The Future Sound of Jooky

Well, I wasn't entirely happy with The Golden Shower One in the end, so I decided to change a couple of things. Firstly the brass nut. It sounded great, but was quite high and I really couldn't face sanding it down to reduce the action to more normal levels. I quite like a high action, but when you are struggling to hold down an Em and can see a 78 degree angle for the string from the nut to the fretboard, I guess you know that you are pushing things a wee bit.

Also of course, it gave me a chance to have a go at cutting a bone nut. I've tried it before using a folded piece of emery paper to cut the slots for the strings and it was OK, but I'd got some teeny weeny files at a car boot and I figured they would work better. And I have to say, it turned out lovely - I can't see me buying nuts again in future, I'll be the chap fighting the local mutts for their shanks.

There is quite a difference in tone as well, between bone and brass - and come to that, the original piece of well chewed plastic that the guitar arrived with. The bone makes the guitar sound a little more mellow when strummed unplugged, and I think perhaps that there is a tad more sustain. Not something I'd considered and maybe it is placebo like, but I'm happier now. It also means that the action is lower and I've been able to raise the bridge slightly which has gotten rid of an annoying buzz at the 14th fret on the A string. Not that I get that adventurous normally, but there we are.

Apart from the nut, I've picked up a set of Wilkinson Kluson-a-like tuners, complete with snotty green blobs on the end. The chrome PRS ones were fine, very stable, but as I did want the guitar to look vaguely older than it was, they look more 'authentic', not that Gibson ever made anything quite like this. Of course I don't know how old the donor guitar was, 70s or 80s being as close as I can tell.

Once they are on then, it will be well and truly finished. The gold leaf top is awesome, I keep finding myself looking at it, It truly is beautiful. The Kent Armstrong P90s have a beautiful tone to them. I've been playing thru my little 1W Blackstar with the reverb on 'full' as well as the volume and it is totally creamy.

My original thought was that this was a good little guitar to practise some new stuff on, but it has ended-up a lot better than I could have hoped and certainly the gilding is something I'll be trying again before long. I'm really quite proud of it, and image apart it has turned into quite a players guitar. Alchemy indeed.

As for what comes next, well, The Twangy One is pretty much there now. It needs stringing and setting-up and it should be well groovy. The pickups I'm curious about, which is always the fun part. It gets boring when you know the answers before you start.

After that, I'm tempted to do my Tele/Esquire project as I finally know what I want to do with it. I'm thinking a variegated gold leaf top - rather than the copper sheet I'd originally planned - with the rest of the body having a subtle paisley finish. I've got some of the leaf - it is basically faux gold that has been aged/treated to give different colours, but I might get a different shade, depending on the paisley I use when it comes to the crunch. The varigated leaf looks very pretty on the little squares, but how it will go overall, I'm really not sure.

Once that is sorted, I'm going to be having another go at a Gold Top Les Paul as I grabbed myself a well bashed and ludicrously sanded old 1980s Burny a while back. This has a solid mahogany body - no maple cap - which is right for a gold top imho, and should make for quite a dark sound. The neck is excellent, rosewood on mahogany and set with a good 'tenon' and whilst I'd leave it generally in tatters I think a gold leaf top with a nitro finished top could prove to be perfect for me.

I'd probably go for some Catswhisker PG PAF pickups for that Peter Green twosted sound and generally do it as a bit of a relic. Crazed and cracked nitro top and all of that bobbins.

In a way this is my solution to my long term pangs for a 'real' Les Paul. I've been mithering about one for ages and never quite been able to justify the cost in truth, certainly not for the one I want (if it exists) so like the Tele and all of the other Jooky guitars it is about making something that I'd love to own and play but can't afford, using a bit of imagination rather than buying one off the shelf.

I could of course save my pennies and buy a real Telecaster and Les Paul, but for the first time I guess in my head when I think about one, I get a much warmer feeling about having one that is truly mine in every sense.

There, belly button gazing done for one week. Think I'm finally getting my head around this Jooky stuff, and it feels cooler every step.