Menu
Supertwang,
"I'm still going to have to disagree with you as far as how important
> strings are to one's sound."
I do not disagree with you on how important strings are to one's sound.
I simply said that I can't use heavy strings to get MY sound. I don't
doubt that heavy strings contribute very much to the sound you prefer.
"That's really cool your playing with Eddie. Could you tell us what
> kind of gear he's using lately? Does he still use the Jaguar? "
On to Eddie's gear. He likes to play Strats with 010 guage and modified
pickups, usually EMG's. Pickup noise drives him crazy, as it does
distract from his tone. He, to my knowledge, no longer uses the Jaguar.
I'm not sure if he still owns it, because I've not seen it when I've
been over to his house. He has a lot of guitars, mostly, Fender Strats.
But he still owns the Showman rig from those days although he nows
likes to play with two Fender Quad Reverb Amps (4-12"'s in each). He
also plays thru rack gear, usually, some kind of tube preamp to warm up
the sound. I'll ask him what brand it is. He brought a lot of gear to
the Phil Dirt KFJC show that we did in June 1999. We needed a whole
SUV, just for his stuff! :-)
"That's great that you are trying to navigate into some new sonic
> territories. However, I've heard Eddie's newer version of "Mr.
> Rebel" (the on that Phil Tiki posted for us all to hear) and I have
> to say it pales in comparison to the original."
Your statement contradicts itself. Eddie & I both believe in uncharted
territory. That philosophy is one of the prime reasons he's doing this
project with me. We do his old hits live, BTW. We just update them a
little bit for modern ears. We performed "Mr. Rebel" and "Squadcar" at
the KFJC show. They were extremely well received and sounded great.
That's because we played them with passion and heart, which to us,
matters more than the gear we choose to use.
"I guess I'm a sucker
> for that old surf tone."
I love it as well.
"You sound like yourself on all the guitars you try because your
> sound just might not be that "old surf sound." "
You're absolutely right! I don't want to sound like the old surf bands.
That turf is best left to them IMHO.
My CD's prove your point. I just haven't done it with heavy strings. In
fact, if I had, I'd sound just like the old surf bands. Which, IMHO,
would be pointless.
Regards,
Les
On Monday, September 6, 2004, at 06:39 PM, supertwangreverb wrote:
>
>> Well, Eddie Bertrand plays with me on my new CD's so the scoop is
> that
>> he now plays with 010's. And he sounds the same (when he wants to)
> as
>> he ever did in the old days. Eddie and I have discussed this ad
>> nauseum. Mostly, we're after new sonic territory which should be
>> obvious to all who hear what we've done.
>
> Les,
> That's really cool your playing with Eddie. Could you tell us what
> kind of gear he's using lately? Does he still use the Jaguar?
> That's great that you are trying to navigate into some new sonic
> territories. However, I've heard Eddie's newer version of "Mr.
> Rebel" (the on that Phil Tiki posted for us all to hear) and I have
> to say it pales in comparison to the original. I guess I'm a sucker
> for that old surf tone. I think there are alot of places one can go
> with that sound that haven't been explored yet. The Treblemakers are
> a band that come to mind when I think of a newer band that sounds
> sonically like the older bands.
>
>
> I'm still going to have to disagree with you as far as how important
> strings are to one's sound. I'd really like to hear Eddie playing
> his old hits with the lighter strings, and I can only imagine what
> James Burton would sound like trying to chicken pick on my Jaguar
> strung with flatwound 13s(obviouly better than me). I do agree 90% of
> our sound comes from our hands but strings play a pretty big part in
> it. You sound like yourself on all the guitars you try because your
> sound just might not be that "old surf sound." You said yourself yo
> can't get the sound you want out of flatwound 13s.
>
> Bill Aqua
> www.freewebs.com/reluctantaquanauts
>
>
>
>
>
>> "For example Dick Dale's "Night Rider" that just sounds right being
>> double picked on heavy strings being forced through a reverb tank."
>>
>> You're right, Dick gets a very large tone on that tune. But that's
> his
>> sound. If I copied it, there would be little reason for the likes
> of me
>> in instro circles.
>>
>> " I've always thought that the guitarists who I enjoy that use
> lighter
>> strings have a weaker sound than those I listen to who use heavier
>> strings."
>>
>> It depends on your specific taste. We gravitate toward defending
> that
>> which we admire. We perceive our perceptions. By taking Dick's
> double
>> picking and mixing it up with neo-classical riffing from Pagannini,
>> Mozart, Bach and Yngwie, I've moved into my own turf (...err, surf)
>> with what I'm doing. Blend that in with Ventures melodicism and a
> dash
>> of Jeff Beck and you've got what I'm doing. The shift and sacrifice
> to
>> accomodate all these things at once makes heavy strings for me a
>> non-starter. For someone who likes the older trad style, heavy is
> the
>> way to go for nailing that sound. For my sound, quite the opposite.
>>
>> "I agree, alot of tone does come from your hands, but still I
> cannot
>> imagine some surf songs sounding the same on lighter strings."
>>
>> I sound the same no matter which guitar I use and generally,
> regardless
>> of type of string. This is because I have my own sound. As does
> Dick
>> who picked up MY guitar that night in Denver and sounded the same
> on
>> mine as he does on his.My setup was, arguably, less suitable for
> his
>> level of hand attack but that's because he needs that big string to
>> acheive the sound HE'S after. (Of course, he broke a string
> trying,
>> but I forgave him for that! :-) I do prefer nickel wound because
> they
>> last and don't exaggerate finger noise. (Fender 150's to be exact.)
>>
>> Regards,
>> Les
>>
>>
>> On Monday, September 6, 2004, at 03:02 PM, supertwangreverb wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>> Dear Supertwang,
>>>> I swapped strings to get lighter sets as well. That became
>>> especially
>>>> important as the 60's moved along and blusier styles took hold.
>>>>
>>>> Like I said in another post, my palm muting skill (which I
> learned
>>> thru
>>>> many years of messing about with pedal steel guitar) has served
> me
>>> well
>>>> in achieving very fast double picking speeds on lighter strings.
>>> This
>>>> was necessary to do both surf technique and bending on the same
>>> guitar.
>>>> I also use knuckle blocking for keeping strings under control at
>>> those
>>>> speeds.
>>>
>>> That's pretty good that you can do that Les. I agree, alot of
> tone
>>> does come from your hands, but still I cannot imagine some surf
> songs
>>> sounding the same on lighter strings. For example Dick
> Dale's "Night
>>> Rider" that just sounds right being double picked on heavy strings
>>> being forced through a reverb tank. Also alot of Eddie Bertrand
>>> stuff. For example his solos on "Scratch" would sound different
> with
>>> lighter strings. As much as you can say that tone comes from ones
>>> hands there is something to be said for using heavy strings and
>>> hitting them hard, exspecially in the surf genre. I've always
>>> thought that the guitarists who I enjoy that use lighter strings
> have
>>> a weaker sound than those I listen to who use heavier strings. I
>>> love James Burton and his playing was ahead of its time, however,
> his
>>> tone wasn't really all that great. But that's just an opinion I
>>> guess.
>>>
>>> Bill Aqua
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> .
>>> Visit for archived
>>> messages, bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>>>
>>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> .
> Visit for archived
> messages, bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
