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I wish I knew which brands of NOS 1960s strings they
tested...Gibson, Fender, Mosrite, Thomastik, Pyramid,
LaBella...the mystery continues...
-dp
--- Marty Tippens <> wrote:
> Yeah, those guys on the Shadow MSN group do know every
> detail. The musician members seem to be in contest to try
> and record the closest possible duplication of various
> Shadows records.
> -Marty
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: ipongrac
> To:
> Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 8:47 PM
> Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Re: flatwounds
>
>
> Marty, I'm sure it is, but I couldn't point you to it.
> It's just
> something I've learned after many years of reading
> about Hank, and
> more importantly, checking out the Shadow Music MSN
> group (kinda
> like SG101 for Shadows fans). There's been a LOT of
> discussion
> there about the strings used by Hank in the day, lot of
> it by old
> geezers that were around back then and remember all
> this stuff! (I
> gotta say that there's a lot more enthusiasm and
> dedication among
> middle-aged guys that grew up playing the Shadows than
> the ones that
> grew up playing surf music.) The general (and
> overwhelming)
> consensus is that Hank used roundwounds on his Strats,
> again, even
> as early as '60. There are a couple of detractors, but
> in general
> everybody is on board with the roundwound theory. In
> fact, just
> recently I read a post where somebody was quoting Bruce
> Welch saying
> that the Shads were using roundwound Sonomatics in '64
> (the topic
> was some of their sounds from that period).
>
> In addition, I have the book (!!) called "That Sound:
> The Story Of
> the Magic Sound Of the Shadows" where an Italian guy
> went through
> INSANE lengths to look at all the different components
> and the role
> they play in getting Hank's sound (he's a reputable amp
> and guitar
> tech). here's what he said about strings:
>
> "We looked meticulously at a certain photograph taken
> on March 5th,
> 1961 at the Wembley Pollwinners' concert by Harry
> Hammond. In the
> original photograph we could detect that the
> Stratocaster was strung
> with heavy gauge round wound E, A, D and G strings with
> that
> unmistakable whitish colour."
>
> Incidentally, here's what else he said about strings:
>
> "We extended our research down to the various brands of
> strings
> available in the early sixties and we had the good
> fortune to
> discover a few sets of NOS 1960s guitar strings. Then
> we compared
> these 'old' strings against various sets of 'new' ones
> and, to our
> great surprise, the 'old' strings sounded a lot better!
> We did the
> test on a guitar with three A strings of different
> brands mounted at
> the same time, in order to get rid of every possible
> inaccuracy. We
> noticed that the 'old' strings had a longer sustain
> and, more
> importantly, they delivered a timbre reminiscent of the
> sound of the
> early recordings. The 'new' strings weren't bad, but
> they sounded
> unconvincing and unsuitable for the purpose of
> reproducing the
> original 'Sound.'"
>
> Take from that what you will...
> Ivan
>
> --- In , "Marty Tippens"
> <mctippens@e...> wrote:
> > Now that's interesting, Ivan. Is that published info?
> > -Marty
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: ipongrac
> > To:
> > Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 6:40 PM
> > Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Re: flatwounds
> >
> >
> > Hank Marvin DEFINITELY was using roundwounds
> through the entire
> > Shadows career, including their first hit "Apache"
> from June
> 1960.
> > He used Gibson Sonomatics.
> >
> > Ivan
> >
> > --- In , "Brian Neal"
> <bgneal@g...>
> > wrote:
> > > --- In , Dan Bartley
>
> > <bigtwangguy@y...>
> > > wrote:
> > > > What are some of the original surf songs that
> were played
> with
> > > flatwound strings?
> > > > Dan
> > >
> > > This is an interesting question because I've
> always assumed
> that it
> > > would be most surf songs from the 60's were
> recorded with
> > flatwounds.
> > > I've always been told that round wounds were not
> widely
> available
> > in
> > > the 60's. The most common strings were heavy
> flats. Again,
> this is
> > > what I have gathered from being a surf-guitar nut
> for the last
> 8
> > or 9
> > > years. I've asked this question on a variety of
> lists and
> forums.
> > But
> > > I'd love to be recalibrated. Maybe some of you
> older guys
> remember
> > > what strings you used? ;-)
> > >
> > > Players used to have to mix and match sets and
> even use banjo
> > strings
> > > if they wanted a lighter set or an unwound
> (plain) G string.
> > >
> > > I do vaguely remember Paul Johnson confirming
> this, but I
> could be
> > > wrong. It doesn't sound to me like Dick Dale was
> using flats,
> nor
> > Hank
> > > Marvin. But what do I know? I'd love to know what
> The
> Astronauts
> > used.
> > >
> > > BN
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > .
> > Visit
> for archived
> messages, bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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