Hello from Finland

[Chemo]

Moi everybody! ("Moi!" means "Hi!" in finnish)

I'm Kimmo and I am from Kirkkonummi, Finland. Kimmo is a male name over here. I play with two recording & performing rock bands at the moment:

The Silver Hawks (instrumental surf, http://www.myspace.com/thesilverhawksband )
70-luvun Vihannekset (Ramones-influenced punk, http://www.70lv.net http://www.myspace.com/70luvunvihannekset)

So obviously, I love Mosrite guitars both ways: The Ramones is a very big thing to me, and I am also a long time lover of surf music & The Ventures.

Guitars that I have:
- Mosrite Mark II sunburst "Ramo'ed", Fillmore model before the signature version (punk)
- Fender Jaguar, surf green, CIJ (surf)
- Fender Stratocaster, MIJ from the 80's (surf)
- Gibson Les Paul Standard 1987 (punk, but used only rarely)
- ...and what I bought today and inspired me to register to this forum: Mosrite Vibramute Mark I Ranger, sunburst. Can't wait until tomorrow when it gets here!

Amps & most important effects:
- Fender Quad Reverb 100 W from '77 (surf)
- Marshall Jubilee 25/50 50 W full stack (punk)
- a hand-built Uraltone outboard tube reverb tank (surf)
- Boss RE-20 Space Echo, I actually this quite a lot (surf, not on constant use)
- Roger Mayer Voodoo-Boost (both)
- Rocktron Surf Tremolo (both)

The new Mosrite will come to surf service at first, but I will probably use it as a back-up guitar on punk gigs, too. And if it sounds better than the Ramo-version, then it will be the first weapon of choice with that band, too. But we'll see.

[Desert Surfer]

Welcome, Chemo

In addition to collecting guitars, I love to collect foreign films. For Finnish movies, I enjoy "Man without a past"

[MWaldorf]

Welcome Chemo!

Great to hear from the Finnish music scene - lots of great instrumental rock and roll from the Spotnicks to Laika and the Cosmonauts. Are there any websites you recommend for learning more about Finnish instro music?

I've also got a Roland RE-20 - I used to have a Roland RE-101 but it was never quiet reliable enough. I love that multi-head echo sound.

Again, welcome aboard!

Mel

[Dennisthe Menace]

Moi Kimmo!! Welcome! That's a pretty impressive collection of Amps and Guitars you have!
I think I've only seen one other Mark II in Sunburst with the Mosrite Logo and Ventures II on the Headstock . And CONGRATS on landing the Ranger as well!!
p.s. EXCELLENT Bands you've got from 2 different era's!

[arpsum]

Moi Kimmo! You have a good music style. As for me, I've been to your country several times. You know GENELEC OY famous for the manufacturer of professional monitoring speakers. Once I worked at some importer's company as a marketing director, and imported GENELEC at that time. I still love GENELEC monitors.

[jnslobaugh]

The Ramones is a very big thing to me,

HELLO CHEMO, JUST A BIT OF INFO YOU MIGHT THINK IS INTERESTING...
RICH REINHARDT AKA(RICHY RAMONE) CURRENTLY WORKS HERE IN PHOENIX
WITH ME.

BYE FOR NOW... ---JSL

http://www.verrents.com/

[Chemo]

Thanks guys!

For Finnish movies, I enjoy "Man without a past"

Oh yeah, that's an Aki Kaurismäki film. He is definetely the finnish film director to check out, so you have found the most important film maker from here already.

My personal all-time favorite finnish movie is Arvottomat, The Worthless. It was actually directed by Mika Kaurismäki, Aki's brother. Aki co-directed it, wrote some really funny dialogue, and played the character of Ville Alfa. That movie has been also released as a dvd over here.

Great to hear from the Finnish music scene - lots of great instrumental rock and roll from the Spotnicks to Laika and the Cosmonauts. Are there any websites you recommend for learning more about Finnish instro music?

Spotnicks were from Sweden originally, but they were quite popular here also. Their guitarist Bo Winberg recorded a couple of tunes under alias The Feenades, which were originally published in Finland as rautalanka records. In the beginning of the 60's there was a big rautalanka craze here - guitar instrumentals, especially influenced by The Shadows, often in minor keys. The Sounds made a hit in Japan with Emma/Mandschurian Beat. The Ventures version of the latter is quite close to the Sounds' version.

Rautalanka is still well and alive here. Unfortunately most of the internet material is in finnish language. The underground forum where you can find the rautalanka people is here: http://www.rautalanka.org - they write in finnish but if you write there in english, you will probably get an answer. Twangsville Productions produces rautalanka cd's (and us, so they do surf too): http://www.twangsville.net

Laika & The Cosmonauts are about end their career this fall, so if you have chance to see them anywhere nearby, this is probably the last chance. We played a "Twang Fest" festival just a couple of weeks ago where The Laikas also performed. They are still great and very nice guys.

That's a pretty impressive collection of Amps and Guitars you have!

Gee, thanks.. With guitars, since I am a player and not really a collector, I go with "good player's guitars". So nothing that I have is really that collectible. But they are fine instruments

With amps I have been just lucky. I have owned the Marshall Jubilee stack ever since it was new. I've heard that those are now collectible since Slash from Guns 'n Roses plays them... That style is not my cup of tea, but the Jubilee is a fantastic rock amp. And some years back, I just got a very good deal with the Fender.

p.s. EXCELLENT Bands you've got from 2 different era's!

Thanks! These are the two music styles that I have been most fond of, so I'm very fortunate to be able to play them both, even if they are marginal underground stuff now. "Ramopunk" is actually a genre here: http://www.ramopunk.com The most succesful finnish ramopunk band ever is Ne Luumäet, they even had a #1 single hit in the 90's. Their vocalist Joey Luumäki made a visit on our album, and we are doing intereresting things with him in the future too..

As for me, I've been to your country several times. You know GENELEC OY famous for the manufacturer of professional monitoring speakers.

Genelec makes fantastic monitors. Wish I had a pair. Well, some day.... Was it cold when you visited?

RICH REINHARDT AKA(RICHY RAMONE) CURRENTLY WORKS HERE IN PHOENIX WITH ME.

Oh wow! Please tell him that he is still appreciated over here as one of the coolest punk musicians ever.

[MWaldorf]

Spotnicks were from Sweden originally, but they were quite popular here also. Their guitarist Bo Winberg recorded a couple of tunes under alias The Feenades, which were originally published in Finland as rautalanka records. In the beginning of the 60's there was a big rautalanka craze here - guitar instrumentals, especially influenced by The Shadows, often in minor keys. The Sounds made a hit in Japan with Emma/Mandschurian Beat. The Ventures version of the latter is quite close to the Sounds' version.

Uh, oh, my bad - I guess I just so identify that heavy echo sound with Finnland, that I assumed the Spotnicks MUST be from Finnland. I have a record by the Sounds; great band too.

I saw Laika and the Cosmonauts in 1993 and again in the early 2000s. I'm hoping to catch their show when they come through the San Francisco area in the fall.

[dubtrub]

Sorry to be late, but welcome to forum.

[Chemo]

Sorry to be late, but welcome to forum.

Thanks!

MWaldorf - you are absolutely right with the echo being something typically Finnish: one of the key elements of the rautalanka sound is a tape echo unit. Most rautalanka guitarists use Fender Stratocasters, and for amps many of them prefer Vox AC-30's.