Been Down So Long, This Feels Like Up To Me

Well, it has been so long since we did a bit of Mother of Jooky, I'd forgotten how much fun it can be.

There is still some work to go on The Gimme Shelter One, but despite the poorly lit fotos, it is looking pretty swish methinks.

Like snakeskin boots

La la laaa

So I Sat In My Room And Drew Up A Plan

Well, things-are-a-happening as far as The Gimme Shelter One and it's associated tour goes, so we figured that here in Jookyland we should get up from our des-res and, err, start. It's about time.

OK, so it isn't a major leap and I seem to have used a ropey camera, but what you may be able to make out here is the back of the guitar body, which has been stained a heritage cherry red (it was meant to be copper, so shhh) and then waxed to taste.

And wax tastes awful kids, we all know that now don't we?

As for what is next, well the top got the same stain, but as it is about to be smothered in oodles of creamilicious Mother of Jooky pearly paint, it wasn't of course waxed. Not even a little bit by accident as that would have been silly.

Every day is a winding road...

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The Fretboard Build a Guitar Challenge 2014

Well, in the past I talked often enough about the Music Radar £100 challenges, where you had to make a guitar for a ton or less, but with the phoenix style birth of the Fretboard (recently voted the nations #1 Guitar web site, no less) I was really chuffed to see a new challenge on the horizon.

This time it is a little bit different, which I think will make it easier for more people to get involved and have a go, as it is being based on DIY Build Your Own Guitar kits.

Naturally, I've signed up already, and I think the cool thing this time is that there are no artificial limits on the dosh you spend, but you can get a kit for £69 and end-up with a guitar. can't say fairer than that.

The place is also teeming with people only glad to help you, and with each person taking part having a thread of their own to show what is occurrin' it will be a fun thing to watch too.

The kits  are coming from Gear4music - you can see them HERE - and there will be a prize.

To find out more, Here is the thread on the Fretboard (and if you aren't a member, but have a Facebook or Google logon - you can get in using that no bother).

It is free to enter (other than buying the kit), but to fund the prize and to top up the coffers of this fine, advert-free forum, a donation of £15 would be welcomed indeedy doo.

Personally, I'm going for a 12 String Tele kit with a new finish I've been testing on passing rabbits, so you have been warned.

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LAST CHANCE - To Win This Groovy Guitar

Well, I'm not sure I mentioned it before (ahem) but Tomorrow, i.e. Thursday at 7pm sees the closure of the bag of balls, and you will no longer be able to take a punt and possibly win yourself the rather dishy The Fretboard One.

I won't go over the uber spec again...just let you see the taster of a video young Ben knocked out with it earlier..

Clearly he is playing it too fast and I keep shouting at the screen SLOW DOWN MAN YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF, but they don't listen, do they..?

So if you fancy a punt go HERE NOW or regret it forevermoresome.

And remember, every sixty seconds, another minute, dies.

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Unveiling The Fretboard One - Part Trois of Trois

Well, OK, I'll never make a salesman..

So here it is, in all it's glitter and lack-of-gloss...

A proper introduction will follow but Time Is A Running Out....

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Times-a-Running-Out For A Free Guitar

Well, The Fretboard One is nearly done and will be given away next week.

And do you know what? It could be you playing this trendilicious lump of Jookiness...

So how can you get it?

Well, as previously mentioned it will be given away to a member of The Fretboard Forum, a member who has sent a few shekels in their direction to go toward keeping this independent, advert-less place of sanity and tranquillity of a guitarish variety going.

So if you fancy it all you need to do is:

1. Join The Fretboard Forum. It is free, fun, edumacational and generally cool,

2. Go to the 'Free Guitar' thread Here and send a couple of quid to the PayPal address show. Say hello and meet the natives, they bite but no more than a nibble.

3. Cross thine fingers

And it is as easy as that.

The guitar is rather cool, featuring:

a. A stunningly cool hand made body of Tele-ish design with a wickedly cool corroded bronze/copper finish

b. A beautiful bound and blocked maple/rosewood neck

c. Sperzel Tuners

d. Callaham Bridge

e. Mojo Pickups Tele bridge pickup

f. Mojo pickups Gold Foil at the neck

g. Uber trendy ye Olde wiring loom with all the good stuff (CTS, Switchcraft, PIO caps etc.)

h. Strap pins

and err, think that is it. Oh a case probably too.

Obviously this is a complete one-off, never to be repeated and it is signed and dated and everything else.

Last chance....

La la laaaaa

WIP: The Fretboard One

Well, I was aiming for the end of January to complete The Fretboard One, and it is going to be close as for once in my life I have someone who needs me, someone I've needed so long, and I have managed to get my act in gear and my backside together and well, do a little...

As you can hopefully see, I've taken TTony's rather lovely hand made body, and smothered it in bronze and copper and then generally abused it with foulness and vitriol. And rather bonny it looks on it too.

I have of course forgotten to take fotos all the way along, but heh, such is life.

As the eagle-eyed among you may notice, the rather cool Callaham bridge is a little wonky (it isn't screwed down, but I also need to sand the routing somewhat still) but the Mojo Gold Foil is already nailed down and there we are.

So, more to do, but progress, and that is never a bad thing. Unless you are a Roman.

La la laaa

Saturday is Mojo Day

Mojo Pickups and loom for The Fretboard One
Sexy as Sin

Well, an early morning knock of the door here at the Palace d'Jook saw a flustered postie lady looking, well,  flustered as she handed over a large white box.

I love it when piles of Mojo pickups arrive as they are always so groovy.

First out of the box were a set of Mr Mojo's Authentic Vintage Dano Lipstick Pickups, along with a nice wiring loom and all the usual funky caps and pots. These of course are going into #1 Bratskis sparkly Gecko Strat and a quick plonk together shows them to be well funky. I may change the scratchplate, as the golden anodised metal one needs the holes for the pickups widening, and I quite fancy going for maximum wow and getting Custom Cool Etch to make one of their wonders instead. We'll see though as I'm not sure my boy will want to be waiting much longer.

Next of course, are the pickups and loom for The Fretboard One. A Tele bridge pickup with a Gold Foil for the neck duties. This ia actually well on it's way now, just need to finish the finish and we'll be in clover.

Incidentally, this is the guitar that will be randomly given to a supporter of the Fretboard forum - and you still have time to  stake a claim and join the place and make a small donation toward their running costs. It is going to be quite a monster with it's hand made body, bound and blocked neck, Sperzel tuners, Callaham bridge and the aforementioned Mojo Handwound pickups.Don't miss out -  All the Gen Here.

The third pile of goodliness in that there box was if anything more exciting. This is of course a little closer to my heart, as it is a Jazzmaster wiring loom complete with a pair of Mojo Teisco style Gold Foil pickups, which will find a home nailed to the front of The Alcman One. I think this could be something rather special and I am hoping that tomorrow may see a final introductiion on that one.

Speaking of introductions, I still haven't taken some snaps or The Sally James and Diamond Shiny Ones to share with the world, so I should probably do that too.

Anyway...

La la laaaa

Golden Foil And a Watery Day

Well, we're on flood alert as I type this, and wondering whether I should empty the sand pit and fill some carrier bags - but of more interest, I see that Mr Mojo has done me another of his Delish Gold Foil pickups.

And as this one is for The Fretboard One - the guitar that will be given away to a member of the rather cool and groovy Fretboard Forum - read all about it here - I guess I'd better come out of the Crimbulmus hibernation and, well, not to put a sharp point on it, do something.

The body of course was hand made from wood by Tony, as I mentioned before, and so far I have killed off the oil finish and am ready to paint it.

As it is a nicely contored thing, I'm going to go for a mixture of bronze and copper and generally get it quite messy.

The neck is one of my lovely wee stock of bound and blocked Jazzmaster/CBS Strat style thingies..

So all in all it will be rather groovy, I can't help but think.

Right, where's me waders..

La la laaaaa

Free The Jooky One

Well, a while back I did this little 'how to Jookify your guitar' thing on The Fretboard, and at the time one of the founders of said forum - we'll call him 'Tony', as that is his name - also gave me a second body to defile (that is going to pop up on some strange web searches) but I completely forgot to do a thing about it.

Anyway, thru guilt and for no other good reason, I decided to do something for once and in the process hopefully raise a few bob for the forum, which has no advertising, is UK based and accounts for 90% of my spare time and the Classifieds probably 120% of my residual income.

So the plan is that I will take the body that Tony made and turn it into a rather cool guitar.

And the guitar will be a bit special - the body you can see, but it will also have a neck, which is useful, one of those rosewood/maple/bound/blocked jobbies I've been pleased with in recent times.

Tuners will be Sperzels, the bridge will either be a Fender Tele one or a Hipshot hard tail jobby, not sure yet, and the pickups will be a Gimp Tele pup at the bridge and a Mojo Gold Foil at the neck.

So basically it is going to be one groovy mama of a guitar.

As for the finish, well, haven't quite decided that yet but I think I'll have a little fun with it.

And as for the finale of this little show, I'm going to give it away to a random member of the Fretboard community.. For free. no money and basically bugger all.

Or rather I will give it to one member that has shown his/her dedication to the cause of interwebby freedom by making a  donation toward the running costs of this oasis of GAS.

So if you fancy your chances of getting a shot at what is destined to be a spectacular lump of guitarish delight, you need to...

1. Join The Fretboard - and if you do, stick around, there are some great people on there and I've learnt more about guitarythings there, than from anywhere else. If you are on Facebook or Twitter you don't even have  to register, just logon by clicking a little icon thing, and then

2. Make a wee donation to the cause, the thread Here explains all

3. Cross thine fingers...

La la laaa

And in the end..

Well, being as I showed you the nearly there, I thought I should give you a glimpse of the finished article - the body I paisleyified for the fretboard Forum...

You can see how it was done Here if you fancy it.

In fact I was so pleased with it, I've anointed it as a Strappado body and stuck it on the list for posterity.

In other news, I've been playing around with powdered aluminum and copper for the other fretboard body, so will hopefully get that one sorted next week.

As for real Jooky life, school holibobs are nearly over and I should hopefully be on a mish from September. First things first will be the rather lovely The Sappho One when the ebony 'boarded U shaped neck arrives. I seriously can't wait...

La la laaaa

Like Old Time

Well, I've finally got my act together this week and made a start on the How-To-Jooky-Your-Guitar thingy on The Fretboard Forum and I have to say it has been fun. Other than The Tickled Pink One it is an age since I did the paisley thing.

The next step (a job for today) is to gold leaf the top, over the paisley and then use some acid to melt it away so that the inner paisley is revealed.

And in truth, my self-imposed exile of the summer has been good as I am totally bomping the chit to get going again in September, by when hopefully all the bits 'n'  bobs will have arrived that I need.

I think at last I've got my head around what Jooky Mark 2 will be like as well, but more on that another day..

If you want to see how to do the paisley thing, it is on The Fretboard, so why not pop over and relax for a while

La la laaa

Starting To Jook the Jook on The Fretboard

Well, I said a couple of weeks back that I'd be doing a bit of a How and a To on the exciting new guitar forum that is TheFretboard.co.uk and err, I finally started today.

There are excuses, but they are boring.

If you remember/care/have no life, what I will be doing is  showing you how to put a fabric paisley finish onto a guitar body (a nice chap called John_P supplied that), and then I'm going to gold leafify the top and then corrode it so that you can see the paisley peeping thru.

And today I managed to get the paisley on, remembered to take some fotos, and will be putting them on The Fretboard later on...

So if you have ever wondered how to do it, this is your chance, just pop over to the Fretboard and see for yourself.

That is The Fretboard, that new guitar forum all your friends are talking about, but that you haven't been invited to until now.

La la laaa

How To Paisleyify Your Own Guitar

Well, I mentioned the other day that a great new forum, made-up of a lot of the members of the ill-fated and lightly mourned Music Radar one was about to launch, and I'm pleased to say that it hit the boards in it's new shiny suit at the weekend and is already buzzing.

If you are into guitars in any way, you owe it to yourself to pop along and sign up (tis free as a free thing) at www.thefretboard.co.uk.

You won't regret it, unless you don't. then you might of course, but nobody will hear you scream.

I had also mentioned that to give it a good start, a number of the members are writing some articles/threads about different things, including how to give a guitar a cool oil finish by the genius that is Wes Venebles, Pickup winding by the GuitarWeasel and some great build threads - watch out for TTony's they are stunningly cool pieces of wood.

Obviously this is all good, but can only look more professional and betterer if something lower of tech, style and taste is aligned along and side, and so I too am chucking my tuppence in and doing a couple of threads on Jookiness.

The first will take you through the stages needed to be-paisley a guitar body, with the nice twist that it will also have a gold leaf top, corroded to let the paisley flood out (have a look at The Lulu One and you'll see what I mean).

Anyway, the body for this was donated by another forum member John_P and it arrived today (I'm still calming my heart after seeing 'Exercise Books' written on the box).

This will be the very, very, last and final time I paisley a guitar with fabric, so it is cool that you can Singalonga Jooky if you fancy it.

And if you do want a peek, you'll need to join us on The Fretboard as that is the only place it will appear.

Anyway...

La la la laaaaa

The Queen Is Dead

Well, I know I have mentioned the Music Radar Forums a few times in the past - in fact without them I wouldn't be doing this Jooky bobbins at all, or at least the groovy people on there - so it has been a sad couple of weeks since they went under and disappeared without any real explanation or trace.

However, Motherly Inventions pop up in such situations, and rather than waiting and seeing, some of the brightest of the bright sparks had a life-raft already full of cans of beans and isotonic smoothies, and there has been a mass migration of the membership to a new home, which is pretty darn cool.

It is people who make these things special, not companies holding the server keys.

And this spirit of rebellion is going from strength-to-strongerness, and in triple-quick-smart time, a new and spanky cool home will be built under the moniker of 'The Fretboard'. Wish I'd thought of that name meself.

Anyway, to help launch the site, a number of the members will be writing reviews, how-tos and other thingies - and there won't be none of that everything-gets-4-stars bobbins, these will be proper reviews by people who have bought and used the things themselves - and I'm going to join in the fun with a couple of 'articles' about DIY Jookiness.

The first of these will basically be an instruction guide showing how to paisleyify your own guitar, and given the amount of people who ask me how to do it, I hope it will be vaguely popular.

The second will probably involve acid and mild personal danger (or at least hygiene issues) but should be equally groovy.

These will be popping up next week (I hope) and it would be really cool if you nipped along and joined in with what is already probably maybe the best Guitar forum around...

I'll do all the proper links once the site launches for real, but you can already join the life-boat site Here and if you like your guitars, you really should.

Oh, and while I was looking around earlier I found this issue of Guitar & Bass magazine going begging. You can download it for free if you are into such things

La la laaaa




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