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During the summer of 1961, Dick Dale and his Del-Tones played dances known as “stomps” to thousands of teenagers in Southern California. As crowds grew at the cavernous Rendezvous Ballroom adjacent to Balboa Beach, Dale and his group played at increasingly higher volumes, which caused amplifiers to malfunction on a regular basis. With a trail of burned-out gear in his wake, Dale worked with Leo Fender (1909–91) to design modified speakers and increase the power output of the Showman amplifier. Dale also road-tested Fender’s new Reverb unit, which produced a watery, echo-like effect that became synonymous with surf music. See “Surf’s Up! Instrumental Rock ‘n’ Roll” online at: https://bit.ly/InstrumentalSurf This image was posted on January 22, 2021.