What is the story behind the way he strings his guitar? I've heard conflicting stories and wanted to get the story straight. One story was he started playing a right-handed Strat ala Hendrix, but didn't change the strings. In videos of him playing from the early 60's he is using a left-handed Strat but it is strung upside down. Can anyone set the record straight?

davidgoerndt
What is the story behind the way he strings his guitar? I've heard conflicting stories and wanted to get the story straight. One story was he started playing a right-handed Strat ala Hendrix, but didn't change the strings. In videos of him playing from the early 60's he is using a left-handed Strat but it is strung upside down. Can anyone set the record straight?

that is absolutely true.

but, in the early 60's he had already known how to play guitar for quite a while. did you know he recorded rockabilly stuff in the late 50's? there's a promo pic from '56 that shows him with a right handed acoustic guitar strung the right handed way. why would he string it left handed only to change it upside down after already learning to play? that would be really difficult.

a direct quote from Dick Dale's 'Better Shred than Dead'
"...he then gathered up a bunch of Pepsi bottles, put them into his red Radio Flyer wagon, towed them to the local store, where he got the $5.95 to buy his first plastic, four-stringed ukulele. With the uku he learned to play Hank Williams songs and developed his Gene Krupa-style of strumming. The only catch was the instruction book didn't tell him to turn the instrument around. See, Dale was born a southpaw, and the uku was for a right-handed player. But, stretching his fingers to mimic the chord diagrams in the book, he learned to sing and play country music anyway. Eventually, he bought a right-handed, flat-top acoustic guitar for $8.00. It had six strings. The extra two strings baffled Dale, so he used the uku chords, muffled the two bottom strings, and nobody knew the difference. He was on his way.
Dale's unusual guitar approach garnered attention from high places. Leo Fender was both intrigued and amused by Dick's upsdie-down-backwards style. Barney Kessel, a phenominal jazz and session guitarist, told him: 'Dick, if you would only change your strings around the right way, you would be the greatest guitarist that ever walked this earth!' Dick's reply: 'Why fix it if it ain't broke?'"

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I've had Dick sign my DD Strat three times in the past 10 years. He's a great guy, but had a good time making fun of my "wussy" 11 to 50 strings.

Mike

Hacking away at Surf Rock since '87!

Looks like a six string bass with those strings on the beast.

Speaking of strings, what does DD use, size wise?

bigtikidude
16 to 60 I heard

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Yes, 16, 18, 18 (?), 38,48,58 (OR 60)

I never understood the 3rd string being an 18 as well. seems really floppy. I'd think at least a 20 would be the way to go. Of course, He's Dick Dale, and I'm just Chris - what the hell do I know. I've been chasing his sound for years - still can't get it. maybe I should try that 18g string?

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

Sonichris
The interesting thing about the photo Brian posted - look at the bottom 3 strings - they are wrapped around the tuning post backwards.

chris, chris, chris...

they ARE definitely NOT wrapped around backwards...they are wrapped around "counterdickdalewards": the three skinny strings turn "dickdalewards" and the three fat strings turn "counterdickdalewards"...

it must be some sort of string winding (and tuning) scheme that dick used long before the strat ever came along...maybe from some sort of three-on-each-side peghead gibson sort of guitar...or an acoustic...

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Brian wrote: "He plays with the strings "upside down". He simply learned how to play guitar by flipping a right handed guitar upside down. Later he got a left handed strat but continues to play the way he learned."
Yep! me too! of course i'm no Dick Dale but i've always played upside down and i get asked about it all the time....every gig we do!! I love it...it makes me different!! My "lefty" thread sank like the Titanic but a few guys talked about being lefty's....even upside down ones!!
Except for those gnarly heavy weight strings...i could play DD's guitar!! I still don't know why Jimi just didn't get a lefthanded guitar since he didn't string it upside down. Anybody know?
R-R

The TakeOffs
"Kauai's Only All-Instrumental Surf Band"
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-TakeOffs/312866840587

C'mon Ferenc, show us the picture!

I recently picked up one of the new Fender 60's reverse headstock models and would recommend it to anyone wanting to get something like the DD signature model. It has the Large 60's reverse headstock which changes the length of the strings from the nut to the tuners like Dick's guitar plus it has the reversed bridge pickup which is also a charteristic of the Beast. The pickups have the reversed stagger and use alnico magnets. If you can live with the white instead of the gold sparkle it's worth investigating. Here's mine.

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There is Surf east of Sepulveda.