Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This seems to be of interest to many of us, and I know that Dale has some KILLER stories to tell, so please enjoy and contribute any stories, questions, anecdotes that you have. It may be possible to move this to its own subsection within my topic area, should the thread get really long.

Here we go!

I'll start with a Surfaris story. Ron Wilson the classic drummer for the band, always sang Surfer Joe as part of the set. He would often (when possible) sneak off stage just prior to the vocal only to resurface wearing a pair of baggies, T-shirt with an iron cross hanging around his neck.(period surf icons)...no shoes and hair dripping wet from a quick dose under the faucet...we we're always waiting for him to get electrocuted when he grabbed the mike for this tune (didn't play drums when singing..common drummer issue) but he always just wailed along....he had more fun then any drummer I've seen before or after. Very hot group at the time..much more than a one hit wonder.

Surf Music was born in the early 1960's in Southern California. Mainly influenced by The Ventures(Seattle/Portland Instrumental Group)Walk Don't Run, Perfidia were their early hits. Surfing took off in the late 50's on Beaches like Malibu, Huntington, Newport and San Onofre. As it spread rapidly, the youth of the times were restless and kinda wild since the sport brought out so much energy, so those of us who played guitar would head home and start putting our feelings into music. All you needed to play besides a 1/4/5 progression were: Am,Em,F and G and the rest came pretty natural. I was one of the lucky ones who's dad had an Electric Guitar(53 Tele), but I needed an Amp with Reverb since my dad's Fender Champ didn't quite sound loud enough or have that breaking wave sound(drippy wet reverb). My 1st Amp was a Sears Silvertone Twin 12 with Reverb, within a week my best friend(Kenny Jones) and I had taken over the garage on Sea Crest Drive and were doing what hundreds of other 13 years olds were doing. 1 week later we had a Bass and Guitar player and we were on our way, so we thought. We were all 13 and 14 yrs. old and expressing ourselves with upbeat instrumentals. It didn't take much longer to start playing at most of the places that attracted the Surf crowd, mostly guys and their bleach blonde surfer girl friends. Places like the Rendezvous, Anaheim Ballroom, Rose Palace, Harmony Park and the famous Moose Lodge or American Legion Halls. What a time we were having. Battle of the Bands were very popular then cause promoters could get 5 or 6 Bands to play and only have to pay the one that won the thing which was usually decided by the band that had most of their friends in the audience. Dick Dale and The Deltones were the Act to follow. Dick was truly the "King of the Surf Guitar" Other bands such as: Eddie and the Showmen(Duane Eddie), The Bel Airs(Mr. Moto), The Lively Ones (Soul Surfer) The Sentinals(La Tinia), Dave Meyers and the Surftones, The Surfaris(WipeOut/Surfer Joe, The Chantays(Pipeline), these were just a few of the local So.Cal. Bands that played this new type of music that kids who surfed just loved.

Cool snapshot of the era Dale! My first "surf" setup was a ****** St George guitar, a Magnatone amp (should have held that one) and and outboard Danelectro reverb unit. Many of us lusted for a Strat or a Jag but for the average working family it was too much money to come up with..forget about a Bandmaster or Showman amp...a Princeton Reverb if you were lucky. Fender Musicmasters, and Duosonics were here and there but the Strats/Jags were king. He predated surf music by a few years but I think Duane Eddy is about as deep as the roots go. With that twangy Gretsch/Guild and a baritone, Duane along with Steve Douglas his great sax player set the stage for what was to follow.

Yes, and Duane doing mainly instrumentals. Of course he was also loved by a lot of mainstream pop and rock guitarists, like Harrison, who know doubt were disciples of twang.

When I was in college I played softball with a woman whose father was in the Chantays.

Pipeline has got to be the most famous B-side in history.

Softball, eh?

Yep, Duane Eddy along with New Mexico's The Fireballs. The Fireballs recorded the first surf classic 'Bulldog' in the late 50's.

According to the RHINO box set COWABUNGA the first California recording that pre-dated Dick Dale was done with a guitar equipped with a Paul Bigsby vibrato. Sorry Fender!

I would add along with Eddy, Joe Maphis and James Burton who both were seen frequently on local California television at the time.

Though not intentional, some of Cliff Gallup's licks with Gene Vincent were bordeline surf in sound.

The So. Cal. kids, including Carl Wilson, were trying to sound like their heroes. Add a little Chuck Berry and some Four Freshman and you have The Beach Boys.

Yep some of those Rockabilly pickers really knew their surf...As I recall, there is a version of Dick Dale's Miserlou on the Rhino box by The Bobby Fuller Four where Bob and his rhythm player kick holy butt. The Turtles started out as a surf band..The Crossfires....The Astronauts were not a surf band but their manager/label pushed them into the water and they recorded one of the best surf tunes ever..Baja.

A little off the subject: but Glenn your 325 is Pretty Awesome.. Glenn you mentioned the Chantays. What was the name of the daughter you went to school with? I went to High School(Santa Ana High) with all the guys in the Chantays. Brian was working at Electro when I started there in late 72. A very humble man, they've been touring as the Chantays again for quite some time.

This is all great stuff! I love the sound and era!

Thanks.

I know what you mean George. The 2nd Surf Band I was in( The Del Reys)Kings for translation, our lead guitarist had a Band Master and Fender Reverb, both 1962 and Blonde tolex. He played a Jazz Master while I had just bought a 1962 3 color Strat but still had the Silvertone Twin 12. It worked and sounded just as good as the Fender Amps, just all in 1 cabinet. We were one of the local Orange County Surf Bands that covered all the hits from Miserlou to Beach Boy Vocals and lets not forget Surfer Joe. Ah the good ole' days.....

I hear ya..guess that's a big part of why we go nutz buying gear now. I have two Dual Showmans now,,had a Bandmaster piggyback but that one's in the capable hands of Paul W now. Some of the surf guitars are a Mosrite, Dick Dale Strat..working with Bill Nash, I designed 2 surf guitars..a daphne blue strat that looks a bit like a California longboard and a radical Jazzmaster ala Shag Art ..maybe I can post some pix of the last two if there's some interest..reverb on stun!

This will be a fun topic. Thanks for introducing this, Paul.

While the subject of Reverb has briefly been mentioned before, I am wondering how it was initially used discovered and subsequently developed over the years of "Surf Music".

Further, have digital processors replaced the analog units for all practical purposes. I still love the reverb of my Fender Twin, however, I must confess that rack mount digital processors have a broader range of Reverb sounds to suit many different styles of music.

Some, with tongue in cheek perhaps, have said that there is no such thing as too much reverb. At what point do you consider that reverb looses its effectiveness?

When the knob quits turning at 10.

Here is a bit of an odd, but more recent story:

Montreal has a developing surf culture. Surfing in Montreal?? Yup. It seems we have a peculiarity in the rapids located off the shores of Lachine, a suburb on the western part of the island. This unique part of the St. Lawrence river current provides a 4-5 foot wave about 100 feet long constantly. Until this year, there were a handful of locals who knew about it and were surfing the phenomenon. However, like all cool things, many more people know about it and wait times to ride the "wave" run up to 30 minutes or more.

My band covers quite a few surf tunes. They have been the most popular part of our set. I use my 350 and Vox AD120 (Bassman model, full on reverb) to get as close as I can to "the" sound. But in many ways, our "Ric" based surf sound is much like surfing in Montreal, unique to us.

...Dean