Jim Surles guitars (small luthier content)
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BlackLantern
New member
Re: Jim Surles guitars (small luthier content)
He "retired" with a lot of unfinished product and people's property. If you find him, let me know. He owes me a $1,300 guitar.
He "retired" with a lot of unfinished product and people's property. If you find him, let me know. He owes me a $1,300 guitar.
DrNewcenstein
He Did the Monster Mash
Re: Jim Surles guitars (small luthier content)
Awesome. Sounds like just what I'd expect when everyone is trying to be so much better than their peers that they have to have the most boutique piece of gear they can find, so they dig up a local guy. Local guy gets buzz, then gets swamped, then bails.
Awesome. Sounds like just what I'd expect when everyone is trying to be so much better than their peers that they have to have the most boutique piece of gear they can find, so they dig up a local guy. Local guy gets buzz, then gets swamped, then bails.
BlackLantern
New member
Re: Jim Surles guitars (small luthier content)
Yeah, I worked with him for years and I had a project for school where I was designing my own axe. I was going to have him do corrections on it for me, and maybe help assemble it, but he offered to build it with me, give me a lot more choices as to the over all design and do it for less than I was looking at. He was always swamped, but he kept delaying the project giving me just enough to show to my professors to get a grade. It wasn't about being "boutique" enough or anything, it was just the way I chose to interpret my project. But, yeah....there are a bunch of stories as to "why" he just ran off, he told me his folks were dying, the store he worked at said it was drugs. Sucks, I'd like to have that guitar, it was going to pretty cool.
Yeah, I worked with him for years and I had a project for school where I was designing my own axe. I was going to have him do corrections on it for me, and maybe help assemble it, but he offered to build it with me, give me a lot more choices as to the over all design and do it for less than I was looking at. He was always swamped, but he kept delaying the project giving me just enough to show to my professors to get a grade. It wasn't about being "boutique" enough or anything, it was just the way I chose to interpret my project. But, yeah....there are a bunch of stories as to "why" he just ran off, he told me his folks were dying, the store he worked at said it was drugs. Sucks, I'd like to have that guitar, it was going to pretty cool.
Last edited:
TheLivingDead
Dawn Of The Shred
Re: Jim Surles guitars (small luthier content)
Sh!tty. I hope you catch the guy eventually. What ever the reason, he should hold up on his end.
Sh!tty. I hope you catch the guy eventually. What ever the reason, he should hold up on his end.
StupendousBoy
New member
Re: Jim Surles guitars (small luthier content)
Hi guys.
Well...this is my first post here and I'm sorry to come out of the gate swinging! But...
I was a customer of Jim's and whoa boy he was a tweaker. I last dealt with him in late 2006, if I remember correctly, in Northern California, Santa Rosa/Cotati area. The store he worked at, Zone music, directed me to his personal contact number, as he was kind of not working @ Zone anymore...confusing, but still I needed help setting up a new Ibanez JPM P4 I purchased off EBAY. So I called him several times and finally got a hold of him and he asked me to bring my Ibanez to his studio. I did.
I drove up to a rural nursery outside of Cotati. The nursery business looked totally legit, and then over in the back was Jim's studio building. He opened the studio door and welcomed me in, and we tried to get down to business. He wouldn't really look at me, and he was talking soooooo fast and wouldn't complete sentences. He kind of stayed half way in front of the door and I really didn't get inside. He scribbled down what I needed and told me to come back in 2 days. Ok great I thought. Maybe he is just quirky!
I came back to his studio in 2 days, but he wouldn't answer the door. I heard loud guitar from inside his studio. I stood there until there was a break in the guitar and then banged on the door. I heard rustling around, but he didn't answer the door. Door was locked too. So I went back to work. I called him after work - I had worked late and it was night time - and he answered and said 'come on by'. It was around 8:00pm when I drove up. He answered the door and ushered me in. He was a sweatin' fool and he was so hyper. He grabbed my guitar and told me all about it. He told me all about his other guitars and other projects, and it was at this point that he ambled off in to the nether regions of the back of his studio building.
I couldn't believe it. There was a back room, with a little mattress with a blanket or 2 on it. All the flooring was finished concrete, like a garage. There was a hot plate plugged in to a wall and a small fridge. There was a bathroom kind of..just a toilet. And there were scattered pieces of wood everywhere. Tools everywhere. Extension chords, broken guitar bodies, broken necks, spools of wire, stacks of busted and dusty guitar bodies against the wall. I realized that not only was this a workshop for him, but this was also a den. Like living there. He kept telling me that he was building custom guitars, over and over. But there were no guitars displayed anywhere, only the broken stuff laying around. Now that I was looking around, I noticed there was no cash register or desk or store front-type of stuff there either. It was basically a garage. There were no posters or equipment pictures or banners or anything a guitar studio or shop would display? It was sad, and it made me feel badly when I realized all of this; but it was surreal because all the while he is telling me over and over that he builds custom guitars with all of this special wood he has there.
Man, I really hadn't paid attention to who he was and where I was when I first dropped off my guitar. But now, as he was crusing around doing circles around me, I was thinking that I needed to find the exits, you know?! He was high, speeding big time. I paid him in cash and he asked me to stay. He started walking around me and asking me to hang out. I got out of there with my guitar and sat stunned in my car, that's how weird it was.
In 2007, I went by the nursery property on a lark, because I was thinking about this stuff. The studio building was dressed up differently and there was no Jim Surles guitar over the door. At that time, I felt that he probably got kicked out. I don't know that, though.
My Ibanez was set up halfway, like he stopped mid way. The intonation on the low end 3 strings was off, but the G B & E strings rang out beautifully. *sigh* He was sketchy! I hope he stopped doing what he was doing, because I really believe he was tweaking hard hard hard. Collecting and obsessing alone and being unkempt while talking out of turn non stop...pretty good indicator. I don't know if you'll ever get your guitar out of him bro :disappoin
Hi guys.
Well...this is my first post here and I'm sorry to come out of the gate swinging! But...
I was a customer of Jim's and whoa boy he was a tweaker. I last dealt with him in late 2006, if I remember correctly, in Northern California, Santa Rosa/Cotati area. The store he worked at, Zone music, directed me to his personal contact number, as he was kind of not working @ Zone anymore...confusing, but still I needed help setting up a new Ibanez JPM P4 I purchased off EBAY. So I called him several times and finally got a hold of him and he asked me to bring my Ibanez to his studio. I did.
I drove up to a rural nursery outside of Cotati. The nursery business looked totally legit, and then over in the back was Jim's studio building. He opened the studio door and welcomed me in, and we tried to get down to business. He wouldn't really look at me, and he was talking soooooo fast and wouldn't complete sentences. He kind of stayed half way in front of the door and I really didn't get inside. He scribbled down what I needed and told me to come back in 2 days. Ok great I thought. Maybe he is just quirky!
I came back to his studio in 2 days, but he wouldn't answer the door. I heard loud guitar from inside his studio. I stood there until there was a break in the guitar and then banged on the door. I heard rustling around, but he didn't answer the door. Door was locked too. So I went back to work. I called him after work - I had worked late and it was night time - and he answered and said 'come on by'. It was around 8:00pm when I drove up. He answered the door and ushered me in. He was a sweatin' fool and he was so hyper. He grabbed my guitar and told me all about it. He told me all about his other guitars and other projects, and it was at this point that he ambled off in to the nether regions of the back of his studio building.
I couldn't believe it. There was a back room, with a little mattress with a blanket or 2 on it. All the flooring was finished concrete, like a garage. There was a hot plate plugged in to a wall and a small fridge. There was a bathroom kind of..just a toilet. And there were scattered pieces of wood everywhere. Tools everywhere. Extension chords, broken guitar bodies, broken necks, spools of wire, stacks of busted and dusty guitar bodies against the wall. I realized that not only was this a workshop for him, but this was also a den. Like living there. He kept telling me that he was building custom guitars, over and over. But there were no guitars displayed anywhere, only the broken stuff laying around. Now that I was looking around, I noticed there was no cash register or desk or store front-type of stuff there either. It was basically a garage. There were no posters or equipment pictures or banners or anything a guitar studio or shop would display? It was sad, and it made me feel badly when I realized all of this; but it was surreal because all the while he is telling me over and over that he builds custom guitars with all of this special wood he has there.
Man, I really hadn't paid attention to who he was and where I was when I first dropped off my guitar. But now, as he was crusing around doing circles around me, I was thinking that I needed to find the exits, you know?! He was high, speeding big time. I paid him in cash and he asked me to stay. He started walking around me and asking me to hang out. I got out of there with my guitar and sat stunned in my car, that's how weird it was.
In 2007, I went by the nursery property on a lark, because I was thinking about this stuff. The studio building was dressed up differently and there was no Jim Surles guitar over the door. At that time, I felt that he probably got kicked out. I don't know that, though.
My Ibanez was set up halfway, like he stopped mid way. The intonation on the low end 3 strings was off, but the G B & E strings rang out beautifully. *sigh* He was sketchy! I hope he stopped doing what he was doing, because I really believe he was tweaking hard hard hard. Collecting and obsessing alone and being unkempt while talking out of turn non stop...pretty good indicator. I don't know if you'll ever get your guitar out of him bro :disappoin
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