Menu
Hello,
I was in the same predicament as you are. It's hard to
know where to start. Many people will tell you you
NEED to own a twin, tube reverb unit, and a vintage
start and/or jag, or you might as well give up you
aspirations. For those of us who want to play surf and
eat/pay rent, this is not an option.
You can buy a mex strat for relatively cheap. I most
admit to being a Fender snob, like most on this list.
From my experience, the mex strats feel just as nice
as the american. Danelectros are ok, but I would
advice you to buy a low-end Fender for roughly the
same price. (I won't recount the story of my buying a
70s twin for $300, or explain how I lost it. It still
hurts. F**king UPS.)
As for an amp, I am still undecided on what advice to
give. I bought a Danelectro Nifty-50 and I still use
it. It's small, affordable, and has a great, clean
tone. I use it on my synths now; for some reason its
seems better suited than my Roland Synth amp.
Reverb is the key to the surf sound. You can buy a
stomp box, but I've never played through the new Holy
Grail or Danelectro units. I would suggest that you
look around for a late-60s Fender solid state unit.
There are currently two on ebay. I got mine for $100
from a friend and I've never had any complaints. To my
ear, the reverb is as wet as you can get, without,
perhaps buying a tube reissue.
Final advice: use ebay. With some caution though. I am
an addict of auctions, and I've noticed that prices
fluctuate drastically. Today an nice mex strat might
go for $200, the next week $400. MIJ Jags seem to be
consistently stable at $500-600.
I currently play an MIJ Jag that cost me $250, through
a huge, old Rickenbacker amp ($100) and a Fender,
solid-state reverb unit ($100). That's $450 for a
nice, vintage tone. If I would have taken the advice
of many Cowabungans when I began playing, it would
have cost me $2500, and I still wouldn't have been
able to get my mom's wooden leg out of hock.
You don't need the greatest equipment to have fun.
That, of course is not to say I still don't dream of
owning a vintage jag, dual showman and blonde reverb
unit.
Philippe
--- Peristalsis_98 <> wrote:
> Okay, so I'm a guy who does not know how to play
> guitar, and knows
> only that I want to play surf. I've been looking at
> equipment and
> there is a lot of stuff out there. What should I
> look for? A
> metalhead friend of mine suggested a Steinberger as
> a good quality
> guitar which won't set me back tons of money.
> However, I'm not sure
> what kind of differences there are or preferences
> for surf music. It
> looks like the amp is important. Anyway if you guys
> have any input
> on a good starting setup, I would appreciate it.
> Thanks in advance,
> pat.
>
>
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site
