Vegas Calling

Somebody else's guitar

Well, things have changed around here over the last few years. When I first started on my Jooky odyssey, it was all about making guitars out of second hand parts and generally seeing what could work together that maybe wasn't normal. I got to play with fancy finishes too, which was always a bonus.

Gradually, I've moved toward using new and dare I say better parts. The guitars have got dearer, but all the components are good quality now. I still get to play with trendy finishes though.

Is this a good thing - well, yes, I think/hope/know so, and for what the guitars are they are still crazy cheap, but there we are.

I do though miss the chaotic feeling I got when something would pop up on ebay or the classifieds on Music Radar, I'd grab it and not really know what would happen next.

So basically, this happened yesterday and I'd thought I'd take a holiday from being a mature, grown-up and generally thoughtfilled guitar maker and get back to my roots.

So when I saw a Squier Tom Delonge Strat turn up, I grabbed it. It is a single 'bucker Strat - I haven't done one for ages - and I couldn't resist it.

Obviously, I have no clue who Tom is or was, but I'm guessing by the fact it has a high output pickup he is/was loud. So I imagined he had gone Vegas and that will change for a start.

So the plan is to take Tom's Strat, replace the noisy bucker with a Gold Foil one courtesy of Marc at Mojo Pickups, and then I am going to gold leaf the whole thing. OK, maybe not the fretboard, but probably everything else.

And I think it will be fun. I will also try my best to replace any shonky parts with oldies-but-goodies (apart from Bill Oddie, never liked him) and generally come up with something groovy.

So there we be - The Vegas One, coming maybe one day in the dim and distant.

La la laaaa