The Lipstick Pickup Podcast with Emily Vardaman Walters
A lipstick pickup is an electric guitar pickup with a captivating sound and appearance that has a devoted cult following that grows with each passing year. True to their name, they were originally chrome lipstick tubes stuffed with magnets and electronics that were the inspired invention of Nathan Daniel, founder of Danelectro. Born from his genius instinct for innovation as well as his devotion to a "rigid cost control" philosophy, they were an essential component of the guitars that helped stoke an affordable rock-n-roll revolution.
The Lipstick Pickup Podcast is an amateur (but very inspired), unscripted, rarely edited conversation devoted to the entirety of the subject. Hosted by Emily Vardaman Walters, The Lipstick Pickup Podcast is a fan-friendly primer on the subject of Danelectro guitars and their impact on the history of popular music of all genres.
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Hi Emily, this is Adam Daniel-- Howard's son and Nat's grandson. :) I am enjoying listening to your March 22 episode, and had to hit pause and send this after hearing you and Matthew Paige touch upon "Totally Shielded". Below is a link to my dad's tribute to Nat (a.k.a. "Grandpa" to my sister Naomi and me), with T.S.-related excerpts pasted below that. You will see an anecdote about NAMM in there; I can add these colorful details to it: - The neon sign also caused very noticeable humming at competitors' demos - To the Danelectro folks, the big "T.S." was also a message to said competitors: Tough Shit 🤣 I was not present so I cannot verify the above details. However, they fit with Grandpa's sense of humor and the facts in the excerpts below, particularly: - A practical way to achieve this type of shielding would not have been common knowledge, because he had invented it while working for the Army - Fender and Gibson subsequently copied Total Shielding, according to Jim Washburn. It would not be surprising if they got to work on it right after that NAMM show! https://pen4rent.com/tribute-dad-danelectro-founder-nathan-daniel-104th-birthday/ "During World War II, Nat Daniel served as a civilian designer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, N.J. Among the other problems he worked on at that time, he found a simple, economical way to equip military jeeps and motorcycles with shielding to prevent the electronic “noise” their engines generated from interfering with the reception of critical battlefield radio messages. ... However, Nat