Flattery...gets you, well, everywhere

Wow, I don't know if I should be flattered or if it is an amazing coincidence, but Friend-of-Jooky, Sean pointed out this Beanoified Strat on eBay earlier on....


Which I have to say looks nice to me.

If only I had the dosh to spare..

Here it is, and below is The Beano One Les Paul thing I made earlier...




We're taking over the world, us comic lovers, telling ya..

Next week, how to put the Dandy back into you Semi

Not So Glistery Anymore

A Pint And A Half Bleurgh

Well, I suppose it had to happen sooner or later or sometime, but I had a bit of a cock-up today, and managed to wreck a guitar.

I know a couple of people are vaguely interested in a detached and maybe out-the-corner-of-me-eye sort of way, but I haven't really done much with the Glistery One since I covered it with gold paint, a lot of glitter and then started to clearcoat it.

Plenty of clearcoat, don't get me wrong, but it hasn't made top of the pile, mainly because it is a bit of a basket case even by my lowly standards.

So, sat it has in the corner of the garage I call home, just waiting for me to - well - do something.

Anything.

And so, when I was giving The Beano One a final coat - just enough to protect without ever looking professional -  I thought I'd give the Glistery One a bit of a coat or three too.

It's only fair, it needs it, and well, no time like the present.

And so I did, and it looked wonderfilled and I felt good about meself, proper geezer I am, oh yeah, I can do that luthering son, no problem.

The Glistery One: Before It Was Drowned In Gold Top

Apart from the fact that I had made one small error
a teeny oversight
a bollock
ceremoniously
dropped
onto the
concrete.

Yep, what I hadn't realised was that the clearcoat I was using today, wasn't the same one I'd used before.

And they didn't exactly see eye-to-eye
Didn't really get-on, as it were.

And so my shiny, glittery mound of glisterdom suddenly
got
cloudy.
And very dull
lifeless and
rather
white looking.

In fact milky,
would describe it rather well.

Bloody awful would too.

So there we are
don't mix your varnish stuff kiddies
it never works out well.
Bit of sanding to do tomorrow, I think.

Heh ho

Chopping The Beano, And A Slight Mistake

So is Blue Peter the new Rock 'n' Roll?

It certainly feels like it around here - ahem - as I spent a chunk of yesterday chopping a 1966 copy of the Beano up and sticking it on my Les Paul...

It is good fun, as it happens, and proved to be a lot trickier than I thought it would be. All those afternoons of proven incompetence at school came back to me and I remembered why I went into areas that didn't require me to do anything truly practical once I started working.

Still, the back is nearly there now, and I have another '66 on the way to mutilate for the front.

There was only one real downside.

I somehow managed to chop up another Beano - an issue one, from 1938 - which I have a feeling may have been an expensive mistake.

Think I'll stick the masthead on the guitar somewhere now.
Be a shame to not use it, even if it does divert from the 'Spirit of '66' idea for the guitar.

If at this point you're thinking

'An issue one of The Beano is worth a shedload of money'

I'd really prefer not to know that, and have deliberately not checked.
So schtum, eh?

Anyway, more to do on that today I think.

As for the rest of the parts, I think I'm going to look for some nickel hardware for this, as that always looks the best when aged. I'm also going to get a tinted lacquer once the wallpapering is complete, as it really should look a bit older.
Heh ho.

The only hard bit really is stopping myself reading the guitar as I go along.

Back in '66, Reading The Beano

Well, now that The Psychedelic One is all together and sounding 'proper' as I was told by a friend last night, I've been thinking about what to do next, and with an apology to people who are still waiting for me to do a few amps or effects, I think it is going to be another of our Leona's Groovy Guitars.

So far, of course, things have been very Fenderified, but I've had a wee idea for something more Les Paul-like, and that is now the plan.

I'm not sure if I said, but I picked-up a Les Paul copy recently - unbound, so more like a Studio than a Standard, and it played really nicely. Solid mahogany body and neck, with a rosey-old-fretboard.

Pickups and electronics were fine, but I think we can find better, and the same with the tuners and hardware, as they are all a funny silver colour which matched the guitar.

Anyway, I've snaffled a couple of old Tokai PAFs and also a couple of Gibson 'buckers too, so that is covered, and as the rest of the stuff shouldn't be too difficult to find, it sounds like we're in business.

As to the Big Idea - this week, anyway - what I want to do is some kind of tribute to the British Blues thingie of the 60's- Clapton with Mayall, Peter Green, Alexis Corner and of course the Stones, if I'm stretching a point.

How to do this?
Well, I mentioned before that I am not the biggest Clapton fan, but the Bluesbreakers 'Beano' album was one I've grown to love, and if that isn't a sign, well I don't know what is.

The idea then, is to cover a Les Paul with a genuine 1966 copy of the Beano, wire it to that Peter Green sound we all wish we had accidentally come across ourselves, and generally make a bit of a loud, raw sounding git of a guitar.

This might take a while - although I got a '66 Beano and will probably need another one- but I'll keep you posted.

As for other things, The Glistery One is missing parts at the moment - the paint is done, but I am a bit perplexed about pickups and hardware. Also I really want to do something odd and off-the-wall with that one, so time will tell.