I got to California just as Dick Dale reached his peak. He did one album a year, and sold 500,000 copies; all in southern California. When he was working, people like the Beach boys, who were much larger worldwide, couldn't beg a job.

I was in his studio several times. I was working on jazz projects and jazz club dates, but was around many surfers. Met Dick a dozen times or so. Look at his early album photos...girls fainted when he came by.

He had a tuning problem early on. Bill Carson, from Fender identified it as an issue of the angle of the bridge. Harmonics went to hell as note were played higher on the fret board.

Several of the surf bands altered the tuning so an open E was real an F. That's because many songs of the time had a tenor sax and E is an impossible key to play in. Most of the players could play in other keys, but the style required an open low E.

R.I.P.

Russ