Inept promotional Strategy Part 760 1/2

I've just about finished the Glistery One, and despite everything I've said before it really plays well, even with the neck being a touch of a challenge to string bend on.

(I don't mean that because it is detached as in the foto - more because of the glitter on the fingerboard. Keep up, eh?)

I'm pleased about this one, because as I mentioned before it is entirely made of other people's chuckaways. But what to do with it?

Well, I could sell it, but I covered that one before, so I'm thinking that in the spirit of such things, maybe I should give it away.

More on that soon then,
lets do just that
have a bit of a competition,
set the juices a-pace.

Fed-up Being Boring

OK, the weekend is upon us, so rather than plan to watch some football or tidy the garden, or maybe even just sleep it away - never really an option around here - I thought I'd try and get a bit of Jooky stuff done.

Firstly, the Glistery One needs finishing - Check.

Secondly, The Beano One needs a tweak or three. Check.

Thirdly, a rather nice Strat has come into my possesion, despite it meant to be somebody else's - and that has possibilities. Check.

That should  be enough to keep me busy.

Next week though, I'm changing tack a wee bit as I've got a couple of Cigar Boxes I've been meaning to turn into three string sliders, and it is probably time to add them to the Jooky roll-call.

Have a good 'un yourself..

You Just Can't Explain Art, Sugar

I had an email earlier on from a chap called Colin - this really is tunring into Points of View, which makes me Barry Took, sheesh - asking why I said that the Glistery One summed-up what Jooky is all about, and that it wouldn't be for sale because of that.

Which was a fair question, and I figured I should explain.

I've said before that the idea behind all of this is to have fun making some guitars, amps or pedals from other bits of stuff that other people no longer want.

Sometimes I have to stretch this, if I am ever to finish a guitar for instance, but generally I do try my best to keep the bits coming from either people giving them away, or stuff I can pick-up second hand.

Anyway, in the case of all of the guitars so far, I've had to compromise a wee bit and buy a few bits new. That's OK, second hand wire and things is perhaps not a good plan anyway, and if I decide to flog something I've made, I want it to stack up. I say to everybody that I'll fix any problems, so it would be daft not to.

As for the Glistery One, well that is entirely made of second hand bobbins. The body and neck came from Freecycle, the bridge and tuners were thrown in with something I bought somewhere, the gold paint was left over from something else, the glitter I nicked from my kids' craft box and the pickups were in a body I picked up somewhere else. So basically, other than the strings and the solder, everything else is 'donor', and all the cooler for that.

Why not sell it then? Well, basically, the body and neck and especially the fingerboard aren't exactly top notch. I don't even know what they were from originally, and this hasn't been the case with the other guitars. It is heavy, but not a single piece of mahogany. The fretboard is covered with glitter and paint, which believe me doesn't make it amazingly playable,but is an improvement on the original.



So basically, I'm chuffed to have made something from nothing, but I wouldn't feel right selling it, as it isn't good enough to be sold, I don't think.

I wouldn't want that guitar to be the first 'Jooky' guitar you see in the wood, and that is as simple as it gets.

It sounds crazy mind you, just maybe it is more on the art side of things than in the realm of the 'player'.

I'll put more about it soon anyway, and I don't know if you really want it, maybe I'll swap you something instead...

I am a corporate whore, after all.

Dust Biting

Well, another one gone - as the Pretty In Pimp one was bought by somebody just down the road - and so once again we have nothing to sell in this Emporium of ours.

No matter, the journey is the key and all that. Destinations are no fun at all.

So next, of course, I am hoping to finish the Beano One. Still waiting for a pickup to show up for that, and starting to wonder whether I should look for an alternative..but there we are.

The Glistery One is pretty done, just needs to be wired up and we are there.
 Not that I see that one ever being available to buy.
It kinda sums up Jooky in a way,
and I figure that maybe I should keep it.

Time will tell though...

After that?

Well, guitars are still grabbing me at the moment and I fancy doing a Strat type with a twist next.
A single humbucker or maybe another P90 would be nice - I am addicted.

Something cool, groovy, trippy or whatever.

Oh Dear..

Well, I'm sorry to say that I seem to have upset the sensibilities of some of the members of the Telecaster club with my Pretty In Pimp One, and apparently

"They have to figure out a way to stop these retards getting hold of guitars."

 "This guy has a blog as well. He is clearly has a screw loose. It seems there are lots of nut jobs in the guitar world."

"We should all pitch in and buy it just so we can burn it."

and my personal fave:

"Guys with bad taste making guitars for guys with bad taste. I guess even guys with bad
taste need guitars. Most cynical guitar and cynical guitar site ever. But if a buzzard
had an upset stomach all over a guitar, I suppose someone would buy it."

Which is shame, if rather funny. There are a couple of people who get the whole idea, but there we are.

All of which means it is probably a good job that The Glistery One is based on a knackered old Strat clone - unless the loyalty goes as far as all Fenders, I don't know.

Anyway, I've refinished the top after my milky lacquer cock-up, and I think it looks better now...

Better stay away from the acolytes of the Strats forums for a while, mind you.

I do like the idea of a guitar burning though, but perhaps I should check to see whether the Velvet cloth covering The Pretty In Pimp One has a Kite Mark first.

I'd hate it all to get toxic.

A Bit of Glister

No fotos I'm afraid as it is drying in a dark place, but I'm rather chuffed with myself as I re-did the finish on the Glistery One, and man it is super glittery now, and has a coat of many a colour or six.


As I said before, it is probably the most Jooky thing I've done to date, and I'm really not sure how it will turn out in terms of playability as the fretboard is covered in paint and glitter, but I've got a couple of lovely Tokai PAF pickups that came out of a Japanese Les Paul clone, and it should work nicely on the sound front if nothing else.

Heh ho

I'll resist the urge to place a Gary Glitter video here just about now, and go play with my Girls' World instead.

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

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.

Mr Postie

I'm not sure about yours, but we've got a new postie and amazingly - after a decade of it not being the case - things seem to turn up a lot quicker.

Don't know why that is.

Apart from the fact that the old one may have been a thieving get.

Anyway, some pickups I'd 'sourced' for the Psychedelic Surf One have shown up along with all the other leccy gubbins from Axetec who as ever are utterly predictable and excellent.

Which is handy as tomorrow morning I'm going to put it all together,
hopefully.

I even went for a Sprague Orange Drop capacitor - without knowing what the difference is meant to be. I mean, I'm sure it will prove to be amazing, but like Bumble Bees, I can smell a bit of marketing in the air.

Saying that, I also went for a good, solid, Les Paul type of switch and a Neutrik jack socket and generally top notch parts all over the place. The difference between cheap and good is so small it seems daft not to, even if the real difference in performance may prove to be negligible.

Oh, the pickups I got are IronGear P90s - the full sized ones - Platinum I think they are called.
Everybody raves about IronGear, so it will be nice to find out how good they are myself. If they prove to be shonky I will no doubt start looking for something else, but fingers crissed, eh?

Speaking of the post, I also got some Tokai PAF pickups which will find their way into a Les Paul project I'm hoping to start soon, though I'll probably try them in something else first - The Glistery One for instance - to see how they go.

Anyway, I'm verily boring today, but there will be more fotos tomorrow with a tad of the lucky stuff.

The Glistery Shadow of Psychedelic Surfing

Well, I haven't written too much recently, but the last day or so has almost been feverish,
by the standards of Jookyland.

First up, we've got the glitter covered one, which although a bit of a basket case, is growing on me.

It is the kind of thing that would make your average luthier practice pogo-ing on high, crumblyledges, and I won't know until I put it together how the neck will go,
as in whether it will be playable or not,
but I do actually like the look of it.

Especially the tiger stripe lacquer runs on the back of the neck.

This is to be known as The Glistery One from now on, assuming it works out.

Backing away from that particular teetering edge, I've set-off head-long into another bit of psychedelia, with a tribute to the Surf guitarists of yore. I'm going for a bit of a two tone cloth effect this time, which I hope will look appropriately way-out-there-man.

We shall see. It should end-up being known as The Psychedelic Surf One, though as you probably realise I will no doubt change my mind three dozen times before we finish.

It is always the way.




The fotos are The Glistery One, of course, though a bit of Black Francis and the boys is purely my kind of surfin'

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