John wrote:

I'm pretty sure the book is still available. You'll need to contact the author, Stephen McParland...his address is at the top of this page and the book in question ("Surf Beat: The Dick Dale Story") is described toward the bottom of the page:

http://www.garyusher.com/cmusic.html

I thought I went through all of his (Dick's) books in his library and never saw this one. Heck, there are a ton of books on the shelves; a lot of kool rockabilly books and I usually focus on them since I am more of a R&B guy than surf. I guess that is the reason I was in the minority of fans of Bonamassa [sic] whom Ivan referred to in another Thread.

Don't throw me out of here guys: I still lay out surf tunes when my Showmen perform. Still have my Strat, Showmen and Reverb and haven't traded it for a Marshall or Gretch.

John Boy, I have all your surf related books, starting when I saw the paper-back one you autographed for Dick that had a photo of a woody on the cover-yellow, blue and red, right? (thoroughly done) Was that at the mansion that you gave it to him? Wow: If it was, time sure does fly by fast which confirms I am an old fart. Hopefully I saw it at Sky Ranch so I ain't' that old. lol

Last edited: Dec 21, 2016 19:37:42

Sonichris wrote:

I still don't see a guitar cord. Maybe a very very thin one early on.

Yes, I think it's just too grainy to see it, but it's there.

But, watching his hands and the sounds makes it looks like he's playing. And I think I can see him switch the guitar pickup selector mid song.

Yep, absolutely, you can hear the tone change when he does that.

I wasn't right about too much today, but:
I'm still holding out hope about that sparkleburst Strat being Eddie B's!

I'm right there with you, Chris!

Ivan
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You guys have been busy while I've been gone! Thank you again for asking Dick for the answers to all those questions, Joe! That has been VERY helpful! I really appreciate it! At least we got this thing 100% resolved. Also really cool to see that Dick remembers The Beast with the purple paintjob - and that apparently it only had that finish during the East Coast tour. MacParland's book says that Muscle Beach Party was filmed towards the end of '63 (those actors must have been pretty cold on that beach!), so The Beast is Chartreuse Sparkle in time for Ed Sullivan and the shooting of Muscle Beach Party shortly afterwards. You can see it in all its glory, with a brand new shiny paintjob in the opening sequence of the movie.

Now, to solve the mystery of Larry Robbins'/Eddie Bertand's silverburst flake Strat....

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
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Last edited: Dec 21, 2016 20:37:37

Badger wrote:

I ended up sending an email to Steve's contact address; the other PDF source page from Chris just kept freezing up when I went to pay. Was kinda lookin' forward to just kicking back with the tablet in the LazyBoy for awhile.

Badge: I wish I could take credit for the address to get the book, but that youngster from the Rockies-Chris, Aquasonics, gets all the credit.

Log onto the page set forth below, pay about eight bucks and you will have the book in PDF format.

I sent the info to a friend and he just wrote me he received it-hassle free, so the source is not bogus. Hats off to Chris.

https://payhip.com/b/Ej5Y

Ha! Joe, as far as I know there is no way to distinguish Bassman cabs from Bandmaster cabs from far off. You can do it close up, but not from that distance. So, I've got no idea!

But something did occur to me in response to your comments about Polish players - you probably know this already, but Dick's mother was Polish! So, yes, Polish blood runs DEEP in surf music.

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
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The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Last edited: Dec 21, 2016 22:56:14

Nice! You actually knew Dick's mom! So cool!

I think the only Showman cab is the one with wheat grille cloth - 100% certain it's Dick's.

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Dick used to serenade him Mom on the piano at their Fountain Valley house. When she lost her leg she still retained her sense of humor, like Dick's.

Dick's dad gave me a ton of photos and promo material overthe years, but unfortunately, a lot was misplaced in 1992 when my ex kicked me out of the house I bought with my money. I just love the laws in CA; they givesuch a benefit to men!! Ha, ha.

SurfBeat wrote:

I sent the info to a friend and he just wrote me he received it-hassle free, so the source is not bogus. Hats off to Chris.

Must've been a temporary glitch; tried it again later & it worked, no worries. On with the spectating; thanks Chris.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

It would be cool to have a Deke Dickerson type discovery moment, but comparing the two guitars the burst patterns look different around the upper edge and upper horn. There is much more of a black band on Eddie's, and the upper horn is all filled in black.

I still don't know why Joe brought up the name on the drumhead, unless he doesn't know himself. It could be a key as to where that picture was taken, but it's turned out to be a red herring I guess.

duncanjames wrote:

SurfBeat, you had mentioned that Dick's strat was purple, white, then gold. Wouldn't the white come before the purple?

DJ - The white came before the purple. I made a mistake when I was simply listing the various colors. Because Dick was changing colors almost bi-weekly during a short period of time when another "copy-cat" was trying to have the same colors as Dick, (not an insult, several of us were copying Dick's style) memories fade as to which color followed which. One fact, however, has not changed and that is: after the original sunburst came several colors, then the white before the purple, then the present day gold.

Boy, you Dick heads do pay attention to detail. lol

Also, does anybody have any photos of the other colors besides the white, purple, or gold?

As stated above, the black and blue would have been painted over within a couple of weeks, if that long, so, when considering the fact that teens did not carry cameras to dances(in those days, dances were the norm, concerts were the exception, plus phones were attached to walls or placed on a table with a long electrical wire connected to the wall, unlike now, where phones are attached to everyone's ears), the chance of anyone having a photo of a black, blue, or sunburst photo are slim. I recall Dick has a photo of his sunburst. I will have to did it out.

And while I'm at it, I've always been curious... Has the guitar always had the same neck? I remember hearing he got it in the 50s, but whatever year I had read had me thinking rosewood boards weren't around quite yet.

Mr. Dobner is correct, Rosewood boards came out in 59, my recollection in the summer. The neck is original, except for.........Wouldn't you like to know.

Last edited: Dec 22, 2016 14:18:16