Fred Ziomek

In this Instagram post, Fred discusses Charvel Surfcasters.

When I was in high school watching Headbanger’s Ball , the video for Snap Your Fingers came on and I was transfixed. I had been playing guitar for a couple years, and I was aware that Surfcasters existed but only with the lipstick single coil pickups. At that point I assumed that whatever people were playing in their video was what they played on the album (😂) and that @charvelusa had made a batch of these Surfcasters with humbuckers in the bridge (they did later, but not at the time of Cleansing’s release). I went all over Richmond, VA to all of the music stores asking if they could get the Surfcaster with a humbucker like the one tommyvictor23 was playing. They all either brushed me off or told me it didn’t exist.

Years ago when I first met Tommy I asked him about this guitar (there were actually 4 that he had), and he laughed when I told him about the quest I went on to find a Surfcaster with a humbucker. “Yeah…I had them routed out for the humbuckers.” 😂

Almost 30 years after first seeing that guitar on MTV, I actually got to play it yesterday. High school me and current me were both stoked.