I'll show you mine, If...

I Grow My Own Mushrooms.

I don't say that to impress you, or make such a claim to add some sort of organically fairly traded glister to the Jooky corporate image,
I just thought I'd mention it.

Nothing flash, just a five quid kit from the garden centre.

I also like making other things out of junk, or compost, I guess.

Organic, or inorganic,
I don't mind really.

I'm not into Jooky for the money either.

Good job, you might say,
but there we go.

So perhaps something I should have mentioned earlier is that despite me putting prices on things here, I would actually, really prefer to barter or trade for other things.

Guitar stuff, mainly,
though nothing shiny and new
that isn't my thing.

I don't know what I want though
maybe a knackered old beaten up
Les Paul or SG shaped guitar
that could be fun
or things like that.

Something old and a bit crappy in truth
though no woodwork required
or straightening of necks
or such things.

Parts are always good
or basically just
interesting stuff.

I like interesting stuff
so try me.

Guess this makes more sense when there is something here to see you might want or like

More Fake Nostalgia - Coming Soonish

I mentioned a while back that I was planning on doing my best to make sure that we at any one time, have at least one of each of our things - Amy, Cheryl, Sophie and Leona - and with the school holibobs over, I figured I'd better get me finger out a wee bit and do something about it.

I also said, recently, that I'd got an idea for some 'classic' looking amps, effects etc. and well, basically, I figured I might as well use them as a way forward.

Where I'm going with this, is that I bought these tins a while back, with no real reason in mind, and so I'm going to turn them into either amps - Amy or Cheryl, or maybe a couple of each - and some into fuzz boxes.

There will still be only one of each design made, so I'm not selling out - man - and I won't sell all of them, as I quite fancy one or two around the house meself. But making them would be a step forward, lets face it.

Here's what I'm aiming for then:

1. The Beatles & The Stones:

I think Serge Pepper has to be an amp, and The Stones surely has to be a dirty little scrubber like our Sophie. That was easy to decide.
Free Mars bar if you buy these...
La la la




2. Pink Floyd and The Who:

Despite the fact that they are liars - I went to Yorkshire and looked all through the fone book for Townsend or Daltrey and I am positive that none of The Who, Live In Leeds - I've always had a sort of detached liking for them. Pink Floyd have grown on me over the years as well, and Dark Side of The Moon is still quality, apart from the shonky sound effects.

Not sure which will be the amp and which the fuzz here yet..though it is probably obvious in truth.


3. The Sex Pistols and The Clash:

Getting into things I really remember rather than have picked-up on later, I'm happy to say that 'Punk' infects this whole Jooky phenomena - ahem - with it's DIY principles, even if it never was like that really, but there we go. The Sixties was probably boring too outside of Woodstock.

Two Clash tins, for some reason, so overall I think two amps, and London Calling for our Sophie.



4. The Mini and The VW:

Last but not least, I really liked these Haynes manual tins, for some reason, maybe even because I grew up downwind of Longbridge and am quite keen on The Magic Bus.

Mini for a mini amp, and some Volkswagens can sound a bit fuzzy to me these days, so easie peasie.

So that is the wee plan. Haven't got a clue when I'll do them, and there will be some other, more Jookified, tins and cigar boxes on the horizon too, but there you go. Oh, I'll call these our Foney Nostalgic Collection...

The Jooky Hall of Fame

Looking around the web, guitarists seem to spend a lot of time deciphering serial numbers and basically trying to work out what it is that they have bought. It shouldn't be a surprise really, as  in the 50s and 60s people probably thought they were selling an instrument to a musician - or more likely some scruffy delinquent - and not feeding OCD-like behaviour in the anally-retentive fifty-odd years later.

As we are in the business of one-offs, it is obviously a wee bit easier to keep track, and so we thought we'd just have a list on our web site, so that there is no argument. We also thought having one simple 1,2,3 approach to serial numbers would again keep things easy.

So with all due aplomb, err, here it is then.

JGE#1 "The Little Square One" - Made 23rd November 2009 - Cheryl-tone Amp
JGE#2 "The Despotic One" - Made 14th December 2009 - Amy-tone Amp
JGE#3 "The Snake Hipped One" - Made 16th December 2009 - Amy-tone Amp
JGE#4 "The Gonzo Gonzalez One" - Made 20th December 2009 - Amy-tone Amp
JGE#5 "The Shakey Spear One" - Made 22nd December 2009 - Amy-tone Amp
JGE#6 "The Paisley One" - Made 1st February 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar with added Sophie's Filthy Boots Fuzz
JGE#7 "The Pink Hephalump One"  - Made 15th February 2010 - Amy-tone Amp
JGE#8 "The Pretty In Pimp One" - Made 4th April 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar
JGE#9 "The Golden Shower One" - Made 28th February 2011 - Marilyn's Gold Top
JGE#10 "The Psychedelic Surf One" - Made 30th April 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar
JGE#11 "The Beano One" - Made 15th May 2010 - Kylie's Cool Guitar
JGE#12 "The Groovy One" - Made 31st May 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar
JGE#13 "The Mellow One" - Made 15th July 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar
JGE#14 "The Funky One" - Made 10th November 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar
JGE#15 "The Spangled One" - Made 8th August 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar
JGE#16 "The OCD One" - Made 31st October 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar - Katy's Killer Custom #1
JGE#17 "The Loveless One" - Made 5th April 2011 - Marilyn's Gold Top
JGE#18 "The Peace Train One" - Made 11th November 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar
JGE#19 "The Jangly One" - Made 1st December 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar - Lulu's Copper Top
JGE#20 "The Fat Pussy One" - Made 21st November 2010 - Leona's Groovy Guitar
JGE#22 "The Daisy Jook One" - Made 14th February 2011 - Leona's Groovy Guitar

Last one until I build it, Promise

OK, the gold scratchplate

- admittedly not looking as gold in t' foto as it does in the confines of real life -

but here it is placed lovingly
on top of the green velvet,
itself placed hap and hazardly
on top of the guitar,
with some other bits
liberally chucked on for
context.

I took hours over this foto, truly.

I think we can start building next week,
which will be fun,
but I fear that a fair old bit of preparation
might be the order of the first week
or two...

La la & la

I'm thinking maybe purple velvet...or
is that a wee bit
OC&D
even for
me?

Golden Slumbers

As a quick follow on to my colourific dilemmas of yesterday..

I've been trying a gold scratchplate idea on for size..

This I see going over the green velvet which would be the main body colour - but how to make one, when you want something like a squier thinline tele thing, but don't want to spend any pennies?

First step is to cut the shape out in cardboard

Second is to glue some of the golden suede stuff on

Thirdly, I shape it as though carving the very thing from pure spun gold..

After that?

Well, it's still drying, so that is it so far.


The P100s arrived today too, which is cool as a cool thing.

That's it, really.



Can you see what it is, yet?

Ch-ch-changing... Meet Leona, She's Grrooovvvyyy

As I hadn't got around to it before, I figured that as there may well be a couple of our fine and distinct guitars floating around, at least floating around here, it would be a fine old time to give the series of guitars a name. You know, like the amps and the fuzzy things.

I am pleased to say then, that joining Cheryl, Amy and Sophie, and their amps and effects, we are pleased to now introduce that groovy honey Leona, and her range of Jookified guitars, all of which will be known from this time onwards, as Leona's Groovy Guitars.

At least until I get bored again or sued and change my mind.

History has of course been rewritten and the naming of the links altered to show that this was always so.

Go visit Leona HERE or by clicking on her name at the top of the page...



p.s. Obviously, the foto has nowt to do with the guitars. That is Leona Lewis who lovely though she is, has nowt to do with this, bless her.

Insight Into The Workings Of My Mind

So, here I am, getting this here tele build bobbins together.

I've sort of got a sustainer working - on a breadboard thing - which is amazing and I can't wait to start to build it properly and put it in a guitar. I mean, for me, this is truly gob-smacking, I've made something that first of all works, and secondly works properly, as far as I can tell anyway.

This is really cool.

Amazing in fact as I didn't copy it off anybody, I just read some posts on a forum about how the Fernandes one works and some people talking on a blog about ones they have made. There used to be tonnes of information about DIY sustainers, but apparently that got deleted due to inter-nicene warfare over who is cleverest or something. Which you have to say is a bit pathetic. If I get it working well I'll do some proper plans and stuff so anybody can have a go at it.

Anyway, I'm pleased, kinda proud and itching to do it for real.

And I've got a guitar to put together in March that is waiting for it.

It is perfect timing, for once in my life, and everything is coming together.

I'm so excited at the prospect that I've not even thought about a cool name for the sustainer - they all have to have one, of course.

So here I am and what am I thinking about?

What am I spending my time doing?

Yep, I can't make up my mind on whether the guitar should be covered in gold suede or green velvet fabric.

Really.

I've got a Ferrari to make and I'm picking out the curtains.

Beyond sad.

I'm turning wench, there is no denying it.



So which do you think - green or gold?

Blah blah

Oh, one bit of good news.
I've managed to get a pair of Gibson P100 pickups, which are like soapbar P90s but doubled-up so that they are humbucking. I'm not sure whether they will both go on this guitar or not - if I do the sustainer they probably won't, but we'll have to see. Also I'll have to do a bit of jiggling on the £100 front if I use both of them as at the moment I'd be over budget.

Decisions, decisivenessly am we.

Really though, green or gold?

Leona's Groovy Guitars

After a while of making a handful of little Amps, a couple of Fuzz Boxes and generally not getting very far in the production stakes, we felt it was time to slow things down.

Stress is a killer after all.

So instead of making things that only take a couple of hours last a few weeks, we thought we could really stretch it out by making some other things that are generally known to take quite a while.

We figured we could probably retire on those.

So Leona's Groovy Guitars were born with a spark in the eye, and despite a demur cast-down-gaze, they were destined to have a pumping, funking, grooving-and-a-moving beat in their heart, and a dress sense that would make some pimp-envying-gangsta-rapper blush.

Leona's Groovy Guitars were born then, with a simple idea - we would take parts of guitars and then build something new from them.

We'd add a twist or two of our own and generally make something unique that is cool to play and more to the point stunning to look at.

We wanted art, not discussions like:
'Can-I-have-a-Cherry-Sunburst-I-Really-Like-The-Cherry-Ones-With-The-Stripes-Like-Gibson-do-but-can-it-be-a-bit-cheaper'.

We wanted Paisley, and Velvet not wood stain and Nitrocellulose.

We wanted glamour and sex appeal, head-turning-tongue-hanging looks with  voice to die for.

We wanted sex-on-a-stick and the sound of an angel one minute, yet a heaving banshee next.

We called them Leona after some wench we met once and not any famous person you may have heard of.

We called them groovy because, let's face  it, they bleedin' are.

We made The Paisley One as our first ever Leona's Groovy Guitar.

I think that may be known as setting your stall out.

To see if there are any for sale Click Here

The Golden & The Green

I have to admit, at times I can be pretty indecisive. Very in fact. Not when it comes to important things, but when it really doesn't matter I can take forever to decide what I want to do.

Sometimes longer,
just depends really.

Anyway, my £100 challenge guitar, The Nouveau Riche One, I mentioned before that it was going to be gold suede covered with a '70s Di Marzio Dual Sound pickup,
but, well,
now it won't 

The suede looked nice, but not as striking as I'd like and the pickup I've sold on to a fella who is going to put it in a Jagstang. No big deal, and no real reason for the change other than it just didn't feel right. I couldn't even begin to think about mentioning that I wouldn't be able to tell you why that is was or may well have been.

So where does that leave me?
The colour now then, I think will still be given by some cloth and I've ordered some British racing green crushed velvet, which should look opulent by anybody's standards.

As to the pickup, well, I don't know. On one side I'm thinking P90 as I love the sound in the Paisley One, but then it is meant to drive a sustainer, so maybe a hot, high powered humbucker would make more sense, ignoring the fact that I've already bought and sold a rather brilliant one of those.

So what to do, who can say.

The Paisley One - On The Bay

Well, I've done something I never do, over the last week or two, and got rid of a few guitars and related bobbins.

It's funny how you collect these things, but I realised that there are only so many I can actually play, and so...better to make a bit of room.

I think generally, I'm getting into the whole Jooky thing a bit more seriously now. Lots of people are visiting the 'For Sale' part of the site, and finding nothing, and more are asking when they can buy various stuff. So it would be nice to get a bit on top, I reckon. If I'm being honest, I like it too, which is the main thing.

Anyway, as the final plank of my decluttering tendency, I've put The Paisley One up on eBay, and am open to offers. That is the hard one, as it is the first Jooky guitar I've made and I have to say I love it loads, but there we are.

Half making space, and half a justification to make more guitars.
And my Tele is so ready to be made now.
The Nouveau Riche One as it is soon to be known.

If you fancy The Paisley One with it's lovely fuzz and good looks, you can buy it or make an offer HERE.

Getting My Bobbins Together

Not a lot to report, other than that I have a few wee boxes I'm putting together at the moment.
Might even finish them if the school hollibobs ever end...

I've decided on a bit of a Rock 'n' Roll tribute theme - The Beatles, The Stones, The Pistols and The Clash, and maybe even The Floyd...we'll just have to see.

Oh, they will be pocket sized amps or maybe some of them will be fuzz boxes even.
Still working it out, to be honest.

Other than that, some of my bits and bobbins showed-up today - some faux suede in a nice gold colour, and then some other parts - a bridge and tailpiece, which I think will prove to be, err, golden. I also got a pickup at the weekend. Not the P90 I thought, instead a genuine 1970s Di Marzio pickup, which should be higher output - to help the sustainer - and yet quiet and hum-free.

Maybe.

Sold: The Pink Hephalump One

Picture the scene..

You wake-up one morning still walking,
yawning sounds of Amsterdam around you,
salty fragrance of a night's excess clinging to your hair,
your clothes.

You reach into  your pocket,
pat your jacket for the shake of a matchbox,
for the McGuinn jangle of your bordello-boarding house keys,
met only with a semi-solid thump of an unexpected
lump in your jeans
pocket.

Reaching in you look around,
stragglers still trying to wipe the condensation from windows,
trying to peep at long gone

girlza 

girlza 

girlza.

Sound like they are from Dublin;
party people.

You look down at the half-forgotten lump you are
grasping in tar-stained fingers and
see the glitter-sparkle of an elephant's arse.

Smell the faint traces of vanilla tobacco,
realise that it is a Jooky little amp you are holding -
neat, little thing, it raises a half smile.

Perhaps you could busk your way home,
that could be fun.

You look around for a long gone Rickie,
then remember Paula.







Unfortunately, you can’t buy The Pink Hephalump One, as somebody nice beat you to it.

Technical Stuff:
Amp Type: Amy-Tone
Output: ½-1 Watt
Box Type: Pink Elephant Cigarette Packet
Construction: Varnished Fag Packet
Dimensions 100mm x 48mm x 15mm
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#7
RSP: £500

Loving A Good Plan

Well, my Pink Heffalump is drying at the moment, but hopefully all will be revealed over the weekend. It looks good fun, so with a bit of the lucky stuff it will hit the spot.

Meanwhile, in Distraction City UK, I have been-a-plotting my next thingie, and basically planning how my £100 Challenge guitar will come together.

My basic idea is cunningly simple - I want something that is totally off the wall and slightly barking. I also don't want to do any woodwork or painting right now and so am going for another cloth finish, but something different this time, I feel.

The plan then - which will no doubt have changed twice before I reach the end of this post -

a.  Get a cheap Telecaster
b.  Strip all the parts off and sell them on eBay
c. Strip down the neck and stain it very dark before adding a glittery kind of finish.
d. Add gold coloured tuners - indeed all the parts will be gold coloured for total gaudiness
e. Make some kinds of holes in the body for resonance.
f. Cover the body in cloth - I'm thinking velvet or faux suede right now, not sure which.
g. Add some kind of fancy Gibson Semi type of tailpiece and bridge
h. Add a scratchplate from a Semi - I got one for a fiver off a nice chap on the MusicRadar forums this week.
i. Add a powerfilled P90 at the bridge
j. Make a Sustainer and put that at the neck.

And then I guess try and make everything work.

Now, I know, this all seems a touch on the ambitious side, especially as I haven't tried making a sustainer yet and will only have a month to put everything together, but there you go.

So the hunt for components begins. I have got the Tele and will flog the spare parts, hopefully to fund other bits 'n' bobbins.

I must admit, I might fit some rubbish here and there for the challenge and then replace it with better stuff later, just depends on whether I can sell the original bits, to be honest as I'm brassic...

La la la

This Gun For Hire

As the regular reader will know - just ask her - the Jooky way is a meandering little path, that tends to follow the muse rather than the cash register. As such, I seem to spend most of my time answering emails that ask -

'Will you make me...'
with my own that say
'Sorry, but no...'.
Not because I'm unhelpful, just that I do this for fun, have little time and lets face it, am hardly innit for the money, am I?

It came as quite a surprise the other week then, when I said 'Yes' and indeed offered.
Not sure what came over me,
but there we go.

Which brings me to something slightly new, which is making an amp out of a cigarette packet.
New to me, I mean, Smokey have been doing the same thing for a couple of decades, but new nonetheless.

And that is what I've started and I liked the packet, hence the post, although rather let down by the photography, I'm afraid.

What you can see there is one packet that has just been painted with some gubbins that will make the card go a bit more plasticcy, and the other that hadn't then but has now.

Hopefully, it will be done shortly - the amp, and I'll let you see what delights glitter so.

Oh, the amp will be called 'The Pink Hephalump One' though what the other box will be used for, I'm not sure right now.

La la..

Too much coffee today, I fear

Sold: The Paisley One

It wasn't all free love and The Beatles vs. The Stones in the Sixties, there was a fella who played the Guitar called Hendrix, and a thirst for invention and advancement that saw mankind race to the moon...look around and then come back with some Seaside-of-Tranquility rock for the kids.

Millions watched in black and white as an acid-fuelled world turned technicolour around them, before Jimi burned his guitar and single-handedly ended the Viet Nam war.


I might have that part wrong, I wasn't born until '68 so I am basing a lot of this found-memory on Time Life commercials and the dim recollections of my parents.

Ever since, we have all become accustomed to a variety of re-writes of history and the glorification of the dead stars of the day.

Jim Morrison was the lizard king not some fat alkie who rarely washed.

Janis Joplin was an artist not a clapped out drunk who ingested her body weight in Southern Comfort before breakfast,

And of course Jimi Hendrix was the best guitarist ever to grace the planet,
despite never being able to keep his guitar in tune.

And it is Hendrix that inspired us to make this unique piece of guitar history that is The Paisley One.

It is Hendrix that we thought we would cynically cash-in on, like everybody else does

It is Hendrix and the questions that are raised every time the circulation of a guitar magazine dips,
that pushed us to think about the eternal lament -

'What would he be doing now if he hadn't snuffed it?'

And The Paisley One is our response to that unanswerable question.

The Paisley One is our retort aimed with barbs at the Disney-esque 'Gibson Hendrix Authentic Electric Guitar' and to all the other phony nostalgia that people pedal, based on myths about stars they never met or even rated at the time.

There were forty million people at the Isle of Wight festival back then, 
and they are just the people I've met.
Woodstock?
I hate to think.

And The Paisley One is our response,
for we truly believe that if Jimi Hendrix were alive today,
he wouldn't be stretching the limits of music and musicianship
with midi-controlled voodoo robots,
and he wouldn't be creating
Venusian soundscapes
full of psychedelic volcanoes
erupting dolphin-inspired
operas.

Nope, he would be doing what
every
other
relic
of that decade is doing and
would be playing
a
Paisley
Strat
on the end of a pier
or if he is lucky
in a Vegas casino,
or at the Albert Hall,
cashing in on ersatz nostalgia and
burning
his
guitar
twice
a
night
and three times on Saturday
for the Chicken-Kiev-in-a-basket brigade.

So it was with sadness that we set out to create a Paisley Strat,
to add our own tribute to the King of the Fuzz
to a world already teeming with them
in the shape of a guitar with a Strat body, PRS pickup, Suhr shaped headstock
and a Jooky built-in Sophie's Filthy Boots fuzz thing.

It was with a tear that we tracked down the coolest and grooviest design and
finished it with true psychedelic love.

We did it for Jimi,
and we did it for you
just you
to give you a piece of Jimi
to let you say you have
his guitar
because you are special
and we're not
at all
cynical
we love Jimi
and you
especially
you.

And we feel Jimi
would have wanted it
would have wanted you to have
The Paisley One,
to own his guitar.

Be him.

And one lucky person can now be Jimi,
can own his guitar,
can be
The Paisley One.

But there can only ever be one Jimi Hendrix
can only be one owner of The Paisley One
can only be one Paisley One
Will it be you?


To be clear, The Paisley One is an utterly unique instrument, and there will never, ever, be another made.
It is signed and numbered, and was entirely handmade by somebody who was at least born as a product of the Summer of Love, even if you weren't.

We're Sorry to say that you can't buy this guitar, as it has now been Sold.

Technical Stuff:
Type: Custom Guitar
Output: Single PRS P90 Bridge Pickup
Guitar Type: Based on a Fender Stratocaster shaped guitar with a Gibson-rip-off-style-headstock
Construction: Cloth over wood
Power: 9V Battery for the Fuzz effect
Output: ¼” Guitar Lead
Modes: Standard Bridge P90 and Sophie's Filthy Boots Fuzz, selected via a Slide Switch
Controls: Volume and Tone. Tone provides a fuzz level control when in Sophie's Filthy Boots Mode
Special Stuff: Certificate of Authenticity, Builder Signed and Numbered, All Wrapped with our Trademark Jooky Wrapping.
Serial Number: JGE#6
RSP: £SOLD

And now..

Well, the Paisley One is there at last, and between tweaking it a wee bit and playing it a fair bit more, it has been quite nice to get to the end of that particular, err, 'journey'.

I am soooo very Generation Zzzzz.

But, that isn't the end of things and it is equally cute to get back on track with what I should have been doing in the first place, and building some amps and effects.

To set the ball-a-rolling then, I'm going to put together a couple of Sophie's and an Amy or two. Maybe even a Cheryl if I'm feeling adventurous. I'm also plotting something new for the Cigar Box Guitar on the horizon, which will be nice.

Oh, and there is also a little Pink Elephant or two that I've got to get my head around...next in fact, but more on that anon.

But it is late,
or early

it is all
about
perspex

nitey-nite

Finally, Really Finished, Honest

Well, I thought it would never end, never mind you, but I am oh-so-gloriously-happy to be able to say that I have finally finished The Paisley One. Or JGE#6 as it will be forever known.

For the record - it is based upon a second hand Strat type body and I believe a Squier neck of some kind, although cut into the shape of a Suhr.

Though, I might struggle to pass this off as that.

The body is covered in a beautifully colour-rich fulsomeness of paisley fabric, which has been glossed to a sheen and sort of polished a bit here and there. Which makes taking fotos a bit tricky, but there we are.

The scratchplate is a second hand, left-handed one I flipped over and covered with the same cloth.

The pickup is a single P90 that came off a PRS SE One, that sounds excellent and sustains for a week at least.

The Volume pot is just that, but the Tone pot is really a Fuzz control knob thing, for the cunningly hidden-under-the-hood Sophie's Filthy Boots Fuzzy thing, that is switched on with a little sliding switch on the scratchplate.

Other than that, I've put a nice ashtray bridge cover on which serves no practical purpose and doesn't quite fit right despite the gentle persuasion of my lump hammer. It looks good though, and that'll do for now.

All in all though, it sounds amazing and is all made from lots and lots of boney old scrag end...which is of course what my Jooky little adventure is about..

I'll try and record a video or something later on so you can hear The Paisley One in action


Cool as

Finally, Nearly...OK, I Still Haven't Finished

I'll admit it, despite spending a whole 37 minutes on it earlier today, The Paisley One lies uncomplete on the kitchen table, and I've resorted to beer.

Now, don't get me wrong, I did actually do something. I foiled the cavities - if that doesn't sound like something they are introducing in Manchester Airport - and I sorted all the knobs and pots and jacks and little match box with the Sophie's Filthiness inside it, and I even put a string on to see whether it sort of worked.

And I'm pleased to say that it sort of worked,
better even when I flipped the pots over and
put the wires
in
the
right
places.

But it isn't finished, and is all a tad noisy-in-a-bad-way for my liking.
So I need to do more
but not tonight
with beer to drink.

La la & a la.