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I like the ventures' sound for a classic surf tone.
On one of their old albums from my collection (can't
remember which, all my vinyl is in boxes) they used
tone-masters. The sound is great, but the reverb
isn't there . . . surf music without reverb? My
point being, the setting your describing might be too
much reverb. It only takes a little to make your tone
more surfy, but overall, surf is how you play more
than what you use.
I had a RI Reverb unit a couple years back, with a
point to point '59 RI bassman and my 62 jazzmaster,
and I use to crank the tone up to about 8 or 9 but
left the dwell and mix relatively low (3-5). I like
that really picky sound, but I wouldn't say ice picky
. . . its much warmer than ice in fact. I also don't
crank my guitar to ten, usually set somewhere between
6-8, so I loose a little tone in the end but I got a
lot to spare. The cranked tone made the reverb
really stand out, while the lower dwell and mix kept
the sound from getting too muddy. In my opinion,
those fender units have too much reverb. Using the
settings you've described, I'd say you got too much to
get that classic tone (I use this term, but I'm not
sure exactly which classic surf vibe you're going for,
ie garage, western, dick dale, etc. For the record I
like the spaghetti-western/garage style, songs like
the theme from black saddle and newer stuff, bands
from the Estrus label).
Another classic tone helper might be to change out the
reissue pickups (if you have the Japanese re-issue,
I've never played one of the American ones and they
probably have great pickups) and put in something more
like the old jazzmasters have. I don't like the
re-issues at all because of their choice of pickups.
I heard the pickups their using are basicly strat
pickups with a few mods, not the 60 rev single coils
like on the old ones. I think Seymour Duncan makes a
couple different kinds of replacement pickups for a
jazzmaster.
Just play around with your reverb unit until you get
that sound you're looking for. Listen to some of the
surf music you like and see what separates their tone
from the sound you don't like. I really love the tone
on all the Satan's Pilgrims albums (At Home With
Satan's Pilgrims, is my favorite surf album of all
time) and I know they use fender outboards. If you
haven't heard 'em, check them out. If you don't like
it . . . you might not like surf music (thats how the
guy at my local indy record store got me to buy their
first album and I can't get enough of 'em).
Sorry for such a long winded response, but I love to
write and I love surf music. The Curse of the English
Major! Hey that could be my new band name . . . or
not.
Damon
--- markdtafuri <> wrote:
> I am trying to get the most out of my 63 RI Reverb
> Unit and wanted to
> get some ideas of the optimum setting for the tank.
> My rig is 62 RI
> Jazzmaster, MXR Micro Amp, Reverb Unit into a 73
> Twin Reverb. My tank
> has all NOS tubes, AT7s and a 6K6 power tube. I am
> in a band that is
> classic surf. My current settings are Tone 4, Dwell
> 8-10 and Mix 5-6.
> I do find it hard to turn the tone past 4 without
> getting an ice
> pick treble. What setting are best for the classic
> surf thing.
>
> Thanks
> Mark
>
>
>
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