see. It'll no doubt be defiled before too long, most things are after all. Might have to put a P90 in it though, as you do.

So in summary, I'm all a bit on the glum side of despondent island at the end of this fortnight, but next week, man am I going to be productive. It's going to be amazing, just you wait and see.

No really, I mean it, there will be so much stuff going on, well, your boggle will barely be able to mind it.

Just not today, it seems, oh well...
La la laaa

I Played a PRS, and I (gulp) Sort of Liked It

Well, everything else is ready but still no pickup to grace the tender spots of The Tatty Adonis One, so all I can do is pretend in front of the mirror on that score. No  doubt all good things will happen soon, but I was sooo close to putting the Gretsch pickup in today I could almost taste it.

In fact I would have, if it hadn't meant drilling a couple of holes in the scratchplate - not that I'm normally shy, but it would seem a waste if I'm taking it back out tomorrow. Still, there we are, such is life.

As for The Ronin One, I've got some hopes of a bit of late-nightally-nocturnal soldering on that score, which may or not happen. Though whether it is a wise thing, I'm not sure. Last time I left the iron on until the following lunchtime before I remembered it..

Hmmm.

Maybe I'll put it on a timer switch or something.

As for other bobbins, the usual waits all apply I guess, but I missed out on the grimly delish Les Paul I was half-hoping-half-dreading, so it is back to the drawing board on that one. Shame, but que cera.

I played the Gordo again today for a while, and couldn't remember why I wanted a Les Paul anyway...then I played a PRS SE Bernie Hardsden one, which is more of a Les Paul than most Les Pauls I've played, and it blew me away. Not that I'd get one, as I couldn't see myself as a PRS player. Even playing at home I'd have to wear shades. Beautiful guitar to play in the dark though, has to be said.

La la laa

Jooky Special Blend

Well, the blend pot and the rest arrived for The Ronin One yesterday, so as soon as I get a chance to fire up the soldering iron, and then another four attempts to get it right, we should be, finally, in business.

I truly have no idea how the aged Gibson Marauding pickups will sound - I did test them for workingness, but can't remember the numbers, but I have an idea they will be on the hot side of ouch.

Which should be fun. Given all the maple I'm expecting something bright so have gone for an appropriately unlikely capacitor to try and balance things. (Don't ask me what as I thought it thru, got the cap, then instantly forgot all the details. Including where I've put-it-safe).

But that is about it - nigh on ready to err, rock. I'm sadly most impressed by the blend knob chicken headed thing. It's the sort of thing that keeps me going, so don't laugh too much.

As for The Tatty Adonis One, we're all ready to go as soon as the pickups arrive... The DIrty Finger is in the postie's clutches, so you never know it might be this week sometime, but we'll see.

In other news, yesterday afternoon was spent helping my lass make herself a cuddly toy out of some offcuts of paisley fabric. Sewing isn't really my thing so it is held together by fabric glue, and is currently drying and awaiting a bit of a stuffing.

She wants to take it to her verily rather C-of-E school when she goes back, for a show 'n' tell type of thing, which should be interesting, it being her 'Cuddly Jesus Toy' and all.

Ah, I'm sure they will love it. (Do they expel kids at 5?)

Oh and I might have found a nice Les Paul project. Busted neck, but not the end of the world. (How did I get so cocky about such things?) and it looks truly horrible, everything I wouldn't want in a Les Paul, so that's perfect twice over as it will definitely keep me interested. More on that if it happens anywaysup and thanks for the pointer Sam.

I am coming to the conclusion that I enjoy the making more than the playing of guitars these days, or at least I spend a lot more time on that side of things. I am going to play more though (that goes down as a warning to anybody near-close, so no complaining I never mentioned it, eh?) and even learn some of those chord things before Christmas. I've just got a couple of things to sort out first...

La la laaa

Getting Tired of the Square of Pants

Well, waiting for the postie seems to be an obsession at the moment, and even The BDSM One is causing hassle as it seems to have got caught up in some sort of strike in Greece and is yet to reach it's new home.

Which is pretty annoying all around and I can't help but imagine it is already being strummed to entertain Shirley Valentines in some restaurant on a beach somewhere hot and sticky.

I don't get out much.

Fingers crossed it won't be too long though.

Otherwise I'm waiting for stuff again - a blend pot for The Ronin One, pickups for The Tatty Adonis One, opportunity for the others, which is tiringly tiresome, but can't be helped.

While trying to ignore Spongebob, Moshi Monsters, Minecraft and something I can't pronounce or begin to spell, I've been thinking about Les Pauls again, and am coming to the conclusion that I probably wouldn't be happy with an off-the-shelf one anyway, so I might as well look for a little project to do.

Preferably something old-ish and maybe Japanese and battered, broken and torn, I don't know. So if you know of some such thingy give me the nod and wink your tip in this direction. I'll just have to try and remember not to put 'Jooky' on it, so that I can keep it for once.

One thing I'm deliberately avoiding doing is putting sketches of possible guitar bodies up on here. I've done dozens now (hundreds in truth) and have got to the stage where I'm starting to like some of them, which is obviously either delusional or some sort of syndrome that'll be named by some callow youth yet to be born. I could put them here, but to be honest it is pointless until I can actually make them, so why bother you with my nursery level drawing skills? Exactly, no point at all.

I am itching to start on the chipping and chopping though, has to be said.

But for now, all there is to do is wait, and wait and wait...

Lu Li Leeee

Stoopid is...

Well, blimey. It err, seems as though I didn't need the pillar drill after all. Or the choppy-tubes-of-wood thing either, or the wood glue and filler and well, all the other things I have been waiting for. I didn't need them anyway, and could have sorted out The Ronin One weeks ago.

I didn't need them, as somehow - using my depths of ingeniusness - I managed to sort out the bridge, by changing the posts for others I already had and routing the holes in the bridge itself out a bit. (There may have been some plumbers tape, a small dog called Toto and a click of the heels too, but I wasn't watching that closely. No big hammers though, I've given them up for Lent.) And it all means that I didn't need to change the position of the holes at all. Though the posts are currently gold coloured, but that can change easily enough.

I don't feel silly, the relieved feeling is overpowering it.

As for the tuners, well, I had written off the originals, but a bit of TLC saw them working well, so I'm going to try them out and if they are OK go with them, as they look beautifully corroded and beatifically aged. And if they prove useless, I have replacements already, so no big deal. I am that calm.

So all-in-all, it is looking good. The one fly bathing in aqueous cream is that the blend pot I thought I had and would have listed as the one banker in my Ronin armory isn't so dependable - rather like a banker, in fact - and I didn't have one at all and have instead ordered a couple. They should now arrive tomorrow, now that I hav ordered them, that is.

So with a fair wind at me back, I may just be able to get it wired and then strung up this week.

Similarly, The Tatty Adonis One just awaits the first pickup to show it's face, so that could happen too. Dirty of Finger or Wide of Range, I really don't know, I'll leave it to the tender mercenaries of the postal service to decide for me.

Which is crazy cool, and I can't help but feel that I'm hoping like a Dingles fan for something frankly impossible.

Thinking of football, I have to say I'm a tad torn about Wolves' gastrointestinal implosion. On one hand, now that West Brom are pretty much safe, I can enjoy the wringing of six-fingered-hands from the direction of Wolverhampton and look forward to the grubby faces of the tear-stained brats on whatever day their final day proves to be final. I hope they get relegated at home as that is always good for a laff and more fun than seeing the couple of dozen away fans. And the outpouring of tears means that they all get a wash, which isn't a bad thing.

On the other donny, Terry Connor seems a decent bloke in an impossible sitch, and it never feels the same if we don't get to play them a couple of times over the season. Which we won't assuming we do stay up and they don't. Plus, I think staying in the Prem for a couple of years means it is actually harder to come straight back up from the Championship than if you do the yo-yo, so we may have to wait for us to be relegated next year before we play them again. And then we have the whole out-of-phase promotion/relegation thing going on again, which is irritating. Not that they ever manage to get promoted if we are in the same division of course which at least means they are stranded down there for a few years playing the Bluenoses with a bit of luck.

So overall, I can't quite bring myself to hope they stay up, but I wouldn't be too upset if they did. A win-win really.

As for the Villa, god, I hope they plummet. It is about time. They could play Forest and compare their European Cup collections, bless them.

(Yes, I can hear the cries of at-least-we've-won-it-and-you-ain't but to be honest it only confirms their status as has beens so I don't really care.

Right, that was the football, the weather is shonky so next week I'll move onto social comment.


La la laaa

A Bit of a Ronin Sore

Well, as we seem to be back in the land of 'ware de vapour at the moment, I thought I'd sort out in my bonce just what I'm doing with The Ronin One as my bonce is done in.

For those of you that have forgotten the tales of long ago woe, this is an old 70s or 80s Japanese copy of a Gibson Marauder and jolly nice it is too. It has a solid maple body - and man you know it, a guitar the word 'heft' was designed for - with a maple/rosewood neck that is quite lovely, complete with a pointed flying vee-esque headstock.

As with the original it is a bolt-on neck, not that that is much of a worry and it feels like something John Shaft would have swinging around his neck down Madame Jojo's, assuming he'd run out of go-go dancers and ladies of the night. He's a bad motha, after all.

Obviously that is just a starting point, as when I got hold of it, it was a sadly neglected body and neck combo of ill-repute and a lack of shoutable family values.

From there of course it has had a beautifully corroded copper finish inflicted upon it, along with a Gibson scratchplate, a pair of authentically cool and rather enormous looking 1978 stamped Gibson pickups, which will be wired with the usual volume and tone knobs and a more unusual blend pot instead of the three-way switch the plonked together foto is showing you. Some of the originals used a switch and others used a blender, and I think I'm probably doing it the wrong way around for this particular model, but what the hell. I've never tried a blend thingy before and this seems fitting somehow.

And it is a chance to use a Chicken Head Knob for the first time on a Jooky guitar.

And what geek can ever turn down a Chukkie Headed Knob, I ask you?

(Maybe somebody can ask that at the next Apple iExpo.)

Whatever. Rather handily the Gibson pickups and scratchplate all fit perfectly, which is more than I could claim for the harmonica bridge thing which basically doesn't, and has proven to be the Peter Crouch in the corps de dancers de limbo. Or something.

So what I need to do to fix this (having zero chance of finding a bridge that does actually fit - and believe me I have left no pebble unskittered searching for an easy way out,) is to plug the existing holes and drill new ones. Of course a pillar drill comes in handy for the latter, which I'm still waiting for, as you need the holes to be straight, let's face it and the chances of me managing to do that 'by eye' are reedy slim.

What I can do now, I've just realised, is cut out and fill the incumbent bridge post holes, that is the new plan d'hoof. I can also put some new tuners on and wire the scratchplate now I come to think about it...so that is the newly minted intention du jour, and if the drill ever materialises, I should be able to finish it off quick smart. And that is plain unlikely.

Blimey, I never thought I'd actually be doing something today. I've talked meself into it.

There is good reason for wanting to get this done, of course, I just forget what it is right now.

La la laa