Concert Guitarist Wayne Wesley Johnson

'Wayne Wesley Johnson is a fine guitarist & a fine drummer, too!' (Living legendary guitarist Les Paul at the Iridium, NYC)

"WORLD CLASS GUITARIST"...Internationally recognized, this award winning guitarist performs on acoustic, electric, nylon & steel string guitars and guitar synthesizer in a variety of musical styles and genres. A pioneer of the 'New Sound of Santa Fe' tm and 'Jazzamenco' tm., the artist performs in thumbpicking, fingerstyle, and flatpicking styles...playing jazz, world, new age, latin & rumba flamenca and with classical techniques. Wayne is currently a guitar instructor and member of the faculty of the Santa Fe Community College.

This charismatic performer has shared the stage with some of the world's finest guitarists, too... Formerly a drummer and touring companion with legendary guitarist's Les Paul, and Nokie Edwards (The Ventures), Wayne has also shared the stage with Mason Williams, George Benson, Bucky Pizzarelli, BB King, Scotty Moore, Howard Roberts, Larry Carlton, Chet Atkins, Thom Bresh (Son of the legendary guitarist Merle Travis), Tom Doyle, Ruben Romero, Antonio Mendoza, Bob Snyder, Tommy Emmanuel, Seymour Duncan, Stephen Bennett, Stephen King, Richard Smith, Anthony Smith, Tim Farrell, Edgar Cruz, Lou Pallo *The Les Paul Trio), John 'Nightwolf' Nelson, Jon Paris, Roberto Gonzales and more.

Wayne is a regular annual performer at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS), Nokie Festival, Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists (AFG) and the Guitars for life (GFL) benefit concerts.

Wayne now spends his time touring, performing, songwriting, recording and producing music for his own artist owned Wannadu record label.

WWJ performs for small venues, holiday & private parties, weddings, trade shows, art gallery openings, resorts & hotel lounges and restaurants, Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Anniversaries, cruises, business banquets, opening sessions, festivals, fairs, corporate conventions, political events, shows, & concerts.

For more information or to book Wayne for a concert contact Wannadu, LLC, 5 Bisbee Court Ste 109-240, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 87508 USA phone 505-474-3903 & 505-231-2810 (cell) www.wannadu.com or www.gigmasters.com/jazz/waynewesleyjohnson

Santa Fe Wedding Guitarist

"Wayne Wesley Johnson is Santa Fe's Premier Wedding Guitarist"

"WORLD CLASS GUITARIST"...Internationally recognized, this award winning guitarist performs on acoustic, electric, nylon & steel string guitars and guitar synthesizer in a variety of musical styles and genres. A pioneer of the 'New Sound of Santa Fe' tm and 'Jazzamenco' tm., the artist performs in thumbpicking, fingerstyle, and flatpicking styles...playing jazz, world, new age, latin & rumba flamenca and with classical techniques.

Wayne is currently a guitar instructor and member of the faculty of the Santa Fe Community College.

This charismatic performer has shared the stage with some of the world's finest guitarists, too... Formerly a drummer and touring companion with legendary guitarist's Les Paul, and Nokie Edwards (The Ventures), Wayne has also shared the stage with Mason Williams, George Benson, Bucky Pizzarelli, BB King, Scotty Moore, Howard Roberts, Larry Carlton, Chet Atkins, Thom Bresh (Son of the legendary guitarist Merle Travis), Tom Doyle, Ruben Romero, Antonio Mendoza, Bob Snyder, Tommy Emmanuel, Seymour Duncan, Stephen Bennett, Stephen King, Richard Smith, Anthony Smith, Tim Farrell, Edgar Cruz, Lou Pallo *The Les Paul Trio), John 'Nightwolf' Nelson, Jon Paris, Roberto Gonzales and more.
Wayne is a regular annual performer at the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS), Nokie Festival, Association of Fingerstyle Guitarists (AFG) and the Guitars for life (GFL) benefit concerts.

Wayne now spends his time touring, performing, songwriting, recording and producing music for his own artist owned Wannadu record label. This artist knows the importance of 'professionalism' in performance and appearance and how to provide for client satisfaction. The artist selects his gear, attire and tune selection to suit any size venue and any type of occasion.

WWJ performs for small venues, holiday & private parties, weddings, trade shows, art gallery openings, resorts & hotel lounges and restaurants, Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Anniversaries, cruises, business banquets, opening sessions, festivals, fairs, corporate conventions, political events, shows, & concerts.

For more information: contact Wayne Wesley Johnson dba Wannadu, LLC , 5 Bisbee Court Ste 109-240, Santa Fe, NM 87508. phone: 505.474.3903 & 505.231.2810 (cell) www.wannadu.com or www.gigmasters.com/jazz/waynewesleyjohnson/

Universal Picking technique used in College Guitar Class Instruction

I've been teaching Guitar at the Santa Fe Community College for a little while now. Last semester I introduced the new Strum N Comfort Sharktooth pick system to my class of 13 students. It's a new concept developed by my friend Greg Atkin of Anaheim, CA. It was well received. Some of my students actually walk around with the pick strapped to their thumb, all day long. I know I actually slept with mine on one night. I had it right where I wanted it, and didn't want to lose my frame of reference when practicing. It sounded and felt that good. At least you know I wasn't sleeping alone. They say musicians have their girlfriends, but I had my pick.

So much for the humor. The Sharktooth Pick system consists of a neoprene sleeve that either a Sharktooth pick or your own favorite flatpick for that matter, sits in and the sleeve wraps around your thumb to "strap" your pick to your thumb. This yields a hybrid of a flat pick or a thumbpick, which permits playing in hybrid or "crossover" styles. For example, one minute you could be playing fingerstyle, or thumbpickin a Travis/Atkins type of tune, and the next minute ripping out some lyrical jazz riffs with a flatpick approach, all with the one system.

This technique known as "Univeral Crossover Picking" is being taught in colleges now, and I'm pleased to be one of the first instructors in the country that is bringing it to the attention of my guitar students.

Strum N Comfort has some other great products, too...like the "hybrid" pick system which permits for ease of strumming too with a strapped on pick ...and my favorite the "Flick Your Pick"..... This allows me to "roll" my small jazz/mandolin pick up and out of the way for fingerstyle techniques, and when I want a pick for jazz soloing, I just flick it back into position with my index finger. It works incredibly well. There's no end to the ways each individual guitarist can use the Strum and Comfort products to foster their own style of performing.

BTW....try the new DAVA picks with the Strum n Comfort sleeves, too. They're pretty comfortable and awesome. You can find a link to their site here,too.

Check out www.strum-n-comfort.com
If you contact Greg...tell him WWJ sent you.

Check out www.davapicks.com
Tell Dave I sent you.

Dealer Inquiries are Invited.

"The chain is only as strong as its weakest link"

Well that's grand...You have a nice Strat or Les Paul and a 59 bassman amp or maybe a Carr, Budda, Mesa Boogie, or that Marshall stack you always wanted. Or maybe you have a 64 Vibroverb ala SRV. Great guitars and great amps....Now, what about the interface between them?

The umbilical cord....the wire that brings your signal from the guitar to that great amp of yours.

Cables do make a difference. I've done a great deal of research on cables and can tell you that copper core connectors and connectors with fewer parts do make a difference in tone and sound. see the chart above.

I've worked closely with my friend Willie to come up with an ultra low capacity line of "Jazzamenco" tm cables ...the Wayne Wesley Johnson Signature series. We're making cables for acoustic electric guitars and another model for electric guitars. These will be the best cables money can buy and offer the best overall tone and frequency response. The good news is that cables of this nature can amount to a small mortgage payment, but such is not the case with our cables. Our cables will sell for 1/3 to 1/2 as much as other high quality brands, yet provide better performance and better value.

If you'd like more info on the Wannadu "Jazzamenco" Wayne Wesley Johnson signature series pro grade guitar cables, drop me a line.

Wilkins Guitars & Finishes

You know in this day and age there are guitar makers popping up all over the place and there are a lot of great instruments available. When I was growing up there were a few brands to choose from....Gibson, Guild, Gretsch, Fender, Rickenbacher, Martin, Kay, Harmony, were the most popular commercially built instruments....Bet those names bring back memories for a few of you. Some of these firms are still building guitars, some are importing their original designs from overseas.

I'm going to tell you a little about my friend Pat Wilkins. Pat spent a good many years working with the original Schector Guitar Co, in CA. He later started his own finishing company and can say that he's provided fine guitar finishes to a large number of other guitarmakers on an OEM basis. Well now, he's building his own guitars. He's studied everything out there and has come up with some "primo" quality instruments based on traditional designs.

"It's the little things that count..." Things like adding chambers to his basses in order to further compress the attack for "on the beat" performance. Other things like hum canceling on single coil pickups (using a unique dummy coil arrangement). Adding things like Demeter preamps to his basses, and Lindy Fralin pickups to his electric guitars....

And when it comes to finishes, that's no small thing. Pat is the guru on guitar finishes. He's also a bass player and knows what a guitar and bass are supposed to feel and sound like....No dead spots on Pat's guitars, that's for sure. You've got to see his work. Then again, you probably have on some other maker's guitars. But, you have to see and play his guitars.

I've got my hands on a few demo instruments that are to die for...a 5 string chambered modern J bass, and a couple of awesome Strat-like guitars, and a blonde Tele-style guitar that oozes with tone and quality.

You can see some of these instruments at www.wilkinsguitars.com We're in the process of setting up dealers now for Pat Wilkins, throughout the U.S.

Wechter Guitar's Pathmaker

One of the guitar makers that I'm repping is Wechter's Pathmaker series. At first I wasn't sure what I thought about the looks of them, since they're not the typical body style, but once I started studying the instrument and playing it, I was sold on the design. It sort of reminded me of the old Gibson Barney Kessel models...I had one for many years...with the double florentine cutaway design. I had concerns about the neck stability and mounting, but soon learned that the neck is supported better in this design than in the more conventional or traditional flat top guitar designs. Abe Wechter's design also enhances the sustaining qualities of the instrument. Man, I just love the black one...and the blue and red ones are pretty slick, too.

The neck is like a fast action electric guitar feel with access all the way up the fingerboard. This is an acoustic electric guitar for jazz and rock players. It sounds beautiful and has three pickups in it...That's right the Wechter Pathmaker has magnetic, piezo and mic pickups, and you can blend them anyway you want to custom tailor your sound and your tone.

These are guitars worth looking at. I think I'll get me one of those black ones....too cool.

About Industrial Amps (IA)

Greetings... I mentioned that I'm repping the Industrial Amps line and thought you'd like to learn a little more about them. They're hand built in the USA, point to point wired tube amps currently made for guitar, and a bass model is also in the hopper. Here's a look at these "club and touring series" beauties. IA amps are available in white or black tolex covering and are built with the best possible components. They're available in 15 watt (Crunch 15R / Overdrive 15) and 60 watt (blues 60) and 120 watt (Rock 120) models in both combo and head/cabinet configurations. The 15 watt models are 6V6, the 60 watt models 6L6 and the 120 watt EL-34 tube compliments. Please visit the IA website for more information. These amps are destined to become the "New Vintage" amps for clubbing and touring musicians. They're really awesome. An array of cabinet/speaker combinations are also available. You should hear the Rock 120 head with the expanded 4 x 12 cab thats tuned all the way down to a low B. It rocks, for sure. The 60 and 120 watt models have dual channels (classic and modern) and reverb. These amps have killer tone. Please check them out at www.industrialamps.com