Liner Notes
Why do this album? Three main reasons: (1) I think these Ventures songs are awesome and wanted to work on them, (2) I am highly amused by the idea of putting out a covers album of original songs by a band best known for their covers of other people’s songs, and (3) I am trying to be huge in Japan.
What was the overall approach? I had several guiding principles:
• Even though this project is a solo one, I tried to approach it as if a band made the recording. That band is made up of a drummer, a bass player, a baritone guitar player, two electric guitar players, a keyboard player, and a percussionist. Sometimes the baritone player switches to electric sitar or 12-string. On pretty much every song these players had their parts to play. I tried to make it sound relatively cohesive.
• As I did for the prior Christmas covers record, I drew inspiration from the mid-to-late 1960s period of The Ventures. Most of these songs are from that period, and for the few that aren’t (e.g., “Surf Rider,” “Driving Guitars”), I still used a good deal of the same guitar effects (like fuzz, wah, more wah, echo, more echo) and keyboard sounds like The Ventures used on albums from that period—e.g., Super Psychedelics, Guitar Freakout, and The Ventures in Space.
• I did not try to have the songs sound old. I used modern recording techniques like using “close mics” on individual drums, multiple mics on multiple guitar cabinets, etc. I wanted these to sound like modern interpretations of the songs.
• I did not take too many liberties with the arrangements. I did not do reggae or lounge versions of these songs. I tried to stay true to the surf-ness and the basic arrangements. That being said, I did many subtle things differently: more guitars parts, more use of effects, more/different instrumentation here and there (sitar guitar!), slightly different tempos, and sometimes more or different solos.
Why do this album? Three main reasons: (1) I think these Ventures songs are awesome and wanted to work on them, (2) I am highly amused by the idea of putting out a covers album of original songs by a band best known for their covers of other people’s songs, and (3) I am trying to be huge in Japan.
What was the overall approach? I had several guiding principles:
• Even though this project is a solo one, I tried to approach it as if a band made the recording. That band is made up of a drummer, a bass player, a baritone guitar player, two electric guitar players, a keyboard player, and a percussionist. Sometimes the baritone player switches to electric sitar or 12-string. On pretty much every song these players had their parts to play. I tried to make it sound relatively cohesive.
• As I did for the prior Christmas covers record, I drew inspiration from the mid-to-late 1960s period of The Ventures. Most of these songs are from that period, and for the few that aren’t (e.g., “Surf Rider,” “Driving Guitars”), I still used a good deal of the same guitar effects (like fuzz, wah, more wah, echo, more echo) and keyboard sounds like The Ventures used on albums from that period—e.g., Super Psychedelics, Guitar Freakout, and The Ventures in Space.
• I did not try to have the songs sound old. I used modern recording techniques like using “close mics” on individual drums, multiple mics on multiple guitar cabinets, etc. I wanted these to sound like modern interpretations of the songs.
• I did not take too many liberties with the arrangements. I did not do reggae or lounge versions of these songs. I tried to stay true to the surf-ness and the basic arrangements. That being said, I did many subtle things differently: more guitars parts, more use of effects, more/different instrumentation here and there (sitar guitar!), slightly different tempos, and sometimes more or different solos.
How did I record this? While the music is old school, the recording process wasn’t. No tape of any kind was used in this recording, but I did use some digital devises that simulate tape-ness. I recorded straight to computer through a box that takes the analog signals from the microphones and digitizes them. Then I manipulated those digital sounds with digital processors such as compression and reverb (that also live in my computer). To be honest, I love digital recording. I have recorded to tape plenty, and I have to say I very much appreciate the following about digital: (1) I can affordably record well in my home, (2) I can easily share tracks with anyone all over the place, (3) I can often fix some of the little playing errors that drive me bananas, (4) there are no moving parts (other than the hard drives) to mess up, and (5) copies can be made of files, thus ensuring fewer nasty accidents with losing music. OK, drums sound better on tape. But tape saturations plugins these days are pretty boss.
As I played all the instruments myself, I started each song with a click track—in my case, a drum machine part. Usually after that, I’d add rhythm guitar, bass, and keys. Then drums and percussion. Then main guitars. There are not many musicians in Arkansas who would want to play this stuff anyway, and I like the challenge of learning all the parts.
If you want to listen to the originals, (and please do often), see my Spotify playlist of the 12 songs here.
1. The Swinging Creeper. Thanks to my piano-playing friend Jeff Coleman for helping decipher the organ part. Also, very much thanks to a YouTuber named Kohji who posts GREAT covers of himself playing Ventures songs. I looked at his cover of this song (and others) a bunch, especially at half speed (to help pick out the keys part)! I think I played this one at a little slower speed than the original. Added a second guitar solo and extended outro. The riff, which never changes or stops during the whole song, is a real worm that digs into yer brain and you will be singing it in your head for a while after you listen even once. A Nash Jazzmaster is the main tone, thru wah (or course) for the solos. Tele baritone guitar through a mid ‘60s Supro amp is on the right, where that guitar lives for most of the record. The song itself is essentially the Batman theme with a keyboard melody over it… and yet the arrangement and dynamics of it make it indescribably cool. My version is basically am amped-up version of the original… which is a recurring theme on this record.
2. He Never Came Back. The Nash Jazzmaster again really shines on this one. The garage-band (and not really surf) tone was achieved in part through a JHS Twin-Twelve pedal which emulates the famous Silvertone amp of the same name. The lead/melody guitar parts here were recorded through a Vox AC15 and Fender Blues Jr. (with Celestion Greenback) simultaneously and panned hard left/right. (I did basically this same thing on every song.) Tele baritone is again on the right, and the Nash JM (also through the Supro) on the left for the nasty rhythm guitars. Mighty Farfisa for the bridge. Creaking door sound at the beginning and end. Done. This was the first song I recorded for this album. I thought it was going to be the opening track, until the second solo in “The Swingin’ Creeper” happened.
3. Surf Rider. Meet the BilT SS Zaftig guitar. I can’t say enough about this guitar. But I’ll try. The only guitar I ever had made to specs I selected. Roasted alder body, roasted maple cap, roasted maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, clay dots, Lollar P-90 and Charlie Christian pickups, Mastery bridge and trem, SHELL PINK. While the intro part is the Nash (also the rhythm guitar on the left), the main melody guitar is the BilT. Middle position at first, then P-90 alone for last verse and bridge. Those BilT fellers in Iowa really can make a guitar. Oh, and THE SONG is amazing and the only one on this record you’ve probably heard before. Funny thing though— the most famous version of this song is a cover by another band! While written by Nokie Edwards and performed by The Ventures on the 1963 surfing-themed album aptly title Surfing, the cover by The Lively Ones (also recorded in 1963) was selected by Quentin Tarantino as the closing song for the movie Pulp Fiction. They had a sax player. Boo. Anyway, The Ventures version is slower and cooler, and I modeled mine on theirs (duh).
4. Lonely Girl. BilT again. Of course. One of my favorite Ventures songs and the late-breaking favorite of mine on this record. (I recorded this one last.) I must have just heard Sade’s “Smooth Operator” before I started recording. Bongos and claves rule the intro part. BilT rules the rest. What a melody. I play it every day without fail. This is song #2 on my “play at my funeral” list. In addition to the melody, the Ringo beat makes the song. The Ludwig Black Beauty snare helps too. More about the BilT guitar—it really takes reverb and echo well. All told, there are spring, plate, and room reverbs on this guitar part, and I think only one echo, but maybe two. I often use two. More is better. No wah on this whole song. (My wife hid them…)
5. Psychedelic Venture. A rule for this record was that if a Ventures’ original song had the word “psychedelic” or “guitar” in it, I had to seriously consider it. The bonus here was that the song also had the band name in it. DONE. Song on record. I love it regardless. The melody is perfect. BilT guitar takes the wheel again on my version. Low string single-note picking on a semi-hollow guitar is the best thing to do ever. Also, run stuff through an Echoplex and make it “regenerate” into itself while changing the speed of the echo. (Also see song #1 for this… I do it twice there, including at the end of the song.) There’s some backwards shit on here for good measure, and also sounds of a motorcycle (for the venture, get it?). The Jerry Jones “baby sitar” also makes its first appearance on this song. I love that sound. Is it dated enough? Another rule for the record was that all the songs with ‘60s’ words in the title had to have the sitar on them. So, five songs do. I step on the wah pedal (finally) for the outro solo. I do the ‘70s Waylon Jennings mixing technique where the song fades on the solo, which keeps rising in intensity as it fades.
6. Pedal Pusher. Nash JM rips away though a JHS Supreme fuzz. I ordered that fuzz pedal the day it came out. Worth it. This version is inspired by the band Venturesmania!— a Ventures tribute band formed by Deke Dickerson (himself, himself & the Ecco-Phonics), Garrett Immel (The Ghastly Ones), Mel Bergman (Phantom Surfers), and Chris Sprague (The Go-Nuts, lotta others, now with Los Straightjackets [jealous]). Nokie Edwards sat in with them several times, played on their record, and they played his funeral. Enough said. There are a couple of videos out there of them covering this song live. Raunchy stuff. I went with as fast a version as I could muster and keep it on the rails (like on The Ventures Live On Stage). As a drummer, I don’t have the ability to swing like Mel Taylor does at this speed (few do?), so I went more garage rock. While it is hard to discern, during the intro-part sections I do a tone knob swell on the left rhythm guitar (tele) and a volume knob swell on the right guitar (JM). On the main fuzz guitar I use a tremolo pedal for the swells. I don’t own a volume pedal, and couldn’t justify the cost to buy one for this song. Let alone the DeArmond vintage one Nokie (and Garrett) used that has both volume and tone swell capability. Sorry Venturesmania!… I am geeky about this stuff, but not quite to your level!
7. Driving Guitars. Bands who play Ventures songs usually play this, and I do, too. Also it has “guitar” in the title. (See rule introduced in song #5.) As with the previous song, I tried to stay pretty raunchy. Fuzz, treble booster, phaser, wah. Hard on the ears. Multiple rhythm guitars are present, with the Nash JM cruising down the middle with the melody/solos. Ludwig Black Beauty snare gets another spotlight. What else can I say? It’s “Driving Guitars” by The Ventures.
8. Guitar Freakout. OK, so, now… and for the next four songs… we dive into the weirder end of the pool. As noted above, my favorite period of The Ventures is the mid- to later ‘60s psychedelic era. Hence five songs on this album come from only two of The Ventures’ 60+ studio albums—Super Psychedelics and Guitar Freakout. I had to put one of the weirdo songs on Side 1 (“Psychedelic Venture”) to break it up, but I wanted a solid block of this shit on Side 2. We begin with the song “Guitar Freakout.” A somewhat regular, mid-tempo, and un-psychedelic A-section, followed by an on-acid B section initiated by someone in the band yelling “Freakout!” They do a false fade-out ending, then come back do it all over again. It’s like they are deliberately trying to mess with people who are tripping. My version is pretty faithful to the original, but again more amped up and fuzzy (certainly in the “Freakout!” part). Nash JM is leading the way. Farfisa organ and Wurlitzer electric piano are prominent, as are two to three different fuzz pedals. Line ‘em up.
9. Reflections. Surf ballads are the best. Psychedelic ones are even better. While I don’t have a real or fake harpsichord, I did employ the baby sitar to cop the main lick in the intro section. The BilT takes the melody here (duh). A Jerry Jones 12-string is used a bunch, as is an old Supro lap steel. Organ and electric piano are all over the place, and I deploy some studio trickery in the bridge as well (me singing multiple parts, run through reverb and octave plugins… only keeping the reverb signals). This song is one of my favorite Ventures songs ever. A fascinating and totally haunting non-hit. Go find it and listen a few times.
10. Guitar Psychedelics. Obviously, as this song title has both “guitar” and “psychedelic” in it, it was definitely going to be on this album. The Ventures’ original is just so trippy and Beatlesy, with a freaked out fuzz guitar playing the whole time on the right. At times that fuzz guitar part is just nonsense… but why not? I assume that part was a “one-and-only take.” Great electric piano on the left throughout the whole song. My version again is more amped up, at least in the intro part section—lots of crunch and fuzzes. Baby sitar is everywhere. Baritone chugs along. 12 string again. Outro had to feature a dying fuzz guitar note and the sitar. Psychedelic!
11. Mod East. Yeah, so, my obsession with this song is hard to explain. The song is basically a mash up of The Beatles’ “She’s a Woman” with the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black.” Well, that might be enough to explain it. But, it’s also the weird instrumentation—12-string, oboe-like thing, weird keyboard or guitar through pedals, maracas, and hand cymbals (like belly dancers use). Just so cool. And then there’s Mel Taylor’s hi-hat and snare work, and sound. On my version I was happy to feature the Jerry Jones 12-string as the main melody guitar. It’s just amazing. I sneak another guitar underneath it, along with the JM playing the wall of seven chords. The bridge melody guitar parts are on a humbucker guitar—a PRS actually. Very non-surf. The song needed a lift from humbuckers there, and the tremolo system on that guitar is awesome. The super fuzzy, out-of-control guitar is the tele baritone with P90s. I already had maracas, but yes I did buy hand cymbals for this recording. The drums are more relaxed and set back than on most other tracks on this record.
12. Love Goddess of Venus. My favorite Ventures song and song #1 on my funeral playlist. The album this song comes from—The Ventures in Space—is a top 5 album of all timer that I think everyone should own and worship publicly. The songs and instrumentation are innovative and lush, the mix itself is weird (hard panning all over), and the reverb-ience is off the charts. On to their song “Love Goddess of Venus”: drums run through an echo, chimes everywhere, an acoustic guitar chording, female voices haunting all the way through, and the guitar melody and tone which initiate immediate weeping. It’s the Basilica of St. Ventures. Before I started this project I knew I’d close the album with this song. My version is… fine. Good even, at times. It doesn’t hold a sacramental candle to the original, though. Still, I like the Moog strings, the lap steel part, modulated reverb all over, the ride cymbal, and the percussion. The main guitar part has some guts to it. The outro is cool. All in all, a B- compared to the original. I am happy with that.
Wrap up: This took me a couple of years to do. It was a blast. I know I talked a lot about the guitars and amps and pedals above. Surf music is essentially guitar music. But, I am drummer first and foremost, so let me say that I played my 1964 blue oyster Ludwig Downbeat kit on the entire album. I used a lot of snares (Ludwig Supraphonic [of course], Downbeat, Pioneer, and Black Beauty; and a Rogers Powertone). Zildjian K cymbals throughout. For bass—I largely phoned it in, sorry. Mostly used a Sterling by Music Man $299 bass (it is surf green at least) through a Sansamp GT2 pedal (which, in my own defense, is a great amp simulator). I’ll get better bass gear for the next one. Maybe even a real bass player, too. Thanks for listening and reading this far.
As I played all the instruments myself, I started each song with a click track—in my case, a drum machine part. Usually after that, I’d add rhythm guitar, bass, and keys. Then drums and percussion. Then main guitars. There are not many musicians in Arkansas who would want to play this stuff anyway, and I like the challenge of learning all the parts.
If you want to listen to the originals, (and please do often), see my Spotify playlist of the 12 songs here.
1. The Swinging Creeper. Thanks to my piano-playing friend Jeff Coleman for helping decipher the organ part. Also, very much thanks to a YouTuber named Kohji who posts GREAT covers of himself playing Ventures songs. I looked at his cover of this song (and others) a bunch, especially at half speed (to help pick out the keys part)! I think I played this one at a little slower speed than the original. Added a second guitar solo and extended outro. The riff, which never changes or stops during the whole song, is a real worm that digs into yer brain and you will be singing it in your head for a while after you listen even once. A Nash Jazzmaster is the main tone, thru wah (or course) for the solos. Tele baritone guitar through a mid ‘60s Supro amp is on the right, where that guitar lives for most of the record. The song itself is essentially the Batman theme with a keyboard melody over it… and yet the arrangement and dynamics of it make it indescribably cool. My version is basically am amped-up version of the original… which is a recurring theme on this record.
2. He Never Came Back. The Nash Jazzmaster again really shines on this one. The garage-band (and not really surf) tone was achieved in part through a JHS Twin-Twelve pedal which emulates the famous Silvertone amp of the same name. The lead/melody guitar parts here were recorded through a Vox AC15 and Fender Blues Jr. (with Celestion Greenback) simultaneously and panned hard left/right. (I did basically this same thing on every song.) Tele baritone is again on the right, and the Nash JM (also through the Supro) on the left for the nasty rhythm guitars. Mighty Farfisa for the bridge. Creaking door sound at the beginning and end. Done. This was the first song I recorded for this album. I thought it was going to be the opening track, until the second solo in “The Swingin’ Creeper” happened.
3. Surf Rider. Meet the BilT SS Zaftig guitar. I can’t say enough about this guitar. But I’ll try. The only guitar I ever had made to specs I selected. Roasted alder body, roasted maple cap, roasted maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, clay dots, Lollar P-90 and Charlie Christian pickups, Mastery bridge and trem, SHELL PINK. While the intro part is the Nash (also the rhythm guitar on the left), the main melody guitar is the BilT. Middle position at first, then P-90 alone for last verse and bridge. Those BilT fellers in Iowa really can make a guitar. Oh, and THE SONG is amazing and the only one on this record you’ve probably heard before. Funny thing though— the most famous version of this song is a cover by another band! While written by Nokie Edwards and performed by The Ventures on the 1963 surfing-themed album aptly title Surfing, the cover by The Lively Ones (also recorded in 1963) was selected by Quentin Tarantino as the closing song for the movie Pulp Fiction. They had a sax player. Boo. Anyway, The Ventures version is slower and cooler, and I modeled mine on theirs (duh).
4. Lonely Girl. BilT again. Of course. One of my favorite Ventures songs and the late-breaking favorite of mine on this record. (I recorded this one last.) I must have just heard Sade’s “Smooth Operator” before I started recording. Bongos and claves rule the intro part. BilT rules the rest. What a melody. I play it every day without fail. This is song #2 on my “play at my funeral” list. In addition to the melody, the Ringo beat makes the song. The Ludwig Black Beauty snare helps too. More about the BilT guitar—it really takes reverb and echo well. All told, there are spring, plate, and room reverbs on this guitar part, and I think only one echo, but maybe two. I often use two. More is better. No wah on this whole song. (My wife hid them…)
5. Psychedelic Venture. A rule for this record was that if a Ventures’ original song had the word “psychedelic” or “guitar” in it, I had to seriously consider it. The bonus here was that the song also had the band name in it. DONE. Song on record. I love it regardless. The melody is perfect. BilT guitar takes the wheel again on my version. Low string single-note picking on a semi-hollow guitar is the best thing to do ever. Also, run stuff through an Echoplex and make it “regenerate” into itself while changing the speed of the echo. (Also see song #1 for this… I do it twice there, including at the end of the song.) There’s some backwards shit on here for good measure, and also sounds of a motorcycle (for the venture, get it?). The Jerry Jones “baby sitar” also makes its first appearance on this song. I love that sound. Is it dated enough? Another rule for the record was that all the songs with ‘60s’ words in the title had to have the sitar on them. So, five songs do. I step on the wah pedal (finally) for the outro solo. I do the ‘70s Waylon Jennings mixing technique where the song fades on the solo, which keeps rising in intensity as it fades.
6. Pedal Pusher. Nash JM rips away though a JHS Supreme fuzz. I ordered that fuzz pedal the day it came out. Worth it. This version is inspired by the band Venturesmania!— a Ventures tribute band formed by Deke Dickerson (himself, himself & the Ecco-Phonics), Garrett Immel (The Ghastly Ones), Mel Bergman (Phantom Surfers), and Chris Sprague (The Go-Nuts, lotta others, now with Los Straightjackets [jealous]). Nokie Edwards sat in with them several times, played on their record, and they played his funeral. Enough said. There are a couple of videos out there of them covering this song live. Raunchy stuff. I went with as fast a version as I could muster and keep it on the rails (like on The Ventures Live On Stage). As a drummer, I don’t have the ability to swing like Mel Taylor does at this speed (few do?), so I went more garage rock. While it is hard to discern, during the intro-part sections I do a tone knob swell on the left rhythm guitar (tele) and a volume knob swell on the right guitar (JM). On the main fuzz guitar I use a tremolo pedal for the swells. I don’t own a volume pedal, and couldn’t justify the cost to buy one for this song. Let alone the DeArmond vintage one Nokie (and Garrett) used that has both volume and tone swell capability. Sorry Venturesmania!… I am geeky about this stuff, but not quite to your level!
7. Driving Guitars. Bands who play Ventures songs usually play this, and I do, too. Also it has “guitar” in the title. (See rule introduced in song #5.) As with the previous song, I tried to stay pretty raunchy. Fuzz, treble booster, phaser, wah. Hard on the ears. Multiple rhythm guitars are present, with the Nash JM cruising down the middle with the melody/solos. Ludwig Black Beauty snare gets another spotlight. What else can I say? It’s “Driving Guitars” by The Ventures.
8. Guitar Freakout. OK, so, now… and for the next four songs… we dive into the weirder end of the pool. As noted above, my favorite period of The Ventures is the mid- to later ‘60s psychedelic era. Hence five songs on this album come from only two of The Ventures’ 60+ studio albums—Super Psychedelics and Guitar Freakout. I had to put one of the weirdo songs on Side 1 (“Psychedelic Venture”) to break it up, but I wanted a solid block of this shit on Side 2. We begin with the song “Guitar Freakout.” A somewhat regular, mid-tempo, and un-psychedelic A-section, followed by an on-acid B section initiated by someone in the band yelling “Freakout!” They do a false fade-out ending, then come back do it all over again. It’s like they are deliberately trying to mess with people who are tripping. My version is pretty faithful to the original, but again more amped up and fuzzy (certainly in the “Freakout!” part). Nash JM is leading the way. Farfisa organ and Wurlitzer electric piano are prominent, as are two to three different fuzz pedals. Line ‘em up.
9. Reflections. Surf ballads are the best. Psychedelic ones are even better. While I don’t have a real or fake harpsichord, I did employ the baby sitar to cop the main lick in the intro section. The BilT takes the melody here (duh). A Jerry Jones 12-string is used a bunch, as is an old Supro lap steel. Organ and electric piano are all over the place, and I deploy some studio trickery in the bridge as well (me singing multiple parts, run through reverb and octave plugins… only keeping the reverb signals). This song is one of my favorite Ventures songs ever. A fascinating and totally haunting non-hit. Go find it and listen a few times.
10. Guitar Psychedelics. Obviously, as this song title has both “guitar” and “psychedelic” in it, it was definitely going to be on this album. The Ventures’ original is just so trippy and Beatlesy, with a freaked out fuzz guitar playing the whole time on the right. At times that fuzz guitar part is just nonsense… but why not? I assume that part was a “one-and-only take.” Great electric piano on the left throughout the whole song. My version again is more amped up, at least in the intro part section—lots of crunch and fuzzes. Baby sitar is everywhere. Baritone chugs along. 12 string again. Outro had to feature a dying fuzz guitar note and the sitar. Psychedelic!
11. Mod East. Yeah, so, my obsession with this song is hard to explain. The song is basically a mash up of The Beatles’ “She’s a Woman” with the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black.” Well, that might be enough to explain it. But, it’s also the weird instrumentation—12-string, oboe-like thing, weird keyboard or guitar through pedals, maracas, and hand cymbals (like belly dancers use). Just so cool. And then there’s Mel Taylor’s hi-hat and snare work, and sound. On my version I was happy to feature the Jerry Jones 12-string as the main melody guitar. It’s just amazing. I sneak another guitar underneath it, along with the JM playing the wall of seven chords. The bridge melody guitar parts are on a humbucker guitar—a PRS actually. Very non-surf. The song needed a lift from humbuckers there, and the tremolo system on that guitar is awesome. The super fuzzy, out-of-control guitar is the tele baritone with P90s. I already had maracas, but yes I did buy hand cymbals for this recording. The drums are more relaxed and set back than on most other tracks on this record.
12. Love Goddess of Venus. My favorite Ventures song and song #1 on my funeral playlist. The album this song comes from—The Ventures in Space—is a top 5 album of all timer that I think everyone should own and worship publicly. The songs and instrumentation are innovative and lush, the mix itself is weird (hard panning all over), and the reverb-ience is off the charts. On to their song “Love Goddess of Venus”: drums run through an echo, chimes everywhere, an acoustic guitar chording, female voices haunting all the way through, and the guitar melody and tone which initiate immediate weeping. It’s the Basilica of St. Ventures. Before I started this project I knew I’d close the album with this song. My version is… fine. Good even, at times. It doesn’t hold a sacramental candle to the original, though. Still, I like the Moog strings, the lap steel part, modulated reverb all over, the ride cymbal, and the percussion. The main guitar part has some guts to it. The outro is cool. All in all, a B- compared to the original. I am happy with that.
Wrap up: This took me a couple of years to do. It was a blast. I know I talked a lot about the guitars and amps and pedals above. Surf music is essentially guitar music. But, I am drummer first and foremost, so let me say that I played my 1964 blue oyster Ludwig Downbeat kit on the entire album. I used a lot of snares (Ludwig Supraphonic [of course], Downbeat, Pioneer, and Black Beauty; and a Rogers Powertone). Zildjian K cymbals throughout. For bass—I largely phoned it in, sorry. Mostly used a Sterling by Music Man $299 bass (it is surf green at least) through a Sansamp GT2 pedal (which, in my own defense, is a great amp simulator). I’ll get better bass gear for the next one. Maybe even a real bass player, too. Thanks for listening and reading this far.