April Birthdays 
When I first spawned the idea for my SURFCASTER OF DOOM, I knew I wanted it to end up sparkly. I wasn't sure how I was going to make that happen, as my go-to guy locally doesn't like doing sparkle finishes and was backed up over two years with custom car & motorcycle projects - his business' bread & butter. I still got on his waitlist, thinking maybe in the intervening time I'd be able to change one of our minds about the dream of a sparkly Strat.
Here's what the guitar looked like when I finished assembling it.
It's an (obviously) American Pro II body, plus an American Performer neck (love that big '70s headstock). Pickups are the Fender CS '69 set (reverse-angled bridge pickup) - electronics are CTS - and while I used the stock AP2 bridge for a while, I switched it to a Mann Strat bridge for a bit more of a nuanced feel. Fender locking tuners and Dunlop strap buttons round out the build.
It sounded and played exactly how I wanted it to, but ... wasn't sparkly.
Then one day, I stumbled across a NPD post from Bango_Rilla (https://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/36556/) and I felt like I'd been dropped into the "DO YOU SEE THE LIGHT??" scene from The Blues Brothers.
I reached out to Copacetic/Feelgood and started a dialog. They were super easy to communicate with, of course understanding that they are a really busy shop and you're not going to get an email reply in 15 minutes. Patience is required when communicating with a busy shop like theirs!
I know they're still working on efficient methods for big flake finishes, and making progress from what I understand, but we settled on a small flake finish in orange - what Copacetic calls Tangerine Dream and I'm not arguing with them!! I sent the guitar to them in mid-December 2023, and after a couple more emails settling details, I vowed not to bother them for constant updates.
By the time I couldn't resist any more - mid-March 2024 - I learned the guitar was almost done and couldn't believe the in-progress photos. Now it's early May and I've got the guitar back and as one of my daughter's favorite childhood book characters used to say ... "WOWEE WOW WOW!" I'm utterly blown away by the job and finally, the SURFCASTER OF DOOM is complete.
The capper, though (no pun intended) is the matching head cap 
PLUS - WAIT THERE'S MORE! I spent a ton of time getting this guitar set up and playing just the way I like - a requirement if you ask me any time you assemble a partscaster - and I didn't want to have to repeat the assembly/setup all over again when it came back. As a result, I paid a little extra to Copacetic/Feelgood to do the reassembly and setup and I gotta say even if I wasn't blown away by the paint work, I'd be amazed at the setup work. Calling it a "pro setup" is understating it - it's perfect, for sure, and even better than when it left my hands; it seems a bit self-aggrandizing to say I do good setup work, but I definitely do a great job at setting up my guitars for how I play. The setup on this guitar is now my gold standard - I'll be striving to achieve this setup on my other Strats. Yeah. It's that good.
Kudos to the folks at Copacetic/Feelgood. Amazing work. Really. Now I'm torn as to whether the pearl black pickguard is still the best choice...
—--
Project: MAYHEM by Hypersonic Secret now available!
