New Year Revolution

Well, another day and still the garage is so frozen I can't last more than five minutes in there, so not a lot useful done. The electric isn't working in there either at the moment, all frozen up, and working by blowtorch light, well, it just isn't me, I'm afraid.

So as I can't do, I thought I'd plot and plan and have a think about what comes next. Specifically, I mean, not my usual navel gazing.

1. First-up of course, is the second of the Katy's Killer Customs, Andy's J-Bird One. The Jag-Firebird hybrid, with oh so many extras on the side.

2. After that, is my little Daisy Jook One. This semi based on a Daisy Rock Retro-H already boasts a quite lovely cowgirl finish, and a couple of twangtastic baby humbuckers. They are a bitch to put in, never doing that again.

3. The Twangy One I've started to paisleyify, a nice black swirly one with touches of gilt to catch the light. This will have the Kent Armstrong 'Kentron' pickups, which should be fun and generally twang for England.

4. The other Jag body I had is destined to end-up with a pinky-purple paisley finish - The Pink Panther One, being as our chap Blake just passed on. I was planning to put a couple PRS P90s in this one, but then came across somebody flogging a pair of Jazzmaster pickups, and grabbed them pronto like. I might have to do a wee bit of work on the scratchplete as it was cut for P90s, but I figure it will be worth it. Doo-dut-do-doooo.

5. Getting slightly into vapourware now, I fancy doing a bit of a shape guitar, a Vee or Explorer, and if I do it will have this quite lovely skull and roses finish that I've had around for ages but never found a home for. Into this will either be a pair of PRS Tremonti pickups, or some Gibson 49x wotsits out of a Les Paul Studio. Bit of a rock machine me thinks, 'cos it's time I started err, hanging with the kids, and all that. Maybe. This will be The Evil Bed One.

6. And then there is the Weathered One. This is my long standing pine bodied Telecaster, with a single Bare Knuckle pickup at the bridge, quite beautiful neck and is destined to be the first full Lulu's Copper Top. I've got to buy the copper for this, which I've not gotten around to ordering, and then I need to decide what to do as a finish. In truth, I'm dithering. On one hand I fancy going for a simple rosewood colored stain to set off the copper, but on the other I picked up the most beautiful golden paisley with gilty bits all over it, that I think would look amazing. The copper of course I am either weathering or enamelling like I did with the Jangly One's scratchplate, though I'm not sure which at the moment. Either way, on this I'm going to leave more of the copper colour exposed,  which will be a bit amazing to look at methinks. This one is a bit of a special, but more about that when it is done.

7. I'm back on the single pickup trail with a Wizard handwound Novatron Pickup thing. I talked about this before and I have a Strat body I'm going to try and do something weird and wunderfilled with, with this as the driver. This will be The Backporch Voodoo One, as I see it as laid back and bluesy with just a tinge of Southern Comfort.

So in summary:

1. The J-Bird One
2. The Daisy Jooky One
3. The Twangy One
4. The Pink Panther One
5. The Evil Bed One
6. The Weathered One
7. The Backporch Voodoo One...

And other than that, I'm thinking of getting serious about making a couple of my own body shapes. I have two in mind which I guess aren't the most original - I'm not going BC Rich or anything, but should be fun to do.

So really this has turned into my New Year Resolution list, hasn't it...be interesting to see how many are completed by 2012, I guess.

God, I Wish They Would Talk About Somewhere Else...

OK, I've decided to stop being so mardy about not being able to get on with things at the moment due to the cold weather, pile of snow and the rest, as apparently it affects a few other people too.

Not that the news shows anything apart from the snow in Bristol. I've been watching SKY and BBC news for hours, and there it is, over and over, what is happening in Bristol. How do people feel about it. Trying to prompt tourists to say that it would be handled much better 'back home' and failing dismally.

It's really odd, seeing teams of reporters camped out at Bristol airport, questioning CEOs about
'Why did that 'plane take off while my Auntie is stuck in Morocco'.

But it's not just the airport, there are roving reporters up and down the slip roads of the M5 by Weston-Super-Mare. Loads of fotos of people queuing up outside Temple Meads, waiting for a train that probably won't arrive.

I've never understood the media's preoccupation with Bristol and it's travel arrangements. I mean, they don't even film Casualty here now do they? And Banksie buggered off as soon as the first cheque arrived (or did he? Hahahahaa)

It is all a bit sad really, you'd think the rest of the country doesn't have any fluctuations in weather,

I mean you wouldn't hear a peep out of the media if London got a bit of snow or the temperature dropped below freezing now, would you?

Happy Anniversary

I know it is sad, but I spend a lot of time looking at guitars - far more than I do playing them recently, and I can't help but notice that anniversaries are quite popular, whether it is PRS and twenty years or more, Fender and fifty or Gibson - well, probably a hundred, I don't know. I look but don't really take that much notice.

Anyway, it struck me that Jooky has been around for more than a year now, though the first guitar wasn't finished until April, I think. (I will check - good thing about listing the dates on the web site, negates a need for a memory on my part.)

And in truth it has been a funny year, and despite things generally being in a little turmoil most of the time, I'm quite pleased with most things. There have been a few guitars that haven't actually been finished, or weren't good enough once they were, and they will remain in a vault nowhere near you. But generally, yeah not too bad for a muppet like me.

But anniversaries, and I'm thinking that I should do something special for our first anniversary model. I can't see the point of replicating a genuine 2010 model, which is the normal approach, so instead I'm going to go totally off the wall, if I can.

I've got a few months to do it anyway, but maybe it should be my first 'original' body, that I keep talking about and never actually doing. Or maybe a copper top, rather than a scratchplate, or maybe even both.

Who can say...?

I've thought of having somebody else make the bodies or have the copper cut to shape at different times, but I don't think there is any point and I glad I didn't go that route. Jooky wasn't ever been meant as a business (good job too) and getting other people involved is sooo much hassle, and you have to start thinking in a different way. It matters if you sell things or not for one, which always crushes the art (baby)

You get a watered down version and end-up second guessing what people want. And for one-offs, there is little point in that, to sell a Jooky guitar is kinda special. I have to find that one person who gets that one guitar, which is all good fun. And mainly unlikely.

I do know I'll .have to get me pondering bonnet on though...and my finger out. It's still good fun, most of the time and I've learned a lot on the way, which was the point after all.

So as a start 2010 has been good in lot's of ways, but I think 2011 will be feckin' amazing. Bring it on me old beauty...

Progress, Regress. Go to Gaol

Kentron pickups -
I always feel they're talking about me

Well, too much snow, sickness and general no-chance-today-sunshine to hit the J-Bird woodwork, but I did get a casual hour - in five minute bursts, admittedly -  and managed to put together the basic wiring for it, all push-pull pots and scratching of head. A harness, apparently.

It isn't totally complete, as I still need to join up the dots with the pickups and on-board effects, but the rest is there and according to me little multi-meter it all seems to work as I'd hoped. Even the kill-switch is wired so it makes sound without you having to depress the little red button, which really isn't me at all.

I haven't told Andy this - though I will, honest mate - but as I've got the 'twin' body, I thought I'd drop his electrics into that so we can see how it goes before the rest of the J-Bird One is ready, if that makes sense. At least we can iron out any probs early that way, which seems good to me.

I've been gutted that with seventy-three things and then another I've not got this completed pre-Xmas, but it would be nice for him to see something at least, and better still be able to try it out before it is in the right body and everything is done and dusted...

Other than that, in an attempt to retain my sanity and not cause any more diplomatic incidents, I Jookified a couple of bodies, well started to, with a bit of cloth. One is the Daisy Jook One - some nice cowgirls, and the other is a Mex Strat body I had lay around which has gone paisley on one side at least. The things you do to avoid Postman Pat for the 43rd time... The Strat is either going to get a pair of Kent Armstrong 'Kentrons' or a pair of PRS Tremonti pickups, depending on how Rock 'n' Roll I'm feeling at the time

I could do one of each of course,
but won't.

Still, it'll be a time before they get anywhere near finished - I can't see that it is worth lacquering anything for a while just yet and man, I want to do the J-Bird, I really wanna do the J-Bird. *sigh*

Anyway, hopefully I'll wire the rest of the J-Bird tomorrow and with a bit of luck I can cut up an old scratchplate to hold it in place well enough to work... Otherwise it might be copper again, la la la

I Love Kiwiland

Well, another frustrating day in Jookyland has seen bugger all of any consequence get done. Sick kids (plural now) was the problem, and it meant that woodwork - I needed to finish tidying up the J-Bird One headstock and body routing so I can get cracking on the finish - was a definite no-no-a-go-go,

and soldering - again, I wanted to do a 'harness' for the J-Bird to at least have that ready to drop in - went out of the window too.

Instead, I became a brat-sofa and professional mopper-upper for the day.

Which is never appealing. I have to say it has been one thing after another recently, and yes, I'm whinging like a wench, I know, but it is sooooo frustrating.

It is worse in truth because normally it wouldn't really matter - but I have a horrible sense of responsibility about the Customs, and I really wanted Andy's to go a bit smoother than Geoff's, which itself turned into a 'mare in far too many ways to think about.

Blah blah.

But there we are. Andy is being cool - cooler than I would - but I guess I need to be less optimistic when I estimate times for these, if I ever do any more.

I'm a Muppet.

*Deep breath *

Still, I smell of puke, that must count for something,
to someone,
somewhere.

Maybe I'll get aftershave for Xmas.

I hate delays.
I'm a do-er baby, this isn't meant to be the way of things

*** 

So I need to think of something else, something I can vaguely control in a funny way.

I don't actually look at the web stats for this site/blog thing very often, as to be honest, I always expect it to be depressing or boring, which it would be I guess. However today, as I am sooo bored already, I did and I can't help but notice that for some strange reason quite a few people read it. And they come from all over the world to do it. Virtually, obviously.

And even odderly, most of them seem to come back again and again.

(Not all, there was quite a spike when I called a guitar The Fat Pussy One, mainly via Google image searches, from people in India and parts of Africa, for some reason.) But generally, I mean, there are hundreds of visitors. OK, it isn't Ebay or Youtube or anything, but for what it is, I'm quite surprised.

So hello, to all the folks in London, and Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. That chap who pops in from Preston on a Friday at about 11.45pm every week (or lady, but I guess most people who read this are blokes, I don't know why I think that, but I am no doubt right?). In fact most everywhere in the UK has had a representative or lots popping in here at one time or another. Either that or there is one reader who gets about a fair bit.

And of course, I shouldn't forget the people outside of the UK, in most of the U.S States they've scooted in - mainly when I talk about Cigar Box Guitars, it has to be said, or slag off anything American. Plenty of visitors from the east - Russia, Alaska, China, Iran, Iraq, actually, most places and directions when I look at the list. (I know Alaska isn't in the east. Well I think I do...)

In fact every country I can think of, a load of places that never used to exist when I was the proud owner  of a globe, most of the places we've bombed over the last few decades and some who we are yet to have a decent go at. Everywhere in fact, has seen at least one person, one member of their general populous clock up a visit

Everywhere.
that
is
...
Apart from,
that still is,

New Zealand.

I checked just now, and nobody from New Zealand has ever, ever looked at this site.

I mean, do they even have the Internet?

Am I missing something?

OK, I don't actually think I'm particularly interesting, but how many people live in New Zealand?

One of them must be into guitars?

Even if they only like boring Fender ones, surely somebody would be browsing aimlessly, a bit pissed and accidentally mistype Kooky? Of Jolky, or something?

But no, not one.
Never.

I mean, it shouldn't matter - and it doesn't matter really - but for some weird reason, it is bugging me. And I know it is daft and pathetic, but it has really got under my skin.

I don't know what to do about it?

Maybe I should write a post about filming the Hobbit in Oz instead or something, that would have them coming out of the woodwork, wouldn't it?

Or maybe I should say that the All Blacks are only good when they nick all the Samoans to play for them?

That would do it, wouldn't it?

Oh, a bit of self-interest, that would grab the attention of the kiwis.

With a small kicking-ker.

So if you happen to know anybody in that part of Australia (tee hee), give them a nudge and make my life complete.

And I really mean this - I love you Kiwis, I wouldn't use anything else on my boots.

Apart from Cherry Blossom, of course,
you get a much better shine with your Cherry Blossom.

An Ode To A Daisy

I mentioned The Daisy Jook One the other day, but as usual didn't really explain what it is all about, and to be honest it is probably a grain of a microcosm in a world beneath the dust under somebody's finger tips, as far as Jookidom goes.

A long, long time ago I wrote a book, that despite not looking much like it, was all about chaos theory and such things. I even chopped it up into bits once it was finished, wrote a random number generator based on a dodgy fractal-generating algorithm, and ordered the book - more or less - based on it (I cheated and left the start and end where they were, but really didn't need to, in truth.)

Why do I mention this? Well, in a way my whole approach to Jookiness is like that. I've tried to definitely never or maybe impose any kind of structure on what it is I make. There are obvious influences, heavy ones at that, but generally I whistle along hammering a random tune. Not a dice man as such, as even that is quite a structured approach the old fella was imposing on himself, more Que Cera, as it were.

But The Daisy Jook One, well, for a while I've fancied having a play with a semi-acoustic of some sort. Even thought of hollowing something solid out, but beholden and generally low,  spotted one on ebay a while back and jumped in and grabbed it. Also of course, even more longer back I very nearly swapped The Beano One with a nice chap called Sean for his handmade Tele, which if I'd not needed the dosh to buy parts at the time, I really should have as it was and no doubt still is, a beautiful guitar. Anyway, like a lot of people Sean had a sort of 1950s glamour girl look to it - or is it earlier? I don't know, in truth - as I'm sure they are the technicolor images of lasses U.S pilots had on their planes in WW2. I don't know, and I should probably check, but haven't and won't, as truly what would be the point.
But as I was saying, Sean's guitar has stuck with me, and I've thought for a while that I should find such an image - on fabric - to use on a guitar. And that too I did in fact find, and so one day when I was  strumming the Semi, and my wee lass pulled the cloth out of a cupboard or from under a floorboard or wherever I'd left it, I thought 'there we go' synchronicity without the annoying geordie up-front and central.

And so, in a roundabout way, that is it, I'm going country and western and in tribute to the Dukes of Hazard, the semi - a Daisy Rock, no less - will be Jookified with images of country and western-esque babes. I even got some of those lovely red dice knobs for the knobby bits.

As for pickups, well it came with mini-humbuckers, which I'm struggling to replace, but I think I will. I quite fancy some SG ones or something from a Firebird, but we'll see. Tuners are Grovers anyway and work perfectly, so no problems leaving those on. It doesn't have a scratchplate though, and I do have some copper lay around the place, but we'll see. Maybe I'll see what turns up, and go with that.

So it is a Jookified Daisy Rock, which isn't just for girls. Well, it will be once I have done the J-Bird justice and can plough this deeply southern field with a clear conscience, anyway. A yee and a haaa.

Of Chickens, J-Birds and Daisy Jook

Well, what can I say. Hospitals, sick children, schools calling in the environmental health, blue badges and I am sooo not ready for Xmas. It has been a right shonky week, all in all.

On the plus side of things, somehow among the chaos I have managed to get the body and neck 90% there for the J-Bird one. I'll take some fotos later after a bit more 'finessing', assuming I'm not clearing up any more puddles of puke.

It is (literally) taking shape now, and I have all the finishing bobbins to hand, so hopefully it will start to look like a guitar soon. Which is always cool.

Other than that though, bugger all has happened in Jookydom, although a friend of mine - best known for wearing a chicken costume in the privacy of somebody else's home - is joining in with the Jooky spirit and making his own version of a jookified guitar. This is super cool, I always wanted followers, though not on Facebook, clearly. Can't wait to see what he comes up with. Maybe he'll let me put a foto up, assuming it is ever finished...

My money is on yellow feathers.

Whilst sorting Andy's J-Bird (and I have to admit it was the trial run with the router), I have also carved chunks out of what will be my pink paisley Jag/Jazzmaster-a-like. I mentioned it before, I think and can't remember it's given name right now, but I think that will be lovely when it is done. I've got a couple of PRS soapbars which will go in there - or maybe one of them will, I'll have to see. Yes, one. I just remembered I ordered a scratchplate with only one hole. See, there is a plan.

Other than that, I picked up a lovely little semi-acoustic guitar a few weeks back, that I'm planning on countrificating. not sure when, but that will be fun. It's going to be a tribute, I think, maybe The Daisy Jook One, or something like that.

Anyway, brats to mollycoddle...

oh yes, while I'm remembering that I've forgotten stuff - there are also a couple of things that were meant to be posted, that haven't been - sorry boys, they will be on their way tomorrow. Been a bit of a tricky week and all that...

A ho and a hum

Daudling Down The Runway

Well, I’m pleased to say that The J-Bird One is finally moving. The Christmas deadline is going to be unlikely, but hopefully the temperatures warm up a wee bit, New Year might still be possible, time will tell, I guess.

However, as far as the neck goes – which if you remember we are aiming to turn vaguely Firebird-esque, by chopping bits off an old leftie ‘70s Fender Strat style of headstock bobbins – we are in with a hope.

I put my ‘artists impression’ up the other week, and this I’ve now transferred to the headstock. It needed a bit of a tweak here and there, and I dismembered a Sugar Puffs packet along the way, but at least the wider outline is there now, and it has given me the chance to cut that.

How to do it was the first question. I thought about a saw, or even my shiny new router, but the safest bet seemed to do it handraulically, so I started the slow and painfilled task of filing it down by hand.

And this is where I am with it. Still sanding - I'm going to use a leccy sander for a bit though.

As for the body, once the routing out is done (I've been practising and today is the day), I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ll be applying the comic and then spraying it with a transparent, blue-tinted nitro lacquer. Once that is done and rock solid, we’ll apply the logo and then clear coat it. This will all be quite thin coats, so hopefully drying time won’t kill us if the weather warms up a tad, but I must admit things are tight, but better to get it right…

The J-Bird wiring is without doubt the most ambitious thing I’ve tried to date. First of all, we’ve got a humbucker at the bridge and a traditional P90 at the neck. After lots of looking around, I’m having these both wound by Allan at Catswhisker, after the awesome service and pickup he supplied for the Fat Pussy one. I’ve really been impressed where it counts in both cases.

Obviously, once we have the pickups we need to decide to wire them, and given Andy’s musical interests, for both gigging and recording, the one thing he was totally clear about was that he wanted loads of options.

Sooo…from the top, we’re going for a kinda enhanced set of features. For those of you who know what I mean by the ‘Jimmy Page modification’ when I say that is just a starting point, you’ll probably see what I mean.

In terms of controls, given the difference in the pickups, it makes sense to have two volume and two tone controls.

Each of these, as far as the Jimmy Page goes are put in with push-pull pots, for splitting coils on the pickups and flicking to series and parallel etc.

In our case, we’re going that route, but also complicating things further by introducing a series of on-board effects, which will be controlled by a rotary switch that will replace one of the tone pots. (We lose the coil split on the P90 as that seems to be the least useful in this case).

Just to finish things off, there is also going to be a Kill switch, a la Rage Against The Machine.

All of which is quite daunting, but I’m happy that I’ve sketched it out now and it all seems feasible. Just hope my hand doesn’t carrying on shaking like recently, as I’m not sure I’d be wanting to ask the local tech-type to sort this one out for me…

But there we are, I said I wanted to make something interesting when I first talked about the Katy’s Killer Customs, and man, shaped headstocks, paper and nitro finishes, serious electronics…well, I think I can safely say I got my wish granted…

Introducing The OCD One

Well, after far-too-many delays, I’m finally meeting up with Geoff today to hand over our first ever Katy’s Killer Custom guitar, The OCD One. And I think for both of us it will be a relief; as to be honest it has taken a month longer than I initially hoped and that is a wee bit disappointing. Not that it has been down to a lack of effort, more that for one reason or another – mainly my ropey hands, relying on other people and weather/kids/you name it, it kinda dragged at the end.

Anyway, I gave it a final blast last night, and it plays lovely, so it is all Jooky wrapped and ready to go. So don’t be surprised to see reports of four foot of snow hitting the M5 in the next hour or so.

The guitar itself, I’ve talked about a lot, but basically it is a Strat shaped beauty, with a maple on maple neck, big headstock and Schaller tuners. The body has an amazingly designed cartoon skeleton sort of covering in white with a contrasting black scratchplate with the same design, just in reverse. This has a thin nitro finish over the top, which I’m hoping will age beautifully over the next few years and is stunning to see, though still very much Jooky, it has to be said.

Pickups are a GFS Hot Liverpool Retroton at the bridge and a couple of Kent Armstrong Lipstick single coil pickups. These look the dog’s, but give a great range of sounds. We have a micro-switch to coil tapp the humbucker, which works nicely and a kill switch to do some odd stuff with. Which is all good fun.

Other than that, I’ve done a second loaded scratchplate, this one with more standard Strat pickups, with the design of the main body – so it will have a nice white-on-white look to it when Geoff gives it a run out. It’s a nice option to have, though how much it gets used is up to Geoff of course.

As this was our first ever Custom, I’d said to Geoff that he doesn’t have to have it if it doesn’t work for him, but I hope he will, as it really does have a lot of him in it and it would be a shame for all the effort on his part not to come to something. (Unless he hates it, of course, but there we are.) If he doesn’t like it when he finally sees it, well I’ll bring my baby home and keep her, ‘cos lets face it, there is a lot of me in there too…and there will always be a roof for her if ever she is stuck...

A Katy's Killer Custom, Surely not...

Well, I spent a bit of time playing the OCD One today (without any dodgy buzzing), and despite the fact that I probably shouldn’t say this – it is a real stunner. I was meant to be handing it over to the main man, but that turned into a complete balls-up on my part, but hopefully it will finally happen tomorrow. Sorry Geoff :(

As I’ve said before, the choice of pickups was a bit of a shot in the dark, two Kent Armstrong lipstick pickups a la Danelectro/Stevie Ray Vaughan with a GFS Hot Liverpool Retrotron at the bridge, well who could possibly have told what that would really turn out like?

But all modesty apart, it is bleedin’ gorgeous.

The sound is immense, everything I hoped it would be, and with a fantastic clarity. The maple fretboard just feels beautiful, even I felt like I was flying over it, and the finish – while still Jooky at heart, just works perfectly. I must admit that initially I was a little worried that a covered scratchplate in this case would be a bit much and even suggested a plain scratchplate, but Geoff went with this and I have to say he was bang on the money, it is absolutely perfect.

To top it off, there is a little coil-tap switch to split the humbie, and just because I wanted to try doing it proper-like, there is a kill switch too. I mentioned before, that there is also a second scratchplate – with three Fender single coils in it, in case Geoff fancies a different look and sound…

So, the first of our Katy’s Killer Customs is finished, it took longer than I had originally hoped due to my jigsaw performance early on, and the wiring shenanigans, sick kids and blizzards later, but even so, what little delay that meant was genuinely worth it in the end.

I just hope Geoff agrees when he gets his hands on it soooon.

Sooper coooool, and not a little killer.

p.s. More fotos and blurb about the girl tomorrow..)

The Worst Cover Band In The World.....EVER?

Is this the worst cover band/version ever…?

I saw this mentioned on the MR forums the other day, and it is just too funny not to pass on…

The solo is a dream, worth skipping forward to 2 minutes 20 seconds for, if you can’t stand listening that long…

Floating Like A Turtle

I said before that when I got the body for the J-Bird One, I also got a second body to play with too.

Anyway, bored as I’ve been, I’ve been thinking what that little treasure is going to do with it’s life too, and have come up with a plan.

Firstly, I have a quite lovely Strat neck. Biggish headstock, so a lot more trad Jazzy-like than the J-Bird will be, but there we are. The neck is a handmade, nitro finished jobbie, which is all cool. Lovely in fact.

In terms of pickups, I got a couple of P90 Soapbars out of a PRS SE Soapbar which I really want to try in the Ash Jaguar body. These are the pickups I used in The Paisley One, all those months ago, and that sounded beautiful, so I have high hopes. 

I’ve never really been that grabbed by PRS guitars, but their cheapo SE range seems a lot more interesting to me, and they seem to have an attention to detail whatever the price when it comes to the pups. I also got some from a PRS Tremonti, which is cool. Whoever he is.

As far as tuners go, this isn’t a Jazzmaster clone trip, but I do have some Kluson-esque tuners, that I might use, which could be good. I like the split pole thing, even if they can be a pain to string-up.

In terms of the finish, I have some fine purply pink paisley I’ve been looking for a good place to use and I can feel a bit of glitter sneaking in somewhere too.

Only fly in the ointment for all of this is that like the J-Bird I need to route out some wood to fit the P90s in…and still no router to play with.

Still, I think Katy's Killer Customs apart, The Purple Turtle One will fill an hour or fifty over the coming weeks. 

Here's a bit of Silver Mountain Zion

A Funny Old Year - The Story So Far

Well, I've had a grim day. I was meant to be going to see Geoff and handover the OCD One (finally), but a combination of sick kids, knackered car - which still got nicked - and visits from health 'professionals' to sort out my crippledness kinda put the mockers on such delights.

Instead then, I've managed to do zilch of interest, watched Harry Hill, Pokemon, Fireman Sam and some other things I can't even name and, well, there we are.

I did realise that Jooky is pretty much one year old now, though the first guitar didn't come along until February in truth. It took a while that one, lots of chiseling if I remember rightly.

There are others I could have included, but they haven't been finished, have been abandoned, or like Geoff's I haven't gotten around to taking a final foto...but will do soon (when I can find the camera).

Anyway, as a Jooky Advent Calendar - that makes no sense at all, here is the guitar story so far, in no particular order, and as per, not making any kind of sense...

Blimey, Double Bubble

Well, it doesn't happen very often - as I'm not that organised, let's face it - but for once we have two of our finest Leona's Groovy Guitars up for grabs at the moment...which would make lovely Christmas presents (ahem).

First up in the hot, sticky and seedy The Fat Pussy One. This little baby is sleaze incarnate, with a single Catswhisker Fat Moggy P90 pickup, coil-tapped and a kill switch to boot. This is a pure rock machine, in the truest sense and you won't be able to keep your hands off her.


Click Here for more info...

Secondly, is our wee Dano inspired The Jangly One. All the sounds you'd expect with a bit more besides, and the first example of our new and exciting Lulu's Copper Tops, in the shape of a hand enamelled (well blow-torched) scratchplate. There hasn't been a Jooky guitar anywhere near close this one before, and probably won't be again.

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As ever, both are one-offs and never to be repeated designs...

What can I say? They won't be around for long, they never are...

Sold: The Jangly One

Picture the scene, you step onto a stage surrounded by white rabbits, slip your square, purple shades onto the end of the bridge of your nose and breath in the fumes of a field full of flower haired free lovers. It’s quite a sight, you look around and realise, yeah, it’s time to Jangle in the sun.

The Jangly One is pure and simple, ‘60s psychedelia, from it’s jingle jangle roots, to the acid fried paisley design – like an explosion in a batik mill - all the way down to the hand crafted and enamelled scratchplate. Based on a Danelectro ’59, it has all the sounds you’d expect, but with a bit more oomph thanks to Uncle kent Armstrong, who is probably missing the fun in a workshop near Dudley. Who knows?

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



Technical Stuff:

Type: Leona’s Groovy Guitar

Electrics: Kent Armstrong Hot Lipstick Pickups

Guitar Type: Danelectro ’59 Re-issue

Construction: Cloth over wood. Special ‘Lulu Copper Top’ hand enamelled copper scratchplate

Strings: Fender Stainless Steel 10s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: Two Volume, Pickup selector

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

Serial Number: JGE#19

RSP: £399SOLD

Sold: The Fat Pussy One

Sometimes you just want dirty. Nothing flash, just grimy, seedy, hot and sticky, need fulfilling instant gratification. Sometimes you just want to plug-in, hit it hard and feel your pulse racing as endorphins start to cook, testosterone shoots to your brain and the need, that aching, criminal, sick and twisted urgent need just takes you over. You live in a bubble on the edge of a moment, working for that single jarring explosion, face gurning, lung torturing satisfaction. 

And that is what The Fat Pussy One is all about a single, beautyfilled horrible sick and twisted judder of a pickup that goes straight for the jugular. A simple yet infinitely possible sound that lets you plug in and play.

And that is what it is all about. A single pickup guitar, a hand scattered Catswhisker P90 Fat Moggy pickup, coil-tapped to give you a second sound, a second moment. A kill switch to judder those highs, turn the gut wrenching lows into something primal, something deadly. The Fat Pussy One has a need, and delivers straight from the start. No need to do the chocolate and flowers thing, it’s a raging certainty.

*

To be clear, The Fat Pussy 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 hot night in Balsall Heath. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.

This Guitar Has Been Sold - Sorry about that :)

Technical Stuff:

Type: Leona’s Groovy Guitar

Electrics: Catswhisker P90 ‘Fat Moggy’.

Guitar Type: Fender Stratocaster Style

Construction: Cloth over wood. Fender USA Tuners

Strings: Fender Stainless Steel 10s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: Single Volume, Push-pull for Coil-Tapp, Kill Switch

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

Serial Number: JGE#20

RSP: £399

Introducing The Jangly One

Well, The Jangly One I told you I pretty much finished the other day, but I forgot to go back and upload some fotos...so let me introduce you to my latest babba.

As mentioned many times before, she is based on a Danelectro '59 Reissue, and has been upgraded in the pickup and tuner departments, to give her a bit more stability on the tuning and oomph where it counts.

As well as that, I've gone for a totally in-yer-face paisley finish, and topped this off with my very first bit of Lulu Copper Topping, with a 'hand crafted' (cut out) copper scratchplate that has been enameled to within an inch of it's life. (covered with glass powder and melted in an oven and with a blowtorch)

And god does she play? 

Does she? 

Does she?

Yep. she is stunning, in a Danelectro kind of way and the fotos really (truly and madly, but rarely deeply) do any kind of justice to either the finish, or the scratchplate, which has a couple of kinds of glitter in there too, just to really catch the light.

Anyway, I've talked lots about this before, so here are the fotos...nuff said.

I'm really looking forward to getting on to my full copper topped Tele now, mind...

I am what I am...la la laaa

One thing I've been threatening to do for a while is buy a router. This might be quite an admission for a 'Guitar maker', and if I were a traditional luthier, it would either be commercial suicide (on the basis that I must be buying the woody bits in) or a massive selling point, as the alternative would be that I am hand chiseling everything out of old tree stumps.

In my case of course, neither is true as so far my 'approach' has been to buy pre-Mojo'd parts (second hand to you and me) and turn them into something new. In the poetry/art world this is known as 'found art', and is seen as very clever. In my case it is probably because I am cheap.

But a router I am getting as basically, there are jobs that would be a lot easier (I need to fit a soapbar P90 and a full sized humbucker in Andy's J-Bird One, when the body is routed for three single coils, f'rinstance), but also because I still want to make a couple of types of original-ish bodies myself. Not through any need to be seen as  a 'real' luthier - just because I'm wondering if I can, and to be honest I am limited to some extent by the bodies I have available when I sit down to make something. I'm nowt if not pragmatical-like.

I do see Jooky as something different though, and it is nice that a few people seem to get that too. I've said it before that there are loads of really talented luthiers in the UK - people like Wes Venables, The Creamery, Feline, all of whom I've mentioned here, and I'm quite happy to not be one of them. Jooky is a bit more punk than that, I think, and all about the 'What if' rather than the 'what sells'. The fact that people do buy them here and there means I can carry on making more. If that makes me a hobbiest to be sneered at, well, I've been laughed at before and still got on with what I see as cool and not done or felt the worse for it. I've been in the art and literary world for years, trust me them there people can sneer to Olympic standard.

So this is me, off to buy a router this week, for better or worse. This is what I do and all is cool as far as I am concerned. Join in, watch or ignore me as you see fit, it is all the same to me, sugar. But I tell you want, nobody makes guitars like I do. La la & laaaaa  ;)

Irrelevent Guitar Lust

Oooh, nothing to do with Jookydom, but I just saw this on Ebay...

Nice

Introducing The Fat Pussy One

Well, I'm pleasured to introduce you to the latest wee Jooky guitar, the rather fetching and very delightfilled beauty that is The Fat Pussy one. And I have to say, I'm really rather pleased with myself over this one.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I've long fancied trying a Hand Scattered (isn't that a lovely phrase?) humbucker sized P90 pickup from Allan Price at Catswhisker. Allan is one of a few top notch 'winders' of pickups in the UK and an utter gent to deal with. Makes a nice change to be able to talk about somebody doing exactly what they say, earlier than promised and then that the end product happens to be better than you hoped, but this is it. A golden moment.

No, the irony isn't lost on me.

But the proof is in the stuffing it down your throat, after all, and this pickup really delivers in spades. It is quite simply perfect.
To put that into context, The Fat Pussy One is a single pickup guitar, so you always worry that it will be limited, but the fact that the pickup was set-up with the option of switching out-of-phase, means that you get two great tones for the price of one little chrome topped hunk of magnet and wire. And what you get are two amazingly raw and somehow 'real' sounds, that just make you want to play more and more. And even with my dodgy hands at the moment, I can't help but keep going back to this guitar - it just sounds 'proper', without any of the muddiness of humbuckers. I just love it.

When James Sant bought the P90 equipped Jazzmaster-esque The Psychedelic Surf One a while back, I remember him describing it as 'it sounds like sex in your face' and you can say the same of the Fat Pussy One, there is something primal about it.

I am a bit of a P90 nut, as you probably realise reading this blog, but I'm happy to say that this is the best P90 I've ever had the joy to play. And I like to think I've at least played most of the ones around these days, and quite a few of the 'originals' too.

But the guitar - well, in simple terms it has a single P90 with a single volume knob. This is a push-pull pot though, which changes the 'phase' - and the out-of-phase 'mode' is a joy, on a Strat you are getting that BB King/Peter Green hollowness, which is amazing for blues and Jazz, while the straight P90, well, take your pick.

As a bit of fun, I also put a red-topped Kill Switch on, which is great fun and a must if you like your effects laden noise-ville sonic architecturey...

What else? Well, golden USA Fender tuners are a joy to use as ever, and I can't quite believe I've got this far in describing an entrant to the Jooky academe without mentioning the cool black and red Paisley finishing combo...which just works perfectly.  And I need not say more, for once.

But there we are. As you can tell, I'm a tad chuffed with this one, especially since I rewired the Kill Switch so it works the right way around..

The Fat Pussy One, and ode to Jook, methinks.