I've avoided that too because of the harshness, and since I go from playing muted/chunky stuff to open chords all the time it gets pretty rough. I play flatwound 12's on my Jazzmaster and I'm constantly trying to balance the boominess of the low strings played open and the ice-pickiness of the highs. Constantly adjusting the reverb level up and down (which I do for most songs) further complicates it.

The Mystery Men?
El Capitan and The Reluctant Sadists
SSS Agent #31

We do an Astronauts song ("Surf Party") and I use a Boss FRV-1 pedal & DiPinto Galaxie IV through a mid-90s Vibroverb with pretty good results.

I think a cabinet with a 15" speaker would probably sound even closer though?

psychonaut
When you try to emulate recorded guitar tones, don't forget that you are also hearing the sound of the recording gear as well; microphones, preamps, room sound, ( not to mention the players hands and emotional state ) tape saturation, and a whole lot of other variables which affect and color the sound. For all we know, the Astronauts sound might very well be enhanced by studio reverb (most likely an actual chamber or a plate reverb, or even a studio spring unit, such as a Fairchild), which would account for the "hugeness" of their guitar sound.
I agree though, palm muting really brings out the drip. It's percussive sounds that cause it.

I've noticed lately that not all Astronauts songs have that same drippy reverb sound as Baja, which may have benefited from studio wizardry. They recorded that one at Capitol I believe where they used the basement concrete chamber for reverb.

dp

Stormtiger

psychonaut
When you try to emulate recorded guitar tones, don't forget that you are also hearing the sound of the recording gear as well; microphones, preamps, room sound, ( not to mention the players hands and emotional state ) tape saturation, and a whole lot of other variables which affect and color the sound. For all we know, the Astronauts sound might very well be enhanced by studio reverb (most likely an actual chamber or a plate reverb, or even a studio spring unit, such as a Fairchild), which would account for the "hugeness" of their guitar sound.
I agree though, palm muting really brings out the drip. It's percussive sounds that cause it.

I've noticed lately that not all Astronauts songs have that same drippy reverb sound as Baja, which may have benefited from studio wizardry. They recorded that one at Capitol I believe where they used the basement concrete chamber for reverb.

...where can I get that "Capital Records Concrete Chamber" stomp box? and how does that compare to the Fender re-ish outboard tank with NOS tube-age?

LOL

I have been waiting for studio themed stomp boxes..stax, motown, wrecking crew, sun, electric lady land, meek. What's not to like!?

The Echoes From The Past presets for various multieffects units, including stompboxes, not only replicate the echo-units used on early Shadows recordings, but also the reverb chamber and outboard compression of Abbey Road Studios, in order to give an impression of the records. Which is what most Hank-Marvin-impersonators want anyway.

The Exotic Guitar of Kahuna Kawentzmann

You can get the boy out of the Keynes era, but you can’t get the Keynes era out of the boy.

IvanP wrote:

Very glad to hear it, Bill!

ratfink, here's what I wrote Bill and Elle:

If you want the drip, here are a couple of tips, which you may or may not be aware of: 1) the drip resides in the treble frequencies, so don't be afraid to turn up the treble on your amp; 2) the sound can get very harsh when you do that, so it's important to control it with palm-muting, which also makes the drip jump out more - you can't really hear the drip very much if you're not palm-muting (and you should vary the amount of your palm-muting, experiment with heavy muting, light muting, and all points in between to find the best results); 3) for the best drip sound, use both pickups on at the same time on your Jazzmaster and the reverb setting close to 6-6-6, maybe a bit more on the mix. I find that I can't use the same reverb setting for the songs that have a heavy drip and ones where I play smoother, more flowing lines - heavy reverb makes the lines sound really harsh and lacking in sustain if I'm not palm-muting. So, I adjust the Mix controls on the reverb unit from song to song. There you go, hopefully that'll help a bit.

Sharing the secrets of the trade here! however, I'm just paying it forward - I got many of those tips from Evan Foster of the Boss Martians back in '98, before the Cossacks went in to record our first album.

If treble is the key to ultimate drip, isn't that the reason that the 1Meg pots on Jags and JMs work so well for this?

I can't play this thing! It's got no whammy bar!

Last edited: Sep 02, 2013 07:21:48