The Steel Guitar Forum

I've always been a metal neck, (as opposed to pencil neck) mica body guy. I wanted to try a modern classic from a different design and aesthetic direction. Jeff Surratt built me this very custom, lacquer body wood neck Show Pro. It's the Tommy White model.

The apron wood is 200 year old tiger maple that came from the Hermitage in Nashville Tennessee. The tree was felled by the 1998 tornadoes. It is said that the tree may have been planted by Andrew Jackson.

Jeff was a joy to work with. He accommodated all of my specific custom design and set-up wishes and was a very generous with his input and expertise. He worked in a very timely fashion and the quality that he produces in his shop is exquisite. The guitar plays and sounds great,and looks like a jewel. I could not be happier.

Jeff and Gloria are the salt of the earth, and the very model of what an ethically run business can be.
It is privilege to call them friends. Now I'll just let the guitar do the talking....

Thanks Jeff and Gloria!

Gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!

That's just gorgeous, and the fact that it's locally grown is really a great touch. Jeff and company do wonderful work. I admire them greatly. I couldn't do work that nice to save my soul from the devil.

Hi John,

Gosh, what a gorgeous guitar! That is some of the nicest looking maple I've ever seen. Did AJ Nelson do the finish work on the cabinet? Congratulations to you!! Jeff sure does a great job and he and Gloria are two of the nicest folks in our industry.

Wow, the underside is spectacular. Glad it wasn't flocked, so we can see that curl. Wow!

HOLY WOW!!!!!!!!!! I'm Jealous!!!! I bet she plays like butter, too!!!

Thanks friends...I'm on about my fourth hour of playing it, and I'm just knocked out! Fantastic, and just what I was hoping for.

Pickups are custom wound by Jerry Wallace.

The finish was done by Southbound Custom LLC, in Nashville, who have been working with Jeff. The owner Steve Fazio worked with me very closely via email samples to get the custom color I was looking for, and he nailed it. The finish is mirror perfect.

I saw a Black one (in final stages of completion) at Jeff' shop and the mirror black finish just slayed me.

Very nice, John!!! Beautiful finish!! From the top of the guitar it looks like one switch between the necks, which would obviously be a neck selector switch on most D-10's these days. But the pic of the bottom shows like there's a whole lot more going on there with that one switch. Are they tapped Truetones? Just my curiosity. Would you mind sharing??

Wow !

Nice choice John . Congratulations . She's a real beauty .

Truly one of the most beautiful steel guitars I've ever seen.

How is the weight compared to an historic guitar (and "boat anchor") like say, a D-10 Sho-Bud?

Beautiful guitar John! I hope I get to see and hear it before too long.

Fooch Fischetti

What a beautful guitar!! There must be a few more planks left from that tree isn't there?

i watched jeff build this guitar what a master jeff is at building such a fine steel as he does in everyone he does .

That qualifies as Drop-dead Gorgeous! Congratulations, John!

Thanks to all who have commented.

Played the guitar all day, and am really happy. it's working out better than I had hoped...and I hoped pretty high!

To answer a few questions:

It weighs about as much as my other similarly appointed D-10 guitars. Not as heavy as an old Bud with fewer knees.

No coil taps but what you see is that the underside has a terminal block installed so I can make solder-less pickup changes, in case I have to use a humbucker in high noise situations. The wallace truetone sounds awesome, but sometimes ya just gotta... anyway Bruce Zumsteg first did it for me on my Zum, and I liked it so I asked Jeff if he'd do it as a custom feature.

It has many extras including a custom polished underside, custom color and binding, heritage wood from the Hermitage, and pickups custom wound to my spec.

Again I cannot say enough good about Jeff, Gloria and Show Pro. They really produced a true beauty, that plays and sounds awesome, and I'm having a ball ringing it in.

Thanks for answering about the pickups, John. That is a really cool idea. More steels should have that. As much as we like to swap and try different ones. I know MSA has their modular pickup system, but this seems much easier for builders to do and easy to do in an aftermarket situation. I believe you've given me the solution to a problem I was just faced with in my first recording situation with my ShoBud and its original single coils. Again, what a beautiful piece of art that Jeff, and all involved at ShowPro have built for you!!

Yummy!

Nice!

I really like that terminal block idea for solderless P/U changes, in fact I'm stealing that idea!..."sometimes ya just gotta".

i think it's a good idea for all steels. why not at least just a mini jack connector on the pickup wires?

Nice !!! I got mine ordered !

Jamie, I saw it...looks great. You are in for a real treat.

Enjoy! JW

OMG!!!!!!!!