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I just want to say how REALLY cool is to have Zak on this list. Those of
you that are not familiar with his playing or his band the Treblemakers,
well, you're missing some GREAT music. The Treblemakers third CD
"vs. Doomsday Device" is in my top 10 surf albums of all time. The man
knows whereof he speaks!
Having said that, I must take some issues with his statements. :}
On Wed, 14 Nov 2001 wrote:
> Been thinking about the "non-Fender guitars" thing some more...
> Surely some of you guys must like Southern Culture on the Skids,
> right?
> I think Rick Miller gets killer sounds out of his
> Danelectro/Silvertone guitars, Supros, even Gibsons! I think his tone
> on "Mexi-Melt" is pretty outrageous and totally surf.
I love "Mexi-Melt", but I don't think we can assume that Rick didn't
record it with a Fender. In fact, I've seen him play a Tele live more
than a few times.
> Deke Dickerson's playing in The Untamed Youth always knocked me out
> (I love that band). Although he often recorded with a Jaguar, live he
> usually played a Gibson ES-335 with the outer coils of his humbucking
> pickups shorted out for a single-coil sound. Can't argue with his
> tone.
I think Deke has the most amazing rockabilly sound I've ever heard, but I
felt that his surf tone always left much to be desired. It was thin,
trebly, pretty dead sounding. I've actually discussed this with him one
time, and he said that he wasn't the best surf guitarist. I think his
strengths are definitely in the stuff he's doing now, which is simply
jaw-dropping. As I've said before, Deke is God!
> I'm not a particularly huge fan of either band, but both Huevos
> Rancheros and Shadowy Men used Gretsch hollowbodies, too. I don't
> think that the guiatar sounds in either of these bands are
> particularly exciting or representative of what Gretsch guitars sound
> like.
I will fully agree.
> However, after a while I became somewhat disinterested in playing
> with a "surf" sound and became concerned with making "my" sound work
> in a surf context. There's enough bands out there trying to sound
> exactly like the Astronauts or something, so the world probably
> doesn't need yet ANOTHER guy with a Jaguar and a reverb tank...
That's fair enough. However, I must say that your tone was pretty
incredible. It probably still is, but I'm glad that you recorded the
stuff you did using the Fender guitars. (I either forgot or never knew
that you used a Jag for most of the "Doomsday Device" CD - interesting, I
thought it was your Jazzmaster mongrel)
As a response to Zak, I would say that I believe it is definitely possible
to achieve a personalized sound using those same basic tools. I think of
Frankie Blandino (the Fathoms), Phantom Frank (the Treble Spankers),
Dalibor Pavicic (Bambi Molesters), or Naka Shigeo (the Surf Coasters), and
their playing is instantly recognizable to my ears. Ultimately, it DOES
come down to the fingers, heart and mind of the player. I just prefer
when those fingers, heart and mind are expressing themselves with a trad
setup, that's all.
BTW, I define the 'surf tone' in a very narrow way. There is no judgement
that if one diverges from that tone he must therefore suck, or not play
surf music. Not at all. But if we're talking about THEE 'surf tone',
then we are talking the Astronauts, Dick Dale, Eddie & the Showman, the
Pyramids. That's the stuff. IMHO, of course.
> I just wanted to say that one of my all-time favorite 60's surf
> guitarists, Johnny Fortune (real name John Sudetta) recorded his classic
> sides with a 50's Gretsch 6120 w/DeArmond Dynasonic pickups. Man, that
> tone just knocks me out, it has to be one of the most unique and
> beautiful sounds in surf music...
I hadn't listened to this CD in ages, so I pulled it out today and have
been listening it. I don't like it nearly as much, but it's fun stuff to
listen to. If somebody asked me what surf guitar sounded like, NO WAY
would I pull out this CD and play it for them, though! Besides the Chet
Atkins influence, the tone is much more in the early Ventures category,
with some South Bay influence (the Belairs). it's a great tone, no doubt
about it, but not what I would think of as the surf tone. (it also sounds
like all the SoCal studio bands of early- to mid-sixties, like the Darts,
Defenders, the Deuce Coups, with either Glen Campbell or Tommy Tedesco or
whoever on guitar).
On the other hand, I've always wanted to combine the Astronauts/DD tone
with Hank Marvin, and that's what i tried to do on the two Space Cossacks
albums. Those are not supposed to go together, either, so there you go.
StratoCossack
