Two Little Jookies - Blasts From The Past

Well, it isn't often I see some of my former glories popping up for sale, so two in one week makes it an event, so I thought I'd point them out.

The first is the Grestch-esque The Bella Donna One, with it's TV Jones pickup and glorious corroded copper finish.

That is for sale HERE
and the original spec is THERE.

The other is the Les Paul Special, The Wasteland One, which was a bit of a monster as I  recall with a gorgeous rusty swirl of a finish on it.

That is for sale HERE
and the original spec is THERE.








La la laaaa

A Study In The Unlikely

Well, with the exception of the tuners, I've now got all me parts for The Sick One, which is pretty cool. I've still to give it a taste of lacquer on top, but the weather is so damp I'm wondering whether it is best to leave it a wee while. Be a shame to screw it up this close to the wire. Though not unusual.

I also received the Gibson/Lawrence pickup back frrom Catswhisker this morning, so I can actually crack on and finally finish The Old Burny One. I almost regret saying that already as it probably means a house fire and third degree burns at the very least.

Allan at CW also sent his lovely Tele P90 thru for the Sick One, of course, so I might have a go at wiring it up at least. I also got the push-pull pot for the hyperdrive boost thingy, which is fun, fun and fun.

Oh, and the Explorer should arrive today (stop laughing)

What else, well my Italian sort of guitar, The Bella Donna One, should show up this week. It is a single pup jobbie, and is going to be copperified and fitted with a rather nice Seymour Duncan '59.

So there we are, I'll no doubt finish all of those this week.

(ahem)

Sold: The Wasteland One

The Wasteland One is a hard nosed rock machine, featuring a stunning pair of Gibson P90s nestled into a solid mahogany body. A fixed mahogany neck gives just-that-bit-more sustain, and the body is simply rusty-in-excelsis.

Based on the Gibson Les Paul Special this sounds and plays fantastic and the addition of Fake58s vintage wiring means you can get every last drop of tone out of it.

For the record:

1.    Mahogany Body and fixed mahogany neck

2.    Gibson P90 pickups

3.    Fake58 Wiring Loom (CTS pots, Bumble Bee Caps etc.)

4.    Gotoh ToM/ABR Bridge

5.    Kluson-esuqe tuners

6.    A beautiful Cilla’s Rusty Iron Finish

*

To be clear, The Wasteland 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 poem of desolation and despair. 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: Cilla’s Rusty Iron

Electrics: Gibson P90 (Bridge & Neck). Fake58 Vintage wiring

Guitar Type: Les Paul Special style

Construction: Rusted Iron over mahogany

Strings: Nickel 10s

Output: ¼” Guitar Lead

Controls: Twin Volume, Twin Tone, Three-way Switch

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

Serial Number: JGE#41

RSP: £799

Introducing: The Wasteland One

Well, I must admit I'm all rather chuffed that my 'Official Les Paul Week' actually produced (half of) the goods, in the shape of The Wasteland One.

This little dearie is a mahogany bodied and fixed neck Les Paul Special type, and is rather gorgeous, if I do have to say so myself.

From the top:

1. Mahogany Body
2. Fixed Mahogany Neck
3. Rosewood 'board
4. A Pair of Gibson P90s
5. A Fake58 authentically vintage wiring loom - all CTS pots, Ye Olde wire and Bumble Bee Caps
6. An amazing looking twisted rusted iron finish.

And as for the finish, it is pure greebo in a good way. It changes colour depending on the light and is real rust. I'll say no more..

And man, it sounds wicked.

Here's some fotos...

Come On Feel The Nooiiizzee

Well, The Off Key and Elmer Ones are off to pastures new, so we are back to our more usual 'Larder Bare' selection of guitars here in the Little Kingdom of Jook.

Why is that?

Well I never quite finished The Wasteland One yesterday, but will today.

I know I will.

Deep down.

In truth it all got a bit fiddly - the wiring proved to be slightly short-of-wire in the vicinity of the switch - I'm guessing the routing wasn't 100% to vintage specs as I'm sure Fake58s loom was right, so I had to do some extensions dah-link, and then pretty much everything else got trickier than it should have too.

Anyway, all is left to do is solder in the pickups, connect the jack and put everything back together and we're there.

Later today, I will be playing this guitar loudly.
You have been warned

(Warned, that is, if you happen to be my back-door-neighbour. And thinking about it, if you are, you also need to trim your tree as it is blocking all the sunlight. And your extension makes your house look like Wormwood Scrubs. Think that is about it for now.

Although I should point out that bin day is Wednesday and you aren't obliged to leave your wheelie bin in the middle of the road from Sunday evening.)

But there we are. The Wasteland One - I'll be boasting about it's vivid rustiness later.
Today.
Oh yes I will.

Did I mention that already?

In other news, I'm rather chuffed as I picked up a nice pine Tele/Esquire body. This should be here in the next few days, and it is going to have a nice handwound Tele bridge shaped P90 - when I get around to ordering it from The Creamery.

This is going to be a bit of a punk effort on my part and I've kinda promised to have it done by January, so somebody has first option on it, The Sick One. Which is all good news as I was wondering what I was likely to be doing once the Les Pauls were finitoed. Looks like it is Tele-a-go-go, one way or another.

Getting Wired

Well, I've sent my bosted Gibson/Bill Lawrence pickup to Catswhiskerville to be reconnected or rewound or whatever it needs to make a peep again, and also sent the nice man an old Seymour Duncan '59 I had lay around too that was similarly unassuming.

It's the resurrection principle - why stop at one?

All of which means that The Old Burny One is yet again on hold. It was always going to be the way, let's face it.

As for The Wasteland One, well I'm pleased to say that the rather lovely looking Fake58 wiring harness arrived yesterday, complete with a couple of Ye Olde Bumble Bee capacitors and a lot of vintage Mojo-ness. The only slight buzzy thing in the medicine is that I ordered the wrong switch and it is too big, but I have another more petite one, so all should be well.

You'll hear the shouts of dee-lite if I get it all together today, as planned.

As for The Joe Le Taxi One, I've got to the bottom of that and the body should be here sometime soon. I'm quite looking forward to that baby. I think a nice shiny TV Jones  pickup will do wonders.

I'm also thinking about doing another Telemaster, though maybe with a couple of Soapbar P90s and a Strat neck, though I guess that is another name for a Jazzmaster, really.

Not sure why I didn't think of that before, as it is a wee bit obvious, isn't it?

Hmmm.

The Sound of Deafening Silence

Hmm, well Les Paul week took a bit of a knock today, as after replacing every pot and the switch and then all of the wire, it turns out that The Old Burny One's silence in the bridge pickup department, is down to the bridge pickup not putting out.

Not a glimmer.

Not a peep.

The worst thing is that I am sure, positive and not a little certain that testing it was the first thing I did.

Though there is a smidgen of doubt as it is always possible that I simply tested the neck pickup twice.

Either way, everything else is perfect, I've dropped a 'scratch' pickup in there to make sure and there we are. I'm hoping Allan at Catswhisker will revive the pickup as lets face it after so much time, I'm more than a bit curious to find out what a Gibson/Bill Lawrence 'The Original' actually sounds like. I could put other pickups in, but I've waited this long, and...

I know, I may well hate them when I finally hear them, but there we are.

As for The Wasteland One, well, the wiring loom isn't here yet, so I was waiting on that anyway. I have though re-fitted all the parts I fitted before and then took off, so that is all we are missing now - and yes, I've tested the pickups - both of them. Twice..

Doesn't feel a lot to show for day one though, I hate to admit.

In other news, it seems my little Explorer will actually be here on Thursday, which is good. It is coming (had been coming for a fortnight) from Ireland, but after a little local difficulty (it being mis-delivered to a perplexed lady in Galway), it now seems to be finding it's way again. I love a good courier saga, it almost makes me feel competent.

Official Jooky Les Paul Week

Well, I have to admit that my determination to finally finito The Old Burny One failed dismally under a pile of tweaking of The Elmer One and a lot of Keef impressions in front of the mirror.

Sometimes these things have to be done, or they take away your lad card.

This week though, is very definitely lotsly a Les Paul week in Jookyland with The Wasteland and Old Burny Ones getting a good dose of solder and making sweet music, if things go well.

It's been a long time coming along,
let's face it.

Assuming all goes well, I think they may be nigh on the last guitars for 2011 as The Joe Le Taxi and Floored Genius Ones have faltered somewhat, and my little Explorer still hasn't arrived.

Also, of course, I've reached a point where I need to dream it all up again.

Which happens here and over there.

I'm pleased with everything I've done so far - the fabric finishes, the leaf, the corruption and degradation of all things metallic -  but I think a bit of R&D in some different directions would be timely.

(Obviously, if something interesting occurs to me in the meantime,
or the right project appears,
or I forget I've written this
or even thought it
which regularly happens
well, I love a challenge and it'd be rude not to,
wouldn't it?)

But to the solder...

Moody in the Morning

The Wasteland One
Moody in the Morning Light

Well, it was nice to get something finished again, and The Elmer One is a rather stunning guitar. Can't quite leave it alone at the moment, and the Bare Knuckle pickups + mahogany body seem to work verily goodsome.

If you like Led Zeppelin 1 - this is Jimmy-in-a-tweed-case.

As for The Wasteland One, well the lovely Gibson soapbars arrived and the Fake58 wiring harness should be here soon too, so that is well on it's way.

As you can see in the fuzzy fotos, I've mocked it up and in truth it just needs the wiring and we are home and dry. (Ahem).

Either way, it's looking pretty good methinks, if I say so meself.
Which of course I usually have to.

The rust has worked really nicely again, it was the same with the Rusting Nail and Porn Shop Ones, once it is lacquered it looks like some amazing red wood, you really can't pull your gaze away from it, and it seems to be permanently changing colour depending on the light. Yesterdays, almost orange fotos were in sunlight, today it is misty and dull here and the shade is a deeper colour. Spooky.


OK, maybe not, but I'm easily impressed.

As for the rest, well, I'm all a-loin-girdling again, and am planning on utilising my shiny new soldering iron and sorting out The Old Burny One, before it is a year of not really trying hard enough.. It's grown roots on the Coming Soon page already and even by my standards is starting to feel a tad silly.

So there we are. It has been nice moving along a bit this week, I feel all positive (for five minutes) about the remainder of the year.

Go Jooky Go
on and
on then...

WIP: The Wasteland One Part Deux

Well, what can I say?

I've carried on with the rustification of The Wasteland One, and gone for a more textured approach than previously, and I think it be looking rather the thing. The back has been lacquered and the front is about to be, in the fotos.

It should be nicely ready for the pickups and wiring when they arrive - looking forward to this one for lots of reasons.

I'm not even going to pretend to destroy it or anything.


Speaking of others, the soldering iron finally showed-up yesterday afternoon, but before then I had twisted some wires together on The Elmer One so that I could stand in a funny postition and play it a wee bit. And I have to say it sounds brilliant. I'm really quite chuffed with it. I mean I've used the Bare Knuckle The Boss pickups before, but I guess the mahogany body is giving it something different, it all seems a bit Jimmy Page to me. Which is a good thing, to my little mind.

In other realms, some of my Jooky babskis seem to develop sagas around themselves, quite often involving couriers and the rest. Well, I've fancied another Explorer-esque kinda thing for a while, and have got close on a number of occasions, before things falling at the Chair.

In fact this project is getting the saga in up front as couriers seem to be taking a lovely MIJ Tokai Explorer on a Grande Tour du Monde (avec Marrie Claude et le singe dans l'arbre - French was always my thing. Sorry, almost.) Still, I'm sure it will show up sometime, probably with the other soldering irons that have disappeared.

But I blather..

Today then -

Rust and lacquer The Wasteland One,
Solder The Elmer and Old Burny Ones.

Any of those actually happening outside of my flippy-floppy little brain would have to be a result,
don't you think?

WIP: The Wasteland One

Rusting Like a Good 'un

Well, yesterday was Freedom Day One, and still solderless I figured I might as well crack on with The Wasteland One.

In the end I've gone the rusted iron route, though with a twist, for probably the last time, so that is what I have been doing.

As you can see from the fotos, I've started with the back and this time decided that I'd go for the fully-immersive experience and do the back of the neck to match.

This will no doubt carry-on thru the week, so I'll do fotos as I go.

Other than the finish, I'm going for the Fake 58 authentically-vintageified wiring harness, with a couple more of those pretty Bumble Bees and have purloined a matching pair of Gibson P90 soapbars to go with it, which should be nice and rocktastic.

So there we are, another week in paradise beganeth.

Today, well more of the same really, so it could be part one of the fotos in truth, we'll have to see.

In other news, The Drip Dry One is off to pastures new, so I've been having a little strum with it this morning and giving it a final fettling. It is amazing how much more beautiful they look when they are about to appear in another chap's (or chapess') hands.

Free lesson for life, with every guitar, lady and gents.

Before The Storm

Stripped of Dignity

Smothered in molten iron

Rusted and Rusting

And Breathe....

Well, I've only just noticed Chris' cool comments about The Porn Shop One, so I think I can crawl out of the fallout shelter and breathe clean air again.

These were The Porn  Shop and Bye Bye Buy Ones before they went North a while ago. Quite a striking couple.

As for moving forward, it is the last day of the holibobs today, so tomorrow I taste freedom, and assuming the soldering iron arrives, it will be The Elmer and Old Burny Ones that will feel my super heated caress.

Other than molten lead running down my fingers, I'm also planning on starting on The Wasteland One.

As it happens, I've had a change of heart with this one, after looking at The fotos of The Porn Shop One, and I think I'm going rusty again, to some extent, though with a slightly different approach. Be interesting to see how it turns out anyway.

For the pickups, I've gone for a set of Gibson P90s - a nicely matched pair, which is kinda fun. I might even go for a Fake58 wiring loom, as I've not tried their full monty ones, but we'll have to see. I'm not in any panic anyway, and I have the benefit of being broke, which always gives you time to ponder your next move. Anyway, I'm more interested in getting the finish right to start with. (ahem)

But that's more the morrow, today we drink blood.

(Well, assuming there is a Quorn equivalent.)

Getting Wasted and the love of a Jazzy Master

Well, I have to say I'm all chuffed with myself.

Nope, I haven't actually finished anything (god forbid) though I've ordered yet another soldering iron so there be light on that there horizon somewhere.

No, I received my lovely little Les Paul Special yesterday, complete with a couple of soapbar P90s, and a quite wonderfilled mahogany body and fixed neck. And I have to say that the neck is a complete dream, frets are perfect, width and depth feel great to me and I just seem to be flying about the place.

Can't find the camera at the  moment, but I will do the honours come daylight.

Anyway, I've since stripped it down, and for once in my life I have all of the parts I need (I'm replacing, well, everything on it, surprise, surprise) and I can't see it taking me long at all.

Insert your own laughter at this point.

So, given some freedom, later today, I'm going to start the finish on The Wasteland One, and I don't know, I've just got a good feeling about it.

That doesn't happen overly often, I have to admit.

Looking forward to hearing the Catswhisker P90 pups anyway, if their Fat Moggy humbucker sized one is anything to be going by, they should be something spesh.

In other news, I've decided that I really must have a Jazzmaster before Xmas (arbitary date, but sometimes you need to set a deadline, don't you?)

So if anybody has a nice MIJ/CIJ one lay around, and would like to trade it for something Jooky - I'm the chap jumping up and down in the corner shouting "Mememememememememe" and "over here."

In fact if you have a white MIJ from the nineties, I'll make you a Jooky to your specification and name my third child in your honour. Simple as that.

La la la

I Live for the Burn and the Sting of Pleasure

The Porn Shop One
Seen Later Yesterday

Well, I was going to talk about The Porn Shop One, but it has turned into a painfilled subject now, and I can't quite bring myself to broach it. Suffice to say that a drawing board may be returned to and I might need to see about a new body.

But there we are, what can you do about kids with hacksaw blades and too many home improvement programmes on Sky?

I blame the parents and of course it is the school holidays and I was too busy playing Paranoid.

On the sunny side of the street, I'm all rather chuffed with myself. The Les Paul Special I was talking about has yet to enter the palace of Jooky delightedness, but I've already managed to acquire a couple of rather dishy Catswhisker P90 Soapbars for it. I've also got some snotty Kluson tuners, a nice ABR/ToM bridge combo, which is all rather handy too.  Fotos to follow when I have something to fotograph.

As to my plans, well it will arrive in the usual cherry colour, but I have a yen to give it a fully agricultural finish. Things have been getting a bit bright and breezy recently and it is time to revert to my usual scenes of degradation and destruction. The Wasteland One then, should be just that. Actually, maybe I shouldn't mention destruction, it is a saw point at the mo.

As for The Floored Genius One yesterday, well, it never got too far as it happens as my little Orpheum SG took advantage of my every spare moment in rude and often downright dirty ways. The minxetta.

Today though, assuming the postie turns up before bedtime, I'm hoping to have the remaining parts for The Elmer One, so that could jump back to the top of the shop.

All of which leaves me - well, where?

I'm not really sure.

Busy in a non-specific way, I guess.