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Been thinking about the "non-Fender guitars" thing some more...
Surely some of you guys must like Southern Culture on the Skids,
right?
I think Rick Miller gets killer sounds out of his
Danelectro/Silvertone guitars, Supros, even Gibsons! I think his tone
on "Mexi-Melt" is pretty outrageous and totally surf.
Another band that I really like is The Paladins (from San Diego).
They've been around forever and though they mostly do
rockabilly/blues/rootsy rock'n'roll stuff, they do some great surf
instros now and then. "Return to Polara" or "Powershake" off their
new "Palvoline #7" record...it's a Guild X-500 through a Fender
reverb tank and it sounds pretty awesome to my ears.
The Hillbilly Hellcats (from Colorado) are a really cool
rockabilly/psychobilly band that dabbles in surf, too. Their guitar
player, Chuck Hughes (absolutely amazing picker) uses a variety of
Gretsch hollowbody guitars plugged into a Fender Super Reverb. He
gets a real sweet, rich tone on "Lazy Surfer". If any of you guys are
into Rev. Horton Heat, check out the Hillbilly Hellcats (they have
the Rev's old drummer on their two CDs).
Speakin' of which, Rev. Horton Heat has been known to play some cool
instrumentals, though not strictly "surf"...once again, Gretsch 6120
or White Falcon.
Deke Dickerson's playing in The Untamed Youth always knocked me out
(I love that band). Although he often recorded with a Jaguar, live he
usually played a Gibson ES-335 with the outer coils of his humbucking
pickups shorted out for a single-coil sound. Can't argue with his
tone.
I'm not a particularly huge fan of either band, but both Huevos
Rancheros and Shadowy Men used Gretsch hollowbodies, too. I don't
think that the guiatar sounds in either of these bands are
particularly exciting or representative of what Gretsch guitars sound
like.
In all fairness, I have to admit that if I wanted a totally
traditional 60's surf guitar tone, I'd pick the Jaguar or, as a 2nd
choice, a Jazzmaster, strung with .13 flatwounds. I never could get
along with a Strat...hard to get an original sound with one when 50%
of guitar players in the world are playing a Strat or a Strat copy,
the only pickup I like on 'em is the middle one but my picking style
keeps makes me keep smacking the switch into bridge position...and I
really hate Strat tremolos. I've had a few Strats (including a couple
that really stood out, sonically) but I always ended up selling them.
Jazzmasters are probably more versatile, but to me a Jaguar is THEE
definitive surf tone (and look). I like the short scale length, too.
I always liked the "thin" switch that no one ever seems to use on
Jags...my lead sound was always either both pickups on, or neck
pickup + thin switch. Gives a great "rubber band" kind of sound.
To top it off, the Jag/Jazzmaster trem is perfectly suited for surf.
You can't "dive-bomb" (even if you WANTED to) and the feel is smooth
and really precice over a pretty narrow range. I think that the only
thing better than a Jag/Jazzmaster trem is a Bigsby (and I don't mean
those generic Bigsby copies you find on Danelectros and new DeArmond
guitars and new Epiphones...they might look similar but they don't
feel the same).
However, after a while I became somewhat disinterested in playing
with a "surf" sound and became concerned with making "my" sound work
in a surf context. There's enough bands out there trying to sound
exactly like the Astronauts or something, so the world probably
doesn't need yet ANOTHER guy with a Jaguar and a reverb tank...
