Cover of the famous Dick Dale song Misirlou (from Pulp Fiction) by Jan, Maarten (me) & Arvid from The Art Factory music school in Roeselare, Belgium.
About the track
During the time The Art Factory music school was closed (because of the global health crisis), we wanted to create a music video (online collaboration) to lift the spirits of our students (and colleagues).
Our music school just re-opened this year, so the temporary closure was a big setback.
Our choice fell onto a Misirlou cover (or Miserlou), this wild surf guitar song by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones, made famous by the Pulp Fiction movie by Quentin Tarantino.
R.I.P. Dick Dale, what an amazing song you recorded!
This video was so much fun making, even though the frenzied tremolo picking almost gave me a tennis elbow 🙂
Trying to match the style and vigor of Dick Dale was quite the challenge. Plus, I absolutely love the contributions by Jan & Arvid here. Both the drums and trumpet parts are spot on! Great musicians!
The end result of our impromptu project is too entertaining not to share here, so I hope you enjoy this Misirlou cover! Maarten.
Tone tips for guitar
Download the Fractal AX8 Preset here
I did not match Dick Dale’s tone exactly, but these things helped me to find a satisfying tone:
- Strat-style guitar with Jumbo frets (my Suhr was up for the task, the frets on my Strat were too worn unfortunately.)
- Single coil pickups (bridge position)
- Heavy pick: I use Dunlop Jazz III Carbon Fibre 0,73 mm.
- Boost pedal: TC Electronic The Spark (“fat”-setting).
- Delay before the amp I combined my MXR Carbon Copy Delay (+/- 90 ms slap setting) with a 131 ms Delay from the AX8 and put them before the amplifier.
- Spring Reverb (from AX8)
Misirlou practice tips
- Practice with a metronome
- Start slow (below 150 bpm) to learn the melody, but speed up once you get the knack of it
- Practice short intervals (10 min.) at high speed: 150 bpm, increasing to 172 bpm
- Watch out if your picking arm starts hurting (seriously!), try not to play too tense
- The intro is the hardest part, so practice this ‘hit-the-ground-running’ concept
- Give yourself some time to learn this song
Credits
- Credits to Arvid for editing the video www.bluetown.be
- Credits to stringtheorist for sharing the original AX8-preset for this song. I modified it a little bit to my taste and ears.
- We do not own the rights to this song. Misirlou is originally performed by Dick Dale & The Del-Tones (1962) written by Nick Roubanis e.a.