On the block

Well, I decided that The Golden Shower One needed a better home, and so that is on the block complete with it's switch tip and trendily gorgeous tweedy case over at our 'Ebay Store' - I am sooo American - along with the lovely Cherry Vintage SG I got, err, just the other day. I also put the Daisy Jook One up for auction as well.

All over, I'm having a bit of a spring clean in Jookyville, and have flogged on loads of parts and pickups and god knows what else in recent times. It's with the aim of a more focused one-at-a-time approach I'm adopting, in the faint hope that I might finish something once in a while..

Anyway, there we are...

The Fat Pussy + The Daisy Jook

I know I shouldn't do this, but to be honest I can't stand the thought of having too many Jooky guitars around the place at any one time, I get a little paranoid*, so I've decided to clear the decks a wee bit..

So, with the wonders of Ebay you can now get either The Fat Pussy One complete with it's handwound sex-in-the-mush P90, or the delight-filled Daisy Jooky One with her wee tiny weeny handwound humbuckers, jewels and dicey knobs for £199 each, just by Clicking Here.

I know, it's sad, but there we are.

I am as ever open to trades, if anybody has a nice Telecaster, or even an old Greco or Burny or Tokai Les Paul, or such a thing....just step into my office (or email me) and we can chat...

Mwahh
x




* I do get paranoid, but luckily I also suffer from low self esteem, so I never think that anybody important is out to get me...

Sold: The Daisy Jook One

About The Daisy Jook One

So there you are, Highway 51 a memory and you are trudging along in your rental, looking for a place to stay, a cold beer to get the dust from your mouth. You set off thinking you were Steinbeck looking for his California, miles down the road you realise that you’re just another tourist. You pull over the Buick into the car park of a roadhouse, be-spattered pickups line the path to the confederate flag clad door, tattered around the edges, time-stained like everything else. You open it into a wall of heat and sound and the smell of stale beer and road kill hits you, moments before the lively country rock coming from the stage dies as everybody in there turns to face you, in your Man United shirt, Hawaiian shorts and long, be-sandled socks.

The lone guitar player starts to strum her guitar, singing Hank Williams songs with a different beat. The crowd starts talking again and you give the singer, your saviours a wave as you walk to the bar.

*

The Daisy Jook One is a slice of Americana without the make believe of Disney, the commercialism of a Coke or a Sub. She plays country and blues, and indie and anything else you want to try, twin handwound mini-humbuckers give you it all, a semi acoustic, f-holed construction adds a traditional slant but the covering is pure Jooky, with cowgirls and rhinestones, and the chance to throw the dice and make your own luck.

To be clear, The Daisy Jook 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 Britney in shades. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.

Technical Stuff:

Type: Leona’s Groovy Guitar

Electrics: Catswhisker Handwound Mini-humbuckers

Guitar Type: Semi-Acoustic

Construction: Cloth over wood, selected rhinestone cowgirls

Strings: D’Addario XL 10s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: Two Volume, Pickup selector

Special Stuff: Certificate of Authenticity, Builder Signed and Numbered, All Wrapped with our Trademark Jooky Wrapping.

Serial Number: JGE#22

RSP: £399
Gone, Gone and Gone... Sorry

A Little Bit Country

Well, having managed to knacker-up my router, all of the jobs today went out of the window, so I decided it was about time I got a bit further with The Daisy Jook One, and here she is.

Still got a bit of work to do (not being able to find various parts is never a good thing. Tuners for one), but I did manage to give the girl some bling, a mixture of diamonds and amethysts (though these may be glass, it has to be said, but how is a girl to know late at night in a dim-lit roadhouse...)

Hopefully she will be struttin' her stuff this week, and we'll see if the girl can sing..

Dumb & Bass

Well, I finally got my act together today and fitted The Daisy Jook One up good and strong  - pictures to follow once I've given it a bit of a final touch of powder and lippy. I'm particularly pleased with the girl, I have to admit, not least because it is the first guitar I've finished in a while and I've always had a deep-seated and perverse need to have a good excuse to twiddle some dice shaped knobs without resorting to plastic surgery.

Actually, I just broke off to put some strings on and give the wench a bit of a rough set-up, and I am mighty impressed with the pickups. Not sure if I mentioned them before, but the originals were a little bit harsh to my ears, and I happened across some guy selling some mini-humbuckers locally and grabbed them.

(Never fitted pickups to a semi before, and can't see me doing it again either. All those rumours about it being a bitch of a job are bang-on-the-money.).

But the replacement pickups, and I must admit I was a bit reluctant, as the fella said they were either handwound by Catswhisker or Wizard, or perhaps even one of each as he had bought sets from both and couldn't tell them apart. Whatever they are (and man I love the randomness of it) they are pure gold and I am seriously chuffed with them. They would let you play both kinds of music (country & western) but also do a goodly 335 impression if you squint a wee bit. Actually, BB King territory isn't a million miles away thru a nice wee amp of the valve persuasion and we do love the King in Jookyville.

As for the finish, well, that is lovely too, I think you'll agree - at least the chaps among you will - and what can I say...?

I'm-a-rhinestone-cowboy...

***

Other than that, I went to the other side briefly the other day and got meself a bass guitar. Now, I've never had one before, and doing a bit of recording recently it seemed a good idea.

It is nowt flash - a Vester - but does the active and passive thing, and I find that I can play it OK I even managed a bit of Red Hot Chillis stuff, which is something I struggle with on a guitar a lot of the time. If I concentrate. All that Jazzmaster training helps, I think, with the longer neck.

All good fun. In some ways, and I know it isn't really, but it is almost like playing a musical instrument...


Right off to play with Daisy and maybe have another go at 'Money'...

Like A Golden Shower...

Well, I've nearly got all the parts together for my Gibson Golden Topped Tribute (really must think of a proper name), and I have settled on how I'm going to do the effects too, which I have to admit was the fly in the aqueous cream.

Basically, to be a bit different, I've found my inspiration from a cockroach and am intending to put the exoskeleton on the outside, in the shape of a small multi-fx unit I've managed to get hold of within my budget. Well that was the plan anyway, but when the FX showed-up this morning they didn't work *sigh*.

Never simple, life around here.

Besides that though I'm pretty happy with the idea now, so it is just a case of finding a proper replacement and then starting on it come the 1st of February.

Before that though, I do intend to get back to both The Daisy Jook One and The Twangy One, which are hanging around awaiting my attentions and really do deserve to be finished before I start on something new. The Crowley One too, has been sprayed and is dry, but I'm still pondering that one. I've got the PRS Tremonti pickups, but am wondering if I should have a go with something else.

I've recently stocked up on P90 soapbars, a couple of Gibson ones out of an old SG and a bareknuckle Nantucket one just for good measure.

So many guitars, so many pieces of guitars around the place...better do something with them all really instead of just talking the yip.

I Wouldn't Have The Soup

Well, I've nearly got all the parts together for my Gibson Golden Topped Tribute (really must think of a proper name - actually I just did, The Golden Shower One), and I have settled on how I'm going to do the effects too, which I have to admit was the fly in the aqueous cream.

Basically, to be a bit different, I've found my inspiration from a cockroach and am intending to put the exoskeleton on the outside, in the shape of a small multi-fx unit I've managed to get hold of within my budget.


Well that was the plan anyway, but when the FX showed-up this morning they didn't work *sigh*.

Never simple, life around here.

Besides that though I'm pretty happy with the idea now, so it is just a case of finding a proper replacement and then starting on it come the 1st of February.

Before that though, I do intend to get back to both The Daisy Jook One and The Twangy One, which are hanging around awaiting my attentions and really do deserve to be finished before I start on something new. The Crowley One too, has been sprayed and is dry, but I'm still pondering that one. I've got the PRS Tremonti pickups, but am wondering if I should have a go with something else.

I've recently stocked up on P90 soapbars, a couple of Gibson ones out of an old SG and a bareknuckle Nantucket one just for good measure.

So many guitars, so many pieces of guitars around the place...better do something with them all really instead of just talking the yip.

This week in Jookyland...

Well, I've been having a think about my Gibson Tribute, and I've pretty much got a plan now. First up, I've got an old '70s Satellite Les Paul copy I picked-up a while back for £40. First thing I did was flog the humbuckers for £20, so basically in terms of the challenge, it owes me £20.

On top of that, I've got two PRS Soapbars I picked up for £20, some PRS tuners (the Satellite ones are scrap) I got for a tenner. So all in all, I figure I can make the guitar usable for £50 all in.

In terms of the finish, I'm going for the gold top - initially, after a bit of good advice - I'm going to spray using some gold poly. I've got the end of a can somewhere in the garage, so that is pennies. After that I'm going to get some 24K Gold Leaf and finish the top with it, before giving it a Nitro 'thin skin' finish. Never used this gold leaf before, so it could be fun. How much gold leaf is, I don't know, but I'll go hunting tomorrow and see what I can dig up. Hopefully though, the finish could be about a tenner all in.

All of which means I should hopefully have £30-40 left to buy some sort of multi-fx that I can gut and include in the body somewhere. It will have to be small, though I'm really tempted to go for the klunky angle and have it 'integrated' externally, so that all the wiring is outside of the guitar and maybe the effect unit is kind of surface mounted. Depends on how big it is, I guess...

Saying that, I fancy a trapeze kind of tailpiece so I might have to jiggle my change in my pocket a bit somewhere down the line. Hmmm..

This week though, I'm going to get my finger out and finish something, and as I have a deep, mostly submerged, need to play a guitar with red dicey knobs, it is The Daisy Jook One that is destined to get my full attention.... I'm going to twang-that-thang in a big way.

A yeee and a hawww.

Amen sister.

Michael Finnegan

Daisy Jook - From The Rear

Well, as seems to be the way of things, last week proved to be a  another complete right-off for one reason or other - mainly involving motorways, electric shocks and minor floods, but there we are.

However, things seem to have settled now and I'm looking forward to a week or two of unadulterated Jookiness. Unfortunately, my going missing and generally being hopeless at keeping in touch has meant that I'm no longer making the J-Bird One for Andy, which is a shame but I think in the end we were both thinking along the same lines and it was better to cut the losses.

To be honest this is probably for the best as I'm not sure my life is steady enough at the moment to provide a good 'service' in terms of contact and deadlines. Better I meander along doing things as and when I can and if anybody likes the end result so be it. Andy is a lovely bloke though, and very understanding and most importantly there are no hard feelings. Life just gets in the way of guitars sometimes, Que cera.

What it means though is that I have a nice stock-pile of some very interesting parts, which I think will turn up in other guises, which is all cool.

The Twangy One - WIP

One thing I am changing on the site is that the Hall of Fame is going to show the WIP of the different guitars I have in the pipeline. Nothing flash, but it should be interesting to see them develop over time (for me if nobody else). It'll also stop me putting the same number on more than one guitar, which may have happened before once or thrice.

As the J-Bird won't be flying now, I'm going to crack on with some of the others. So watch out sugar, Daisy Jook is a coming soon honey...and man you are going to get something to twitch away on when the Twangy One gets those Kentrons in place..

(Think I'll stop there to avoid further embarrassment...)

Progress, Regress. Go to Gaol

Kentron pickups -
I always feel they're talking about me

Well, too much snow, sickness and general no-chance-today-sunshine to hit the J-Bird woodwork, but I did get a casual hour - in five minute bursts, admittedly -  and managed to put together the basic wiring for it, all push-pull pots and scratching of head. A harness, apparently.

It isn't totally complete, as I still need to join up the dots with the pickups and on-board effects, but the rest is there and according to me little multi-meter it all seems to work as I'd hoped. Even the kill-switch is wired so it makes sound without you having to depress the little red button, which really isn't me at all.

I haven't told Andy this - though I will, honest mate - but as I've got the 'twin' body, I thought I'd drop his electrics into that so we can see how it goes before the rest of the J-Bird One is ready, if that makes sense. At least we can iron out any probs early that way, which seems good to me.

I've been gutted that with seventy-three things and then another I've not got this completed pre-Xmas, but it would be nice for him to see something at least, and better still be able to try it out before it is in the right body and everything is done and dusted...

Other than that, in an attempt to retain my sanity and not cause any more diplomatic incidents, I Jookified a couple of bodies, well started to, with a bit of cloth. One is the Daisy Jook One - some nice cowgirls, and the other is a Mex Strat body I had lay around which has gone paisley on one side at least. The things you do to avoid Postman Pat for the 43rd time... The Strat is either going to get a pair of Kent Armstrong 'Kentrons' or a pair of PRS Tremonti pickups, depending on how Rock 'n' Roll I'm feeling at the time

I could do one of each of course,
but won't.

Still, it'll be a time before they get anywhere near finished - I can't see that it is worth lacquering anything for a while just yet and man, I want to do the J-Bird, I really wanna do the J-Bird. *sigh*

Anyway, hopefully I'll wire the rest of the J-Bird tomorrow and with a bit of luck I can cut up an old scratchplate to hold it in place well enough to work... Otherwise it might be copper again, la la la

An Ode To A Daisy

I mentioned The Daisy Jook One the other day, but as usual didn't really explain what it is all about, and to be honest it is probably a grain of a microcosm in a world beneath the dust under somebody's finger tips, as far as Jookidom goes.

A long, long time ago I wrote a book, that despite not looking much like it, was all about chaos theory and such things. I even chopped it up into bits once it was finished, wrote a random number generator based on a dodgy fractal-generating algorithm, and ordered the book - more or less - based on it (I cheated and left the start and end where they were, but really didn't need to, in truth.)

Why do I mention this? Well, in a way my whole approach to Jookiness is like that. I've tried to definitely never or maybe impose any kind of structure on what it is I make. There are obvious influences, heavy ones at that, but generally I whistle along hammering a random tune. Not a dice man as such, as even that is quite a structured approach the old fella was imposing on himself, more Que Cera, as it were.

But The Daisy Jook One, well, for a while I've fancied having a play with a semi-acoustic of some sort. Even thought of hollowing something solid out, but beholden and generally low,  spotted one on ebay a while back and jumped in and grabbed it. Also of course, even more longer back I very nearly swapped The Beano One with a nice chap called Sean for his handmade Tele, which if I'd not needed the dosh to buy parts at the time, I really should have as it was and no doubt still is, a beautiful guitar. Anyway, like a lot of people Sean had a sort of 1950s glamour girl look to it - or is it earlier? I don't know, in truth - as I'm sure they are the technicolor images of lasses U.S pilots had on their planes in WW2. I don't know, and I should probably check, but haven't and won't, as truly what would be the point.
But as I was saying, Sean's guitar has stuck with me, and I've thought for a while that I should find such an image - on fabric - to use on a guitar. And that too I did in fact find, and so one day when I was  strumming the Semi, and my wee lass pulled the cloth out of a cupboard or from under a floorboard or wherever I'd left it, I thought 'there we go' synchronicity without the annoying geordie up-front and central.

And so, in a roundabout way, that is it, I'm going country and western and in tribute to the Dukes of Hazard, the semi - a Daisy Rock, no less - will be Jookified with images of country and western-esque babes. I even got some of those lovely red dice knobs for the knobby bits.

As for pickups, well it came with mini-humbuckers, which I'm struggling to replace, but I think I will. I quite fancy some SG ones or something from a Firebird, but we'll see. Tuners are Grovers anyway and work perfectly, so no problems leaving those on. It doesn't have a scratchplate though, and I do have some copper lay around the place, but we'll see. Maybe I'll see what turns up, and go with that.

So it is a Jookified Daisy Rock, which isn't just for girls. Well, it will be once I have done the J-Bird justice and can plough this deeply southern field with a clear conscience, anyway. A yee and a haaa.

Of Chickens, J-Birds and Daisy Jook

Well, what can I say. Hospitals, sick children, schools calling in the environmental health, blue badges and I am sooo not ready for Xmas. It has been a right shonky week, all in all.

On the plus side of things, somehow among the chaos I have managed to get the body and neck 90% there for the J-Bird one. I'll take some fotos later after a bit more 'finessing', assuming I'm not clearing up any more puddles of puke.

It is (literally) taking shape now, and I have all the finishing bobbins to hand, so hopefully it will start to look like a guitar soon. Which is always cool.

Other than that though, bugger all has happened in Jookydom, although a friend of mine - best known for wearing a chicken costume in the privacy of somebody else's home - is joining in with the Jooky spirit and making his own version of a jookified guitar. This is super cool, I always wanted followers, though not on Facebook, clearly. Can't wait to see what he comes up with. Maybe he'll let me put a foto up, assuming it is ever finished...

My money is on yellow feathers.

Whilst sorting Andy's J-Bird (and I have to admit it was the trial run with the router), I have also carved chunks out of what will be my pink paisley Jag/Jazzmaster-a-like. I mentioned it before, I think and can't remember it's given name right now, but I think that will be lovely when it is done. I've got a couple of PRS soapbars which will go in there - or maybe one of them will, I'll have to see. Yes, one. I just remembered I ordered a scratchplate with only one hole. See, there is a plan.

Other than that, I picked up a lovely little semi-acoustic guitar a few weeks back, that I'm planning on countrificating. not sure when, but that will be fun. It's going to be a tribute, I think, maybe The Daisy Jook One, or something like that.

Anyway, brats to mollycoddle...

oh yes, while I'm remembering that I've forgotten stuff - there are also a couple of things that were meant to be posted, that haven't been - sorry boys, they will be on their way tomorrow. Been a bit of a tricky week and all that...

A ho and a hum