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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink Gear Used on Ventures Christmas Album

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Does anyone know what guitars and/or amps the Ventures used in recording their original Christmas album?

On a side note, does anyone know if there is tab available for these songs? I found tab for Sleigh Ride but that has been it.

Thanks.

Sean

Captain,
The sound is Mosrite.. It would pretty much have to be as the album was issued at the height of the Ventures endorsement and distributorship of the Ventures model (and what a great guitar that is ) at the time. I get the same sound from one of my Ventures models plugged into an '80s Yamaha G100-II head and cabinet. I think the Ventures were also using Fender amps at the time . The Mosrite AWARD amp was not yet with us.

There is (or was) a Japanese book available from time to time on EBAY that has full band scores of the Ventures tunes. One of them has several of the Christmas album tunes transcribed into tab as a bonus.. Sleigh Ride, Frosty the Snowman...etc. The book was a bit pricey ($35-$40) but worth it.
Hope this helps Smile

I just asked Don Wilson about 10 minutes ago and while he didn't remember specifically he said he was pretty sure it was Mosrite because of the time it was made. He's getting together with Bob Bogle tomorrow to do some recording and said they'll talk about it and see if it jars any memories and get back to me.

There is Surf east of Sepulveda.

sleigh ride is the only one you will find on the net, (Believe me I have looked) that also is one of the few I had the patience to tab out myself before I looked. Crying

doesn't really sound like Mosrites to me - even though it should be from that era. listen to "Slaughter on 10th Ave." and then listen to the Christmas album. not the same rig. I suppose it could be just different amps but those Mosrites drove the crap out of anything you plugged them into.

There is also the storys that they used Fenders in the studio, but Mosrites on stage because of the endorsement deal they had..???

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Jeff(bigtikidude)

One or two tracks on IN SPACE sound like Jazzmasters to me.

KK

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.

Any further developments in research on this topic since '06?

Insect Surfers
The Tikiyaki Orchestra
The Scimitars
Lords Of Atlantis
Fiberglass Jungle - Surf Radio

Inquiring minds need to know! Cool

I know this is an old topic but even though it's no where near Christmas I've been listening to the Christmas album because I plan on getting down the Sleight Ride song down before Christmas. I have the tab on it but want to hear it over and over again to ingrain all the little nuances in my head when I learn it. So because of that been listening to the whole album. Excellent tone on that album. In listening to it I have a hard time believing the tone is not Mosrite. It sounds very Mosrite.

My understanding is that Bob and Don hated Mosrites but Nokie actually liked them. Maybe there were some instances where Fenders were used but as far as lead goes, and Nokie was lead most the time I'm pretty sure he would have stuck with Mosrite. When the endorsement deal soured I hear Bob and Don sold off their Mosrites and Nokie kept his because he liked it.

JohnnyMosrite wrote:

Captain,
The sound is Mosrite.. It would pretty much have to be as the album was issued at the height of the Ventures endorsement and distributorship of the Ventures model (and what a great guitar that is ) at the time. I get the same sound from one of my Ventures models plugged into an '80s Yamaha G100-II head and cabinet. I think the Ventures were also using Fender amps at the time . The Mosrite AWARD amp was not yet with us.

There is (or was) a Japanese book available from time to time on EBAY that has full band scores of the Ventures tunes. One of them has several of the Christmas album tunes transcribed into tab as a bonus.. Sleigh Ride, Frosty the Snowman...etc. The book was a bit pricey ($35-$40) but worth it.
Hope this helps Smile

Hey Johnny Marr, I mean Johnny Mosrite, your Yamaha is a solid state and you get that tone. I guess they probably used tube amps on that album but a good solid state can sound very good. I have a used Orange Orange Crush 60 solid state and it sounds pretty tube like, but me knowing it's not tube I have a hard time getting past that it's solid state. I like it for The Smiths, The Cure and that sort of music I love but for other music like surf and I stick to my tubes. Not a tube snob but just knowing it's not tube I stick to tubes for surf and rock and rockabilly stuff.

Boulder_Bob wrote:

doesn't really sound like Mosrites to me - even though it should be from that era. listen to "Slaughter on 10th Ave." and then listen to the Christmas album. not the same rig. I suppose it could be just different amps but those Mosrites drove the crap out of anything you plugged them into.

Funny enough I listened to "Slaughter on 10th Ave." just now and it doesn't sound like a Mosrite and I think you are implying you think it sounds like a Mosrite and the Christmas album sounding different makes it sound like Fenders. To me Slaughter sounds like Fenders with a Fuzz pedal but the Christmas album certainly sounds like Mosrites. I have Mosrites, one vintage and one Fillmore from about 10 years ago but with vintage Mosrite pickups installed, and I have some Ed Elliot pickups I had in a Mosrite Avenger I just sold so I took the pickups out to save them for another guitar. The Ventures Christmas album sounds just like my Ed Elliot pickups, even over my vintage Mosrite and my Fillmore with vintage Mosrite pickups. How can Ed Elliots sound more vintage or at least like The Christmas album over true vintage Mosrite pickups? I don't know but they do.

Speaking of amps used, I asked Deke Dickerson because he's a guitar historian and he said he doesn't know what amps they used on The Christmas album but he believes they used small amps that would break up. I know someone here implied the sound wasn't Mosrite because Mosrite overdrove everything but to me listen to it, it may not be overdriven like a Fuzzrite would push the sound but it's not really clean cut either. Sounds to me like Deke is right it's small amps. Wonder if they used Tweed Deluxes. I mean those aren't small like Champs but they aren't that big either like Tweed or Blackface Twins. I think on the first releases they did they did use Tweed amps, I think Bassman amps since it was years before Blackface era amps or even Blonde era and I wonder if on the Christmas album they went with Tweed like maybe Deluxes?

Chiming in to share these tabs...found these a while ago on this site and I can't recall the user who created them, but I hope they don't mind I've reposted the .zip file on my google drive. Handwritten tabs!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sxGEwznm4AOGM1ReCoKpNf4uI5OklLx3/view?usp=sharing

Side note...this little video I made of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" was a hit with my friends last year haha. https://www.instagram.com/p/BrRb2DFDOK_/

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