What guitars do popular surf rock bands play? Several come to mind – Fender Stratocasters, Jazzmasters and Jaguars, Mosrites, and Danelectros. Not only do they usually have a certain sound, but they also have a certain look. You don’t see a lot of Flying Vs in surf bands.
Let’s take a quick and unprofessional look at what popular bands of different eras played:
- The Ventures – Fender Strats, Fender Jazzmasters, and Mosrites
- Dick Dale – Fender Strat
- Surfaris – Fender Strat
- The Beach Boys – Fender Strat
- Duane Eddy – Gretsch
- Link Wray – Les Paul Goldtop, Gibson Firebird, Supro Dual Tone
- The Shadows – Fender Stratocaster
- Man or Astroman? – Silvertone Hollowbody, Epiphone Coronet, Hofner Hollowbody
- The Mermen – Fender Stratocaster
- The Blue Stingrays – Fender Jaguar (I think)
- Los Straitjackets – DiPinto Galaxie
A guitar store display of Fenders
According to the book “Guitar Rigs” by Dave Hunter, “Fender’s Jazzmaster and Jaguar have been the dual lodestones of the retro surf crowd.” That certainly seems to be true.
Just from this small sample, Fender Stratocasters have been amongst the most popular as well. Today, of course, you have many more choices than early surf bands. I’d say there’s more than a couple of different “classic” surf guitars and rigs.
July 1, 2010 at 9:36 am
Fender Strats are some of the best and most used Guitars in all types of styles but why aren’t any acoustics up there?
July 22, 2010 at 5:16 pm
Most surf music of the early 60′s was played on medium flatwound strings. Dick Dale says he used heavy strings but I don’t know if they were flatwounds. Leo Fender designed the Jazzmaster for Jazz players and flatwounds were very popular until the late 60′s.
One of the enduring qualities of surf music is the simplicity of getting some of the basic sounds. An minor chord, some reverb and a whammy bar are such a fine combination.
If you listen to the Ventures and some other early surf bands you may notice that their use of reverb is fairly conservative. A tube driven long spring reverb unit is a bit much at 10. I’m so glad the Romanians like surf music.
October 6, 2010 at 8:53 am
” I’m so glad the Romanians like surf music. ”
Sure, I think we all are.
November 15, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Interesting how nobody took to the fender mustang..I’ve never played one , but it seems to have all the requisites, 2 pickups, tremolo, fender name…anyone know why?