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You are absolutely correct sir. Those amps were not
tonemasters, but blond bassmans or showmans or some
head cab fender thingy. Not my point, but good catch.
My point was that they used non-reverb amps, without
reverb units and I totally disagree with the idea that
the Ventures are not a surf band, but one that just
did surf songs. I think of them as a surf band that
"branched out" and did other stuff. I don't know
much, if anything about Ventures history, so I may be
totally wrong . . . I'm sure someone can tell me what
the Ventures were when they started, beside "The Most
Instrumental Band in Rock N' Roll" as their album
reads. I would never say The Ventures aren't surf.
They certainly were influential for my surf guitar
endeavors and the first instrumental guitar album I
bought (at a gas station no less) was a tape called
something like "Venture do the Hits," anyway it had
Walk Don't Run and Pipeline (Chantays wrote that
right?). I learned all the songs and told my guitar
teacher to teach me to play like those guys. I was
13. I'm 24 now. Don't listen to much Ventures
anymore, I prefer more surfy instrumental, but they
helped bring me to where I am as a musician today. In
other words, I won't put down the Ventures by labeling
them "not surf," and THAT WAS A PUT DOWN, because
thats all the instrumental guitar or surf music a lot
of people know.
I also think that surf music, or any music for that
matter, is all about how you play . . . not about
gear. The gear is just something for those of us who
can be bothered . . . and I can be . . . to fool
around with and discuss, but the best surf guitar
setup is at the very least debatable. I'll agree that
reverb is good for surf, some might say reverb makes
surf, but I must believe, that there is more to it
than gear.
Damon
--- IVAN PONGRACIC <> wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Feb 2002, Damon wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> well, there's some debate about this, but most
> people have come to an
> agreement that the Ventures were not a surf band.
> They played a few surf
> songs, but you cannot call their sound surf anymore
> than you can call the
> Shadows' sound surf. Even the Ventures used
> outboard reverb units when
> they really tried to sound like surf music - just
> listen to Diamond Head
> or WDR '64.
>
> BTW, given that Fender Tonemaster amps only came out
> during the nineties,
> the Ventures didn't use them on any of their old
> albums. Who knows what
> they used in studio? In '65 though they used blonde
> Fender Showman amps
> without reverb for live gigs. The last time i saw
> them live they used
> blonde Tonemaster amps, with the exception of Don
> Wilson, who used an
> Ampeg head with a huge built-in reverb that he would
> turn up on songs like
> Pipeline.
>
> So, gotta have reverb for true surf music....
>
> Ivan
>
>
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