Mosrite Ventures MI, Jazzmaster, Mosrite Ventures MI, Jazzmaster,Mosrite Ventures MI, Jazzmaster..................

www.myspace.com/thethunderheads

My Favorite .... my Ibanez Jet King 4 w/Kent Armstrong P-90's (as seen in my avatar). To me.... the best surf-tone I've ever heard.

Also use : Strats, Jazzmaster, and sometimes a Fender Duo Sonic just for kicks.

Fin Doctors
Crashmatics

I saw Marty Stuart at a Fender-sponsored show in Nashville in 1999. He and his band were presented Blue Sparkle (ala Buck Owens). He recalled getting his first Fender as a kid in Philadelphia Mississippi. He said, "There were racks of Stratocasters and Telecasters-all of which is wish I had today. What did I get? A JAGUAR! Sorry Fender, but they sucked then and they still suck toay". Obvoiusly, he never saw Dave Wronski!

I loved the slogan for the buzz stop:
"Makes your Jaguar, Jazzmaster, or Mustang sound like a REAL guitar"!
Priceless.

It's a 1960 from the looks of it. Nothing too special about it except Marty played it, or so that is probably his reasoning for it being special.

ok, my turn.

now mind you. i haven't played all the guitars mentioned just teles, strats and i owned a mosrite for a time. so i'm in no position to compare them all to each other. in fact, i'm not even going to try. i'm just telling you what i like.

there was nothing in the world to me that sounded so sweet as....well, just about any guitar through my old ampeg gemini II amp. it could not go as loud as i wanted but it had a reverb unit in it that i've never heard since. and the tremolo could make me lose track of time and space when i used it. i played a cheap 60's jap jag copy first. eventually i came into the possession of a 89' mosrite in a pedal steel guitar trade. it was one of the percs of the trade but i knew what it was cause i was a big ventures fan.

all i can say is that when i played that mosrite, time stopped. the sound was there and truly awsome but for me it was how it played. it just suited ME. period. i think if you can find the guitar that somehow flips all those switches inside your brain, then you are truly blessed.

if i had been able to find anyone to play surf music with me many years ago i might not have gone on to follow a different direction(country and the pedal steel guitar). obviously i still love surf and listen often. lately i started thinking about that mosrite. it's a long story but due to circumstances beyond my control, the mosrite was basically stolen from me. i was heartbroken. last week i just bought a vintage 65' mosrite and am awaiting arrival. i can't afford it and will have to sell some of my bluegrass instruments to pay for it(and then some). but i was never the same after losing that guitar. that's how much it meant to me.

on another note, as a steel player, there is a similar debate amongst steelers when it comes to "the tone". the majority(it seems) believe that the emmons guitars built through the late seventies/early 80's are the holy grail of tone. but a whole 'nother camp thinking it's the shobuds. while some folks are on the fence. one of the interesting parts of the debate is that one of the makers(who is a famous and killer player himself) set up a soundproof room in his factory to have different musicians set up steel and amp combinations to see if players could tell the difference in "tone" from one steel to the next. in blind tests, he proved that no one could pick out one from another consistently. i think the point is that only the person playing the instrument can hear those subtle things that turn him/her on to "that tone".

i would wager that something similar would happen if you did the same thing with all these surf guitars mentioned. i know that some of the more opinionated folks might disagree, but that's why maurice set up that room. to prove them wrong. of course, the debate still rages, as it does here, so there ya' go.

one last thing is that there is sort of a running joke in the steel world that black steels sound better. some people actually believe this. does anyone here think that a certain color sounds better than others?

wow. you got to play with buddy. that's quite the honor whether you realize it or not.
i love his playing but i'm more of a lloyd green fan. for what it's worth.

and yes i have heard of joe wright. i have checked out his steel page a few times.

lately i've tried working out some surf tunes on the steel. i've got bead on mr. moto and it's starting to sound pretty cool. you know there's definitely a connection between the surf sound and that country thing that was going on in the early 60's. i decided to start trying to get that tele sound out of the steel in the lower register. my lowest string on my steel is a 70 so you can guess how that whole twangy thing is possible there. the tuning is not quite suited for playing surf but possible. if i get it down better maybe i'll post a mp3.

i'll be posting pics of my guitars in that thread eventually and i'll include my steels too. after all, they are guitars.....

Gary Brandin, the pedal steel behind the Vanduras, can also be heard with the Blue Hawaiians, the Tikiyaki Orchestra, Patty Booker, the Western Continentals, Kevin Banford & on the Spongebob show. There's probably a dozen more, but that's all I personally know. Great player & really nice guy.

Radio Free Bakersfield--60 Minutes of TWANG, CRUNCH, OOMPH.
http://radiofreebakersfield.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Radio-Free-Bakersfield/172410279636
http://www.sandiegojoe.com/rfb.htm

Thanks Whorehay. I first saw Gary with The Blue Hawaiins.
BTW, I checked out RFB and LOVE IT! I've turned several of my friends onto it as well.
I know you're not actually in Bakersfield. A few years ago, I was contacted by the HB Surf Museum. Seven Oaks Country Club in Bakersfield (Buck Owens was a member) needed a band for a luau, but didn't want a "pure" Surf band. We took the gig and had a great time. The staff at the club treated us like royalty. We were asked back the following year, but had a scheduling conflict. The manager who had hired us left shortly afterwards, so we haven't been back.

My favorite Surf guitar is the one I have now my G&L Asat Clasic
thru my reissue Fender 40th Anniversary Twin Reverb. I don't
know how many on this forum use G&L they are good guitars.
I am saving for another guitar and I want it to sound different
I've looked at Steinberger, Fender,Vox, Rickenbacker, and I
even looked at Ed Roman guitars so does anyone one here
know of any others that I should look at.

Lou D