I need to learn a few. Where do I start? Thanks in advance y'all.
:)
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I need to learn a few. Where do I start? Thanks in advance y'all.
:)
I heard some mad newer instrumental surf guitar at a local toy store the other day along with some other cool tunes including The Creature Stole My Surfboard.
I think it was a compilation.
Turns out it was Extrasensory Deception by David Allan and the Phantom Surfers.
The album was Halloween Hootenanny.
Better Shred than Dead by Dick Dale and the Deltones.
If you have no baseline you should hit your music store and see if they have any greatest surf songs compilation disks. "Surf" is a pretty broad term and actually covers a wide spectrum of music. One thing for sure, surf will break you out of the 145 rut.
I'd say look for the Chantays, Surfaris, Link Wray, and some songs like Penetration and leave the Jan and Dean stuff in the rack.
As far as Dick Dale stuff, it can be hard to play. DD uses an upside down guitar, which was not an uncommon trick for surf players.
Right....stuff with real lyrics aren't surf. Every once in a while there's one with a word or two...Wipeout, for instance. Take it Off is another, and while not surf, Tequila is another.
Look for stuff by:
The Pyramids
Dick Dale & The Deltones
Jimmy Messina and the Jesters
The Crossfires [:ahem :hmm]
The Bel Aires
etc.
While not surf either, a lot of those folks owe a big debt to the Ventures in terms of concept/arrangements.
I was going to recommend this, but I had no idea it went out of print. YOW! :bug Guess I won't be buying it anytime soon.
Just listen to our very own Vince Motel (aka "Fripperton") and his band, Wave Invasion.
His surf cover of "Eleanor Rigby" is soooooo rad.
No, I'm serious. Listen to this.
http://www.waveinvasion.com/albums/o...art1.sized.jpg
The Shredmeister Hissef
Thanks fellas!!
:)
Something by the Mermen is worth checking out, too. Incredible stuff.
Learn Pipeline, Miserlou, and Wipeout.
Anything more, and you've become a specialist.
Cool stuff. Here's the deal. When you listen to surf you'll say "this stuff is rediculously easy", then you try to play it and find out the truth. One word of cauition, the surf style is as much the drummer as the guitar player. So when you play it make sure you hear the drums. The Secret to Miserlou, Pipeline, Wipeout, and ALL surf, is that you are LOCKED onto the drummer on everything except maybe the "guitar solo" part.
Interestingly, "shred" was originally a surf term. It's that machine-like lock between the guitar and drummer doing 16ths, 32nds, and even 64ths. The same phenomina works in metal, and hence the term migrated to metal and is now regarded as a metal term.
And also, listen very carefully when learning. In the days before digital delay effects surf dudes had the skill of using the amp's trem as a slap-back to double up the notes which is similar to how country cats do it today. Trying to cop a doubled lick can drive you nuts.
Learn it by playing with the recordings. One of the problems I had at first was when learning the shred picking I developed muscle memory around a single tempo. When the tempo changed, I was out of luck. So I had to break a bad habit, and we all know what PITA that can be.
But back to the point, the rythym is the key to good surf. That and loosing the blues players lazy fretting hand wrist. Surf, like country often uses open or fretted drones on the higher strings. Look at Vince Motel in the picture. He is using his thumb to put an F# under what looks like a Dm (very cool), but his fingers are coming straight down on the board, not across it. This lets the notes ring insread of the blues thump. Second, notice the meat of the palm on his picking hand is directly over the bridge. Another surf-derived deal. It allows him to palm mute on stuff like the descending lick in Pipeline, and the shred picking is much easier closer to the bridge since the string isn't as floppy there. It will also make the high notes more biting. Plus, the trem bar is right by his fingers when he needs it. In Surf, the trem bar is part of the guitar, not something that flops around in the case!
That's some kickin' stuff, Frippeton!
Can't fault that stuff! Way to go Frip....er....ah.....Vince!
FripperVince's the sland!
I've played a few surf tunes, too...
The VibroCounts
Don't forget the ventures!!!!
Post #5: "While not surf either, a lot of those folks owe a big debt to the Ventures in terms of concept/arrangements."Quote:
Originally Posted by Dallas
How about checking out Sundazed Records?
They've got lots of good guitar stuff in thier catelog.
Some great stuff from people you haven't even heard of. Lots of good stuff.
http://www.sundazed.com
Also,
The Cowabunga box set can be had here. Hurry though, only about 6 hours left!
http://cgi.ebay.com/Cowabunga-4-CD-b...QQcmdZViewItem
I have no connection to this auction. I just found it while thinking about this thread for the benefit of those interested.
I just saw this thread and thought I'd make a few suggestions but first I'd like to thank you all for the kind words. Because of legal issues I can't put a link to our version of Eleanor Rigby that doc refers to since it's a cover but if you'd like to hear it you can email me and I'll send you a link to a wave file of the song.
If you're looking for songs to add to your setlist some of the most requested are Pipeline, Wipe Out (better have a decent drummer), Baja, Mr. Moto and Penetration. Walk, Don't Run is also a big request and while technically the Ventures were a guitar instrumental combo and only made 1 surf album it isn't worth trying to explain the difference to most audiences. Apache is also a good one to have ready since it's received some airplay, It's also good to have a couple of Duane Eddy tunes on tap and you might as well learn Santo and Johnny's Sleepwalk.
Our philosphy in Wave Invasion is that if iyou don't sing it's an instrumental. We like to do a lot of TV and Movie themes like The Simpsons, The Munsters, Third Rock From the Sun, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, and The Pink Panther , but we also do what the Ventures developed which is arranging popular hits of the day in the guitar instrumental format.
You'll need a clean setup if you're looking to replicate the original Surf sound but I have a tendency to dirty it up a bit with a TS-9 or a Bad Monkey. I also use multiple amps to help me get clean tones without pushing the amps too hard which is not exactly how they did it in the olden days. Big clean sounding amps like the Fender Dual Showman were a favorite of a lot of the old surfer guys I played with so they could get a loud solid bottom end. They used the heaviest strings they could find, I actually had one guy that ended up with a .070 for his low E and his 1961 Strat was wired to bypass the volume and tone controls, the pots weren't even in the guitar anymore, and he had a bypass switch that turned all 3 pickups on at once. It was also important for them to have one of the Fender Reverb units. In addition to the obvious Reverb I believe it also acted as a preamp and the output impedance was changed so it acted like a buffer so the preamp tubes weren't driven into OD.
You'll need to practice stacatto picking if you're going to get into the old style especially if you're going to do Dick Dale stuff. Many guys feel you can't get the authentic sound if you're not using flatwound strings. I have used Strats, Jazzmasters, Jaguars and quite a few oddballs but the deciding factor is if it has a wehammy bar. I've really become dependant on them for what I hear as the Surf Sound which is just a gentle warbling although sometimes I've been known to divebomb them. Jaguars have a clean sound but the output is low so it doesn't push the amps so they aren't very loud guitars. I prefer Jazzmasters. The pickups are sort of P-90ish and I like the way they drive an amp to just the edge of dirt. I use strats a lot too especially if I'm looking for a lead type tone. I tend to stay on the neck pickup on a Jazzmaster although using both pickups together yeilds a very recognizable surf tone. Lately I've been using some of the new Wilson Bros. Ventures models and I was really impressed with the DiPinto Galaxie Guitar 4 which is a version of the guitar used by Los Straitjackets.
Wow! Lots of great info. Thanks y'all!!!!
:)
Went for $127.50 + $9 shipping.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikey