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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Gear »

Permalink That Astronauts splash

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This has undoubted been discussed a million times, but I'd like to quickly revisit it. The Astronauts staccato, "splash" we hear on tunes like Surf Party, Firewater, The Hearse, Baja, etc... besides the reverb, does anyone else hear bit of delay it the guitar? Like a really short, single repeat kind of delay? I've been trying to recreate that splashiness, but every time I get close, I've already dialed in crazy long, cavernous reverb and I lose a lot of note definition. My experience is (on the Fender RI tank) that full dwell & mix = lots of splash, but way too long of a decay. How do you guys trim the decay but get the nice short splashy splash?

Gear: Fender RI tank, Fender Twin (silverface), Strat, DiPinto, treble booster

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

Could be your tank has too long a decay on it, I searched until I found some vintage pans with a medium decay that still let the notes come through. Also, be sure you're heavily palm muting while you play.

Danny Snyder

Latest project - Now That's What I Call SURF
_
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I'm back playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

I even changed the pan I had for a medium decay one. I have no problem with the technique, it's just the uncontrollable decay length.

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

Are you using a clean boost?

The Kahuna Kings

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

jimbones wrote:

I even changed the pan I had for a medium decay one. I have no problem with the technique, it's just the uncontrollable decay length.

Why don't you make a video and post it, then we can analyze what's going on.

Danny Snyder

Latest project - Now That's What I Call SURF
_
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I'm back playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

@stratdancer - yes, right before the tank in the chain (the only thing I have in the chain is a tuner).

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

This is the Quixotic quest of surf guitar, isn't it? Trying to capture that elusive Astronauts sound? In addition to the equipment you're using, you might need a time machine and access to Club Baja. Big Grin

@LordWellfleet - indeed! Sounds great recorded, but live it's a very elusive sound.

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

To get more drip/splash without the decay, you gotta crank the treble on your amp. It might sound unpleasant if you try to play Dick-Dale-style stuff with that setting, but this is where all the Astronauts palm-muting is very important - it removes a lot of the harshness of the note attack, while still giving you the splash. The warmer JM pickups help with that, too. Give it a shot.

Ivan
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Last edited: Dec 12, 2017 09:19:16

He has a treble booster, I imagine you've used it in your quest, right?

Danny Snyder

Latest project - Now That's What I Call SURF
_
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I'm back playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

It's a real balancing act. Many factors to consider: treble boost level, amp treble setting, tank's dwell/mix/tone setting, type of guitar pickups, speaker type.

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

Compress your signal after the outboard reverb unit. Add a little room reverb to taste.

SSIV

Oh man, I have talked too much about this all Very Happy and gave all the tricks.

No magic used man, just your guitar, a reverb tank and a showman/bandmaster at loud volume on 12" or 15" in order to compress the whole signal. 12" probably better. JBL's. remember that surf music is NOT the reverb, but it's the compressed reverb. It makes all, from the Astronauts kind of sound to the Dick Dale kind or sound. Tube compression and speaker compression.

Good mixing of the recording --> NOTHING in the Astronauts records has been done live, there is a good studio technician to do a proper mix. You need to really fit the 3 guitars in their proper space/frequency or it will come out a gigantic mess.

I read your gear:
Fender RI tank, Fender Twin (silverface), Strat, DiPinto, treble booster

NO good to get the Astronauts sound.
Throw away all except the Fender tank and buy:
- brownface or blackface amp (showmman or bandmaster, head + cabinet, closed back, 2 speakers cabinet)
- jazzmaster on lead (no reverb, heavy distortion)
- jaguar (both rhythm guitars, one drippy, the other playing ghost notes with vibrato - some upstrokes)
- on the Fender tank make sure to modify the C10 capacitor and put in a 6K6 tube, possibly all tubes to be RCA or GE. keep the dwell high (8), the tone high (8), the mix lower (3.5 - 4). the reverb is sustained by the compression, not by the dwell, remember this. it's the compression that gives you the right drip, not the reverb.

https://soundcloud.com/lorenzosurferjoe/batman
https://soundcloud.com/lorenzosurferjoe/hot-doggin
https://soundcloud.com/lorenzosurferjoe

Lorenzo "Surfer Joe" Valdambrini
(www.surfmusic.net)

Maybe I should have specified that I'd like to get closer to the drip! Smile I'm not really ready to just throw out all my gear... nor can I afford it! Ha! Smile But this is good information... I never thought to compress the reverb. I knew speakers definitely had a part to play in this... I played a friend's Twin that he converted over to a single 15" with a RI tank using my Strat. Nice compression indeed and no other help was needed. Can a compressor after the tank help out at all? In the meanwhile?

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

jimbones wrote:

Maybe I should have specified that I'd like to get closer to the drip! Smile I'm not really ready to just throw out all my gear... nor can I afford it! Ha! Smile But this is good information... I never thought to compress the reverb. I knew speakers definitely had a part to play in this... I played a friend's Twin that he converted over to a single 15" with a RI tank using my Strat. Nice compression indeed and no other help was needed. Can a compressor after the tank help out at all? In the meanwhile?

hahah of course man I am joking!

12" have a better compression that 15", they are smaller, they compress or saturate earlier. yes it helps, but the compressor is a bad beast, it has to be used properly and the problem of the compressor pedals is that they make the sound thinner, instead of inflating it. I would suggest you to use a Boss FBM-1 instead of a compressor to emulate the brownface sound, and it will make your sound much bigger.

have you ever used an exciter? the exciter (used in the studio) normally mixes a clean signal with the same signal saturated, over distorted and pushed in the trebles. this gives a lot more presence to the sound and actually achieve much of the sound in the Astronauts recordings.

So --> compressor ok, try that, but it's not enough. the sound needs to come brighter, stronger, saturated.
I think within your gear the piece that really will never work is the silverface twin. The sound from that amp is quite "fake", it's un-natural and if you try to get some trebles out or presence it becomes uncontrollable. this is - I think - what makes your difficulties in finding a good sound Astronauts-style.

Lorenzo "Surfer Joe" Valdambrini
(www.surfmusic.net)

Or - instead of buying a compressor, a preamp, an exciter, a new guitar and JBL speakers, you just buy a Quilter Pro Block et voila' Smile you put the reverb tank in front and you get the Astronauts sound.

Se gain at 7, limiter at 7, tone at 8-9, no hi-cut. reverb tank as I told you 8-3.5-8. finished

Lorenzo "Surfer Joe" Valdambrini
(www.surfmusic.net)

Last edited: Dec 12, 2017 11:40:24

Great help indeed! I always suspected that the Twin was holding me back and will be replacing it (different tubes, changing the speakers, etc. did nothing to help the sound). I really hear what you mean by the "fake" sound of a Twin... I find the highs on it difficult to control and it's not as simple as "just turning down the treble"! I know a head & cab is the way to go...

You've given me some solid advice here... many thanks!

The Men in Gray Suits (Montreal, Canada)
Facebook: The Men in Gray Suits
Instagram: The Men in Gray Suits

jimbones wrote:

Great help indeed! I always suspected that the Twin was holding me back and will be replacing it (different tubes, changing the speakers, etc. did nothing to help the sound). I really hear what you mean by the "fake" sound of a Twin... I find the highs on it difficult to control and it's not as simple as "just turning down the treble"! I know a head & cab is the way to go...

You've given me some solid advice here... many thanks!

The silverface twin is a great amp, but you definitely have to find your sound there. Take Phantom Frank: he is the only one who can play through his amp Very Happy with him that amp sounds fantastic, with anyone else it's a mess. I never managed to get my sound on a silverface amp, but that's me of course. but i think it's not the right amp for surf.

I hope my suggestions made sense and happy to help with anything that I have learnt on my own skin. I am big Astronauts fan and there are many in this forum Smile

Lorenzo "Surfer Joe" Valdambrini
(www.surfmusic.net)

Last edited: Dec 12, 2017 12:00:26

Pro Block 200!

The Kahuna Kings

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

Last edited: Dec 17, 2017 06:59:23

surferjoemusic wrote:

Or - instead of buying a compressor, a preamp, an exciter, a new guitar and JBL speakers, you just buy a Quilter Pro Block et voila' Smile you put the reverb tank in front and you get the Astronauts sound.

Se gain at 7, limiter at 7, tone at 8-9, no hi-cut. reverb tank as I told you 8-3.5-8. finished

Grazie mille Lorenzo

Worship

Danny Snyder

Latest project - Now That's What I Call SURF
_
"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I'm back playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

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