The Queen Is Dead

Well, I know I have mentioned the Music Radar Forums a few times in the past - in fact without them I wouldn't be doing this Jooky bobbins at all, or at least the groovy people on there - so it has been a sad couple of weeks since they went under and disappeared without any real explanation or trace.

However, Motherly Inventions pop up in such situations, and rather than waiting and seeing, some of the brightest of the bright sparks had a life-raft already full of cans of beans and isotonic smoothies, and there has been a mass migration of the membership to a new home, which is pretty darn cool.

It is people who make these things special, not companies holding the server keys.

And this spirit of rebellion is going from strength-to-strongerness, and in triple-quick-smart time, a new and spanky cool home will be built under the moniker of 'The Fretboard'. Wish I'd thought of that name meself.

Anyway, to help launch the site, a number of the members will be writing reviews, how-tos and other thingies - and there won't be none of that everything-gets-4-stars bobbins, these will be proper reviews by people who have bought and used the things themselves - and I'm going to join in the fun with a couple of 'articles' about DIY Jookiness.

The first of these will basically be an instruction guide showing how to paisleyify your own guitar, and given the amount of people who ask me how to do it, I hope it will be vaguely popular.

The second will probably involve acid and mild personal danger (or at least hygiene issues) but should be equally groovy.

These will be popping up next week (I hope) and it would be really cool if you nipped along and joined in with what is already probably maybe the best Guitar forum around...

I'll do all the proper links once the site launches for real, but you can already join the life-boat site Here and if you like your guitars, you really should.

Oh, and while I was looking around earlier I found this issue of Guitar & Bass magazine going begging. You can download it for free if you are into such things

La la laaaa




Click to launch the full edition in a new window
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Loving A Good Plan

Well, my Pink Heffalump is drying at the moment, but hopefully all will be revealed over the weekend. It looks good fun, so with a bit of the lucky stuff it will hit the spot.

Meanwhile, in Distraction City UK, I have been-a-plotting my next thingie, and basically planning how my £100 Challenge guitar will come together.

My basic idea is cunningly simple - I want something that is totally off the wall and slightly barking. I also don't want to do any woodwork or painting right now and so am going for another cloth finish, but something different this time, I feel.

The plan then - which will no doubt have changed twice before I reach the end of this post -

a.  Get a cheap Telecaster
b.  Strip all the parts off and sell them on eBay
c. Strip down the neck and stain it very dark before adding a glittery kind of finish.
d. Add gold coloured tuners - indeed all the parts will be gold coloured for total gaudiness
e. Make some kinds of holes in the body for resonance.
f. Cover the body in cloth - I'm thinking velvet or faux suede right now, not sure which.
g. Add some kind of fancy Gibson Semi type of tailpiece and bridge
h. Add a scratchplate from a Semi - I got one for a fiver off a nice chap on the MusicRadar forums this week.
i. Add a powerfilled P90 at the bridge
j. Make a Sustainer and put that at the neck.

And then I guess try and make everything work.

Now, I know, this all seems a touch on the ambitious side, especially as I haven't tried making a sustainer yet and will only have a month to put everything together, but there you go.

So the hunt for components begins. I have got the Tele and will flog the spare parts, hopefully to fund other bits 'n' bobbins.

I must admit, I might fit some rubbish here and there for the challenge and then replace it with better stuff later, just depends on whether I can sell the original bits, to be honest as I'm brassic...

La la la

Limping toward the retreating line

Well, the Paisley One is so close now, but still I can't seem to kill it off.
It's starting to annoy me now, to be honest, but so many other things seem to get in the way.
Bleurghh.

Yesterday, however, I did manage to assemble everything minus the electronic bobbins, and it now stands proud with a neck, tremolo/bridge and block thing with springs in between.

It also has a backplate - black which looks boring and might have to be covered - and at the top of the shop the chrome tuners and string trees that came with the neck in the first place.

So basically, the electronics I still haven't sorted out are becoming a 'must'.

But I can't do them until tomorrow afternoon
which bugs me
lots.

On a more cheery note, it looks like there is to be a £100 guitar build challenge again this year,  over on the Music Radar forums. The idea of this is that you basically build a guitar - or update one - for a ton or less.

All the parts and everything apart from labour and postage to be counted or estimated.

Which sounds like fun and as it has to be completed within a month - assuming that the rules are the same as last time - it might put a rocket up me to get going and finish everything else first.

The trouble is, I'm off thinking about that now,
not the Paisley One,
Sophie's Filthy Boots,
or my dearies,
Cheryl and
Amy.

Despite all my promises of focus and dedication
to the cores.

*sigh*