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I agree with most of what Ivan says below concerning tone but, being the eternal
skeptic that I am, I submit it is a myth that the maple neck strat with glued on
rosewood fretboard produces a more mellow tone than the same guitar with the
50's style solid maple neck. This is only a suspicion at this point 'cause I
have yet to give it the acid test (A/B blindfold and/or spectrum analyzer). In
my experience, having strats of both neck configurations, I haven't noticed the
difference.
I suspect the myth was largely born of the notion that rosewood is softer than
maple. Or maybe it came from transposition of the fact that the different woods
used in the bodies of acoustic guitars do indeed significantly affect tone.
Brazilian rosewood is harder than maple. I don't know if the Indian rosewood now
commonly used is softer than maple but even if it is, I don't believe enough of
the tonal make up of the sound coming through the magnetic pick-ups on a bolt-on
neck strat results from a glued-on fretboard.
The Ebony fretboard on a Les Paul Custom is significantly harder than rosewood,
yet we don't hear that the Les Paul Standard with it's rosewood fretboard has a
more mellow sound than the Custom. Of course those Les Paul players usually have
so much distortion goin', how can they tell?!!
The bottom line is that, while many many guitarists will say that the rosewood
fretboard is the mellower of the two, the evidence is only anecdotal. I think
the mellowness of rosewood conclusion is more due to imagination. Then again,
I'm afraid that my counter claim is also only my observations.
-Marty
----- Original Message -----
From: ipongrac
To:
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 9:25 PM
Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Re: Tone Control
--- In , "supertwangreverb"
<supertwangreverb@y...> wrote:
> How is the pickup height? Even if the bridge pickup is too high,
or
> the neck pickup is too low, I know that the Strat's bridge pickup
> really does cut through.
Good point. It's good to adjust the bridge pickup a bit lower than
the other two pickups.
> I have limited access to Stratocasters and the one that I do, I
> don't really like, so maybe Ivan will speak up,
> he is after all "the Stratocossack."
You called? Actually, I've given up that nickname, though clearly,
I'll still answer to it... Anyway, let me try to help. Basically,
I think both of the amps that this gentleman owns are 'treble-like-
ice-pick-in-the-ear' amps. Neither of them really sounds fat in the
way that vintage amps sound fat (or of course, my dear Dual
Professional!). Part of it is in the speakers, I think (ceramic,
non-alnico magnets in speakers tend to make the treble more
piercing). Part of it in the circuitry. Not that they're bad amps,
but just not as good for surf as one would hope. Also, what kind of
pickups are on that Strat? The pickups better have alnico magnets,
or it'll be trouble.
My tonal recipe for a good sounding surf Strat is, a Strat with a
rosewood fingerboard (mellows out the highs), alnico V pickups, and
a vintage bridge (newer 2-point bridges sound thinner); strung with
heavy (fatter the strings, fatter the tone) nickel (stainless steel
strings are too bright) strings - I prefer Rotosound Purples 12-52;
reverb unit with tone set around 5-6; handwired Fender amp (whether
vintage or newer) with good warm tubes - I suggest JJ tubes - with
alnico speakers - either 12" or 15". I keep my Dual Pro set in the
following way: Volume 5-9 (depending on how aggressive I'm feeling);
Bass: 8, Treble: 4-5, Mid: 4. The rest is up to your playing
style. I'd say that even with the best gear the Strat's bridge
pickup has a tendency to be very piercing, but if you have all the
above stuff, you can use that power on the occasions when it suits
it. It's clear that the Stratocaster masters like Dick Dale or the
Atlantics are constantly switching pickups, and playing some songs
on the bridge, others songs on the middle, neck, or some
combination. If you were to play the whole gig with a Strat on the
bridge pickup (I've done it a few times before!), I'd say the people
would find it a somewhat unpleasant experience. Currently I'm
constantly switching between the bridge and middle pickup, only
using the neck pickup on occasion.
BTW, you can certainly get good tones with the equipment that you
have, but probably not using the bridge pickup. Or I should be more
precise, you won't get the powerful Dick-Dale-like bridge pickup
attack with that gear. But you can probably get some cool Aqua-
Velvets-like Strat-on-bridge-pickup tones - as long as you pick with
more finnesse and go for the melody rather than power.
Hope that helps.
Ivan
PS I don't think any surf guitar players used the Bassman back in
the day - not that I'm aware of. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
But the amps of choice were really only the Showman and the
Bandmaster - the Bassman was actually used by the bass players! If
they weren't using a Showman themselves... And Bill was right that
very few surf bands used combo amps, as well. I wonder why that is?
> --- In , "atbrcr"
<Sandmansrfgtar@a...>
> wrote:
> > Hi everyone. Need some help from ye surf music experts. I
realize
> this
> > stuff is probaby top secret. But could you give me some advice
as
> to
> > amp tone settings, and pickup seletions you people use to
> > aquire "the"sound. My setup is a strat through a re issue reverb
> unit
> > through a re issue twin reverb or a hot rod deville 4x10. One of
> the
> > things I've noticed is when playing the bridge pickup, the tone
is
> way
> > to thin without really turning down the treble, but then if I do
> so it
> > limits pickup selection If I need to change in the middle of a
> song.
> > I've experimented with taking the reverb unit out of the chain
and
> it
> > still doesn't make alot of difference. By the way I did change
out
> the
> > 12ax7 in the reverb unit to a 12at7. No noticeable difference.
And
> one
> > final note, did a lot of trad surf bands use bassman amps
besides
> the
> > coveted dual showmans and twin reverbs. I have seen some
pictures
> of
> > trad bands with guitarists plugged into a bassman. Thanks ahead
of
> time
> > for all of your help!
.
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