Izen Ears

While I absolutely love that band, and that TONE rules, but the drummer reversed the beat and I cannot handle it haha! Very much not a jag / JM tone there, but that Gretsch sounds incredible! It’s all midrange... And to my ears that’s a super brownface-ey tone. AAAAAHHH I want to live in California! You are sooooo lucky, if you like surf. Hopefully you went to SG101 and signed up? Every year the site dude accepts user submissions and puts out a comp. Mostly home recordings and Garage Band-type but also a few bands. Blood Reef got #9 this year. (You can’t access the comps until you register!) Dude, you could go to the annual SG101 convention in August!!!! I may go next year. I wanna meet some of the surf forumites. I don’t know if I can take more than one hour of live surf music though. It’s three days long. Truth is - I don’t like much surf! Most of it is played out blues or jazz formulas without the pounding rhythm I crave. I’ve decided that Blood Reef is a “Horror Punk Surf” band, not even close to a traditional surf band. Hey you know what? I believe surf is a style and NOT a genre. In the 60s it was pop music, now it’s either traditional or non-traditional. We’re waiting on my guitar skills to catch up and then we’ll record. In the meantime, go join SG101 and DL the comps! Also - I really want two brownface Vibrasonics now, just in case we have to travel. (Or of course, we play a bigger venue with good sound reinforcement, but that will probably never happen!) The 6G13 circuit, a 50 watt version of the holy 6G14 circuit. I need two a) for backup, but primarily b) to bi-amp. Anyhow - yes all my favorite threads here have been about weird sound stuff! And horror stories, I love those. Sadly, I don’t really have any. Yeah a couple of gear failures and some public embarrassment but nothing close to a real horror show job... One time I almost fought a DP but he wised up and started respecting us haha! Dan Izen

Heh heh. Sounded AWESOME the other weekend. Played a “Rock For Reproductive Rights” benefit. Many strangers were bowled over by the tone from that stack! Dan Izen

But how else to fake the filmy look?!!! (That’s the reason the DP on my job says for all the stage smoke.)

If you came a few days earlier you could see my surf band! We’re playing Fri 10/25. Ah well... The weather just got nice this week - have a good trip! Yea holla at Sound Hard! Dan Izen

Holy crap! I remember reading about this. Reminds of this thread I started:

Hey thanks for that link to your awesome page! A great read. I’m trying my pinkie in mastering music and my mixes always come out muddy. Those perspectives are very useful! Dan

If you’re talking about union jobs, your BA needs to do his job better! This happened in my town a bunch until the new BA stepped in and demanded 100% proof of residency (not a utility bill) or else “distant hire.” Those are two words that make a penny-pinching producer run to actual locals. It’s kind of a two-edged sword, because the folks in nearby towns become “nearby hires” instead of “true locals.” Dan Izen

Amazing. Thanks for the link!

He played on many great surf classics, he was simply a badass badass drummer who made the most complicated stuff look easy. Sup Al! Dan Izen

I keep fantasizing about using two ribbon mics + Shure beta 52a for the drum kit, in a non-dead room! We’d have to overdub but it would be worth it... Now I have ribbon mic GAS dammit!

I’m surprised there aren’t more amp-heads posting here! I realize it’s not a guitar forum but many sound people also play music...

Here’s the “bedroom” rig. Just got back that pair of 1963 Oxford 12M6 and threw em in. (Twin is 1962, original cabinet but re-tolexed.) What a tone! It’s like melted gold. Dan Izen

He seems like a super great fella. Sa-weet Danelectro Longhorn on the wall! (Or maybe it’s a Hondo.) I wish I’d had the scratch to get one of these way back before I built my own... I considered it but it was like $7500. Worth every penny I’m sure!

Hey it’s New Orleans everyone’s deaf! But seriously, we practice in my basement super super loud, and play out super loud. Possibly quieter than practice! I leave a big bag of earplugs at the door for patrons. I’ll post a practice recording at some point. The drummer pounds the crap out of the skins and we all dial up to where we can still hear him. Sometimes during practice I suddenly realize I can’t hear the drums at all haha! That beautiful clean tone had me in a spell. Those cabs are actually blonde tolex - those white ones you speak of could have been originals that faded into white! I’ve seen the 12” tone ring, but not in real life. I read they’re exceedingly rare. But they readily make them now, including 10” tone ring cabs! I just got back the 1963 Oxford 12T6 12” speakers for the blonde Twin. Dang job means I haven’t had the chance to install and hear them yet. I’m super excited because I’ve only heard JBLs (and Weber Californias) and some people rave about the Oxfords. Aw! Bummer about no recordings! Can you imagine hearing yourself back then? I mean talking between songs, hearing your young man voice in there. The music too or course! Do you still play? I absolutely *love* your question about vintage mics!!!! Somehow in all this tonequesting I forgot all about that! I have an original 55s and a couple of those bullet looking mics from the 60s. I feel like a lot of those old records were ribbon mics on the drums, very awesome warm. This opens up another giant can of worms! I’ve been using most dynamic mics, the AKG D112 sounds really nice on the brownface cab, pointed between the doping and the cone. Drum mics seem to sound really good on these guitar amps! I wonder if there are studios that record the “old way” of just a handful of ribbon mics for drums and such?

I’ve not seen that wood bridge before! That must change the tone compared to steel? Here are the amps Blood Reef uses!