This Walsh Collab is the Stuff of Dreams

Greetings and Salutations to all in Shred Nation!

The gravy train keeps rolling here in newsletter land, it's such a beautiful and scenic pasture out here. As usual got a few things I've been DYING to get off my chest so why don't we cut the bull$hit foreplay and just dive right in:

Homemade Percussion Box for $9 - Save over $100
My Favorite Mashup Artist / The Only Good DJ I Know
LoFi Hip Hop Beats (to Study To) on Guitar
Collab w/ Walsh Guitars on a Brand New Model!

Get Em Dancing At Your Acoustic Gigs for Under $10

Gotta give a HUGE shoutout to Zachary Olson for this reader submission here. He sent this idea in and it is awesome.

So I may have mentioned that in my YouTube video about doing acoustic gigs that you can spice up your life by adding in some foot percussion like a heel tambourine or one of those piezo pickup kick drum boxes. I use the Logjam Travelog 2.

Well none of that matters anymore because our good friend ZO has basically just give us the sweet EBT hookup to get this on a massive budget.

In case you thought Logjam was actually really doing something here (maybe I did, I'll buy anything ;/ ) the product is basically a piezo contact pickup inside a case that you hit. So you can get any kind of cheap wooden box, a pickup, and you should be pretty much good.

Here's what Zachary made in under 15 minutes:

He bought a junk box for $2 from a thrift store and this piezo pickup off Amazon for $7, which seems to come with an output jack, volume control and anything else you'd need. He said the newspaper makes that side sound more bassy and the empty side sounds more clicky - like the beater of a kick pedal.

Truth be told, the videos he sent sound pretty much exactly like the Travelog I paid $112 plus tax for.

For my acoustic gigs I always EQ these things with the lows turned all the way up and the highs and mids pretty far down (I'm using a QSC K12 and a tiny cheap mixer) so to get it sounding like an actual kick drum is never gonna really happen, but it's a nice contrast playing this with one foot and a bright tambourine with the other.

He says you can also cover the pickup in hot glue to keep it from feeding back, which I assume is akin to wax potting.

If you want a visual aid on how to do this, here's a Youtube video:

I AM AN EXPERT ON DJS AND ELECTRONIC MUSIC

If you're looking to learn about EDM you've definitely come to the right place and there is no better authority on the matter than me, a guy who has heard at least a few seconds of "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" by Skrillex while someone in a huge truck drove by blasting it.

Nah but for real I wanted to share a musician who I just don't think gets enough credit for being such a fuckin legend and master of his craft; DJ Cummerbund, the absolute best in the game and such a creative musician. He's truly making some hilarious art but doing a great job with melodyne and whatever else he's doing in a DAW to blend genres, songs, and pop culture icons to make songs better than they were before.

Hell when I was Program Director at a rock school we actually did his mashup of Hotel California and Through the Fire and Flames and sent it to him and he sent a video message back to the kids! He's such a G.

You don't care yet cuz you haven't heard his music check out some of my favorites besides my #1 "Jereloose" above:

Man, DJ Cummerbund is so fucking crazy. This fool makes everything work. I love this guy.

OK he was on tour opening for the B-52s this year so it's great to see him getting some recognition out on the road but honestly he really is SO damn good.

Enjoy and let me know if you have a favorite I didn't mention.

LEARN TO PLAY LOFI/NEO SOUL IN 5 MINUTES

Yeah you read that right! And is it really that easy!?

No, I'm afraid it's not that easy at all.

But this is a really nice and concise lesson that gets some of the foundational ideas across as well as teaching you some 7 chords if you aren't familiar with them already. You'll also learn a chord progression, be able to put some vibrato or chorus on it and maybe even just VIBE OUT.

NEW MODEL WALSH GUITARS COLLAB

Long long ago I stumbled across the vintage 60s Framus Television guitar. For me personally, this is the coolest guitar ever designed. Aesthetically anyway.

It has all the stuff I want. It's offset, it's hollow, it's got weird ass inlays, it looks kinda goofy, it's vintage vibed. When I first saw one in some online article I was like "yeah dude thats the one, I have to get something like this."

A great friend of mine and incredible luthier, Paul Dilsaver, was going to build one for me although schedules never lined up. However, he did suggest finding an old one for us to be able to trace the body and analyze and he also fixed up the old one for me to be able to play in the meantime.

Fast forward 6 years or so and we're here with Drew Walsh's interpretation of what I consider to be the coolest body style of all time.

I have been ordering guitars from Drew for a few years now and I genuinely, without any hesitation would say Drew is THE best builder in the world right now. There is no comparison in terms of quality and value. It just doesn't exist without spending 4 to 5 times what he's charging and the customization level is endless.

I told him that I really wanted to make a signature model, get something like the Framus built finally and he was totally game! So I shipped him mine and just a few weeks later he emerged with the prototype of the brand new Kainos model!!

It looks fucking awesome! Everyone should go order one! Well not too many people that it gets hella played out but, enough people that you start seeing em around and it enters the guitar zeitgeist.

I think it fits in great with the rest of the Walsh line of 60s and 70s European and Japanese inspired body shapes and really just has a similar spirit. He did such a great job with this as he does with everything and I can't wait to spec out my own.

FARE THEE WELL

I just recently played at the Balboa Theater in San Diego and I crossed a LOT of throw up on the way to my car which tells me that the Gaslamp area of San Diego really likes to party.

If any of you guys live there and know of any good bar type venues to get into, I'd love to get my band SEGA Genecide out there and start building something. We usually do Soda Bar which is great but I'm thinking Gaslamp may be more our speed because we are loud, obnoxious and usually at least a little drunk.

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!