Okidoki. Post #2!
Sorry, for the length of my ramble, I got a bit carried away and I would like to say before we get into it, I am not trying to rub anyone up the wrong way.
This is easier than you'd think. Which Shadows era do you want to sound like?
58-61 - 50s Strat
61-64 - 60s Strat
64- 73ish - Burns
75 - 09 - 70s/50s/Custom Strats
I should point out that I'm not a Shadows 'fan'. I have a great deal of respect for them. My Dad is a huge fan, though, so I have grown up hearing the Shadows round the house; (I can tell you which guitar, pickup selection & where HBM is striking the string (and which string) by ear now!) and has spent the last 50 years trying to get 'that' sound and never quite nailed it... 'til recently. Now, he uses either a JV series Squier Strat or a Fender Japan 54 Strat reissue from the early 90s (one of the very last of the original series of these, I believe) depending on his mood and can get 'the sound' using a tiny plastic Vox transistor thing or through his Fender Performer 1000.
Any DECENT Strat copy will do - a cheap plywood plank won't - and if you're on a budget I highly recommend the Vintage V6. They are cheap, but use good woods and the pickups are very good, at the expense of attention to details in terms of final fret finishing (rough edges and occasional high spot) which a decent shop would sort out anyway. ANY amp that has plenty of headroom and clarity when set clean and finally, this is the key to the holy grail, a multi-effect or delay unit that can do AT LEAST five multi-taps AND adjust the repeat timing of the group of multi-taps, as well.
Before I go any further, I'm in my mid 40s and I've been playing 30 years now. I do realise that most of you are probably older than I am, with a lot more playing experience and have studied the sound of the Shadows a lot more intensely than I have. I'm not trying to undermine or say that I'm right, you're wrong. I'm offering my opinion as a relative outsider with, perhaps a fresh set of ears. That brings me to the most important part of the equation - EARS. The great joy about this from my point of view is that most of you will have learned to play way back in the days when we didn't have videos, youtube, tab etc, when we had no choice but to buy a record, stick the needle on and listen, and listen, and repeat, and listen etc. That's the only way to get a good ear in my opinion, so if you're new to the guitar and reading this, forget youtube and tab. 99% of it is wrong. I frequent a forum for a band with a younger 'audience' and I keep telling them the same - you would cry at how many people pick up a guitar and can't even tell whether it's in tune. Get a tuition book, learn some basic theory and scales. Personally, I would recommend every beginner to start with the Shadows. I did and I really cannot think of a more suitable way to learn the basics. Shadows material is very easy to play (if you avoid the rhythm guitar part of The Savage and Man Of Mystery) and if you really get into it, it's a great way to learn to play with feeling instead of playing like a machine.
General sound
Let's start with the guitar. Majority of the time you should be on the bridge pickup. Tremolo arm - don't grip it, you want it loose in the palm of your hand and just subtle use when you let the note ring, not using it as you're picking the note (unless you can hear that happen in the tune concerned). From what I've seen, a lot of players grip the arm and overdo the pitch change and just end up sounding like a warped record.
The amp. What worked for us was to turn the bass and treble up full and the middle down to minimum. Then back the treble off while pick the top string until it stopped cutting my head off
and gently back the bass off to give a nice balance, then ease some middle just to bring in a little body (I think on my Dad's Fender it was something like B-8, M-3, T-6?).
IMHO, the most important bit is the echo settings. I stumbled on some (8 or 9) spectral analysis charts that the guy who actually builds and programs Hank Marvin's current echo unit on the net, but they seem to have been taken down. Fortunately, I did save the time settings. I have a feeling that I might have the page saved somewhere on my laptop (I'll look into it), but if I can figure out how to post the settings here I will.
UPDATE: Yesterday, I stumbled across and free plug-in that has (I think) in the region of 100-150 Shadows presets programmed into it. If you dabble with DAW, even if you don't actually end up using the plug-in itself, it could prove invaluable in obtaining those settings. Link -
http://www.echotapper.nl/etap2/etap2doc/index.html - and the preset codes, you need to locate the preset and then read the settings off from the plug-in's GUI
http://www.echotapper.nl/etap2/
Right which era? 58-61 - Apache, Man of Mystery, The Stranger and so on. You want to be picking the notes close to the bridge, with th trem hanging out of the way, used almost as an after thought. Remember hank was new to the Strat at this point and so was only just starting to experiment with the trem, and still playing with his hand resting on the guitar. Also, bear in mind when trying to replicate what was on a record, that the old mics, played a part in what you hear, too, and that most of the earlier recordings were done using AC15s and not AC30s. If you're trying Nivram, forget the Stra, it was recorded on Gretsches. We recently recorded this and found that my old Yamaha SG2000S got us closest using both pickups.
61-64. Wonderful Land, Kon Tiki, Midnight. By now, HBM is using the trem extensively, meaning he's picking the strings over the neck pickup. This is generally accepted as 'the sound' I think, mellower than the earlier sound and I'm not convinced that the switch to the rosewood necked guitars had that big an influence - I can get this sound on a 50s reissue Strat.
64-mid 70s Dance On, Atlantis, Foot Tapper, A dramatically different sound. The Burns era. Same playing technique as the early 60s, but I think HBM was also experimenting with pickup selections and he also incorporated the use of a volume pedal in the early 70s. Tunes like Warlord, Place In The Sun, Maroc 7 and so on used 12 string, baritone and/or six string bass guitars as well. Honestly, unless you get a Burns Marvin, you're really not going to get THIS sound.
mid 70s to 2009 Differing guitars (70s Strat, 58 Strat, Custom Shop Strats, Burns Marvin & Double 6), all sorts of different amps (Boogies, Vox, Matchless), all sorts of different echo units. The sound is still mostly the same. Just goes to show. You can spend fortunes getting the 'right'gear and you'll still always sound like you.
You don't need a 58 Strat. They're 54 years old now and I don't think (apart from a brief period in the early 80s) that HBM has ever used a guitar that was more than ten years old in anger. Bruce is using that original guitar now, and I wouldn't be surprised if the one he uses live is a replica.
I promise you, getting 'the sound' is easy. Sounding like Hank Marvin is a whole different ball game... that you'll never win.
If you're playing in a tribute band, you'll also need to get everyone else sounding authentic, too, and once they're sorted you'll then need to readjust your sound to fit. Electric guitars almost always sound cack in the context of a band when their tone has been set up in isolation.
I saw a couple of DVDs recently - Final Tour and the 50 years Reunion - and to be honest, I don't think Hank Marvin sounds like Hank Marvin these days, I was really disappointed. He uses these custom shop guitars now, with the two point floating trem, which doesn't suit his playing. Those trems are too sensitive for that style. He sounded like a warped record a lot of the time. Sorry chaps, I love the guy, but someone should tell him.
If you haven't heard the Marvin, Welsh & Farrar stuff, you should. Rockin With Curly Leads, too. Brilliant. I wish they had done more of this kind of thing over the years. The endless covers put me off over time. Bruce Welsh and HBM are much better musicians than that and it's a shame they haven't shown the world that.