tartanphantom
Thanks. That one is pretty temperamental. The play action is exceptional for a 60's Japanese guitar. However, the electronics can be a headache sometimes. I'm in the process of replacing all of the slide switches because they are 40 years old and work intermittently. The pickups are pretty low output, but they work well in pairs. When you have all 4 of them engaged it's pretty fat sounding, but also a bit of hum since none of them are RWRP. I plan to flip the magnets and wiring in two of them so that I can get some hum-cancelling in certain positions.

One other thing, if you happen to get one, the first thing to do is POT the pickups! Mine were very microphonic until I wax-potted them.

First off, sorry to hear about the tornado in Murfreesboro. I hope you weren't personally affected by it.

The electronics you describe sound about what I expected. I have one 60's Teisco and it's about the same story - decent action and playability but troublesome electronics. But it doesn't look as cool as yours.

tartanphantom

Voodoo_Idol
First off, sorry to hear about the tornado in Murfreesboro. I hope you weren't personally affected by it.

I don't like to go off-topic in this forum, but I will say this....
It's only by sheer luck and the grace of God that I am typing this right now. We had three separate twisters hit today in a span of about 2 hours. The most powerful one touched down only 2 blocks from my place. Fortunately I sustained no damage, but I am pretty shaken right now. If you go 1/4 mile from my house there is heavy, heavy damage, AND 2 fatalities in that neighborhood.

Fortunately, I live to surf another day.

Now, back to the gear & rigs!

Glad to hear you escaped damage or injury, and quite sad for those who did not.

I bet a big twister would be a fearsome thing. Then again, if by chance a tornado were to hit a nearby music store and deposit a perfectly reliced custom shop tele or gretsch annie on my front lawn, then I'd learn to live with them.

Although my live rig is mostly conventional (A 66 Yamaha Sg-2, which is pretty much a Jaguar with a Japanese accent, into a Twin Reverb) I have had a few odd ducks in the past, both live and in the studio.

Rig One:

A Magnatone Typhoon into a 100 watt solid-state Standel. The Magnatone was a fabulous guitar, with great "dinky" kinda' sounds that turned into a throaty roar when you cranked things up (in this case, with an old Ross Distortion). The Standel was loud, clean at any volume, and had great reverb and tremolo on it...until it stopped working.

That's when I learned about how Standel innards were assembled in little sealed "modules" that were (at least at the time) impossible to fix. In one of my moments of _complete _brain-farty-ness, I traded the amp in for a Fender Super Twin, which I failed to notice had NEITHER 'verb or tremolo. D'oh!

The Magnatone had a worse fate, falling down a flight of stairs without a case and shattering into little orange-sparkle colored kindling. Alas, it took me losing ANOTHER guitar in this fashion (a Teisco Vox copy) to realize maybe I should by a guitar case or two.

Rig two:

A Univox Hi-Flyer into a Kustom 50.

Now THIS was a surf rig! Big, deep-sounding Univox pickups (mine had the faux p-90's) a great whammy bar, and the Kustom had uber-splashy reverb, plus vibrato as well as tremolo. the CCR-esque distortion it created when cranked was a cool deal, too.

I still have the Kustom; the Univox started acting peculiar after I took it to Japan, where for some reason it stripped every single wood screw and vibrated apart during the flight over. I had it put back together after I came back to the states, but then after that it wouldn't intonate properly. There's probably some fascinating laws of science involved here, but I was too busy to investigate. I gave it to my brother, who subsequently sold it to one of his pals. Might still have it--dunno.

Now, the best surf sound I ever RECORDED was this:

Harmony Rocket into a Fender Tube Reverb into a Gibson Skylark, turned almost all the way up.

HUGE sounding--like Dick Dale, but angrier.

I've also used other Gibson amps in studio (RVT-18's, and 55s) and a Surpo Royal Reverb for some great stuff, too, but that Rocket/Skylark combo--wowee!

--Crispy

Eddie--

Yeah, Deke Dickerson (a bona-fide Standel nut) told me you can get schematics to rebuild to modules now. But back in 1988 (when I owned mine), I was doomed, I tells ya!

Speaking Standels, the last time I saw Brian from Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, he had an interesting rig with his Atomic 7 band; A Gibson Switchmaster into a Premier Reverb, into a Tube Standel. It sounded quite sweet!

--Crispy

Crispy, was that Switchmaster a P90 or humbucking? I have a thing for the ES-5.

apacheplayr
Have you ever heard surf played on a pedal steel guitar? Apache sounds really cool.

You weren't kidding with your member name were you

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

I guess in my case it's non-traditional for fiscal reasons.

Mutt Telecaster (the best guitar I've played)-- ~$350
Roland VGA-5 amp (dropped off the truck)-- $50
Danelectro Dan Echo (if I'm feeling posh and can bother with a patch cable)-- $25

In my defense-- the Hurricanes used a 335, Duane Eddy played a Gretsch, the Ventures briefly had an SG in their line up. . .

apacheplayr
Have you ever heard surf played on a pedal steel guitar? Apache sounds really cool.

If you can track down a copy of my long-out-of-date surf comp Fiberglass Jungle, you can hear Hot Tecate! doing a steel guitar instrumental version of I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night by KISS.

Incidentally, Hot Tecate! is/was:

Dusty Watson - drums
Ron Eglit - steel
Richard Blair - rhythm guitar
Sam Bolle - bass

They called it Surf 'n' Skate All Nite, and it's pretty amazing!

Ted James
Deep Eddy Records http://www.deepeddy.net
The Nematoads http://www.nematoads.com

At risk of being burned at the stake, I play a very non-traditional setup. For my amp, I am using a Marshall Mosfet 100 Head through a 1x12 Acoustic Cabinet. I bypass the preamp using an modeler...For reverb I am using a Holy Grail pedal. My guitars are currently a Epiphone Wildkat and an Eastwood Sidejack. No, this rig is far from traditional but, then again, I do not play traditional Surf. I was much more inspired by MOAM? and The Ghastly Ones. I would say my tone is pretty much on par with Brian Causey's at this point.

THE KBK ... This is the last known signal. We offer Sanctuary.

www.thekbk.com
http://www.deepeddy.net/artists/thekbk/
www.reverbnation.com/thekbk
www.facebook.com/thekbkal

deepeddy
If you can track down a copy of my long-out-of-date surf comp Fiberglass Jungle, you can hear Hot Tecate! doing a steel guitar instrumental version of I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night by KISS.
Incidentally, Hot Tecate! is/was:

Ron Eglit - steel

They called it Surf 'n' Skate All Nite, and it's pretty amazing!

I first heard Ron play steel with his band "The Gyromatics". He mounted the front panel from an old Gyromatic washing machine in front of his steel. It looked SO cool. He's an excellent steel player. I recently uncovered a cassette tape of their 4-song EP and am going to transfer it to CD.