Zion Guitar Technology Custom Build 2009 Surf-green

Zion Guitar Technology Custom-Built

This is a one-of-a-kind custom guitar that Zion Guitars made for me in 2009 to cover surf and classic rock sounds. The folks at Zion built a beauty when they created this guitar, and they were careful to attend to detail. The guitar has an alder body and a maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. The neck is fast and smooth. The truss-rod cover is natural shell and the inlay dots are abalone, showing iridescent pinks and greens that nicely complement the surf-green color of the guitar. The paint job is immaculate, and they left a border of the natural alder-wood that provides a nice visual contrast with the surf-green color. When played acoustically, the guitar resonates with each strum. When plugged in, the guitar produces clean to slightly overdriven sounds characteristic of rock and blues of the 1060’s.

This guitar is unique in that it has the body of Zion’s “The Fifty” (a telecaster style) along with Seymour Duncan Antiquity II “ ‘60s Surfer” Stratocaster style pickups along with a 5-way pickup switch. With the volume up the guitar produces a smooth blues/classic rock sound; back off on the volume for a that clean “jangle” sound.

I’ve listed this guitar as being in “Excellent Condition”. It is clean with no dings or scratches and with only some minor ‘swirl’ on the body just below the strings.

Guitar Specs:

Body Shape: “The Fifty” telecaster

ID#: 090619-1

Body material: Alder

Color: Seafoam Green

Scale Length: 25 ½”

Neck Radius: 12”

22 frets

Bridge: Wilkinson Tremolo

Tuners: Sperzel locking

Chrome Hardware

Nut: 1 5/8” Graphite

Neck material: Maple with Rosewood fretboard

Pickups: Single Coil Seymour Duncan Antiquity II “60’s Surfer”

Strings: Currently set up with .10 – .46 strings

What Seymour Duncan has to say about the pickups:

“Don't let the name fool you: the '60s Surfer™ pickup would be equally comfortable in the smoky clubs of Chicago's West Side as hanging ten at the Malibu Pier. The Antiquity II Surfer is hailed by many members of the Seymour Duncan User Group Forum as the ultimate pickup for vintage Strat® chime and quack.

Bright, punchy, and aged to perfection, the Antiquity II Surfer for Strat Set captures all the classic singe coil tones from the 60’s.

Take your Stratocaster on a ride through decades of seminal genre defining tones from rock, surf, country and blues with the Antiquity II Surfer Set.

 The Antiquity II Surf Neck provides that smooth and chimey bounciness that only a Stratocaster can produce. Our specially calibrated alnico 5 rod magnets and custom scatter wound coil give the treble attack a subtle sweetness without losing any of the harmonic sparkle.

 The middle pickup in the set is RW/RP for the perfect hum-free cluck in the 2 and 4 positions.

 The Antiquity II Surf for Strat Custom Bridge pickup is wound to have extra midrange and output for a more versatility. We wind these 50% hotter for more mids, and then slightly soften the treble attack by degaussing the alnico 5 rod magnets. It cuts through the mix much more easily than a traditional Strat bridge pickup, while still retaining that classic Stratocaster tonal character. Solos will jump out more musically, and chords will ring with the perfect amount of midrange sparkle.

Hand built in our Custom Shop, each pickup is aged to look and sound like a 1960s original. We use vintage correct blue/yellow cloth pushback lead wire, light gray bottom flatwork, and custom aged covers for just the right look. They are all lacquered and wax potted.”