I think we all find it tricky, but it's a worthy objective to master it. Good luck!

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I am now playing trumpet with Prince Buster tribute band 'Balzac'

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

Miserlou is hard. But people always love it. The Aquasonics did it as a standard finale for a more than a decade. I always thought it was kind of a cop out, but I never said no.

I'm sure I don't play it right, and really, probably don't even play it well. But it is always a thrill to play it. I've played it a thousand times and will probably play it this week a few more.

Here's a couple of videos of us doing it. The first is at our favorite club in Denver, the second is at Viva Las Vegas. If you watch it on youtube, the first half is us playing The Wedge. Dick Dale headlined the car show that year, and I didn't want to play Miserlou. But the guy that filmed the video told us for 2 straight days we should play Miserlou. So we did it for Patricio.

Hard to believe this was 10 years ago or more.

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

Last edited: Aug 16, 2023 20:14:53

I've never found it hard at 175bpm or slower, but I have noticed that a lot of people play the wrong notes.

Daniel Deathtide

I would like to chime in, as I have been studying Dick Dale's technique (live shows, not studio recordings) for quite a while now. What makes Misirlou, and all of Dick Dale's songs so difficult, is his fills and tangents.

He doesn't just play a song, he plays a song within a song. Sorry if this is getting too deep, but it's what makes Dick's style so unique. Each time he plays a specific song, he plays it totally different the next night. He adds something here, and subtracts something there. He did it lightning fast, as he sometimes only had a split second in between notes. I have been practicing his technique over and over, and am getting a lot better at it.

Also, the gear absolutely makes a massive difference in the tone. Nobody can, or will ever sound exactly like Dick Dale, he was the secret sauce. However, I have come very close to nailing his tone. From using two brownface (or the boutique equivalent) Showmans, a 1x15 on each side of the stage (sorry, my car and back can't handle two 2x15's), reverb unit, DD Strat with .16-.60 gauge strings, every little piece of gear adds up and makes a big difference.

Having said all this, Dick's tone would vary from show to show (check out the 1995 San Fran soundboard recording where they put a limiter on him). He had 4-5 different Showmans, and each one of them sounded slightly different.

Sorry for rattling on, but I do take this very seriously. Also, I watched all the videos in this thread. I want to say you guys are very talented musicians, and did an awesome job playing. His son Jimmy is a fantastic drummer and guitar player, and does an incredible job as well. He also seems to be very down to earth and humble. Thank you for reading this long post, look forward to watching more of your videos.

MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale. New EP Louder Than Life available on bandcamp and website.

Last edited: Aug 17, 2023 17:37:16

This is me playing it several years ago. I've grown to understand that my version isn't very DD authentic. 99% of the audience doesn't care but you surf guitarists know haha.

.

_

Hi, I'm Gellert, guitarist for The Fintastics.

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Last edited: Aug 18, 2023 12:34:53

SixStringSurfer wrote:

Sounds killer, TheFintastics. weird_oh84, the heavy gauge strings make a big difference in playability. I can't staccato pick on light or medium gauge strings. I believe it affects the tone as well, but a few people have told me it's all in my head!

Well, shit , why wasn’t I told this….!

If heavy strings make tremolo picking easier then sign me up!

What brand sells 16-60 gauge? I can’t seem to find them… Also, anything above 12 seems to be designated as Baritone ….is that normal?

Since we'er talking about DD here, I just fell compelled to mention that he did not use flats but roundwounds.

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Take a look.

weird_oh84 wrote:

If heavy strings make tremolo picking easier then sign me up!

It depends heavily (heh) on your playing style. There's another thread where some users have said this is a myth. I find that heavy pick + heavy-ish strings make tremolo easier just because my brain can tell my wrist "DO IT" and the sound activates. If the pick is floppy or the strings are floppy, there's a slight gap between when my muscles activate and when the pick actually goes through the string because you have to calculate for the time it takes for either the string or the pick to flex. I'm far from any sort of tremolo master so take that all with a grain of salt, but once I started using 1.4mm jazz picks (short stubby design) and heavier gauge strings, it was easier to tremolo (though my "heavier" gauge is somewhere between 11 and 13 depending on the guitar/scale. 16 sounds crazy to me.) Picking closer to the bridge also makes things easier since the tension is higher there (plus you get a nice bright surfy tone down there...I was surprised to discover Oleg Guitaracula from the Messer Chups mostly plays with the pickup switch of his jazzmaster in the middle position, but gets what sounds like a bridge pickup setting by picking with that technique).

All that said, there are users who are MUUUUCH better at tremolo picking than me (like Synchro) who advocate for heavier pick (he mentioned 4mm) and lighter strings, so ymmv.

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Last edited: Aug 21, 2023 17:55:07

weird_oh84 wrote:

SixStringSurfer wrote:

Sounds killer, TheFintastics. weird_oh84, the heavy gauge strings make a big difference in playability. I can't staccato pick on light or medium gauge strings. I believe it affects the tone as well, but a few people have told me it's all in my head!

Well, shit , why wasn’t I told this….!

If heavy strings make tremolo picking easier then sign me up!

What brand sells 16-60 gauge? I can’t seem to find them… Also, anything above 12 seems to be designated as Baritone ….is that normal?

I create my own custom set at Stringjoy. I am not even sure what baritone is, but I play in standard tuning. Anything less than sixteens feels light now. By the way, I use a Dunlop extra grip 1.5 pick.

MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale. New EP Louder Than Life available on bandcamp and website.

Last edited: Aug 22, 2023 13:49:37