Bodge

 

Bodge: a British informal verb that means to make or mend something in a way that is not as good as it should be. It can also mean to botch or spoil something.

This fine instrument is known around here as "Bodge". Obviously a Tele-Partscaster and at the last count about twelve years in the making. Delays mainly due to a long series of mistakes, bodged work, bird shit on the line and serial apathy. The body started life as part of a super cheap eBay self build kit, bought with numerous parts missing. It was to be a test bed for my early pyrographic efforts. In this case the weirdly (?) executed, likely stolen "Moon Cat" design. When the pyrography sort of failed, due to unforeseen over heated surface problems, paint and Sharpies were put to questionable use and the design didn't really progress any further - I quit before doing too much damage and I've accepted my artistic limitations. 

Then when attempting assembly and the first batch of wiring I broke a drill bit in a cable cavity and couldn't get the broken piece out so I had to "go in from behind", hence the Les Paul switch cover in the pic below - top right, to hide the damage. Next I added a vertical rather than horizontal selector switch, again Les Paul type - bottom right but was unable to make the (quite simple) wiring to function properly. Also the neck pocket was uneven and despite much chiseling and shimming I couldn't get the neck flat and/or stable. The bridge was also very slightly out of place making the string spacing irregular. So I gave up on it for a few years, though every so often I'd feel a niggle and try again and fail or just break something else. 

It was a blackguard to begin with, then white and finally set off with the aluminium scratch plate now in place. It came from a guitar that I'd built, pyrographed and coloured using the Jimmy Page dragon design (years before the actual Fender model came out). As the dragon had failed to sell on my Etsy shop I decided to break it up and, strangely I sold the blank guitar body, with the design, for a decent amount. The neck, the (rather hot) pickups and pick guard now ended up installed on Bodge but I scrapped the tuners and added locking ones, got the switches and electrics sorted out but still couldn't get the neck or intonation right. It wasn't playable. More time elapsed i.e. a house move, Covid and the rest.

A few weeks ago I decided that I needed to sort out some of the half assed guitar projects I'd accumulated once and for all and so started on this beast. Firstly I fixed the neck pocket and shimmed it properly, adjusted the bridge and pickup position (above photo features a proper bodged bridge stabilizing screw / finger rest, that I rather enjoyed fitting) so it lined up much more accurately though not precisely (close enough for jazz), refitted the neck pickup and put in a brass nut. After a bit of fiddling it actually became playable and sounded quite good despite the many years of my clumsy handiwork. A reasonably satisfying outcome after all this time.

So I'm done with it, as far as anything ever is. I know that something else on it will need bodged in the future but at the moment I'm happy with the various fixes and I can play it without thinking "that's not quite right". 

By the way the pie above is a hot Arbroath Smokies pie, one that I enjoyed at Gayfield last Saturday where Dunfermline beat Arbroath 0 - 5 on a rainy September afternoon. The pie was marvelous and the Pars were pretty good too. The white cat illustration has no actual meaning in this context but I added to the collage because I just like it - credit to the artist. The guitar is of course the one and hopefully only "Bodge".