A Jooky Land of Confusion

Well, bit of a funny - bitty - kinda day.

For a start I have guitars lined-up awaiting couriers.

The Ronin One is err, Ronin away to the U.S of A.

Raymondo is going to Oxfordshire, and

The Raspberry Ripple One is off to a new life in the land of permanent sunshine that is Manchester.

I decided to give the Raspberry away in the end as I kept playing it as it played and sounded sooo very nice, but the Jooky Golden Rules are there for a reason. So it is a Zen thing, but hopefully a young lad will be deafening his old man from tomorrow ;)

As for other stuff, well I can't rout anything, so instead I've lacquered the body of The Travellin' Man One, and started to copperify the scratchplate for The Fallen One. The Travellin' Man One may seem to have dropped down the list, but the reality (honest Patrick) is that I'm still waiting for parts. Most annoying, but there we are. Some things shouldn't be rushed. I am going to do the scratchplate and get the pickups and wiring sorted out soon though.

As for The Fabulous One, I've decided that it is the truss rod that has broken - least it rattles and clangs when I shake the guitar, and whilst I should probably take the fretboard off and replace it, I really can't be arsed and instead will just get a new neck.

All of which brings me to another awaiting parts, but less than before - The Betty Blue One. Mr Mojo being his usual efficient self sent me the Tele P90 (T90 - remember?) and wiring loom for it. Which is cool. I have a neck and bridge/trem on order so that should come together nicely. Unfortunately I seem to have under-trimmed the veneer a little as neither the pickup or control plate fit, but that is easy enough, even for me.

So there we are..

La la laaaa

Raymond-A-Go-Go

Well, I decided that I'd like The Raspberry Ripple One to go to a new home, and the long-and-short of it is that it is off to a young lad in the North West, which is pretty cool. I would have been quite happy playing it every day, but them rules are there for a reason, and I figured somebody was telling me something about that wee guitar so it is off to a new home in the frozen north. It's a zen-thing..

I also opened the case of The Fabulous One, and I don't quite understand it but the neck is pretty twisted. I've never seen one like it before, though when I twisted the truss rod it sounded like a bag of spanners, which might explain something. Even so, it looks most bizarre, I've never seen that happen before.. You live, you learn.

Anyway, as somebody else is obviously also telling me something about this one too, I've decided I'm going to replace the neck. I am also thinking about putting an old school horseshoe trem on while I'm at it, but we'll have to see how it goes. Nice to play it again though, even if the low E is 3cm off the 'board now.

The Raymond One is also off on it's travels, so this is going to be a week of courier hell again, but there we be. So The Ronin, Raymond and Raspberry Ripple Ones all need to be sent, I'm not sure I can cross that many fingers at the same time.

As for The Fallen One, well I think something special is going to be happening with this beaut, so I need to get my act together and sort it out, pronto, Tonto. Which means routing and staining and waxing and well, everything elseing.

Busy times, these holidays be.

La la laaa

That Was The Week That Might Be, Possibly

Home again, or

Well, another week in Jookyland and after last week's histrionical deliverance, I hate to say it, but I think this week will be a little less productive. I know, it will probably be difficultish spotting the difference.

What I do want to sort out this week are the parts for The Lightning Dragon, I've organised most of them, but just a couple of bits left to do. It is going to be a single pickup Strat and I'm thinking I should probably be thankful in the future for a very-low-powered-'bucker. Very, very low. I've learnt my lesson from The Fire Dragon. Maybe even hide the volume pot under the scratchplate so it can be accurately preset. Actually, I like that idea.

Other than that, it is waiting for parts and hopefully sharing a few tender moments with my chisel and handsaw.

Couriers are coming into it too - The Ronin One is off to America, and I should find a new home for The Raspberry Ripple One this morning, which is good. When I get back, I've also got to unwrap The Fabulous One and see what went wrong with the neck and bridge there. All a bit annoying but there we be.

So to do:

1. Couriers
2. Lightning Dragon
3. The Fabulous One
4. Routing
5. Parts

Not exactly your specific, measurable, accurate, relevant, time-bound objective there, but then again I'm not that smart at the best of times.

But anyway...

La la laaaa

Planning a Route To Hartlepool

Well, I've finally decided what I'm going to do with The Hartlepool One, my Semi--AcousticDanoesque jobby, and I think it will be fun.

From the top:

1. A solid korina centre block. I wanted a good basis and this should give it. My plan is simple, and the neck, bridge and pickup will all be nailed onto it at one point or another, which will hopefully give all those resonance, sustain and synchronicity words true meaning to me. Suddenly.

2. Around this Korina kernel (I'm making up my own technical terms now), the body shape will be made from a ring of confidence, or at least some side bits of wood cut to shape, with the top and bottom being cut out of quarter inch thick wooden board stuff. And then all stuck together with chewing gum and faint hope, like a proper Dano should be.

OK, I might use glue, though I am tempted to put a ring of copper nails around the edge for a real Cold War look to it. We'll have to see.

3. The neck is going to be my favourite big headed Strat, with a nice set of Grover tuners.

4. The bridge will be a hardtailed Strat type  for intonational goodness.

5. The pickup will be a single Mojo Pickups Filtertron, with tone and volume knobs to twizzle and twoddle.

6. As for the shape of the guitar, after mucho deliberation, this is going to be Vox Teardrop inspired, and for a change of direction I think I'm going back to my roots and painting it by hand in acrylics. I used to do this a lot (I am such an artist) so it will be fun to do it on a guitar, I've sort of avoided it so far, but this is a bit of a new direction across the Jooky map, so what the hell.

And there we are

Obviously there are a few woodwork bits I need to get my head around but the neck socket is the key for me and If I start with a long plank of Korina, and keep going until I do one right, there might be enough wood left for the rest of it.

I also have to think about things like measurements, which is novel. I normally use a bit of string with knots in it and a school 6-inch ruler if I'm getting technical.

La la laaaa

Tears On My Pillow

That's not a real one either...
But man, tis coool

Well, I watched that Olympic thing all the way thru last night, and the Spice Girls didn't show up once. Talk about the story of my life. Thank gord for Sharon Davies, that's all I can say.

Back in Jookidom, where the sun never sets on crazy endeavour with no guarantee of gold at the end of it, The Ronin One is off to pastures new in the US of A, so I'm going to be fine-fettling that over the weekend before waving a teary terrah.

In other news, I've been having a good ponder about The Hartlepool One and am being typically decisive about the body shape. I really fancy a Teardrop, but then a 620 with Mojo Ricky pickups is kinda attractive too, it has to be said. Though a semi-acoustic Jazzmaster would be, well, lovely. So in summary, still no idea what it will be.

As for The Fallen One, I've snaffled a set of Steinberger tuners so I really am going to have to get my routing sorted on this one quicksmart. It is turning into a bit of a special guitar one way or another, but more on that another day when I get it straight in me bonce.
So it is all a bit hunter-gatherer at the moment, which is OK. I don't mind too much.

La la laaaa

Inspired By....La Cabronectro

GuitarMonkey's La Cabronectro - Genius

Well, when I was joining in with the MR £100 Challenge earlier this year, one of the handful of finishers - a top geezer called Steve who goes by the Nom de Guerre of GuitarMonkey - made a quite brilliant Danelectro/La Cabronita hybrid - a La Cabronectro in fact - which looked rather wickedly cool.

He still has his blog up Here if you want to check it out, and it is probably more interesting than what I'm going to rabbit on about, so feel free, nobody will consider you rude. He also did one of those sound things people who play guitars do, Here.

Anyway, I was well impressed, and filed it away under 'Smart Arse' and 'I wonder if I could do one like that sometime?'

But, as inspiration is nine parts theft and I can't do anything about him being cooler than me, I thought I might try and do something similar myself, though no doubt we'll differ in the detail, talent and general originality.

But I don't mind losing to the chap again, however many times. He even gave me a few tips, which will no doubt save me some grief.

As a starting point, I think I'm going to make it a little more solid and use a good chunk of wood down the middle, so the neck, pickups and bridge are connected to the same thing. There isn't any great rationale behind that, though I could probably mutter something about sustain or vibrations at a push, if you would prefer it, but in truth it just feels right in some way, which is how I usually decide stuff.

Of course the  purple mohican haircut and infected tongue piercing just before my first job interview proved it isn't always a reliable approach to decision making.

Shaped 'plates - just showing off really *sniff*

But back to the guitar. Around the big lump of wood, I'm thinking this might be a good time to try one of the outlines I keep thinking I'll make but never do, so it will probably be one of a Vox teardrop, a Ricky 620 or a Fender Jazzmaster.

In fact given my cutting out skills, it could be all three in one and you'd never really know.

Another deviation from the formula is that I want to use proper wood (though thinly cut) rather than hardboard for the top and bottom. (Can you tell I'm making this up as I go along? Good innit?)


The reason for that is again a feeling I suppose, and maybe I'm just talking myself into making a semi-acoustic, especially as I was planning on cutting a hole or two in the top - though not an f hole, shoot me if I ever do an f hole.

As for the neck, I've got a nice Strat one on it's way, which keeps life simple and I'm sure I can think of something for the finish. I do want to go for a single pickup - P90 is the usual fave - but maybe something a tad different for a change would be good, and I like wraparound bridges so that is nicely simple too. Unless I go for a tailpiece and floating bridge instead, but I dunno.

In fact I haven't really thought this thru at all, have I?

I am going for a Strat neck though, I know that much, and it is going to be as cool as funk. So there.

So that is it, The Hartlepool One, coming one day, to an Emporium near me,

You heard it here first, last and always.

Probably.

Gord, I don't know.

La la laaa

Introducing The Raymond One

Well, I'm pleased to be able to introduce you to the latest lambikins in the Jooky dip, The Raymond One, and what a Tele on steroids it happens to be.

From the top we have a paislified ash Tele body, with a maple/maple neck. Kluson-esque tuners and a superb Wilkinson Strattish trem, all steel block and push-in arm. And man does it get zingy-wid-it. I'm not a big Strat trem fan - especially on Teles where I'm quite trad normally - but this feels so solid I can't help but use it. And the sustain is just excellent.

What else? Well, a hand-chopped Jerry Reed scratchplate, introduces itself sweetly to a Mojo Pickups hand wound Wide Ranger Humbucker, which is the dog's doodies.

Controls are standard Tele fare, apart from that Marc has put together a bespoke wiring loom that twists the Esquire formula to work beautifully with the Wide Ranger. So three quite gorgeous tones can be had from the three-way-Tele-switch. And man, I am loving the full fat one, it sears your ears in a big way, while using the tone control on the middle one brings out a really mellow tone that I almost feel bad about mentioning is quite jazzy. Scary stuff when you have fingers like saveloy and a memory for chords like, err, a wotsit that doesn't remember much..

And it is true that these Wide Rangers are something all by themselves. I talked about them a lot when I did The Tatty One, and they really do catch the Tele tone, but with more grit in there that makes you want to really belt the strings as you get such a jolt back. It is pretty addictive.

As you'd expect cleans with a touch of reverb are just sublime, but that clarity cuts thru even the full on fuzz I use to cover up my dodgy playing. Actually, I'm not sure such visibility is that good a thing. Hmmm. maybe it's time to get another flanger, an octaver and a couple of delays to smooth things out.

So there we are, Raymondo is in the house, and the boy has got some pipes on him.

La la laaa

Sold: The Raymond One

The Raymond One is a modern Telecaster with some serious intent.

From the top, it has a beautiful ash body that has been lovingly smothered with a beautiful pink paisley. This is topped off quite sweetly with a hand-chopped pickguard made from an old Jerry Reed record.

Sounds-wise, a single Mojo Pickups Wide Range Humbucker has that unique mixture of clanging cleans and gritty lows you’d hope for, but with a certain mellowness in the middle that genuinely sounds like nothing else. And a Wilkinson, Steel Blocked Strat trem, complete with push-in cranking handle, gives a lovely sustain and all those wobbly shimmers we love so.

To get the best out of it, Marc Ransley at Mojo has crafted a bespoke ‘Esquire’ wiring loom, tailored to this particular pickup, that gives three usable tones from the standard Tele control switch. The wiring is of course a classic in it’s own right, with CTS pots, PIO capacitors and Ye Olde vintage looking cloth covered wiring.

As twang is the thang, we’ve gone for a lovely maple/maple neck with Kluson-esque tuners, which has been waxed and feels great to play.


*


To be clear, The Raymond 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 a slo-mo run across the pebbled beach at Portishead. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.


*** SOLD ***


Technical Stuff:

Type: Leona’s Groovy Guitar

Electrics: Mojo Wide Range Humbucker, Esquire Wiring

Guitar Type: Fender Telecaster

Construction: Ash body, maple/maple neck, Fabric Finish

Strings: Nickel 10s

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#58

RSP: £799

Blues for Betty

Mojo P90 - Telecaster Bridge Pup Sized
Cooool

Well, I've been having a further ponder about The Betty Blue One, my beautifully bashed walnut burr veneered Tele, and have come to a couple of conclusions.

Firstly, Marc at Mojo has sent me a pretty piccy of the Telecaster-shaped P90, which will come with a nice Esquire-esque wiring loom to get the best out of the single pup and all that. So sounds are covered. The boy does good, all over again.

In fact he has blogged The-Making-Of-The-T90 Here and it is worth a look.

As for the neck, well I've got a couple of nice ones on the way, so I'll be able to choose between a rosewood and a maple board, which is nice. I'm thinking rosewood at the moment, but tomorrow, who can really tell which way the wind will be blowing.

None of which is rocking horse science, of course.

Where I want to try something a little different is in the shape of the bridge. Now I've never really messed about other than in passing with Bigsbys before, but Old Honey has been a bit of an eye-opener and I love it rather so.

So I was thinking it would be nice to go for a Trem on Betty. And as luck would have it, Denis Diaz of Diaz Guitars - more about their Ghost sometime soon -  pointed me at a new trem GFS in the US of A have brought out, the Xtrem, which will sit on top of a Tele with no big concerns but solves a few of the Bigsby quirks along the way.

You can also get a matching Tele bridge plate thing, which would be handy, it has to be said. And this looked all verily worthy of a try, so I'm going to give Betty Blue a face filled with metal work.



And sad though it may be, it is all a bit exciting.

I know, I truly should get out more.

So that is Betty Blue, in other news, I really don't know what to do now.

La la laaa

Dragons and Telecasters

Even Yellow Dragons Have To Start Somewhere

Well, not quite a cigar shaped like a banana, but I'm pleased to report that The Raymond One has been drilled, wired and generally put-together-again, and I'm rather happy.

I even managed to get some strings - I know, I'm shocked too - and it sounds absolutely beautiful.

I'll do a proper introduction tomorrow though, when I find the camera and stop twanging the whammy bar (is that right?)

So basically, I will somehow have finitoed two Jookies in the first week of the holibobs, which is rather amazing, but thinking about it is probably down to wall-to-wall Spongebob to escape from and not being able to have my little nap of an afternoon.

The obvious question is 'What next?' even if it is just me asking it, and I think the answer is likely to be a combination of my lass's Lightning Dragon which now seems destined to be having polka dots as well as lightning and dragons, gold leaf and yellow and orange paint, and err, something else.

The bright and cheery Lightning Dragon is likely to be a bit of a departure from my norm, but there we are. Makes a nice change.

There is a dedicated Dragon Guitars blog up and available now if you want to follow the progress and devastation Here. In fact The Fire Dragon was the first guitar I ever made, a couple of years ago now and no doubt you'll see that all taste was left at the starting line.

I am a little gutted though. I found a lovely maple scratchplate with a real mother of pearl dragon inlayed into it, from Vietnam on Ebay, which would have looked perfect, but oh no, not a hope.

Who'd want that sort of thing?

I should have known better than to suggest such bobbins.

It could be a long, hot summer.

Anyway, the body arrived today and won't need much jiggling to make the neck work, so that is good.

Other than that, I'm really going to have to brave the router and do something about The Fallen One aren't I? I can see it coming.

La la laaaa

National Raymondo Day

Well, and so it was that yesterday's high point was indeed the finishing and playing of The Ronin One, and what a little lovely it is. I think I played it for three hours straight last night and a tweak here and there, it just sounds excellent and feels beautiful in-the-mitt, as it were.

Ah the benefit of sick kids sleeping on the settee.

Actually, can't think of another one.



But all that love must be put aside today, as I brace myself to (shock) use an electric drill and somehow manage to (horror) use it to make some (surely not) holes in The Raymond One.

I know, there is truly no start to my talents.

The first hole is hopefully simple as it just needs to be between the pickup and the control panel rout thing. I won't say I could do it with my eyes closed as I may feel obliged to try it. But hopefully it won't be too tricky.

The other hole is for the jack socket to be fixed into, which is a bit bigger and so I will drill it twice, once to make sure I'm doing it in the right place, with a teensy drill bit, and then another with a big momma of a bit, just to make sure.

"Drill twice, measure afterwards to see if you got it in the right place",
my new mantra. I like to be professional about such things.

After that it is sewing it together, soldering things into place and generally going out to buy some strings as I seem to have run out again. How? I really don't know.

As for other stuff, I seem to have been banned from Ebay for three days. Apparently, if a guitar has Gibson pickups in it and you happen to mention the fact, they kick you off for infringing copyright. Obviously I should have said it was a Gibson guitar copied in China, because that must be OK as they never seem to do a lot about that sort of thing or 'Fender Custom Shop' guitars with Squier trems and, and, and...oh, it isn't worth worrying about, is it?

La la laaa

Ronin To Raymondo

Well, that was a bit of a scurry of a flurry of excitement earlier on, and I am loving The Ronin One. It is much better than I thought it would be and it has some great sounds in there. I can't quite make up my mind whether I prefer the single coil or the 'bucker, but together they are excellently lovable.

It's always an odd moment when I finish a guitar - especially when there have been so many twists as there has been with this one - as I have this moment where I love it, and then one where I'm not sure if it is as good as I think and I'm almost looking around for approval, then finally I play it for an hour or two and know. And this time, I really love everything about it.

In many ways it reminds me of the Sonex, though that had PAFs in and wasn't as tonally interesting as The Ronin One, but the neck is just a total joy. Lovin' it.

I've come to the conclusion that sound-wise it is somewhere between a Les Paul and a Tele Custom - with the Wide Range Humbuckers. Definitely has that sound when both pickups are mixed together.

As to what is next, well I'm aiming to get The Raymond One fettled before the end of the week, so with a bit of luck I might just get that started later today or tomorrow at least. That really just needs a couple of holes drilled and then a bit of soldering and screwing and we're in happyland. Though to be honest, if I'd been offered The Ronin One's completion over the course of the six-weeker, I'd have probably taken it.

La la laaaaa

Sold: The Ronin One

The Ronin One is a Jooky take on ‘70s rock, being based on one of Gibson’s lesser-known models, The Marauder complete with it’s Les Paul shaped Body and Flying Vee style bolt-on neck.

In building The Ronin One we’ve taken a 1970s Japanese copy of Gibson’s original, which followed the template to a tee, and far exceeds the current standards set it guitar land.

From the top then, the body and neck are solid maple, weighty but beautiful too. I hate to think how much equivalent lumps of wood would cost these days, assuming you could even get them without Greenpeace kicking your door in.

The body and headstock have been liberally coated with active copper and then attacked with our home brew concoction to corrode in a madly degrading way. This has then been stabilised and lacquered for posterity. I’m really chuffed with this finish and it should age beautifully.

From there we eventually decided to keep the original tuners that work sweetly and have been re-jigged slightly to improve them further. They have a real aged look to them, which goes with the Flying Vee headstock perfectly

A metal bridge and tailpiece give a zingy sound when played acoustically and along with the maple make for an almost Tele sound with the single coil pickup and plenty of grit while still cutting thru from the ‘bucker.

And speaking of sounds, we were particularly pleased to find a pair of original, stamped 1978, Gibson pickups that sound quite brilliant. One ‘bucker, one single coil they give tones from your classic Les Paul through to some beautiful Telecaster twang. In fact this reminds us more of a hot Tele than a Les Paul but with perhaps a bit more grit in the oyster.

This is a beautiful guitar to play, the neck has that old feeling that relickers are forever trying to replicate, and some great sounds too that you really won’t find on your more run-of-the-mill Strats, Teles and Pauls.

*

To be clear, The Ronin 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 a slo-mo run across the pebbled beach at Portishead. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.


*** SOLD ***

Technical Stuff:

Type: Lulu’s Copper Top

Electrics: Gibson NOS Marauder Pickup Set Stamped 1978

Guitar Type: Gibson Marauder

Construction: Maple body, maple/rosewood neck, Corroded Copper Finish

Strings: Nickel 10s

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#47

RSP: £799

Of Ronin and Snotty Pickups

Well, halfway thru week one of the holibobs and other than a vaguely working washing machine, not a lot to show for it. I've done bits 'n' bobs but no banana, so I'm going to have a proper go today and see what happens.

I know I've been saying it for ages, but today I am going to finally finish The Ronin One.

There, I've said it again.

And I kept my face straight.

But this time is different, honest it is. I've done the nut so it plays lovely, and I even removed the blend pot and screwed the 3-way-switch into place, so by my reckoning it just needs a bit of solder and we'll be there. Ultimately, it has to be that simple, doesn't it?

Just once.

Please

Assuming that works out, the rest of the week is destined to be about finishing The Raymond One. That too needs a touch of solder, but first it needs some holes drilled for wires to pass thru. Assuming I get those drilled today or tomorrow, we should be in the quid seats with that finitoed this week too.

I'm looking forward to it, what with the Stratty trem and Mojo Wide Range pickup, it should be something cool methinks.

And I really do need to get these sorted as this holibob is meant to be dedicated to making my lass her own guitar - The Lightning Dragon - and most of the parts should arrive anytime nowish. Well, the ones I've remembered to organise, anyway.

She is (soon to be) six, so it is going to be short scale thanks to a nice Duo Sonic neck Mr Mojo donated to the cause and a Strat body and, well, that's it so far. Better get with it, thinking about it.

As for the Jazzymaster goodness of The Fallen One, well I've done no more, but Mr Mojo sent me a foto of one of the pickups, which has had a quite strange reaction to being aged. It has gone a funny colour.

See, it happens to the best of us, so what chance have I got?

Nice to see the extremely Mojo-laden plug hole, mind.

Ever the professional that boy.

La la laaa

Nut Chopping The Jooky (Cheap) Way

Proper Nut Slot Files
Though, obviously, I don't have any

Well, bit of a disjointedly odd day, today. The courier finally came to get The JoBo One, though too late to be usefully usefilled, so I never got to drill and solder Raymondo in the end.

I also never managed to finish off The Ronin One, again, although I cut a nice graphite nut which seems to have solved my slightly-buzzy-problem, which is good. I'd actually bought a metal nut as I love the brass one in my Gordo, but to be honest it was too much hassle to adjust it once I realised I needed to take a couple of mm off the bottom before I even looked at the slots, as it were. The graphite was easier to work with and sounds grand so that will do nicely.

Somebody asked how I cut nuts a while back, and to be honest I usually cheat and buy the pre-slotted ones and then adjust-to-fit rather than create-a-new.

Today though I had a blank so I had to do it proper like. Not that I have nut files (they cost far too much) so I use a combination of welder's nozzle cleaners - little files, you can pick a set up from Ebay for under a three squids - and some old strings.

Daft as it sounds it only crossed my mind recently that what I'm trying to do when I cut a nut is make slots to fit strings into. I know, sad isn't it?

So in my best Columbo-mode, I realised that if I rubbed bits of string back and forth, after a while they would wear a slot of the right size. These slots I finally tidy up with the small nozzle file things. Which I could use from the start, but they are a bit flimsy.

The high E is the only one that never seems to work this way, so I just use a Stanley blade to nick it in the right place and then use the file.

I mean, I'd buy the proper files if I was doing lots, but this works for me when I have forgotten to buy something prepared earlier. I should of course have taken fotos as I went along, but obviously forgot.

Incidentally, after I'd worked this out I read the same thing in one of Dan Erlewine's books, and as he is King Kiddy in guitar land repairer circles, I felt good even while I felt slightly bugged I wasn't being original.

In fact I've read the same book before a number of times, so maybe 'thought' should be replaced with 'remembered' further up this page anyway.

So tomorrow, there is a bit of drilling and soldering and then all will be good and rosy like Lee, I'll finish both The Raymond and Ronin Ones and then face the fact that I'm really going to have to brave the router if I'm going to sort out The Fallen One.

La la laaaa

Quick, Quick and Sloooowwww

Definitely My Old Honey Now

Well, the usual flurry of a morning, as I had completely forgotten to pack up The JoBo One for it's impending journey, so that was what I did, alongside stopping the Daleks invading Portishead by fixing broken Sonic Screwdrivers and drip-feeding coffee to the washing-machine-fixer-upper.

But it is all ready to go, the planet is safe and the washer turns once more (if only at half-speed), so now it is just waiting for a courier again.

There isn't much other news apart from that I removed the scratchplate and replaced the hated speed dials with reflector topped knobs on Old Honey.

Not a lot to do to it, of course, but you have to make these things your own.

Bit More of a To-Do list

The saddest thing is that it is the Lazarus-like The Raspberry Ripple One that I'm playing most at the moment. Maybe it is just because it was one I thought that was gone for good, or because  being able to fix the busted neck twice now makes it feel like it is really mine or something, I don't know, but I really do love playing it. Even if I'm treating it like a piece of precious crystal at the moment.






As for Raymondo, well if the courier comes at a decent hour I'll hopefully be able to sort that out with some perforations later on, which would be nice as I really want to hear that Wide Ranger in action once more. I think I need a Tele in my life again.

La la laaaa

Getting back on the Gee Gee

Well, I've cheered meself up a wee bit over the weekend playing The Raspberry Ripple One, which I have to say is a lovely guitar, and as for everything else,
well,
whatever.
I don't care anymore.

So revitalised I'm going to drill some holes in The Raymond One and get that Wide Ranger fitted and strummable and then
I will
smile, smile, smile.

I will also fit the switch, tuners and nut on The Ronin One,
and then play that for a while and then
I will
smile, smile, smile.

Then I will play The JoBo One for a while,
before it wanders off to pastures new and then
I will
smile, smile, smile.

As for plans, well  I think I should really try and get The Fallen One ready.
OK, it involves routing and I have no safe routing capability, but I'm sure I'll manage somehow.
I think that is going to be a totally stunning guitar.
I will get that fettled and play it some and then
I will
smile, smile, smile.

And then I could fit the new nut, tuners and switch to The Ronin One,
and play lots of old 70s songs that will sound perfect, and then
I will
smile, smile, smile.

As for couriers, insurance, numpties in Totectors and everything else..
I'll worry about them on the morrow.

I love it when the lithium kicks in.

La la laaaaaaaa

Everything is Broken

You Smasha My Guitar
I Smasha Your Face

Well, not the best of times in Jookyland, I have to admit. First of all a courier manages to break the neck of my Raspberry Ripple One, despite hardcases and everything else - and I know what you are going to say about SGs and headstocks, but even so.

But then something definitely more Fenderish is my lovely La Cabronita - The B Movie One - which must have had a bit of a stomping as the top has cracked-in-transit and the volume pot has been half-buried into the body. I'm not even sure how you manage to do that while it is in a hardcase and a box.

I've got this mental image of some geezer in Totectors jumping off a pallet in a warehouse somewhere and seeing if he can manage to land buried up to his knees in well waxed Jooky.

And then The Fabulous One is coming back with a not-so-fab problem with it's neck.

*sigh*

So all in all, not verily happy about it all.

There, spleen vented. More insurance claims to enjoy.

Call me Mr Paranoid, but I am starting to think that it is personal.

Anyway, on the plus side of this mis-balanced sheet, I am rather pleased with the third coming of The Raspberry Ripple One as I've strung it up and it still plays and sounds lovely. I am however, beginning to think that maybe I shouldn't let my little Jookies out to play anymore, it's a lot safer here with me. Which let's face it, is slightly worrying.

As for other bobbins, the Jazzmaster trem-thing arrived for The Fallen One, as did some strap pins, a neck plate and some other bits I don't remember ordering. I already have a Mustang bridge, so somehow that means I am only in need of pickups and wiring, which Mr Mojo is going to sort out.

So basically, I need to make the neck pocket a tad deeper and deepen the pickup routs too as they are a tad on the light side. Oh and do the finish and put it all together.

None of which sounds horrendous if I say it quick.

What else? Well, I can get on with The Ronin One at last, which is nice, and I'm already thinking about re-working The Fabulous One with a Bigsby and a new neck if that is what it needs.

And, and...sometimes this all gets a bit complicated and I feel quite tired.

Yours, feeling slightly sorry for myself, a little tattered and torn - sparrow-like,

La la laa

DIY Waterboarding - or Fixing Guitar Necks

Two Broken Necks - Not So Much
A Raspberry Ripple as Evel Knievel

Well, the holibobs are on, so Jookyness will be limited in scope and stunted in activity, but it doesn't stop me trying.

For instance, in between serving 9 kinds of breakfast and planning culturally important and absorbing visits to museums, galleries, famous personages' birth places and sweet shops, I decided to undo the clamps on The Raspberry Ripple One and see how the neck-gluing-back-on went.

Oh, and the new Argos catalogue is out, so that was a bit of a trip too.

And first impressions are good. I had to remove a little sliver of wood, so I will have to do a bit of work there, but on the whole it looks solid and I was quite pleased.

In fact I had it going on in my head..

1. Sand the neck back
2. Fill the gap with some wood filler
3. Let it dry
4. Sand it smooth
5. Redecorate.
6. Sorted.

And it was all going well, up there in me bonce, until, that was I noticed that one of the clamps had somehow come off the bit of wood I'd used to protect the fretboard and left a lovely circular indent in the rosewood. A couple or three mm deep. Not happy. Not happy at all.

Oh how I laughed.

Maniacally.

I mean it will still be playable, but not exactly the professional look I envisaged.

So searching deep in my splintered memory, I thought I'd try something I saw my Granddad do once to get a dent out of the kitchen table, and try to 'lift' the dent using a sopping wet rag and a very hot iron.

Now I haven't tried this before, but what the hell, how bad can it get?

(As I type that I'm trying to remember whether the linseed oil I put on the 'board is flammable or not.)

So, if an iron is good, I figured a soldering iron would be better and as it was super-heated, body armour affixed and an old T Towel suitably wet, I gave it a go...

What I did was soak the T towel, and leave it on top of the 'board for half an hour. I figured it made sense to have water in there to swell the fibres or something. Don't know if that is true, but what the hell.

I had already wire-wooled it to try and remove or at least break-up the oil. Not sure if that actually helps either to be honest, as thinking about it, where I am trying to fix has already been 'broken'. But again, whatever.

Anyway once the water had a chance to soak in, I re-soaked the towel, placed it over my circular divot and then pressed down gently, almost lay on the verily hot soldering iron.

Cue clouds of steam and a satisfying sizzle.

Anyway, I repeated the soak and sizzle for fifteen minutes before I got bored, then I stopped.

As for the result, well originally it was a good couple of mm deep, but now it feels flat to the touch, which is quite a turn-around. There is still a semi-circular mark on the 'board which doesn't want to shift, but that is OK, you can't really notice it unless you are looking and I'll claim it as a PRS moon thing, so that is cool.

Finally then, I gave it another go with some wirewool and after it had dried I re-oiled it, and problem solved methinks.

Lovely.

Now that that was out of the way, I got on with my sanding-filling-finishing of the back of the neck.

And as I forgot to post this earlier, I got on with it quite well, as it happens and as you can probably see it is all done bar the drying and looks rather nice indeed. It is covered in lacquer, so I'll leave it until tomorrow to put some strings on and see if a flying headstock removes an eye or breaks a nose...

La la laaa

Jookies can now come with, err, Moons

A bit of Tea Towel Waterboarding

And There It Was Gone

Raspberries and Fallen Walnuts

Raspberry Ripple - Maybe The Name Was Pushing It?

Well, a while back, if you remember, I had a bit of a disaster with The Raspberry Ripple One, as despite hardcases and everything else, the neck got broken on the way to it's new home.

Anyway, insurance shenanigans have run their course and so it has come back to me...once again all tattered and torn

Now, the sensible thing would probably be to strip the parts and chuck it away, but that isn't really my thing, so instead I'm going to glue the neck and then see if I can think of something cool to do with it.

Play it even, maybe..who knows.

The sad thing was despite being an Epiphone, once it had been totally upgraded, it was one of the nicest SGs I've ever played. The Seymour Duncan Phat Cat sounded brilliant in it (as opposed to shonky when it was in my Gordo) and the Gibson 57 Classic is just sweet, but there we are.

Anyway, no time like the present so as you can't see (as I forgot to take any fotos on the way) I've cleaned up the break a bit and glued and clamped for the second time this week.

Fallen Yet Still Only Plonked Together

I must be getting cocky about this as I didn't go thru the usual avoidance and angst stages. Not that I particularly want to become expert in fixing necks, it isn't a good sign of anything useful,  after all.

So, once the glue has dried, I'll sand it back and I might as well refinish the neck too. Got to show willing and all, dontcha know.

Other than that, I've been collecting the bits for The Fallen One, so I thought I'd do a quick plonk together. I've gone for one of Mr Mojo's Jazzmaster pickup sets and a wiring loom too, so I know it will sound fantastic.Can't remember if I said, but the body is ash with a nice walnut veneer, and the usual maple/rosewood Jazzmaster neck gets a Jooky twirl as it is reverse of headstock. Or maybe a Lefty downside-up. I can't remember.

Despite how it looks, the body actually needs a fair bit of work, so it won't be a quick one to do, but it already has that Elvis Costello vibe, which is cool. I'll probably stain it a bit darker and maybe even give it a thin coat of nitro - but there be woodwork to do before I worry about that, so gord knows what state it will be in after that.

But, it is the last day of freedom and unfortunately, I won't finish anything else today.

The B Movie One is off to a new home (couriers permitting) and I will be sad to see that go as it really is quite beautiful and the P90s are uber sexual in excelsis. However it will be making it's gigging debut on Saturday - more details on that to follow.

La la laaaa

Raymondo and Betty Blue - Getting On With It

The Raymond One - Gagging for some Mojo

Well, in between peeping thru the curtains to see whether Old Honey had happened to just be left on the doorstep by the courier, I thought I should do something productive to keep me going yesterday.

Young Marcy Mojo is sending the Wide Ranger Humbucker and wired control plate to arrive tomorrow, so I figured it would make sense to have The Raymond One ready to go.

So as you can hopefully see, Raymondo now has a neck attached, strap pins - I remembered the strap pins - yeah - and a rather fine Wilkinson Strat trem with a solid steel block and a lovely little grub screw that let me tighten the hole that the trem arm pushes into so that it doesn't fall out and I don't cross thread it. Some people think of everything, don't they?

Removed the clamps - then had to prize my 'caul' off

And there we are - ready to go.

Well, nearly. I noticed yesterday that there is one slight issue with the body that has escaped me thus far, which is that somebody seems to have forgotten to drill a hole for the jack socket to sit in.

And more to the point, somebody a lot closer to home didn't notice this before covering the body with paisley , grain filler, and lots of lacquer.

So one last job on that and we'll be clover-based.



Other than that, I took my life in my hands earlier and unclamped The Betty Blue One to see how the veneering had turned out.

It is one of those odd occasions where I was dreading the idea that it had worked too well, as of course the idea is for it to be ragged so that the corrosion of the bronze beneath is partially visible.

Roughly trimmed the veneer away

And horror of horrors, it turned out well. It was a little neat but I can soon fix that sort of bobbins, so I'm really quite pleased.

From there I removed the excessive veneer and generally hacked around the edges and introduced a couple of minor splits and scrapes.

Once that was done I sanded it back and generally got it how I wanted it.

Power, that is. Power.

I had an idea that it would be nice to have the veneer not quite reaching the edge, but to sand it so that the corroded bronze was removed and the nice blue beneath would show thru as a faux binding.

So that was what I did and amazingly it looks how I imagined it, which is most odd. If things start looking how I imagine them we may all be in trouble. Especially Gideon George Osbourne. Not pretty at all.

Bit more of a twin

So the paint is peeping thru the bronze which is peeping thru the veneer which is going to be covered in lacquer.

I'm liking this better, the more I think about it.

Anyway, I'll finish the sanding and then lacquer it to death later on. There is no real panic on this as I haven't got any of the other parts yet and Mr Mojo is doing me a P90 Tele pup for it, and that will take a while as it involves different magnets or something technical like that. Wrong kind of magnets, can cause havoc with your winding apparently.

**** Interlude ****

Edges sanded for a 'faux binding' and lacquered to death

Time moved on, so I just finished the sanding and started the lacquering and the walnut burr just comes to life. I think this is going to turn out pretty good, if I say so meself.

And then of course it had dried before I posted this. So you can see for yourself what I meant.

Obviously, I'd appreciate it if you kept all these details to yourself, as I know Paul Reed Smith often pops in to try and nick my veneering technique so that they can get away from that Doctors-and-Lawyers reputation, and get down with the kids like me. I try to distract him, but he is getting sneakier all the time.


La la laaa

Loving the corrosion peeping thru...