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Music to his ears

He once played guitars, now he makes them. Ben Chafin's custom instruments have struck a chord with his clientele.

By JACKIE RIPLEY
Published May 1, 2005

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Ben Chafin can take an ordinary block of wood and make it rock and wail.

"I do it all by hand," says the guitar-player-turned-guitar-maker. "The wood is a channel for the sound. With good wood you'll always have a good product."

Of course, it takes more than a superior piece of wood to turn out a guitar that musicians and collectors will spend thousands of dollars for. It also takes skill, experience and painstaking attention to detail.

"I've been building custom guitars for 15 years," said Chafin, who learned much of his craft from Steve Carr, the builder and technician for the '70s rock group KISS. "He taught me how to do everything from carved tops to setting in necks."

Chafin, 48, who once built prototypes for Tampa-based Dean Guitars, is now putting that expertise to work for himself.

A year ago he opened a shop on Johns Road where he turns out three or four custom electric guitars a month.

The un-air-conditioned industrial building is the humble home of Chafin's three guitar models: the St. Croix, the Ember and the Targa.

Each is carved from rich woods such as mahogany, rosewood and maple, and each is built to the buyer's specifications.

"One of the most challenging projects was to design a signature bass guitar for Jeff Berlin, a legend in the bass world," Chafin said. "He knows what he wants and why."

It was also a lengthy project.

While it normally takes Chafin about three months from start to finish to turn out a $4,000 guitar, in Berlin's case, he spent two years alone just tweaking the neck and the pickups.

Then there was the unique request from Jessie James Dupree of the rock band Jackyl.

"Jessie's trademark has long been a chain saw and that was an integral part of his act," Chafin said. "Jessie is also a great guitar player and he wanted to bring these two things together."

And so he did: Chafin created a guitar with a built-in chain saw.

"It took some work and creativity," said Chafin, who met Dupree's four-week deadline. "But we came up with a guitar that sounded great."

Chain saw guitars, however, are not what Chafin is best known for. Prospective buyers are more likely to be interested in having a guitar with its own unique style, or Chafin's trademark "SonicArt bridge."

The bridge is the metal part that supports the strings on the right end of the guitar. It's made of brass and adds clarity as well as a sustained sound to the strings.

"I want my hardware to be different," Chafin said. "It has to look cool but it also has to be functional."

The most important benefit of the bridge is how it affects the tone. Chafin said his solid brass construction and the guitar's larger than usual body mass bring out the highs in notes and adds to the strings' ability to sustain sound.

Many of Chafin's customers are musicians who want a signature piece on stage. But they also include doctors and engineers, professionals who can afford to spend $2,000 to $4,000 for a guitar.

A quality, mass produced guitar can be purchased for less than $1,000.

Chafin, who grew up in Gainesville, now lives in Twelve Oaks with his wife, Cathy, and their daughter Caitlin. He spent his younger days playing in bands of every ilk, from country to rock. And then his passion for playing guitars turned to building them.

"There's not a lot of money in it," said Chafin, who builds about three guitars a month. "But it's a drive. I guess I'm bipolar because I get these bursts of energy."

Chafin's Web site can be found at www.chafincustom.com

-Staff writer Jackie Ripley can be reached at 813 269-5308 or ripley@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 30, 2005, 04:00:06]