Hi,
I just found this video on youtube and would like to share it with all of you. It’s amazing to notice that I was born in 1962 and made my first contact with surf in 1977. But, even now I’m touched by the vibe of things like this:
The saga follows, now the Beach Boys (60’s):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1FaflUn4Co
Style is all…
Nice find, Jeff!
You might also like Eddie & the Showmen. Supposedly, Eddie was about 14 when Dick Dale heard him play & that changed how DD played. Of course, he took it from there 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AaT0KfB1wA
Belairs are good sound too…
Dick Dale is an all time classic character, one of the best surf guitarists there is.
I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time. Being a guitar player I can really appriciate what he does on the instrument. I’ve tried in vain to learn Miserlu, and it still evades me as to how he plays that tune.
Dale was also very influental with Leo Fender, and encouraged Fender to design the original tube powered reverb unit that Dale employed. Fender also had to build Dale amps with special speakers because he would constantly blow them out.
Nothing sounds like a Fender Stratocaster mated with a Fender tube amp & reverb, it’s a sound all it’s own…
Quote:
In 1960, a ten-year-old boy walked up to Dick Dale at a local show and asked him if he could play an entire song on one guitar string. He said sure kid, come back tomorrow, and then wracked his brain that night trying to figure out a composition that would work. Lebanese-American Dale (his birth name was Richard Mansour) thought back to the weddings of his childhood and remembered the traditional number “Misirlou”, which fit the bill; he resolved to play it insanely fast. It would become Dale’s signature song.
There you go, you only need to use one string…
Or play it slow, the way the turkish people did…
Heaps of info here
…the “D Dale s sound” start until Fender discover the use of the reverb unit in the Hammond organs
was because the Staccatto technique
for ex. his song let s go tripping have no spring reverb there…
you need to have a more ballsy amp to obtain the surf sound (if you want this…) that this Fender in the pict, thats look that a solid state one or one with a preamp valve only
and there s no one pedal that have the wet spring reverb like a Fender unit or the units incorporated in the Showmans, Twin Reverb s, Vibrolux (ideal for studio recording, cause you can “dirt” the sound) etc
but I dont like the somewhat thin Stratocaster tone
I prefer a more thick (with more middles) darker tone
like my Gretsch 6120 with humbuckers or the p90 s in the Mosrites
Here’s a tip for playing misirlou.
Since it’s a traditional greek song, that’s how they play it with a bouzouki (a three-string mandolin like isntrument, tuned A - D - a):
first of all you have to be FAST with your right hand, and don’t pay much attention to mistakes, then try to play the whole melody on one single string, without using the other strings.
For the sound it’s ok Fender o Gretsch guitars and the fender amps, but you better get an old low profile guitar, with poor sustain.
And a great reverb is the Ampeg’s spring reverb (the gemini models have a giant sound!).
Cheers,
tavlas