A Fender Amp for 1/3rd of the Price...

Greetings and Salutations to all in Shred Nation!

Wow newsletters two weeks in a row? Either my handlers have me trapped underground with a typewriter inside a bamboo cage or there's a LOT of music news going on. Maybe both! :)

"Fender" Amp for 1/3rd the Price
Protect Your Gear Before It's Too Late!
Did Cardi B Just Change History For All Performing Artists?
BERNTH Sweep Picking Workout

Tube Amps That Even Your Least Discerning Beginner Can Purchase

When I was a kid, my friend Blake Hourigan would prank call Guitar Center and ask them if they had "the rare I-ba-neez ingwee malmsteen guitar in stock?" when they said no, he would always ask "if you did, would you sell it to me?" I think about asking sales people that a lot. He would never break character. Speaking of never breaking character, check out Longmont Potion Castle. Ok anyway we're here to talk about amps.

So you may have seen me use this 5 watt Monoprice amp in some of my pedal videos before but I just filmed a video about Warehouse Guitar Speakers using one of my students 15 watt Monoprice amp which is essentially a Fender Blues Jr. It has almost the exact same controls, and the same tubes and configuration etc. One 12" speaker, roughly the same size, weight, whatever. It come's stock with a Celestion speaker. So my student gave me this amp to shoot with and to replace with the WGS speaker so we could talk about what a huge upgrade the WGS is and how speaker upgrades are often overlooked (true).

I ended up using this amp for a couple gigs, and what I didn't expect to happen was for this amp to rip so fucking hard. It actually sounds great, even sounded good before the speaker swap although it definitely sounded a lot better after. But a brand new Fender Blues Jr. is $799. Like wtf? That's a lot of money for a Blues Jr. The Stage Right by Monoprice is $259 new. I swear it's the same fucking amp. Except it weighs 6 lbs less and has a button to take it down to 1 watt so you can play it in your apartment too.

Am I crazy? The $259 seems too cheap. This should be so bad but I swear it isn't bad. I got actual compliments using this thing the other day. I spent like $4000 on my Divided By 13 and let me tell you, no one gives a fuck (in a live setting). Buy the Monoprice and change out the tubes and the speaker you'll be in like $415 and it will honestly sound great. There are unlimited options for 12" speakers. I have a bunch of boutique and vintage amps and I'm about to buy one of these for myself so I can just spill beer all over it and throw it around cuz no one will care if it gets dented ya know.

I Now Sell Life Insurance

I'm kidding! Selling would imply that someone, somewhere is making any money. We do this for the love of the game. And speaking of love, I would love for you guys to be protected when your shit inevitably breaks, gets stolen, or anything else tragic happens. I have had my shit stolen, broken, etc. and have actually had my ass saved in the past by Music Pro Insurance.

Unfortunately my redwood Kauer that got snapped in half was during a brief period of lapse in insurance (yes I know, my fault), but otherwise they've always been awesome and it's way less expensive than you think. They also do the deductible by claim not by item. So it's like $100 deductible no matter how many items you have on a specific claim. One time I had a claim for two guitars that had gotten run over and both got replaced for just the $100 total.

If you play professionally or use your instruments, recording gear, microphones, whatever to make money it is worth getting them insured so you don't get fucked. I have no affiliation with them personally besides being an actual customer and one time I had $2500 custom in-ears get stolen from me before I knew about gear insurance. Yes you read that right, CUSTOM in ears, meaning they cant fit in literally anyone else's ears but mine. Totally worthless theft.

The Blues Brothers Were Right

I was talking to a friend today and the new pandemic came up in conversation. Of course I'm talking about musicians getting pelted in the face with shit while they're performing. You've definitely seen it in headlines recently, and although this is not anything new it is certainly getting more attention lately for whatever reason? The first big headline I remember is Bebe Rexha catching the phone in the face, but here's a list of a bunch of others.

Somebody threw their drink at Cardi B at a concert in Vegas and she just fucking chucked her wireless mic right at them. Didn't take any shit from this mofo. Kinda nice to see somebody fighting back. Was my earlier headline about her changing history a joke? I don't know, probably 70% yeah. She is the first one to actually do something back, unless you count Axl Rose jumping into the crowd to beat someones ass for like taking a picture of him when he didn't want them to. But I think this mic throwing may actually have an impact on fans, or on security, or on promoters. Or venues? On somebody? It's pretty fucking weird people just keep throwing shit.

And worst of all, no one is throwing anything at me yet :(

Can't I just be a part of something bigger than myself for once?

Let me know how you think this is going to play out, I'm genuinely curious. Feels like things are winding up and are actually important and relevant for live performers.

Sweep 'em Up

Aight we're gonna wrap up this week with a nice Youtube video from our good friend and European shred lord BERNTH. Here's an easy sweep picking play along that everyone can dig into, this isn't a locals only thing so don't feel like you have to be a great sweeper to play along with this - beginners are totally welcome here. It also gives you a good feel for his teaching and playing style, and his videos are all really high production and I believe he has the most patrons out of any guitar creator on Patreon. Definitely worth checking out if you are interested in the hard rock/metal guitar persuasion. Check out the workout here!

FIN

Well that's all she wrote for this week. I wanna make mention that last week I played seven shows and THREE of them were on Saturday alone. Actually got to meet a few of you guys from Shred Nation on the beach in Huntington as I was filling in for my friends in the band 90s Rock Show which was cool. If you ever see me out and about make sure to come up and be like "hey you're that one guitar dude from my instagram huh?" and then I inevitably go "yes I am Tomo Fujita." and sign an autograph in his honor. Anyway I only got videos from those shows (not pictures) so instead here's a photo from my bands album release show a few weeks back. KEEP STREAMING OUR ALBUM.

As always hit me with any questions, comments, or concerns and we ALWAYS have new content coming out on Patreon if you want to get serious about learning the guitar!

UNTIL NEXT TIME