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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink 1961 Fender Jazz Bass In "Surf Burst" Finish - A Del-Tones Guitar?

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edwardsand wrote:

And I'll chime in again to say I like the look of the tort pickguard with the paint job.

Thanks! I have a bunch of old surf books being delivered this week. Needle in a haystack, but hopefully this guitar is in one of them Smile

treyrab wrote:

I have a bunch of old surf books being delivered this week. Needle in a haystack, but hopefully this guitar is in one of them Smile

Out of curiosity, what "old surf books" are you getting?

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Well, the books are not old. But they are about the old surf guitar era. I bought:

Surfing about Music by Tim Cooley
Surfin' Guitars: Instrumental Surf Bands of the Sixties by Bob Dalley
Southern California Surf Music, 1960-1966 by John Blair
Surf Beat: Rock 'n' Roll's Forgotten Revolution (Guitar Reference) by Kent Crowley

Good books (especially the one by some guy named Blair), but none of them, unfortunately, will help with the provenance of that bass. Happy reading.

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John wrote:

Good books (especially the one by some guy named Blair), but none of them, unfortunately, will help with the provenance of that bass. Happy reading.

Well shucks. I could have saved $100! Kidding, I'm having fun researching this and learning regardless. Thanks John!

It sure looks great in any case. If I wasn't pretty sure my bandmates would throw rocks at me I might commission one.

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Yeah I have:

Surfin' Guitars: Instrumental Surf Bands of the Sixties by Bob Dalley
and Southern California Surf Music, 1960-1966 by John Blair too.

The first book is more about the bands and what happened to them after surf died. Features some interviews in the late 70's of ex-Surf band members and what they were doing for a living at that time ...from what I remember off the top of my head etc.

Like John Blair was saying, you probably won't find any pictures of your bass in any of the books listed. At least I don't remember any with that bass painted the way it is either.

It's definitely from the period around 1964 give or take a few years painted the way it is now. There were a host of surf bands back then. Most of the bands featured in the surf movies were the top artists at that time. So it could have been just a small forgotten garage band etc.

Its definitely been used a lot at some point, even the chips in the paint look old to me. The stains inside the case from the dirty strings shows it had a lot of use as well.

Did the original owner or estate tell anything about it?

I found a Surf Movie below that has two basses like yours, but in original Fender colors. This came out in 1965, and one of the bands was the Walker Brothers, the guitar player taught Carl Wilson and David Marks how to play guitar back in 1960.

Last edited: Feb 15, 2020 18:29:35

treyrab wrote:

Surfing_Sam_61 wrote:

Not only did he paint Dick Dale's beast gold, and many other surf era guitars and basses, he painted hot rod cars back then.

Yes, that is what I found out as well, thank you for that info! Dennis's nephew is looking into this for me to see if he can find any old photos, he too thinks his Uncle painted it just by the looks of it.

Actually Dennis' nieces looking into it. My uncle was a genius and actually opened for "The Doors" in Hawaii way back in the day. Will continue to look through what we have (although much was lost in the "estate" sale which upset us greatly).

stacey57717 wrote:

treyrab wrote:

Surfing_Sam_61 wrote:

Not only did he paint Dick Dale's beast gold, and many other surf era guitars and basses, he painted hot rod cars back then.

Yes, that is what I found out as well, thank you for that info! Dennis's nephew is looking into this for me to see if he can find any old photos, he too thinks his Uncle painted it just by the looks of it.

Actually Dennis' nieces looking into it. My uncle was a genius and actually opened for "The Doors" in Hawaii way back in the day. Will continue to look through what we have (although much was lost in the "estate" sale which upset us greatly).

I now know that after we spoke Smile Thank you so much Stacey!

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