Menu
I should have said roundwounds. That's what I get for being in a hurry.
Les
On Wednesday, September 8, 2004, at 10:49 AM, ipongrac wrote:
>
> --- In , Leslie Fradkin <lfradkin@e...>
> wrote:
>> "I'm reading here that they're the only string that has enough tone
>> to play through a reverb tank? "
>>
>> No, just if you want Dick Dale's tone...
>
> Well, I really don't think so. I know of no evidence that Dick Dale
> EVER used flatwounds. In general, I don't think flatwounds work very
> well on a Strat. Just my opinion. I do know for a fact that Hank
> Marvin of the Shadows used roundwounds from the very beginning (i.e.
> Apache in 1960) and ever since. (He used Gibson Sonomatics back
> then, strings that are again available.) I also know that the
> Atlantics used roundwounds back in the day, since you can hear them
> scratching the picks against the strings on several songs. To my
> ears, Dick's tone is closer to the roundwounds than flatwounds.
>
> However, flatwounds work really well with Jags and Jazzmaster,
> especially when you start doing a lot of palm-muting with a lot of
> reverb from a Fender reverb unit. Think Astronauts on Baja, Surf
> Party, etc. Less agressive surf music, with that 'waterwell-ping',
> wet reverb sound. Flatwounds sound much better for that kind of
> stuff. So, it depends on what you want.
>
> Incidentally, Les, why is that is people who are after the more
> traditional reverbed tone are told that this is Dick Dale's sound,
> while the more distorted, 'modern' tone is not referred to as Hendrix
> tone or Clapton's tone or Beck's tone or Angus Young tone or
> whatever? I think that just as you can use all those same overdriven
> tones to find your own sound, one can also use the same setup as Dick
> Dale or Eddie Bertrand circa '63 to come up with one's own sound, as
> well. We've seen many modern surf guitarists prove that: Frankie
> Blandino of the Fathoms, Dave Wronski of Slacktone, Evan Foster of
> the Boss Martians, Rip Thrillby, John Blair of Jon & the Nightriders,
> Shigeo Naki of the Surf Coasters, and many others all use basically
> the same ingredients and equipment as Dick Dale and traditional surf
> guitarists but all have their own distinctive style that at least I
> find recognizable. I'm personally tired of the late sixties,
> seventies and eighties guitar tones, since they have been way
> overused, and they're not terribly modern to my ears, nor are they
> terribly distinctive. I think they you can create a much more
> personal tone by using the same equipment that DD and other surf
> pioneers used for the simple fact that it hasn't been used by
> thousands of other guitarists. There's a lot more to be done with
> it. That's the philosophy to which I adhere, anyway. If you really
> want a new, modern, different tone, do something like Reeves Gabrels
> or Sonic Youth or whatever other experiment guitarists: use different
> equipment than anybody else or in completely different ways than
> others.
>
> Just a few thoughts for further discussion...
>
> Ivan
>
>
>
>
> .
> Visit for archived
> messages, bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
