Biography [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Mr Wheeler, never one to turn down a sale, put six pegs, eighteen inches of fret wire and six E strings into a bag. There was enough money left over for one 78. He bought "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley and left.

Back at the shed the tremelo was taking shape; unfortunately it was not the shape of a tremelo, but it would do.

A piece of 2 x ½ inch wood was found in the corner of the shed and it was decided that this was going to be the neck. The illustration in the Bell catalogue was from the front, so it didn't show the curve at the back of the neck. So the neck stayed a very solid 2 x ½ inch piece of wood.

The fret wire was cut into nine 2" lengths, slits were sawn in the finger board at random intervals and the frets glued in. The edges were left sharp and rough but it looked sort of OK. Holes were drilled in the top to accommodate the violin pegs and progress was being made. But September was getting closer by the hour.

The body was still wet, but they decided it was too long to wait until the next day for it to dry, so they elected to move to the workshop of the electrical genius to continue work. They reasoned that the paint should dry on the way over, which it actually almost did.

It was dry enough to attach the neck to the body, first by nails, then more successfully by screws, and once the Meccano bridge and tremolo had been fixed, it was time to electrify this pink beast.

The electrical genius stared at the picture in the Bell catalogue, then at the pink beast and back again to the catalogue.

"It needs knobs!" he announced after some thought. "There's three in the picture, but I think it would work better if we had six.."

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