A break from hibernation, but playing Ventures

[abstamaria]

Yes, a good friend from the US also suggested a Mustang bridge. I still use the original items. I use 12 to 52 gauge strings, so that may be a factor.

The later Ventures pieces were played with thin gauge strings, and so are difficult for me to play.

I use Thomastic-lnfeld flat wounds, which sound very period. Anna uses the same brand (flats also) for her Precision Bass.

Andy

[JimN]

Yes, a good friend from the US also suggested a Mustang bridge. I still use the original items. I use 12 to 52 gauge strings, so that may be a factor.

The later Ventures pieces were played with thin gauge strings, and so are difficult for me to play.

I use Thomastic-lnfeld flat wounds, which sound very period. Anna uses the same brand (flats also) for her Precision Bass.

Andy

You're going to have to hunt down a Mosrite, Andy...

[cockroach]

Nahhh! Andy could save money and buy a Squier Tele- use 11-48s and crank the amp and ...UBNokie!

But from previous posts, I think Andy prefers Bob 's sound, and style from the Ventures early days- before Bob swapped his guitar for the bass and Nokie took over on lead guitar!

Me- I love 'em all!- Hank, Nokie, Bob etc etc- but I find I can play a bit of Nokie's sound and style...

And regarding many comments over the years about Nokie's lack of animation and movement etc when he plays-hopefully without offending anyone, may I suggest that as he is a native American, it may be a cultural thing- many Australian Aboriginal people I have met and some Aboriginal musicians I have played with are similarly not demonstrative or talkative etc- very quietly spoken and modest, but nice people!

[abstamaria]

You have good memory, John. Yes, I’ve focused on the pre-Mosrite Ventures (and the pre-Burns Shadows). The basic reason is that the British Invasion began at about the time the bands switched guitars - around 1963 I think- and my interests as with the other teenagers here swung the way of the Beatles and the rest. Also, the Jazzmaster was the stuff of dreams for me then. It was a childhood dream.

The good thing about the early Ventures pieces is that the beat is strong and appealing. Since Manila was an American town, those pieces also are quite memorable to people my age; we first danced to them. They are seldom played here now.

When the MC introduced us to the party, she said that, to ensure an authentic experience, we brought period guitars for that period sound. And someone from the period. “If he forgets his pieces, give him some leeway; he last played them 50 years ago!” It was fun.

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[abstamaria]

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The party was a university homecoming, so was made up of people from different ages. Several were quite young, and I ams sure had never before heard the pieces we played. But they reacted to the beat and were quite enthusiastic. It is very different playing on a stage to a a listening audience and to a crowd that's dancing. The latter is great deal of fun.

John, I didn't know, or had forgotten, that Nokie Edwards is a native American. I looked it up; he is Cherokee. That may well be the reason, but then Bob hardly moved either (though Nokie was always more stoic).

As I mentioned elsewhere, our bass player Anna had to get used to playing with a pick and with the pick=up and bridge covers on.

Best,

Andy

[abstamaria]

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I have had a Japanese friend's Mosrite with me for some years. The Ventures as a four-man combo first visited japan in 1964, when their sound had changed and they were using Mosrites. So that (LOUD and DYNAMIC) sound is the "Ventures sound" in japan, and the Mosrite the guitar of choice.

I find the Mosrite very difficult to play, actually. The fingerboard is so narrow, so much narrower than a Fender's, that I could never get used to playing it. It is also strung with very thin strings, so adjusting to it is difficult for me. After their first visit to Manila, the Ventures (Nokie I think) taught a friend of my mine, whose band was close to the Ventures, to use a high E string for the B string, and move the rest of the strings up, deleting the original low E string. In a later visit, they brought thin-gauge strings for my friend's band.

Andy

[noelford]

After their first visit to Manila, the Ventures (Nokie I think) taught a friend of my mine, whose band was close to the Ventures, to use a high E string for the B string, and move the rest of the strings up, deleting the original low E string.

Andy

Andy, I'd completely forgotten but you have reminded me that, in my early days (around 1961) when I liked my strings on the light side, that's exactly what I used to do.

[RUSSET]

That was nice of Nokie, Andy. I must admit that the first time I saw them with the Mosrites, I thought they were strange looking guitars. I guess I have a first love of the Fenders, & of their early records. That was way back in the '60s, of course.

Tony.

[Alan Taylor]

Ventures + Mosrites for me!

Vive la différence!!!

[abstamaria]

I'm glad that reminded you, Noel. Some of my friends who've played guitar continuously sometimes can't recall what gauge strings they used in the early '60s. I am reminded of Hank looking at their newly-arrived Stratocaster and wondering whether it was the hearty American diet that allowed his American hero to bend such thick strings.

I am similar to you, Tony. The first guitars I dreamed of were the Fenders. Completely beyond my wildest dreams at the time.

You are like most of my japanese friends, Alan. To them, it's Ventures/Mosrites always!

Best,

Andy