Reviews
Home Brew
Guitar & Bass,
Nov 2006.
Bing Turkby's 335 copy had seen better days, so he grabbed a saw and got stuck in.
Trouble is, he had overlooked one weeny detail!
My name is Bing Turkby, I live in Ashhurst in New Zealand, and my band The Bing
Turkby Ensemble is a crazy little three-piece (sax, drums and guitar) that plays
pop rock, like Bad News mixed with Roxette. Kind of. But as well as our fantastic
trombone-and-sax gig intros, the thing that always gets the crowd interested is
my spectacular TurkbyTone Mach III Backless Special guitar.
Here's how it came about. Many years ago, a very kind friend lent me his Marinucci
semi-hollow guitar. As a technically and financially challenged guitar wannabe,
I appreciated this very much. A little later I scored a Vester S-type copy at a
garage sale for $60, so that became my main guitar. In 1997, after a year or two
of playing the Vester, I went back to look at the Marinucci and realised the neck
joint was knackered. Being a bit of an eejit, I thought this was a great opportunity
for me to make my own guitar using the Marinucci's neck and pickups but with a whole
new body in the shape of a fish. It would be called the "Piranhatar". Don't nick
my idea, eh?
I soon realised that the task was beyond me, so I delved into the Kiwi no. 8 wire
tradition of DIY and went out to the woodpile. Grabbing a short plank (no jokes,
please) I went back inside, screwed the neck onto it, and then set about planning
how to use the pickups. Once again I realised that I would need a bit of expertise
for the job. Not having any of said expertise, I did the next best thing: I used
a screwdriver to lever the top off the Marinucci, and screwed it directly onto the
plank.
Now I had a new problem: the strings hit the top of the guitar as they passed on
down to the trapeze tailpiece. Not one to be daunted by a piece of wood, I got a
saw and kept cutting bits off until it looked like it would work.
I managed to line up the tailpiece so that the strings passed over the fretboard
properly (something that still amazes me when I think back on it) and then I plugged
it in and capered round the room. When you consider that I failed woodworking class
at school, it's quite an impressive achievement, really.
Now the Backless special with its rather pretty paua shell pieces glued on the top
is an integral part of my stage act with the Bing Turkby Ensemble. Believe it or
not I quite like the tone, and I love it when people ask me how I got the intonation
right. My answer is that when I made the guitar I'd never heard of intonation...
so no problem! I later added a very hi-tech cardboard "pot-protector" at the back
to stop me from pulling out wires as I run around the stage, and though I now have
a Highway One Tele as my main guitar, I always take the Mach III to gigs because
nothing else quite has that wow factor.
The funny part of the story occurred a few years ago when I ran into my mate again.
His face went a little ashen, and I asked him what was up. He said "Is that my guitar?"
Oops! I'd forgotten it wasn't mine.
As proof of how good a friend he is, he never laid a finger on me... and I'm sure
he'd be proud to see his guitar featured in these fine pages. Check out
www.turkby.co.nz
for more info on my band, and do come over and see one of our gigs. Who knows? You
might be the lucky one who's there when this guitar finally falls to pieces.