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> Surf venue
The Treblemakers, est. 1995...frequently gigging, infrequently
touring, three recorded full-length releases and seven or eight
compilation appearances (at least those I'm aware of).
> Surf genre
Hmmm...definitely not 100% "trad" surf, and "nouveau surf" makes me
think of "Mermen/Surf Kings/Pollo Del Mar" so that's 180 degrees away
from what we do...I'll have to invent my own genre and say it's some
kind of collision between surf and 60's garage punk and Davie Allan-
style biker fuzz instrumentals...? Somebody once called it "The
Ventures on Crack" and that's not inaccurate.
My setup was different on every one of our records so I'll go record-
by-record:
1st (self-titled) vinyl-only LP on Primitive records, recorded
late '96:
> Guitars
I had a '65 Strat (refinished) and a '65 Jazzmaster (outfitted with a
huge Telecaster neck, the biggest chunk of wood you can get your hand
around)...I think I only used the Jazzmaster on that session.
> FX
My old Fender reverb tank (tube chart stamp identifies it as
January '64, it's a blackface with smooth blonde tolex).
> Amps
Back then I had a silverface Fender Pro Reverb. Sold it shortly after
that recording session.
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"Flippin The Bird" CD on Gee-Dee Records recorded late '97.
released '98 - you can listen to the whole thing at
www.freespeech.org/treblemakers
> Guitars
This was pretty much half Jazzmaster, half Strat.
> FX
Same ol' reverb tank.
> Amps
By the time we recorded this I bought a '62 brownface Super. It was
in really rough shape, and the baffleboard had been caved in. I ended
up re-tolexing it in blonde tolex and I made a thin pine baffleboard
cut for a single 12" speaker. I use a 4ohm speaker so the impedence
isn't mismatched.
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"The Treblemakers vs. The Doomsday Device" LP/CD on Dionysus Records,
recorded & released in 1999 - - you can listen to the whole thing at
www.freespeech.org/treblemakers/doomsday
> Guitars
Most of this was done with a '65 Jaguar. I used my Jazzmaster on one
song ("The Dentures in Space") and in a few spots I used our bass
player's metallic gold '62 Jazzmaster...but 75% of that record is the
Jaguar.
> FX
In addition to the reverb tank I also used a 60's Tel-Ray Ad'n'Echo
oilcan delay unit (check out www.geocities.com/tel_ray my semi-
informative site dedicated to Tel-Ray oilcan effects) and a few
oddball fuzz...a late 60's Shin-Ei FY1 fuzz made in Japan, an old Big
Muff, and a LEX Fuzzwrong (a clone of a Mosrite Fuzzrite covered in
purple fur).
> Amps
My '62 Super.
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Most recently (and on the two new songs we recorded last month):
> Guitars
1966 Gretsch Tennessean, 1958 Gretsch Clipper modified with a P-90
and a DeArmond Dynasonic (a la Eddie Cochran) and a Bigsby.
> FX
The reverb tank, more weird LEX custom-made fuzz pedals (including a
weird Fuzzrite/Univox SuperFuzz hybrid), 60's german-made Schaller
fuzz (the knobs read "Pegel" and "Intensitat"!), mid-80's Ibanez ADL
analog delay (less temperamental and more portable than my Tel-Ray
echo), Vox Valve-Tone overdrive (for coaxing big howls of feedback
out of the hollowbody Gretsch guitars).
> Amps
'62 Super with a 2x10 open-back extention cab.
That's all, folks.
