Dick Dale

[geonuc]

Anyone remember Dick Dale? The King of Surf Guitar is dead at 81.

[SciFiFisher]

Well dang. Sorry to hear that.

[Thumper]

I heard that briefly this morning. He had a pretty good run.

[Thumper]

I didn't realize that he played left handed and played a right handed strung guitar. That's probably part of his unique sound. Jack White penned a very nice tribute to him yesterday.

[geonuc]

I didn't realize that he played left handed and played a right handed strung guitar. That's probably part of his unique sound. Jack White penned a very nice tribute to him yesterday.

And unlike Jimi Hendrix (also a lefty) who restrung his guitar so the string weights were 'correct' top to bottom. According to Fender, Dale's use of a guitar with the strings upside down affected the strike angle of his picking relative to the pickups, creating a different sound.

[Thumper]

So I'm left handed, and I play a right handed guitar flipped upside down, with the fat strings at the bottom. I pay close attention every time I see someone playing lefty to see if they play with the strings "regular" or "reversed." I've seen it all: guys flip a right handed guitar upside down but string it normal, guys play a left handed guitar but string it upside down. It's very interesting.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Les Binks (Judas Priest's Drummer back in the 70s) is left handed.

The song Beyond the Realms of Death was co-written by him.

I've read that one day he picked up one of KK Downing's guitars (who is right handed), flipped the guitar and played a sequence that became the opening riff of that song.

[Thumper]

Listening to an old Fresh Air interview with Dick Dale (Friday shows are usually encores). He's describing his picking style and the mammothly huge gauge strings he uses. He talks about the faces he makes while playing and people talked about how cool his facial expressions are. And he says, "No that's agony, that's pain." Between the style and the strings he wears out more than one pick per song.