Gorehound’s Roots Guitar Tips

Rockabilly is a hybrid of Blues and Country with melodic and rhythmic elements borrowed from Bebop and Western Swing music. Its is characterized by up-tempo, mostly Major,  Seventh and Ninth chords, walking Bass-lines, a lot of train-beats and shuffles. Usually employing an Upright Bass, a minimal drum set, “Slap-Back echo” on the Electric Guitar and Vocals, and an acoustic rhythm Guitar. Most of the tunes follow a 1-4-1-5(eg. A,D,A,E) 12-bar progression.

Equipment-wise most guitarists use a Gretsch or Gibson hollowbody electric. Epiphone, Heritage, Washburn, Guild, Eastwood and Sparrow, all make high quality instruments. For solidbodies, Telecasters, Les Paul Juniors, Gretsch Rock-Jets, Fender Jazzmasters or Mustangs are all suitable. I use a couple of Sparrow Twangmasters, a tele style solid body. The Bigsby Vibrato arm is a large part of the sound. I’m using “Light Top Heavy Bottom” gauge strings(.010-.052), they last longer and stay in tune better. Lighter gauge strings (.009s) don’t have any “snap” to them when you bend a string or do a hammer-on. There’s barely any resistance. They feel “sloppy” and require a much lighter touch. Albert Lee uses very light strings(.008s). Some players use “Flat-Wound” strings, they have a very authentic Jazzy, rich sound. If you want to sound like Cliff Gallup of G. Vincents Blue Caps, you need the flat-wounds. Flat-wound strings are fairly heavy and will limit your bending ability. I wouldn’t recommend them for your main #1 guitar or if you’re a beginner.

Effects, one word; Echo. You need either a digital delay, analog delay or a tape echo. Amp reverb sounds OK if you don’t have an echo pedal but if you’re going to buy one pedal, get a delay. You can trade your Fuzz/Distortion pedal for it. Boss digital delays are best, I use the new Space Echo. Digital is the easiest, most convenient type of echo, there’s some great analog pedals around too. Next pedal: Tremolo, again Boss are very reliable, there’s quite a few boutique brands that offer more control, Fulltone make the best. A Volume Boost for solos is handy, you can use an EQ pedal, I  control it with the Guitars volume pot but a pedal is easier and more precise. Some players use a Compressor, they bring out subtle sounds like harmonics and chicken picking. A Volume pedal is nice for Steel Guitar style swells. A floor tuner-pedal goes without saying, again Boss is the standard. Korg “Pitchblack” have a great display, easier to read than a Boss, Petersons are expensive and too precise, they might work great in a studio, but live, they take forever.

Pedals that definitely don’t belong in your chain are; Chorus/Flange, Wah-Wah, Ring Modulators,Harmonizers, Talk box’s, Phase Shifters, and Fuzz. Any distortion/overdrive should be coming from the amplifier. Some players will use a mild distortion like a Blues Driver(Boss) if they have a clean sounding amp or no master volume.Using a pre-amp before any effects and/or using the amplifiers effect-loop will give you a better signal. I find that you should not need any noise suppression/gate unless you’ve got too many pedals. A little 60 cycle hum from single coil pickups is OK. You wont hear it when playing.

Always use the best, shortest cables possible. The plugs are generally the most expensive part of a patch cord so don’t be surprised to find that a 1″ cable is almost as expensive as a 20″ cable’. It makes no sense spending thousands on a guitar, amplifier and effects, only to connect them with $5 patch cords, it’s the weakest link in the chain scenario.

Amplifiers. Tube amps are warmer. A Fender Deluxe Reverb, or Bassman is the best. Twin Reverbs and Super Reverbs are a bit loud. If you’re playing with a band, you’re going to want at least a 20 watt amp. Other good tube amps are Traynor, Hiwatt, Laney,Vox, Peavey Tweed, Mesa Boogie,Ampeg and Epiphone. For Boutique amps: Victoria, Matchless, Bad Cat,THD, Fuchs, Bogner, Top Hat. You want to veer away from; #1. Marshalls=Not Good for anything but metal, Dr Z, Bhuddas, Oranges, are all metal-head, loud fuzzy amps. I’m using a Tweed Fender Blues Deluxe Re-issue. It’s made in Mexico and is  not hand-wired. It has reverb, channel switching( both share tone and reverb ), effects loop, 40 watts, 1×12″ and only cost me $600Cdn new. It’s also very sturdy. Comin’ home after a show, the amp accidentally cartwheeled down a flight of stairs, landing with a thud ( and a scream). When I plugged it in it worked fine. Take my word for it, Fender makes reliable, reasonably priced professional amplifiers.

You should listen to Elvis’s “Sun Sessions”, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio. For new neo rockabilly, Brian Setzer’s playing’s incredible, Lee Rocker’s got 2 hot guitarist’s(Brophy Dale and Buzz Cambell). Deke Dickerson, Danny B Harvey, Paul Pigat, Jimmy Roy there’s quite a few incredible Rockabilly pickers out there. You also want to go back and listen to the old Blues, Hillbilly-Country, and Western Swing Artists, that influenced early Rockabilly.

To Play Rockabilly Guitar, aside from learning the basics of Chording and Melody, You want to practice controlling Bends, Hammer-ons, Vibrato, Slides, Slurs ect. Precise execution is very important. Playing with no, or little distortion is much different from playing with it. Many Hard-Rock and Metal players use distortion to cover-up the fact that their technique and execution are poor. With Blues, Country, Rockabilly and Instro-Surf, the emphasis is on playing ability, not an effect that makes you sound like every other player.

Most Rockabilly Guitarist employ some type of Fingerpicking or Fingerstyle playing. The Master’s are Chet Atkins and Merle Travis. This style basically involves playing a Bass note, generally the root or the fifth, underneath a Chord or Melody line. To accomplish this, the Guitarist must  use a)Thumb Pick, b)Hybrid picking- which involves adding 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers of the right hand, to the flatpicking or c)Palming the pick- use thumb, 1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers. Setzer has an incredible palming technique, it looks as if his pick dissappears when he Fingerpicks. Thumb picks are a totally different technique from Flat-Picking. Most players find them awkward to use and control. Thumb picks are often used for Banjo, Lap Steel, Dobro, and Steel Guitar, so it is a very useful technique if you plan on learning any of these instruments. The easiest way to “palm” your flatpick when learning is to hold it in your mouth. Just bite down on the edge (the pointed part that contacts the strings) so you can grab it easily when you’re finished Fingerpicking. (don’t put the whole pick in mouth).

Both the Beatles and CCR borrowed fairly heavily from Rockabilly. Even Rock bands like Queen and Led Zep have paid tribute to the Rockabilly genre. Rockabilly style has been increasing in popularity since the early 80’s, when the Stray Cats had their first hit.

Here’s the description from Allmusic . Aside from mixing up “Slapping” (a style of Upright Bass playing) and  “Slapback”, it’s fairly good.