Surfin’ Safari, Japan-Style: Meet the Intermark Cipher Surfer

It’s about that time of the year when the family goes “down the shore,” as they say in my part of the world, for our annual vacation. We’ve been all up and down the East Coast shoreline, from Maine to South Carolina, but we usually settle in Delaware and all the quaint little escapes to be found. Personally, I don’t really do much at the beach except meditate and people watch. Sometimes I don’t even bring a chair. Instead I just scoop out a “recliner” in the sand and ponder all sorts of musings. I’m fascinated by ocean living, and have wondered what it would be like to live at a house where you have to tie down your garbage cans so they don’t float away in a flood. At one point in our vacation we experienced a horrific thunderstorm and I had my son convinced that our car might float out into the ocean since we were right near the water. Good times!So a few weeks ago, there I was on a Delaware beach thinking about life and how if I could choose to live anywhere or be anything, like a start-over, I think I would’ve enjoyed living along the shores of California and being a surfer. An idealized version, I suppose, but it seems cool in my mind. Of course I’d have to be 30 years younger, 50 pounds lighter, and operate with some semblance of balance, but hey, endless summers, baby!In 1966 there was an awesome surfer documentary called The Endless Summer that chronicled a global search for the perfect wave. Director Bruce Brown’s film was filled with a cool soundtrack and the whole endeavor created a phenomenon of sorts which featured travel, music, culture, and a lifestyle that I just adore.“Why would you associate a 12-string with surf music? The ’60s were different times.”There were already plenty of surf bands at that time, such as the Ventures and Dick Dale, who embraced mostly instrumental music. That really appealed to fans around the world because the language barrier didn’t exist. And of course, there were a plethora of guitar ads that combined surfing with instruments. But sitting there in Delaware, I got to thinking about guitars that had “surf” in their name. There were newer models like the Charvel Surfcaster, but I was having a hard time coming up with vintage guitars. And then, just like a lightning strike during that coastal storm, it hit me … the Intermark Cipher Surfer from 1965!For about two years, the Shinko Gakki Company in Japan produced electric guitars in the Tatsuno Lake region (which is a great spot to visit). Shinko guitars were mostly sold in Japan but most of the electrics sold in the States were imported by the Intermark Corporation in New York. Intermark imported all sorts of stuff from Japan and often the Cipher name was attached to products. Hence, the long-ish Intermark Cipher guitars. There were all sorts of configurations, such as basses and 12-strings along with a number of pickup configurations and, sometimes, super-cool colors such as yellow, green bursts, and wonderful glitter finishes. Now the rub here is this: They labeled the 12-string the Surfer. Why would you associate a 12-string with surf music? The ’60s were different times.The Surfer did turn out to be an excellent guitar anyway, mainly because Shinko really tried to make solid instruments when it came to build quality, and especially the great-sounding pickups. Modeled after Italian EKO units, Shinko decided to make these pickups a little stronger with the 12-string. The body shape is reminiscent of a curling wave, I suppose, with its exaggerated offset points. But the first thing I noticed when playing the guitar was that the neck was really robust. On some 12-strings I often find my fingers cramped on the fretboard, but the Intermark Surfer had plenty of room because the fretboard was wide and the neck was deep. I never worried about this guitar going out of tune. Two volumes and one tone knob were paired with simple on/off switches for each pickup, and an overall fine bridge was enough to make the Byrds play surf music!