Dagan's Rockabilly Gear Guide - Get The Rockabilly Sound with Slapback Delay, Reverb & More.

Wondering how you make a rockabilly guitar sound? Dagan shows you how in our Rockabilly gear guide!
0:00 Intro to Rockabilly Gear Guide
1:17 Best Rockabilly amps and pedals
2:48 Rockabilly Slapback Delay settings using Boss DD-3T
5:01 Fender Blues Deluxe for Rockabilly
5:43 Mustang GTX50
6:06 Strymon Flint
8:41 MXR Double Double Overdrive
10:44 MXR Studio compressor
12:43 Best guitars for Rockabilly
17:28 The essential Rockabilly sound
18:07 Outro
In this video (around 6 mins in) we also find out how to get the best rockabilly reverb and delay settings and what some of the best pedals for rockabilly are.
We also find out why you need a compressor for that classic Rockabilly sound and why the MXR Studio Compressor is one of the best available.
Dagan discusses why Gretsch guitars, Telecaster guitars and Stratocaster guitars are all perfect for rockabilly, but overall you'll probably agree the Gretsch semi-hollowbody guitar is a contender for the best guitar for Rockabilly.
So watch this video if you want to discover exactly how to craft a Rockabilly sound with a combination of guitars, amps, pedals and of course a loud shirt! This is also an especially useful video gear guide if you want to sound like Brian Setzer, sound like Charlie Feathers, or get that classic 1950s Rockabilly tone!
Gear used in this video:
Boss DD-3T Digital Delay - www.pmtonline.co.uk/boss-dd-3...
Strymon Flint Tremolo and Reverb Pedal - www.pmtonline.co.uk/strymon-f...
MXR M250 Double Double Overdrive Pedal - www.pmtonline.co.uk/mxr-m250-...
TC Electronic spark - Clean boost
Gretsch G5422TG Electromatic with Bigsby in Walnut Stain - www.pmtonline.co.uk/gretsch-g...
Squier Telecaster - www.pmtonline.co.uk/brands/sq...
Fender Stratocaster - www.pmtonline.co.uk/brands/fe...
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[@ryanarevalo7143]

It’s nice to know that rockabilly hasn’t been forgotten! Great video as always!

[@greenfly1264]

Rockerbilly takes endless skill and imagination. To be entertaining individual and evolve licks within the limits of 3 chord structures is the goal.

[@slopcrusher3482]

It’s the grove and the hybrid picking. When I first got into rockabilly the hybrid picking of plucking the note and hitting the root with the pick was tough.

[@danpugatch]

Dagan thank you for being one of the best guitar dudes on the KZbins. Always learning from you. Appreciate all your videos.

[@gs3173]

This is really fabulous. Honest and transparent- like your overdrives! God bless you.

[@arturoprado6698]

Awesome video. Thanks for showing cheaper options for the slapback effect. For a guy who claims not to be an expert in rockabilly playing, you rock out bro.👍

[@gringogreen4719]

Good job! Rockabilly is a style and more how you play than what you play. A Gretsch, Tele or Strat is ideal, you want more of an Alnico II type of pickup. Also Danelctro guitars. To get the sound you want the amp more on the treble side of things. The best way to get the tone is to have both neck and bridge pickups on. You want to get the amp right to the edge of breakup, you want it to sizzle when you hit those strings. You want swing and jangle in your right hand when you strum. You will need to alternate between lead and rhythm playing. So single note runs. You can use vintage gear but vintage gear comes with vintage headaches. Also in a live setting you will not hear so much detail with a slap bass, drums and maybe an acoustic. Save the high end stuff for the studio. I like rockabilly but once you have been to a few weekenders, it all sounds the same. You might also want to look at psychobilly as well, early psychobilly is actually closer to rockabilly than current psychobilly. Again it's more how you play than what you play. I have Gretsch, Fender, Squire, Ltd, Schecter, Ibanez...etc... Other than my Charvel with active pickups, I can get great rockabilly and psychobilly tones on all my guitars.😎👍✨ PS- I've played out with my Ibanez Artcores straight into my Vox VT30! It can be done and it can sound good. If you have a moddeling amp you want Fender and Vox type settings. Rockabilly is reverb, slapback echo and tremelo/vibrato. The only other thing would be a Magnatone like Buddy Holly used, that has its own thing going like a Leslie but not quite. Check out JD Mcpherson for some newer throwback rockabilly/jump blues sound.

[@mattburgess5697]

I bought a Gretsch. Am I Jim Horton yet?

[@gringogreen4719]

@@mattburgess5697 Well, half way there. You just have to get you fingers to act like his fingers now.🤔🤘🤣🤣🤣

[@westbayk2156]

J.D. is awesome.

[@gringogreen4719]

@Ron Nixon Gotta get that wiggle stick a-wigglin!

[@shadylangle3482]

JD Mcpherson is one of my favorites. Love his sound

[@SaranjitDosanjh]

I've been playing different stuff for years, decided to try rockabilly - great video, just what I needed

[@toddkiggins9170]

Great video thanks very insightful

[@bobbywhitlowmusic]

As far as rockabilly shirts go, cowboy shirts, mechanic and bowling shirts are acceptable. Short sleeve button down or snap up shirts as well as t shirts, roll the sleeves up. If your trousers are too long, roll up the length where it is cuffed. Acceptable footwear is cowboy boots, engineer boots, brothel creepers, wingtip dress shoes and canvas sneakers. Also a good pointer for men’s dress is The Wild One starring Marlon Brando as Johnny. Or people of the modern day who love the aesthetic of the rockabilly era such as Vince Ray or Mr. Ducktail

[@TroyNaumu808]

Great video as always. I use joyo Atmosphere for plate, tremolo and spring reverb, Joyo Analog Delay set to replicate slapback. Boss CS-3 Compressor thats always on. Boss PS-5 for whammy Bar simulation. Ibanez AF75D Semi-Hollow Body Guitar. Joyo AC Tone for Vox simulation. No loud shirt. Just a shirt, blue jeans & black leather motorbike jacket.

[@danpugatch]

Great overview, thanks for making this video. I came across this because I am looking to get my first hollowbody. I used to play Rockabilly and Surf on a Telecaster with a 59 Bassman reissue Amp (70 Watts tube). For FX I just used a homemade slapback echo pedal and reverb.

[@hypno-techs2196]

Great video thanks!

[@anthonymorales842]

Your playing is excellent; inspirational

[@billregan1981]

Great!

[@madcowusa4277]

I play a borrowed junior sized acoustic and not very well, but enjoyed this immensely.

[@joekelly9555]

I dig it Dadieo!

[@shehanjayasinghe8377]

Hey Dagan Thankyou For The Tips Love Youre Stuff on youtube Channel Keep It Up Love From Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

[@PMTVUK]

Thanks for watching!

[@buddyholly9960]

@@PMTVUK can you do a video on how to sound like Buddy Holly I really really I'm dying to know

[@holmes1978]

Very Cool

[@MizTori]

Just got my 1st guitar. Was thinking of getting a Vox Pathfinder 10 for practice & found you when I watched the review.

[@jeremymiller4341]

I love the Ibanez ts15 amp. Fender tone with a built in boost and ts9. No reverb, but it's great for rockabilly. Edit, I do scoop those pokey mids in the ts9 with an eq. Good tip.

[@XiaNingTian]

I guess I'm one of the outliers. I use a Marshall Origin. It's low gain is very much my preferred Marshall sound. I then drive it with a slight kick from a Bluesbreaker modded Klone, Solodallas Storm for the limiter and to kick it up further into a NUX tape delay and Mosky Spring Reverb. It's got that beautiful neo-rockabilly sound for me. I just love the snarl of the Gretsch through a Marshall more than I did with any Fender or Vox style amps.

[@andrewm9539]

I do the same thing. I use my Princeton with my fenders but my Marshall origin def sounds better w my gretsch

[@marcocannavo]

Hey Dagan, cool video, do you have an alternative compressor pedal to suggest? The Mxr studio in quite expensive. Thanks

[@allstringron]

First, great gear run down. Thanks for the info and close up of some of the settings. The only thing I think missing from this video is possibly the biggest influences of tone, the strings. To my ear a heavy gauged string sounds best. Especially, for those big chords and bottom end single note lines.

[@websurfer1585]

I think having a nice Gretsch helps a lot :)

[@HellbillyHalloween]

I use a strat for rockabilly and it sounds amazing because of the bouncy sound of the single coils

[@southernpride2003]

I'm from the south USA and I also use a strat for playing some Buddy Holly but I mostly play my homemade electric guitar that me and my grandpa built completely from scratch

[@justinwood2519]

What are the best strings for rockabilly if you don't mind me asking?

[@thewhistlincatmusic]

Yeah cool video with only one problem: Originally back in the 50's they had the effects only on recordings. Tape Delays were to complex and/or to unreliable for live use. Ok, there was the EchoSonic in '53, a guitar amp with built in Tape Machine, built by Ray Butts. But he sold only 70 of this amps. The first built in Spring reverb came in the early 60s by Leo Fender, a time when the classical Rockabilly era was over or, at least, at it's end. The amps from the 50s didn't have any built in effects and bigger effect machines were to complicated or delicate to transport them from Location to Location. So, if you had been to a live concert in the 50's, you might have possibly experienced a very different sounding music than that one that you know from records. It might be more dryer with no effects. Maybe except the really big deals in business in these days. And even then you only have to look at perfomances by Elvis or Johnny Cash for example, which had to play their acoustic guitars most time into the same microphone which they used for singing. And then they start to run around on stage, dancing (like Elvis) or just hang their guitars on their backs during a song which might be great for a pretty cool looking performance, but for the sound it might be terrible because, from one moment to the next, a important part of the sound is lost to the audience.

[@southernpride2003]

I have a homemade echosonic amp that me and my grandpa built by finding schematics online we had to change a few things though of course but it sounds a real Echosonic I use it with my homemade electric guitar that me and my grandpa built completely from scratch as well also howdy from the south north Carolina USA

[@jort220]

I would love to see a chuck berry gear guide go back to the time it all started just like this one 🤘😂🎸 would be nice to see a affordable one it that too because I can’t afford a Gibson es-335 😂

[@gringogreen4719]

Get an Ibanez Artcore and have the magnets swapped from ceramic to Alinco IIs in the stock pickups. Play 11s or 12s for strings, use a heavier pick. That should help.

[@jort220]

@@gringogreen4719 thx for the tips ill look into it ;)

[@gringogreen4719]

@@jort220 I wish you luck on that. The magnet swap might best be done by a professional and then potted. I read about that by a jazz guy wh did it and they are nutters about certain tone.

[@Whiskel]

So it should be spring reverb into slapback? I would have thought you'd have the reverb last?

[@frankiegreaser7493]

get both 2 pedals and try out on your own which suits your style and your definition of a great tone. It all depens on your Pedals and amp-setup. But I also tried to put a reverb in the very first place and that created nice effects, too. Got this idea from JayLeonardJ while he was talking about his perfect pedal order. Cheers!

[@GrantTempleton]

I would pay good money to see someone rock up to a rockabilly gig with a BC Rich Warlock. Quiff - check! Brothel creepers - check. Guitar - er, check?

[@gringogreen4719]

King Psychobilly right there!😎👍✨😜 BTW- Look up Randy Richter, he has a Rockabilly tutorial where he does indeed play a BC Rich and gets a Rockabilly tone.😉

[@danpugatch]

@@gringogreen4719 Love that guy's channel. You indeed can play on anything. I used to play a tele thru a fender tube amp now on a strat thru an orange solid state amp: clean channel with delay.

[@gringogreen4719]

@@danpugatch Yeah. It's really more about getting the tone than what you play. At the end of it you are fighting for very small bits of frequencies and that can be easy or difficult to achieve. A Marshall is going to struggle more to sound like a Fender and vice versa. However the good news is 80-90% of your tone is in your hands, that's why Keith Richards says "In 15 minutes I will sound like me," as he plays how many guitars?!?! To me the game changer was reading up on Boz Boorer and that he used modern guitars and amps to get his tone, which very much is still what he did in the Polecats, when he plays on stage with Morrissey. That gave me confidence in taking what I knew and the gear that I had now and then and getting some Rockabilly tones out of it.

[@gringogreen4719]

Grant...its not a Warlock but I have a 2006 Ltd Viper 400 that I put a Vibramate and Bigsby on. Since the pickups are Seymour Duncan I am going to coil split those here two in the near future. I play my version of Rockabilly, I call Punkabilly, on that and my other guitars. My Schecter S1 Elite is actually a great guitar to play and yes you can get Rockabilly tones out of that too!

[@girthyguitarist7586]

You need a country guitar & Cadillac shirt from Scullys!

[@zzubuzz]

Ritchie Hackmore? Nah, just joking, great video:)

[@paulygood6665]

I play rockabilly with a Fender Super Sonic. That guitar bites so hard. It’s rowdy sounding😂

[@ruckusfitnesd7505]

Retro clothing shops are great for bowling and Hawaiian shirts and amazon

[@supervincemus]

What are the three chords to play rockabilly

[@pb12661]

E, A, B.

[@tylerdixon6009]

Trying to get the Luther Perkins sound

[@buddyholly9960]

I'm trying to get both Luther Perkins and Buddy Holly guitar tunes for Luther Perkins it's mainly reverb though I know that

[@southernpride2003]

For Luther Perkins Palm mute lightly use flatwounds strings and a silvertone 1300 amp or a fender amp I'm from the south USA and I've seen Luther Perkins hear up close and I've got to play his silvertone amp in Nashville my self when I was 11 it was a surreal experience I've also been to Sun records they still record

[@rdrake316]

Does Johnny Marr qualify as Rockabilly at all? I know he has that Mod jangly thing but some Smith tunes have that swing. BTW - Danelectro makes a nice and cheap Echo pedal.

[@RatSpetsnaz1967]

Listen to Shakespeares sister and youll hear the rockabilly style influence in Johnnys playing on that track👍

[@gringogreen4719]

The answer is yes however Boz Boorer and Alan White in Morrissey's early band have way more rockabilly cred. Boz was in the Polecats and other projects and Gary Day his bassist was in rockabilly and psychobilly bands. Enjoy going down that rabbit hole..."Your Arsenal" is a great place to start and "Beethoven was Deaf" is really great for rockabilly Morrissey. I use Dano pedals a lot, they are great for this, especially the Dan Echo. Do yourself a favor and have them modded. I have two Daddy Os, two Dan Echos there are modded along with a Real Echo and a Cool Cat that are stock. Alchemy Audio does great work on modding Danelctro pedals, I got a couple other pedals modded by them. Even the little min in pedals sound great although they are far more limited. The Spring King is alright for subtle reverb, it will not get you anywhere near Dick Dale territory.

[@hammill444]

Interesting. But I don’t know anyone anywhere who has a compressor as part of their rockabilly rig.

[@ADHuss1]

Checkout Rockabillyradio.com they have a lot of DJ's from the UK and a bunch of UK sponsors are clothing stores that cater to the Rockabilly life style. They even have sponsors that will help you get your Doo under control. Seriously you look like Slash talking about Rockabilly. It like Dolly Pardon trying to talk about how to get a punk rock sound. Something is just off (but who am I to talk I am trying to play Church music and Rockabilly with a Blackstar ID:260 TVP. On the clear channels it does really well). That said, I do think you did a good job. I am in my 50's and just starting to play guitar. I have an Epiphone Riviera Custom P93. Good guitar by the Chinese electronics are as you say in the UK Rubbish. So I am having the guys over at Mad Hatter make me a new wire harness with SD P90 Staple Dog Ear Pickups and a Free-Way 3X3 switch and a S-1 switch in the Tone pot. My understanding is that the Staple style pickups were very popular on the Rockabilly seen, but Gibson only produced them for a couple of years. Seymour Duncan is making a few different models of the Staple Pickup now. For more versatility I am going with the TC Electronics Alter Ego X4. They have faithfully reproduced several tape Delay/Loopers from the 50's and 60's in a single solid state format. I want to see a follow up Video with a new shirt and doo. Seriously your have enough hair for a very impressive pompadour.

[@ADHuss1]

Sorry, that website is rockabillyradio.net if your having issues finding it.

[@simonmann3595]

Thank you for the heads up for radio station 🙏

[@deniseborgoyn2297]

Brian Setzer is the KING of rockabilly!!!

[@bhollyfanhardin9627]

no he's not true rockabilly. he's neo-rockabilly......The kings of rockabilly would be people like Carl Perkins Scotty Moore both of which never played Gretsch guitars......filtertron pickups were never used in 50's rockabilly they were all single coils...humbuckers didn't come out until the late 50's after rockabilly wasn't popular anymore.....the only big true rockabilly players to play gretsch guitars were Eddie Cochran and Cliff Gallup.....there were way more Fender and Gibson guitars played by players than any thing else.....and there was no rockabilly music in England in the 1950's it was 100% American music from the American south....it's really comical when the British try to tell us what's real rockabilly and how to play it when they had nothing to do with creating it.....if Brian Setzer and the Stray cats walked into a place playing rockabilly music in the 1950's looking the way they looked they would have gotten there asses kicked.......tattoos all over wearing earrings and more makeup and hairspray than there girlfriends/wives.......but that's what most morons think real rockabilly is..........somebody on here mentioned Randy Ritchter he is the real deal and is a straight up rockabilly player but he is from Germany not England so that is probably why.........this guy who did this video is completely clueless about rockabilly music like most people not from America are.......but i have to admit alot of the younger American millennial morons are just as clueless about rockabilly music.....so i take it on myself to educate them on what real rockabilly music is..........

[@deniseborgoyn2297]

@@bhollyfanhardin9627 I understand what you're saying. Would you let me call him a prince of the new or current rockabilly scene? I researched the names you mentioned and they were "all that" sixty years ago, except for Randy Richter. Thanks for all your input, it was really interesting learning some of the history 👍

[@georgearagon2546]

@@bhollyfanhardin9627 you need to listen to the Lyrics of Brian Setzer's "Really Rockabilly" off his "13" release. Totally sums up folks with your mentality. Now go pop open another Pabst Blue Ribbon you cat-daddy, you!!!

[@buddyholly9960]

@@bhollyfanhardin9627 love that username by the way Buddy Holly is the best

[@jeremybaker195]

@@bhollyfanhardin9627 Your telling us what's really Rockabilly so exactly what was your part in the beginning of Rockabilly?? I wish I could be Rockabilly but I just don't know were to get authentic 1957 underwear. If it weren't for people overseas Rockabilly would have died and just been a foot note in Americana. Other purist think you can only be real Rockabilly if you have a acoustic guitar a electric guitar and a slap bass NO drums. So wouldn't that put Buddy Holly out of the running what about Billy Haley is that REAL rockabilly?? Or Jerry Lee Lewis. Jackie Brenston & his Delta cats AKA Ike Turner? Rocket 88 is sometime quoted at the first Rockabilly song. Why don't you make us a list of what's REAL Rockabilly just so none of us ever get it wrong again in your eyes or you can just let people like what they like in the realm of Rockabilly Neo-Rockabilly psychobilly jump blues western swing and if they wanna call it Rockabilly who cares at least they are opening the doors and keeping the genre alive. Well that's my rant for the day 🙃 lol

[@mcrowley8460]

For a minute I thought 1993 David Gahan was giving guitar lessons.

[@morgangosling8673]

Great video Dagan, but to be a purist, the FIlter'Trons in a Gretsch aren't genuine '50s rockabilly. It shoudl be single coils all the way, Ideally a Gretsch with D'Armonds. '50s rockabilly was generally over by 1956, when rock 'n' roll becamse the thing. Huumbuckers hadn't been invented yet!

[@badbonejunction]

I wonder how Buddy Holly could play his music without this gear! :)

[@southernpride2003]

Howdy from North Carolina Buddy Holly had a magnetone amp and a fender bassman and before he had the famous strat he had a Les Paul with a Gibson tube amp that I've seen at the Buddy Holly center in Lubbock Texas he also used black diamond strings and thin picks

[@steveclarke4542]

Get a bowling, country snap-button or garage shirt. Good ‘nuff. Rockabilly ain’t about expensive clothes. Mostly blue-collar music anyway.

[@davidbishop7341]

First make sure you get real Ray Butts Filtertrons or better yet real DeArmonds. What Gretsch is using now has cut the balls off both of the original Pick ups. I dare anyone to play a proper version of Rebel Rouser with any of the so called pick ups Gretsch is using now!

[@ultrakool]

why bother doing close ups if you're not gonna show his left hand?

[@delachance7861]

Le mec ne sais pas vraiment joue du Rock a Billy 😒😒😒

[@dannysnow3020]

God, this is awful. I truly appreciate your efforts but man, just borrow an old guitar with single coils from someone and get your hands on a mid 1950´s Fender Tweed and you´re right there. The stuff you´re talking about happened in the 1950´s and thats pretty wild to start with... Echo is cool but in fact you don´t really need it, let alone all this digital crap. Drink a couple of beers, listen to Carl Perkins´ "Gone Gone Gone" and come back …