Any Colour You Like Baby

One of the things that has set me on my merry way with all this Jooky stuff, is the idea that in these days of mass production in guitarland, big American corporations utilising off-shore construction and everything else, that it is still possible to do-it-small, and make something cool without charging thousands for it.

Don't get me wrong, money is useful, but I'd much rather have the fun of building things without being scared that I've invested my life savings, or borrowed shed-loads of money, and that if I don't sell that Swarovski  encrusted Flying V for a few grand I'm back on the streets and pimping the brats to the local priest.

Which of course is why the guitars I've sold so far have been - let's face it - crazily cheap, and despite being all the things that normally cost the earth (one-off, unique, hand-made etc.) that's the way I like it. Saying that, I got told that they were suspiciously cheap, and I have noticed that the more I charge for them the quicker they sell, but there we are...guitarists are a strange breed. Luckily I can eat whether they sell or not.

But suspiciously cheap?
Well, I can see the point of the suggestion. If you put a couple hundred quid's worth of pickups in a guitar and then sell it for the same sort of price, it does look odd, I guess.

So how does that happen?
Well, as I might have mentioned once or thrice, Jooky guitars are generally made from parts I've bought second-hand -  not always, but most of the time - or sometimes even based on guitars I've been given. Well, twice in fact, but here's hoping.

This means of course that the parts are cheaper, and whilst I could still maybe charge based on their retail. value, I don't really want to. Seems a bit unfair in truth. Often then, guitars will have parts that are worth a load more than the complete guitars are up for, but so be it

Everybody wins.

Don't get me wrong, I don't make a loss on them (actually I did on one, but there we are) but I'd rather they were out there being played than sitting here waiting for somebody to pay thru their schnozzle.

Well, that's the story so far, and for the Kylie/Leona/'Ones' guitars, that is going to be the way of things forever more, I think. If I'm not painting corners a bit close to home.

Moving forward then, with my ideas for shiny new guitars, how does that work then?
Well, I'm planning on building bodies from scratch, and then using top quality pre-made necks until I get the bottle to try making those too.

Pickups and other parts? I'm thinking that generally these will be new, mainly because when I come to sell such beasties, I want to give people options - not just say, 'you can have a Gibson pickup which I've seen listed on Ebay, if you are sharpish'.

All of which sounds a bit more luthier-like than Jooky, but I guess that is where the twist comes in, as I'm planning on making the bodies from reclaimed timbers, whether that is wood from a groovy reclamation yard, or old fireplaces or furniture, time will tell, but either way I don't see myself buying ready-to-use guitar 'blocks' that just need shaping.

Basically then, the idea is that I will have a couple of designs for the body, and then choices for the neck, pickups and hardware - and then of course, being Jooklyland, some interesting options for the finishes...which should be fun.

So again, my perfect plan part 73 1/2 - I talk sooo very much.