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Tom Benfords Surf '57 Custom
Specs:
  • 2 piece mahogany body
  • Flame Koa top
  • Maple neck w/ rosewood FB
  • Matching Koa headstock
  • Searcy Jazz-90's in bridge and neck. A Fender  Jazzmaster pickup in a P-90 size!
  • Fender Jaguar middle pickup
  • Floyd rose trem
  • Jaguar on/off pickup switches, and tone roll off switch
  • Master volume/tone
  • HAS Sound Dirty Rice overdrive circut
  • Grover Rotomatic locking tuners
  • Gold hardware
1) Body plan                                           2) Bookmatched Flame Koa top                3) Koa top w/ mahogany body blank
4) MDF template started                             5) Template rough cut                          6) Cutting out the body
7) Body rough cut                                     8) Cleaning up body sides w/router         9) 2nd pass w/router
10) Sides almost done                           11) Fully cleaned up                                12) Koa top rough cut, ready to glue
13) Koa top wiped with mineral spirits        14) Clamp'o'rama                                  15) Glueing top to body
9/28/06
16) Top glued                                         17) Top glued side shot                           18) Top trimmed flush w/body
19) Routing for pickups and trem               20) Huge mess.                                       21) pickups routed, trem 1/2 routed
22) Pilot hole for trem route                    23) Trem route, claw cavity pending!      24) Neck pocket started
25) Neck pocket done                             26) Support wood removed                      27) Body carve
28) Carve wiped w/ mineral spirits           29) Back of body carve                            30) Starting forearm bevel
31) Grampa's super file                          32) Rough bevel                                   33) Final bevel (photo coming!)
34) Starting belly cut                                35) Roughing out belly cut                     36) getting closer
37) Starting neck heel                             39) Rounding off front                             40) Rounding over
41) Sculpting heel w/ mini rasp                42) Getting closer                                   43) Control layout, click for larger pic
44) Driling pickup wiring channel              45) New headstock and original shape   46) Gluing on Koa venner
9/27/06
9/30/06
47) Shaping venner, pretty rough            48) Getting closer                                   49) 90% done, need to trim by nut,   
                                                                                                                               re-drill tuner holes, and re-drill truss  
                                                                                                                               rod hole
10/4/06
50) Tuner holes drilled                              51) Fretboard dots drilled out                    52) Dots replaced with flamed Koa
53) Leveling dots with fretboard               54) Board leveled and oiled                        55) Trem spring cavity routing
56) Final cavity route                               57) Drilling for controls                                58) Rear view of control holes
59) Control cavity template                      60) Intial control plate route                        61) Hogging out cavity
62) Majority of material removed              63) Cleaned up & final depth w/ router       64) Starting pickup switch holes
65) Cutting holes w/scroll saw                  66) Rough cut holes                                    67) Cleaned up,, about 95% done
10/5/06
68) Dirty Rice overdrive control cavity      69) Completed cavity                                 70) Body 95% done
71) 1st coat of finish, click  pic                  72) wiring pickup and tone switches           73) Cavity with shield paint
74) Wiring continued                                75) 1/4 jack wiring                                         76) 1/4 jack installed
77) Shot of installed controls                    78) Searcy pickups installed
The guitar is done!!! Im super happy with the way it turned out. There were alot of things I did
on this guitar that ive never done before. Recessed trem cavity, Fender Jaguar pickup
switches, angled neck pickup, Dirty Rice overdrive circut, and routed top and back edges.
Click HERE for the final pics and specs. Its gonna be hard to ship this one out!