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Bass Guitar Pickups Explained

Bass Guitar Pickups Explained

Long Distance Surf Casting Techniques

We’ve all been there.

Standing in the beautiful vast surf, casting our long fishing rods for hours without a single hit.

And we wonder, maybe this just isn’t our day.

We again cast, but our concentration has ebbed, so instead of watching the line and maintaining contact with the lure, we lose ourselves in the music of crashing waves - until the music is pierced by the shriek-like howls of seagulls.

Down the beach a flock circles and dives: a sign bait fish and probably stripers are moving towards us.

Something goes off in us.

An adrenaline rush?

A predatory instinct?

We don’t exactly what, or how to describe it, but its changed us. Electricity seems to be surging through us. We’re wired. Like soldiers before battle, we watch and wait.

The seagulls move closer, then again circle and dive.

But they’re out of our casting reach! And stay that way.

A disappointment. We wonder, what will we tell our wives - that the stripers just weren’t running? Will that explanation fly again?

Maybe. But the sad thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way.

The seagulls, you see, aren’t beyond out reach. They’re beyond casting skills.

Exactly what do I mean?

For years tournament fly casters have been refining their techniques, and as a result, are now casting farther than before. Can their techniques can help us surfcasters reach that faraway fish?

Yes, I believe.

But will we have to swing the lure in a wide circle and risk hooking someone on a crowded beach?

Absolutely not.

To help me explain, let’s begin by looking at some universal casting principals.

FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CAST: 1. The lure will move in the direction the rod rip moved just before it was stopped. 2. To effectively load (bend) the rod we must begin the cast slowly, then accelerate and reach maximum speed just before we stop the rod. (If we begin the cast too fast the lure will also move too fast and therefore not fully pull on the rod.) 3. To use all the power stored in a loaded rod, we must abruptly stop the rod without lowering the tip from the target line. 4. All things being equal, the more we lengthen our casting stroke, the more we will load the rod.

With these principals in mind let’s now turn to the techniques of long-distance surf casting.

THE GRIP: Any slack in the line will make it impossible to fully load the rod. When casting a spinning rod we often add slack by not holding the line with enough tension. Even worse, just before we abruptly stop the rod, our index finger often prematurely releases the line, and the lure sails high and off to the right. To avoid this, I place two fingers in front of the reel stem and two behind. I pickup the line with my right index finger, then I move my hand back so that only my index finger is in front of the stem. Next, I pull the line up and back and gently press my fingertip against the stem, but not the line. (I like to feel the weight of the lure to cast it accurately.)

When casting heavy lures, I recommend wearing a golf glove so the line doesn’t cut your finger.

THE SLINGSHOT STANCE: My left foot is forward--I’ll assume you’re right-handed--and points straight at the target. My right foot points about thirty degrees to the right of the target. My feet are shoulder-width apart. The front of my right foot is in-line with the front of my left heel. (If my right foot is too far back or too far outward I will not be able to fully rotate my hips during the cast.) My knees are slightly bent. My left hand is holding the end of the rod butt. The lure hangs down about two feet from the rod tip. I begin my cast by keeping my elbow in place, and by slightly rotating my shoulders and hips backwards, and by moving the rod tip straight down and back. I break both my wrists back and stop the rod at three-thirty to four o’clock to the horizon. (The lure must not touch the ground.) My rod hand is about eye-level and not past my rear shoulder. My elbow points forward. My forearm points to about two o’clock.

(Holding the rod in this position will make it easier for us to cast without lowering the rod tip from the target line, and also to move our right arm in-sync with our body rotation. More about that later.)

Finally, I shift my weight to my back foot.

THE CAST: Leading with my elbow, I begin slowly, making sure I move my right arm in-sync with my weight shift and my body rotation. I do this for two reasons: 1. If my arm moves faster than my body I will, in effect, become an arm-caster and lose power. (Ever wonder why a major-league pitcher looks as if he’s throwing so effortlessly?) 2. If my arm gets in front of my body I will lower the rod tip from the target line and prematurely unload the rod.

Back to my cast.

Pushing up with my right hand, and pulling down with my left, I accelerate the rod and move the butt perpendicular to the target line. (Fully rotating our hips and shoulders allows us to increase the length we can move - and therefore load - the rod at this angle.) When my right arm is about three-quarters extended, I reach maximum speed by pretending I’m hammering nails and breaking both wrists halfway. Abruptly, I stop the rod at about eleven o’clock and release the line. My right arm is fully extended. My weight is on the ball and toes of my front foot. My front leg is straight.

THAT EXTRA DISTANCE: So, we practiced these techniques and we’re casting farther than ever, but wouldn’t you know it: We’re back on the beach and the fish are ten feet beyond our reach.

Now what’s a surfcaster to do?

We’ll again borrow techniques from fly casters, and lengthen our casting stroke similar to the way spey (rhymes with say) casters lengthen theirs.

To do this I start out with a different stance. I hold the rod across my body, almost as if I’m holding a guitar and pointing it outward: My right arm is about three-quarters extended, my right hand about shoulder level. The rod tip points forward, at about forty-five degrees to the right of the target line, and about thirty degrees above the horizon. My weight is on my front foot. I begin the cast keeping my right elbow pointing down, shifting my weight back, and moving the rod tip up and back in an half-oval until I’m in my slingshot stance. Without stopping, I make my slingshot cast.

SETTING THE HOOK: Since your lure is now really out there, you’ll need a longer, more powerful hook set. Therefore, as I retrieve the lure I hold the rod across my body. To fight fatigue, I balance the rod in my right hand. The rod butt is under my left armpit. My weight is on my left foot. When I feel a strike I point the rod towards the lure, quickly take up slack, then rip the rod tip up and back as far as I can.

IN CLOSING: So now if you don’t catch a fish what will you tell your wife?

Luckily, we anglers are blessed with a treasure of excuses.

About the Author

I'm a native New Yorker. My writing has appeared in many publications, including The Flyfisher, Flyfishing & Tying Journal and Fishing And Hunting News. I'm also the author of the historical novel, The Fly Caster Who Tried To Make Peace With the World.

(To download an ebook sample click here.)

Much of my writing is about the techniques of spin and fly casting and about the spirituality/recovery of fly fishing. I often fish the streams of Westchester, the piers of New York City and the lakes of Central Park.

7 string guitar pickups on a 6 string guitar?

Hey guys.
Im designing a guitar to be custom ordered.
I play metal. LOW end metal
Detuned stuff with a nice bass tone really TIGHT low end
guitar usaly lives in a C# with a droped B for tunning
12 ta 56 strings i think basicly what eva the heaviest they have in store.
alder tone wood
25 frets
but the pick ups i want are Seymour Duncan Blackouts metal AHB-2
when i looked at there site i saw the 7 sting pickups they have
and i got the idea... 7 strings have more low end range so would there be a problem putting a 7string pick ups in a 6 string guitar... to get all that extra low end.
and if there is a problem with this explain it
and if there isnt... is it a good idea
and if anyone has done this b4 then please tell me what it did for you?

No dont go into the emg vs seymor duncan debate i dont care bout that emgs are not as good in my opintion

There really isnt any point at all in doing this, you would just be paying more for no reason, the 6 string pickup will do the exact same job as the 7 string one, except that it will fit in your 6 string where as if you bought the 7 string pickup you would have to route out the body to fit it in, simply put, the only difference is the size of the pickup, not the sonic range, the 6 string will pick up a low B just as well as the 7 string pick up, so just get the 6 string blackouts, because it sounds exactly the same.

EMG JVX Pickups.mov