My Musical Heroes: Dick Dale

Recently I had the honor of attending a master class held by another one of my musical heroes, Dick Dale. I've met Mr. Dale several times before, at NAMM shows and concerts, and he has always been kind and generous with his time. Here's a little bit about him.

Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar.

Dale was a surfer and originally wanted his music to reflect the sounds he heard in his mind while surfing. While he is known for introducing the use of reverb that would give the guitar a "wet" sound, now a staple of surf music, it was Dale's staccato picking that was his trademark. Since Dale was left-handed he was initially forced to play a right-handed model, like Jimi Hendrix. His outrageous style on stage was an influence on the young Hendrix. However, he did so without restringing the guitar, instead playing the guitar upside-down (while Hendrix would restring his guitar); he often played by reaching over the fretboard rather than wrapping his fingers up from underneath. Even after he acquired a proper left-handed guitar, Dale continued to use his reverse stringing. Dale is noted for playing his percussive, heavy bending style while using extremely heavy gauge string sets. His desire to create a certain sound led him to push the limits of equipment: He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.

Dale's 1961 song "Let's Go Trippin'" is often regarded as the first surf rock song. His first full-length album was Surfers' Choice in 1962. The album was picked up by Capitol Records and distributed nationally, and Dale soon began appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show, and in films where he played his signature single "Misirlou". He later stated, "I still remember the first night we played it ("Misirlou"). I changed the tempo, and just started cranking on that mother. And...it was eerie. The people came rising up off the floor, and they were chanting and stomping."

Though surf rock became nationally popular in the United States briefly, the British Invasion began to overtake the American charts in 1964. Though he continued performing live, Dale was soon set back by rectal cancer. In Jimi Hendrix's song "Third Stone from the Sun", the line "Then you'll never hear surf music again" was Hendrix's reaction upon hearing that Dale was battling cancer, intended to encourage his friend to recuperate. Dale, in gratitude, later covered this song as a tribute to Hendrix. Though he recovered, he retired from music for several years. In 1979, he almost lost a leg after being injured while swimming when a pollution-related infection made the mild injury much worse. As a result, Dale became an environmental activist and soon began performing again. He recorded a new album in 1986 and was nominated for a Grammy. In 1987 he appeared in the movie Back to the Beach, playing surf music and performing "Pipeline" with Stevie Ray Vaughan. The use of "Misirlou" in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction gained him a new audience.

Dale says he has never used alcohol or drugs, and discourages use by band members and road crew. He has studied martial arts for 30 years. At age 74 he still puts on a physically energetic live show. In early 2008, Dick experienced a recurrence of cancer and is still undergoing treatment. Despite his health problems, he maintains a busy performance schedule.

Dale is associated with the Fender Stratocaster . Fender makes a signature model, the Dick Dale Custom Shop Stratocaster, fitted with "Custom Shop '54" pickups, which are supposed to recreate the sound of the first "Strats". Dick uses a reverb unit with the signal split between two Fender Dual Showman amps. As of 2010, Dale continues to play with his original reverb unit and Showman amps from the early 1960s.

Here's a a link to video of me playing rhythm guitar for Dick Dale at the master class I attended. A thrill for me.

Tom Playing rhythm guitar for Dick Dale

Dick Dale is the King of Surf Guitar and American Icon.

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My Musical Heroes: Frank Zappa

I'd like to dedicate my first few posts to some of my musical heroes. These are some of the artists who have inspired me to strive to be a better musician, to make good music, and to express myself honestly through my instrument.

My first true musical hero was perhaps an unlikely one: Frank Zappa. I discovered Zappa's music as a freshman in high school, when I bought a copy of his album FREAK OUT in a bargain bin at a record store (remember those?). It was funny, and weird, and jarring, and annoying, and beautiful. It wasn't until later (within the next year) that I learned that Zappa was also an amazing guitarist with a powerful and unique voice on his instrument. Initially, it was the songs that got me. They were like nothing I'd ever heard before, or since, really. Frank Zappa was that rare artist who was truly deserving of the term "genius".

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer, and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, electronic, orchestral, and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist.

While in his teens, he acquired a taste for percussion-based avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse and 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands—he later switched to electric guitar. He was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often impossible to categorize. His 1966 debut album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was one of rock, jazz or classical. He wrote the lyrics to all his songs, which—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education and the abolition of censorship.

Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist and gained widespread critical acclaim. Many of his albums are considered essential in rock and jazz history. He is regarded as one of the most original guitarists and composers of his time. He also remains a major influence on musicians and composers. He had some commercial success, particularly in Europe, and for most of his career was able to work as an independent artist. Zappa was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.

As a guitarist, he had great facility, and a voice as unique as anyone's, including Jimi Hendrix. His improvisations were fearless, and unpredictable; his guitar solos were instantly improvised compositions. His technique was formidable as well; his solo in the song Inca Roads from the album One Size Fits All demonstrated his use of neck tapping several years before the debut of Van Halen.

He was an extremely intelligent, and erudite man. My favorite Zappa quote:

"Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST."

(portions of this post were lifted from Frank Zappa's Wikipedia entry)

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The Gretsch White Falcon

My main guitar, and the one I'm known for playing, is a beautiful 2002 reissue Gretsch White Falcon, customized with TV Jones pickups (Im an endorsed artist of TV Jones). Here's some info on this beaufitul instrument:

The Gretsch White Falcon is a visually distinctive guitar commercially introduced in 1955 by Gretsch. While it has seen vast and substantial changes to its body shape and features through the years, and is currently offered in several styles, the White Falcon has always maintained a striking and unmistakable presence and has become a highly recognized piece of rock history.

The White Falcon is best known for its large 17-inch size and distinctive appearance, with gleaming white paint, copious gold trim, and a falcon in mid-flight engraved on the gold pickguard.

The White Falcon was unveiled at the NAMM show in July 1954. It was displayed as "the guitar of the future," but Gretsch initially had no plans to actually manufacture the model. It was supposed to be a showpiece, much like GM's Motorama "Dream Cars" of the day.

The sheer volume of questions sales reps received about the eye-catching instrument led to a reevaluation of this position, and the White Falcon hit stores in 1955. As the company's new high-end guitar, Gretsch marketed it as "the finest guitar we know how to make – and what a beauty!" The White Falcon originally cost $600 ($4,123 adjusted for inflation); this price tag was second only to the $690 asking price of Gibson's Super 400CESN.

So popular was the White Falcon (and other Gretsch models of the time) that this era in Gretsch guitar history is frequently referred to as "The Golden Years" or "The Great Years".

(source = wikipedia)

My White Falcon has been customized, with TV Jones (Brian Setzer's pickup supplier) Supertron and Classic pickups, and a special tone knob mod put in by Atomic Guitars in Glendale, AZ.

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