Mike Masuda's Cajon Setup

Recorded on 2010-02-18, this documents the most current compact cajon setup I employ in flamenco gigs as well as "unplugged" acoustic jams. It features Meinl and Schlagwerk products, as well as some homemade items. It also features the pitch changing technique I discovered back in 1993--which I showed Rubem Dantas and Paco de Lucia (percussionist for Paco De Lucia) backstage in 1994. In 1995, Dantas was using it onstage too! Anyways, the setup is quite versatile and can be used where a drum kit is considered too loud--like a coffeehouse gig. It took me many years to refine the setup--I just wanted to document it and present it on the Internet. If anyone else has really nifty new ideas for a cajon setup, I'd love to trade ideas. And as far as the zils and cajon kick pedal mods--bear witness that you saw it here first!

If there are any reps from Schlagwerk, Tama, or Meinl who would like to collaborate with me on future cajon setups or products, I'd love to hear from you. I have many more cajon-related ideas!

Again, it's a double kick pedal--any double kick pedal should work. You just have to take it apart and rearrange the gear to go backwards. It took me about 2 hours of tinkering with the pedals to get it to go the right way. I'm sure you can figure it out fairly easily too. And no, I do not have time to show you how I did it. Too many other projects...