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Hi Marty-
> Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2005 14:52:23 -0700
> From: "Marty Tippens" <>
> Subject: Re: hollowbody guitars
>
> That's quite a pile of words, Michael,
LOL! Yeah, there's this music store owner/repairman
in a nearby town that nicknamed me "Star Trek" (meaning Spock, I guess)
because I overanalyze anything having to do with guitar tone! ;-/
He wasn't used to customers asking him such technical questions.
> but you the most significant
> issue with true hollow body electrics for any rock styles is the
> vibrating top causing feedback. Surf is generally played louder than
> rockabilly and feedback is more easily avoided with the solid body
> Fenders. Can we all think of very loud rockabilly bands? Yes. But
> the stage volume with a doghouse bass has got to be kept to a
> reasonable level and the guitar has to follow. Surf bands with a
> Fender bass don't have that problem.
Okay, thanks, that makes mucho sense!
So it's <both> the doghouse basses <and> the non-center block hollows
that put the limits on the volume.
>
> What you mention follows in significance. Yes, single coils are
> gonna come through the reverb cleaner than humbuckers.
>
> Those are techinical thoughts. I think the biggest reason we play
> surf with a solid body Fender is historical. The music was developed
> that way and therefore we're accustomed to surf having that Fender
> Guitar to Fender Reverb to Fender Amp sound.
My hunch was that there had to be <some> technical reasons,
otherwise it would have been done more often.
And your feedback reason is a <very> good reason...
and it might be partly because of venue...
I tend to think of rockabilly as being something played in bars
where there would be an age requirement for admission.
I tend to think of SoCal surf as being played first and foremost
in high school gyms for dances...
a whole lot bigger than your typical bar, with a much higher ceiling,
quite a bit of natural reverb, and one that I suspect would eat treble
for lunch, so trebley guitars into trebley amps would make a lot of
sense.
(and the cardigan look might've helped land gigs under the watchful
eyes of school administrators)
I also think from what I can remember of the '50s and early 60s...
that both surf/instro guitar and Fender guitars were totally in tune with
the culture of the times, the total love affair with anything modern and
new.
A new, modern guitar design, and a new musical genre would be very
appealing.
Hollowbodies, by contrast, are very old fashioned looking.
Whoops... there I go overanalyzing again! ;^)
Thanks for the input, Marty!
Kind Regards,
Michael
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Michael S Springer
> To:
> Sent: Sunday, April 17, 2005 2:14 PM
> Subject: Re: [SurfGuitar101] hollowbody guitars
>
>
> Since I got back into electrics as an adult about
> 6 years ago, it's occurred to me that there are guitar
> design elements, and signal chain elements that
> emphasize things like clarity, punchiness, and string separation,
> and there are guitar design elements and signal chain elements
> that tend to add a fullness, richness, and complexity to the tone
> (but
> often
> at the price of muddiness).
> These represent two opposite tonal directions,
> there is a certain tension between them,
> and they have to be kept in a certain balance.
> What constitutes a pleasing balance varies according to personal
> taste,
> but also with the genre or style of music being played.
>
> How does this relate to Surf Music and hollowbodies?
>
> Fender guitars have a <lot> of elements that tend towards
> clarity, punchiness, and string separation:
> Bolt-on necks, single coil pickups, and often 50's fenders
> had maple fingerboards. And since these guitars
> were often run through a'60s Fender blackface amp with a sparkly
> high
> end...
> you've got a <very> bright sound that emphasizes a note's attack
> phase,
> and you need something to balance it-
> I think much of surf music's distinctive sound is because
> the main balancer/sweetener for all this punchy treble is
> REVERB!
> Country electric guitar is tonally similar, and there is a
> connection
> with
> surf since Leo Fender was originally designing guitars for
> guitarists in
> C&W bands,
> and as far as his roots, wasn't Nokie Edwards a country picker?
> But in that genre, they tend to use slap echo to balance the
> treble
> rather
> than reverb.
>
> Gibsonoid guitars have a <lot> of elements than tend in the
> opposite
> direction:
> humbucker pickups, set necks, often at least partially mahogany
> bodies-
> or <hollowbodies>!
> Reverb, echo, delay, and natural acoustic resonance (hollowbodies
> or
> resonance chambers) all tend to extend and flavor a note's decay
> phase.
>
> Rockabilly guitar is related to surf guitar, and often uses these
> kind of
> guitars,
> but with very bright single coil pickups.
> While some of these guitars can be very bright, it's
> mostly due to the pickups, and I would think that with
> rosewood fingerboards, set necks, and hollowbodies, they would
> sound
> muddier at the same reverb settings that would just sound
> surfi-licious
> on a solid body Fender with single coils.
> So with less reverb, it might sound less distinctively "surfy".
> But maybe some prefer to replace some of that reverb with a little
> hollowbody resonance.
>
> Michael
>
>
>
> .
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