Nice Chap is Alex

Hello, Baby Blue

I met up with a really cool chap the other day.. He came down from Coventry on the train and went away on the bus with the Jangly One, leaving me his 'Baby Blue' a quite luverly Tanglewood 335-a-like, which means I'm wasting far too much time doing BB King and Buddy Guy impressions, quite badly it has to be said. Ask the neighbours.

Anyway, we had a lovely chat about music and DIY instruments and then he toddled back to the Midlands and plugged the Jangly One in for the first time - in front of an audience of a hundred or so.

Now that is cool.

Anyway, he wrote about it on his blog HERE, bless him.

Nice chap is Alex. I really like his Diddly Bow...

Spirit of '59, or maybe '69 - Pure indecision

I'm struggling a bit at the moment to decide what to do with the Danelectro '59 (or is it '69, I forget) reissue that I had as a part-ex the other week.

Would you cover a Dano in this? What would Jimmy P. think?

My initial thought was that I would give it a totally outlandish finish - that one over there - you can't try and be subtle with a Dano, lets face it - and maybe change the tuners (which aren't great) and perhaps the pickups too. Bridge and nut are awesome of course, but I wasn't too sure about the bridge pickup especially.

Where I'm stuck though, is what I do with the sticky tape binding around the edges. I mean, I could take it off and glue it back on once I've 'finished' it, and if I knacker it up Danelectro even sell it as a part, but I really don't know whether I want it at all, or more to the point, if I leave it off does that kill the guitar's original design.

I mean, whatever I do, I love the scratchplate, so that will stay in some form - I wonder if I could make a copper one and whether you can get glittery enamel, hmmm... - but that tape. Sheesh, bit of a tricky one.

As for the pickups, I like the Kent Armstrong ones, but I wonder what else is out there?

I'd love a P90 sound, but would it work?
Would it still be a Dano that I'd love etc.

Yours, in dilemma.