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...)
Well, another day and still the garage is so frozen I can't last more than five minutes in there, so not a lot useful done. The electric isn't working in there either at the moment, all frozen up, and working by blowtorch light, well, it just isn't me, I'm afraid.
So as I can't do, I thought I'd plot and plan and have a think about what comes next. Specifically, I mean, not my usual navel gazing.
1. First-up of course, is the second of the Katy's Killer Customs, Andy's J-Bird One. The Jag-Firebird hybrid, with oh so many extras on the side.
2. After that, is my little Daisy Jook One. This semi based on a Daisy Rock Retro-H already boasts a quite lovely cowgirl finish, and a couple of twangtastic baby humbuckers. They are a bitch to put in, never doing that again.
3. The Twangy One I've started to paisleyify, a nice black swirly one with touches of gilt to catch the light. This will have the Kent Armstrong 'Kentron' pickups, which should be fun and generally twang for England.
4. The other Jag body I had is destined to end-up with a pinky-purple paisley finish - The Pink Panther One, being as our chap Blake just passed on. I was planning to put a couple PRS P90s in this one, but then came across somebody flogging a pair of Jazzmaster pickups, and grabbed them pronto like. I might have to do a wee bit of work on the scratchplete as it was cut for P90s, but I figure it will be worth it. Doo-dut-do-doooo.
5. Getting slightly into vapourware now, I fancy doing a bit of a shape guitar, a Vee or Explorer, and if I do it will have this quite lovely skull and roses finish that I've had around for ages but never found a home for. Into this will either be a pair of PRS Tremonti pickups, or some Gibson 49x wotsits out of a Les Paul Studio. Bit of a rock machine me thinks, 'cos it's time I started err, hanging with the kids, and all that. Maybe. This will be The Evil Bed One.
6. And then there is the Weathered One. This is my long standing pine bodied Telecaster, with a single Bare Knuckle pickup at the bridge, quite beautiful neck and is destined to be the first full Lulu's Copper Top. I've got to buy the copper for this, which I've not gotten around to ordering, and then I need to decide what to do as a finish. In truth, I'm dithering. On one hand I fancy going for a simple rosewood colored stain to set off the copper, but on the other I picked up the most beautiful golden paisley with gilty bits all over it, that I think would look amazing. The copper of course I am either weathering or enamelling like I did with the Jangly One's scratchplate, though I'm not sure which at the moment. Either way, on this I'm going to leave more of the copper colour exposed, which will be a bit amazing to look at methinks. This one is a bit of a special, but more about that when it is done.
7. I'm back on the single pickup trail with a Wizard handwound Novatron Pickup thing. I talked about this before and I have a Strat body I'm going to try and do something weird and wunderfilled with, with this as the driver. This will be The Backporch Voodoo One, as I see it as laid back and bluesy with just a tinge of Southern Comfort.
So in summary:
1. The J-Bird One
2. The Daisy Jooky One
3. The Twangy One
4. The Pink Panther One
5. The Evil Bed One
6. The Weathered One
7. The Backporch Voodoo One...
And other than that, I'm thinking of getting serious about making a couple of my own body shapes. I have two in mind which I guess aren't the most original - I'm not going BC Rich or anything, but should be fun to do.
So really this has turned into my New Year Resolution list, hasn't it...be interesting to see how many are completed by 2012, I guess.
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
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...
Well, I’m pleased to say that The J-Bird One is finally moving. The Christmas deadline is going to be unlikely, but hopefully the temperatures warm up a wee bit, New Year might still be possible, time will tell, I guess.
However, as far as the neck goes – which if you remember we are aiming to turn vaguely Firebird-esque, by chopping bits off an old leftie ‘70s Fender Strat style of headstock bobbins – we are in with a hope.
I put my ‘artists impression’ up the other week, and this I’ve now transferred to the headstock. It needed a bit of a tweak here and there, and I dismembered a Sugar Puffs packet along the way, but at least the wider outline is there now, and it has given me the chance to cut that.
How to do it was the first question. I thought about a saw, or even my shiny new router, but the safest bet seemed to do it handraulically, so I started the slow and painfilled task of filing it down by hand.
And this is where I am with it. Still sanding - I'm going to use a leccy sander for a bit though.
As for the body, once the routing out is done (I've been practising and today is the day), I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ll be applying the comic and then spraying it with a transparent, blue-tinted nitro lacquer. Once that is done and rock solid, we’ll apply the logo and then clear coat it. This will all be quite thin coats, so hopefully drying time won’t kill us if the weather warms up a tad, but I must admit things are tight, but better to get it right…
The J-Bird wiring is without doubt the most ambitious thing I’ve tried to date. First of all, we’ve got a humbucker at the bridge and a traditional P90 at the neck. After lots of looking around, I’m having these both wound by Allan at Catswhisker, after the awesome service and pickup he supplied for the Fat Pussy one. I’ve really been impressed where it counts in both cases.
Obviously, once we have the pickups we need to decide to wire them, and given Andy’s musical interests, for both gigging and recording, the one thing he was totally clear about was that he wanted loads of options.
Sooo…from the top, we’re going for a kinda enhanced set of features. For those of you who know what I mean by the ‘Jimmy Page modification’ when I say that is just a starting point, you’ll probably see what I mean.
In terms of controls, given the difference in the pickups, it makes sense to have two volume and two tone controls.
Each of these, as far as the Jimmy Page goes are put in with push-pull pots, for splitting coils on the pickups and flicking to series and parallel etc.
In our case, we’re going that route, but also complicating things further by introducing a series of on-board effects, which will be controlled by a rotary switch that will replace one of the tone pots. (We lose the coil split on the P90 as that seems to be the least useful in this case).
Just to finish things off, there is also going to be a Kill switch, a la Rage Against The Machine.
All of which is quite daunting, but I’m happy that I’ve sketched it out now and it all seems feasible. Just hope my hand doesn’t carrying on shaking like recently, as I’m not sure I’d be wanting to ask the local tech-type to sort this one out for me…
But there we are, I said I wanted to make something interesting when I first talked about the Katy’s Killer Customs, and man, shaped headstocks, paper and nitro finishes, serious electronics…well, I think I can safely say I got my wish granted…
Well, everything is going J-Bird at the moment, but it is the finish that is taking a bit of time to work out. The scratchplate was the final piece of the jiggysaw, but I think we've just about got that 'designed' now, and I'm sending it off for somebody else to cut it.
I could probably do it myself, but as there is so much going into it, and my wobbly hands, it made sense to get a pro to do it. (Am I selling out? No burning holes with a soldering iron anymore? No pyrography tools, burned '78s and everything getting a little twee and pristine? Dunno. can't see it yet mind. Wait until you see the Jangly One finished before you decide.)
The finish is my next concern as we are still at the R&D stage, but I've been picking brains and I think we've got a plan now.
Basically, the idea is for the body to be covered with pages from a 1980s Marvel 'Punisher' comic or three, with this being stained a blue colour before having a logo superimposed over the top. It should make for a stunning looking finish and as per, I can't really wait to see how it turns out.
Silly as it sounds, it is the staining that has been the problem, as trying acrylic, water colour and even ink looked to work initially, but disappeared once the lacquer went on. Anyway, I've been picking them there brains and am going to try a spirit based stain now, so fingers crossed that will sort it out.
Other than that, I gave the OCD One a high volume test and really annoyingly the buzz resurrected itself. I was rather err, 'angry', but luckily didn't go Townsend about it. As the only parts that haven't been changed in the last week are the output jack socket and the mini-switch for the coil tap, I'm going to swap them out too, and hopefully....
(If this turns out to be my mobile fone interfering with the guitar, a thought that woke me up at 4am, that really will get kicked into the estuary this time).
Well, Geoff's OCD One is finally done, bar a little high volume testing, so I thought I'd get going on the prep for our second Katy's killer custom - the J-Bird One.
I know I repeat the names a lot, and it isn't an attempt at brand awareness, just that I forget them otherwise.
As I picked up a quite beautiful neck for t'Bird the other day, I thought I'd sort out what I'm going to do about turning a leftie Strat headstock into a Firebird kind of shape.
Well, first of all, I haven't got a Firebird to copy, and though it would help (if somebody wants to send me one please shout out ;) as the headstock sizes are different and therefore I figured I'm kinda on my own anyway.
What I've done then is find some fotos of a FB headstock and play with them in Photoshop to get them sized sort of close. There is no point trying trace them on as basically they don't fit, but they are a good reference point.
Next, I drew around the Strat headstock onto a piece of paper.
After that, I've used my quite awful sketching skills to draw a Firebird shape onto the Strat picture. Which is the crummy picture over there.
As it hasn't scanned too well, I'll explain that the hatched areas are wood that will be removed and the shaded are the parts that will be thinner to give the right shape and depth.
Next, I guess I keep repeating the exercise until I actually get a bit closer (the sonnet writing simian that I am) and then I'll do a cardboard cut out, draw it onto the headstock and reach for the sharp things.
Gulp.
So there we are. Hopefully you'll agree it looks somewhere close to where we want to be, and that maybe I should go to nightschool or get my 4-year-old to draw it next time...
I've been talking about The J-Bird One - the mixture of Jaguar and Firebird we're putting together for Andy, and even showed a nice mock-up foto (I thought) and all the time I didn't realise that I was not being quite as original as I thought...as the mock-up was actually a WIP image of one being built by the quite wonderful British luthier-types, Feline Guitars.
I was rather embarrassed when this was pointed out (very nicely) by Jonathan the chap who owns the company. I'm still a bit on the lobster side of things as I type this...
So to be clear, it was obviously a complete cock-up on my part, and all credit to Jonathan and Feline for a great idea. Obviously, there was no sleight or credit-grabbing intended and all that, and I hope no hard feelings.
Saying that, I'm going to totally push my luck now and point you at a later foto of the Feline guitar as it is bleeding stunning. Click Here and see what I mean...
Blimey - fotos to follow later, but I finally got the OCD One into a buzz free state at 10.30pm last night, which is a relief as I was beginning to think I'd lost it big-time... But it is done, finally, and a blast thru the Ye Olde Vox later today will be an absolute pleasure.
Fotos and 'reaction' to follow then...
In other news... the J-Bird One is also moving in the right direction after a few false starts with people not being entirely accurate in their descriptions of things they are trying to flog.. I said before we want it done pre-Xmas, and time is already shooting past so now that Geoff's magnifique guitar is in the land of the living, nothing gets done before this baby, baby.
Well, nothing gets done until I hit a wall in every direction, is perhaps more like it, in truth, but there we are...
Anyway, all the parts are now ordered bar a custom scratchplate. Which is quite a job in itself wondering where to put everything, and man I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to the wiring job with coil taps, kill switches and everything else. Actually, it should be fun (must find that multimeter).
Other than that, the finish has started to be tested on another body. I think I said before it is a Comic book look with a bit of a twist, and it is based on the Marvel Punisher series (top film, I watched it last week for research perps - well worth the effort.) It's a bit trickier than normal, but should be worth it, I reckon. Just worth practising up front, I feel.
All of which is good, but the one that's on the list that is haunting me at the moment is the neck. Now, as I said in the first place, what we are trying to do here is come-up with a guitar that has a Jaguar/Jazzmaster kind of body (and we're close man, we're pretty damn close), but rather than ape Fender's finest (and have they ever come-up with a guitar that looks that cool since or before - nah).
Where was I?
Oh yeah, rather than go for a straight Fender-esque headstock, Andy wanted something even cooler - one from a Gibson Firebird.
Now as you no doubt realise, Firebirds have fixed necks and Jaguars have bolt-ons, which gives a clue about a potential problem. Also of course, no bugger is likely to be selling a Firebird neck and so - what do you do?
At this point I'd have probably gone Hmmm and got a bit lateral, but Andy had already sussed it and had got a wee beauty of a plan.
So basically, what we have done is find a very nice, hand made, left handed Strat neck, with a CBS-esque large headstock, and I'm going to shape it so that it does good impression of a Firebird.
How cool is that?
Tell you what, I wish I’d thought of it.
Into that we're going for the bestest vertical banjo tuners we can lay our hands on - the Steinberger gearless ones that everybody bangs into their Firebirds if they want to stay in tune (as Gibson’s - shhh - aren't very good, I'm told)....and there we are.
So all in all, quite a bit of work to do, and I need to dig out my whittling knife (last used on a tent peg in the scouts, circa 1980) and see what I can do.
I have to say, I'm really enjoying the custom side of things, just as much as my usual Jooky fare, but for a different reason - both Geoff and Andy have turned-up with ideas that are stretching me in a different direction and making me think a bit more. And long may it last..
Well, for all my high hopes of getting the OCD One complete yesterday, after far-too-much-pain, it turned out that one of the 'pots' was knacked, and it occurred to me far too late in the day to get a new one, so that is the job for today. Get a pot, fix the guitar. Simple.
And then that will really be it.
End of.
Honest.
(Hopefully.)
In the mean time, I stripped the J-Bird One down so that it is ready for finishing and ordered what remained of the parts - minus the pickups and scratchplate, of course, which I'm still sniffing about for.
Never simple in the Jookydome, telling yer.
A guitar loses an Orca, gains a Seal
Other than that, I started to lacquer The Fat Pussy One and The Jangly One (must remember to use really short names in future to save on the typing)
As far as The Jangly One goes, last night I girded my loins and then dipped them into the hot water that is cutting a scratchplate out of copper and then enameling it. OK, as the body is quite a busy design, I should probably have gone for something simple, and I did thank that for a moment, but then thought - stuff it - and dived headfirst into something impressionistic with two types of glitter...
This took quite a few layers and 'firings' - god I am sooo very arty - and still has to have a clear top put on it, but what do you think?
I have to say, drilling the holes was a complete bitch, but that will no doubt come with practice, or maybe the right tools, but the cutting out the shape only cost me minor blood loss. But I get that every time I change a string, so nothing new there. (All those people who have a Jooky guitar are looking carefully at stains that assumed were intended for Jookiness purposes.)
It is really a bit glittery, but you can't tell. Sneaky huh?
If nowt else it has fired me up (a tee and a hee) to get on with the proper copper topped Tele, but the Customs come first so I'll have to fit that in when and as. At least I know what a usable thickness is of copper now, that was a voyage of discovery.
One drawback mind you, I forgot to drill the screw holes (ahem).
And so back to the OCD one today... Must remember to buy Geoff a pint after all this...
Not a great foto, but a lovely piece of wood, methinks
We've been having a fun old time trying to find a Jaguar body for our latest Katy's Killer Custom guitar, the J-Bird One, and it is starting to remind me why we seem to do so many Strats - it is a lot easier to find the parts.
Anyway, we've got a couple of options, with one of them being an old custom made guitar being broken up by a friend-of-a-friend. Actually, there are two guitars being broken up, and two bodies, if I'm being specific.
These aren't exactly the right shape and I'm not sure that we'll use them for the J-Bird but I've decided to grab them either way, as they look a bit fun and as I said, such things are hard to find without importing them from the U.S of A and paying the tax man far too much for the privilege..
Andy is yet to see them (actually so am I), but either way I think it is about time we ventured into offset territory again anyway, and this is a chance too good to miss. It's been a long time since The Psychedelic Surf One - which is with James Sant still, of course - and features on a lovely new recording of his. I keep forgetting to mention that; I'll put a link up later.
But anyway, where was I? Yes - so whether Andy goes with one of them or not, the other is going to be for me and it will turn out to be a bit of a one, I think. It is practically begging for a single P90 soapbar, let's face it, and as I've already got a neck or three lay around that will fit (hopefully) it could be an easy put together.
(I always think that and it never is.)
We'll see when they arrive anyway...
Later that night, in the Jooky Kingdom...
I fell over taking this 'shot'
OK, the guitar bodies turned up before I had a chance/got around/stopped eating/could be bothered to post this on the blog. And they are really very nice. lovely sparkly finishes, Blue and a sort of old Red colour. They've been left with three single coils in them and a bridge, so I figured I should really bang a neck on one of them and see what they are sounding like.
First impressions, the body is heavier than I expected. Not anything Gibson-esque, but a good Strat weight. Actually, it is similar to my Jazzmaster, which I guess I should have expected.
Nice offset shape, so it is comfy from the off - slightly thinner than a Jag or Jazzmaster, but it feels fine. Verily nice in fact.
Strumming it acoustically, well it totally sings. I'm really surprised. The bodies are swamp ash, and the sound unplugged is nice and vibrant with a good sustain.
Plugged in, well three single coils, a five way switch and Fender American Strat pups, it was only going to sound like a Strat wasn't it. Very nice tones, good and responsive, bit of a twang, all the right in-betweeny noises and I love it when a guitar starts to break up more the harder you 'pick'. Bit of overdrive and everything is sweet, and then all out mayhem ensues without any unwanted feedback. I think the middle pickup must be reversed too as the 2 & 4 positions are quieter still.
All in all, very nice. the bridge is a crock of something smelly, but I am guessing it wasn't the original as everything else has been sold.
Sooo, a bit of a treat to find this and now that it is at my tender mercies...lovely.
Does it get me further forward with the J-Bird,
I'm thinking possibly maybe - tis upto Andy.
Will I get to make a bit of a jingly guitar or two in my favourite shape of all, oh yes.
