IvanP wrote:

Is trying to learn the subtleties of another guitarist's style incompatible with having your own style?

Not at all, but why re-string your guitar for that?

SurfBeat wrote:

Chris: My Showmens song list contains 52 songs of which I think six of them are Dale's and most of the remaining are vocals-R&B tunes from the late fifties. On that note, my band is not a whole Dick Dale show, it is but a small part.

But you do string your right hand guitar upside down, don't you? May I ask you to specify why you do this, as I don't seem to comprehend due to several reasons.

The Hicadoolas

SanchoPansen wrote:

I don't seem to comprehend due to several reasons.

I used to be a hardcore MoAM? fanboy and I absolutely understand geeking out about stuff like that. Bought a Mosrite, Vibrolux, learned to play like StarCrunch, etc. All in all something that brought me forward in the long run. So yes, copying styles/people can help to form your own style - everybody has his influences, or roots.
But I still don't get the point of stringing the guitar 'the wrong way'. Sorry. The way they are intended to be played is so much easier, makes more sense across the fretboard and I don't understand why someone would go through all this struggle. Maybe SurfNeat can shed some light on the whole thing?

The Hicadoolas

Perhaps the missing piece of the puzzle is the fact that many fans of DD are middle aged or older and have multiple guitars. So why not restring one for an experiment? I'm still thinking about taking one of mine and putting on all E strings alternating between octaves.

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

Emilien03 wrote:

... re-stringing upside down a right handed guitar is not natural so ...

As a Brit I could say it isn't natural to drive on the right hand side of the road - yet so many countries persist in doing it..Guitars aren't "natural" - they are man made and probably started out with 4 strings - so is it natural to have 6? What about alternate tuning - it that not natural? At the end of the day people are free to string their own guitars how they like - we should just celebrate people who want to make music

Wherever you go, there you are

http://rogerfowles.co.uk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKUsTNis44w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKauwombaC8

Okay, let me speculate a little about one possible advantage one might get from stringing his guitar upside down: The lower a string is located in respect to the players body the less he will have to angle his wrist for double picking, if he is picking with his lower or his whole arm like DD. With upside down tuning you have the string lowest, for which you need the most strength, and the one highest, which needs the least.

Los Apollos - cinematic surf music trio (Berlin)
"Postcards from the Scrapyard" Vol. 1, 2 & 3 NOW available on various platforms!
"Chaos at the Lobster Lounge" available as LP and download on Surf Cookie Records!

Los Apollos - cinematic surf music trio (Berlin)
"Postcards from the Scrapyard" Vol. 1, 2 & 3 NOW available on various platforms!
"Chaos at the Lobster Lounge" available as LP and download on Surf Cookie Records!

simoncoil wrote:

JakeDobner wrote:

Let us not forget that Dick doesn't double-pick like most of us do. I, for example, play straight 16ths and am quite accurate and practiced at it.

Dick, almost plays triplets at time. Whether or not this is intentional or not I have no idea.

I'm pretty sure it is intentional (see video below). As I understand it DD has a certain number of rhythmic patterns, which he spontaneously "drums along" to the melody he plays. For me playing straight 16th (with a few accents along the way) is way easier than this, but that's probably just me.

I hadn't seen this video before but it's classic Dick ...bopping from topic to topic claiming he invented everything . I didn't know he invented the echoplex ! Busy guy ....

Las_Barracudas wrote:

Wow, lots of good input, advice and opinions with the exception of SurfBeat. Frankly his comments seemed condescending, nonsensical and smarmy.
Suggesting that Ivan "focus on your own personality" is really laughable. There's not many folk in the modern Surf realm that have made an impact like Ivan and The Madeira and their catalog of original music is unparalleled imho.

Mr. Barracuda, I take umbrage over your significant misrepresentation of my statement, so I am calling you on it. Boy am I glad on logged on today.

Under normal circumstances, because I was raised to show respect to others and in consideration of my vocation, I would have just sent you a personal note pointing out your misrepresentations, however, because you made your statement public, coupled with the more significant matter that I DID NOT make a negative comment about Ivan, nor any other band on this site, I will take the lead you started.

As a matter fact, if you take the time to look at threads I have posted about Ivan, and others, you would clearly see I have always complimented his talents, as well as others. In fact, having performed on many occasions with Jim Messina, I've told Ivan several times during the past year he did a fantastic job copying Jim's material at SG. Ask Ivan if you can't find the post.

Giving you the benefit of a doubt that you innocuously misunderstood my post, to clear the matter up for you, and possibly others that read your erroneous post I offer the following.

Shortly before I wrote the post I had just attended a musician/vendor conference where about 75% of the performers were from copy-cat bands, Beatles, Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Clapton, and a multitude of other acts. The few other bands who were in attendance that did not dress up like the individuals mentioned got little, if any attention.

Mr. Barracuda, my comments were focused specifically on those types of bands that have proliferated venues, thereby making it almost impossible to compete against for gigs. My comments were unrelated to Ivan or any other band on this site, or anyone who has performed at a SG festival and were performing representations of SURF bands from the past.

Although I have never been asked to perform at an SG event, nor likely would my Showmen be called upon to perform at one because my Showmen play Hodad music, not 100% surf, I can fully understand why bands who do perform there, like, Ivan, maybe the boys from the Aqua Sonics who I tried to fill a spot at a recent music festival, do a tribute set to a specific band. It is a surf music festival.

It has been argued that I could do, or just do, Dick Dale's music. That is not a fact, At least 1/2 of my song list is composed of vocals, 1/5 Dales, the rest originals or music from the Astronauts, Genteels, Wailers, Tornadoes, etc. For that reason, I don't tribute anyone, but I don't denigrate anyone here who does.

Now get off my back and apologize.

Last edited: Feb 02, 2017 16:33:04

Oops! I didn't expect to start an argument! Sorry about that. Gentlemen, it's all OK. SurfBeat has indeed been very complimentary towards my playing in the past, which I greatly appreciated. It appears that he has not kept up with modern surf music, but I certainly can't blame him for that. It's a bit of a different animal and won't be to everybody's taste - and I'm sure most first-wave surf musicians' tastes have also changed a great deal over the past 50 years. It's very nice that he still posts and shares his reminisces with us.

And thank you for your extremely kind compliment, Las Barracudas!

Finally, re: tribute acts. I think Danny was correct above that some of us were conflating one-time tributes to professional tribute bands. SurfBeat wasn't putting down the former, only the latter - and with his new comment, I can completely understand why. I'm sure we're all aware that there's been a proliferation of classic rock cover bands, which is a bit sad to see, no question. But then, probably most of us here are over 40 and would agree that much of the popular music of the past 20 years leaves a lot to be desired! (Damn kids, get off my lawn!) So, maybe the tribute acts are warranted! Still, it is frustrating and sad, and it's certainly not something a musician should do as his/her primary gig. But I don't think SurfBeat was putting down (though I did understand him that way initially) our little tribute sets at the SG101 convention. He WAS extremely complimentary about the Messina tribute, so clearly there are some tributes he likes!

Anyway, it's all good, I was not insulted nor even annoyed at any point. Thank you all for your compliments again! Now, back to the dilemma: restring and retune like DD - OR all Es, like Danny!

Ivan
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