Challenging Times

Well, no sooner had I jumped at the 2010 £100 guitar challenge thing, and started a-scheming-and-a-planning, some bright spark decided to issue a 'Made it yourself' challenge, which entails building a wee Cigar Box Guitar or Diddly Bow or something.

Naturally, I bounded in double-clogged.

La la laaaa

Filthy Stuff, no strings attached

Well, in yet another last minute change-of-mind, for which I'm becoming somewhat known and in-fame, when I came to wire up The Paisley One, I decided that rather than go with the previous forty-seven ideas, what I really wanted was one of our Sophie's Filthy Boots Fuzzy things available on-tap.

And so that is what is happening,
I've changed the switch to a different type,
Sophie is in her little England Glory matchbox, and
the tone knob is now going to be a control for the fuzz -
so it won't mean a thing when the switch ain't got that swing -
doowap, doowap dooo-wap.

As for actually finishing this guitar that has become a bit of an odyssey or perhaps an Iliad,
that should be done today.
Wired-up and ready to go.

Just one problem
I've realised
I forgot
to buy
any
strings
so I
might
have to
pop-on
and out.

la la la

p.s. The Foto of Sophie Ellis Bextor has nothing to do with the Sophie of the Filthy Boots, clearly. I just thought it made a change to see a model with some flesh on her. She is my new heroine.

Limping toward the retreating line

Well, the Paisley One is so close now, but still I can't seem to kill it off.
It's starting to annoy me now, to be honest, but so many other things seem to get in the way.
Bleurghh.

Yesterday, however, I did manage to assemble everything minus the electronic bobbins, and it now stands proud with a neck, tremolo/bridge and block thing with springs in between.

It also has a backplate - black which looks boring and might have to be covered - and at the top of the shop the chrome tuners and string trees that came with the neck in the first place.

So basically, the electronics I still haven't sorted out are becoming a 'must'.

But I can't do them until tomorrow afternoon
which bugs me
lots.

On a more cheery note, it looks like there is to be a £100 guitar build challenge again this year,  over on the Music Radar forums. The idea of this is that you basically build a guitar - or update one - for a ton or less.

All the parts and everything apart from labour and postage to be counted or estimated.

Which sounds like fun and as it has to be completed within a month - assuming that the rules are the same as last time - it might put a rocket up me to get going and finish everything else first.

The trouble is, I'm off thinking about that now,
not the Paisley One,
Sophie's Filthy Boots,
or my dearies,
Cheryl and
Amy.

Despite all my promises of focus and dedication
to the cores.

*sigh*

No Logo

I was wondering, the other day, why I never get comments on this blog, but do get emails from people. Then I realised I hadn't switched the comments on, so sorry about that. I would love to hear what people think about all of this bobbins, good, bad or WTF. So let me know if there is anything on your mind, as it were.

What reminded me of this, is that I got an email yesterday from Christ in New York, asking why I don't have a neato logo on everything, as it would help with the branding, which you have to say is a fair point. And as it happens, I've, in the past, spent many a long boring meeting on logos and brand values, trying to enhance offerings and generally milk them babies.

And I  have even tried my best to create such a thing with a little company I loved and lost once-upon-a-time. So brands, I am aware of, and I guess by calling this 'The Jooky Guitar Emporium' and not just 'Stuff I make' I am in a way trying to give it an identity, which is like a brand really. A name.

But logos? Well, to be honest that isn't what this is all about. And marketing spin? Not my cuppa tea this time around either.

And will I be sending Guitarist magazine review 'copies?'

I doubt it somehow, as even if I did and they reviewed it and liked it and wrote nice things, and loads of guitarists all over the place thought

'I know, I'd like a Jooky little amplifier or a pair of Sophie's Dirty Boots'

and showed-up looking to buy such delights from this Emporium.
Even if they did that, they would all just end-up shrugging shoulders and wondering where all the products are. They would never get to do that guitarist forum thing where somebody says

'I got a Jooky pedal, it's soooo very coooool'
and somebody else would say

'Oh, I was going to get one of those'
and then somebody else would say

'Oh, the other guitarist in my band got one, but he thought it was a one-trick-pony',
and then maybe someone else - you know the guy, the self-appointed expert - well, this someone else guy would say

'But isn't that like the pedal Chapman made as a prototype before he concentrated on his stick, and buried in his garden unheard by any living person as he was embarrassed as he couldn't get it to work but not before sketching out a schematic on the back of a fag packet which he left lay around and I saw on display in a glass cabinet guarded by elves in the cellar of the music shop around the back of my school in Abersychan. Jooky just nicked it from there.'
and then somebody else would say

'Yeah, I heard that'
and then everybody would join in and it would be,
like,
hell.

And basically, I don't want that sort of hassle.

So the way I see it is that I'll make things that I like.
One at a time and all just because I like them or the idea.

Once I've made them, I'll write on them, in me bestest paw
so you can tell where they came from
with a number and
everything.

I generally will use a marker pen, like a Sharpie or something.
Or like on the Paisley One here, I might burn it on.
Depends how I feel, really.
I'm just along for the ride
like a leaf in a stream.

Think I need more sleep.

p.s. I meant to mention, that if you are rather attached to logos on your guitars - and looking around eBay you can spend a lot of money buying one - HERE is a nice way to do it on the cheap, if you are looking for a Fender logo anyway. I tried water slide decals on my guitar build, and they are dead easy to use.

p.p.s. If you arrived at this page by searching for milk them babies you are at the wrong web site and probably need help.

Meandering like a butterfly. Achieving like a cuppa tea

If you are one of the - amazing number of - folks who have been reading this blog regularly, it won't come as a surprise to hear that I get side-tracked easily. Not that it really matters, as Jooky was never meant to be a profit-centre or money-generating-entity, or anything other than a measure of fun really, but some people do wonder what the point is.

In fact, I'm not sure myself. We sold The Snake Hipped One yesterday, and to be honest it came as a shock that we were selling anything at all when the email arrived, as I'd totally gone off on a tangent with The Paisley One.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm pleased we did sell it - it gives all of this a point - and I hope they enjoy it. I'd forgotten how much fun the amps are until I, err, tested it last night for half an hour.

And that did make me think. It made me think that I should make more things, well, finish more things as they are fun to use and it is nice for other people to have a go with them as well.

So I'm going to be a bit more organised and instead of going in twelve directions at once, I'm going to make the effort and set myself a little rule that we have at least one of each of our 'products' - I hate that word - in 'stock' - yeurch - at all times, and if somebody happens to buy one, then I'll make another of the same kind of thing.

So there we are, my big plan part 77.8:

1. Finish the Paisley One and put some strings on it
2. Make a Sophie's effect of some type. I'm thinking a golden shag tin
3. Build a Cheryl-tone Amp, maybe with a painted box
4. Create another Amy-tone Amp.

After that, I can get on with playing I reckon.
And start to dismantle the Telecaster I've just acquired, 
I'm thinking flock wallpaper
or gold lame
or maybe
just
m
a
y
b
e
.
.
.

p.s. The Shakey Spear One is still up for grabs HERE for the next few hours anyway.

Decisions, decisionless

Well, the little Paisley One is pretty much there body-wise now, and it has come down to a couple of decisions before I put it all together. Starting with the trivial, it is a case of whether I go for a cream coloured pickup cover, or a black one. I've got both, just can't make my mind up...

The second little problem, which to be honest will dictate the pickup cover vexedness, is whether to go for a plain black pickguard instead of the paisley one. Again, I guess it doesn't really matter too much, but I can't get my head around whether the one-hundred-per-cent-paisley approach is a bit much, and a little less could be a lot more effective.

On a more interesting level, I'm finally about to sort out the leccyness, and thinking that perhaps the sustainer idea is one for another day, as I'd rather get this working without six months R&D. So, the plan is to utilise the cunning teeny sliding switch I've put onto the scratchplate, and offer a choice of the basic P90 or the mayhem of an octaving fuzz thing. Whether that will be my own variation, or for easiness/laziness I use the Tonepad Green Ringer one, I'm not sure. Mine sounds a bit brighter, but the other sustains a little better, so I'm not clear which I prefer..

One other thing, is the tone knob. I wasn't going to bother with one, but I've cut the hole now so I might as well. I'm thinking this will either be a variatone idea or maybe I'll have it as a blend and include a piezo pickup under the hood... unless I go for a boringly normal tone knob.

Decisions, decisionless.

The fotos are a chuck together, by the way, to see how it looks before I really nail it good and proper-like.

It's In My Brain

Well, managed to do a bit more cutting and pasting, and The Paisley One - to give it it's formal title - is looking a bit more likely to succeed.

Hopefully, you'll be able to see in the fotos that all of the creamy colour has now been paisley-fied, apart from the cavities, and generally it is starting to look the part.

There is still a wee bit of work to be done, as it is a bit untidy here and over there, and we've got to get into the sanding and clear coating cycle for a while, but generally it is rough enough for my tastes yet looking solid enough to survive.

The neck too, mustn't forget that. I've resisted the urge to go Bisto-like, and so it has ended-up nicely honeyed rather than daytime-telly. I also had some gold tuners, which are on in the foto, but as all of the rest of the hardware is chrome, may not be for long.

Going forward, I'm going to wire it basically and fit it together once a few bits show up, and then decide what to do about the electronics for real.

That is the interesting part, of course. I'm kind of torn between using the octaver/fuzz I've been playing with, putting a Sophie's Fuzz in or trying to build a little sustainer, like the Fernandes or Sustainiac ones.

One step at a time though, getting it to play in tune will no doubt be the first step...

Making holes & a Bit More Paisley

Not too much time today for Jooky-stuff, but I did manage a couple of jobs before real life took over..

Firstly, I finally put those there chisels I got from Homebase to good use, and 'routed' out a bit more space so that the P90 pickup will fit in. I also made more room generally at the front as to be honest I am still not entirely sure what sort of electronic gubbins I will be including in there, or more to the point, how much room it will take.

Once the chiselling desisted, it was nice to be able to at least place the pickup and scratchplate onto the guitar. It either looks nice, or horrendous, depending on your view of such things, though more 'real' if nothing else, all would have to agree.

Anyway, it was good to move on that bit.

Next, I got down to the real business of the day, and following the procedure I described yesterday, managed to stick some lovely paisley stuff onto the back of the guitar. This still needs a couple more coats of the Podge, and the usual sanding and clear coating, but man the shape - it looks like a guitar...which feels good after all this time.

If I get the chance later to put the front on, I'll let you know.

As for how easy it was to do, well lets just say the flat and the big curves were fine, but the neck end was a 'mare and I've decided that there will probably be a bit of patchwork going on to make it all nice and neat.

No matter anyway, though If I ever do this again I think I'll either got for a nice flat Tele, or go the Fender route and only apply it on the front, painting the edges and bursting around the design. That would be a load easier, but there we are. I'd worked that out up front to be honest, I was only ever being awkward.

DIY Groovy Scratchplates & Fake Tan For Your Neck

Well, I wanted to get on with the Purple Paze this weekend, but realised that the 'chiseling' part of removing wood from the guitar to fit the pickup in needed a chisel, which I didn't have. Which slowed me down a wee bit, but meant I could concentrate on a different bit instead.

Two jobs then, and the first is easiest dealt with... When I got the neck for this guitar, it had - has - a lovely feel to it, but I have to say I thought it looked a bit insipid and pale. What I decided to do then was to give it a bit of a fake tan, so first job of the day was to break out the trusty tin of Danish Oil I used on the neck of my Cigar Box Guitar, and try and warm it up a wee bit. As I write this there are a couple more coats to go, but so far so good.

The second one was more of a trial, but seems to have turned out beautifully, and is a nice 'proof of concept' for the main guitar body. As I couldn't go ahead and start covering the guitar body with my Paisley cloth, I thought instead I'd try it on the scratchplate - see how it worked.

The truth of the matter is that I'm not sure whether I will use this scratchplate anyway, as design-wise I'm figuring a plain black one will look more effective against the background ocean of Paisley, but you never know, and nothing lost whether it works out OK or not.

How to do it though, was pretty easy.

First off, I traced an outline of the scratchplate onto the back of the cloth and cut an inch or so around that, so that when I lay it on the scratchplate it flopped over the edges.

Second, I came over all Martha Stewart - God, that would be aw-fful *- and used a product called Mod Podge to glue the cloth onto the plate. I covered the back of cloth and the surface of the plate and then stuck it together. It's not hard.

Third, to make it nice and smooth and bubble free I used an old debit card to spread the cloth out. The only pain was  because there are the three pickup holes cut already, the cloth naturally dips into them. One will be cut out, but the other two are a pain. Hence the thought that a new custom cut scratchplate might be the final solution.

Fourth, I let the scratchplate dry for twenty minutes, and had a cuppa. Hard work all this, I ain't kidding you.

Fifth, is the good bit and what will either make this whole cloth covered guitar idea work or not. The clever thing with this Mod Podge is that it isn't just a glue. Nope, it will also act as a 'grain filler' and sealant, and so the next step is to literally paint it over the top of the scratchplate.

This will fill the teeny little holes in the cloth, and eventually make it hard and smooth, and to be honest putting it on is a dream. Painting it pretty thickly, it is just a case of leaving it twenty minutes to dry for each coat - it goes on white and ends up transparent, so you can tell when it is 'done' - repeating the process five or six times. At the end of that, the material is like pliable plastic, and slightly rough to the touch, with a nice gloss sheen to it. There is a matte version too, as well as some others. Cool, to be honest.

Sixth, once that was dry, I used a Stanley knife to trim the excess cloth off from around plate, and it looks excellent and feels very hard wearing. The finishing touch today will be to smooth it down with some wet and dry, and seal the whole shebang with  couple of coats of clear coat, which I have left over from the guitar build. It doesn't actually look like it needs the clear coat, but Mod Podge can get a bit sticky apparently, and that is meant to cure the problem.

And that is that, and exactly what I plan to do on the guitar body. I have to say, I was leaping into the night a wee bit with this whole thing, and I am surprised how well it worked on the scratchplate. Better than I had hoped in truth. I still have to cut out the hole for the pickup, you may have noticed, but I figured I'd do that once I know exactly where it will sit in relation to the scratchplate. It would be grim for things not to line-up, and all that.

It does set me thinking about scratchplates generally though as it is an easy way to update your own with any design you like on the cheap. The Mod Podge cost £3.49 and the cloth was pennies, but it will stick paper as well as cloth and the scope for that is endless.

Other than that, I went and bought some chisels - set of five from Homebase for £3.59 - so I'm going to have a go at routing it out today, and maybe do a bit more cloth sticking for real.

* Copyright Rob Newman, sometime late in the 1980s 

Relics are such an odd idea

I have to say, I don't really understand the whole relic thing, when it comes to guitars, especially when it comes to paying somebody thousands of pounds to smash up an expensive guitar for you.

Don't get me wrong, I would love an old Strat or Tele, a real one, just to see how different they are and how age has changed the wood and all that.

But paying a custom shop to build one for me just seems odd.
Call me the-son-of-a-war-baby, but if I'm going to spend thousands on a guitar,
I want a bloody new one.

So I find the whole idea strange, though in moments of self-awareness perhaps not that different to me making things out of really old tins and boxes - I've got a beautiful 1890s tin I'm going to turn into a multi-fx, by the way, but I digress.

So to be honest, apart from the Vintage Lemondrop, I never saw myself as interested in a relic or ever likely to buy one, or even have a go at making one.

The Lemondrop I would buy despite it being 'distressed' as it sounds amazing...

Well, until I came across this little site, The Relic Guitar Studio no less, where it really made a bit more sense. You see what I have realised is that most of the relics I have seen have basically been battered in a ham-fisted kind of way, and don't really look old as such.

Just knackered.

I mean, I bought a Jazzmaster in '89, and it has since been played a lot, I used it for gigs and it has generally been left in a gig bag or on a stand since. I'm not somebody that wraps anything in cotton wool. Over twenty years then it has been knocked over, dropped down stairs, got kicked off a stage, and being at the tender mercies of two dribbling babies who now aren't so small.

All in all then, it has lived a bit and has a few scars, dints and knocks to prove it. What it hasn't got is a back that looks like it has been attacked with a radial sander, or 'comfort curves' to match. The colour has changed from white to a sort of dirty cream, and I think the neck is probably a bit more yellowed than it used to be, but generally, in a foto it still looks pretty good, and not so bad in person. It's lasted better than I have.

Now, bearing in mind that at no point in history would you say that your average Tele or Strat was a throwaway kind of purchase for your average musician, why is it that people think that these guitars would all of been absolutely battered for the intervening forty or fifty years? Wear and tear, that I can understand, and wanting a guitar that plays and looks like it has been around for a while, again, I can understand. Most people buy jeans that have been pre-washed after all.

But the site I mentioned has changed my mind about whether relics can really look the part or not, as looking through their guitar bodies and necks, they just look, well, old.

Old and well used, like real guitars.

And the marks where it looks as though a scratchplate has been removed, looks like my Jazzmaster when I take off the scratchplate, and the colours of the paint are perfect, and the way paint ages is just right and shows an amazing attention to detail. And that is it - an attention to detail that means the end product simply looks perfect.

And despite vowing never to buy a guitar again, I might just have to bend a little and buy some pre-aged -I can't bring myself to say relic - parts and make my own authentic looking guitar.

And most of all they do a Hendrix Monterey Strat, which is lovely, and beloved and would look dead handsome and a bit more lovely in my arms.

And if I had the money I would click on the 'Buy Me Now' button right-now-this-moment.

But I don't,
so maybe I will have to try and make my own after all
or save up some pennies
or sell a kidney
or three
on ebay.

*sigh*

Back to the Purple Paze

The Relic Guitar Studio is HERE

If anybody wants to buy me a Monterey Strat, CLICK HERE

New Year Bobbins

Well, now that we're well and truly into the New Year I figured that maybe I should start to do something about the Purple Paze, my cloth-eared P90 Strat thingie.

As I said before, I think I've got all of the pieces, but am a little bemused about how to chop chunks of wood out of it so that the pickup will fit in.

The plan then:

Firstly, I've marked where I want the wood removed.

Secondly, I'm going to take a chisel to it (although I have been offered the loan of a router, but not having used one before it might be something I leave for another day.)

Thirdly, I'm going to cut a hole in the dodgy old, flipped over scratchplate, again so the P90 will fit.

Fourthly, I'm going to have a go at covering the scratchplate with the paisley cloth. I figured, it would be good to try it on there before I brave the body itself.

Its a start anyway...

Other than the Paze, I'll probably spend most of this week actually trying to play something on a guitar, as those fine people at Guitar Tools have somehow managed to put over 160,000 guitar tabs up and on their web site. Just about everybody you can think of is represented on there, and it looks likely to expand as time goes on...

They were still tuning the server last time I looked, but well worth a visit if you want to fulfill your life and nail that elusive guitar solo in George Michael's 'Faith...'

La la la
Happy Noo Year

More Porn

I know I'm in danger of turning this into some sort of XXX Cigar Box Guitar Porn site, but I err, just 'came across' this picture of an Oil Can Guitar made by Chicken Bone John, who I previously showed playing some excellent slide HERE.

(This blog isn't just thrown together,
apart from when it is.)

Which is a nice way of introducing the fact that the article on my first Cigar Box Guitar build, is now up and available to be poured over by scholars and acolytes alike, on the Guitar Tools Web Site.

An article that describes the fact that my CBG was not quite as nearly lovely as the Chicken man's.

You can read all about it HERE at DIY Dunce

Chicken Bone John's web site, full of his amazing looking and sounding creations is HERE

DIY Dunce

It might seem odd, the fact that we have this Jooky place, making and (finally) selling some quite luverly amps and soon-to-be-seen effects and maybe not-quite-so-soon-to-be-seen-but-soon-enough, some handmade guitars, whilst at the same time I'm writing about how useless I am at DIY over on the quite excellent Guitar Tools web site.

It might seem weird, but there we are, the fact that Jooky is (to my mind) such a cool thing is only enhanced because when it comes to DIY I am indeed a technical cripple.

Jooky is cool despite me.
I can live with that.

Anyway, I haven't talked about the DIY Dunce column before so I thought I'd point you at it.

At the moment, it has a description of how I was guided thru the build of a guitar kit by my much-better-at-this-than-me six-year-old son, and in the New Year there should be new features on building a Cigar Box Guitar and some effects pedals, and who knows what else.

So have a look why don't you, it is OVER HERE.

Nowt New Under The Sun

It's funny, trying to come up with some designs for new guitar effects as basically (and I am thinking fuzz in the main here) there are so many variations already out there, that how you could possibly know that the 'great new fuzz sound' you've come-up with hasn't already been created elsewhere is beyond me?

Given a world with an infinite number of guitar monkeys with soldering irons, they can't all be writing Hamlet, if you see what I mean.

And having given this some thought, basically, I can't see that it matters. Sound and tone are personal (and like colour I'm still not convinced we all hear or see the same thing anyway) and taste more so.

What perhaps does matter more is how you create the sound and the way circuits are put together, the components used. There are two schools on the components which come down to one question, to use 'original' Germanium transistors or not. Other than that, 99% of components in a fuzz are hardly that interesting.

So yay or nay? Again, I don't think it matters too much, another matter of taste, but the Germaniums do seem to sound different, like valve amps versus solid state. Myself, well so far I've not used them, but I'm going to give them a go this week, so we will see.

On the circuits, again I can't imagine anybody these days is coming up with anything fuzzy that is truly original unless they are adding features or tighter tone controls or hotter boosters, but even then it is just tinkering and the law of diminishing returns will surely cut in. The basic fuzz circuit won't change too much. And these days it is so easy to find so many circuits out there. There are loads of web sites with schematics and layouts that you can use easily enough and try. Many of them (most of them) are clones of 'famous' pedals,and in some cases the only way to get your hands on one without flogging a limb, but there are a few scattered around that claim to be original. All of which is why I've deliberately not claimed our Sophie's Filthy Boots to be anything other than my interpretation of what a fuzz should be. My tuppence, as it were. I'm sure somebody, somewhere will have produced the same sound using the same components in a similar layout, but there we are. (Some dizzy whore, 1800 & 4)

It is funny though (and what prompted this Boxing Day whimsy) but I was reading somewhere about a fuzz some bloke had built, where the board layout was posted. He was claiming it as an original (as we know a dangerous game, I think) when even I could recognise it as a straight lift from one of the more obvious schematic sites. The really funny thing was that his schematic had been laid out using the rather brilliant DIY Layout Creator software, and the one that may have, err, influenced him is in that piece of software's own library of layouts.

Now, to be fair it may be a coincidence, as I have said about monkeys above, and in general terms I think anybody playing with building effects will do as I have and spend a lot of time looking at other people's work and trying to understand how they work, and maybe how you can improve them before coming up with your own variation, but even so it made me smile to read the bluster.

Learning Bottleneck Slide - With Keni Lee Burgess

I think I said earlier that I've been getting more and more into playing Cigar Box Guitars, and especially playing slide.

I've also no doubt mentioned that I'm not that good.

Good fun
Less good sound.

Anyway, as I'm not one to pass up a snog with a passing gift horse, I was well chuffed to get a pre-Christmas package in the post from the American busker and music teacher Keni Lee Burgess containing his video CD.

It was only ordered four days previously from the US of A, which is quicker than anything I've ordered in the UK recently, so fair play to him.

Anyway, I haven't got too far yet but I thought I'd give it a mention as what I have looked at is excellent and the man himself is quite a teacher. Not too technical (for us luddite divs) and yet covering everything you really want to know - like how to play some really good blues, and why it was really good in the first place.

I'll write a proper review sometime, but first impressions are very promising and good enough for me to recommend.

You can find out more about Keni HERE
You can buy your own copy HERE for about Ten quid delivered to the UK, and you really should.
Watch some of Keni's lessons and playing on YouTube HERE

Tinking About Tins

Obviously, we’re always looking for interesting tins and boxes to be used as amps or effects or whatever, and so when a ‘job lot’ comes up on eBay, I tend to get interested.

One such selection showed-up today, and very nice it is too as I’m sure I’ll show you in the coming months, though one of the boxes that stood out has left me with a wee dilemma.

Basically it is an old (pre-meter) tin that the electricity boards used to give out to people so that they could save up enough money to pay their bills. Shaped like a little bible, it is made of tin and covered with vinyl. Even the sides are finished to look like the collected pages of the ‘book’ and there is a slot for coins and a hole that will take a rolled-up note, which was probably optimistic, I would imagine. This one was issued by the Yorkshire Electricity Board for Area 4, wherever that is.

All in all, a beautiful thing and very interesting, and if something I would happily turn into an amp or effect, or maybe keep as a moneybox.

But that isn’t the dilemma. Where my problem starts and end is with how I manage to open it. You see it has a keyhole, but no key, and I’m not sure whether the leccy man would have held it, or whether it was something the customer would keep.

Interesting though, so any information or advice gratefully received.
Just call me Arthur Negus.
La la la.

DIY Pedal Kits - One For The Builders

Looking at our web stats, I notice that we seem to get quite a few people looking for DIY pedal kits, which we don't actually make or sell.

Obviously there are plenty of people such as BYOC and Tonepad who will supply your needs, but I must admit, being in the UK this can be a bit time-consuming and expensive and when kits start to get more expensive than buying a pedal that they are cloning, it can be a bit of a leap of faith and also not a little off putting, especially if it is a first attempt at building an effect for yourself.

Anyway, a while back I bought a fuzz kit from a fella on the Music Radar forums, and it was excellent. I was getting into my DIY trip and it taught me a lot, and I have to say the bloke in question was cool in not sniggering when I asked some quite stupid questions. The pedal sounded brilliant as well, and I've since noticed that everybody else on said forum who had gone for a kit was raving about them too (though like me, most were relieved that he was willing to put himself out on the Q&A front.) As it happens I've written something about the whole pedal build thing for the GuitarTools site, which will hopefully be up early in the new year.

But to the point - the fella has obviously gone on to bigger things and I've just found out that he has launched a company called (and it is all in the branding) DIY Pedal Kits.Com and as he is based in the UK, I think that if you fancy having a go, and are similarly geographically challenged, he is the one I would recommend as a great starting point.

Actually, I'd recommend him wherever you are.

He has a few different kits now too, and the prices look good so what have you got to lose?

(And no, I don't know him, we aren't related and I paid for my kit. It is just credit where it is due.)

Sold: The Shakey Spear One

All that glisters isn't gold, now ain't that the truth, but The Shakey Spear One might just be the exception to Old Bill's favourite rule. Built from a slightly battered looking Romeo & Juliet box, The Shakey Spear One is an old Warwick Bear of an amp, and not too shy about getting a bit grizzly here and there.

Featuring a delightfully twisted Amy-tone amp housed in an England’s Glory matchbox (which itself proudly proclaims that it is made in Sweden for some reason), this baby goes crazy right from the off, like some kind of Stratford-upon-Avon based go-go dancer fresh from that nightclub over Argos just off the High Street that somebody must have mentioned to me somewhere down the line as I can’t otherwise possibly have any knowledge of it.

The amp though, it is carefully crafted, entirely hand-wired and is most definitely not made by Francis Bacon.

But don’t mistake the literary heritage for a lack of imagination, no, The Shakey Spear One has a touch of the sixties about it and perhaps never recovered from a psychedelic day trip to the Isle of Wight Festival that turned into a Hydroponics  episode of a couple of decades. This trippyness is hinted at by the paisley of the speaker covering and a touch of free love, depicted by the illustration, if only it wasn’t for the balcony. And poison, of course.

The Shakey Spear One is only the fifth ever Jooky Cigar Box Amp we have made available and comes with a 9V battery and the trademark Jooky wrapping service, for a quite incredible £29 delivered anywhere in the UK.

Just to be clear, this is our fifth ever Cigar Box Amp and it is marked with the Serial Number: Jge#5. More importantly it is brilliant fun and we are quite sure that whether you or the guitarist in your life plays a Cigar Box Guitar or even a guitar that is more mainstream like a Gibson Nighthawk or something else that happens to be quite pointy, it is the amp that will be reached for most often.

SORRY THIS HAS BEEN SOLD

Technical Stuff:
Amp Type: Amy-Tone
Output: ½-1 Watt
Box Type: Romeo & Juliet Cigar Box
Construction: Paper over Wood
Dimensions 260mm x 140mm x 45mm
Power: 9V Battery
Input: ¼” Guitar Lead
Outputs: 8-Ohm Speaker
Controls: None
Special Stuff: Certificate of Authenticity, Builder Signed and Numbered
Serial Number: JGE#5
RSP: £29

Oh Well

I know I promised to let you know about the other couple of amps I’ve been playing with over the weekend, but it snowed and there are sick kiddies to be tended and well, life ain’t always my own.

So sue me.

Anyway, as I said before, the Gonzo Gonzalez has gone to a new home (or will do tomorrow anyway), which left a couple of boxes to play with.

The first of these is a Romeo and Juliet box which I’ll tell you about tomorrow, but is basically another lovely fuzzy Amy-tone with a wee bit of a twist that amused me no end.

OK, I admit it, Amy-tones, I’ve fell in love with, as they are so cool to play thru.

I tuned my little cigar box guitar today using open G (I might have that wrong, G-D-G?), which sounded great and like a Harrier taking-off from the Ark Royal in a Typhoon when I put it thru the Gonzo.

And I could have stayed playing all day, which is going some, as I am truly hopeless when it comes to playing slide.

Bleeding awful,
I don’t mind admitting.

Saying that, I am rapidly falling in lust with slide guitar all over again since I built a CBG and Amy gives it a real hell-on-earth kind of noise that you just can’t get with a ‘real’ guitar. Amazing tone, and if you are a guitarist and have never played a CBG, you really owe it to yourself to try one. Most of them are pretty cheap – just check out eBay or Cigar Box Nation and you’ll find one easy enough, or better still build yourself one. It could be the best thing you ever do.

But I was talking about what I’ve been up to, and yes the R&J is cool, but it is the green Cano one that has really got me thinking. You see, much as I love the sound of authentic – Jook joint – delta blues, and much as I believe that CBGs are the closest you can get to that Robert Johnson sound. Much as all of that is true, I have to admit that Peter Green playing Black Magic Woman whilst a member of Fleetwood Mac, was my first and defining ‘Blues moment’.

There, out in the open.

And so, despite the fact that it is utterly meaningless, I wanted to do a none-signature, tribute model for our next Jooky little amp, and so the Green one will no doubt become The Greenie One and due entirely to the fella’s imagination and out-of-phase brilliance, I want to do something a bit different.

With this in mind then, I’ve been playing with the green box and have decided to do my own version of the classic BB King (OK, Gibson) Variotone, so that it will have a nice rotary switch that lets you instantly change the tone of the guitar (well, of the guitar’s sound as it trundles thru the amp) between a variety of presets.

What is taking so long? Well, rather than go with the basic Gibson settings I figured it would be nice to pick half-a-dozen of my favourite bluesy songs, and try and find tones that match each of them.

Which is tricky.

And takes a while, I’ve found.

But there we are, it is all
Good
Fun.

p.s. I'm also building a quite mad fuzz box at the moment, which is for the guitarist in a Bristol band. More about that if he doesn't think it is a pile of shonkiness, later on.

Another One Bites The Dust

Well, The Gonzo Gonzalez One didn't hang around. As I said, I have been a bizzy little chap this weekend, and Gonzo was one of the products of my labours, as it were. The rest I'll show you tomorrow or later anyway.

But Gonzo is done and gone now, gord bless him, destined to sit under a tree for a few days and hopefully bring a little cheer in the New Year.

It made me realise that I've not talked about our 'Trademark Jooky Wrapping' before now, so I guess this is as good a moment as any.

(I know I should probably claim that somebody has asked, but the truth of the matter is that nobody has, I just feel like telling you about it. Not the most interesting topic, to be honest, but there we are. It is snowing outside though, which is probably of more exciting relevence.)

But the wrapping. Well, as the foto on the left or right, depending on your perspective shows, we like to wrap our amps the old fashioned way. A nice bit of brown paper (bonded, I like a bit of bonding), with this being tied using good olde worlde twine or string or whatever you call it. With the finishing touch being a nice olde fasioned-e tag or label or whatever they are called.

You know,
the brown paper ones that you tie on with yet more string.

Why do we do this?
Well, I like how they look to be honest, and it does seem fitting that all of this filth be delivered in a plain covering.

Oh, and although nobody has asked this either, no, we don't post things out with no more protection than a few microns of brown paper, the brown paper wrapped parcel is put into something stronger that will hopefully help it survive being the football in a variety of sorting offices across the land.

And before an imaginary postie gets in touch and starts an argument I'll have to wage on the pages of this site/blog thing, I know you play football with the parcels as I used to work in a sorting office
so get lost gitski.

I think I'll go and watch the snow a while
Much calmer

nite nite