Getting Into Shape

The Crowley One
A Shape

I haven't done anything about it as of yet, but I really fancy doing another 'shape' guitar, maybe a Firebird of some kind or a Vee. (The Crowley One scratched the Explorer rash for a while.)

Coming to the end of my parts stockpile means I can start to think about what I'd like to do, as opposed to all the things I wanted to do that I hadn't gotten around to doing and this, along with something Teardrop shaped immediately springs to mind.

Other things I can see me doing are some sort of Rickenbacker shaped guitar - 'inspired' I should say - along the lines of a 620. As with the teardropped One, I don't mean that it will be a clone, just pick up on the outline of it which I've always thought uber cool..

I also fancy doing something offset, but without curves, more plank like and rustic, and then...well, I can go on forever, in truth..

In fact there is a whole whirl going round, and round, and around and sometimes even up and down in my bonce and if I think about it too much I don't actually do anything else, so I tend to ponder, produce a list, and go from there.

As for finishes, there has been less fabric recently, but it hasn't disappeared totally, I just need to come from another angle. I like the metal paints and the leaf finishes too at the moment, and rust and corrosion of all of the above gives some amazing looks and I don't really think I've gotten started with them just yet. I also fancy doing something with acrylics again, and I still haven't had a go with laminates, and then...well, like I say, better to make a list, eh?

La la la

I love doing this.

Introducing The Crowley One

Well, nine long months in the 'development' I'm pleased, chuffed, delight-filled and generally quite happy to introduce you to The Crowley One, and a reet beauty the girl is.

From the top she has..

A Slab Mahogany Body

A Mahogany Neck

A Rosewood Fretboard

Wilkinson ABR, ToM and Tuners

A matched pair of Gibson 'Platinum' pickups (A Classic '57 and another Alnico one I can't remember the number of, but should really find out. Oh, just found my notes, it is a 490T.)

All topped off with a variegated gold finish, that has been crickled and crackled using aged varnish and funny craqueler chemical bobbins.

The scratchplate has a real platinum leaf finish with a sparky electric design (if you look from the right angle).

Sounds-wise we're into Classic Rock, with the neck having a bit more oomph if needed.

For those of you viewing in black and white, the red button is a killswitch for all those RATM/Tom Morello moments, with a standard three-way-switch, single volume and single tone covering the more usual fine-tuning.

All in all, it is a beautiful guitar to play and hopefully will be well loved...

Bank Holiday, Gone, Gone and Gone

Well, my collection of shiny new switches arrived on Saturday, and after mucho bit-champing, I finally got to try to place them lovingly under the appropriate scratchplates on Sunday evening.

Typically, it wasn't as easy as I had hoped, as all three of the ones I'd got for The Crowley One didn't quite fit in the gap, which is most annoying (obviously the one I had in first had fitted, but it was an odd old switch that I can't seem to replace like-for-like.)

Anyway, the upshot is that I need to do a bit of wood removal and wire lengthening, and that will need to be later today as tools are in the garage-without-any-light. And it is dark out as I type this. Because it is 4am.

As for the Blue Moon One, at least I'm ready to go on that, but after messing about with the Explorer for so long, I had lost my motivation, dah-link.

Then my daughter chucked up over me for good measure.

Blah.

Well, more 'blleeeuuurrggghhhh' as it happens.

Other than that, in addition to the Charvette I obtained on Friday, I also seem to have two SGs on their way from the same chap. Oh, and a Hondo spikey super-strat sort of thing with a blue crackled finish.

Not quite sure what I will do with all of them - four new projects (gulp) - but I'm sure I'll think of something. Oh, there is another Tele custom on it's way too, I'd forgotten that one. That should arrive today.

I daren't count how many bodies and necks that will make I will have  in 'stock', though off the top-of-me-head I can think of enough body & neck combos to make...
3 SGs,
3 Telecasters,
2 Les Pauls,
2 Strats,
the Epi Dot and
the Shergold..

Oh and two spiky things, and

the Nuno-esque one that is still at the guitar repair shop.

And two short scale guitars I gave my brats that were meant to be covered in Pokemon or Fireman Sam or something, but haven't quite been Jookyfied six months later.

Oh, and another two Strats behind the piano I'd forgotten about, so that is four Strats in total.

So quite a few, I guess. Getting on for twenty-lots in fact. Bugger.

I'd better get me finger out...

It might seem odd to gather parts in such numbers, but some of them will get moved on as I tend to gather-a-plenty and then realise a few months down the road that I've cherry picked and none of the others are 'quite right for what I happen to want to build. Probably daft, but it is nice to be able to have a muddle around and see what fits with what else.

So anyway, sorting The Crowley and Blue Moon Ones are top of the pile now, and then we'll just have to see what happens next. Why are things never simple?

Switching Frustration

Well, yesterday was another day gone out of my dwindling supply on kidless moments, and it was a little frustrating to be honest.

Firstly, The Crowley One seems to have a dodgy switch. Now I've triple and quadrouply checked my soldering and for once my shaky mitts aren't to blame, and after working out how to use a multimeter for such things, it seems that the switch is itself knackered.

Really annoying.

So I've ordered a replacement and I'm now waiting for new switches for both it and The Blue Moon One.

Thumbs-are-a-twiddling as I type (which may excuse the spelling).

Other than that I have started to gold leaf The Old Burny One. This is the '80s Burny Les Paul I've been talking about for aeons but never quite gotten around to sorting out. It is lovely though, and I'm doing something. Which makes me feel better about the world.

I'm going the craqueleur route for the top to give it a crazy paved look, and then nitro lacquering it so that it will age further as time goes by.

It's what I did on the Crowley One and that looks crazy (a tee and a hee).

Other than that, I've had a rethink on the Old Burny in terms of pickups. I'm going to go with a P90 plus a PAF, as they are my two faves and it will give the most tones I can squeeze out of it. Well, the most I like anyway.

Here's a couple of fotos of the nearly done Crowley One, and a couple of the Lulu One, because I just lurrvvee her, so.

I got those, waiting-for-the-postie blues...

Here's Lulu ...

Edging Closer To A Golden Dawn

Well, what can I say...?

The Blue Moon One is still to be finished as I managed to knacker up the switch and didn't have a replacement handy. Tis on it's way now, so fingers crossed it won't take too long to arrive and be fitted.

Turning into something Homer-esque at the moment. (Simpsons or Greek, take your pick.)

On the positive side of things, I did however manage to finish The Crowley One - well, apart from the missing scratchplate, but that is an easy 'fit' once I find it. Fotos to follow once I have, but at the moment I've got a little bit on set-up to do, in between jumping in the air and hitting minor power chords.

As for the sound, well, I'm really rather impressed. Very much 'Classic' Rock, but it tones down well for a nice bluesy-ness, and can also get very hot if you so wish.

Sounds amazing with a fuzz pedal, has to be said.  Indeedy, as I said before, it is a couple of Gibson pups from a Les Paul Platinum, and with the mahogany body and neck, it really hits the mark. The neck pickup (the '57) is definitely my favourite sound - real old school - but flicking to the bridge you get more oomph. all nice and clear too, I'm rather pleased.

Be good to get it done, as it is going somewhere special methinks.

Other than that, I was having a closer look at the SG body I got the other day, and being quite a detail person, I (finally) noticed that it hasn't got a hole for either the switch or the output Jack.

It did have, but they have been filled in.

Now, OK, maybe I'm missing something, but two volume, two tone, two pickups - at a stretch you could have both on all the time and choose between them by turning the individual pickup volumes up or down, though mid-song would be interesting, but no output jack would slow things down, wouldn't it?

Maybe I am missing something.
What do I know anyway?

Right, Crowley, action, intonation, check. Better get going...

p.s. Just found my lovely platinum leaf covered scratchplate under a pile of poetry books. Can you imagine? Fotos later then when it is all assembled proper-good-like...

WIP - The Crowley One

Well, D Day-5 and counting, so it was nice to take a leap forward on the The Crowley One today, which entailed a bit of finishing around the edges, sorting the neck out and connecting it and finding all the parts.

Well, apart from the scratchplate which seems to have disappeared somehow, so I'll have another search for that. It has come on a wee bit more since the fotos- the headstock and tuners are now as they should be and bits like strap pins, which I normally forget until the last minute are in place, as are the pickups, with real screws and everything. In fact I should probably have taken another foto, but didn't, so there we are.. Tomorrow
 is officially National Solder Day (in Jookyland anyway) so we should all be wired up and getting close to the finishing line. Which is handy, especially if I get the Blue Moon One done as well, of course.

Obviously, my football predictions were like the rest of my life and half-right or half-wrong, depending on your perspective on such things, so it is a sad farewell to Blackpool, and a rather amused 'terrah a bit' to the blue noses, though their usual delusions of grandeur will undoubtedly be seeing it as a step toward a regular European place and another trophy. Bit of a double for the porn twins and the delightful Mrs. Pesky though, bless their claret and blue cotton socks. Takes a special kind of owner to get two clubs relegated in the same season (OK, not technically true, but ownership has a 'long tail' and it takes a while to unpick, as it were.)

Anyway, I was happy Wigan survived, and in a way chuffed the Wulfes did too, as they might be our secret eight-fingered-cousins that we prefer locked and hidden in a tower somewhere, but even so, it doesn't seem right without a derby day, does it?

Monday, Monday, la la la la la laaaaaa

Rolling Along

Well, rather typically my soldering iron went up in smoke - third time this year - and so I've not got around to finding a replacement or doing The Blue Moon One. Slack, I know.

Anyway, instead, I've given The Crowley One a couple more coats of lacquer and played lots of twangy things on The Lulu One. Which remains lovely. So all in all quite a lazy day.

I almost  bought a Gibson SG, but it wasn't meant to be - though I did get hold of an SG neck and body combo which I'll be Jookifying in the near future I expect, so all is well in the SG direction.

I'm at that point again where I have lots of ideas, but am missing key parts for the ones I want to get on with now. For instance, I am still short of a neck for The One One, missing out on at least four occasions on Ebay, and the design for the body I'm still not 100% about. It is going to be leaf over fabric as with the Lulu One, but which leaf and which fabric...I can't quite decide. We will see though and at least I've got pickups for once.

One I am ready to 'do' is The Burny One as I have all of the parts (actually still need a bridge but that is easy) and also know exactly how I'm going to do it.

But nagging at the edges of my brain, there is something holding me back (as with the Crowley One before) and I'm not sure what it is - though am begininning to trust the feeling. It may just be it has taken too long and I've lost the interest/impetus/excitement, or it could be that there is a better idea bubbling under somehere. Or perhaps I've just got bored. I don't know.

Anyway, better get a soldering iron, that'd be a start wouldn't it?

Oh and if anybody wants to swap something Jooky for something SG-like, give me a shout...

WIP: The Crowley One

Well, this has got to have taken longer than any of our guitars to get this far, but I'm finally getting pleased with the finish on our lovely dark satanic Explorer-type-of-thing, The Crowley One.

As you can see, me and the boy have applied the variegated finish, and then using all sorts of weird and wonderfilled gubbins, artificially aged it even more - for a sepia tint - and then cracked the lacquer.



Don't get me wrong it isn't a swimming-pool-tile kind of 'crazing' but it looks like weathered stone, which is quite lovely, and will apparently continue to age for a while yet to come. It still needs a final lacquer as it is all quite delicate right now, but it looks excellent. I'm well pleased we spent the time.

As far as the rest of the guitar goes, I've got the pickups wired up (a first) and I'm thinking I will put some platinum leaf on the scratchplate to match the pickup covers. I think it needs black hardware though, I'll have to see what I can do. Gold would just be too blingy and chrome or nickel wouldn't really match, I don't think.

Like A Famous Violin Maker I Can't Spell

Well, another day of not a lot happening. I did get some clamps so that I can have a go at fixing the Epi Dot's busted neck, but despite visiting a dozen shops, ginormous big and back-street-svelte, I couldn't find any 'Titebond Original Wood Glue' for love, money or future promises of delightfilled behaviour.

Elusive? Moi??

I could have bought a different type, but I'm guessing this stuff comes highly recommended for a goodly reason, and for the sake of a couple of days when I probably wouldn't get around to doing much anyway,  I just got some off Ebay instead which will arrive next week sometime I expect.

In summary then, The Busted Dot One: I haven't started yet.

Moving on, the top and sides of The Crowley One are covered in beautifully Jooky molten iron leaf, which is good, but I managed to scratch it before we'd got as far as the lacquer, which isn't so much of a nice-to-have.

I know you probably think such trifles don't matter to me - but the roughfinishedness of the Jookified guitars is generally planned with a pinch of randomness sprinkled lightly on top. Anyway, if it had looked good, I'd be leaving it, but in this case it didn't so I'm going to re-start the top later on.

See - Stradivarius had a skip outside his gaff, filled to the brim with Violins he'd Townsended because they weren't as proper good as he hoped. That's why the good 'uns were so good.

Obviously, I'd have been going thru the skip, gluing them together and covering them in crushed velvet and ostrich feathers, but there we are. Point made..

Other than that, I've been thinking about The One One - my idea for a one-off signature guitar, and have chosen/selected/picked/spoken to a willing victim.

All will be revealed soon enough, and I am gathering the parts for that one in the soonerest as I would like it not to be one that lingers, for once.

*Sigh*

Going to have to get my act together. I promised sooo many things, and delivered sooo very  little this week..

Now there's an Epitaph
or maybe a flashback
to a school
report.

Broken Neck? I ask yer...

Well, after handing over design responsibilities to my art director (he is the grand old age of 8 going on Picasso), we, err, he has decided that The Crowley One would look better completely covered in our molten iron leaf, and he is probably right.

Action a bit high? Wonder why that is...?

So that is what we have started to do, and stunning it looks already - I'll put some fotos up later on.

In addition to this, we are going to complete the effect with a cracked lacquer finish, which is a first and one I've been wanting to try for ages but never gotten around to.

OK, he has got more bottle than I have, and doesn't accept excuses.
I have no cojones, it is true.

All in all, it is proving to be quite a stunning guitar - whether I will be able to get the thing out of his grasp once it is finished, who can say, but then I probably shouldn't try should I?

Today though has seen a bit of a trip to pickup an old Epiphone Dot which is in need of a little bit of Jooky love or at least some love full-stop.

It is a Korean one, and lovely neck-wise. I had one of these years ago and it was a grand guitar, and I'm really keen to see how this one goes. That one was in perfect BB King 'nick', whereas this one has a broken neck.

Now, a broken neck on a guitar, I must admit, I would understand if it sounded a bit on the 'terminal' side of things, and generally I would have to agree with you, if that is indeed what you are thinking and maybe even if you aren't.

And it is very true - fixing a guitar with a broken neck - and quite spectacularly, very much broken it is too - this is not something I've ever tackled before, but I fancied having a go to see how hard it is to do. So there we are.

Ah, that would be doing it...

And in my defence, I've had some good advice already, involving glue and clamps and lets face it - how wrong can it in fact go?

Well, looking at it in 3D, I must admit I'm not sure that I know the answer to that one and am a little worried that I might well be finding out.

Maybe the guy that fixes them down in Bristol might be a better bet after all.





Or should I get my son to do it, he wouldn't (search desperately for a) waiver in the face of such things.
 
And sellotape is a seldom used guitar finish after all, it may well catch on.

Anyway, whatever happens I'll show you how it goes as I go along, and there we are.

Lovely looking guitar though, your Epi 'Dot'.

Busy Doing Nowt, In Truth.

Well, day one of my newly forged freedom-to-create and I achieved precisely nothing. The Explorer body is however ready to go - can I claim I delegated?

The Funky One - Never To Be Forgotten *sniff*

Or am I in danger of being accused of sweatshop/child labour exploitation?

I did pay my lad in Jaffa Cakes, but will that swing it?

Anyway, one thing I did do was get the neck ready and decide on the body coverage.

As I said before The Crowley One will have a Molten Metal Leaf top, but this will now be accompanied by a low key paisley back and sides, which I think will look pretty cool, it has to be said...

Although I have got some  Platinum Leaf, which might be nice on the back, or perhaps on the scratchplate if I put that back on. Decisions, why can't I make them?

What else? Well, I was going to solder The Blue Moon One's lipstick pickups in, but shaky-hand-syndrome meant it wasn't really a runner, so there we are. Better luck tomorrow I guess.

Oh, I did acquire a Tele custom body that has been routed for either P90 soapbars or humbuckers, that should arrive soonish, which is cool. I love the look of them, and The Funky One - which had a rather hot pickup selection - was one of my fave of the Jooky guitars. Utter lunacy but cool as cool can be once you tamed the savage 'Slag. Pity I got rid of all my P90s, have to find some more I guess.

Ho hum.

Finishing and Starting

Well, no more school holidays for a few weeks, so I'm figuring that it is about time I got my finger out and got some guitars dusted and done. OK, I always say that, don't I?

Anyway, this week I will be finishing The Blue Moon One and will probably be finishing The lulu One as well. Now, there's ambition for you.

Other than that, my lad has been earning his pocket money and sanding back the Explorer that I stripped the skulls and roses off last week, and it is ready to go for a bit of molten iron. And that is what it is going to have, some beautifully aged iron leaf on top that looks like it is burning away to show hell below. Can only be The Crowley One then, I guess. As I said before this is going to 'feature' a couple of Alnico Gibson Humbuckers with quite pretty Platinum tops on them, and basically I want it to be Classic Rock without dipping into Metal. So no cruciforms or pentacles, although if you play your scales backward you might find a hidden message. maybe.

That should be fun - and I'm still deciding what to do with the sides and backs, it has to be said. It is a lovely piece of mahogany, so I might just leave it exposed, but then I have some 1950s Popeye and Olive Oil fabric, which might just...OK, maybe not.

I can decide tomorrow I guess, no panic.

Well Evil Bed was a silly name

OK, I changed the name of the Evil Bed One, to The Crowley One, as I think it is a bit more whhoooo-hhhooooo

I've had a day of necks really, sanding them applying 'logos' with a burning stick and generally getting them ready to be reattached to bodies..

Speaking of which, the Daisy Jook and Twangy Ones are nearly dry, so tomorrow should be getting to look more guitar-like, and the Crowley One is 99% ready to be sprayed with sticky lacquer stuff.

Rubbish fotos in the kitchen, but here is the latest pix...