New Year Revolution

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.

Something Completely Different

I mentioned the pine tele body I'd picked up, you know the one I fancy turning into something vaguely Esquire like, although with a second pickup hidden under the blank scratchplate? Yep, that one to the left with the plain black scratchplate on it..

Anyway, I was away for a few days and spent them thinking a lot about it, and I've come to the conclusion, that maybe this is the baby where I should try something that I was saving for my first custom designed body shape thingie. Another proof-of-concept, if you like, as I have no patience.

Well, the Esquire approach is definitely the way I'm going. I've got a quite beautiful Bare Knuckle Brown Sugar pickup for the bridge, and am yet to decide on the neck pickup, but am thinking of a P90 of some kind, if that will prove powerful enough.

As for the finish, I was initially thinking of a deep brown stain - I have a hang-up about rosewood teles, and was thinking that that might be a nice idea, to try and get somewhere close to the colour. However, it struck me that it might be the time to try the copper-top I have been thinking about, and as it happens I think I will. I think I mentioned before that I've always liked the idea of the Zematis and Trussart guitars, with their different takes on metal bodied guitars, and whilst I don't really want to go the whole hog, I am thinking that a copper top for the body would be particularly lovely looking.

Not that I'd want to leave it all Duracell-a-like, no.

What I've been investigating over the last couple of months are some of the finishes sculptors and roofers use to artificially age metal. I mean, if you have a brand new tin roof on your cottage, why wait decades for it to go a lovely shade of weathered when you can help nature along a wee bit?

Another idea is maybe that I could have a go at enamelling (?) though I think I need a furnace or a blowtorch to do that properly as it involves, err, melting glass powder. Might try both of course...

Anyway, that is what I'm thinking - either a bit of enamel or an artificially and artfully aged copper top for the guitar, with the remainder of the body having some other finish. Maybe even the rosewood look, who knows.

So that is the plan, I'm going to get some copper and see what I can do from there (though I don't think I'll be using the traditional roofer method of a few pints of cider and then taking a leak over it...)

Naturally, this could well become The Weathered One...or perhaps the Teacher's Jewelry One. Who can say?