Sold: The Kooky One

The Kooky One is a bit of a Jooky throwback brought up-to-date, with it’s stunningly cool paisley finish, mixed with a beautifully corroded copper-smothered scratchplate.

The offset ash body hints at Jaguars and Jazzmasters, while the lipstick single coils give a bit of jingly Danelectro chic. At the bridge though, is a real monster in the shape of a genuine late ‘70s or early ‘80s Gibson Dirty Fingers humbucker in delicious Zebra skin. (OK, maybe it’s plastic).

Together there is a wide range of tones and it can surprisingly play the blues as well as rock and indie-ness.

Under the hood is a Mojo Pickups wiring loom, all CTS pots, cloth covered wire and a handmade PIO capacitor with an endearing Jooky logo.

All in all, this is a great guitar to play that sounds amazing and looks gah.

*


To be clear, The Kooky 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.

To treat yourself to this wonderfilled Guitar, for a miserly £399 incl. a hardcase and UK delivery...Click on the Big Yellow Button...


*** SOLD ****

Technical Stuff:

Type: Leona’s Groovy Guitar, Lulu’s Copper Topa

Electrics: Lipstick Single Coils, Gibson Dirty Fingers Humbucker

Guitar Type: Fender Jazzmaster/Jaguar

Construction: Wood body, maple/rosewood neck, Fabric and Corroded Copper Finish

Strings: Nickel 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#52

RSP: £799

Looking Forwardly (Slight Return)

Imagine this...just different, La.

Well, tis nice to get The Kooky One further along the line and there is still an outside chance that I'll get it finished this week, which is cool like a fool, but until things show-up, I'm again stuck for things to do.

Next on the list is of course The Fabulous One which is all verily excitement-brimmed.

For those of you with a memory better than mine or my goldfish, I'll apologise for the repetitively-wearisome update, but the basic idea is that it is a kinda Fender Coronado semi-acoustic thingy with a few Jookily applied wrinkles..

Just remembered I don't have a goldfish.


You can see what I'm up against here.

But The Fabulous One, It 'boasts' a Coronado body, a big headed Strat neck - rosewood now rather than the maple boarded one initially expected - a groovily cool trapeze tailpiece and a Dogear'd Bare Knuckle Nantucket P90 for the sounds.

It'll also have a Mojo wiring loom when I remember to ask Marc to sort one out (Note to self) and there we are.

As for the finish, I'm going for a dark stained and waxed/oiled back and sides with a bronze top, with a sprinkle of corrosion to taste. Scrummy.

Why I haven't started it yet is of course down to the fact that it needs pickup, pot and socket holes chopped out of it, and it hasn't been possible recently. However, next week it should be so I'm looking forward to knackering up yet another piece of wood and discretely removing it's name from the Coming Soon list..

After that we are going for the woodwork in a big way, although I might sneak a Tele in somewhere along the line as I fancy having another go at a veneer - walnut this time rather than rosewood. But we'll see. That is just a glittering-glistering-glimmeron the horizon line right now..

So in summary, there be plenty of something to look forward to, even if living in the future is all I have right now...

*sniff*


La li lo laa laaaa

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WIP: The Kooky One

Well, what can I say?

I've calmed down a bit - just nobody suggest Sam Old-Spice as the next West Brom manager - and had a plot and plan as far as The Kooky One is concerned...

So gone are the over-bigsome lippy pickups, though they will be replaced by other more-petit-of-form lippy pickups soon with a tad of the lucky stuff.

Gone too is the Gretsch 'bucker to be replaced by a Gibson Dirty Fingers jobby. This is mainly because the new lippy pups are a bit hotter than the old ones and the Dirty one will balance better, but mainly because I liked the look of the Zebra.

Gone too are the Gretsch knobs. Lovely though they are, I think these are more retro and cool and generally looking-the-part. I know I'm sad.

On there way are some new tuners as the ones I thought I had are gone. No doubt because I've been to the well too often and basically I can't count.

Other than that, it is pretty much there (ahem).

My only worry left is that it looks a bit prettily tidy-neat, but I have some rusty screws  for the scratchplate, which will help..

Anyway...once the lippy and tuners arrive we'll be clover-rollin' like mosslessy stones.

In other news,

La la laaa

Not Man Enough For My Lippy

Well, I was rather pleased with the simplistic lines of The Kooky One. The next couple of days will be lacquertriffically endowed in that department, but hopefully not too much time after that and we'll be back in offset paisley nirvana.

As for the rest, as you can no doubt see - having a discerning peeper, and all - I've coppered the scratchplate and then mottled it with some bronze before splishy-sploshing a bit of the house acid around for some lovely bluey corrosion. The headstock face is plain old unadulterated copper, just for a change like. Sometimes it is the show of understatedness that makes all the difference.

And today, I managed to lacquer the body - though a bit more to do - and I had convinced myself that wiring the 'plate up was a good idea.

Until I tried and noticed that I'd given Marc at Mojo some duff information, and the wire to the switch isn't long enough.

No big deal, I can sort that.

And then that the holes for the pots weren't big enough.
Sorted that out quick smart too with my handraulic reamer..

And then finally that the lippy pickups were too big as I had snaffled the wrong ones.

*sigh*

Now, I know I should probably make the holes bigger, but the copperisation is done and de-dustificated, and I basically didn't want to. So I need to find some replacements for those.

Heh ho.

Despite the teensy glitches, I'm all verysomely excited about this one, gaudy paisley plus lots of chrome being the order of the day, a couple of lipstick pickups, a Gretsch 'bucker and Gretsch knobs to complete the visuals. Mojo wiring to make it sound great and err, work first time.

Sometimes you need to get back to basics, know what I mean?

Fun, fun and a touch of fun.

As for other things, The Ronin One is still niggling me, it is in tune, intonated, I've greased the tuners and they are now spot on, but there is just something, and I don't quite know what, that is bugging me. I know I still need to change the blend pot, but it isn't that.

I don't know, it just doesn't feel right somehow. Most annoying. I'll just have to keep on playing it and see if I can suss it. Maybe I'll go for a straight set of strings in case it is that (I put a hybrid set on with heavier wound strings), but I'm not sure it is that at all as I did the same with The Tatty Adonis One and that feels fine.

Sometimes, this guitar cobbling bobbins just does my head in.

What else, oh I snaffled a Floyd Rosed double buckered Super Strat sort of thing, which will hopefully show up this week. All a bit rock, but if it turns out to be OK, I might well have a home for it...

Heh P. ?

La la laaa

And Then Sometimes, All Is Understatedness

Well, it's going to be another bitsy-kinda-time this week, but I've got a face-on to get The Kooky One sorted out before another weekend. Woodwork is still out, but I should be able to do the rest here and there, which is good to think.

I've been having a lot of fun with the Zoomy Ultra Fuzz thing and The Tatty Adonis One, but really need to get my Jazzmaster involved in the mayhem, as mayhem and Jazzmasters share a fluffy soul. Jazzmasters and flangers are pretty neat too, just twirly rather than fluffy and more in need of parental guidance.

As for the wood chopping, once the Kookiest of Ones is sorted, next week will hopefully take a different slant - the holes in The Fabulous One, the teardropping of some wood and all that gore and plasma up the walls, not to mention the claret.

And we never mention the claret.

So today, or what's left, I'm-a-paisleying mar geetar, so I am.

(I am such a linguist.)

***** Musically Inept Interlude *****

And before I got around to putting this up and out there, I did actually get the paisleyification under my belt, as you can hopefully see. A whole lot of lacquer yet to go and some grain filling and sanding too, but you can get the idea, I'm sure. I had a bit of help with the fotos, from my self-appointed art director...

La la laaa

Not Very Much Lots of an SG, But..

Well, please don't take this as a plug to try and flog the thing - I hope you don't think me some kinda cynical get - but I gave The Tatty Adonis One a good go yesterday, tweaked it to bits and my god that is some guitar.

One pickup, simple as 'eck, but the clarity of the Mojo Wide Range 'bucker is just stunningly cool and when I finally get around to getting an SG there will be one of those babies at the bridge, make no mistake. The neck is just lovely in-the-hand too and the frets are lovely and shiny. What more could a boy want on a wet and windy day?

And speaking of getting an SG, well obviously it was top of my mind yesterday as I seem to have acquired - or will soon have - a rather bashed-around-the-edges PRS SE One. Which is nothing like an Epi SG apart from that it is Cherry coloured.

Another single pickup jobby.

I have mentioned before that PRSi aren't really my cuppa, but the one that has always caught my cornea is the One. A single P90 Les Paul Jr type of thing, but with rounded edges. I've always struggled with the idea, tbh, and if it had been a double-cut rather than a single, it wouldn't be happening at all, but I know I'm shallow so whatever.

On the Big-Pluses-List, I know I like the pickup, let's face it, I've used them a few times before, so it is a bit of a win on paper.

Single pickup guitars, a theme re-emerging.

As for other things, I have yet to start the paisleyification of The Kooky One, but I have coppered and corroded the scratchplate. It needs a lacquering, which I might wait for the weather to dry out before I do that, but once that is done a quick bit of solder and the Mojo harness can be introduced to the lippy and Gretsch pickups and all will be well and waiting for the body.

So finishing my Kooky monster this week might be pushing it after all but at least I've done something. You know how I need to be seen to achieve, I should be on the apprentice.

As for today, well, not too much will happen as there are other spratlings to Spry Crisp and Dry, but this week, it is going to be good. Eventually.

La la laa

Tatty, Kooky, Fuzzy and Titch

Well, what can I say - that there Zoom Ultra Fuzz arrived and it is a bit of an addictive thingie. I can sound like a pedal with a flat battery going thru an underpass without any kinda hassle, all while a plane takes off from behind the curtains, demons cry with extravagant flatulence and dogs are called from all over the county.

It gets worse if I try to play something too.

That is a good thing.

The Flanger also arrived, though with a teensy glitch, but that will be fun when I get it going too methinks.

As for other bobbins, well I had a bit of a stock take, thought about cutting the grass, shopping and other things and the net result is that I have sanded down the body for The Kooky One so that it is pretty much ready to be paislified.

There is only so much real life I can take.


I also spent far too long playing The Tatty Adonis One and marvelling at the sound of that there Mojo Wide Ranger. I realise somebody will buy it now, they always do just at the point I begin to think I may be able to hold onto it.

But The Kooky One: For once I have all the bits and as Mr Mojo did me the wiring loom, I should be in clover when I get that far. All of which means I'm hoping to have it done next week, which would be cool methinks.

After the neck version, I'm quite all-a-bubble to find out what the bridge-focused Gretsch pickup sounds like, particularly when pick 'n' mixed with a couple of lipstick toobz.

But first I need to get the paisley on there. I must admit, I've sorta missed doing that.

La la laaa

Thinking Kooky

Well, The Ronin One is still scattered across the kitchen table, but hopefully I'll get a chance to sort it out soonishly or at least this week.

The Les Paul is distractedmakingly lovely, but is now back in it's case until we am marauding, so maybe I can concentrate without getting all pentatonic.

As The Ronin One is nearly there, I'm allowed to think about what is next and it seems to be The Kooky One - mainly because I need a neck for The Fabulous One as I decided I wanted a big headed rosewood of board one, instead of the maple/maple jobbie I'd got lined-up.

I can't remember if I said, before or even many times, but the final line-up of specifications for The Kooky One is...

1. Ash bodied in an offset direction, to be treated to a lovely blue paisley finish.

2. Maple/Rosewood neck. I have a truly lovely one so I'm all proud of it. It even fits, which is better still.

3. Gretsch humbucker with a couple of Lipstick single coil pickups to give some spangle among the jangle.

4. Mojo wiring loom, CTS pots, PIO cap etc. I know it is cheating but MarcyMarc puts the wires in the right places which is a definite step forward. The caps are of course to-die-for too.

5. Wilkinson Steel Blocked Trem. I love the sound of The Tatty Adonis One, so more of the same.

6. Wilkinson Tuners, iirc. They are in a box somewhere and I can't be arsed to check.

7. Corroded copper scratchplate, as it should 'tone' neatly with the paisley if I get it right. (I mixed the acid a bit strong and melted the plastic before - oops)..

8. Gretsch knobs for the classy among us. Well, you. I'm a no-hoper-beatnik-crusty-with-a-dog-on-a-rope in the fashion stakes.

And that is about it.

How hard can it be?

La la la

Cool As Funk

Mojo Wide Range Humbucker
Cool as Funk

Well, it's funny how the fates conspire. Sometimes even at the fade-out it seems that it goes horribly wrong.

I only popped out for ten minutes, I swear, and by the time I got back an hour later I'd missed four separate deliveries.

None of which I can collect until next week, and one of them quite definitely the Dirty Fingers pickup for The Tatty Adonis One..

So that is that stuffed, my last hope for a finisher for the holiday, gone for the sake of a loaf of medium sliced white, some Smarties Cookies and a bottle of pop.

Gutted.

Or rather I was until Marc at Mojo Pickups sent me this picture of the prototype Wide Range Humbucker he is sending me, and the Dirty Fingers were quickly forgotten as this is what my Tattiness most definitely needs.

So that should be here next week, fitted moments later (ahem) and clover thy name is Jooky's err, bed. Or something.

Cheered me right up, it did.

As for the paislification of The Kooky One, circumstances beyond my control meant that too is one for later next week. I can't help feel that there will be a glut of Jookies come May, and then I'll start mithering about having too many guitars again.

Speaking of which, it isn't a Les Paul, but I've seen a bit of an oddity on Ebay I may have to snap up, but we'll see how high it goes (hopefully not out of reach - a tee and a hee) as it looked rather cool in a functional, Gordon Smith on Steroids kinda way.

Never a good sign is it? Browsing around Ebay, looking for something to do...

La la laaaa

I Ching, You Ching...

This Beautifilled Creature Must Die

Well, all things in Jookyland are subject to whimsical variety, and so in the furlong d'finale, The Tatty Adonis One seems to be trundling in such a misdirection.

I mentioned that I might not go with the Gretsch 'bucker, and this may well be the truth of the matter, as I'm in line to try one of the humbucker-sized Wide Range pickups Marc at Mojo is 'prototyping' at the moment.

I'd read on MR that he was putting some together as a trial for a top geezer called Cam, and figured like some oinkingly fat bespoiled brat that I too would like a bit of such action, and Marc has humoured me, and there we are.  Cam is in fact my leader as he was the one that pointed me in Marc's direction when he got a set of Mojo's Jazzmaster pups, so all is cool with frosted toppings t'boot.

Anyway, Marc is winding it for me this week, drilling holes parallelogram-like in the metal bits and I'm all a buzz and a flutter if not a twitter.

I know, tis sad, but that's me...all verily kooky jooky.

I'm also sort of glad to report that young David of Gorman fame received his latest Jooky Guitar Kit safe 'n' sound, and will be getting the rest of the parts soon. I'd managed to forget to remove the 'holding' screws I'd put in the pickups and replace them with the ones I'd ordered and left on my desk, wondering why I had got them in the first place.

Ahh, tis never simple, and I can only put it down to caffeine withdrawal or perhaps the death of a braincell that had important work to do in the echoey hollowtude of my bonce.

Not that I feel overly stoopid.

Much.

In less embarrassing news, I've already found a home for the Gretsch pickup if it doesn't in fact habitate The Tatty Adonis One, as it will instead find itself getting nailed into The Kooky One.

Oh, didn't I mention The Kooky One?

No, I do realise I haven't mentioned such a painted heroine before, but I snapped up an offset body and some nice paisley and am going the HSS route, pairing it with a couple of Yankee Fender pups. I've never done a HSS guitar before and I figured it was about time.

And yes, I said paisley. It must be the summer-like weather, but I fancy doing something clean and bright for a change. Though maybe a corroded copperificated scratchplate would look good...

(Just seen the weather and they are talking snow, typically.)

Other than that it will be a nice roseywood boarded Strat neck, and all the usual Jooky goodness. More on that when I get around to it though. I can't even be arsed to talk about waiting-for-parts-tools-Xmas anymore.

Other than the-story-so-far, yesterday left not a lot to report in truth. More squabbling brats and AWOL couriers, I guess, and in desperation we popped off to see the animals trapped in cages at a local garden centre.

As a good veggie boy and owner of a very old (and far too tiny-wee) "Meat Is Murder" T Shirt, I should probably have released them, and wafted them toward freedom with over-the-top arm motions, but I have this fur allergy and to be honest I don't eat meat because I don't like animals and I figure that if nobody ate them farmers might have to get rid of them all and we could do something useful with the land instead. Plus they might have to get proper jobs. The farmers I mean. So a win all around, really.

A ho and a hum