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Then came the big moment, when the E strings purchased from Mr Wheeler were put on the guitar and tightened up enough to make a reasonable "twang". Two of the strings died in the fray, but the other four survived. The thing actually did go "twang". The frets were useless but it didn't really matter because the action was so high you couldn't get the strings anywhere near the frets anyway and both boys agreed the tobacco tin actually did make it sound better. September was beginning to seem a possibility. All they had to do … was make the damn thing electric.

The boffin once again dived into a cupboard full of dangerous looking electrical junk and emerged with a small iron frame onto which were bolted or soldered a variety of random components. He inspected it and eventually taking the pencil from behind his ear, where it had been throughout the project, knowingly tapped a large transformer with it.

"'S a nelectro magnet", he announced. All they had to do was somehow link the pink beast to the random collection of increasingly dodgy looking components and then the all important electricity.

Conveniently, the random bunch of things was still connected to a mains wire, so that part was taken care of. All they needed to do was join the guitar to it … and wait.

The electrical genius produced a length of thick 3-core electrical cable. Carefully stripping back the plastic coating on the red, blue and green wires, he then soldered them all, one end to the tobacco tin, the other to the chassis frame holding the bunch of terrifying components.

The mains cable from the frame was plugged into the wall and after he had waited for his friend to strap on the pink beast (the strap was a piece of string attached to the guitar at either end by two strategically placed nails) and assume rock 'n' roll pose number four (again conveniently illustrated in the catalogue), he threw the switch …

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