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