Getting Shonky On It

Well, this is perhaps the most left of field yet, in fact it is so far to the left it is practically fascistic, but never let it be boring, and never indeed will it be.

What am I wittering about?

Well, I've for many long years fancied playing the mandolin. In fact I have a mandolin, I even had some lessons and I can play it to some extent, but even by my lowly standards, it is a very poor second to my very poor guitar playing. So that is low-in-excelsis indeedy-do.

And if I'm honest, half of the charm is the way mandolins look - they are just too cool to be ignored.

And in fact, my teardrop fetish can probably be traced back to Ye Olde round back mandolins and there we be.

However, the one that I've always coveted but never been able to vaguely justify, is the old Gibson F-12, which is absolutely gorgeous, from the scroll at the top to the crazy barking shape at the bottom and the trapeze tailpiece..

And so I had my little storm d'brain and asked Jezz of Woodroffe Guitars whether he could make me a guitar body based on the F-12, Les Paul kinda sized with routs for a couple of 'buckers, and lowly beholden, he came back with this lovely 3D model thingy.

And now it is happening.

How cool is that?

It will have a nice pair of pups on it - a dreamteam of a Mojo P90 and PAF combo (as the Mojo Pickups in The Chi Chi One were a total winner), and it will get a rustic finish in a big way, a nice Strat neck and I haven't quite decided on the rest, but it will be cool, of that I'm sure.

In fact it will be better than that - it will be tasteful and charming and generally uber mucho grande chilly like never before.

It will also be a few weeks down the line, but I really can't wait.

Unsurprisingly.

So there we are, The Shonky One, coming one day, but who knows which day that may happen to be, some happy day...

La la laaaa