Dick Dale: The King of Surf Rock

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Commonly referred to as the “King of the Surf Guitar”, Dick Dale brought about the genre now known as “Surf Rock” with his fierce brand of guitar playing which took the ears of many by surprise. Dale was instrumental in the use of high powered guitar amplifiers, reverberation as an effect and also the rise of heavy metal. Dick Dale was born Richard Anthony Mansour in Boston on the 4th of May 1937 to a father of Arab descent and a mother of Polish-Belarusian descent. He started learning to play music from the young age of nine years, the piano being his first instrument. He also played the harmonica and trumpet. After Dale finished his secondary education, his family moved to Southern California and this led Dale to take up surfing. This and …show more content…

Leo Fender discussed this dilemma with his technical officer Freddy T. who went to witness one of Dick Dale’s concerts at the Rendezvous Ball room, California. Leo Fender went back to the drawing board to revise the design of his amplifier. A special 85 watt output transformer was created that could handle the wattage Dale desired to play at. This Transformer was able to create the sheer volume and grit that Dale desired. The next problem was that they now needed a speaker that could handle the wattage and not begin to burn from the sheer overload in electrical …show more content…

Hendrix was quoted to have said "Then you'll never hear surf music again," after hearing that Dale had been diagnosed with a possibly terminal case of colon cancer. (Dale) Dale is often credited as being one of the pioneering guitarists to use non-Western modes in his compositions. This would go on to influence many guitarist writing darker material to employ these scales to bring a darker sound to their compositions, specifically in heavy metal and hard rock

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