On a Mission from Gord

Well, I'm on a bit of a mish at the moment, to catch-up on the things I haven't done that I should (my Summer off has officially ended) and generally get some groovy guitars together.

Tomorrow's installment will hopefully see The Diamond Shiny One up and a running, though like The Sally James One I've already finished it twice and then changed my mind.

It is a lovely thing though, the Gold Foil at the neck works brilliantly with the Mojo blade/Low output/Tele Bridge/Chas Christian thingy at the other end. Really moody and tonetastic.

Speaking of which, I stole a foto from the rather wonderful Mr Ally Lee's Facebook page of him playing The Hartlepool One.

I rarely get to see my Jookies in action (inaction being more my thing), so that was cool.

And if anybody else can spare a foto to warm an old man's heart, that would be grand.

A foto of you playing your own Jooky would otherwise be nice too.

Oh, and thanks to the rather verily talented peeps at ragphotograhpy.co.uk for the use of the foto - well talented indeed.

La la llama

Mr Lee Plays Hartlepool

Well, I couldn't help but notice that the rather wonderfilled Mr Lee, direct from the frozen North, has done a demo of The Hartlepool One, which if you are interested in hearing what these Mojo Gold Foil pickups can do, you really should check out.

Can't say I remember it sounding quite that good when I played it, but must be something to do with the thiness of the Atmosphere or something..

Anyway, luxuriate in Mr Lee and his amazing dancing Jooky...

La la laaaa

Hello Hartlepool (Slight Return)

Well, if you ever felt glum at missing out on the audaciousness that is The Hartlepool One all that time ago, today could well be your lucky day as the chap who had it - Immy, top Fella indeed - is having to move it on.

What does this mean?

Well you can get it for £300, complete with a matched pair of beautiful Mojo Gold Foil Pickups and complimentary wiring loom, and the stunning Mother of Jooky finish that had me tearing what little hair I had left out as I went thru literally dozens of  coats of pearly paint.

To check the spec you can go Here

To save me from myself, and snap it up for your very own-some This is where you need to go...

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Sold: The Hartlepool One

The Hartlepool One is a complete one off, being based on a skatetastic cross between a Fender Jazzmaster and a Charvel Surfmaster, it has a beautiful offset body with a killer cat's eye view into it’s semi-acoustic body.

The finish is a stunning Mother of Jooky pearl delight topped off with a striking red binding, lovingly nailed around the edges.

A trapeze tailpiece and Rickenbacker-esque bridge are cool, but it is the pair of Mojo Pickups Gold Foils that really bring this guitar to life. They are painstakingly produced copies made in sunny Halifax by Marc Ransley and they are clearly stunning in every way. The sustain is quite incredible. These pickups are numbered 3 and 4 and will no doubt be worth millions in years to come :)

To get the best of the pickups we of course have a top notch wiring loom (all CTS, Oak Grigsby and Switchcraft, PIO caps etc.)


All in all, this is a stunning looking guitar that plays beautifully and nails everything from raw blues to jangly indie and isn’t afraid of a bit of gain Tibet. Cool in excelsis.


*

To be clear, The Hartlepool 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 slo-mo run across the pebbled beach at Portishead. There will genuinely never be another guitar like this and past experience suggests that it won’t be around for long.

** SOLD **



Technical Stuff:

Type: Bab’s Pearly Queen

Electrics: Mojo Pickups Gold Foil Pickups, Mojo Pickups wiring loom

Guitar Type: Offset Jazzmaster/Jaguar Style

Construction: Alder body, Rosewood/Maple neck

Strings:     10s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: Volume, Tone

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

Serial Number: JGE#75

RSP: £999

WIP: The Hartlepool One - I'm Such A Skaterboi

Well, I finally got the chance to pull The Hartlepool One together and while there are a few tweaks before a proper introduction may be enacted, it seemed rude not to show you the beast.

And what a beast it is - semi acoustic and offset of shape - perhaps more of a Charvel than Fender influence I must admit, lovely big headed neck and a pair of Mojo Pickups authentically dead-on-the-money Gold Foil pickups, along with a matching wiring loom...

And I have to say it plays beautifully - I have a real feeling of it all coming together with this one, the body is cool, the Mother-of-Jooky pearlesque finish is a glory box of tender delight, and the pickups - oh man. They are single coils and have a beautiful, hollow clean sound to them with just a tincher of grit. A bit more gain and they totally soar and the sustain is incredibly good, I keep hitting harmonics and just sitting back and waiting (a cuppa is handy - making one not totally out of the question if you limit the amount of water in the kettle on environmental grounds.)

So there we are. I'm really rather chuffed with this and the pickups are beyond cool.

Happy daze indeed

La la laaaa

Golden Years Da Da Da

Well, still a bit AWOL at the mo', but before I configured the life raft, I did receive a double dose of Vitamin Gold Foil from Marc at Mojo Pickups, and bloomin' gorgeous they are too.

It'll be a while before I get on with them, but I couldn't help a quick plonk together of The Hartlepool and Boogaloo Ones with their gilt racked, as it were.

The Hartlepool One is obviously a lot closer as it has been, err, finished, and in a way it makes sense as I should get to play with the real deal as far as the Gold Foils go before moving on to toasters and toppings.

I'd forgotten how pretty Hartlepool was though, all verra nice indeed.

As for The Boogaloo One, I'm really pleased with the neck. It is a Jazzmaster one, maple, black blocks and it is bound too, which is very lux. The body is going to be Lake Placid Blue, unless I go darker and I'm dithering whether to put the proper Ricky 660 pickguards on - or the ones I cut from an LP - forgot about those, wonder where they are... - or maybe even to stay au natrel. No panic though, plenty of time..

Just when I'll get to be doing them really...

La la laaaa

Gold Foil a Go Gooooo

Well, planning-and-a-plotting as I am, I was somewhat delighted to see that Mr Marc Ransley of the Mojo Pickups parish has finished me some of the coolest looking pups this side of the Stirchley Bowl...

First up, are the authentic and uber classic Gold Foils that are destined for The Hartlepool One (that slice of offset semi-acoustalification that has been waiting under the stairs for such an occasion). These are a long held dream and I really can't wait to get them fitted and fettled...

The other, if at all possible are even more special. As you no doubt know, The Boogaloo One is going to be a funky little momma, based on a Rickenbacker 620 with a groovy maple blocked neck, I'd initially thought that I'd get Marc to make a couple of his Toaster pickups, but in one of those weirdly cool moments, we have ended-up with Toaster-sized Gold Foils which look quite frankly, stunningly cool. I don't even know where to plug in the hyperbole for these babies...or indeed how the hell he has managed to put them together at all, but the boy is a genius. End of.

So, in summary - all is golden, all is glistery.

La la laaaa

A Wonderfilled Day For A Moondance

Well, it has taken a long old while, but I'm really pleased with how The Hartlepool One is looking so far.

I got a really nice Big-of-headstock neck for it, and the Mojo Pickups Gold Foils should be here soon too along with the custom loom.

Other than that I'm only really waiting for the Bigsby and Ricky bridge to show their faces and we shall be in business.




What I can't decide is whether to go for a scratchplate or not, though the finish is so sweet it seems a shame to cover it up.

Maybe something small would work, we'll have to see once the rest of it is together.

I've just realised I am missing tuners,

Hmmm, better sort that one out methinks.

Can't wait to play this 'un.

La la laaaa

Bye Bye Pinky - Hello Hartlepool

Well, the Tickled Pink pre-auction is over, so if you haven't already made your bid and aren't invited to the wedding, you have missed out on a groovy guitar, but there we are.

You needed to be quicker, no point in crying over it now.

The old girl is parcelled-up and waiting for a courier to take it to Burnley (so if you are passing any broken down UPS vans 'tween there and here, give them a hand, we're on a schedule here don't you know.)

Other than that, my parental responsibility for Princess Tinnitus yesterday stretched as far as her helping me to finish off the back of The Hartlepool One, and rather cool it looks too. I'd say stunning but I'm trying to rein it in a wee bit these days. Tis all cool. Basically it is a Lake Placid Blue with a Pearl and Opalescent, Shiny, Fairy dust finish and seemingly totally impossible to photograph proper nice like. The front will be similar but a bit more restrained on the fairy dust as she is back at school today.

One of the things I'm thinking of when I finally get this 'ere web site sorted out is to offer a few Jooky Custom Finished Bodies, rather than just complete guitars as, well, I like doing the finishing but there are only so many guitars I can put together, and over the last few years a lot of people have asked me to just do a body or refinish their own (I still can't be arsed with that malarky mind) so why not give it a go.

Of course as soon as I've made one, knowing me - aha -  I'll bolt a neck on and want to finish it, but there we are. The bodies will of course still be one-offs and numbered and signed and all that and if I get brave I might take custom orders for those as well. But who can really say, it might not happen at all.

So, courier waiting then, why does this feel familiar...?

La la laaaa

Gold Foil Dreamin'

Well, I think I may have overdone the sanding and screwing a wee bit these last couple of days, so The Black Russian One will now get bolted together early next week, but there we are. What can you do? I'm a raspberry ripple, end of story.

Instead then, my mind has turned to the long awaited and often-hazy-of-spec The Hartlepool One, my cats-eyed, semi-acousticalified Jazzmaster of sorts. I've lost track of how many variations this has been going to enjoy, so it is probably time to nail it down once and for evermoresome.

And after a good chat with Marc at Mojo Pickups, it will now have a rather intriguing specification....

So for today at least, as who knows what I'll think tomorrow, it will be:

1. A Jazzmasterish shape, cats eye slash holed, semi acoustic.

2. Big CBS headed neck of rosewood and maple.

3. A Dark-as-night blue metallic finish with essence of pearl and moonbeam

4. A Ricky bridge

5. A Bigsby

All of which is super cool of course and will look amazing.

As for the finishing touch, well I'm going to try the first set of Mojo Pickups' Gold Foils, which I think will be pretty darn stunning in this guitar, if I say so meself, which I do, so there.

I've been looking for a good place to try these for a while now and a sparkly Jazzmaster with a Bigsby sounds about the most perfect venues... The foto is of Marc's old Teisco, which also appeared in Saturday tea time's Metal Mickey when I were a lad.

Hopefully I can get started with this next week then as it is going to be uber cool methinks.

Other than that, I'm halfway there with the web site. It is going to have a couple of surprises and I've just brought  a few metres of hessian... Can you see what it is yet?

La la laaaa

Monkey Hanging Cool

Well, I talked about The Shonky One yesterday and then glibbly skittered-over the other body that showed-up in the shape of a Jazzmaster with the name of The Hartlepool One.

So I'd better put that right.

Anyway, as you can see this is a sleek and sexy Jazzmaster shape, semi-acousticalified with a glorious slash of a cats-eye hole bored deep and dirty into it.

Obviously, we're going to have a nice Strat neck, all big of headstock and sumptuous of girth and I do so love my split Klusons so they may get the nod as well.

As for the metalwork at the other end, I'm going for a full on proper Bigsby and roller bridge, with the pickups a bit hazier, being either P90s or mini-buckers or something in between. Don't know really, until I have a chat with my pickup guru up there in the frozen wastes of Mojoland.

As for the finish, well I'm trying something new (for me) with this one and am going for a deep and dark colour (black, blue, purple, dunno) with added fairy dust, glammer and glitz. Not quite sure how that will go, but I really want to make this a bit of a wow and there we are. It will be distressed a wee bit too, of course, because all good things have lived a life after all.

So there we are. It won't be quick, but I think worth the wait, dontachaknowhoun, dontchajustknow...
The Hartlepool One, no well hung monkeys just an exceedingly cool guitar 2B.

La la laaa

Getting On With Hartlepool

Picture This
A Day In November

Well, The Hartlepool One is another that has been on the Never-likely-in-my-lifetime list for far too long, and so I've got my head together about it and it will hopefully be the shape of things to come.

What it will now be, is a rather lovely semi-acoustic Jazzmaster with a few tweaks to keep it interesting.

Instead of a Jazzmaster tremolo I've decided to go all hardtail on you and have a more Gibson style with a Tune-o-matic bridge and Stopbar tailpiece. I think that will be pretty cool, and there we are.

It is also going to be a flat top with a nice 'slash' a la Ricky instead of an f hole, which should be pretty and stylish methinks. A bit of a Charvel Surfcaster vibe, methinks.

What else?

Well, a Jazzmaster neck, of course, will be handy, and I want it wired properly, so the rhythm circuit will be all present and correct, so that will naturally be the best of breed in the shape of one of Mojo Pickups' Jazzymaster looms.

As for the pickups, I'm thinking that I'll have a Mojo Jazzmaster pickup at the neck and maybe try one of Marc's JM-sized Wide Range humbuckers, as I haven't before, as I haven't really had a good excuse to neither.

And thinking about the finish, I fancy something a wee bit dark yet plushly opulent, so I need to dig out a sense of style from somewhere. Somewhere clearly deep.

La la laaaa

Inching Toward Hartlepool

Obviously, A bigger chunk of wood might be in order

Well, things seem to be tickling along quite nicely at the moment, I've started chopping the wood for The Pearly Dewdrop One, and the others are all moving in the right direction.

In fact the only one that is niggling a wee bit is The Hartlepool One, which in some ways had overlapped Pearl, being made of wood and Teardrop of shape.

So thinking about it, I still want to have a go at a Semi-acoustic/Danelectro type of thing, but I think I'm going to instead make something that is more of a Rickenbacker 620 instead. Which of course is another guitar I've always wanted but never had the money/being able to justify such riches, so this is as close as I am going to get I expect.

So by way of an update/re-engineering/volte-mush, The Hartlepool One will now be:

1. A Semi-acoustic 620 shape

2. Strat neck with big headstock

3. Finished in Copper - maybe leaf, haven't done any leafing for a while.

4. I might as well make a Ricko-like 'plate out of a Byrds record while I'm at it.

5. I guess the obvious pickup(s) be Mr Mojo Toaster-tops, but I'll have a think about that as I fancy trying a pair of his Filter-trons or even a full sized Wide Range jobby. Dunno yet, but I'm not trying to make a Ricky as such, so it is nice to mix things up a wee tad.

6. And that is about that.

I think I will be going for a solid centre block for the neck and pickups to be joined to, which makes for a sturdier tub in many ways, though I am really tempted to have the top split into two with one half being hinged, but maybe that is asking for trouble. Though it would be a handy place to keep me sarnies, so who knows. Of course if I got it right I could make it so you can swap different body shapes on to it, but I might be wandering in the vale of De Quincey-type folk at this point.

La la laaa

Planning a Route To Hartlepool

Well, I've finally decided what I'm going to do with The Hartlepool One, my Semi--AcousticDanoesque jobby, and I think it will be fun.

From the top:

1. A solid korina centre block. I wanted a good basis and this should give it. My plan is simple, and the neck, bridge and pickup will all be nailed onto it at one point or another, which will hopefully give all those resonance, sustain and synchronicity words true meaning to me. Suddenly.

2. Around this Korina kernel (I'm making up my own technical terms now), the body shape will be made from a ring of confidence, or at least some side bits of wood cut to shape, with the top and bottom being cut out of quarter inch thick wooden board stuff. And then all stuck together with chewing gum and faint hope, like a proper Dano should be.

OK, I might use glue, though I am tempted to put a ring of copper nails around the edge for a real Cold War look to it. We'll have to see.

3. The neck is going to be my favourite big headed Strat, with a nice set of Grover tuners.

4. The bridge will be a hardtailed Strat type  for intonational goodness.

5. The pickup will be a single Mojo Pickups Filtertron, with tone and volume knobs to twizzle and twoddle.

6. As for the shape of the guitar, after mucho deliberation, this is going to be Vox Teardrop inspired, and for a change of direction I think I'm going back to my roots and painting it by hand in acrylics. I used to do this a lot (I am such an artist) so it will be fun to do it on a guitar, I've sort of avoided it so far, but this is a bit of a new direction across the Jooky map, so what the hell.

And there we are

Obviously there are a few woodwork bits I need to get my head around but the neck socket is the key for me and If I start with a long plank of Korina, and keep going until I do one right, there might be enough wood left for the rest of it.

I also have to think about things like measurements, which is novel. I normally use a bit of string with knots in it and a school 6-inch ruler if I'm getting technical.

La la laaaa

Tears On My Pillow

That's not a real one either...
But man, tis coool

Well, I watched that Olympic thing all the way thru last night, and the Spice Girls didn't show up once. Talk about the story of my life. Thank gord for Sharon Davies, that's all I can say.

Back in Jookidom, where the sun never sets on crazy endeavour with no guarantee of gold at the end of it, The Ronin One is off to pastures new in the US of A, so I'm going to be fine-fettling that over the weekend before waving a teary terrah.

In other news, I've been having a good ponder about The Hartlepool One and am being typically decisive about the body shape. I really fancy a Teardrop, but then a 620 with Mojo Ricky pickups is kinda attractive too, it has to be said. Though a semi-acoustic Jazzmaster would be, well, lovely. So in summary, still no idea what it will be.

As for The Fallen One, I've snaffled a set of Steinberger tuners so I really am going to have to get my routing sorted on this one quicksmart. It is turning into a bit of a special guitar one way or another, but more on that another day when I get it straight in me bonce.
So it is all a bit hunter-gatherer at the moment, which is OK. I don't mind too much.

La la laaaa

Inspired By....La Cabronectro

GuitarMonkey's La Cabronectro - Genius

Well, when I was joining in with the MR £100 Challenge earlier this year, one of the handful of finishers - a top geezer called Steve who goes by the Nom de Guerre of GuitarMonkey - made a quite brilliant Danelectro/La Cabronita hybrid - a La Cabronectro in fact - which looked rather wickedly cool.

He still has his blog up Here if you want to check it out, and it is probably more interesting than what I'm going to rabbit on about, so feel free, nobody will consider you rude. He also did one of those sound things people who play guitars do, Here.

Anyway, I was well impressed, and filed it away under 'Smart Arse' and 'I wonder if I could do one like that sometime?'

But, as inspiration is nine parts theft and I can't do anything about him being cooler than me, I thought I might try and do something similar myself, though no doubt we'll differ in the detail, talent and general originality.

But I don't mind losing to the chap again, however many times. He even gave me a few tips, which will no doubt save me some grief.

As a starting point, I think I'm going to make it a little more solid and use a good chunk of wood down the middle, so the neck, pickups and bridge are connected to the same thing. There isn't any great rationale behind that, though I could probably mutter something about sustain or vibrations at a push, if you would prefer it, but in truth it just feels right in some way, which is how I usually decide stuff.

Of course the  purple mohican haircut and infected tongue piercing just before my first job interview proved it isn't always a reliable approach to decision making.

Shaped 'plates - just showing off really *sniff*

But back to the guitar. Around the big lump of wood, I'm thinking this might be a good time to try one of the outlines I keep thinking I'll make but never do, so it will probably be one of a Vox teardrop, a Ricky 620 or a Fender Jazzmaster.

In fact given my cutting out skills, it could be all three in one and you'd never really know.

Another deviation from the formula is that I want to use proper wood (though thinly cut) rather than hardboard for the top and bottom. (Can you tell I'm making this up as I go along? Good innit?)


The reason for that is again a feeling I suppose, and maybe I'm just talking myself into making a semi-acoustic, especially as I was planning on cutting a hole or two in the top - though not an f hole, shoot me if I ever do an f hole.

As for the neck, I've got a nice Strat one on it's way, which keeps life simple and I'm sure I can think of something for the finish. I do want to go for a single pickup - P90 is the usual fave - but maybe something a tad different for a change would be good, and I like wraparound bridges so that is nicely simple too. Unless I go for a tailpiece and floating bridge instead, but I dunno.

In fact I haven't really thought this thru at all, have I?

I am going for a Strat neck though, I know that much, and it is going to be as cool as funk. So there.

So that is it, The Hartlepool One, coming one day, to an Emporium near me,

You heard it here first, last and always.

Probably.

Gord, I don't know.

La la laaa