Day Two: The Guitar Show: Aziz Ibrahim We Salute You

Well, if day one of the show was awesome, Day Two equally saw The Gimme Shelter One reach the parts other, err, guitars don't reach.

Plenty of fotos to show you over the coming days, but the nicest surprise for me was seeing Aziz Ibrahim holding a Jooky, as he is someone I've been awed by for a fair few years now.

Elsewhere, TGSO has moved on to it's new foster home - but more on that later...

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Day One: The Guitar Show - And Scott Gorham Plays Gimme Shelter

Well, I'm totally jealous that I missed it, but it sounds like the keeper of The Gimme Shelter One, Mr Alnico had a ball and worked his nuts feet off making sure that just about everybody there knew all about it.

I'll be uploading all the fotos over the next few days, but I couldn't resist sharing a nice shot of Alnico stood by as Scott Gorham (SCOTT F$%^&*G GORHAM) is playing TGSO.

Now that is the way to start a tour...

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Welcome to Bedford - A Chance To Join The Tour

Well, I'm chuffed to see our tour organiser, the super cool Mr Alnico, has introduced TGSO to it's temporary siblings, given it a warm bed for the night before it moves on to sunny Brum tomorrow and The Guitar Show at New Bingley Hall.

And that is how we are seeing the tour, one part pass-the-parcel to four parts fostering, with each step along the way including time to settle in to new surroundings, a new home, with some comfort and joy.

And that is a plea really. The nice thing about The Gimme Shelter Tour is that there are no rules and there is no fixed time-scale, we can literally keep it going just as long as we have people wanting to join in - so feel free to jump aboard.

And that is quite serious - if you want to join in, Foster our new arrival for a little while, maybe play it at a gig or let your kids take it to school and be in the local paper, here is your chance.

All you need to do is pop over to the Fretboard HERE and register your interest.

All help gratefully received :O)

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Dancing Barefoot

Well, The Gimme Shelter One is off on the next leg of it's odyssey and should arrive in it's shiny new Hiscox case in Bedford tomorrow.

 Wherever Bedford is - I think they make vans or something, unless that is Luton.

Anyway, it did strike me that I hadn't caught it in all it's glory with it's spiffy Scratch-It scratchplate, so we took advantage of the sun and did a few more fotos to show it off.

 And rather lush it looks to, and just the right hint of urban decay, lovely.

I also was happy to see that we'd got a close-up of the fretboard or rather the groovy Mother of Jooky paint on the fretboard.

I think it is fair to say that nobody else does it at the moment, but then who knows or cares.

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Hello Stroud!

Well, things really are-a-moving now, as Ben has finished doing a Video of TGSO - more on that in a few days - and I met up with him in the car park of Sainsbury's in Stroud for another handover.

As we are hoping everybody will do, Ben signed the book to say where and when he played the guitar which will be  lovely bit of case candy for the eventual owner.

Anyway, here's Ben with TGSO, outside Sainsbury's.

It doesn't get much more Rock 'n' Roll than that.

La la laaaa

p.s. Other supermarkets are available

Big Thanks to Hiscox Cases

Well, tonight The Gimme Shelter One (henceforth TGSO as I really can't be arsed with typing that in full ever day for the next n months) will be coming back to Weston S&M, before continuing it's journey tomorrow in a shiny new Hiscox case.

And I have to say a big thank you to everybody at Hiscox who (despite my best intentions) managed to evade those and get us a wonderfully cool hardcase that will protect TGSO over the next few months - and years, let's face it. They are brilliant.

Fotos of that to follow (along with some of the guitar featuring the Scratch-iT scratchplate as some fool forgot to take any with it nailed on, ahem).

So we're off, it is feeling good if a little Whoo-whhoooo at the moment, but as long as it gets to Brum at the weekend we'll be fine.

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Off To Buy A Book

Well, today is the first day that The Gimme Shelter One is released into the wild, an auspicious if slightly scary day for all in Jookyland, as you really don't know how these things will be received.

One thing I had forgotten though, which I need to rectify before I meet Ben somewhere near Stroud, who is going to do a video of the guitar being played well ('well', as opposed to if I did one), is that I need a book.

Not just any book, I'm talking about a log book.

A book that logs things, like where the guitar has been, and most importantly who has played it/dropped it/changed a broken string or left it on top of the car and driven off with it gaining more of a relic than I ever intended.

That sort of book.

So I need a book, and we'll leave it in the case, and hopefully one day in the future I and more importantly whoever ends-up owning The Gimme Shelter One, will be able to read what it got up to.

If only people came with such things, it would make life oh-so-mucho-simpler

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In Praise of Scratch-It

Well, I mentioned previously that the star that is Tim Allen of Scratch-It fame, has broken the sound barrier and sorted us out with a Custom made scratchplate for The Gimme Shelter guitar, in a matter of days.

So this morning it arrived and it is perfect. The design is our own, so Tim can't be blamed for that ;o) but it perfectly captures what we wanted and the quality of the work is excellent.

So thanks to Tim for jumping in there and sorting this out - it is very much appreciated.

And if you looking for something cool for that tired old Fender or Gibson, check out their more colourfilled and imaginative work HERE

His Made in the UK thread is on the Fretboard too - and doesn't it make a nice change for someone to be doing something like this in the UK at reasonable prices?

A Tweak and a Twist...And We're On The Blocks

Well, we're finally getting close to the off, and it is looking good.

Next weekend (27th and 28th February) will see The Gimme Shelter One being introduced to the world at The Guitar Show, at New Bingley Hall in Birmingham. (Gord, I remember the old one burning down, not that they ever proved nuffink).

But before that top geezer Ben - or Vibetronic for the Fretboard folks - is taking custody as the first leg of our marathon pass-the-parcel takes the guitar to Stroud, and he will be putting it through it's paces and hopefully making a wee video of it all.

Wee as in small, he doesn't seem the other kind of chap.

From there it will come back here, before hitching a ride somewhere North, before hitting Brum on Saturday morning.

Other than that, well I popped a TUSQ nut on today which is a definite improvement and fingers crossed that the scratchplate will arrive tomorrow in time to be nailed on for the video.

See, it all comes together doesn't it?

Well, sometimes

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Introducing... The Gimme Shelter One

Well, it has taken a while, but with wonderfilled help from the chaps at Allparts UK, and all the good vibes from the FretBoard, I am pleased to say that we finally have a guitar A cool guitar. Some may even say groovesome, but I wouldn't be so fly (even for a white guy).

I should say that the scratchplate is a mock-up, as the original is currently being made by Matt at the brilliant Scratch-It, but more on that later..

So from the top, it is:

1. A Pine Bodied La Cabronita

2. Maple/Rosewood Lefty neck

3. Mojo Pickups Overwound Mojotron, with Mojo Wiring Harness

4. A Mother of Jooky Dragon Skin finish that stretches top to tail (never tried painting a fretboard before but oddly it works and looks dee and vine. More vine, perhaps)

5. Hipshot Hardtail Bridge - zingy zalla-zalla zongy - putang

6. Gotoh tuners

And there we are. Of course the wonderful Hiscox are sending a case too, which will do the job big-time.

Right, game-on

To Bingley Hall and beyond. Probably

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So Close, So Young

Well, we had a little foto session earlier today, to try and get an image that captures what this is all about. And whilst it was a bit of a rush, it turned out OK I think.

And it set me thinking - seeing one of my kids slumped against a wall - about how close it is for all of us. None of us know the future for us or our own, and people like CAB and Shelter can be the difference between something and nothing.

Other than that, the guitar is all together now, and if I had the right allen key, I'd be showing you..

Maybe tomorrow then ;o)

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Getting Closer - And Big Thanks to ALLPARTS UK

Well, we're into the final couple of weeks before our launch of The Gimme Shelter Tour, and it is really good to see that we are getting some help along the way.

First of all, I have to say a very big thank you to Allparts UK - and in particular the rather brilliant Matt - who have jumped in and supplied us with all the missing parts and in truth some better versions of the bits we already had.

I can't say enough good things about them and we're really proud to have them on board.
So the final spec can be revealed as:

1. La Cabronita Body with Mother-of-Jooky Dragon-skin Finish

2. Maple/Rosewood neck, with another Mother of Jooky Finish

3. Mojo Pickups Hot Mojotron

4. Mojo Pickups Vintage Spec Wiring Harness

5. Hipshot Hardtail Bridge

6. Gotoh Tuners

7. Schaller Strap Lock System

8. Jack Plate, Ferrules, Screws, Black Pearl Knobs...etc.




Fingers crossed the guitar will be together on Monday and then we can let the good times role.

Cheers Allparts - you've made it happen chaps :)

la la laaaa

Matching Headstocks and Other Bobbins

Well, things are warming up at last with The Gimme Shelter One, or rather the paint has finally dried if nothing else. 

And I do so like a matching headstock and matching one to this body was never going to be anything shy of interesting-like.

So I'm pretty pleased if not pleased to be pretty.

As for the rest of the build, well, we're just missing a few parts but fingers crossed they should arrive soon and we can get the thing playing nice and start raising a few bob.

As you can no doubt see, we have a rather stunning Mojo 'Mojotron' pickup in pride of place at the bridge, along with one of Marc Ransley's finest wiring harnesses which err, you can't see. That means it is going to sound superb if nowt else.

And it really needs to as we want this guitar launching on The Fretboard Stand at The Guitar Show at Bingley Hall on 28/29th February 2016. But more about that later I think.

Right, err, so I genuinely need to get my act together, don't you know?

La la laaa