Does anyone happen to know what guage strings Mikko Lankinen uses on his Squire Strat?
I've heard he uses a Vox AC30 clone for an amp. Anyone know anything more specific?
I got a look at his pedalboard, but I should have taken notes. I remember seeing a Gov'nor distortion box. What else is there?

Thanks,
Eric

DannySnyder
Not to be flippant but you'd need to graft Mikko's hands onto your arms to sound like that guy. His sound is all in his technique.

Mikko playing my gear would sound "just a little" different than him playing his own. It's precisely that difference which I'm inquiring about.

You'd be surprised how close I can come to Mikko's playing without needing a hand transplant. With every blessing comes a curse, though. My skill as a mimic is largely nullified by my dismal failure as a songwriter. To me, the true genius of a Mikko lies not with the mechanics of playing, but with the imagination to invent not only new music, but music that's interesting. Anybody can write crappy music. Even I can write crappy songs. 95% of original music is crap. Thankfully, we don't often get to hear it as only the cream rises to the top.

Mikko's Squier JV Stratocaster had replacement pickups according to Ivan.

http://surfguitar101.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7205&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=45)

In a related note, Ivan conducted a comprehensive interview with the band in the latest issue of The Continental. It may not cover string gauges but it is fascinating to find out more about this incredible band.

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I am now playing trumpet with Prince Buster tribute band 'Balzac'

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 thought you said your tone is like his, not your playing. My misunderstanding.

You definitely got the right idea in getting the technique and proper voicings down.

FlatRacer
Perhaps if I immerse myself in enough Floyd, Laika and Trower, and get my head in the right place, I could come up with something better than the dreck I've written in the past.

Eric

Yup just listen to what you like all the time, and write. And write sparsely! Don't try to write the musical equivalent of "the Great American Novel" or wherever you're from. Just write an A and B part, and keep it simple... Write 50 or so, and you'll start getting somewhere!

The hard part is going back over those 50 songs and turning them into 5 good ones...

I'm not putting anyone down. Please let me explain:
Most of my playing is in cover bands and tribute bands where playing songs and solos note for note receives high praise and there is no room for improvisation.
On the rare occasion when I have room to improvise, I do fine until I run out of ideas. Sooner or later I grab the old "super fast pentatonic crutch" and proceed to lean on it. Most of the audience seems to like it, but I feel cheap when I do it, like I cheated on my midterm (I'm my own worst critic).
Players who spend a good deal of their time playing fast, even the great ones, wear me out as a listener. For example, there's no doubt that Danny Gatton was a great player, but I find I can't listen to an entire album of his in one sitting. I feel punch drunk and exhausted by the end of it. I seem to have lost the ability to listen to music (especially guitar music) without over analyzing it. Instead of letting it wash over me so I can enjoy it, I focus in on the details and begin to pick it apart from the get go. This is why, as I said "for my taste" I seem to like slower players lately. Malmsteen is a phenomenal player. Blows my mind every time, but I can't remember a single song he's done. Laika's melodies stick with me.

Just my opinion, for whatever it's worth.
Eric

FlatRacer
Mikko has become my favorite "slowhand" player. What I mean by that is he gets so much feeling out of every note that he doesn't need to lean on the crutch of playing a lot of notes very quickly.

Eric, a few others have commented on this point already, but I just wanted to mention that having seen L&TC live something like five times, I can tell you that I also heard them play unbelievably fast, maybe faster than any other surf band. When they did Bahareeba live, things would get very intense. It's unfair to Mikko - and a one-dimensional way of thinking of him - to just label him a 'slowhand' player. He's very versatile and able to get aggressive and, yes, very fast when it's required. No need to limit ourselves to thinking of good musicians as just being one way or another, good musicians are usually all of the above.

(I just watched some old footage of Les Paul, and here's a player that could play with so much emotion AND speed, often times in the same song! Or how about Django Reinheardt?)

CrispyGoodness
One thing about Mikko that is unique is his liberal use of the guitars' vibrato arm instead of using his fingers. When I saw him play, he always had his pick between his thumb and index finger, and his vibrato arm between his third and forth fingers, and gave that rascal a good wiggle on any note played longer than a whole beat. It's a big part of what makes the man sound so good.

I think this is a very good point. It's the Hank Marvin influence, which is very common in Euro instro music, but pretty much completely absent among Americans. I don't think I know of a single American player that plays in this style, continuously keeping the vibrato bar lodged in the right hand. Most American surf players just reach for it here and there to lower the pitch instead of giving it a good shake...

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
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What impressed me most about Mikko's playing when I saw him was the extreme amount of tension and emotion that comes out in his playing while his external expression is fairly cold and quiet. Its really an amazing thing to watch. You can tell that he puts 100% of his soul into every note he plays and you can feel an incredible amount of tension there. Someone might be able to mimic the technical tone, but its that heartbreaking tension he has that would be way more elusive to mimic.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
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