O/T Hot Rod rockabilly/surf guitar reccomendations on a budget?

yeah, the Jime site has been well read by myself, very cool.

Well, based on a recent reccomendation, on a wim I went on eBay and bid on a Danalectro, actually a Beatnik Burgundy 56-U2, and I won it for $180!
I figured I'd get sniped at the end, but nope! So I'm an officially a musician now right?

I can't believe it, but it looks like I'm off to a good start. Have been taking the advice on amps and doing some price shopping to see where to go with that. I'd like some effects, so the Fender Champion looks good, as does the Blues Junior or Hot Rod Deluxe if I can afford one. I'll wait to see if my bike sells first though.

For the price I couldn't pass the Danalectro up, though I do intend to build one, mark my words!

Thanks guys!

 

As a self taught guitarist who had a keen interest in learning rockabilly styles, I can tell ya pretty much this:

If you're just starting out and you're gonna start learning, start on the low end. There's no reason to go out and buy a fancy (or even not so fancy) hollow body or anything like that. Hit the stores, pawn shops, swap meets, garage sales, and find something that feels good! That's gonna be the most important thing for you to find. Who cars if it's a BC rich warlock metal machine? If you can pick it up for 50 bucks and it fits your hands and body... it's a great guitar to learn on! Worry about finding a guitar with the rockabily / surf sound later. I started teaching myself on an 80 buck danelectro guitar (which I still play it at shows from time to time.) I went out and splurged on a casino cause I wanted the hollow body sound... but I didn't really know what I was doing yet. The neck was really narrow and the action was loose and I didn't know what to do with it... it was a great sounding guitar in some bad sounding hands... Hope you get my point here.

Also, you won't care as much about dropping / scratching / denting / spilling beer on / hitting someone in the teeth with a cheap telecaster knock-off, rather than your 3200 dollar Chet Atkins country gentleman...

Trick is, find something that works for you. If it's a 50 dollar pawn shop special with a little 10 amp practice box... FINE! You're still learning. Once you get your rockabilly chops down, or your surf scales polished, you'll make that step up to a quality guitar that fits your style and you'll be amazed at the difference quality can make.

Get your playing down first... worry about sound and image later.

Best of luck to ya!

- Dan

 

go with the blues junior....i like those amps a lot!....

 

I have several Gretsches, Gibsons and one Tele and for what you are wanting the Tele is your best bet! I hardly play any of my other guitars since buying my '52 Reissue! I love that thing! I play everything from rockabilly to hardcore old skool punk and you can't beat it! They're not cheap but WELL worth the dough!

 

The most important thing of all, to find the guitar that you like and suits you.
Go to a big dealer, sit down and pick up every guitar you think you can afford and play them through what ever type of amp you hope to settle down with.
Feel how they feel in your lap, in your fingers, and of course check out the sounds you can get from them.
Don't let a salesman show you what it'll do.
If he's any good he'll make what he wants to sell you sound awesome and talk you away from everything else.
Don't be afraid of cheap brands.
Ibenez are chinese and good enough for Vai and Satriani.
Squire I believe are Korean, (Jimmy Pages favourite guitar is supposed to be a Squire strat.
Listen to the people you like, look at what they play, and allow for pedals.
So few people play with out effects these days, the guitar doesn't matter so much.
Save a $100 for a Tascam Guitar tutor, they play from the original CD at slow speed and normal pitch.
you learn the lick then speed up bit at a time.
Awesome tool.
Oh, I forgot the most important thing of all,
Get it together and party down.
Playing is great, by yourself of in a band.
You'll love it.

 

you know, that thing sounds sweet. I did a little reading, so, if I put in a Charlie feathers CD, what will it actually slow down and/or cut out? Does it cut out vocals, or does it just slow the whole ensemble down?

Looks like a good tool if it does what it says

 

I wanted to bring this back from the dead to let all the helpful people know how I'm doing. Still playing about 4 or 5 times a week (slow and steady), and have gone through quite a bit of gear! Music rules!

I upgraded my Danelectro 56-U2 to the 56-U3, that thing screams! Great tone, light weight, and well built. I haven't had to do any work or adjustments to it, just play.
Before the upgrade though I got an Epiphone ES-295 (gold hollowbody archtop), I upgraded that with Grover Imperials and a USA Nickel Bigsby, and am about to get some new Gibson P-90's, the Epi's are a little flat.

Around March or so I also tried my hand at building a guitar, actually a Fender Jazz bass for my brother to play. That turned out exceptionally well, and sounds great. WOuld love to get him a USA Fender P-Bass though, as my uncle's plays just a bit better, the action is lower. I got a Fender Bassman for him to play through.

We traded the core of our t-bucket to a fellow HAMBer for a 1979 Gibson Les Paul Standard, and my brother has been playing that one. I got the jones to play death metal recently and got a Gibson Flying V.
And, along the way I picked up some Daddy Mojo cigar box slide guitars

I had a round of Dano efefcts pedals that worked OK, but after hearing the EH Big Muff, I went out and replaced all my Danos with EH pieces- Metal Muff, Elnglish Muff'n, and soon to get a Clone Theory. I am still using the Danelectro Reel Echo for slapback, which I love. It's got a warble feature so it gets that nice tape echo hiss, you can balance the amount of echo with straight signal, and adjust the number of repeats and delay. All this is through a Fender Blues Junior, but I am keeping my eye out for a 4x10 tube Fender or Marshall stack, or both.

Recently we even went so far as to get a computer interface and Shure 57 mic to record our music. Still playing around with the Live software, and of course trying to cut a good track that is in time

I wanted to thank everybody for all their great input previously, and let you know I'm still playing!

 

HaHaHa...that's AWESOME! Always wanted a V.
Glad your still at it.

My daughter got the PS2 game Guitar Hero II for X-mas, but I've been playing it more than her....ha ha ha!
It has 'inspired' me to dust off my older Ibanez Saber and play some death. dunt,dunt,dunt....dunt,dunt,dunt....
I really need to restring it and I'd like a new amp too.....someday.
I pretty much suck......but it sure is FUN!

 

Josh,

I love those Sabers. I was working in a music store as a guitar repair guy when those came out. It was my job to recieve, unpack and tune all the new axes when they came in. Talk a about a great job for a young guy who was learning to play! I got to play around with a lot of cool new peices, even several double necks and a couple special ordered triple necks! I'll bet I handled damn near a half a million dollars worth of guitars in the two years I worked there. And I still can't play to save my life!

 

go out and buy an Epiphone, They are decent. when you get better trade up.

 

That's what I always tell people. Buy an Epi and load it with Gibson electronics.

Or do what I did and make your own body and load it with the best elctronics I could afford and the best bridge I could lay my hands on at the time. I still have it and still love it.

Vance

 

That's cool Vance!
I kinda lucked out with my Saber....times were tough (7-8 yrs ago) and I needed $$$ to fix my daily driver, so I pawned my Strat (mexico made) for $75.
After that I was jonesin' for another guitar. Most of my favorite Deathmetal bands played Sabers, so that's what I wanted. Went to a little music shop and what do I see on the used rack???? A white Ibanez in EXCELLENT SHAPE!
I put a couple of bucks down on it, as the shop owner was cool and let me make payments. I do miss the Strat at times......but the Saber just RULES!!!!
Now if I only had a big STACK!! hahaha!

 

My current guitar is a Tele copy that I made that has an Ibanez Edge bridge and a couple Peavey P12 pick-ups with a Kramer neck. That bridge is the best bridge short of a Steinberger Transtrem. And those Peavey P12s are perfect for Texas blues, ala early ZZ Top. I've also got a treble system on this thing that will allow me to to get a nice crisp surf thing going too. I really dig this guitar. And I can say I made it.

Vance

 

Cool to hear you still are playing ! I have an ES 295 too and I highly recommend Lindy Fralin's.I have a stock bridge P 90 and the neck pick-up is 15% underwound,killer tone.Check his site for more info.

 

After this post was done last year it is good to hear you are into the music still....
I bought a few more myself -I thought Id share...

a JT133 a 335 clone that is a killer instrument by Jay Turser-350 dollars New.[Wilburn custom shop] has ZebraBuckers for pickups/Bigsby Tremelo Kluson tuners

And an Xaviere VX700 a great guitar[thin cut LP style]-Light at 8 lbs] that has Alnico pickups and a great kneck and feel/Awsome sounds/ and beautiful looking too -350 dollars=New shown is cherry red but I have the[Honey Sunburst]
Both Chinese....BOTH better than lots of guitars here are....

 

Maybe a Reverend. American made ( at least they were ) 5-600 bucks

 

yo... Epiphones are a good guitar for the money, I own two....I'm actually considering selling my electric...it's a Epiphone/Gibson Les Paul sunburst with reissue vintage 1957 Humbucker pickups....the action is great on the guitar...I'm also selling my footboard...it's a DigiTech gnx3 with a ton of preprogrammed sounds + built in whammy pedal and 8-track digital recorder...PM me if interested......

 

I got a 1971 hardtail Fender Strat and a Ampeg J-12R that I picked up about the same time. Been working good for me. I have played a Squire and the one I played seem to be a nice guitar...

 

In my collection i have a 65 Fender MusicMaster II and matching 65 Fender Princeton Reverb Amp and i must say you can get a pretty good "surf" sound from this combination.

 

I always differentiated between rockabilly and surf guitar. Maybe that's just me.

It's a lot in the amp if you're just going for the sound. For rockabilly I play a lot of stuff through my Fender Hot Rod Delux. Good sound, tone, plenty of volume when I need it, and it wasn't that expensive. For Dick Dale type surf stuff I had an old Peavey Bandit 65 that had one of the best coil reverbs out there. Really wet sounding. You can get your hands on one of those and it'll give you a lot of bang for the buck. I like the Fender amp for playing Ventures, Setzer, etc. I hardly ever break out the Marshall stuff anymore.

As long as we're on guitars, here's my creme de la creme. I've had this '67 White Falcon for about 2 decades now. Busting it out of the case this morning to snap these photos was the first time it's seen daylight in over a year. Guess it's time to sell it, but it's got great tone through the Fender amp. Most Gretsch Country Gentleman and Falcons are $10K and up birds, but if you can find an old Gretsch silver jet or similar with the Gretsch pickups there's no better rockabilly sounding setup for around $700 in my book.