surf's up ?

[del]

ok i finally have some money to spend on a new amp.
i play most of the time morricone/surf tunes/some lee hazlewood/bit of country.
i know this question has been asked a lot, but what would u go for ?

deluxe reverb reissue or an ac15 with the blue speaker and a fender reverb tank ?
I tried to find some samples of a deluxe reverb with the reverb on 12 to hear how surf this amp can go .. haven't found one yet.
i do like the sound of an ac15, just the reverb doesnt come close to surf territory.

No store here has a deluxe reverb in stock so i can't try it out.
Don't say i should get a twin, i know they sound amazing but they re just to heavy to carry every weekend back up the stairs.

thank u for reading.

[eddiewagner]

hi del,
i tried all kinds of stuff. the most surfish sound so far is my fender. it´s really heavy, so i bought a handcart for it.
besides that: you eed at least a 12 inch speaker and some clean power. i guess a drri will do the trick. if you crank the reverb of it all the way up, you are pretty wet. if that is not enough, you should check out surfguitar 101. that forum deals with nothing but surfsounds. one guythere has modded a dano springking pedal. check out the samples, very good. get´s you thinking.

[Axis29]

A Deluxe on 12 in the reverb department is so far beyond surf it's crazy! IT does 'ambient slapback' it's so far around the corner.

I love cranking my DRRI's reverb around to about 5 and it's surfy as all get-out. Most of the time my reverb sits on about 2.5 for a pretty reverby sound!

[eugenedunn]

How much is in your budget? I feel you really need tremelo too. In order to get a satisfying Ennio Morricone vibe going......

That surfy spy James Wilsey thing can be duplicated with Fender reverb and a touch of tremelo to simulate the slapback repeat.... it is awesome.

If you don't get a Fender amp, you'll just be thinking in the future why you can't cop that surfy vibe the way you're hearing it in your head.

Personally, the silverface Princeton Reverb has been my Holy Grail for that type of sound. But you do have to tweak it a bit with a lower gain V1 tube and a beefy clean headroom speaker.

[Chris Callahan]

The best surf sound I've heard recently was a Super Reverb.

I generally go with a Twin but I was shamed by this Super in the surf department.

SRRI, I should say.

[surfoverb]

ac15+fender tank...Even if you by Fender amp you'll need a tank eventually if you want to get real deep reverb. I actaully prefer the Vox onboard to my Twin onboard...Lots of surf bands play vox amps.

[getbent]

hang 10!

these are pretty awesome surf machines! I've played one.. if surf was my thing... this would be it for me.

[Wardpike]

Holy Cow, those Gomez amps are cool! Shaweet!

[TeeBird]

Either plus reverb unit.

Being able to adjust tone and dwell are really handy.

The Vox tone works great for surf just like the Fender brown or black. Ask Hank Marvin.

Edit: If those Gomez are brown circuit clones then those plus outboard reverb plus Jazzmaster is THE traditional surf guitar rig.

[eugenedunn]

Yeah, lemme chime in again.... since you never stated what your budget was.

If you can afford it at all, and outboard tube reverb unit is the most awesome piece of artillery you can acquire if you wanna do surf-spy-Morricone-soundtrack stuff. So that's easily between 400-700 bucks.... then add a modest clean amp like a DRRI, Princeton Reverb.... Stay with amps under 30-watts unless you're playing with a LOUD band.

[Wally]

Any of Fender Reverb amps will do reasonably good surf music at some volume....with the big amps yielding the most volume, naturally.
The Fender reverb unit is an ultimate tool in surf. Leo designed the 6G Showman and the REverb unit for Dick Dale. That is still what Dale uses for his surf sounds. When I think/hear surf tones, I think large Fender amps..showman and Twin REverbs...and the reverb unit. YOu can get by with just the reverb amps, but the separate unit is more versatile. Although, when I saw Dick Dale, he never once tweaked any knobs. IT was set. HE played. Surf's up! Fender reverb is the soul of surf music, imo. Wet and Wild...

[Durtdog]

Originally Posted by Wally

Any of Fender Reverb amps will do reasonably good surf music at some volume....with the big amps yielding the most volume, naturally.
The Fender reverb unit is an ultimate tool in surf. Leo designed the 6G Showman and the REverb unit for Dick Dale. That is still what Dale uses for his surf sounds. When I think/hear surf tones, I think large Fender amps..showman and Twin REverbs...and the reverb unit. YOu can get by with just the reverb amps, but the separate unit is more versatile. Although, when I saw Dick Dale, he never once tweaked any knobs. IT was set. HE played. Surf's up! Fender reverb is the soul of surf music, imo. Wet and Wild...

Haven't you heard? All those amps are too big and loud. Not acceptable any more. Everyone's amp must be under 30 watts, preferably 15, and be portable enough to carry in your wallet.

[Rizo]

My Princeton Reverb will surf with any amp out there. It's reverb is crazy!

Not to mention it's small and can be miked for easy carrying to any gig.

[red57strat]

My Mesa/Boogie 5:50 1 x 12 out surfs my '66 Vibrolux Reverb and '68 Princeton Reverb.

In fact, it out surfs any Fender amp that I've played. The all tube reverb is very nice sounding.

I imagine it would take an outboard reverb unit to sound better.

Besides the reverb, the clean mode on channel 1 is great for surf. It's got a Twin Reverb kind of sound but is a lot easier to carry.

[CatfishStudios]

59 bassman with a tweed reverb unit..ultimate sound and coolness factor to boot.

[jhundt]

ukelele and a surfboard on Waikiki Beach ...

[scooteraz]

Originally Posted by Wally

Any of Fender Reverb amps will do reasonably good surf music at some volume....with the big amps yielding the most volume, naturally.
The Fender reverb unit is an ultimate tool in surf. Leo designed the 6G Showman and the REverb unit for Dick Dale. That is still what Dale uses for his surf sounds. When I think/hear surf tones, I think large Fender amps..showman and Twin REverbs...and the reverb unit. YOu can get by with just the reverb amps, but the separate unit is more versatile. Although, when I saw Dick Dale, he never once tweaked any knobs. IT was set. HE played. Surf's up! Fender reverb is the soul of surf music, imo. Wet and Wild...

Originally Posted by Durtdog

Haven't you heard? All those amps are too big and loud. Not acceptable any more. Everyone's amp must be under 30 watts, preferably 15, and be portable enough to carry in your wallet.

Originally Posted by Rizo

My Princeton Reverb will surf with any amp out there. It's reverb is crazy!

Not to mention it's small and can be miked for easy carrying to any gig.

Boys boys boys...can't we just get along?

Actually eddiewanger had an exelent suggestion to go here:http://www.surfguitar101.com/
and see what others are doing with this very thing. Many varied ways to the tone. Of course the absolute classic way is the Dick Dale method; big heavy Fender Reverb unit (or clone) in front of a big heavy Fender Twin/Showman. My favorite onebox solution for that is the Fender Vibroking. Big and heavy, but the reverb is in the right place. For smaller spaces (and since I don't yet own a Vibroking), I like to use my Victroette with reverb full up. Pretty decent. Of course, even using a verbzilla in front of a Valve Junior has gotten some decent and usable tones for my purposes.

To the OP, there is nothing like haveing a reverb unit in front of your amp. Don't know why, but to me, that is just the best surf tone. The amplifier after that just needs to be pretty clean (just a touch of hair is fine). So your solution of a Fender reverb tank and an AC15 would sound fine. IMHO, better than a DR, but really, that is splitting hairs.

As an aside, has anyone put a Fender reverb tank in front of a Twin Reverb and turned both reverbs up full? Just muddy out, or some sort of super lush reverb sound? I am betting the former, but am asking just in case...

[TeeBird]

Reverb units are not that heavy.... ????
Well compared to a pedal, ok.

I'm guessing one reason for the Fender reverb unit being the ultimate splash machine is the big 6K6 pentode clobbering the tank. Funny that we still like this dinosaur, isn't it? Looks like something from an old Sci Fi movie...

But I'll never part with mine...I adore that thing. Just a reissue, but I put some decent tubes in it and a three spring tank.

[eugenedunn]

Haven't you heard? All those amps are too big and loud. Not acceptable any more. Everyone's amp must be under 30 watts, preferably 15, and be portable enough to carry in your wallet.

That is so funny! And here I am, a big proponent of that very phenomenon! (^_^) Having recently sold my big ol' tweed 4x10 for a polite 1x10 Princeton Reverb. Here's what I see driving that current trend:

Old guys have trouble carrying big a*s amps around because they strained their backs years ago schlepping Marshall stacks.

We all have huge PA's with 1000's of watts to mic our dinky amps.

We all live in quiet neighborhoods or apartments where a raging combo will make you a target of the neighborhood vigilantes.....

We can't afford the union dues to pay roadies...

Having gone through the 80's and 90's trends of big stacks, to modular rackmount systems, I am ready to jump on the "small combo" bandwagon. Call me capricious, but it feels and sounds so right. (^_^)

[Rizo]

I think for the most part we're revealing a combination that will work:

Older, hand-wired Fender Amp (SF would be the cleanest)
Tube driven reverb (either a stand alone unit or a built in)

I think that'll get you in the ball park, the rest is up to you, but you could probably get a pretty decent surf tone with your AC15 and a reverb unit (preferably a standalone tube unit, but I bet a stomp box would get you close).