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Hey folks, just heard about this place from Dick Messick (thanks,
man!) and wandered in. See some familiar names here (hi Ivan, email
me privately please...got lots o' catching up to do).
Some of you might know me as Zak from the Treblemakers...I certainly
know some of you from the old Cowabunga list, though I haven't looked
in on that in soooooo long...seems like there's nothing but
politically-correct hippie people there.
Regarding the topic of non-Fender guitars in surf music, I just
wanted to say that one of my all-time favorite 60's surf guitarists,
Johnny Fortune (real name John Sudetta) recorded his classic sides
with a 50's Gretsch 6120 w/DeArmond Dynasonic pickups. Man, that tone
just knocks me out, it has to be one of the most unique and beautiful
sounds in surf music...not to mention that Johnny was only 15 when he
recorded the guitar AND bass AND trumpet parts...and his 11 year old
brother played absolutely perfect, subtle, surprisingly jazzy drums
on the recordings!
Johnny's choice of guitar was probably influenced by Chet Atkins,
Chet's influence shows all over Johnny's sophisticated playing style.
Another big pre-surf guitar icon that played the same guitar was
Duane Eddy, a guy that influenced a whole slew of 1st wave surf bands
and non-surf instrumental combos.
As for me, I gave up on Jazzmasters and Jaguars and solidbody guitars
in general a couple of years ago and now I use only Gretsch
hollowbody guitars. There's pictures of 'em here:
Recently, the Treblemakers came out of semi-permanent hibernation to
record a couple of original tunes we never got around to recording
and I used the Gretsch stuff instead of dusting off the Jaguar (sold
the Jazzmaster last year). I'm pretty happy with the results! I'd
been using my Gretsch Tennessean with the Trebelmakers for the last
dozen shows we did and you know what? Most people couldn't hear any
damn difference through all the reverb.
Sometimes I think that just about any decent guitar with single-coils
is going to sound good if you run it through an original Fender
reverb tank and a brownface Fender amp!
Zak
--- In SurfGuitar101@y..., bighollowtwang@y... wrote:
> Some of you might know me as Zak from the Treblemakers...
Hi Zak!
> I'd
> been using my Gretsch Tennessean with the Trebelmakers for the last
> dozen shows we did and you know what? Most people couldn't hear any
> damn difference through all the reverb.
> Sometimes I think that just about any decent guitar with single-
coils
> is going to sound good if you run it through an original Fender
> reverb tank and a brownface Fender amp!
>
Now that you mention it, I believe Star Crunch from Man or Astro-Man?
used a Gretsch Tennessean in their early surfier days. He then went
to a Jazzmaster and then on to a Mosrite (or Mosrite knock-off).
