Zoomba Zoombababa

Well, I still need to do the soldering, but just about everything else is ready as far as The La Cucaracha One goes, and it is looking jolly striking I must say.

(OK, maybe strings and a setup will help a wee bit too. And a few screws, looking at the scratchplate.)

As for other stuff, The Old No.7 One got collected at the second attempt and is now stuck in a layby on the M5 somewhere, but will hopefully put a smile on Paul's face tomorrow sometime. It took a while, but hopefully it will have been worth it.

The only other news is that I was so impressed with the neck for Old#7, that I'm acquiring a traditionally cool one piece maple one for The Chimera One instead of the originally planned ebony boarded wonder. I know, decisive am we. It is another Monster Relic one from Mr Mojo himself's stock of all things cool and relicked so at least I know it will arrive.

But anyway, there we be...

La la laaaaa

Introducing: The Old No.7 One

Well, it has taken a while - for once not entirely down to me - but I am verily pleased to be able to introduce you to the latest Jooky on these shores, The Jack Daniels influenced The Old No.7 One.
As you can see it is based on the classic Fender Telecaster Esquire and has more than a hint of JD about it.

The idea behind this one wasn't so much to make a relic guitar - not really my cuppa after all - but instead to aim for something that looked like it had been carved from an old Jack Daniels cask, and so we have a lovely, dilapidated looking black finish that has been 'Cask aged' (ahem) and generally beaten into submission.

The pickguard, fact fans, has been chopped out of an old metal Jack Daniels sign, and the studs around the edge are bronze topped and are meant to give a wee nod toward the rivets in the original.

Pickup-wise it boasts a Marc Ransley wound Broadcaster which is a little hotter than normal, and works perfectly with one of Marc's Esquire looms.

Other than that, it has one of the nicest necks I have ever played. It is a Monster Relic one, so again artificially aged without being silly about it. Top notch stuff.

Tuners, bridge and cover are all Fender original parts and there we are.

This baby was custom made for Paul and should be off to him on Monday with a fair trade wind and light around the tunnel.

Tis cool.

La la laaaaa

Going to be amazing

Well, you'll just have to trust me on this as I can't find the camera - cameras in fact, four of them - but The Old No.7 One is getting closer and is going to be amazing.

The neck is on, and if I hadn't somehow split the nut (that's about 3 in the last couple of weeks, must have been some donkeys with brittle bones out there) there could even be some strings to strum. New nuts should arrive tomorrow though, so - well, cool. I'm vaguely happy.

That in fact took my day, although The Siren Song One took a bit of a bashing as well, here and  over there somewhere, and I'm thinking that maybe that should be the one I keep for myself.

Though I don't know.

Hmmm.

Anyway, that was all, as you were.

La la laaaa

JD & Gimps

Well, this week has only one job as such and that is to finish The Old No.7 One and get it up norf to young Paul.

Today then I carefully laid all the parts out, fitted a nice bone nut, polished some frets and drilled a few holes. It was as good a start as any, and tomorrow I might even use a screwdriver to nail that neck on.

I think this is going to turn out to be something a bit spesh, so it is easy to stay focused for once.

Other than that, I must admit I had a little Gimp time, playing The Spindrifting One quite lots loudly and generally having a bit of fun. I think I may have to keep this one as:

1. I am Jookiless
2. I only own one guitar, my Jazzmaster, and it is lonely, and
3. It is the first time I've really 'got' a Strat and it may never happen again.

So we  shall see, though The Shonky One is also rather a good candidate for permanence, I have to admit.

Anyway. such is life

La la laaaa

Getting Old on a Saturday

Well, I mentioned the other day that I'd hunted and gathered a Monster Relic neck for The Old No. 7 One from Marc at Mojo Pickups, and it arrived this morning and it is rather stunningly cool. I am really impressed with the quality of it, and the ageing is very subtle, no stupid wear, just genuinely old looking and feeling.

And as that was just about the final jiggysaw lump, and hopefully next week this baby will be on it's way to Paul for mucho strumming.

La la laaaa

And at long last...

Well, three months ago The Old No.7 One was waiting for a neck months ago, and this morning nothing had changed apart from the tale of woe and so finally we looked elsewhere and I have to say I got lucky.

Long ago I mentioned Monster Relics, an American company who produce top quality relic parts, and who's necks are seriously cool - bizarrely looking old rather than tortured - and looking around in the past the availability in the UK was crazy limited, so they ended-up on the nice-to-have list.

However, it seems they have a new distributor in the UK in the shape of Super-Tone, the parts side of Marc Ransley's Mojo Pickups) and so I have ordered a most beautifully cool looking neck to plonk on Pez's Custom Jooky, and I am all of a buzz and a flutter.

The neck is a proper 60s jobby, slab rosewood 'board, clay dots, nitro finish and a genuinely old looking colour that makes some of the relics you see out there look plain daft.

So that should be here next week and hopefully bolted on shortly after.

It's been a long time coming, but I think it will be worth the wait in the end...

And my only problem now is that I'm developing an aged part addiction that Marc's Super-Tone is doing nothing to discourage. There is a beautiful maple Tele board on there too, and...

Well, have a shufty for yourself at Super-Tone's wares Here and find out more on Facebook Here

La la laaaa

WIP: The Old No.7 One

Well, we're still awaiting the neck for The Old No.7 One, but as the rest of the caboodle is pretty much kitted, I thought it was about time I did a bit of an update.

As you may remember, this if my first Custom for a long time and the little darlin' was somewhat based upon an old and battered Jack Daniels barrel, has a rather nice Mojo Broadcaster pickup with Esquire wiring, Fender bridge and ash tray cover for all those groovy sounds and a rather lovely scratchplate made out of a tin JD sign.

I may have mentioned that I was hoping to turn cooper and put a metal band around it, but after a consultancy period with my local blacksmith, it seems that it was probably a bit dangerous, so instead I've gone for copper topped studs, matching those holding the 'plate in place.

And all in all it is rather cool, in a totally f%^&*^in' screwed-up crazy boggling kinda way. The knobs are still MIA and TBC and generally not there, but will be soon, and generally this is it.

Just hope Paul approves.

I am resisting the urge to put a different neck on and give it a blast, but instead did a wee recording of it stringless using my patented lo-tec and generally cheap-as-chippy-chips Ebow replacement, a, err, tuning fork waved meaningfully above the pickup with variations of tone drizzled to taste. And a bit of bashing around.

Maybe some delays, echoes and other things would have helped, but it proves the wiring works if nowt else and if you want to hear what the Edge would sound like if he was brassic and didn't have a neck or strings on his guitar, this might well be it. But then again it might not.

Actually, the PC crashed and the recording got trashed, so I can't point you at it anyway. but maybe you can imagine (ahem)

So nearly somewhere closer than it was before, The Old No.7 One, a custom guitar made the Jooky way.

Reassuringly slowly.

La la laaaa

Like Falling Off A Barrel

Well, nothing doing as far as Jookification goes today - real life, don't you just hate it? Always getting in the way.

However, I did grab the odd moment d'Jook over the weekend and am pleased to report that I avoided casualty (only minor thumb slicing) and chopped a lovely pickguard for The Old No.7 One out of a metal Jack Daniels sign. And jolly cool it looks too.

I'm waiting for the punch I ordered to arrive so I can, well, punch some holes in it to put the screws thru, but that should be here tomorrow and there we be.

Other than that, The Pearly Dewdrop One is all back together and just needs a chunk of time or so to put strings on and give it a proper set-up and all that.

Hopefully tomorrow we should be twanging then.

Must try and remember some Joy Division, that'll cheer me up.

It's odd I've waited decades for a Teardrop and now that it is practically here all I seem to want to do is play my Jazzmaster. Maybe it's a guilt thing, odd whicheverwhat it actually is though. Indeed.

As for everything else, well, nothing doing, so not worth worrying about.

I am sooo verily zen.

La la laaaa

Scritching and Scratching For Pearls

Well, I seem to have acquired some casual moments to call my own this weekend, so I'm going to try my best to get The Pearly Dewdrop One fettled, and as the metal sign we're using in lieu of a pickguard on The Old No. 7 One arrived earlier on, I'm also going to take my fingers in my hands, book a cab for casualty and see if I can chop it down to size.

All good fun if it works, of course.

As far as the metal sign chopping goes, I am assuming that this will be a trial run and therefore a learning experience that will form the basis of some beautiful work later. (ahem)

That is what I'm telling myself anyway, getting my excuses up front and centralised so I don't have to formulate then later thru gritted teeth and blood loss related fatigue and general wussy wooziness.

Might have a coffee first though, you can't rush these things.

La la laaaa

Friday, I'm frustrated

Well, I never quite finished the Pearly Dewdrop One, but hopefully I'll sneak the odd half 'n' hour over the weekend and get some strings on the old girl. Must admit I'm a teensy wee bit lots bugged about it, but such is life. You get days like these.

As for The Old No.7 One, well that now has a solderified pickup and beautifully proportioned wiring loom a la Mojo and is as far as I can get until the metal sign for the pickguard arrives, oh and the neck.

It's come a long way in a week and is looking ancient up close, so I'm pretty chuffed with it. Tis all good.

Oh, the trad knobs will change, but I put these aged ones on anyway for appearances sake.

I'm good/sad like that.

But, anyway...

La la laaaa

What's In The Post, Today?

Esquires are Coool

Well, back to the waiting-for-parts mantra, but I always love it when a big box comes from Marc at Mojo Pickups, and this morning such a thing arrived, and yes, I loved it.

I spend a lot of time alone.

First up was the pickups and wiring loom for The Floored Genius One, which I managed to put in without breaking, which is always a bonus. The nice thing about getting the loom and the pickups together for a Jazzmaster is of course that they don't require any soldering as the chap has already done it all - so a few screws and we're there.

What I'm less happy about is that I'm still awaiting the trem and bridge, but once they come it will be clover I tell you, clover.

Jazzmasters are Cooool

Also in the box, was the Hot Broadcaster pickup and super cool Esquire wiring loom for The Old No. 7 One, which when the control plate arrives (hopefully tomorrow) I'll be able to install and hit with a tuning fork to hear it twanging, which is pretty darn cool.

This is officially the first time we've got some of Crazyparts' 'TVT - True Vintage Taper CTS'  pots in one of our guitars, which are meant to be the best-pots-in-the-world-ever, so there. I have high hopes, nerd fans, it has to be said.

Jazzmaster Looms Are Coooool

Other than that, The Old No.7 One's body is all dry and waxed now and looking suitably like it is ancient and just hanging in there. The neck is ordered, though that will take a few weeks, so in between I get to play with some metalwork which I'm looking forward to. They do the ER up so nicely at Xmas.

Other than that, the body insert things arrived from Faber in Germany, which means that I can finally install the uber cool bridge on The Pearly Dewdrop One and get that fettled.

That may be my Xmas pressie to meself if I can get away with it, unless The Floored Genius One proves to be.

Unless I sell them of course,
I guess.

Right, now to find an old Jack Daniels sign or three to chop up...lovely.

La la laaaa

Metalwork - That's Going To Smart

Well, not exactly what you would call a 'full on' day again today, but I did manage to get The Old No. 7 One further along the track and even managed to do a couple of mock-ups.

One thing about this battered and worn little thing, that I am yet to mention, is that it is going to have a scratchplate made out of an old Jack Daniels tin sign.

Now the sign in question is yet to be obtained, and knowing my metalwork skills, it may actually be the best of a few, but as I didn't want a normal sized Esquire plate, and instead wanted something a little larger, I got all crafty and with a sprinkle of Google Images and twirl of Photoshop and some sharp scissors (without, a responsible adult coming anywhere close to being near) this is how it ended-up.





Obviously it is Paul's call, as this is just my ham-fisted attempt at explaining, but I think it works. Maybe slightly bigger/closer to the edges would be good, I'm not sure. But it is the over-sized-ness of the plate that is the point really, rather than the design.

Anyway, these are the things I do, sad innit. I don't normally admit it publicly.

Other than that, there is one more wrinkle I need to iron out before the idea is there, and obviously this is a plonked together one, the actual control plate will be aged and nailed down  with extreme prejudice and so will the knobs I expect, and as for the battering the sign will get, well...

La la laaaa

The Mysterio Portishead Shroud Morning

Well, I don't really want to go on about it - I would hate to bore you any more than normal - but things moved on further still with The Old No.7 One yesterday, and I really feel I should share with the group.

As I got the back to a stable position somehow, and verily nice I think it is too, I moved on with alacrity to the front and repeated the trick. As it happens, sleep deprivation obviously helps, as that looks pretty good to me too, though if you look carefully I'm sure you can see the imprint of the body of Christ. The Portishead Shroud, pity we already had a name for this one.

Still a fair bit to do over the next few days, but it feels like a guitar all of a sudden, which is probably a good thing, as I'm sure Paul mentioned he wanted one.

As for the other bits, well Marc at Mojo pickups is sorting the pickup and wiring loom - I lurve Esquires, I probably haven't mentioned that before - and there is a nice Fender traditional bridge and ashtray cover too. In fact the only thing I forgot was the string thingies that plop in the back, the Louis's.
Ferrules, I mean.

All of which means Allparts taking decades to have a traditionally cool neck was getting annoying, so we're going for one from Warmoth instead, which is pretty good letsbefacinit.

The nice thing is that this means that we'll have a few weeks to play about with the extras that are going to increase the cool quotient lotsly much.Tidy nice.

Elsewhere, I mentioned The Mysterio One but forgot to put a foto up. Now tell me that isn't a little belter. Must sort a neck out for that too. Hmmm. A theme, I can feel another theme coming on. Get me the theme cream, somebody.

There was something else too,
I just can't remember what it was.

I need sleep.


Oh yes, I had a lovely ebony 'boarded neck arrive for The Black Russian One, so that is a tidy step forward all by it's ownsome self.

La la laaa

Waxing Like A Charmer

Well, I am pretty darn chuffed with how The Old No.7 One is looking from behind this morning, I'm rather stunned to be saying it, but it is kinda what I was hoping for. Right first time. Most odd.

Today then will see the back getting a good hard waxing as I don't want to start on the front and mess this up along the way. Not that it matters, the order I do these things, but deep down I have this little OCD thing going on that insists on stuff being in-the-right-sequence. Once a nerd always a social cripple. And it is very deep down.

In fact I've given it the first coat of the wax oil, and it looks really good. The foto has made the lighter parts quite washed-out, in reality it looks a whole lot moodier and (dare I suggest) subtle. (I did dare, clearly.)

The wax is taking a while to dry, so that will probably be it for the day.

Last time I used this gubbins, I thought I'd be smart and put it in front of the gas fire in all it's living flame glory, but I think the fumes got too me as I woke up a few hours later with a crazy heavy headache. Though maybe I just needed a little nap, I'm of an age after all.

So I'm letting nature take her course with this, and as she is a chilly bitch at the moment, que cera.

In the meantime then, I really should finish The Pearly Dewdrop One, but it involves drilling holes in the right place and that isn't for me today. The old mince pies are a tad cloudy, so instead I'm going to put the bridge and esquire plate on The Magnifico One and sand a door or two..

Anyway...

La la laaaa

Getting Gooin': The Old No.7 One

Step 1: Lovely Bit of Ash That

Well, I only had moments today, in between sanding toilet walls, waiting for elusive delivery chaps to arrive from Kent, attending swimming galas and removing stair gates (the bratskis are 9 & 6 - probably about time) but I set my stall out and got started on The Old No.7 One.

As it happened I had a nice swamp ash Tele body, and so I set to making it blackish.

Step 2. Ooh, Shiny Black

What I want to do with this is a little different in that I want to make it old and distressed looking rather than relicked - quite a difference honey - which will take longer than the normal staining but I think will pay off.

The only trouble is it looks a complete mess as I go along, as you can probably tell from the WIP fotos.

Anyway, the recipe so far is:

Take one lovely swamp ash body.

Sand it lots.

Step 3. What D'ya Call That Then, Son?

Stain it the blackest black of all.

Wait for that to half dry and then sand it some more. This is the odd part, and is because I want the black to be patchy in a chaotic and random manner. So I sanded it with my eyes closed..

After I got the glass out of my finger tips, I next let the bedraggled stain dry and then sanded it back a little more, but all over this time.

Apply a lighter shade (I love Dark Oak as it hasn't got the warmth of a browner stain, and I want this to look like old wood.) using 0000 wire wool, which works it into all the teensy corners and dank spots.




Let that dry, and have another go with the wire wool.

Step 4. Are You Really Sure About This?

And that is about how far I've gottonised with the body.

From there it will be a a case of repeating the 'journey' - I saw X Factor at the weekend - on the front and then hard waxing it like a good 'un, bit more sanding and waiting and then bit of strategic beeswax for goodly treasure.

What I'm hoping (and if it doesn't work it will be back to the sander in a big way) is that we'll end-up with a body that looks like the wood from an tarred and aged Jack Daniels cask.

I won't be painting planks on, but it's that kind of stored in a cellar for a century or washed up on a beach look I'm aiming for, and with a bit of luck and a bit more strategic distressification, life could be good.

After that, things will really start to get interesting..

La la laaaa

Service With A Simile

Well, it has been a funny week or three in the little kingdom of Jook, and with Crimbulmus arriving fleet of toe, I've come to the confusion that maybe I should try and finish a little something here and there before the year ends and I start to mither about being a slack get.

This week then (note the immediate lack of promises relating to daily progress) I am going to finish The Pearly Dewdrop One, with it's trendily cool Faber bridge and all, and I am going to get a shuffle on with The Old No. 7 One too.

I had a couple of people (who I'd previosuly said that I wouldn't make a custom guitar for) asking about the fact that I am, err, making a custom guitar for somebody other than them.

And I do feel a little bad about it, but there we are, but it really was something personal, it isn't that I'm indecisive or bounce along on the whim and breeze, what else can I say about it?

It wasn't me it was you.

In the new year though, I think I might do it more often but only if people want Teardrops, Jazzmasters or Teles and are willing to have little say in what it looks like. Which I would imagine narrows the number of applicants (supplicants?) from the off.

It may seem a little harsh and a lottle deluded, but I really can't be arsed doing things I don't enjoy anymore, I could go and flip burgers or something. Though admittedly, I may get paid for doing that until they realise that I'm a radical veggie and was stealing the burgers to release them back into the wild, replacing them with Tofu and generally holding my nose the whole time.

I don't know why I slipped into a past tense there, it wasn't a confession.

So there we are, a real politik broadcast on behalf of the arsey.

In other news, well, I still need to sort out loads of parts as I didn't get around to it, so I should probably do that this week sometime too.

But there is a swimming gala to attend, people to ignore, places to leave.
It's never ending, this.

La la laaaa

Katy's Killer Kustoms Komeback Special - As Sweet As Canal No. 7

Well, I've been thinking a lot about the New Year, and one of the things I fancy doing again is dipping my toe into the murky merkin depths of Katy's Killer Customs guitars.

My regular reader will no doubt remember (if the meths haven't killed all the required synapses) that it is something that has never really worked for me before, but I think I've got to the root of the problem, in that basically it has to be interesting or other things take over.

Anyway, to cut a long story titchy, a nice chap called Paul got in touch fancying an Esquire (big plus tick from me for that, of course) but one that was personal to him.

Well, a few conversations later and we've arrived at a quite traditional spec with a few stylistic twists (big Afros and bell bottomed matching suits) and so it is game on.

So it will be...a swamp ash bodied Telecaster Esquire, black stained and waxed, a nice Allparts neck, pukka hardware, Mojo Hot Broadcaster and Mojo Esquire wiring.

It will also see my dipping back into a bit of metal work for a rather interesting cool scratchplate type of thing, and there we are. More to be revealed as we poddle along, no doubt.

All of which sounds pretty darn cool... The Old No.7 One, coming soon to, well, Paul I guess.

La la laaa