Interesting video. No one is going to confuse it with the sound of a Jaguar, but it’s a good sounding guitar in its own right. The impression I got was somewhat Strat-like, an HSS Strat to be specific. At the price point, it strikes me as a decent, versatile guitar, and capable of some decent sounds, but it’s not going to give you the white-hot sound of a single-coil bridge pickup.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Reverb17 wrote:

Not everything has to sound like a Jaguar or Jazzmaster.
I would have preferred they stuck with the mini humbucker, but
at this price, changing out the bridge pick-up is not a big deal.

I agree, I’ve played Surf my Gretsch Country Gentleman, and get some great sounds. Now, these are small footprint humbuckers, which will be more focused sounding than larger footprint humbuckers, such as Gibson’s, or the pickup chosen to this Surfliner.

Guild has a great mini humbucker. I have them on my Guild T-400 and the sound is bright, focused and lively. IMHO, that would be a better choice for the bridge pickup on this instrument. However, even though the name of the model is Surfliner, Guild is building these for as broad of a market as possible, and they may feel that they will sell more units with the full sized HB. Not everyone whom purchases a Surfliner will be a serious Surf guitarist, and the market for an HSS, three-pickup guitar is proven. If I was looking for an Electric Blues guitar, I would probably prefer the Surfliner over an HSS Strat. For one thing, the Offset style trem’ is more to my liking than the Strat trem’.

And that’s a point I feel s should be made, and that is that as an overall guitar, the Surfliner with a trem’ is a unique offering and a heck of an instrument, not to mention at a great price. I’m sure that Guild will sell more than a few of these, and they will have a broad market appeal.

Ryan did a subsequent video, where he splits the bridge pickup wiring and installs a push/pull pot to control it. It made for an interesting sound. I’d love to hear some of these used for Surf recordings. I’ll resist, I have enough guitars, and I’m still waiting for the parts to build my dream Jaguar, so I have plenty of fodder for my dreams.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

racingsnail84 wrote:

I plan on getting this guitar in Rose Quartz (pink) later this year and installing a humbucker sized Tele pickup in the bridge… the idea being to make it a monster twang machine!

If I can figure out how to edit I’ll make a video on YouTube to document how it sounds before and after the mod

That could be an interesting setup.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Yep, a Magnatron would be great.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

I bought one of these a few days ago. Yep, thats a Bigsby on there.

I wanted this model for a few reasons -
1 - The switching. I really like the switching on the standard model, rather than the standard "strat" switching as featured on the deluxe model.
2 - The mini-humbucker. I may well swap this out for a Dynasonic one day, but it's got a little more sparkle than a full-sized humbucker.
3 - The price. This thing cost me less than half the price of a deluxe.
3 - I wanted a blue one. I really like the metallic green that the deluxe is available in, but I wanted a blue one more.

It's only been a couple of days with it and I really like it so far.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I'm interested in doing exactly the same thing as Jet_Haggis, for the same reasons: price and switching options.

I'd be very interested to hear how happy you are with your project after a year.
Which Bigsby model did you use?
How difficult was it to install?
Are you satisfied with the quality of the rest of the guitar?

The Surfliner standard is currently less than half the price of the deluxe. If I can fit the vibrato and bridge of my choice on the cheaper model then this could be a good option. But it's only cost effective if the rest of the guitar (electronics, neck, tuners) is up to the job. I don't care as much about the cosmetic appearance.

I somehow missed Ryan’s subsequent video on 60 Cycle Hum. It was surprising to me, both how good the coil-split version of the Surfliner’s bridge pickup sounds, but also, how good it sounds in humbucking mode. The humbucker sound is better for a grittier sound, and the split sound is better than I would have expected. I’m not in the market, but if I were, this might prove to be a fairly versatile solution, for not a lot of money.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.