Classic Vibe 50's, 60's or Wilson Bros VM-50 for surf?

[deadkitty]

Hi there,

I've been looking at picking up a new guitar, haven't owned anything with single coils for quite awhile, I mainly play a gibson SG, mostly punk, metal.

I'm looking for a new sound, mainly something brighter, that can do that surf tone and rockabilly tone really well(i.e. dick dale, the ventures, Rev. Horton Heat) , and also some bluesy soulful sound as well.

I've been leaning toward the squier classic vibe 50's or 60's strat. I've heard many good things about them. Out of the two which would give me a better surf tone?

I've looked for soundbites but nowhere have I found anyone demoing either of these guitars with that type of tone. So for those that know, which would be best?

Also I saw this guitar today, I really like the way it looks, and it's also in my price range:
Ventures VM-50 Guitar

Wilson Guitars Venture VM-50.

Looks pretty cool, but I hesitate because I have nowhere to try it out, and I cant find any review of it anywhere. And I don't know if it might be a one trick pony, and only do the surf/retro sound really well but nothing else.

Can anyone atest to the quality of Wilson Brothers Guitars?

Also if you can suggest any other guitars in the $250-350 range that would suit my surf needs, and also give me a little versatility to do blues as well?

thanks

[StratmanNick]

Hi and welcome.

Not sure about all this Wilson guitar talk

But seriously, have you considered a Fender Jaguar?

Let us know how you get on and what you settle with. Good hunting.

[thaus]

You can't go wrong with the CV strats.......never heard of the Wilson Bros. guitars. Look cool but who knows how they play!!

[sha4096]

That's funny, I'm also quite into heavy/hard rock and recently, I started to grab a few surf music CDs cause I find this quite cool. I know it's a Strat forum but I'd say a Tele (Squier ?) would be a nice choice as well, or even an Esquire (which is definitely not comparable to a Tele switched on its bridge pickup).

About the VM-50, the pickups are P-90 which will give you a fatter sound than a Strat-like single coil. P-90 are very polyvalent for the rock/blues sound, but you will have less "twang", that kind of brightness with picking that is particular in surf (go to seymour duncan website if you want a sound comparison between pickups).

Don't forget a good reverb/delay effect in your sound chain, that's very important for surf music.