The Dating Game

I've always been really careful about how I date the Jooky guitars. I mean, there is very little around here that doesn't rely on a certain amount of randomness and chaosisity, but I did think that maybe having the date I actually finish each guitar written on it somewhere would be a nice thing to do. And I think I can safely say that I have signed and dated them all (or if I've missed any, it wasn't intended).

As to where I sign and date them?

The Blue Moon One
Out of Date before it is finished
How cruel is that? I ask you

Well, if they are bolt-on necks, as most have been, I tend to write in the neck pocket or on the bit of the neck that goes into the neck pocket. That's the most common. I can remember writing inside a couple of pickup cavities, but couldn't tell you which guitars. And a couple have even been scrawled on on the back of the headstock, mainly because I had forgotten to write on them anywhere else, I don't mind admitting as let's face it, who cares?.

Really it doesn't matter much, it's just one of the things I do. Can't imagine it impacts on anybody else overly. But the dates. See the serial numbers aren't always in order - they kind of get 'assigned' when I start something rather than when I finish it, so given my ability to get side-tracked whilst mid-juggle, it would be a miracle if they did follow some sort of linear path.

But the dates, they are meant to be right, you know?

Which isn't always easy, I mean if I write a date in a neck pocket, and then take a few days to put strings on, or have a problem with a dodgy connection that means I have to order a part, wait for it, get around to fitting it, attempt to fit it, find that maybe I should have ordered the right part, re-order, re-wait for another delivery, re-fit...realise I haven't got any strings, and so on.

Well, if that happens the 'end date' I've written may prove to be a touch optimistic. And so it has been with The Blue Moon One. The "Last of the paisley Jookies" as I've now started to call it in some kind of desperate attempt to engender vague interest and a modicum of faux limited-edition-ness.

But the date, of the ill-fated, much delayed guitar of mine, I notice now is rather wrong being set in wood sometime in April. When I thought I'd finished the thing for the first time, but patently hadn't. Not even close.

But I'm not sure what to do about it. Should I leave it - as nobody cares but me - or should I simply sand it off and write a more correct date? Maybe a month or two from now which I can aim for?

Maybe I should do that.

Or maybe I should be thinking more about actually finishing it and let the world spin backwards on it's own sometimes.

Maybe I should have realised that if I hadn't spent so much time trying my best to get around to organising a rough outline plan that I can later firm up, assign resource to and generally initiate, that will aim to put procedures in place that will provide the building blocks, set the goals, objectives, milestones and other topologically inspired metaphors into a correct and proper order and generally if not specifically enact the process of beginning-to-do-something rather than flap flap flap and wait, pause, ponder, complicate and in simple terms never get around to doing anything, I may well have completed the guitar a lot sooner than now, or even my randomly assigned date at some point in the future that will match that written in the neck pocket of the guitar. Although as we stand and I may have mentioned, that was months ago, and now I'm not sure what to do about it.

Did I mention the lipstick pickups, look great against the copper leafed scratchplate, and the last ever, ever and ever paisley finish?

Who am I again?