Moody in the Morning

The Wasteland One
Moody in the Morning Light

Well, it was nice to get something finished again, and The Elmer One is a rather stunning guitar. Can't quite leave it alone at the moment, and the Bare Knuckle pickups + mahogany body seem to work verily goodsome.

If you like Led Zeppelin 1 - this is Jimmy-in-a-tweed-case.

As for The Wasteland One, well the lovely Gibson soapbars arrived and the Fake58 wiring harness should be here soon too, so that is well on it's way.

As you can see in the fuzzy fotos, I've mocked it up and in truth it just needs the wiring and we are home and dry. (Ahem).

Either way, it's looking pretty good methinks, if I say so meself.
Which of course I usually have to.

The rust has worked really nicely again, it was the same with the Rusting Nail and Porn Shop Ones, once it is lacquered it looks like some amazing red wood, you really can't pull your gaze away from it, and it seems to be permanently changing colour depending on the light. Yesterdays, almost orange fotos were in sunlight, today it is misty and dull here and the shade is a deeper colour. Spooky.


OK, maybe not, but I'm easily impressed.

As for the rest, well, I'm all a-loin-girdling again, and am planning on utilising my shiny new soldering iron and sorting out The Old Burny One, before it is a year of not really trying hard enough.. It's grown roots on the Coming Soon page already and even by my standards is starting to feel a tad silly.

So there we are. It has been nice moving along a bit this week, I feel all positive (for five minutes) about the remainder of the year.

Go Jooky Go
on and
on then...

Sold: The Elmer One

The Elmer One is a colourful, elephant inspired little chap, with the heart of a lion. It is quite simply one of the most stunning finishes we’ve squeezed out yet, and it goes without saying that it won’t be repeated.

I wouldn’t know where to start.

The finish is made up of a series of layers, from an initial variegated gold leaf, thru a feathered coating of copper and then the Home Brew corrosion we get all smug about, which gives a beautiful 3D copper Sulphate sprinkling on the top..

This of course is only any good if the guitar is worth playing, and the mahogany body is dark and vibrant and the Bare Knuckle ‘The Boss’ pickups give all the Tele twang you would ever want, with a bit of ‘oomph’ on tap too for special occasions.

Controls are as you would expect, and the Wilkinson locking tuners are a dream, with a modern six saddled bridge giving you intonational goodness.

All in all, Elmer is a modern Tele with a look you will never see repeated.

*

To be clear, The Elmer 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 a a mudbath in your favourite watering hole. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.

Sorry, this has Gone, Gone, Gone...

 

Technical Stuff:

Type: Marilyn’s Gold Top / Lulu’s Copper Top

Electrics: Bare Knuckle ‘The Boss’, bridge and neck.

Guitar Type: Fender Telecaster style

Construction: Corroded copper over variegated gold leaf. Mahogany body, maple neck. Rusted iron scratchplate

Strings: Nickel 10s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: Single Volume, Single Tone, Three-way Switch

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

Serial Number: JGE#40

RSP: £799

WIP: The Elmer One

Well, all done bar the soldering, and I've given up on the post office and ebay and will go get an iron later today from a proper shop, if such things still exist.

I am rather pleased to have pretty much 'got there' with the rather groovy The Elmer One and it would be a shame not to finish it today.

From the top - it is a Tele, but with a twist or two..

1. Mahogany Body with a discreet comfort curve around the back.
2. Maple/Maple neck
3. Wilkinson 'Kluson' Tuners
4. Bare Knuckle 'The Boss Pickups' - both neck and bridge, unusually for me.
5. Modern six-saddle bridge.

And there we are. I wanted to do a Modern Tele, then dithered, but in the end went back to the start, and I think it was the right way to go.

As for the finish - oh me, oh my.

Well, I built this up and the recipe was basically, some variegated Gold Leaf, on top of which I've feathered some active copper paint to give a 3D effect, and just to put the sugar on top of the cherry, this has been hit with a House Brew of acids and other bobbins, to corrode the copper and give an amazing cloudy blue/green haze. This is repeated in a more refined manner on the headstock, to match, with everything getting a lacquer for long-termability.

As for the scratchplate, this I wanted to contrast, and so have smothered it with an active iron paint, which  has been made to rust quite nicely, bless.

And there we are. Hopefully, a soldering iron and an hours peace later today will get this baby finished.

Now that feels better

I Live for the Burn and the Sting of Pleasure

The Porn Shop One
Seen Later Yesterday

Well, I was going to talk about The Porn Shop One, but it has turned into a painfilled subject now, and I can't quite bring myself to broach it. Suffice to say that a drawing board may be returned to and I might need to see about a new body.

But there we are, what can you do about kids with hacksaw blades and too many home improvement programmes on Sky?

I blame the parents and of course it is the school holidays and I was too busy playing Paranoid.

On the sunny side of the street, I'm all rather chuffed with myself. The Les Paul Special I was talking about has yet to enter the palace of Jooky delightedness, but I've already managed to acquire a couple of rather dishy Catswhisker P90 Soapbars for it. I've also got some snotty Kluson tuners, a nice ABR/ToM bridge combo, which is all rather handy too.  Fotos to follow when I have something to fotograph.

As to my plans, well it will arrive in the usual cherry colour, but I have a yen to give it a fully agricultural finish. Things have been getting a bit bright and breezy recently and it is time to revert to my usual scenes of degradation and destruction. The Wasteland One then, should be just that. Actually, maybe I shouldn't mention destruction, it is a saw point at the mo.

As for The Floored Genius One yesterday, well, it never got too far as it happens as my little Orpheum SG took advantage of my every spare moment in rude and often downright dirty ways. The minxetta.

Today though, assuming the postie turns up before bedtime, I'm hoping to have the remaining parts for The Elmer One, so that could jump back to the top of the shop.

All of which leaves me - well, where?

I'm not really sure.

Busy in a non-specific way, I guess.

Talking about Elmer

Elmer
an Inspirational Effalump

Well, a weekend at But-er-lins is surprisingly brain-numbing, and school holibobs or not, I need (and I mean need) to sort some guitar bobbins out.

Firstly, I really must finish The Old Burny One, even my kids are laughing at me about it. "The Never Ever Going To Be Finished One" as they re-named it.

Nowt worse than a five-year-old telling you that you are a failure.

So that, I need to sort sharpish-like.

Other than that, it is The Elmer One I want to concentrate on, once the new pickups - Bare Knuckle 'The Boss' warm, yet lovingly traditional too -  arrive and Ye olde Worlde Tele ashtray bridge show up.

This guitar looks rather stunning, it has to be said, and I think the pups will be rather amazing in it.

As they would be in The Porn Shop One, if I ever finish that particular babe.

Another I should mention is The Floored Genius One. Unfortunately, this 'un will be a while as I need to sort a few things out on that. It is more flawed than genius at the moment and there we are. I can't quite get my head around it right now, so best to leave it for a brighter season.

If I'm being a completist, I'm waiting for the body for The Joe Le Taxi One, my little La Cabronita project. I've got most everything else, but what can you do without a body? Not a great deal.

Elmer
a Swap Shop of a Guitar

As I said the other day, I should get the '70s SG copy this week, but that isn't likely to be Jookified as I need a guitar I can just play, once in a while, and this will hopefully be it.Especially as the Jackson didn't stick around for long.

One that is likely to get the treatment sooner or later, is a Les Paul Special type of thing, I couldn't resist. Twin soapbar P90s mahogany body and neck, rosey-wood 'board. Lovely.

I've already got something in mind for that one, but I need to see how good it is when it shows-up - took a bit of a punt on it, if you see what I mean and you never can tell until you can see them up close and personal-like.

So there we are, much the same plans as before, with a couple more added for good taste..

12 Angry Men and a Guitar Called Elmer

Well, other than attention-grabbing marketing initiative bobbins, the weekend was a bit on the slow side of life.

Firstly, I was planning to tell you all about the debut of James Sant's band 12 Angry Men, featuring the one and only The Psychedelic Surf One, still a bit of a personal favourite Jook for me, it has to be said. Unfortunately, it was on Thursday night, so I messed that up good and proper.

On the plus side it means that I have a rather lovely action-shot of James and the 'Surf', well, in action - even a promise of possible video type contentment to follow. I can't wait.

I do love seeing my kids doing their bit in public, if that doesn't sound oddly wrong.

In other news, I did finish the lacquering of the colour-filled Tele, The Elmer One. I even went for a rusted iron pickguard, just to offset the effect. Obviously there are still a few parts to add to the party, with pickups being rather top of the list - or at least a neck one if I decide to keep the Catswhisker one in place at the bridge, but there we are - it looks a bit tasty to me, to me, it looks a bit tasty to me.

The finish, as you may have guessed is a bit of an experiment. Firstly, there is the variegated gold leaf which itself is stunning. On top of that I layered and then feathered some active copper paint. The idea of this was to give a kind of rippled effect - like sand when the tide goes out, so that you can see parts of the leaf shining thru.

This worked rather better than I thought/hoped/dreamed and gives a kind of flamed/quilted maple look to it bizarrely. Naturally the copper was finished off with some selective corrosion which has given a gorgeous bluey-green colour. The headstock got a similar treatment using corroded copper paint allowing a bit of the grain to show thru the corrosion.

As for the back and sides, I've kept this au natrel so the wood shows thru, which has been Danish Oiled and then Beeswaxed, with a naturally Jooky bit of overspill from the top creeping here and there...

I mentioned parts and apart from the usual saga of pickups, I've gone for some locking Kluson type Wilkinsons, and your normal Tele control plate bobbins. At the moment I have a modern Stratish bridge on there, but I'm thinking it is more likely to end-up with a traditional one instead, as to me Teles don't quite sound like Teles without them. Sad, I know, to find yourself in the 'Leo got it right first time' camp, but I guess it is true in a lot of ways.

So there we are, The Elmer One has so far tootled along under the radar quite nicely. But, like I've been saying, I'm not really starting anything new until I catch up and complete the others. It's all about one-at-a-time around here these days.

WIP:The Elmer One

Well, it feels kinda good to have actually finished something, and The Drip Dry One is quite beautiful, and a touch raunchy around the edges. That old DiMarzio is something else though, and I'm preening slightly as I wired it out-of-phase with the P90 at the neck so that the middle-position has a lovely BB King/Peter Green hollowness about it. If you twiddle with the tone knob, there is all manner of goodness to be had.

Step 1: Cover the body with variegated gold leaf

There's a lesson for us all, right there.

As for your next question, which I'm guessing is 'So are you going to finish any of the other things you've half-started and left cluttering-up the place', assuming you live with me, that is, well, I think The Old Burny One is closest and should prove to be the (gulp) easiest.

It is actually a lot easier to start things, I've found, than finish them.
You may have noticed.

Speaking of starting things, which I'm not doing until I've finished everything else, of course, I did happen to accidentally spill some gilder's size onto a Tele body earlier today, as you do, and as it would have been a bit of a waste, managed to also accidentally drop some variegated gold leaf onto it.

A couple of kinds, sadly.

Step 2: Splash the copper paint around, and 'Feather' to taste

After that had dried, been tidied and 'burnished' as we pocket gilders call rubbing vigorously with a damp sponge and a rusty hammer, I also managed to spill some copper paint which oddly corroded almost immediately and well, looked quite interesting. Three or four times I accidentally did that before it looked right.

Happenstance, you can't legislate for it...

Not sure what to do with it, mind you, though I guess it would be a shame to waste it really, and I have got a nice Rosewood boarded Tele neck that would look lovely with it. Or even the nice maple/maple one, that could work.









I have also been thinking that it might be nice to try Jess's authentically Fifties like tele pickups, and this may well be a fortuitous place to do just that.

Co-incidentally, like.

But as I was saying, today is about finishing my lovely Old Burny One, and won't involve any lacquering or ordering of pickups or tuners or well, anything else to do with The Elmer One.

Step 3: Corrode the copper