Jeff Beck Meets Dick Dale

[Bengal65]

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) 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!

[jgcable]

I love that guitar. Fantastic job and a great choice in materials and components.
Dick Dale and Jeff Beck..... yea.

[Bengal65]

Thanks JG, I get better every one I build. This is the 31st of my builds. Funny thing, I'm still learning new things with finishes and assembly methods everytime. It must be why I build them.

Oh yeah, I just had to shim the LSR nut on the high E side with (2) .010" shims as supplied with the nut. She needed a .020" raise She's perfect now. The action is extremely low and no buzzes!

[eakinj]

That is sweet! Great build!

[DocNrock]

Way killer. That flame really stands out with the vintage tint finish.

[SEEGERMANY]

Stunning! One of the prettiest guitars I've ever seen!

[xbolt]

Very nice axe

Got my tickets for Jeff Beck at the Montreal Jazz Fest this summer

[Rupe]

That is awesome...great build! The color is a bit more gold than the DD chartreuse sparkle but I think it looks even better that way.

[Hellbat]

Hmmm. I find myself wondering how that would look with gold lipstick tube pickups. Not that it isn't super hot as is.

[daisp]

Sweet build! nice work mate!

[Learn Guitars]

Nice job!

[Bengal65]

That is awesome...great build! The color is a bit more gold than the DD chartreuse sparkle but I think it looks even better that way.

Rupe, Marty and I talked about the color. He said, a couple of things about Fender's finish and that he has had 3 of them in his shop and each one was shaded differently. I was asking him to put in some green tint in the clear, but he didn't like that. Or, was not excited about doing it. He did say this formula has a little green in it and looks very close to the one he had in his shop. I didn't want to push it since his sparkle jobs are very popular as they are. Also, the flake is larger than the Dick Dale Fender paint. After our discussion, I decided to go Marty's way and do his magic.

The gold does show some green when the light is less intense

I do think this gold looks better.

[Bengal65]

Nice job!

Thanks Mike! I'm still thinking of your artwork for a Mojo body I have. I just can't decide yet what to go with

[Bengal65]

Way killer. That flame really stands out with the vintage tint finish.

Doc, and that's Musikraft's standard flame. I could have went for premium flame for another $100. But, that was another 3rd of the price of the basic neck

[Da' Melta']

Fantastic, B65!

The paint is stunning and the neck is gorgeous! Really nice work! Congratulations.

Happy New Year,
Da' Melta'