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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Moving away from tradition

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Over the last few years I’ve become quite bored with the traditional surf guitars we all know and love. Not just the looks, but the sounds too.
In early ‘17 I bought an Abernethy AA model and it’s just magical. Custom appointments, torrefied woods, with McNelly Stagger Swagger pickups that are crazy responsive.

My 53rd birthday is next week and my wife surprised me with this machine. It is a remarkable instrument to say the least. Mahogany body, solid rosewood neck, custom trem and DiMarzio mini-hums. This thing has soul all its own, very alive and inspiring to play. The body shape is rad too, like a cross between the fins on a ‘57 Dart and and an intergalactic space ship!

image
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I bought my daughter the sterling version for her 6th birthday. It’s sick.
I’ve felt a few of the rosewood ebmm necks on different models, but I’ve yet to come across the real stv in the flesh. Does yours have a real flat D neck profile?
Enjoy, I’m jelly, for sure.

I have always wrestled with being as traditional as possible, and simply being influenced by 60's surf. Having to rethink every song I write for the project over and over, or constantly trying to decide if I want a Ventures tone or a Link Wray tone, etc, in order to make everything more stereotypical to please the purist in myself is definitely starting to seem counter productive, to me. I am now resigned to striking a balance. Be myself, while making it obvious what my main influences are. That includes my gear choices. While most of what I have is either vintage or vintage inspired, I'm not sweating that it may not be the most period/genre correct stuff (Reverend guitar with TV Jones pickups, 70's fender combos, pedals). The freedom is definitely inspiring.
Great guitar, btw. Looks awesome.

Guitarist for Black Valley Moon & Down By Law

Your wife buys you some pretty nice guitars. I've heard you get some pretty good surf tone out of a Marshal so this just adds to the nontraditional. It's always been my opinion that as long as whatever gear anyone uss inspires them to play and let's them play well then who am I to say otherwise.

Hell yeah Toneschaser those are sweet guitars! I like Annie Clark's playing a lot. But her tones are really processed so I didn't anticipate that I would like the sound of her guitars even though I found the look appealing. When I finally played one I was impressed. These are honestly the first new style guitar I've been excited about, maybe ever. Thet are really great sounding, great playing cool looking guitars. Personally I think they look retro enough for many of the folks on this forum. I don't really need another guitar but if I did I would seriously consider one of those. Anyway, cool to see someone here got one.

The Vicissitones
Diesel Marine
The Rasputones

ElectricLimnology wrote:

Hell yeah Toneschaser those are sweet guitars! I like Annie Clark's playing a lot. But her tones are really processed so I didn't anticipate that I would like the sound of her guitars even though I found the look appealing. When I finally played one I was impressed. These are honestly the first new style guitar I've been excited about, maybe ever. Thet are really great sounding, great playing cool looking guitars. Personally I think they look retro enough for many of the folks on this forum. I don't really need another guitar but if I did I would seriously consider one of those. Anyway, cool to see someone here got one.

Those mini hums sound like fat single coils. They’re actually very useable across loads of genres. I’m fairly confident that’s by design, as Annie certainly wanted this to be accessible to a vast majority of players, and not in any way pigeonhole the instrument.
Regardless, the pickups are great. Bridge and neck together sound sweet.

Love the looks of that model, since it came out.
Straight from the Jet Age.
Even the knobs are super cool.
Fantastic present, congrats.

http://soundcloud.com/graham-pike

I love tradition, I respect it.
But I also love artists and instruments that break tradition and have their own identity. Perhaps even more than traditional representations.
Really cool guitar Eric!
Those Dimarzios sound good as parallel humbuckers as well.
Happy Birthday!

Cheers,
Jeff

http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic

I've always dug the looks of those since they came out, and the blue is especially nice. And I'm totally behind finding non-traditinal tones - if you like the sound and it inspires you to play, it's a good tone and who cares whether it passes some authenticity test?

jdmcduders wrote:

Your wife buys you some pretty nice guitars. I've heard you get some pretty good surf tone out of a Marshal so this just adds to the nontraditional. It's always been my opinion that as long as whatever gear anyone uss inspires them to play and let's them play well then who am I to say otherwise.

She gets me! I'm actually thinking about putting the Marshall amps back into my live rig, they surf just fine!

CrazyAces wrote:

I love tradition, I respect it.
But I also love artists and instruments that break tradition and have their own identity. Perhaps even more than traditional representations.
Really cool guitar Eric!
Those Dimarzios sound good as parallel humbuckers as well.
Happy Birthday!

Cheers,
Jeff

I agree all around! I'll always be a vintage snob to the core, I'm just moving beyond what they can do for me musically at this time.

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Last edited: Feb 02, 2024 14:24:13

Tqi wrote:

Toneschaser wrote:

I agree all around! I'll always be a vintage snob to the core, I'm just moving beyond what they can do for me musically at this time.

Good on you for recognising it and forcing yourself out of your comfort zone!

Thanks! I'm really enjoying playing this guitar!

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Last edited: Feb 02, 2024 14:28:31

First off, beautiful guitar! I have an appreciation for traditional surf, but find it very linear leaving a lot of musical opportunity unexplored. If it sounds good, I say go for it! Ones playing style with reflect influences without the need to over state or play it.

The Me Gustas
https://themegustas.com

What does it sound like? Give us a clip.

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More often than not, I am listening to music - not watching it. As long as it sounds good, who cares what it was played on?

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Last edited: Jan 23, 2019 12:06:21

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