Always a Day Away

Well, as unlikely as it sounds, I thought I'd have a little practice with my new router thing, on something less than critical - before I start to destroy The BDSM One tomorrow.

We never use the kitchen table anyway.

I know, it's almost a grown-up approach. Must be the slightly more warmerish weather.

And I have to say that it is ridiculously impossible. I mean I know I'm big in the nerdy-wimp-raspberry-ripple department, but I felt like some kinda toon flying around, hanging-on for something grimly life-like.

Sheesh.

I might have to get my 5-year-old to do it instead.

Needless to say I will Percy McVeer and then dig out the only chisel I never broke last time around.

Despite all of this, I do have a good feeling about it all. The Gretsch pickup will hopefully be hot, yet twangy, while the Jazzmaster has that darkly P90 type of thing going on I know and lurve.

Which is all cool. I'm kinda hoping that now I have been able to flog the spares that the budget will stretch enough for me to get a Mojo JM pup wound, but for the challenge the MIJ might have to do.

In fact despite effectively getting the neck and body for a grand total of £2.50 (I flogged all the parts and the gigbag it came in) I'm still going to be pushed.

I can always upgrade it later ;)

Last year I think I replaced mostly all of the parts within a week or two, but there we are.

Wonder if I will ever see The Golden Shower One again...?

As for other things, well the parts for The Foxy Roxy One showed up, so that is all done apart from the usual soldering escapades. I'm going to do those later today. Honest.

I'm pretty pleased with the bronze top dripping over the sides...nice.

La la laaa.

Of Foxy Roxy and the BDSM One

Well, I thought I'd get my parts together for The BDSM One, the Strat I'm going to build for the Music Radar £100 Challenge during March, mainly to see what I'm missing.

Despite not finding all of them among the part explosion, it seems like I am not so far off.

From the top:

1. Squier Strat Body and Neck.

2. Nice roll of sparkly, yet tastefilled, paisley fabric.

3. A small but perfectly formed collection of walnut veneer wood stuff thingy.

4. '70s Strat bridge - solid brass and well zingy. Claws and springs etc. Not sure where they are, but they will turn up somewhere.

5. One Jazzmaster bridge pickup (MIJ)

6. One Gretsch Humbucking neck pickup

7. Electrical bobbins - pots, switch, jack - thanking Simon at Fusion.

8. One funky capacitor - similarly thanking Mojo Pickups,

9. Strap Pins

Things I need to get that I haven't yet:

a. Scratchplate - though I might make this out of something. In fact I am tempted to paisleyificate the body and walnut veneer the scratchplate, but we'll have to see.

b. Tuners - I have a set of barely-OK-ones, which if the budget is tight I might use, but I'm hoping I can sell some of the parts from the Strat I don't need to fund something decent.

c. Knobs - I want to use a couple of Gretsch knobs, but it depends on the budget. If not it will be a couple of whatever-I-have-lay-around ones.

So not so bad.

Before that though, I intend to finito The Foxy Roxy One as the remaining parts should be here tomorrow. This is my little bronze corroded, oaken of body Firebird sort of thing. It has kinda jumped ahead of The Dust My Broom One as I still haven't sorted out the pickups for that baby, but such is life.

I must admit (as per) I can't wait to play the Foxy Roxy One, there is something that is just wrong about the shape in a very cool way, and I'm loving the look of it.

And that be about that.

La la laaa

Crawling Along In My Automobile

Sex on a sticky stick

Well, I can honestly say that last week was a bit frustrating in lots of ways, but I'm happier now I've decided to replace the EMGs with something more archaic in The Dust My Broom One

I'm a Luddite, what can I tell you?

The end of this week sees the start of the Music Radar £100 Challenge, for which I am lacking in the part department. Not over-worried about that as there is a month to sort it all out, and I'm more interested in trying something different anyway. I'm going to have a go with the router to at least have a Jazzmaster pickup at the neck.

That is the first job, so should be interesting. As I said it'll be a bit of a paisley and wood veneer look which I think should work well, if there is enough body left to stick them to after the nascent rootling.

I am in the strange position of having three guitars all waiting on parts yet nothing in particular to do, which is a tad annoying, but it will be good when I catch up.

Friday's feeble attempt at recording my Mojo pickup laden Jazzymaster did inspire me to try and record some of the Jooky guitars in future, which is something I've avoided due to lack of talent and an excessive level of sloth in my bloodstream. I might record The Old Burny One this week, as then there is no excuse for those that follow.

I guess I should find some backing tracks, but a few layers from the same guitar seemed like a better way of showing it off, even if the end result isn't all that musical and is played with fists of ham. Plus I've never much liked playing other people's tunes, so I can never been arsed to learn them.

Unless there is a whizzy Bristol based guitarist that wants to have a go at demo-ing them for me...? It doesn't pay, but I make a mean cuppa and have some divine coffee on tap.

La la laaa.

I apologise To Mojo Pickups Intensely

Well, I had an hour to try and do some recordings of the rather brilliant sounding Mojo Pickups I put in my Jazzmaster yesterday, and it all went horribly wrong.

I'm not much of a player (I don't mind telling you, just keep it to yourself, OK?) so I thought I'd keep it simple and strum some bits and bobs, you know - this is the neck pickup clean, this is it dirty. This is the middle position clean etc.

Now hard can that be?

I'd done the same 'Before' and I figured the difference would be obvious and it is.

Anyway, I then did the professional thing and ate my homework, or gave it to the dog to play with or something. And can I find the files? I'm sure I saved them, but nada. Nowt. Zilch and sod all.

Have I got time to do them again?

No.

Do you really care?

Probably not.

So, all I have left is the rather embarrassing thing I recorded last. Four tracks, clean, reverby, slight echoey and a bit fuzzy. All together. I really should drink more coffee in the daylight hours. It is all a bit maudlin. But thankfully short.

So as punishment to me, and no doubt you, here it is.

Jazz One

I presume I won't see you again.

Happy chuckling...

La la laaaa

Note to Marc: I will do proper files next week. I hope this does nothing bad to your reputation. I am deeply sorry.

That Fried-day Feeling Good

Old Parts. Not the most interesting foto, I'll admit

Well, I think I have just about descended to earth after yesterday's Mojo-Pickup-Rush. It was nice to see a few concurring voices in the comments/on forums etc. as you start to wonder whether they can really be that good.

They still sound it this morning though, so I'm assuming I didn't dream it all.

If I can work out how to do it, I'll try and record the wee thing today so you can tell me if I've gone gaga or not.

On the other side of pickup life, I have to say I had another go on a Tele laden with a set of EMGs yesterday evening, and I've come to the conclusion that they really aren't for me.

All of the Jookies have to be guitars I would want to own, and they just left me cold, so there is no point. So I'm going to move them on and try something different.

Though I must admit the fact that I don't like the way they look may have a little to do with it. Sad, I know.

Where that leaves The Dust My Broom One is pickupless, but I'll sort something out I'm sure. Mojo's Tele pups being favourite when I can get a few bob together.

So that is my holy trinity all awaiting parts, how daft is that?

It hasn't turned into the most productive week as far as Jookydom goes, but I'll console myself strumming away on my Mojo'd Jazzmaster, I guess. So not so bad.

As for The BDSM One, I stripped it down yesterday as far as removing all the parts goes. I'm going to keep the body and the neck but that is about it. I think a bit of fretty TLC could make it decent.

Necks on Squiers constantly surprise me, even on a lot of their cheaper guitars there are good ones to be found, though a little fretwork can pay dividends,
even when I do it.

As for what I'm going to do, well it will be covered in paisley fabric, with the top having a walnut veneer which will be distressed enough that you can see some of the paisley peeping thru.

Not quite sure whether that will work in reality, but there is only one way to find out. I might do the back the same way too - I got a job lot of veneer this time...

Pickup-wise, I'm thinking either my MIJ Jazzmaster pups, or maybe one of them with a Gretsch Humbucker at the bridge. Depends how the budget goes really - though I have a pile of Squier parts and a gigbag to flog which will hopefully help the running total.

Once it is done I'm going to raffle it off or otherwise give it somebody, because that is the kinda guy I am.

La la laaa.

Jazzmaster - Now With Added Mojo

Well, I have to say before I start that this little missive may contain a touch of excitedness.

I am trying to appear calm and professional, like normal, but am not so sure that I can pull it off.

Here goes though.

As I have mentioned once or twice, I like Jazzmasters. I like them a lot.

Over the years I have had quite a few. I have had a couple of American ones, and I've lost count of the Japanese ones. I even had a 1968 original for a while. I've not owned any of the Mexican ones or the recent Squiers, as I've yet to find one that doesn't sound more Stratty to me than what I want it to sound like, but I'm sure I will.

In that time I have also tried a variety of pickups to try and catch the real Jazzmaster sound. I love the old sound of Jazzmasters, the proper dark-yet-clear tone you got on the original ones, and with the exception of one MIJ one, it isn't something I've heard from Fender's stock pickups.

Of the after market pickups, I'd have to say the Curtis Novak ones come closest. I've tried a couple of sets and they are really good - maybe slightly brighter than I'd expect, but on the money. Tres expensivo from this side of the water, but worth it.

The Seymour Duncan Antiquities were good too, though not quite right. No banana.

And so on.

Anyway, when I came to upgrade my little MIJ JM, I was planning on trying Jess Loureiro's ones. His P90 and Tele pickups were great and it was worth a pop.

Before I got my act together and ordered some though, I came across Mojo Pickups - I was looking at their Tele pickups, and ended-up having a chat with Marc who runs them.

Cutting a long story, I took the plunge and he wound me a set and also suggested that his PIO capacitors were worth a try, being Jazzmaster specific and rather pretty

It might have been me who mentioned their prettiness.

And so today, copping out on everything else, I finally installed the pickups, caps, new pots and switches along with a proper red torty scratchplate and aged covers and knobs. The knobs are genuinely old, I thought I should make that distinction.

Obviously I scratched the new scratchplate and generally it ended-up with a hint-of-Jook, but such is life.

And then I plugged it in, and I have to say I couldn't quite believe the sound.

I'll be honest now, I wasn't sure what to expect.

I had heard somebody else rave about Mojo's JM pickups, but we all do that about new gear, if only to justify it to ourselves, so I took it with a handgrippedfull of salt.

But even strumming a few things clean I couldn't believe how good they sounded. (Not my usual response to my own playing), and then adding a bit of reverb just took me into surf heaven. From there I played a bit louder and things got fuzzier, but even with a full-on face of fuzziness, there was still a clarity to it that was just beautiful.

It is really hard to describe the change in the sound the pickups/caps have made, but I'd deliberately played the same guitar with the Fender MIJ pickups in for a while this morning, and the difference between what I thought was pretty decent to these is crazy.

Not so much taking cotton wool out of your ears as going from a 12" black and white portable to a 43" 3D HD Plasma. It just feels alive somehow that it never did before.

Don't get me wrong, I loved playing this guitar anyway - there wasn't really anything that big that I felt needed 'fixing' which has only shocked me more.

(This isn't meant to be turning into an infomercial, even though I can feel my hair waving and teeth whitening as I type.)

I really don't know what else to say about them. I will do some recordings so you can see what I mean, but over the last couple of years I've built 50ish guitars, used all sorts of pickups from god knows how many different winders and gurus, but I can honestly say that this is the biggest change in any guitar I've ever known. Tis as simple as that.

I think you know where this is going, I'm going to be having to check out some more of this chap Marc's wares. The geezer has got something going on that's a bit special.

Yours, gobsmacked of Portishead.

Check out Mojo HERE

Reality Nibbles

The Ronin, Foxy Roxy, Dust My Broom and BDSM Ones
Talking to the Taxman About his bloody awful poetry

Well, I'm starting to think that perhaps my newly totally vaunted one-guitar-at-a-time approach isn't exactly going to plan, and I'm kinda not verily getting close to finishing anything at all at the moment.

Before me I have sitting a string of unfinished bobbins, and I'm starting to lose track, so excuse the memorandum-esque lists while I try to remember/plot/plan/regain my life:

1. The Dust My Broom One

This is all done apart from the EMG pickups still needing to be soldered together again.

I have to sort this, though I'm a bit back-on-my-heels this morning as I played a Tele last night with exactly these pickups, and I wasn't best impressed. Not quite what I was expecting, which kills the confidence somewhat.

Still, I have got to try them and see how it goes.

2. The Ronin One:

This is waiting for a pickup from the States, some wiring and a Bridge.

So "waiting-on-parts", I can live with that.

3. The Foxy Roxy One:

This too is "waiting for parts" - pickup rings, tuners and wiring loom.
So not a lot I can do right now either.

Hmmm. So basically, the only thing I can do is sort out the EMGs on The Dust My Broom One and see what I think of them.

They start out pink, fluffy and innocent...
And then they end up into BDSM.
It saddens me.

Of course there is my Jazzmaster too, which follows on and needs a bit of tender loving Mojo-ing and the slight matter of the MR Strat I picked up yesterday. Yes, the pink one.

This is better than I hoped, and amazingly it sounds quite good with the stock pickups it came with.

Weird.

I'll think about that later though.





Can't start it until March anyway, so no panic this week about The BDSM One.

La la la - going around in circles again.

Jooky Special Filter

Well, what can I say. It started well, then all went shonky once more. I've got to pop out a get the new Stratty thing for the MR £100 wotsit this evening, so tomorrow will have to be solder day after all. Still, I did at least get something done.

In between being verily extremely busy, I've been playing the rather lovingly lovely The Old Burny One and it really is every bit as cool as I thought. A few days apart and well, I realised what I was missing.

So naturally I have put it back up for sale.

All of which may sound odd, but I have had a good talk at myself and if I am going to keep on doing this I really can't be keeping the guitars. Otherwise I would have kept all of them and would be living in a shed somewhere eating beans out of a tin.

So if anybody fancies it for a reluctantly obtuse £399.99 in it's cool Hiscox case delivered to your door and would thus like to save me from myself and penury, go and have a shufty HERE.

You don't have to rush though.

I won't mind even a little bit.

As for the MR guitar, I got some beautiful paisley today - like old times - and it is going to have a combination of that and walnut burr veneer. How that will work, I'm not quite sure, but that is half the fun.

As for pickups I am dithering between a simple yet lovely Gretsch one at the bridge and nowt else, or perhaps that plus a Jazzmaster one at the neck if it proves to be viable and I have whipped them out of my Jazzymeister by then.

Which involves soldering, of course.
Which sounds familiar.
Ahem.

WIP: The Ronin One

Keep On Ronin...

Well, I started on the soldering of the EMGs...and am planning to try and kill it off this evening (so hopefully more later.)

I may though, have gotten a teensy bit totally side-tracked by The Ronin One, and instead have got that further along the tracks leading to looking-like-a-guitar-again junction.

And (changing subjects rapido) it is looking pretty hot. I am loving the blurry corrosion of the copper and decided that the black/white/black 'plate set it off rather nicely, so I resisted the urge to do something with that too.

As the observant among you may note, I am still waiting for the bridge to cross 'the pond' but hopefully that will be here soon as, well, the strings can be a bit floppy without one. Though who am I to criticise?

The psychic among you may also have taken notice of the fact that there is a Gordon Smith pickup at the neck. This is there for two reasons, one of which is that it had the right vibe, with the other one being that the NOS Gibson pickup that should be there is also swimming the Atlantic as we speak. Or rather I do.

In truth I will try both and see which sounds best.

As for the rest, well I've gone for a three-way-switch in the end rather than the blend pot. Can't quite remember why, but it is probably because the switch looked better there than a knob would have done. It has a chrome tip, which I think explains well enough.

King Shallow, I am, tis true.

So there we are.

Back to the soldering later on.

I hope.

Although The Old Burny One just arrived and in a fit of enthusiasm I decided to change the knobs and managed to knacker both - no half measures here - tone pots, in the process.

*sigh*

La la laaa.

In The Army Now - Soldering On

Yes, they need soldering too.

Well, I realise I start every day telling you that I'm going to solder the wire out of The <Insert Current Tale Of Woe Guitar> One and then don't, but today, really, I am going to be soldering.

I really am.

I am going to  solder the EMG laden The Dust My Broom One.

And if by some miracle I finish that, I am going to re-wire my Jazzmaster with groovy Mojo Pickups, and wire, and cool Mojo Caps and more wire and CTS pots and wire and a jack socket and wire and some more solder.

It may even work.

Though perhaps not first time.

That never happens..

But I will persevere.

Fighting on the beaches.

Soldering on.

It is as simple as that.

And I will also finish the lacquerisation of The Ronin One.

I will take fotos.

I will show you the evidence.

And tomorrow I will write something different.

Just for a change.

La la laaaaa.

Dazed and Confused, Dusting My Broom

Hmmm... Well, I managed to proper confuse myself and put some strings on The Dust My Broom One and gave it a set-up.

Which is all good, but maybe a bit premature as I hadn't done the soldering.

So that is the next job.

It looks and plays good though, which is nice to know.

Back in my structured and sane regular day, I finished the finish on The Ronin One (OK, bit more lacquer and curing to be done, but basically it is there) which is all coming together.

I'm still waiting for one of the old NOS Gibson pickups to arrive from somewhere in the U.S of A, but hopefully it will be here by the time I get around to wiring it.

I'll do a plonk together tomorrow no doubt and we can see how it looks.

Soldering seems to be my Achilles heal again at the moment - opportunity is the real killer but it is always my least favourite thing to do. Mainly as I'm convinced I'll lose an eye yipping-the-iron, one of these days.

Still, on we trundle, cares not of this world..

La la laaa

WIP: The Foxy Roxy One

Well, OK, so I didn't get the soldering done yesterday - the third law of Jookiness determined that no-longer-holidaying bratskis are instantly replaced by sick kiddies and put paid to that, but I'm rather pleased at the progress I made on The Foxy Roxy One.

As you can see in the fotos, the headstock and top have been 'finished' whilst the back needs a bit of TLC.

The only nasty surprise was that the shiny chromy pickup rings I was going to use don't fit - or rather they have three holes a la Gretsch, rather than the two your Gibson thingies require. Still, at least they should fit the Gretsch puppies when I get around to using them.

So a bit more shopping there - pickup rings and tuners (which I had forgotten) and strap pins. It's always the strap pins.

As soldering is again unlikely today, I'll be tidying up The Foxy Roxy One and then getting a bit more coppery with The Ronin One. Which is fine I guess.

In other news The Iceblink One is off up a motorway somewhere, heading to the frozen Nord. I had a final play before it went and I have to say it is really cool. Only regretting I didn't record something - divvy. To warm my cockles, I should get a nice old Squier Strat body and neck this week to play with, which will make a change as I haven't done one in what feels ages..

This is going to be a bit of an ensemble piece, and I think will be fun. I'm going for a Gretsch pickup at the bridge, with hints of paisley and walnut. This is for the Music Radar £100 Challenge so I'll need to get my creative accounting cap on again, but that be half the fun. I might go for a second pickup at the neck, but it will depend on what is hidden under the scratchplate when it shows up, or maybe not. I don't know.

I'm sort of fretting about the Challenge this year for some reason. I think it is because I haven't got a clear idea of what I want to do. Or rather I keep having ideas then blowing the budget when I start to do anything about them. Which is daft, I guess, though I've kinda spoiled myself over the last year or so - spending a lot more on the guitars when I build them, so whereas £100 was tricky before it feels kinda impossible now.

Anyway....

La la laaaa

My Paisley Dano '59 - Hauntingly Jookified

I'm not sure whether this is the third or fourth time, but the great Teflon non-stick Jooky is up for grabs again, if anybody was interested the last time but didn't take the plunge..

I just noticed it up for a flogging at MR again HERE

This was of course The Jangly One I made toward the end of 2010 and has the only blowtorch enamelled copper scratchplate known to man (I still have the scars from that one), Kent Armstrong Hot Lippy pups and a fine paisley finish.

It is up for £140 which is rather stunning, but there we are.

Blimey, some guitars are such tarts...

The First Coat Don't Hurt At All...

Well, the holibobs are over again, bratskis back at school and it is time to move on.

First up, I really must solder the solderless EMG pickups into The Dust My Broom One. I am sort of desperately curious to find out how that little beaut sounds. It looks mad with the black pickups and, well, I need to do it.

Obviously, while the solder is hotly dripping I may have to tart up my Jazzmaster with some Vitamin Mojo. It'd be rude not to, after all.

Assuming that they don't take the whole week, it will be on with The Ronin and Foxy Roxy Ones with some bronze and coppery mayhem.

Still waiting for a hand-to-be-filled-with-parts, but I can get the finishes, err, started, I guess.


(OK, in a moment of weakness, I put the first coats of Copper and Bronze on. I never said I was a patient chap, but in my defence the soldering iron is warming up. Just one more coffee and I'll be on it, honest.)

Other than that, not a lot to be done really.

As for the MR £100 Challenge, my ideas have all got too expensivo, so I'm going back to the future and doing just-one-more-after-all...single bucker'd Strat. I haven't done one in ages and I have all these old '70s Strat parts - the solid brass block rings like a bell - and Gretsch pickups, and, and, and....well, there we go.

I've got some walnut burr veneer, which might go nice with - dare I say it - a touch of paisley.

We'll see anyway, plenty of fish to fry-up before then, methinks...

La la laaaa

Baby, Please Come Home....

Well, it has never happened to me before, but I'm taking it as a sign and running with it.

Can't argue with fate and everything, now can I?

What am I burbling about?

Well, I've been beating myself up over selling The Old Burny One for the last week or so, and chasing Les Pauls all over Ebay and around local shops without one feeling 'right' to me. And generally feeling pretty stoopid for letting it go in the first place.

It is my perfect Les Paul, and you really shouldn't let perfection go so easy, after all.

Then I heard from the chap who bought it, and found myself on one level gutted that he didn't like it - it wasn't what he expected, being the bottom line - and that he would like to return it.

So on one side I'm battered and bruised because, well, I want everybody to love my guitars.

But on the other I'm elated because it is coming home to me.

A while back you might remember I flogged my battered Gordo and that came back due to a few cracks appearing on it's way, and it won't be going anywhere again.

And so I feel the same way about The Old Burny One, it is meant to be mine after all, and so I plan to keep it.

All of which means that if I ever get the Golden Shower One back from the tech, I've got a dilemma, but what the hell I'll think of something.

Just hope it gets home in one piece...

I think I am a cuppa half full kinda chap after all...

Pining Like An Apple

Well, after a few false dawns from the boys at UPS, The Old Burny and Gypsy Ones trundled off into the sunset and onto pastures new. I'm trying not to think about it.

To tempt my fevered mind away from all things golden and Les Paul shaped - IT WAS PERFECT I TELL THEE, PERFECT - I found solace in the arms of The Iceblink One, as you may have noticed.

It took a bit more time than I thought, but I cut the nut lower and added a string pushy-downy bar (? I'm sure there is a proper name) and that has kept the trick dundid.

It is totally addictive to play and I keep playing Within Without You, which sounds pretty good until I get to the fast part. When it doesn't. So I start the slow bit again.

Not having played a fretless guitar before, I can't claim that this is how they should sound, but it tunes and is stable and makes a lovely buzzing sound, and as long as you play single notes and have a preference toward the archaic art of sliding semi-tones and generally doing single string runs, or using drones, it is proper good. Actually, I've just been mixing it with a nice bit of fuzz and an overactive flanging gland and it is doomer-stoner-droner-heaven.

Actually, I was looking at the Unfretted site - one dedicated to all things fretless - and one of the points they make is that no two fretless guitars sound the same anyway, so clearly this is the best one ever made in the world ever.

If only by me.

I will no doubt return to such pastures after a bit more thought as it is quite a lot of fun.

In other news, the soldering of The Dust My Broom One, and the rebuilding of the Jazzmaster will be post-holibobs, so expect more to be happening next week.

I've pretty much got or have ordered everything for The Ronin and Foxy Roxy Ones now too, so I'm all loin-a-girdled, or something. I'm going to start on the finishes next week with both of them, as I find it hard to choose between the pair.

So there we are.

Incidentally, if anybody has anything Les Paul shaped that they want to swap for The Iceblink One, give me a shout. I'm pining, like an apple.

Sold: The Iceblink One

The Iceblink One is the first ever Jooky to feature one of our ‘Vera’ veneers as a way of building a fretless guitar, all this in combination with a right royal rusting makes for a guitar Ravi would have given his mother's teeth for. A matching ebony scratchplate has generally been battered, whilst the 'board has been oiled and waxed for a lovely finish.

On the body, the Ebony Macassar veneer has been cracked, nibbled, attacked with a Tefal Steam Iron and generally battered, before the final indignity of some rusty iron has been used around the edges and back of the guitar.

In building a fretless, we were aiming for something Sitarish and with a bit of practise it is easy enough to slide some great tones out of it. Fretless guitars aren’t made for strumming, and you need to feel the notes rather than bash them out, but it is well worth the effort.

Other than the finish, the body is sycamore with an Ebony Macassar veneer in place of a traditional scratchplate, the neck is maple/rosewood/ebony for all those classic buzzy tones, the pickup is a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder Jaguar jobby and it features the world’s biggest capacitor.

*

To be clear, The Iceblink 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 Within Without You. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.


To Treat Yourself to this odd yet compelling guitar for a Bargain £249 incl. a hardcase and delivery to your door, Click On The Big Yellow Button.


GONE GONE GONE


Technical Stuff:

Type: Cilla’s Rusty Iron, Vera’s Veneer

Electrics: Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder Jaguar Bridge pickup

Guitar Type: Offset

Construction: Ebony and Rusted Iron over Sycamore

Strings: Flatwound 14s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: Volume, Tone

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

Serial Number: JGE#45

RSP: £799

Getting Jazzier By The Day

Oohah, top excitement here today as the bits I was finally waiting for so that I could sort out my gorgeous lil ol' MIJ Jazzmaster are here, and forgetting the fact it won't be until next week that I have a hope of doing it justice, it is feeling rather good.

From the top, there is:

1. A nice red tortoise-shell scratchplate. This just looks right to me - though I must admit the brown one looks cool too, but the deed is done now.

2. A pair of proper aged '70s knobs. I am soo very authentic. All nicotine and spilt Banks'. (OK, I know nicotine is a clear and odourless liquid and that the yellow is tar, but you know what I mean.)

3. Some creamy not at all authentically aged pickup covers, but that look a lot better than the white ones. Though I guess a switch tip, and the funny end on the trem arm won't match now, but what the 'eck. Maybe I'll start smoking again or something.

4. Some Cool as Funk pickups from that winder-meister Marc over at Mojo Pickups. Can't wait to hear them in action.

5. A selection of Jazzmasterly-groovesome capacitors that reek of Mojo like Tom Waits' hankie.

(Now with all the correct numbers attached. Thanks to Marc again for dealing with my numptitude and pointing me in the right direction without laughing too much.)

6. Some cloth-clad wire and CTS pots and Switchcraft switches and stuff that I forgot to get out for the foto call.

And there we are.

Expect a load of swearing and WIP fotos, and fone calls and general idiocy and back tracking and yet more numptiness before I flourish finalised fotos sometime next week.

I should also mention that the switch for The Dust My Broom One, the retaining string bar thing and yet another nut for The Iceblink One also arrived, but who cares about them?

Obviously, I'm still waiting for UPS to take The Old Burny and Gypsy Ones to their new homes, kinda goes without saying.

La laa laaaaaaa

Waiting For The Man. Again....

The Old Burny and Gypsy Ones
Edging Toward the Door

Well, yesterday's courier did the typical no-show, so I'm kinda resigned to another day of thumbs-a-twiddle. On the plus side it is also new Tele day, so the brats will be pleased once they realise I mean a television, rather than a Fender.

I am sadly, rather chuffed that they immediately think it is a guitar that is going to arrive.

Or maybe chuffin' sad, I dunno.

Either way, it will no doubt be a day of waiting and I still won't get The Dust My Broom One soldered. Or bathe luxuriant in the crystal icepickedness of those there EMG thingies.

On the plus side, the shopping is going well...

The Ronin One now has a pair of New-Old-Stock (NOS for evermore) Gibson Marauder pickups, designed by that Bill Lawrence chap again who made the Old Burny One sing so sweetly.

It also has a scratchplate, a nut and some paint and acid on the way. Left to get are a bridge, a wiring loom from Fake58 and some tuners. There are some on it, but if I assume they are shonky I can only be nicely surprised. They look shonky though, has to be said.

As for The Foxy Roxy One, I've gone for a rather warm pair of Gibson 'buckers from an '80s Les Paul Custom. These are thought to be 'Velvet Bricks' which again I think were Lawrence-designed and are hot - sort of the fore-runner of the Dirty Fingers pups.

I wanted this one to be hot and heavy, hot blues, and rock rather than full on metal, you get the picture. That is waiting for a bridge and some tuners once everything else arrives. So looking good too.

I've got a really good feeling about these two anyway, so it will be good to crack on, methinks.

As for my fretless Iceblinking One, I got a nut blank so I'm going to sort that out today.

All of which sounds uber productive, but basically is skirting and dancing around the edges of the perimeter of things. But if you can't live in hope etc.

But back in reality and out of the vapourware lands of once-upon-a-time, I still haven't finished The Dust My Broom One, and I'm bored.

I hate waiting for couriers,
did I mention?

La la la.

Getting Wood

A Mahogany Tree
The Before Picture

Well, after gently goading myself that I'm a wimp, I've decided that I should really have a go at making a guitar body from scratch (I'll get on to necks later, I think, as that is a whole canna-worms).

So, after a bit of a YouTube session, a close reading (glazed stare) of Melvin Hiscox' "How to Build a Guitar For Numpties" book, I've kinda realised that I actually know about 80% of it.

Which may sound odd given that I've been building these Jooky things for a while, but it came as a surprise to me. In fact the gap in my experience is the chopping bits out of wood part, which I guess is fundamental, so I figured it was time to address such shorty comings.

So, in the interests of sanity, I realised I had a choice. I could either...

1. Spend some time contemplating what is to be done. Study the various techniques and philosophies. Practising on matchsticks, twigs, splinters etc. slowly building up to a Uke, a mandolin, a mandola, before reaching for a guitar sized block of wood sometime in 2032.

/or/

b. Get some wood and draw a vague outline, chop bits of wood off it so that I can release the guitar within. Get some other bits of wood and repeat until it looks OK. Convince myself that that was what I wanted to do it in the first place. Smile and find inner luthierness.

Obviously, being a serious and good man, there is only one option to be taken.

OK, so what do I need?

Well, I have a jigsaw for the outline, a router to finesse the edges and chop out the pickup/neck/control cavities and lots of sandpaper.

That's a good start.

What I also need is some wood to practise on, some proper wood once I've got the hang of it. And there we are.

One other thing I realise I need is a set of templates for the routing of the various cavities. I should probably try and make my own, but I figure that my CSE 2 in Technical Drawing was probably an over-achievement at the time and I won't have done anything but go downhill in the 30 years since then, so....

There is of course the slightly sticky part about deciding what I want to build, but I'm sure I'll think of something. I still fancy something teardrop shaped or maybe Rickie-inspired, but we'll see.

So, there we are. A bit of shopping, a few more splinters to cope with and we should get somewhere.

Well, got to be tried init?

Not quite sure what we will end-up with, but how bad can it get?

And maybe I'm being optimistic about finishing a guitar before the end of March, but you never really know until you try these things and anyway, I work sooo much better under presh. Sometimes I even start.

A Gathering of the Witless

Well, it seems as though we are guitars-for-sale-less again, and both my beautiful Old Burny and cool-as-funk Gypsy Ones are off to pastures new. So it means I can get on with other things and buy some parts, but why do I feel as though I am in mourning?

I don't know, tis daft really, but I think the Old Burny One was my ideal Les Paul and I kinda feel like I've done something stupid. I'll have to chase up my charming local tech type and see if the Golden Shower One is ready for a splashback.

Though it wasn't the same, I hate to admit.

But, looking forward as ever, I'm slowly getting the bits together for the Foxy Roxy and Ronin Ones, which I'm looking forward to getting fettled. Must remember to order some paint and chemicals, I've kinda run out again.

Oddly, I had almost forgotten about my little fretless wonder, The Iceblink One, but there it stood in the corner peering thru fluttering eye-lashes.

I've actually been doing that passing-play thing with this, as in everytime I walk past it on the way to the kettle, I have to pick it up and have a wee go. And as I have on average 23 coffees a day, I have kind of got the hang of it's fretlessness now, and I love the sounds that come out of it. Little slides and slurs make such a difference and I'm starting to understand why bass players like to go au natrel. It's not an every day guitar (for me anyway, somebody more competent might disagree) but if I was recording it has some great sounds that you just can't get on a fretted guitar.

I'm still tinkering on the setup though and all is well apart from the high E which I've come to the conclusion is too close to the edge of the neck, so I'm going to cut a thinner nut for it. I'm also going to put a string retainer on - one of the Floyd Rose types to give a bit more pressure on the nut. All of which means I will have to nurture it for a while longer. Shame.

La la laa

I am sooo very technical.

As for The Dust My Broom One, all remains done apart from the soldering of the EMGs, which is somewhat delayed by the fact that I keep forgetting to buy a switch, and lack of opportunity in the soldering dept of course. I'm hoping this week though...

I am quite intrigued to see/hear what the EMGs sound like, and not a little trepidationalist about the whole caboodle. They look pretty cool though, has to be said.

So today is about courier waiting, and a bit of nut cutting in-between waiting toe and fingernail on my bratski superiors, bless 'em. Still haven't got the router out the back of the motor yet mind, so wood chopping is still in the middle-earthen-distance.

heh ho.

New Pickup Daze

Ooah, top excitement in Jookyland today as I got a little package from the postman.

(They are far more obliging since privatisation).

And rather pleased I was to find a pair of Mojo-in-excelelsis-ified Jazzmaster pickups, handwound by Marc at Mojo Pickups.

Man they look cool.

Don't they look the dog's?

I have to say that I love the presentation of them too - very nicely done.

As you can see from the fotos there were also three pretty looking Paper In Oil capacitors, which will add a bit more to the mix. (I only need two for the Jazzmaster of course, but as soldering isn't my strongest suit, three is clearly wiser.)

Anyway, with a bit of luck the new pickguard and pickup covers might arrive sometime soon and I can get my baby re-fettled right and good and proper.

Cheers to Marc, by the way, great and knowledgeable service and a real pro.

He is well worth chatting to over at his web site, and has something interesting in the humbucker dept. coming soon, which I'm kinda hoping will be available by the time I come to do The Foxy Roxy One.

Can't wait to try these,
the attention to detail is spot on
and I get the feeling they
will be good,
don't you?

Strategic-am-we

A Piece of Wood
Earlier Today
That I Don't Have

Well, school holibobs for a week or so now, so I'm back into thinking mode, and the thinking I've been ponderously thoughting is what to do with my lack-of-work-in-progress thingies, and this is the current state of play:

1. The Dust My Broom One

This is all together, has some EMG pickups in place and just needs wiring. That should be easy.
Well, confusing, but not a lot to worry about.
Unless I cock it up, which is always possible,
unless I don't in which case it'd be a shoo-in.

2. The Foxy Roxy One

This is my delight-filled Oak bodied Firebird-ish one. It will be copper and acid clad and grunged up, some lovely '50s wiring, and I think a P90 plus a PAF-ish humbucker in the pickup department.

3. The Ronin One 

This will be bronze and acid drizzled, blend potted, Marauder Single Coil plus a Marauder Humbucker after a bit of ker-jiggling. The blend pot is instead of a switch, which is something I keep meaning to use, but haven't until now. So all-in-all, it should be lovely.

I'm thinking it might be nice to have a paisley scratchplate, just for old times sake, though it will probably be a plain black one in truth. as it will work better with the corroded copper.

How much of that I get to do in the near future, I'm not entirely sure, but painting and buying things I can manage, even if the solder and hot wiring has to be done when freedom beckons once more 'tween the hours of 9am and 3pm.

Blah blah blah

Other than that, I'm a bit stuck what to do for the £100 Challenge as I have already blown the budget in a big way for the Marauder, and will only take moments to do so for the Firebird as well.

Oops, just blown that one too.

It seems a bit of a cop out to simply get a cheap Strat body and neck and do something with that, though it is an option. I have got some walnut burr laminate, which I could use, but what to put it on? Tis a tough call.

What I'd really like to do is make a body out of some wood (that I haven't got) as that will be something I haven't tried before.

Hmmm....I think I need to get the router out of the car and plug it in, see if I can work it or not.

Maybe that is what I should do for the challenge though - it is a great place and time to try something different, and you never know where it will lead. Have to think this one thru. I've been mithering for ages now about building my own guitar body from scratch, and there we are.

Why not just get on with it...?

La la laaa

Sticking Twisted Mouse Tails

The Firebird and The Marauder
Like a Heavy Parable

Well, despite looking all forlorn, I've still not braved The Dust My Broom One's EMG wiring, maybe tomorrow.

However, I did remove the gleam from The Foxy Roxy One, which now looks kinda like the old Tokai violin finish, and rather nice.

I've been dithering, but am definitely going to finish the top with tortured copper as I think the blueyness will bring out the green in my eyes, and it is as simple as that around here.  End of.

In other news, the Marauder also arrived. This is one solid piece of maple, man it is lovely, and it has some serious heft to it. Or I am getting weaker, or have been playing my feather-of-weight Gordo too much recently.

Tick as you feel able to deem appropriate.

Either way it is a quite beautiful looking guitar, and I can see me being in trouble once it is done, as I can't imagine letting it go.

I also tracked down an original NOS pickup for the Marauder, the single coil one - a proper old fashioned Gibson jobbie - which should be cool. Be nice to get close-ish to the original spec and then trample all over it. I'm thinking that a similarly aged humbucker would be nice too, though the original Gibbo ones weren't meant to be all that.

The Ronin One - 3 Tonnes of Maple And Some Tinny Bits

 My only real concern over it is finding a bridge as it would have come with one of those boxy '70s Gibson ones you see on old SGs. The only place I've seen them in living memory is at Fake58 and they are about £60, and I'm poor. Might have to bite that bullet though if I can't scavenge one elsewhere, I guess. Though would a normal ABR be the end of anything greeny-blue-planet-like? Dunno.

I was kinda wondering whether I could do the Marauder as part of the MR $100 Challenge, but no chance now as my parts bill is mounting far and widely. So back to the drawing board on that one.

I haven't taken the router out of the back of my car yet either, which might be an alternative, but such is life.

Other than that, Marc at Mojo Pickups has been hard at work and has sent me a couple or three shots of the Jazzmaster pickups at different stages of the winding process, and they are now complete. Which I thought I'd share with you, so here they be.

The daft thing is he'll probably get the pickups made and to me before the scratchplate or other bits show their mugs.

Such is my life of Internet shopping, it never used to be like this down Denmark Street.

La la laaaa

Step 1: Get Your Bobbins Together

Step 2: Wind Your Wire Around and Around and
Around and Around and Around and Around etc.

Step 3: Hang Twisted Mouse Tails Out The Back For
Mucho Mojo Pickup Delightedness

Ooo-ah, Foxy

Well, I've still not managed to do any wiring of The Dust My Broom One, so not a lot to talk about there - and the kids are off school again from Friday, so i really need to get me finger out if I want it finished without jammy finger-splodges appearing all over the corroded copper.

But I have to admit that I got a bit distracted thinking about my Jazzmaster....and I may have spent too much time doing Kevin Shields impressions in front of the mirror.


Marc at Mojo didn't help of course, with questions like

'Do you want the magnets aged, if so I'll dip them in yellowed/old nitro'.

I like that kind of attention to detail...he's my kinda geezer.

Saying that, it wasn't entirely my fault that the day disappeared, as I also received the Firebird-esque body and neck combo I mentioned the other day and that is a whole other thingy in the thinking-about-it dept.

I'm sure I mentioned that it is (clearly) hand made and has an oak body and maple/rosewood neck. And very nice it looks too. At least at first sight.

Getting closer, you can see that the body is a little rougher than it looks in the fotos, which in a way is a relief as if it had been perfect I may have struggled to bring myself to refinish it.

It is just surface bobbins though, nothing drastic and the important thing is that it is beautifully made, and I love the weight of it. It feels like a 'proper' guitar, if that makes sense. And verily long in the body dept.

Finish-wise, I fancy a heavily corroded copper to give it a real bluey look, which should work nicely. Maybe just do the top and overrun, as the wood is pretty to look at, of course and wouldn't take much work to make the back pukka, like. I think losing the gloss might be a good move though as it is verily heavy and thick of gleamy lustreness.

As for the rest, it is set for for two volume, two tone, three-way-switch - classic Gibson wiring, so I might go for a Fake58 wiring loom with the bees and all - it is always nice to do it right and Julian the '58 Fakir is golden.

Otherwise, It is set-up to be strung thru the body, so no tailpiece but it'll be an ABR bridge in between, which is cool.

Pickups, I'm thinking I should probably have some, to avoid unsightly holes.

What sort, I really don't know but Hot PAF is calling me, with the usual order of filthy McP90-ness on the side.

It's that sort of thing, hot and dirty,

The Foxy Roxy One.

Pimping My Ride (And Other Shoegazery Bobbins)

Well, not a particularly Jooky thing to talk about, but it is guitar-like, and I'm sadly all a flutter about it, so here we go.

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I have a bit of a liking for all things offset, with Jazzmasters being the main event of my little mental circus. I am a bit of a grungy shoegazer, it has to be said.

A Cute Jazzmaster Earlier Today

I have a rather lovely, early '90s Made In Japan one, and I love it so.

However, unfortunately, I don't quite love the scratchplate - which is fine and does the job, but is brown tortoise-shell, and I prefer red.

OK, call me King Shallow, but given the amount of time I spend agonising over how Jooky guitars are going to look, well, you can't be surprised by that, can you?

So anyway, I decided to get a new scratchplate. And whilst I was doing that it seemed a shame not to get some lovely creamy aged pickup covers, to match the, err, aged '70s knobs I seemed to acquire from somewhere (ahem).

And while I was doing that I figured that if I'm going to be taking the 'plate off, well, the pickups are really good on the MIJ Jazzmasters, but the neck one on this one seems a bit brighter than normal. Not a big deal, just a touch on the tone knob, but these things niggle, don't they?

A Foto of some cool Jazzmaster Pickups
shamelessly nicked from Mojo Pickups on Ebay

So, I've tried Lollars and Novaks before, and they are fine, but not quite the full ticket, which set me thinking about a review I'd read about Mojo Pickups, so I went-a-looking, and had a chat with Marc who runs them and winds all the pickups and very pleasant he was too. And in the end I decided to go ferrit, as the saying goes.

So anyway, Marc is now winding me a set of his pickups (tweaked to my individual whims and wants) and they should be with me soon. He also sells some gorgeous looking paper in oil capacitors, and one of them is coming too. So I might as well, err, rewire it while I'm at it. (This may be an odyssey in itself, and Homer could prove an accurate name for this wearisome traveller).

But there we are, I'll no doubt talk about this as I go along.

I mentioned Mojo Pickups before as I had been tempted to try their Tele pups for The Dust My Broom One, but Jazzmaster pickups are cool and there is no better place to start. I like dealing with the smaller British winders too. In some ways Bare Knuckle and their like have got a bit big, like Kent Armstrong before them, and it loses that wind-to-order feeling and gets a bit box-shifter-ish. Not that they don't make excellent pickups, they do, but you can't really beat talking to the geezer who is going to do the work, can you? So Mojo, like Catswhisker and Wizard are getting my vote more and more often...

(I won't mention the Jooky factories opening in China and Indonesia, 

best leave that for another day.)

Oh, and you can find Mojo Pickups on Ebay Here or via their web site Here. Well worth a look, methinks.


La la laaaa

Going To Dust That Thing Right Out Of My Hair.

Well, I've sort of put my La Cabronita - The Joe a Taxi One - ideas to one side for a little while as a couple of other interesting things popped up and caught my eye.

Highly Speedy Dusting

The first of these is a bit of a '70s relic, and is a Japanese - CMI, who I think were/made Ibanez guitars - copy of a Gibson Marauder. And after all my Gassing for a Fender Marauder...it's the fates, don't you know?

Anyway, in case you haven't come across them, for a wee while in the '70s Gibson made yet another attempt to steal some of Fender's thunder, and made a couple of bolt-on necked wonders, the Marauder being one of them. The pickups were a humbucker and a single coil designed for them by Bill Lawrence, and it looked like a Les Paul crossed with something more Danelectro-insprired.

As with everything Gibson release, nobody particularly liked it much at the time - too Fender for Gibson fans, too Gibson for Fender-o-philes - and they quietly dropped it.

No doubt they will reintroduce them for three grand a pop in the near future and we will wish we'd bought one all that time ago. Well, I was 8 and my pocket money wouldn't have stretched that far as it was tied-up with a weekly Beano, but you know what I mean.

As was the way at the time, it got copied over in Japan and quality wise there wasn't a lot to choose between them.

Marauding On Another Man's Sofa

So, coming this week I have a CMI Marauder, which I am rather excited about as I've always loved the shape of the thing. And there we are.

The other one I snapped up, is a bit of an oddity, and was (I believe) made by a luthier-type as a one off, but never finished. It is vaguely Firebird shaped, and has an oak body with a maple neck. I just thought it looked rather stunning and couldn't resist it, so there we are.

What I end-up doing with the pair of them, who knows. But it should keep me thinking for a while.

As for the Music Radar $100 Challenge, that is on now and while we're in the midst of a foney war during February - hunter gatherer time - I'll be doing my best to put together a guitar for a ton during March. What, I really don't know...

Other than that the EMG pickups for The Dust My Broom One arrived, and to be totally honest I haven't got a clue what to do with them. Not least because there are three pots and only two holes for them in the control panel. Although one good suggestion was to use the tone control as a trim pot, and hide it away under the control panel, leaving the volume a SPC pot - which is a bit of a sooper active booster kinda thing) in the usual positions.

So today has been given over to trying to get my head around what bits go where. I have four sets of instructions, none of which seem to agree and there we are.

Hmmm...not sure I'm cut out for all this modernity. Still, we shall over-come... (All together now).

La la laaa