Help with Surf Guitar sound and Tab

[TomN]

I am just starting to get into playing some Surf Guitar for fun. I have a couple of questions.

Is anyone else here into Surf Guitar?

If so, who do you suggest I listen too?
What songs would be the best to learn?

Also, how do your set your amp/delay/reverb to get the best Surf Sound.

Besically I am trying to learn some of the more popular songs, and most know stuff, like songs from Pulp Fiction etc. But I don't know any of the Bands Names or the songs names, so it's hard to find info on it.
I am trying to find tab for the music.

So can anyone help me in this area?

[pustulio]

the king of surf guitar is dick dale. he recorded the song "miserlou" for the pulp fiction soundtrack. he's actually recorded several versions, that is the only one with trumpets i've heard.

[TomN]

Yeah I got that one. That seems to be like the only one I can find.

[MikeWithTheEvilBlackHat]

The Ventures. The stuff from '66 to '72 is showing up on imported cd's.

[pustulio]

well, dick dale has two best of albums. i have the crescendo records version. some highlights are mr. eliminator, surf drums, night rider, and the wedge. dick sings on some tracks, and his voice is...not so hot. he had a 90's release called tribal thunder. i've not heard it. there was a version of miserlou on the "music for our mother ocean" vol. 1 with gary hoey also on guitar. it sounded more...heavy metal than previous versions. anyways www.guitar9.com (http://www.guitar9.com) has his cds and some real media player samples.
a newer band is the halibuts. they were feature on an episode of USA network's short lived "pacific blue" series. good stuff.

[dacster]

I can't lead you to sources for music but any there are a lot of old "surf" record out there. As mentioned Dick Dale would be the King.
The sound is clean fender twin, Tele's and bright single coil Strats, withs ton's of reverb. Get a bridge single coil on a hard tail bridge guitar going thru the above mentioned amps and you are there!

[guitwitit]

http://www.oberlin.edu/staff/thinders/Surf.html


There's also a neo surf band called the Mermen from the early 90's you might want to check out.They combine the surf sound with other sensiblities.
"The Mermen at the Haunted House" is a fun disk.


[This message has been edited by guitwitit (edited September 22, 2003).]

[spaceboy]

You should listen to The Shadows,Ventures,Dick Dale for the older sound. But i recommend The Space Cossacks,The Mermen, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet,and older Man or Astro-Man albums. As for your amp setup, crank the reverb to 10 and let it drip. Check out MP3.com for the surf/instro section, and you will hear alot of great bands. I use to play in a band called the Turtleheads, and have loved surf music for such a long time.

[dmt]

Dick Dale's amp of choice was actually a Dual Showman Reverb, from what I've seen/read. A Twin Reverb is the next best. Reverb max (or near max if max is too horrible sounding on your amp - but anyway, lots of reverb), deep tremolo (vibrato channel on Fenders). Anyway, I own a Ventures cd and a Challengers cd, and occassionally I'll grab the strat, go on the clean channel of my Fender-ish amp with reverb cranked and mess around with some faux-surf licks. It's fun, but that's the pretty much the extent of my surf music experience/knowledge.

Pustulio - I love that "Music For Our Mother Ocean, Vol. 1" album! Are you into surfing? (btw, the album isn't the genre known as "surf music", but a mix of styles and artists, around an ocean theme)

[nineeeeee]

ummmm scuse me for butting in but what the hell is surf guitar ?

niner

[dmt]

niner, it was a form of instrumental, guitar-based music that was popular in the early to mid 60's (before music got harder and grittier). No vocals, a melody played by the lead guitar, driving rhythms (generally), generally no distortion.

Somewhat related music would be "Spy" - think James Bond soundtrack music, and Spahgetti Western (think old Clint Eastwood westerns' soundtracks). Dick Dale played/plays the music fast, though, and was famous for incorporating non-western scales in the music.

Jan and Dean, and even more famously, The Beach Boys of course famously played surfing-themed music, but the sound of this vocals-based music was quite different then the instrumental, guitar-based musical genre known as surf music (this can be a confusing point).

Although it came long after the crest of the surf music wave, the "Theme to Hawaii 5-0" TV show theme might be the most well known surf music song. There's also "Pipeline", "Wipeout", Miserlou", and "Surfin' Bird".

The form has long disappeared from the top 40. On the other hand, it's the sound of a nice time and place and sets a certain mood, so there will probably always be people out there playing this music (or some development of this kind of music) to appreciative audiences in little corners of the music world. If you ever get sick of dealing with lead vocalists, but want to keep making (non-jazz) music, this "surf/spy" type of thing is one way to keep things going.

[dmt]

The Champs with "Tequila" and "Green Onions" aren't strictly surf, I believe, but again, it's pretty related looking back at the whole thing from the perspective of 2003.

Sometimes a horn would take the lead (it wasn't only guitar).

This music is kind of simple and tame sounding (almost comically so sometimes) compared to modern electric guitar instrumental stuff like Satriana/Via, but it's kind of fun too - and fun to pull out at band practice or a jam (to completely change the sound and pace). This is the type of music that Batman (in the old TV series) or Herman Munster or someone like that would run into when they would accidently stumble into a party full of young hipsters go-go dancing away. Of course, Batman would dance his way through the crowd before continuing his pursuit of the Joker...

[nineeeeee]

ahhhh thanks dmt

niner

[dmt]

You guys got me a on a mini-surf kick. How's it going, TomN?

Technique-wise, there's lots of tremolo picking, non-major/non-natural minor bass string runs (often kind of middle east-ern sounding), wang bar use, and the occassional pick slide.

It's interesting to note think about the reason there's essentially no effects in "surf" - they didn't exist yet! "Surf" was actually using cutting edge technology at the time. The older [tweed] Fender amps distorted when loud. The new Blackface (and to a lesser extent the transitional [1961-1963] brownface) amps Fender came out with could stay clean when loud - a big "advance" at the time. The only effects in existence (besides a guitar's whammy bar) were delay, studio reverb, and with the brownface amps, tremolo (labeled "vibrato"). With the blackface amps (which came out in '63), amp reverb was introduced. At that point you had the technological ingredients for the classic surf sound: A Fender guitar with a whammy bar into a loud, clean amp with reverb and tremolo. Cutting edge sound!

I've read that it was actually the Ventures that first used a fuzz box on a widely released recording, "The 2,000 Pound Bee".

[This message has been edited by dmt (edited September 29, 2003).]

[TomN]

Nineeeeee

If you want to hear some cool surf guitar and the kind of stuff I like.

Rent Pulp Fiction and listen to the sound track. Lots of great examples in that soundtrack.

Miserlou for instance is the opening song after the restaurant holdup scene with that ripping alternate picking riff on the low E String.

I just love the riffs and the tone. It has a very spacious quality to it.

I like the slower stuff too. That has more of a bluesy feel.

[nineeeeee]

hmm i did see pulp fiction,but the only tune i remember from it is sweet caroline.(it was in that movie wasn t it).maybe i ll have a go and watch it again.

niner

[TomN]

Yeah definitley watch it again (or listen again)
You will really hear some cool guitar work in the soundtrack.

[100%TEXAN]

ummmm scuse me for butting in but what the hell is surf guitar ?
niner - nineeeeee

Yup - I'm *definitly* feeling old here. Thought it was just the Kansas/Dust in the Wind post a few pages back . . . but no . . . it is me . . .

http://www.zentao.com/ubb/smilies/explode.gif

[Keith]

My Father in-law.. plays it all the time.KING of surf.. Im seeing him this weekend, and Ill see if he can give a few pointers as who to best look for, but alas, me thinks that everyone before me has suggested all the right artists to check out

[This message has been edited by Keith (edited September 02, 2004).]

[dkitt]

One of the reasons the Dick Dale sound is so spacious, as dmt said, is because he used the 'hollow sound' you get with the neck and middle pups on a strat. Jazzmasters were popular with surf players too.

According to him, he was the first one to do this, because at that time there were no 5-way switches on strats.

In spite of his white bread name (which he made up) Dick Dale was actually of Lebanese origin. Perhaps this is why his music has a middle eastern flavour to the scales he uses.

I've never analized it but maybe he was using something like a Locrian mode.

1-semitone-2-tone-3-tone-4-semitone-5-tone-6-tone-7-tone-8.

[This message has been edited by dkitt (edited September 03, 2004).]

[CptnAhab]

Here's some links to some sound samples you may want to check out.
I dunno maybe it'll help...

http://www.guitar9.com/listeningroomd.html

http://www.cornerstoneras.com/ziggensite/

Ventures(scroll down for sound samples)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000DRAT/qid=1094529910/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-7537376-3104850

Surfaris (scroll down for sound samples)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AKCLC/qid=1094530124/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/002-7537376-3104850?v=glance&s=music

Link Wray (scroll down for sound samples)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000003308/qid=1094530563/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-7537376-3104850

more dick dale(scroll down for sound samples)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000348H/qid=1094530754/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-7537376-3104850?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

surf guitar greats (scroll down for sound samples)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000003OBR/qid=1094531425/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-7537376-3104850