Bengal65
Joined: Oct 12, 2008
Posts: 142
Houston, TX
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 03:50 PM
Fresh out of the Bengal65 Custom Shop
Being a fan of both Jeff Beck and the King of Surf Guitar, Dick Dale, I decided how this guitar was going to be built and finished.
I love my Fender C.S. Jeff Beck Strats so much I wanted to build my own with some better woods and have the Dick Dale finish. I started with having Musikraft clone one of my JB necks in a nice flame maple. I aquired a nice Alder clear Strat blank and began the routing to get the JB contour on the body. Then, I shot the body off to Marty Bell for his famous flake job in Dick Dale likeness. Marty is the man when it comes to flake finishes. Absolutely flawless in every detail.
I finished the neck in vintage tint Nitro. I started out with a Satin finish, but polished it further to a gloss. I think I like the gloss better on this neck. Installed '54 Fender pups. Nice and clean with that Strat crispyness! Great for Surf, which I love to play. Electronics are all RS components with Fender hardware and guard. I installed a Callaham Trem block and a '64 "Pop-in" arm, short and sweet. The Callaham blocks are awesome and most of my Strats have them now. I preset the tension on the neck for "big" strings and bolted her up for .016-.058" Blue Steel Dean Markley's (same gauge and strings as Dick Dale uses, per Jim at DM) No more 60. Dick says it's the age.  The guitar is everything my C.S. are and more.
I basically built the guitar for about 50% less than a new Custom Shop would cost.
Pipeline here I go!
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kenposurf
Joined: Feb 23, 2007
Posts: 1650
Santa Rosa, CA
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 04:01 PM
A beauty...congrats!
— www.northofmalibu.com
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Ron-Rhoades
Joined: Aug 19, 2006
Posts: 958
Kekaha, Kauai, Hawaii
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 04:11 PM
I agree....a real beauty.
— The TakeOffs
"Kauai's Only All-Instrumental Surf Band"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-TakeOffs/312866840587
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Joelman
Joined: Sep 07, 2006
Posts: 1506
Redlands, CA
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 04:14 PM
oooooh! Sparkels!
I love sparkels!
Great job! Nothing like a better than stock, to warm up the playing!
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thilton59
Joined: Dec 14, 2008
Posts: 33
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 04:46 PM
A classy job all around. Well done.
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Kman1
Joined: Aug 29, 2008
Posts: 694
Surf City
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 04:56 PM
Maybe you can trick Dick into thinking it's his guitar.
—
Sonichris
I also like to think that all early 60's fender equipment is happy to be playing surf music again. After all, its the music it was meant to play.
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Bengal65
Joined: Oct 12, 2008
Posts: 142
Houston, TX
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 05:45 PM
Kman1
Maybe you can trick Dick into thinking it's his guitar.
Yeah, close your eyes it's left handed
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Kawentzmann
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 1062
Berlin, Germany
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 07:42 PM
The stripe on the back - was it your will?
— The Exotic Guitar of Kahuna Kawentzmann
You can get the boy out of the Keynes era, but you can’t get the Keynes era out of the boy.
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Bengal65
Joined: Oct 12, 2008
Posts: 142
Houston, TX
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 08:08 PM
Kawentzmann
The stripe on the back - was it your will?
Yes, I paid extra for the skunk stripe. It's exactly like the Jeff Beck Custom Shop Stratocaster. The truss rod is dual acting as well. I wanted that because of the tremendous stress of those big strings. You can get these necks without the stripe of course.
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morphball
Joined: Dec 23, 2008
Posts: 3324
Pittsboro, NC
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Posted on Dec 31 2008 09:54 PM
That turned out gorgeous, very nice strat collection too.
— Mike
http://www.youtube.com/morphballio
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tommyalvarado
Joined: Jan 03, 2008
Posts: 512
Delaware, USA
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Posted on Jan 01 2009 10:02 AM
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Ruhar
Joined: Jun 21, 2007
Posts: 3909
San Diego, CA
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Posted on Jan 01 2009 10:04 AM
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IvanP
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 10331
southern Michigan
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Posted on Jan 01 2009 10:23 AM
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Bengal65
Joined: Oct 12, 2008
Posts: 142
Houston, TX
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Posted on Jan 01 2009 01:52 PM
IvanP
Ruhar
How are those Jeff Beck strats?
They're Shigeo Naka's favorites! Huge necks on those things....
The newer ones do not have huge necks. These are vintage Fender medium "C" backshape with a nut width of 1-11/16". Very comfortable. The ones in the 90's have baseball fat backshape necks and Lace Sensors.
These newer ones are my favorite of all Stratocasters! Just perfect for me. You get very vintage sounds from the Noiseless JB Pups with no hum, LSR nut and American Standard Trems, Sperzel tuners. They really stay in tune.
You can get the production models or the Custom Shop versions.
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crumble
Joined: Sep 09, 2008
Posts: 3158
Guildford England
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Posted on Aug 29 2013 07:10 AM
Apparently true according to this video clip. Beck handed Fender a 1954 Stratocaster hoping they could create a voice match, however the neck was quite fat and Fender mistakenly used the same fat profile on the early run of Jeff Beck Guitars.
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Hammond101
Joined: Feb 22, 2013
Posts: 342
SoCal USA
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Posted on Aug 29 2013 10:34 AM
Holly mother of flaming glitter!
Very cool build, congrats.
— Keep it Drippy Brothers and Sisters!
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May Birthdays 
