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My impression from looking at photos of first wave bands is that the
majority of guitars present were Fender. There is always at least a
strat, Jaguar, or Jazzmaster present. Not too many tele's. And its
nearly 100% for bass players (Fender nailed that market). Was this
because Fender was the neat new cool thing to have? Because Fender's
plant was in California? Was there a prestige factor too?
Of course a lot of these 1st wave guys were high school kids, so you
see a lot of Kays, Silvertones, Danelectros, etc too.
Are there any non Fender surf guitar players of note? First wave or
otherwise? Of course the Ventures flirted with Mosrites.
From my own admittedly limited experience and taste, my criteria for
a "surf" guitar would be single coils and some form of trem. Anything
else is viable. I saw a while back that Reverend made a cool 2 single
coil guitar (The Spy model?). I think Ferenc from Pollo del Mar has
one. Alas, the guitar no longer appears on their web site. Los
Straitjackets is at least touring with DiPinto Galaxies (4 single
coils!). Danelectro U2 & U3's are have a cool vibe to them but their
bridges make me raise my eyebrows. Their Hodads & newer guitars that
have the built in effects appear to have slightly better hardware.
I have seen pictures of the Insect Surfers playing SG's and Flying
V's but aren't they more of a instro rock band (emphasis on rock vs
surf)?
And it goes without saying that any good guitar player can make do
with just about anything. Just wondering about the
Fender "stereotype" for surf. There is no question in my mind about
Fender quality and sound...top notch in my book; but were there other
factors for their predominance?
Sorry for rambling.
