So .... who does proper rockabilly?

OilCityPickups

Of late I've gotten more nd more interested in rockabilly ....the work of of Cliff Gallop and Scotty Moore etc etc.
As a life long blues rocker .... I'm trying to play the changes and abandon scales in favour of Archie-Pettigrews ... 6ths, 13ths and shite ... any advice?
I really need it as I'm starting guitar duties in two different rockabilly bands in the new year

ThePrettyDamned

Brian Setzer owns all.

I can't help much other than Brian Setzer did a run of lessons for total guitar a couple of years back, so the videos are probably on YouTube.

octatonic

Check out 'Cousin Harley'. Try Western swing as much as rockabilly- there is more of a jazz approach to WS.

EricTheWeary

Lot of dvds and books on amazon.
I like Darrell Higham and he mixes up trad rockabilly approaches with other elements. There are a few lessons by him on YouTube.
Quite a lengthy free written lesson on truefire that might be worth a look as well.

OilCityPickups

Love darrell Higham's playing (not so sure about his sweaters) and I've devoured all his stuff online. I've always been more of a 'scales' player and it comes a s a bit of a revelation to start thinking in arpeggios and chromatic ideas.

streethawk

Ah, rockabilly.

One of the many styles I tell myself I could play, if only I could be bothered learning. 

Best years ahead of me etc. 

:-S

koss59

I would highly recommend studying Jeff Becks playing on his tribute to Les Paul DVD, it's all on youtube.

You can see some of the stuff he's playing and has all the Cliff Gallup and Scotty Moore stuff down.

OilCityPickups

koss59 said:

I would highly recommend studying Jeff Becks playing on his tribute to Les Paul DVD, it's all on youtube.

You can see some of the stuff he's playing and has all the Cliff Gallup and Scotty Moore stuff down.

Funnily enough I'm not really a Beck fan normally ... except for his rockabilly. The Beck live at Ronnie Scotts' on U tube is brilliant.
I've been dissecting Rev Horton Heat too ... jeez I swear Jim Heath has got a secret pair of extra left hand fingers he slips in to his playing from time to time.

rpr

it's quite a melting pot,but worth listening to

Johnny Burnette Trio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv1xvMjxqcQ

Cliff Gallup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CTso1tx4Bs

Pre Country Wanda Jackson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOb_bwOx4P8

Setzer

I played in a Rockabilly band for about 7 or 8 years, I only did it to push myself in a direction I wouldnt normally have gone and surprisingly I absolutely loved it! 

The biggest problem I had at the start was actually playing with the double bass player as I was more of a rock player. Abandon all of your usual scale type of playing as that just sounds absolute shite in Rockabilly. Start off with simple ideas and plenty of double stops and cut right down on bending strings! in Rockabilly less is usually more so unless you are a master of the style its better to keep it simple until you get a good grip of the style, simple lead lines sound great!

A Fender amp is almost obligatory, I tried a few different amps I had but when I eventually played through a Fender I realised that it was THE sound.

A bonus is that you dont need masses of gear, a Gretsch, Tele or something with your Cow T Rons into a Fender amp with a good helping of slapback is all you really need.

There is a guy on Youtube called MyTwangyGuitar if I remember right and he sells lessons on DVD but he has quite a few lessons on Youtube and he would be a good place to start, he doesnt go into theory or even talk! he just plays songs filmed really nicely and close up so you can get an idea of the style and there are a few Rockabilly standards including the lead that he has up on Youtube so maybe you can learn a song or two off him that your band will be playing.

Good luck!

OilCityPickups

Setzer said:

I played in a Rockabilly band for about 7 or 8 years, I only did it to push myself in a direction I wouldnt normally have gone and surprisingly I absolutely loved it! 

The biggest problem I had at the start was actually playing with the double bass player as I was more of a rock player. Abandon all of your usual scale type of playing as that just sounds absolute shite in Rockabilly. Start off with simple ideas and plenty of double stops and cut right down on bending strings! in Rockabilly less is usually more so unless you are a master of the style its better to keep it simple until you get a good grip of the style, simple lead lines sound great!

A Fender amp is almost obligatory, I tried a few different amps I had but when I eventually played through a Fender I realised that it was THE sound.

A bonus is that you dont need masses of gear, a Gretsch, Tele or something with your Cow T Rons into a Fender amp with a good helping of slapback is all you really need.

There is a guy on Youtube called MyTwangyGuitar if I remember right and he sells lessons on DVD but he has quite a few lessons on Youtube and he would be a good place to start, he doesnt go into theory or even talk! he just plays songs filmed really nicely and close up so you can get an idea of the style and there are a few Rockabilly standards including the lead that he has up on Youtube so maybe you can learn a song or two off him that your band will be playing.

Good luck!

That's really cool advice ... my weapons of choice are either my deep Bodied Artcore with a P90 sized humbucker in the neck and a Sun-T-Ron (Dynasonic type) in the bridge ... for a bit of an Eddie Cochran sound ... or my black sparkle artcore with my Cow-T-Rons ... for the more 'driven' Setzer-ish stuff.
My own guitar teaching background made me go for an arpeggio/country based approach ... and I've been trying to strip everything out to the barest minimum. It's tough ... as every fibre of my being want's to bust loose and play fast and flashy
I have the availability of a Fender twin for gigging ... but the bloody thing is sooooooo heavy ... any lighter recommendations? 

EricTheWeary

The aforementioned Mr Higham uses a Peavey Delta Blues. Some form of analog style delay for slapback might be an idea.

DulcetJones

When my old band did rockabilly, it was mixed in with ZZ Top, Dire Straits and the whole gamut of pop at the time.  I was playing a Les Paul most of the time and just went with a clean sound with more reverb than I usually used and it worked fine.  I also applied the same settings to surf music.  I learned more about playing rockabilly from the first Stray Cats album than any other source, Setzer dutifully threw in every trick in the book to great effect.  I should add, my Les Paul was equipped with a Kahler(I know, it's a long story....), a nearly essential rockabilly feature.

OilCityPickups

I use an analogue echo with a fast and fairly loud slapback ... which sounds pretty good to my ears ... and both of my Ibanez semis have Bigsbys
I've been trying my Joyo 'American' pedal ... which does some good Fender impersonations ... coupled with my trusty Laney's clean channel turned well up. Makes quite a nice pseudo-Bassman sound ... and is relatively light.
One band I may well be working with does all original Psychobilly ... so I figure I have a bit more scope to chuck in the kitchen sink there Working on lots of minor arpeggios and trem 'doinging' .
As has been said ... I think the challenge is going to be working with a slap bass player ... never done that before in around 40 years of playing!

DulcetJones

TheGuitarWeasel said:

 I think the challenge is going to be working with a slap bass player ... never done that before in around 40 years of playing!

As long as they amplify enough you won't have a problem.  I've worked with a few and they seem to like being low volume and that's what makes it difficult for people that rely on the bass.  I recall one situation I was in where the bass was non-existent volume wise and everybody in the band was staring at his right hand to try and get the feel of what he was doing because we couldn't hear him.  For what it's worth I think it's better all around for them to just go with a standard solidbody bass, it's way more portable and for anything other than old time jazz nobody is going to care.

OilCityPickups

I think if you have a drummer who can adapt and put in those 'slap' beats you are probably right about better an electric bass player ...

EdGrip

Look up an Australian group called The Drey Rollan Band. Beautiful sounds, and what I always think of as rockabilly guitars.

http://www.dreyrollanband.com/

Setzer

We were 100% Rockabilly and I assume by your post title that is the style of one of bands you will be playing in? If so then a slap bass is an absolute must, we started out doing the first half of the set slap bass and the second half electric bass and everybody that spoke to us asked why we didnt ditch the electric so thats what we ended up doing. I agree that double bassists are usually very quiet but they are the complete opposite to a rockabilly slap bassist, you wont have an issue hearing slap bass played properly!

This is the band I used to play in and you will hear from this video an electric bass just wouldnt sound anywhere near the same even though slap bass just doesnt sound as good recorded as it does live  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CXVWJqsjK4

Psychobilly is a different beast entirely and as you say thats the one to throw the kitchen sink at! I have never played psychobilly in a band but it would definitely be fun! We used to do a couple of Horton Heat numbers and you can let loose and play more of your normal style with the RHH stuff because Jim himself is a hell of a player and cuts loose quite often, his drummer actually came to see a gig of ours and introduced himself to us after the show and since Im a big RHH fan that was quite a treat. Your idea of chord shap

It sounds like you have the guitars well covered, amp wise a twin is a beast of a thing to have to lug about and you will get fed up with it very quickly. Basically any valve Fender amp will sound great, no other amps really get the right sound and I tried quite a few different amps, I came from a more rock/blues background and had a selection of great rock amps which I struggled really badly with to get a good rockabilly sound and never did but when I got around to getting a Fender the second I played it I had the sound. A Blues Junior would be a good amp, very portable and cheap too! but Mesa's, Marshalls etc are a total waste of time as their cleans just wont cut it at all, I tried a bunch of amps of that style and they were all badly lacking, they just dont have the sparkle and spank you need for Rockabilly.

I hope you will report back and let us know how you enjoy it and how you get on!

OilCityPickups

I think I'll try and hunt down a Blues Junior ... been meaning to get one for some time anyway

Setzer

I have a Blues Deville and it sounds fantastic for rockabilly but its too heavy a beast to be carting about and far too much volume for regular sized gigs, the Blues Junior would be so handy for practises and gigs and you could arrive for practice with the junior in one hand, your guitar in the other and your leads etc in a bag over your shoulder, that sounds like the perfect setup to me! 

Those artcores look really nice, whats your opinion of them? I assume a pickup upgrade would be needed? 

OilCityPickups

Absolutely love my Artcores ... a great base for pickup upgrades ... er ... as the fitted ones are awful. Who puts 17k of ceramic humbucker in the arse of a rockabilly/jazz guitar? Seriously?
Now: Mighty Ninety P90 in the neck, Sun-T-Ron bridge (mega Duane Eddy twang)

And for my more overdriven moments ...