All Music, All The Time

Rock-a-billy today isn’t what it was years ago. Like all music, it is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. See if you recognize any of these players… Most people wouldn’t think of U2 when Rock-a-billy is mentioned, but the influence on their music is definitely there.

ROCKABILLY: The Headers (12/1) – Choice Concerts – Rochester City …

ROCKABILLY: The Headers (12/1), Buffalo’s The Headers play songs about girls, hot rods, guitars, and why we long for all three with terminal determination. The playing is stripped and polished down to rockabilly’s bare-boned beauty.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: The Rockabilly Country Soul of Big Al …

Houston Music. Lonesome Onry and Mean: The Rockabilly Country Soul of Big Al Downing. Houston Press news, blogs, music, movies, restaurants and the arts.

Pretty Little Boogie pin up Howard Parker

How’s About Some Eye Candy, Boys?

How should I set my guitar amp to get that 50’s rockabilly sound?

I have a VOX amp with gain, volume, master volume, treble, middle and bass settings as well as digital effects such as delay and reverb. And on the guitar I can select neck or bridge pickups or blend the two.

Here are some thoughts. First, in the 50s, “distortion” was a no-no. So you want a “clean” sound by having a relatively low “pre” or “gain” setting. Then you get your volume by turning up the master volume. Then, the sound should not be overly bright, so I would say have your treble knob about halfway up. Turn your middle knob perhaps a bit past the middle, like at 1 or 2 oclock. Then turn your bass knob up maybe even all the way. Regarding your pickups, you probably want to be on the neck pickup or maybe blend the two.

The next thing is to get that slap echo effect using your delay. Try a fairly fast echo setting like 100ms or so, and experiment with increasing or lowering the delay time until it has the right feel. You only want one slap so have the regen down low (if this option is offered). Then the intensity should be in the middle, so you can hear the echo but it is not dominant. This should get you close.

The thing to remember is that the guitars, amps and effects were very different in the 1950s. The classic “rockabilly” guitars are the big archtops like from Gretch and Gibson. Those guitars have a certain sound that is not easy to duplicate with a solid body guitar with modern pickups.

The amps were much simpler and usually did not have a gain and master volume – that was invented later by Jim Marshall (I think) for rock music. The amps had a mellower tone which we’ve tried to duplicate with the tone settings. Then lastly, the effect of the “slap echo” was done with tape echo since digital effects were still decades away. But by experimenting with your amp and the settings I’ve shown above, you should be able to get in the ballpark.

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