Dick Dale the surf guitar king died aged 81.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music...T_lJVhKq2V1P2QM

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

Wow having my low E string tuned up to F would really throw me off.

Not if every tune was played with an open F just to accommodate
the sax player. Every surf song had repeating rhythmic strikes on the open E string. Funny thing is, kids from all over watched Dick and tried to play with that open note. A capo on the first fret would have done it.

If all you did was play every note in F, it would be a piece of cake.

Oh, then when you met arrogant "jazzers" like me, Misty, or any song originally played in Eb would be no problem (LOL).

Be well. I am glad to have known Dick.

Russ