Surf Guitar on acoustic?

[Crazyquilt]

Heh. I'm polishing up an arrangement of Misirlou on reso. With a slide. I'll probably do Hava Nagila next for a Dick Dale medley; might round it out with Pipeline.

But if I want to play "real" surf, then, yeah, I fire up a Fender & my Hallmark H60.

[blue]

Originally Posted by Crazyquilt

Heh. I'm polishing up an arrangement of Misirlou on reso. With a slide. I'll probably do Hava Nagila next for a Dick Dale medley; might round it out with Pipeline.

But if I want to play "real" surf, then, yeah, I fire up a Fender & my Hallmark H60.

Those hallmarks were surprising when they hit the street. The first to get the trem right on a budget Mosrite, which is the key to a repro of that guitar! One could quibble about the spring strength, but that's so easy to fix I just roll my eyes when someone complains. A darn nice guitar!

[blue]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

The surf bands here use reverb and tremelo, the trem is set to a very slow frequency, then they do alot of slow whammy bar bends. The pieces are fairly long and have some extended solos. I dont think the guitar matters much as long as its got a whammy.

Tremolo for sure has and hopefully will always be a part of the sound, but it's an effect used for parts of songs or for specific songs for most traditional surf guys. If you all up there have made it a cornerstone of your regions surf sound, I think that's great! I love when you can tell where a band is from by their sound. That's one of my complaints with Surf fans. They're so mired in tradition it's hard to push the limits. Some will walk out if you plug in the wrong guitar, or if your backline doesn't look right.

My only full on trad tendency is that Reverb is NOT an effect on Surf Guitar. It is THE sound. My Tank, a tremolo, and a Fuzzrite are all that's on the floor for my Surf/Spaghetti rig. Just talking about it... I have to go plug in now!

[Crazyquilt]

Originally Posted by blue

Those hallmarks were surprising when they hit the street. The first to get the trem right on a budget Mosrite, which is the key to a repro of that guitar! One could quibble about the spring strength, but that's so easy to fix I just roll my eyes when someone complains. A darn nice guitar!

Thanks. It's a great guitar -- I love the trem especially -- but I actually feel kind of bad about it, because in the seven months or so between when I ordered it, and when it arrived, I'd pretty much slipped away from playing electric. I've got a bunch of great amps & guitars downstairs, and I think I've plugged in maybe a handful of times since last summer. It'll no doubt come around again, but, for now, I'm pretty much all acoustic.

/drift