# The Wedge guitar solo > The guitar solo on The Wedge by Dick Dale & the Del-Tones (1963). From the album Checkered Flag. Watch from the solo, plus the story and gear. Canonical URL: Dick Dale & the Del-Tones, 1963, from *Checkered Flag*. Solo by *Dick Dale*. Dale's tremolo picking and Middle Eastern scales, named after a famous Newport Beach break. The Wedge is named after a notorious Newport Beach break, and Dick Dale plays it like a man riding a dangerous wave. His rapid tremolo picking, hammering a single note at high speed, creates a shimmering, almost violent intensity, and the melody draws on Middle Eastern scales that reflect his family's Lebanese heritage. The thick, reverb-heavy tone gives the guitar enormous weight, as if the whole ocean is behind it. It is Dale at his most dramatic, and it shows why later players across rock and metal have admired his attack. Listen for the tremolo-picked passages where the notes blur into a single surging sound, and notice the exotic intervals that give the melody its tension. The Wedge by Dick Dale & the Del-Tones is featured in our Surf (#12) list. The solo is played by Dick Dale and the song was released in 1963. ## In our lists - [The 25 Greatest Surf Guitar Songs](https://greatestsolos.com/list/surf/) — #12 - [The Best Dick Dale & the Del-Tones Guitar Solos](https://greatestsolos.com/list/dick-dale-and-the-del-tones-guitar-solos/) — #4 - [Top 20 Guitar Solos of 1963](https://greatestsolos.com/list/best-guitar-solos-1963/) — #7 ## Sources ### Who played the guitar solo on The Wedge? Dick Dale played the solo on Dick Dale & the Del-Tones's The Wedge (1963). --- GreatestSolos ranks the greatest guitar solos by consensus across published lists. Agent guide: [llms.txt](https://greatestsolos.com/llms.txt) · [Sitemap](https://greatestsolos.com/sitemap.xml) · [Dataset (CSV)](https://greatestsolos.com/data/greatest-guitar-solos.csv) · [How we rank](https://greatestsolos.com/method/)