Switchfoot + Fender's New American Professional Series

I remember being somewhere along the lines of 12 or 13 years old when my cousin gave me burned CD with a ton of pop-punk music that I had never heard before with songs from Hoobastank, Blink 182, Wheetus, and so many other bands that impacted my musical tastes. Alongside that mixed CD he also gave me a CD that he recently purchased that was still in the plastic wrapping. This CD had a photograph of an empty swimming pool with a bass guitar laying at the bottom of it. If you guessed that this was “The Beautiful Letdown” from Switchfoot, you’d be correct.

I remember ripping this album to my X-Box and listening to it on repeat while I played Tony Hawk Pro Skater for hours on end. It quickly became a soundtrack for my life. Even before really knowing much about guitars or what was really going on there sonically. Fast forward a few years and now songs from Nothing Is Sound, Oh Gravity!, and Hello Hurricane have become my therapy of choice when dealing with all of the ups and downs of teenage and young adult life. There’s no way I could “re-watch” my life and not hear a Switchfoot song in nearly every scene.

These songs were everywhere. “Dare You To Move” made it to my youth group for a series that was taught over the course of a month. I had to play and sing this song for a couple of weeks during that and did this masterpeice no justice whatsoever.

Switchfoot Escaped the “Box”

I’m guilty of this. I grew up a church kid and a pretty sheltered one at that. Growing up on K-Love and Hillsong slightly warped my sightline when it came to the difference between “christian” and “secular”. So many people placed Switchfoot into the “Contemporary Christian Music” category. Though the guys in the band are Christians, they have at no point claimed to be “Christian Music”. Jon Foreman once said something that really changed my view on songwriting in an interview about this once. "None of these songs has been born again, and to that end there is no such thing as Christian music. No. Christ didn't come and die for my songs, he came for me.". Relient K also had a similar experience with the CCM crowd boxing them in. I know that there may have been other bands that had to fight this fight, but these are the first two that I think of when I think of that CCM box that was created back in the early 2000’s.

So we can create art that isn’t a religious response? Though theres a place and time for that, it really helped me out knowing that I could create art that was just that. Artwork. This may not be a huge thing for the guys of Switchfoot anymore, but that statement still impacts me to this day.

Fender Tones of My Teenage Years

Though no longer with the band, Drew Shirley would easily go down as one of the top five influences of all time for my guitar playing and tone. I can’t think of a single pedalboard revision or amplifier choice that didn’t run through the filter of “what would Drew, Edge, Hoopes, Brad, or John do here”. Like most guitar players similar in age, I was so concerned about Switchfoot after Drew Shirley left. The guys use a blend of Fender, Gretsch, Elliot, and Gibson guitars for a tasty variety of sonic goodness.

Boaz Roberts Bridges Two Different Groups of Swithfoot Fans Together

Boaz Roberts, who grew up right down the street from Tim Foreman and Jon Foreman, joined the band in the tricky year of 2021. Boaz says in an interview that he feels like he’s playing with older brothers or uncles because he’s known them for so long now. Boaz has not only embraced the challenge of filling huge shoes, but has managed to bring two very different groups of Switchfoot Fans together. This could be completely in my head but I feel like there’s a younger group of Switchfoot fans that came along post “Vice Verses”. Switchfoot had a pretty significant change in tone and overall feel after that album, not a bad thing at all. I love it.

I personally think that Boaz has done an incredible job at taking the stuff that everyone loved about the Drew Shirley years and brought a completely new and unique take on it. Enough to make the older die-hard fans like myself and the younger/newer fans agree on one thing: Switchfoot is here to stay.

Fender & Gretsch Guitars

I’ve mentioned previously that I’m a guitar player and a rig builder here in Nashville. That being said, I’m always looking at the gear that my favorite players are using. One thing that I’ve noticed over the years to be very consistent is Jon Foreman’s Black Gretsch BST-1000. Gretsch guitars are probably my favorite guitar to collect. I own three at the moment: a 1965 6120 Nashville, White Falcon, and a 53’ Select DuoJet Reissue. Over the years, Jon’s use of that very specific black Gretsch guitar has made it hard not to think of Switchfoot when seeing a black hollowbody Gretsch. The jangly gut ripping rhythmic sounds of a Filtertron pickup are an absolute favorite.

Fender Guitars have played a huge part in the sound that Switchfoot has had for the last 20+ years. I know that Drew has always been a fan of the Fender Princeton Reverb and the Fender Telecaster over the course of his time with Switchfoot. Boaz played one of the new American Professional Stratocasters, Jon had the American Professional Jaguar, and Jerome Fontamillas can be seen here playing the new American Professional Jazzmaster. Of course, I can count on one hand how many times that I’ve seen Tim Foreman play a bass that didn’t have that classic Fender headstock. He can also been seen using a Fender Super Bassman here.

Fender has proven themselves time and time again as one of the history makers in the guitar industry.

The All-New Fender American Professional Series.

I come from the days of the American Standard line up of guitars and own several Fender Stratocasters from that era. Fender has just announced something really exciting. The All-New Fender American Professional Series. This new lineup of guitars from Fender look incredibly promising with features like the new V-Mod III lineup of pickups, upgrades bridges, Deep C necks with a 9.5 radius, and Alder or Ash bodies with a sculpted heel. The new Telecaster bridge that Fender is putting on these guitars is considered a Custom Shop Bridge and look extremely promising so far.

Jon Foreman, Fiction Family, and Other Notable Side Quests

Yeah, I’m nerding out right now, and that’s ok. Jon Foreman has released so much more music than just the stuff you hear from Switchfoot. Jon has release 4 solo albums as well as multiple albums with Fiction Family. Don’t even start the rabbit trail of trying to find all the songs that he’s featured on. One of my favorite Relient K songs, Deathbed, features a haunting verse from Jon that is hard to forget about. More recently he’s been featured with Gable Price & Friends, Colony House, and Needtobreathe.