Hello fellow surf enthused people,
I've decided to drop in with an interesting topic to discuss. Playing rythum guitar in the style and tone of Don Wilson of The Ventures. I myself can play a nice sized collection of songs as close as possibly to the style of Don Wilson and will gladly share information to anyone who wants to play in this style. To start off, Gibson guitars, Fender Stratocaster or telecaster would be absolute horrible choice to play in this style, Fender Jazzmaster or Jaguar would be a good choice. I myself despise strats for surf music for a nummber of reasons . Also a authentic Wilson Bro guitar is absolute Perfect choice for playing in the style of Don Wilson, Its all about Trebble and some midrange (if your amp has midrange not too much though) middle position and neck position work real well. Do any of you play in this style of rythum guitar? I look forward to hearing from everyone interested in this or who does this style of rythum guitar. Also I would like to mention Don Wilson's Tekke-Tekke guitar with the "glissandoe" and oil pan drip reverb who else can do this? . Peace

Grab the jag, then the surfboards and hop in the Woody. Let's Go Trippin.

psychonaut wrote:

Don Wilson's playing tends to be very aggressive and machine gun like and certainly unique. I always felt the plucky, flappy no-sustain sound of the Mosrite was perfect for his style, although the skinny necks were probably harder to play with his large hands. I wish I could play rhythm guitar like that! It is worth noting a couple of things though:
In the early days Don Wilson played a Strat, and Nokie played a Tele, also Don Wilson played an SG for many years after the Mosrite contract ran out, so obviously neither of them seem to think any of those are inapropiate guitars. I'd be curious to know why you despise strats for surf ( a common affliction around here it seems), since so many of the greats don't share this hatred (Dick Dale, Jimmy Messina, Chantays, etc...)
Also you keep mentioning surf music, but the Ventures aren't really a surf band per se. Sure they covered a lot of surf tunes, but only after those tunes charted. I'm not trying to be confrontational, so sorry if I come off rude, but I am curious about the strat thing

No worries every guitarist likes different guitars and its what makes us unique, I happen to dislike the strat alot. Well Don did fall in love with the Jazzmaster after playing it and pretty much left behind the strat for the Jazz. The reason the contract kind of went through was because Don Wilson complained that everytime he would turn up the volume it would distort. Yes the Ventures have covered surf music and most of the songs on their "surfin guitars" album were not really recorded with a strat, a couple yes, with Gerry Mcgees rendition of pipeline. Nothing wrong with a tele, just to my knowledge Don never used one. The reason I hate stratocasters is because I just hate that "straty quack" sound from the guitar itself and I don't like how the Vibrato works on it. I prefer the more twang or deep twang from like a Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Wilson Bro Guitar, Moserite, Gretch and I would play a Gibson on stage, even though im not a Gibson fan, before I would play a strat. And I rarely use the treble pickup for some reason, I don't know where it sounds good. And yes Don wilsons style is very agresive and robust, so you can't really be afraid to get down on your guitar strings and dont fear the whammy bar. Alot of people have seen me play the way Don Wilson does, someone even said I abuse my guitars. Its hard to explain, but I tend the dig the pick agressively into the strings when doing up picking and down picking

Grab the jag, then the surfboards and hop in the Woody. Let's Go Trippin.

PS - an example of my attempt at Don Wilson rhythm is on this video with John Blair. See You in September -MT

"Hello Girls!"

Noel wrote:

Nokie wrote:

PS - an example of my attempt at Don Wilson rhythm is on this video with John Blair. See You in September -MT

Great playing, Marty! Sure you can't come out here the first weekend in October. We sure could use you at the East Coast Ventures Fan Fest. It's a whole day of playing Ventures music.

Ditto. Glad the thread even started just for the chance to go back & watch 'em all. That set of vids are like Lay's potato chips & jump-started my coffee.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Don Wilson really couldn't adapt to the Mosrite. As his hands are enormous, he and Semie Moseley had words and a parting of the minds over the slim neck. As it happens in life, there are some things you really have no control over. With the guitar, it's your hands and fingers - an integral part of guitar playing. You can 't really do any "custom shop" work on them with the possible exception of having the webbing removed from between your fingers. I've heard of it and saw it once on a player - totally hideous.
I listen to Don's rhythm work on the early albums -like Ventures in Space. Case in point, the rhythm guitar on 'Solar Race' - it's deceptively 'simple'
Then I listen to his playing on the jazzmaster and Wilson Bros stuff. It just doesn't have his early drive. As much as Don liked that Jazzmaster, my ears said the sound couldn't suck enough. His late, great partner Bob Bogle seemed to have better 'tone control' over the same instrument.

I've mentioned it before here in the SG101 forum, but I find it curious that Don didn't like the Mosrite when Mosley made it; goes to Brand X guitars; then comes up with his own guitar that is a (cheap) mimic of the original Ventures Mosrite. I've seen, heard and played the WB guitar - it's really thin soup compared to a Mosrite.

BTW.. I concur on stratocasters for surf- 40+ pieces of hardware junk in a routed out body cavity to get tremolo effects. Sheesh! Bigsby and Moseley definitely made it simpler and better.
All this of course is my humble opinion
J Mo'

IMO the standard strat setup has some limitations for surf tones, but they are easily overcome. Again IMO the limitations are the tone controls don't affect the bridge pickup and you can't select bridge + neck pickups together. This is simply and quickly fixed by interchanging the leads from the bridge and middle pickups, which means a few minutes of soldering.

After this, the tone knob that worked on the middle pickup now works on the bridge. On the pickup selector middle position gives bridge pickup, rear end position gives middle pickup, and the position that formerly gave middle + neck pickups now gives bridge + neck pickups.

Another mod that can be easily made without cost is using a single tone control for all pickups.

I have a couple of modified strat clones that I put DiPinto bridge pickups in. I also have a DiPinto Mach IV, with a Jazzmaster type vibrato. Using the bridge pickups they sound about the same, and the vibrato feels about the same. For surf tone and playability I consider them equals.

After one or both mods, what shortcomings do you see in a strat as surf guitar?

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