Surf-Rocker Dick Dale’s First Guitar Is Stolen

The first electric guitar that surf-rock pioneer Dick Dale ever picked has been stolen from the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum.

“I’m still numb,” said Dale, who lives in Huntington Beach. The thief “couldn’t have been a real surfer. Real surfers don’t do that. It’s got to be some misguided fool.”

The guitar and a VCR were stolen from the 6-month-old museum, a repository for surfing memorabilia at 312 Walnut Ave., between Friday night and Saturday morning, police said.

Dale said he was especially disappointed because he had been hoping to use the guitar in the fall at a concert for members of the U.S. Air Force at the Berlin Wall in Germany.

Dale had given it to the museum when it opened July 30 after turning down what he called a “generous” offer from the Hard Rock Cafe in Texas, where rock ‘n’ roll relics are collected.

“My mother wanted (the guitar to stay) close to home,” he said. “Huntington Beach is the Mecca. There’s no place else that guitar deserves to be.”

Dale, who said he bought the guitar at a pawn shop in Los Angeles for $200 in 1955, described it as white with a black pick guard and the initials D.D. painted along the top of the rosewood neck.