Early Morning Mourning

Could I really finish something?

Finally, today after much messing around by UPS, the Royal Mail should be delivering the Loveless One to Sean, who snaffled it oh-so-quickly. I hope he likes it, I certainly do.

I must admit, the T-Topped pickup and P90 combo certainly caught me. It really was a striking sounding guitar and I have to admit I'm missing  it big time already. Looked amazing too, but the sound was right on the edge, even thru my little Blackstar babushka and I can't think of anything else I've played that sounded quite as sweet as it.

Actually, maybe I hope he won't like it and I can have it back again..

Other than the mourning, The Lulu One has been lacquered, looks great and just needs to be put together, soldered and generally alchemised. Though I haven't got a clue what I've done with the nut, if I'm being honest, and the tuners too, thinking about it. It is looking cool mind, it has to be said and I'm itching to get it finished..Teles always seem like proper guitars to me. Maybe me roots are showing.

Moving on, The Blue Moon One needs to be soldered in a big way, but that isn't kiddy friendly in the activity stakes, so will have to wait for a tender moment. Still, I might manage to sneak a half an hour here or there and get it done. Fingers crissed.

But none of these jobs are really plannable as young kids + hot soldering irons = bad mix.

So what to do between requests for drinks/food, visits to parks and all the other stuff on the agenda for this week?

Well, I figured that as I now have the lovely, loverly Fender Custom '69 pickups, the paisley to hand and a deep seated love for all thing offset - I might as well start on The Pink Panther One. The paisley I have is gorgeous and I've been thinking a long time about how to make the best of it. Not sure I have a suitable neck, but we'll see. I do like the idea of the Fender pickups, and they get rave reviews, and as I have a lovely Strat body or two around the place, maybe I'm being a tad perverse putting them in a 'different' guitar, but then who cares if I'm being honest. It's only an outline, after all.

(I do realise at this point that I should be careful, given my tendency to start lots of things and end-up finishing none of them, but what can you do? Multiple viewings of the Garfield movie aren't grabbing me overly, it has to be said.)

So where to begin? Well, as I've mentioned a few times over the last six months or so, I'm struggling with shaky hand syndrome a fair bit, which makes soldering a tad chore-like. I'm OK with small amounts, but it isn't easy and can be verily frustrating, particularly when there are three or four wires going to a small area, like a pot or switch or something. I've been thinking about this a lot, and have finally come to the conclusion that I should come-up with a different way of doing things that works better for me.

Initially I was thinking some kind of socket/plug idea, which would work, but to be honest I'm not sure that given the fact that guitars tend to get thrown around a bit, they would hang together as well as a properly soldered joint. It's still an option though, and I've used it for convenience here and there - mainly to connect switches in Les Pauls, I have to say.

Another alternative I've tried is connecting all of the ground wires to a single point - a washer - that then goes out to the jack socket. This works well and simplifies connections elsewhere - 'Star grounding' as it's known, but I can't help but think it is only solving half a problem.

My latest thought then is to use a bit of strip board, so that all of the grounds, lives and everything else are connected in a planned order. This seems a good idea, and I'm going to try that later on if I get a chance.

Why mention this? Well, I can't sleep and this is what goes thru my head in the early hours of the morning. Sad innit?

While I'm talking about under the hood, somebody had posted a link on Music Radar to a site that gave a  great tip on adding a 'fuzz' effect to a guitar that is passive - not needing a battery. I can't say I know how well it will work, but I do fancy trying this on the Blue Moon One. Basically it means that the tone control turns into a Fuzz control. Full on is no fuzz, full off is total fuzz. I only need a diode, which I should have around somewhere, though maybe a LED would work, and I have tons of those. Pondering again...

But there we are, probably a few weeks work to keep me busy and despite the fact I know I will only be able to snatch minutes here and there for the next couple of weeks, I still delude myself that I will have everything done by Friday...

Go figure.

La la laaaaa

WIP - The Lulu One

Well, a bit of sun and things go nice all of a sudden, and better still I even managed to grab a few hours over the last few days to get a trot on as far as The Lulu One goes.

As you can see in the plonked together WIP shot, the body is now lacquered, the neck now fits and generally we are getting somewhere...

It still needs to be wired up, the nut needs to be fitted and all manner of other stuff, but right now it looks pretty cool to me.

I'm not sure the fotos catch it proper-like, but the copper leaf looks different depending on the angle you look at it, which is cool.




Where it has been eaten thru on the top, the paisley looks exceptional, as it does on the back and sides of course.

I know this is quite a leap in many ways, but it feels like a great guitar already and I can't wait to hear the Bare Knuckle Brown Sugar at a decent volume...

Well, and there we are.

Hopefully it will be completed in the next couple of days.

Speaking of which, The Blue Moon one just needs soldering too, which I want to do tonight or tomorrow given half a chance...

Heh ho and on we go..

Continuing Journeys In Paisley

Well, I've started to lacquer the Lulu One, and I must admit I was a wee bit worried about how to ensure that I didn't lose the lovely copper sulphate lines where the copper has been eaten away to show the paisley beneath. I searched around a while and couldn't get any useful hints anywhere so I kinda decided to just go for it and do very, verily, very light coats.

The first one was a bit fraught but hopefully that will have sealed it a bit and subsequent ones are 'away' from the copper, if that makes sense. Fingers crissed, but so far I seem to be getting away with it.

I can't quite believe how well this worked, and the guitar is probably the most stunning I've ever seen (OK, I may be biased, but honestly - it is seriously cool in 3D). I was feeling bad about covering the pine - I had half a mind to give it and the neck a very light lacquer and leave it like that, but I am really pleased I didn't. I'm kinda fighting a natural tendency to dive in a and rush to finish it, as I'm kinda scared that if I even look at it wrong I'll screw it up and never be able to replicate it (not that replication is my kinda thing - but this time, I'd really want to.)

As you may have guessed then, I love the effect, and if I can pull it off I think this will be a helluva-striking-piece-of-guitarwork. Hmmm hmmm and a Hmmm.

Other than a bit of lacquering though, I can't see too much going on around here for the next couple of kiddy-caring weeks, but we'll see.

One thing I was pleased about was that I managed to pick up a set of Fender Custom '69 pickups, which are meant to be uber good. I'm thinking these will either go into the speckled Strat body I showed you the other week, or maybe even into the pinky purple Jaguar body I've got - the matching body to The Blue Moon One - The Pink Panther One, that's what I was going to call it, I remember.

That is going to have a nice pink paisley finish, and I like the idea of Stratty pickups in it, so these could be they. I have also got some Hot Texas Strat pickups coming too though, so we'll have to see how I feel when I get that far
.
Speaking of pickups, I've also been thinking more about the Wizard Novatron pickup I mentioned the other day, and I have got an interesting idea for the Strat I plan to put it into (once I've got the dosh to buy it, of course). What I'm thinking is that I would like to try and find a nice way of capturing a sort of rusted iron look. I know there are paints that are ferrous and I'm sure there will be a way. I've always loved the rusty iron man sculpture in the middle of Birmingham, so maybe that sort of effect would be good. We'll see, and maybe it would be more appropriate on a Tele than a Strat anyway.

Ah, so many ideas so little likelihood of completion. Still, tis the thought that counts, apparently.

But, another day of waiting for a courier beckons....

Sunday Musings of the Inactive Kind

Well, it's been a bit of a flurry over the last week or two with various guitars coming and going and generally I've been pretty pleased, courier no shows apart.

Now, of course, it is the school holibobs so things take a turn for the slow, but I'm hopeful that I'll at least get the chance to finish The Lulu and Blue Moon Two, if nothing else.

I've given up on trying to plan - which in a way has proved 'freeing', so I'm reluctant to talk about anything other than immediate futures anymore, but no doubt will anyway.

A Wizard Novatron - worth building a guitar around?

Not least because I've picked up a lovely old Strat which seems, to me, to be begging for a single Wizard Novatron pickup. I think I mentioned these before and I have to say I am intrigued by them, being lower output than normal (no bad thing in my book, Les Paul seemed to manage quite nicely) and giving an 'unique almost resonatoresque tone'. It looks cool too, which always helps, let's face it.

I might have to order one from Wizard then - can't imagine there are too many floating around in the grey zone of second-hand parts, after all. And did I mention it looks cool?

I'm still dithering about my old Burny Les Paul project too. I have all the parts, well nearly, but I can't quite decide on the finish - or more to the point how I go about getting it. I am going the 24K gold direction for the top, and was thinking about taking the nitro-wait-a-year-attack-with-hair-dryer fork in the road to getting a nicely cracked finish, but I've come across a gilding product which would possibly give a similar effect a lot quicker.

Should I be patient and do it proper-like, or cut across shorty-like and speed things up? I want this guitar to be one I keep, so maybe the former as I'll have it a year before I can finish it, but then...oh, I don't know.

I always want to keep them, of course, but never do - it's the golden rule, after all.

Other than that, I think the web site needs a bit of an overhaul. I like it's simplicity, but as the days of little amps and effects are gone now as far as Jookyland goes - my hands shake too much to solder them, I'm afraid - and the focus is totally on the guitars, it could be simpler. Also, I like the gilded finishes too, so they will stick around a while  I think. I especially like mixing them with the fabric, hmmm... But I'm not talking futures, am I?

Degrading Lulu Gracefully

Well, the courier never showed-up, rather annoyingly.

But what can you do?

I love the fact that they say that you can't report a missed collection until after 5pm,
which oddly is when they
shut
for
the
day.

On a brighter note, my gracefilled degradation of The Lulu One's copper top amazingly worked a treat.

Hopefully you can see that the copper has chaotically corroded away, leaving some lovely blueness - copper sulphate? I had a chemistry set once - as well as allowing a few glimpses of the quite delightfilled golden paisley beneath.

I'm well chuffed - just hope the blueness doesn't get washed away by the lacquer next week.

Heh ho

WIP - The Lulu One

Step 1 - Find a Girl and Cover her in Paisley

Well, another day of waiting in for a courier to show up (or not - depending on which way the breeze tumbles), I've carried on a bit with the Lulu One.

Following on from yesterday, as you can see I have completely covered the pine-of-loveliness body with my golden paisley. Bloody good it looks too, and to be perfectly honest I was severely tempted to just lacquer it like that and be done with it, but I've taken so long to get around to doing Lulu that I couldn't give in there, now could I?

Step 2 - Cover Her With Copper

Anyway, I have a master plan for this one, and it would be a shame not to at least try it out.

And that is the key to The Lulu One - I really don't know how it will turn out. Haven't got a clue. Zilch and nada. Uncharted shark infested paddling pools, is where I find meself hopping to and fro.

But I have hope and as step one was to paisley it up, so step two is obviously going to be for me to cover the top in copper leaf so you can't see the paisley at all.

Makes sense, eh?

Well, that I did and very coppery it looks too.

So is that it?

Step 3 - Pour Acid On Her Like Tears

Nope, by jimminy, there is a final flourish that will either make you gasp and go 'wow' and  generally wiggle your ears in admiration, or it will fail dismally and all the effort and planning will become a waste of time (and we have so little, each and every one of us, so we need to make all our arrows count. I learned that on a course once.).

Step 3 then was to slightly rough the copper up in a few places, and then drip and drop a secret mixture of magical bobbins in liquid form onto the copper front.

Why would I do that?

Well, the idea is that it will artificially age the copper leaf so that it 'patinates' and goes funny colours. Better still, and this is the whole point, it will in places, hopefully dissolve patches of the copper entirely so that (roll of trumpets, fanfare of elephants on balls)...allow the lovely golden paisley to show thru.

Well, that is the plan/hope/dream and I haven't got a clue as I type this and wait for the magic copper burning elixir to do it's stuff, whether it will work or not.

Step 4 - She goes to pieces, basically

It could end-up horrible, and in truth I don't know how the grain filler on the fabric will react to all of this elixir-ing either, so we will just have to see. No flames yet though.

(Maybe I should have lacquered the fabric first, I don't know Hmm.)

Still, as you can see in the final foto of the day (it took me a while to get around to posting this) it has started to work. Have to see what it looks like tomorrow, I guess..see if any paisley is making an appearance thru the front door.

But that is the best part innit? Taking a chance and seeing if there is any magic to be had, any hold in them there gills.

And on that fishy note, I'll go back to my waiting. I'm sure the courier will arrive, sometime.

Getting Coppery

During - paisley on and drying

Well, waiting for other things to happen - like me getting my finger out to finish The Blue Moon One, for instance, and mourning the fact that The Loveless One only stuck around for less than a day, I thought it was about time I did something about my Copper-topped Tele.

This has gone on a bit, I admit, but I finally cut the nut slot on the maple neck yesterday, which I've dreaded doing but proved to be quite easy once I'd had a couple of tips and faced down my demons. So there were no more excuses really.

Anyway, today has seen the beautiful pine body be attacked from the rear with a paint brush and some lovely golden paisley. That is the plan see, paisley on the sides and back, copper top on the, err, top, I guess. That is going to have a bit of a twist as it happens, but we'll come to that another day.

Before - am I doing this wrong?

Other than that, this is the Esquire type-of-bobbins I keep mentioning, a single Bare knuckle Brown Sugar pickup at the bridge, nowt at the neck and some interesting leccytronics to give a few more options.

Tis going to be good, I think.

I'd have one more twang on the Loveless One, but it is in a case in a box in some brown paper, awaiting a courier, as per.

La la laaaa

p.s. I know it has had 47 different names already, but I've decided to call it the Lulu One, for many reasons, most of them obvious.

WIP - The Blue Moon One

Well, it's the usual can't be bothered to screw or solder it all together type of 'Artist's Impression', that you have no doubt gotten used to around here, but I thought I'd give you a glimpse of how the Blue Moon One might well look when I get around to finishing it...

Though saying that, as it is obviously a bit of a 'Slacker' guitar, maybe it should remain forever unfinished, I dunno.

Anyway, from the top,
- it is an Ash Jaguar-esque body,
- hand made maple neck with the perfect big headstock crowning it's glory.
- Pickups are some Hot lipsticks with the middle one reverse wound for a hum-free yet still single of coil experience.


I've used these before, of course, and they give a lot more than the jingle-jangle you'd expect.

- As for the finish, it is a sea-green paisley with a hand gilded copper leaf scratchplate.

- And finally a Telecaster switch tip and Gibson Top Hat knobs, for a touch of retro goodness.

Sounds more like a menu, when I put it like that...

Anyway, groovy is as groovy does..

Introducing The Loveless One

Well, my little SG baby has all grown up at last after a frightening flurry of activity earlier today. and she is now be-stringed and sounding like a little demon.

For the record then, this is The Loveless One.

It is a mahogany bodied, maple necked, rosewood fretboarded thing of beauty.

The neck was a leftie one I'd bought and is hand-made and nitro lacquered (apart from where I've messed about with it), with the headstock being re-shaped for that reverse thingie.

The top has been gilded with a variegated and generally aged golden leaf (ersatz this time) and looks amazing, the photos look pale by comparison - I really should buy a proper camera.

The tuners are Wilkinson Schaller types and rock solid.

The nut is bone.

The neck pickup is an IronGear Alchemist 90 humbucker sized P90 - which is ungodly,

and the bridge pickup is a Gibson one that has basically been modified by changing the ceramic magnet for an Alnico one, so that it turns all ugly duckling like into a beautiful slice of '70s rock - a T-Top pickup humbucker thing.


The usual three way switch,
two tones,
two volume complete the picture,
and there we are.

Soundwise, the P90 is everything you'd hope for, like a Strat on steroids - excellent sound to it both clean and over-the-top-driven.

The T-Topped bridge pickup, just hits that spot perfectly - I've been playing Doors tunes since I got this together and it has that Krieger/Kossoff sound in spades.I'm well impressed.

Anyway, I'm off to Break on Thru, or something

Sometimes things go well, and others...

Well, last night I thought I'd follow on and try a few things with my multi-gilded Strat body, as let's face it, testing things out was really the point of it.

So, I thought I'd have a go at artificially helping along the ageing process and maybe even do a bit of DIY patination.

Clutching a variety of household poisons, I gave the guitar a sprinkle or three and if you look closely at the fotos you'll see that I had some success. (Or maybe it has developed bread mould over night)

It is interesting though, and in a couple of cases it has gone thru to the wood behind so that that is exposed, which is a nice surprise... Pretty cool in truth.

More play with that today - there's no point doing it if I can't fix the effect in some way afterwards, after all.

Speaking of lacquer (though I hadn't mentioned it), I gave the front of the Blue Moon One a good coat, and it turned out really well - the full Blackpool landlady '70s table cloth look.

Unfortunately, I hadn't thought things thru and instead of hanging the body from the skies (garage roof) as I normally do, I had it rested on a couple of sponges on a workbench.

Which made life simpler, until I moved it and the sponges had stuck and disintegrated all over the back.

Bit of sanding to do there (least I hope that will get rid of it, anyway. Not really a Jooky type of effect I can live with.

Ah you live, you learn, you repeat your mistakes. (I did something very similar on the verily first guitar I ever sprayed....)

Sold: The Loveless One

The seventies was a hard time – high unemployment, school leavers going into meaningless courses or straight onto the dole, crime going through the roof, the country on its knees, the banks ringing their caravans as often as their brokers, the government in disarray.

Rather a lot like now in fact.

It was a soulless time, an angry time and the riots of the early eighties just around the corner were being heralded by the escapism of music that itself was reflecting the times with a veneer of glam, an angry punk sound.

The Loveless One captures the mood of the Seventies with it’s bare bones Rock sound and angry, spit-in-your-face attitude, all hidden below a shiny façade of gold that is slowly melting away, corroding to show the seedy side of life beneath. The P90 pickup at the neck is pure angry and dirty sex; the Gibson humbucker at the Bridge has been modified to replicate the Classic T-Top pickups of the era. The sound is deep and dirty, slimy and as greasy as the barnet on a hell’s angel.

To be clear, The Loveless 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 Buzzcock. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.

Technical Stuff:

Type: Marilyn’s Gold Top Guitar

Pickups: Gibson ‘T-Topped’ humbucker, IronGear Alchemist 90 P90

Guitar Type: Gibson SG Inspired

Construction: Variegated Gold Leaf over mahogany.
Dean Markley Jimi Hendrix Pure Nickel Strings 10s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: 2 x Volume, 2 x Tone

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

Case: Tweed hardcase

Serial Number: JGE#17

RSP: £399

Sorry - This Monkey Has Gone To Heaven (or maybe has been sold)

Bit of a Track to the Side

Well, while the lacquer-dry-repeat cycle is going on as far as the Blue Moon One goes, and then can't-solder-until-the-kids-are-at-school-tomorrow one sorts itself out as far as the Loveless One is interested, I got a little sidetracked by an old, battered Strat body I've had lay around for a while. And the left over gold, copper and variegated gold leaf that was stuck in a box.
The body I got ages ago and it truly relicked in every way - including being chewed by a rabid mutt in some places. Still, it is nice and light, but I've never really got around to using it for anything. You want a flat surface for the fabric most of the time, and well, this is battered. It has to be said.

Anyway, I got to wondering what  it would look like gilded and fancied messing around with the different types and going for something more aged from the start - less lacquer than the Golden Shower and Loveless ones have 'enjoyed'.

So this is where it is at. Total chaos and verily Jooky. I've deliberately gone for a 'where it drops' approach right down to literally dropping the leaf onto it then panicking it into some semblance of coverage. I've also left gaps of course and roughed it up even more.




I'm still not sure whether it is a trial for something or it will actually become a guitar yet. Guess we'll see, I'm not a big one for throwing things away, after all.

Monday, Monday

Wire Me Up Baby Doll

Well, it seems I'm in the midst of an activity-flurry as far as Jookiness is concerned. The Loveless One just needs to be wired and bolted, The Blue Moon One is nearly ready for a bit of lacquer and god forbid, I've even decided on the pickups and found them too (as in acquired) and the lipstick loveliness should arrive sometime this week.

So it could actually be that I finish a couple of guitars without getting balder/greyer.

Odd, most odd indeedy.

To top it all, I even sorted out the pickups for my Old Burny guitar - the Les Paul I'm building based on an '80s Burny carcass. Somehow, I managed to get my mits on  a pair of Bare Knuckle Mules - which are basically bang-on-the-money-honey hand scattered pickups based on the exact recipe Gibson used back in the day when they made good guitars. Best of all they come with 'double-cream' covers, so they might look like ye olde traditional P90s if you squint a bit.

I did actually consider putting P90s in, but I've wanted a nice Les Paul for ages now and I'd only end up still wanting one whilst I loved the P90s, if that makes sense. The only question is whether I flip the magnet on the neck pickup for some of that Peter Green out-of-phase nonsense, or do I just see how I get on and maybe have a go at doing that if I get bored..

Lacquer me Sugar

Decisions, decisiveness-not-at-all.

Whatever. I'm kinda planning on getting onto that baby once the Loveless and the Blue Moon-like One are feeling more together. (Although my copper topped Tele is of course a consideration. No doubt it will be whichever one I think I'm meant to be doing at the moment of most boredom etc. You know the score.)

But there we are, so many plans, so little energy. Time will tell.

I am soooo very Zen.

See Moon, Cwy Like A Baby

Well, a long way to go, and the paisley is still free-fallin' over the edges, but here is the starting-to-take-shape The Blue Moon One complete with copper leafed/gilded scratchplate...

Jarringly pretty, I think.

I also decided it s going to have lipstick pickups (once I find a set of three - more SRV than jingle jangle)

Just woke up, excuse the slllooowwwnnneeessss of speech.

Born of Frustration

Well, the bits I was waiting for, to let me complete the Loveless One arrived just now, but unfortunately, a little late for me to use them today...

Tis a shame, have to be next week now, I guess.

In the meantime then, I thought I'd sidetrack meself and get started on the Blue Moon One - the blue paisley Jaguar type of thing I was talking about.

So, as you can see, I have started to put the fabric on. OK, you can't really see yet, but you will next time around.

What else you can't see is that I have sorted the neck out too, and best of all gilded the scratchplate. (I can't remember if I mentioned but I wanted to try a copper leaf scratchplate, and I think it should work nicely here... That is being lacquered at the moment, which will no doubt take the weekend, but it should look good (I keep telling myself). We'll see once it is finished anyway.

So not a total dead loss of a day in the end after all.

Morning Glory, and Doing the Foney Moroni

Well, the post in these here parts can be a bit ropey at times, and you never really know when they will show up - depends on what time they ended the day to hit the cider, has always been my guess.

However, this morning saw an early delivery of some parts ripe for Jookification, and mighty pretty they are too. (although, I have to admit I was hoping it was the T-Topped pickup for The Loveless One arriving, I'd have liked to have sorted that out today. *sigh*)

What they are is a Strat body and neck combo, although the shape of the headstock hints that the 'Fender' logo might be a bit optimistic. Not that I ever leave them on.

I guess it is funny, so many people spend time putting Fender and Gibson logos on things to convince the world their Bitsa is the 'real deal', when as soon as anything shows up here, real or fony mcboney like this one, the first thing I do is sand it off. I must be missing something here, Hmmm...

Anyway, the body is more interesting and quite lovely looking. I'm guessing it is handmade as the routing doesn't look mass produced and the finish in the 'holes' isn't uniform, but what is the wood? I don't know.

It is nice and solid and has a lovely grain in it that goes all thru (not a veneer, I mean), but I'm a bit stumped. The chap who flogged it me said it was Mahogany but that he'd been told it was definitely sycamore by somebody else.

Either way it looks lovely in a '70s Strat kind of way, and it would be a shame to cover it up...so I'm really not sure what I will do with it. The neck is a lovely bit of wood too, it has to be said, just odd about the headstock shape.


Maybe I should leave a Fender logo on a headstock and join the fakers for once, make some money.


Nahhhh, where's the fun in that?
Anyway, I'd feel a total muppet...as opposed to my usual partialness.

While I'm talking vaporware...

Well, after sorting out my head about the blue paisley Jaguar, I turned my inactivity to the pine Telecaster body I've been meaning to do something with for eons, and finally decided what that will be like..

Firstly, it is a pine Tele body, following so far? I may have mentioned it.

Finish-wise, it is going to have a golden paisley on the sides and back, with a Copper leaf top. The copper leaf showed up this morning, and looks amazing and I'm really into the idea. Originally I was going to use copper sheet, but I like the idea of mixing the leaf and the fabric and this seems the perfect opportunity.

In terms of pickups - I'm going for an 'Esquire' approach, that is a single bridge pickup - I have a nice Bare Knuckle 'Brown Sugar' one which I've been saving for a special occasion, and then the wiring will do something clever with capacitors and resistors to give a few more sounds. I did think about a hidden neck pickup, but to be honest, I like the idea of an Esquire au natrel-like

The neck is one I picked-up a while back, maple on maple and unfinished. I was in two minds about giving this the traditional glossy tele garnish, but I don't think I will now. It looks rather beautiful as it is. The only downside is that I need to cut a nut slot, something I've been cowering away from as I've only ever done it on Cigar Box Guitars and when you are using a bolt for a nut, finesse is less of an issue. So loins need to be curdled in that direction. After that I've got Schaller tuners, and an ash tray cover for the bridge. I love those things, but haven't used one since The Paisley One all that time ago...

And there we are. I've been talking about my Lulu Copper Tops for a while, but the time is now.
Well, soon anyway.

Delving in my parts box, err, room.

Well, I've finished the neck on the Loveless One, put some fine tuners on, polished the frets, oiled the rosewood and cut a new bone nut and all that is left is for me to fit the pickups when they arrive. All good stuff.

And so I find myself looking around at piles of parts and deciding what it is I want to do....and where does my gaze fall, but onto the Jaguar/Jazzmaster body I picked up for my ill-fated escapade into the realms of custom guitar building.

The body, at the time, I was really pleased to get. It is a handmade, ash Jazzmaster/Jaguar shaped thing and is crying out for a lovely blue paisley finish. I've also got a nice hand made big-headed Strat neck, which looks the part and a real temptation to put some top notch single coils in there. The original plan was P90 plus a Humbuckers, then it was going to be a pair of Gibson P90s...but I like the idea of a Strat in Jaguar body, so I'm going to do that. (I know, I always put humbuckers and P90s in Strats, so obviously it makes sense to put Strat pickups into a Jaguar, like obviously.)

I'm thinking I should get some that are on the warm side though, just to give it some bite and a touch of oomph.

No fotos yet as it is still vapourware, at the moment...but probably will be more 3D come tomorrow.

Unless I do something else instead,
always a concern.

The Loveless One - WIP

Well, I got a wee bit of time at the weekend and managed to lacquer the variegated golden top of the Loveless One, so that it is all shiny and pings in the morning light. It has turned out pretty well, amazing in fact, and I ended-up leaving the waxed wooden body on the back and all. I might still sand and oil that though, have to have a wee think to be honest.

As you can see, the neck has been plonked into place. This still needs a bit of work, dull frets that need a polish, dead rosewood fretboard in need of a nice oiling, a new nut to be cut - that sort of thing, but it is wired up with the exception of the pickups, and tuners I've sorted - some nice Schaller ones, or maybe something else...and it is starting to look most guitar-like.

As for the pickups, I was umming as per, when I noticed a Gibson 490R pickup for sale, which is what comes in a lot of SGs, of course. These are quite high output and 'Rock' like, and to be honest not my favourite pickups of all time. I don't seem to go for Ceramic magnets, for some reason. What caught my eye with this one though is that it has been 'T-Topped'. Now if you know your Gibson pickups (la la la, how nerdy am we?) you'll know that there was a period of time when T-Top pickups were Gibson's big thing. Seventies, I think. Anyway, the originals are worth a packet now, but some bright spark noticed that the more common 490R is in fact exactly the same pickup, but with a Ceramic magnet instead of the original Alnico V. In modderland, people started swapping the magnet for an Alnico and basically 'T-Topping' their pickups for that great Led Zeppelin/Jimmy Page sound.

All good stuff. Anyway, I snapped that up, and am going to be pairing it with one of my faves, an IronGear Alchemist 90 - their P90-in-a-humbucker-shaped-tin, which should give us a fair old whack of variation - to match the leaf of the guitar. (Just thought of that, and am sadly quite pleased with myself...)

Anyway, not a bad start to the week..though obviously I need to vaccum the carpet and teach the brats not to leave power leads lay around under tables.