← Know Your Gear Podcast
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Phil McKnight
The Know youw Gear Podcast. Today's episode of the Know youw Gear Podcast is brought to you by Patreon members, Channel members and viewers who like and subscribe. Thank you for making this possible, everyone. Welcome to the Know youw Gear podcast, episode 404. So we're getting into the 400s. I mean, we're into it, but. I mean, we're getting into it. Hope everybody had a fantastic week. My week has been interesting, to say the least. I'll explain that. I'll explain it. And anyways, I hope everybody's ready. Ready to have a good time on Friday afternoon talking about guitars, the thing we love. So what's going on? I need to tell you a funny story. Funny, odd, that I've been dealing with. So last Friday was an interesting episode for me because I cannot hear on my right ear. So let me back through the story. I just want to let you guys know today's show. I notified the moderators yesterday there might not be a show today, but I pulled it through. And so let me just tell you what's going on. So not this Monday that just passed, which would be what? March? Let me look at the calendar. Maybe I won't look at the calendar. I opened the calendar. Okay, so not this March 3rd, but. But the 24th of February. I woke up that morning and started noticing that I can't hear out of my right ear. Right. It's all clogged something, right? It's like, just like. It feels like. Like I have an earplug in it. And I was like, yeah, that's kind of weird, you know, but sometimes you get sinuses. And I've had that happen to me. My ear plugged. Plugged up on an airplane before. So I actually have to take, like, pseudoephedrine when I fly short flights, especially flights where I'm gonna spend more time inclining, you know, going up and down than you do flying especially short flights to California. So I decided not to fly to California to meet the CEO of Guitar Center. I drove. So we were already on the edge of, you know, we're gonna drive or fly. That cinched up. We're. We're definitely driving. So Wednesday, I drove to California. I stayed that night. I drove that afternoon, stayed that night, got up that morning, had the interview with the CEO, and then we drove back. And the reason is I just wasn't feeling that great. I'm fine. I have no cold, no nothing. I just. My ear is literally plugged up. And so anyways, on the way home, we got To a part of the trip where you kind of go through the mountains a little bit. And my head just. Oh, the pressure was so intense. I started feeling pain. Like everything was agonizing, like, shooting pain. And then my ears started leaking, which is a weird experience if you haven't had it. I haven't had an ear infection since I was 7, so apparently. So we're dry. We drive back, and so the next morning, you know, I wake up, same thing. My ear is just leaking. I have no hearing in my right side of my head. So I did Friday show last week, going, well, you know, I'll just push through, get through it. Saturday came, same thing. Leaking ear. Sunday comes leaking. My ear is still leaking. I know. This is gross. I'm sorry, guys. It's leaking water. It's not, but it feels like water. It looks like water. And so I go to the doctor, and the doctor's like, oh, we can't even see your eardrum. It's so swollen, we can't even see in there. So they give me ear drops, which are like, antibiotics do that. And then, even though I felt fine, everything's been great. Wednesday, get the fever. Now I have a fever. Achy, tired again. No flu symptoms, no sickness. I haven't had a flu or sick. Been sick since 2001. So we go back to the doctor, and now they do some stuff to flush my ear and see, and now they can kind of see their drum. And they're like, oh, yeah, it's. You're messed up. So they gave me. Now they gave me pills. I have drops and pills. They said that it looks like it'll be better by Sunday. The reason I'm telling you this is because I'm having trouble hearing. I hear myself in my own head louder than I hear anything else. And we'll do guitar of the week. That was one reason I was definitely not interested in doing guitar of the week last week. We'll do guitar of the Week, and I'll just kind of push through. So anyways, that's what happens. Apparently you get earaches. They think maybe I got water in my ear. They don't know. They don't know what caused it. So hopefully I'll be better by Wednesday or Sunday. They said if I'm not better by Sunday, then I have to go back Monday, find out. So there you go. Nice, huh? All right, let's get into some cool subjects. Let's talk about some early riser questions that I saw. Let me scroll back. And the first one I saw Was. Okay, hold on. Thought I saw one. You know what? I grabbed one. Let me just grab the two. One I grabbed. All right. This one came from Dave. Dave said, hey, early bird question. I saw Texas Toast has a vacuum machine for applying a veneer. Can I just glue on the veneer on my build by hand and clamp it? It's just a flat Explorer, not arched tips on veneer. Well, remember, I'm not really a builder as much a repair person, so I'm more experienced when fixing issues than starting them. But in my experience, you definitely want to vacuum the tops. If it has any kind of carves or anything you're bending to, you know. Precisely. A flat top like you're talking about. I've seen and done the same thing where I didn't use a vacuum. I don't have a vacuum bag. You know, I don't have a machine that vacuums tops because I just don't need it. So when I've had to glue a veneer on the top of a guitar, it's always been, luckily for me, flat. Obviously, even a Strat would be a problematic because, you know, you want to bend it over the edge, you know, as the arm contour. So you definitely want somebody that has a bag for that. In my past, what happened was there was two shops that I worked with, they had it, and they did that stuff because they did repair and building. And so I would just go, okay, you guys do this part. So in your case, with an Explorer with totally flat top, we're talking about, like, it's not even. We gotta be flat. Like, we're not even talking about, like, it's coming down on the sides or anything. I think you could get away with it with clamps and using, you know, like, blocks, you know, wood blocks, you know, put them down and clamp. So you can. You want to cover as much as that surface area as possible. You definitely don't want any of those. Any. Any spot to not get the same amount of pressure. Otherwise it will. It's. It will show itself and. And then you'll have to kind of sand the top and try to level all out, and it's a mess. So that's been my experience. But if you're a home person doing it and you're doing a flat top. Yeah, don't worry about having the bag. It is necessary, but it's more of a luxury. A lot of tools are luxuries more so than necessary for certain things. And there's a lot of do it yourselfer channels out There, I would actually consider looking them up. Small home builds and stuff like that. A lot of them tend to have little cool tricks, you know, like, I tend to be loaded up with the fix tricks, you know, here's how you fix something easily, but when you're building something, you gotta go to those channels that are just really good at showing you the builds, you know? Funny. A funny thing that happened when I started my YouTube journey is I made it. I made it very clear to myself, you know, as a mission statement, like, when I do any of these, like, tech tips or stuff, I won't do anything that shows more than what you need. And I don't know if I ever told you the story, but when I met the Stu Mac guys for the very first time, we had coffee at like, a Starbucks next to the NAMM show. This is years and years and years ago. The channel was still pretty, pretty new. And we were talking about my build videos. And at that time, it was really the sharp my axes. And they were like, those are. Things are really doing good. And I said, yeah. And at that time, I didn't let anybody see the shop. Now, keep in mind, I had the shop at the store, and then I had a shop outside the store later. I was, you know, later. Either way, you never saw either one. In fact, if you look at all the videos back when we. When the videos were still being filmed sometimes in the store, I never showed the shop. I never showed the tools in the shop. And I said, and when I started doing sharp my axe, here's a little fun fact for you. It was done. They were always done on my daughter's art table. And I was telling the Stu Mac guys, I was like, yeah, I do all the sharp my axes on my daughter's art table. And they're like, oh. And I go, yeah, not in any of my. You know, so you can't see my tools. You can't see what I'm doing. And they said, really? And I said, yeah, because I wanted people to see that they could do it with just what I'm showing. I said, I think I feel like when I see those videos and this person has this amazing shop with all these tools, expensive tools, the first thing I think is like, yeah, if I had all those tools, I'd be able to do it too, right? So I was like, no, I wanted to show, like, no, you just need a screwdriver and a file and a piece of sanding paper, you know, and the table. And this is how you do it. And so that's how I kind of saw it. So I really believe that when you're starting out. So that was my long way of saying, if you're starting out doing repair, if you're starting out doing building guitars, building, you know, instruments, I would first seek out the unprofessional channels, you know, if that makes any sense. Seek out the people showing you the easiest way. Because, look, I say it all the time. I have lots of great tools, and sometimes I'll show a tool, even a stumac tool. It's like 30 bucks. Somebody's like, $30 is ridiculous. I'm like, yeah, it's a luxury. It's a luxury tool. I could do it with a lot less. But, you know, as you do stuff, you start thinking about your time more so than the project itself. You know, it's like, how fast can I get through this project? Is more money to me and convenience. So I would suggest seeking those out. And luckily for you, you have a huge community of guitar nerds here. And they could probably put in the comments and definitely do it in the permanent comments, not just the chat. But if you want to do both guys, maybe hook him up and say, check out this channel. Who does it? You know, like I said, with limited tools, who builds out there with limited tools out of a house kind of thing? I've watched a bunch over the years, and I've learned way more from somebody in their garage than I've ever learned watching any official videos, doing something. Because, again, the focus of the video is just like, you know, this is. This is all you need. You need these three tools, and this is how I do it. So. All right, what else? Okay, Amanda sent me this one. It says, from Alan, says, hey, Phil, my telly. American Pro 2 does an annoying sitar harmonic sound when playing the open E string. Okay. We don't. I'm assuming it's a high E string, but we'll. We'll go with it. I've tried a lot of fixes. What could it be? So what it is is one of two things, but it's most likely the first, not the second. The slot is cut too wide or at appropriately at the angle so it's not angled correctly. So a slot. When you cut a nut slot, you cut it at a slight downward angle towards the headstock. Okay. So it's a little deeper towards. Towards the. The headstock than it is where the. Where the fretboard meets the nut and then obviously having it too wide. It's very common. It happens all the time. There's let's say, three reasons I've seen that it happens. One, they cut the slot, and again, they cut it too flat and they don't angle it down. So the string's not seating in there strong enough. That's one cause. Second cause is they cut the slot way too large, maybe using the wrong file or just got overzealous with it. One thing you can do very easily is just tilt your file is really dramatic. So when you're cutting the slot, if you just tilt your file, you're gonna make it wider than it should be. Okay. And the other thing is sometimes they just go too wide at the end again towards where the fretboard meets the nut. All of those will cause that problem. That's definitely the most likely culprit, I'm assuming, because you said. I think you said it was a fender, Right. You said American Pro 2. So American Pro 2 still should have a string tree on the E and the B. So again, if we're talking about the high E, the string tree should be pushing enough down pressure on that. I think the American Pro2. Yeah. Has string tree, but not on the high string, right? Nope, on the high string. Okay, cool. Yeah, because. So you should have a string tree. But in case you don't, that could be the issue too, is you're not getting enough downward pressure. And again, that. That sometimes causes that effect. The fixes for this, either way, the fixes this are pretty simple, and it depends on how much time and money you want to spend. First easiest fix is change the string. So if I'm. I'm assuming you, you know, I gotta assume at first that you haven't tried these things. So I'm just gonna tell you the process. The first thing is replace the string. Because again, the string could be the problem. It's not likely. But why not? When I say it could be the problem, it's not so much the string material. It could be the. Just the way the string was put into the locking nut. Or maybe the way the string was installed is just not correct. It happens. So if, basically what I'm trying to say is, if you haven't tried that, try it. If you're for sure, that's not the issue, you know, because you install yourself and you think it's fine, and the string seems fine, then you got to go to the second thing, which is the first thing I would do is I take a piece of paper, just like a little piece of paper like this, I tear off a corner about so, like, so for Those listening later. On the listening side, I have a piece of paper that's about. About an eighth of an inch. I'm sorry, it's about a quarter inch wide. Okay. And about a half inch long. And what you do with this piece of paper is I just fold it in half like so I have a video of this somewhere. I always say that, but it's true. I have videos out there, but we're working on cataloging that. So anyways, like this. See how this works? Let me show it to you guys. So like that looks like that, like I just bent the piece of paper in half. Then what I want you to do is loosen the E string. The high E string or the low E, whichever's doing it. Stick this in between the string and the nut so that this piece of paper is just shoved in there. And then tighten the string. But make sure the string doesn't push it past the nut, you know, because sometimes it'll push out of the way. So maybe start it a little bit towards the fretboard and then let it just kind of pinch in there. Right? So let it pinch in there. And what will happen with the piece of paper is either it'll fill in the sides of the nut slot or it will. Well, that's what it's gonna do. It's basically gonna fill it in. It's gonna like pack the material in. Sometimes I've tried it where I. No, don't dampen it, but sometimes I've seen where you can dampen it with. I put a little oil on it. But don't do that. Do that. Okay. And then pluck the string. Make sure the paper's not flapping or anything like that, you know. Cause sometimes the paper can vibrate too. And see if that reduces it or eliminates it. And that'll tell you immediately then what, what I'm talking about the nut slot is there too wide. If that doesn't change anything, the sitar effect. Still, it could be the angle. And that way you want to check that too. And that's pretty easy to fix as well. If you want to fix that, you can use a nut file. But if you don't have a nut file, you can take a piece of 400 grit sandpaper and wrap that on a. If you have a 9 gauge 10 grade string. If it's a 10 gauge string that you're using, you can use a 9. If it's a 9, just use a 9. Because you probably don't have an 8. Use a piece of string, fold it over the piece of. Same thing where you did this. Take a piece of sandpaper, fold it in half, stick the string through it and use that as a nut file. I have short videos on that too. As well. Either way, get that angle correct. And then if those things don't work, then you're looking at a new nut. So there's also the baking soda and super glue technique again. But again, I'm trying to keep it simple. Just somewhere to get you started. So that's how you're going to fix and diagnose that problem. Okay, but it's really easy is what I'm trying to tell you. It's not a hard problem to figure out. And then if that doesn't work, it's something else. And then you just start from there. Okay, hold on a second. I'm just scrolling through the comment section. If you're putting a question towards me, obviously Amanda grabs them and stuff. But also put question marks first. That just helps see them. If the subject or the question is for you or for me. Not for you, for me. Try that twice as fast. Yeah, I promise my head's not a mess from having one. Only I have mono hearing right now. Only have one ear. Okay. This is from Shaq with a Q. Says, cheers from Singapore. Hey, welcome. Singapore says, would you recommend The Gibson Satin ES335 or the Heritage 535? You know, I don't know the answer, but let me finish watching your or reading your question and we'll get into it. He says, what's the best way to support your channel? Okay, that's a question I can answer easily. Thanks for being so kind and generous with all of these years. Well, thank you for the compliments. To support the channel is super easy. You can do one of like five things. You can support it by become a patron member. You can support it by subscribing and liking videos, making comments or just watching the videos to the end. To the end is more important than watching the videos. Just keep watching as much of the content as possible and share the videos. You know, it's a big deal. Those are all massive amounts of support in the end for every channel is different. Okay, so this is important. And I'm sorry to get sidetracked on your Heritage Gibson question. I'll come right back to it. But this is important to mention Every channel on YouTube. I want you to think of a lot of the channels as being totally different and how their business model works. Maybe you don't care, that's fine. But I think it's insightful. Just because one YouTube channel said, do this, hey, if you want to support me, do this, it helps. Doesn't mean that will work for everybody else on my particular channel. A large portion of what I make comes from my views on YouTube. That is a big part. The closest second would be then Patreon. Okay, the patreon supporters, but YouTube, the actual YouTube. Like so what I'm saying, that is a lot of channels. You hear them saying like, I don't make anything on YouTube. That's true. Very, very few channels make anything on YouTube. I'm very lucky to make money on YouTube and I have since 2017. I've effectively been making money on YouTube as a platform. And that's because I get views. But more importantly, I get you guys engaged and you guys watch the end and that's how you've been supporting me. So what's funny is I know the first always answer is the reason I'm going this tyranny is because I don't want you to think that money is the only way you can help a channel. You can seriously help a channel by watching to the end. But if it's a smaller channel, you could help them by sharing. Because you gotta understand when, when the algorithm decides not to share a video, you can break the algorithm. Not you personally, but a lot of you could if you shared that smaller contents videos. So same thing. What I will tell you is, is if I make a video, and this goes for any content creator, this is pretty safe. If I make a video and you notice like, man, that video is I loved it. And I don't see a lot of people watching it. Share it, share it to someone. Just post it on your Facebook. Who, who cares? You know, if you're like, I only know 10 people and none of them play guitar, who cares? Throw it on, throw the link on Facebook, throw the link on, wherever, whatever platform you have to share with. And that will help creators because then people click the link and the algorithm will notice it and then start suggesting again. So that's a way to support channels. So, but thank you guys for all the support you've given this channel for all the years over the years. And I'm just letting you know that's how you can support me. It's just watch the videos. But obviously the other ways are great. On the podcast, this the long show, the best way to support financially is the Patreon because of the fact that, you know they're not sharing two hour videos on YouTube. I don't care how much anybody likes it or not likes it, it's not going to get shared. Plus on the audio version of this, which gets more viewers that a lot of you are listening to, not right now, but you'll be listening to this when this video, this audio posts, you know, that's free. I don't get. I don't have the sponsorship is only patrons. I don't have paid sponsors. Okay, so back to your question of the ES35 and the satin finish or your heritage 535. I can't be a hypocrite. I have the ES335. I don't have the satin one, but I have that one. I don't have the Heritage 535, but I've said it before, when I bought my 335, that's what I could find. You know, that was the guitar that I found that was in the price range I wanted. I was specifically looking to buy a heritage when I bought my 535. But it was the beginning of COVID It's where the prices just. They hadn't even started shooting up yet. But it's around that time started and I just couldn't find a Heritage 535. I still have never played a Heritage 535. So I don't know how to answer your question with anything other than I really like my heritage, that they sent me this heritage guitar. And, and I've said this before. If it wasn't for the neck being, you know, just a chunky 50s neck, which is. It's a nice neck. It's just I prefer the 60s profile. So that's why I play my Gibsons more. If, if the heritage was. Had the neck, if that my heritage had my Gibson's neck, the current, not a Gibson neck, but the Gibsons I like the two Gibsons I like. I would get rid of those two Gibsons and just play the heritage. I like the. I prefer the sound of the heritage over the Gibsons. And I don't know if I prefer the guitar because like I said, it's for me it's all about the neck. But the 535 I'd be curious to check out. I will tell you this. It is my goal to have a 535 eventually on the channel and do a deep dive on it and then maybe, hopefully I could give you a good, good response. But right now the only thing I can tell you is I love my 530. Or sorry, my 335. I love it It's a great guitar. So, you know, that's. I don't know. That's the answer. It's a really horrible one. I feel bad about it because it's not really articulate enough, but it's what, what I can give you, honestly, with the information I have. Zach says, hey, Phil, I recently got a PRS Core 20 Custom 24. I loved everything about it but the bridge. I had my tech deck the bridge that, for those that don't know the term, that means bring the bridge to the body. Very common to say that on a Strat deck. The bridge just means put the bridge against the body so it's flat against the body. It's not floating or tilted. And it says, I had my tech deck the bridge. The Internet says, oh, no, the Internet. What does it say? It says, you shouldn't do this. You shouldn't. The Internet always loves to tell you what to do. It's what the Internet does. It says it will harm the knife edges. Thoughts? I have never heard that or seen that issue before. And like I said, I don't know. Everybody's just like the Internet. Everybody's got an opinion. Here's where my opinion comes from. It comes from hundreds of setups done on custom 24s or, you know, core ones. It was a PRS dealer. I've went to their factory many times and there's probably something out there and it might even be some literature out there that PRS is saying, don't do it. It's possible. I've never had a problem decking a bridge on a custom 24 or any PRS that has a tremolo ever, as long as it was done correctly, which I've said this before. The important part to remember with PRS is that it has a six screw bridge, but all six screws have a groove cut in them. And the. The bridge is sitting on a knife edge, essentially on all six of those screws. As long as that's fine. I have no issues. Unfortunately, my custom 24S CE, I'm pointing at a guitar right now, right? So this custom 24 CE semi hollow that I'm pointing out right now, it is not decked. The bridge is not decked. And because Nathan built me a custom 24 with a hardtail, I no longer have a custom 24 because I don't need it because Nathan made me a better one. But my custom 24 that I had before, the one you guys saw, the Tamil Channel, that bridge was decked. I never had a problem with it. So. So to answer your question, I don't think you're going to have any problems. That's just my opinion. For whatever it's worth, it's probably. It's no different than anyone else's opinion. I'm just giving you the resources or at least the information where that opinion came from. If you are so concerned, which I don't believe you should be, there is a fix which is you could block the trim. That's more common on purses is to use a wood block inside the back of the cavity and block the trim. So it's block like it's decked, except for it's still hanging off the top of the body. One concern, I've never heard that concern before. So, you know, one concern I did hear is that, you know, obviously, you know, decking the bridge On a custom 24, you know, puts a lot of pressure on the top and the top's really pretty and you could crack something or damage the thing. I've also never seen that, but sure, I mean, you know, in the. Hey, just because I haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It's just not something I've seen happen to any of the guitars I've worked on or seen. So blocking it would be a good way to do about it. Do it. So if you're so inclined to worry about it, I would say block it, but otherwise I would say not worry about it. It's yeah, dj, you know, a bunch of letters says the Silver Skies Bridge is decked, I believe. Yep. So I mean, like I said, I've seen, I've seen. And well, they'll just put it this way, okay? I've done it to dozens of people's guitars and no one's ever wanted their money back or had any problems years later. So. And. And for those that don't know when I did repair for 13 years publicly. Well, 15 years. It was 15 years I was doing repair to the public. I gave a one year warranty with my guitar. So I would give you a sheet. I don't know why I'm about to pick up this random piece of paper. But look, a random piece of paper, like I'm pretending this is the sheet, but it's not. And on there it would say that you would get a one year warranty with every repair I did or set up. And that's how I used to do it. So that's my way of saying if I did have a problem, trust me, somebody would come back and at Least tell me so that's. But I understand. I know the Internet. You know, all I can tell you about the Internet is it's a beautiful thing with lots of information, and it's also something to scare the hell out of you. Just, just Google. Don't. Don't do it. But for the joke, just Google, hey, does this red mark on my hand is that cancer? Just see what the Internet says. It's gonna be like, don't worry about it. But also, you're probably gonna die. It's like, that's how the Internet is gonna be interesting. So. But thank you for asking the question. Easy Possum as I think it's Easy Possum. Easy possum. This is from Amanda. Sent this. Thank you. Says, hey, Phil, on my last couple of builds, my tone pots don't work. What could it be? So, I mean, obviously, you know, other than user error, right? I mean, it happens. I have had. So it's. It's happened to me for years because I would buy my, my potentiometers in bags, right? So I would go to all parts, or I would go to Antique Electronic Supply, which is in. In Arizona, in Tempe, Arizona. If you haven't used them, they're pretty much one of my favorite parts companies is where I buy my parts from. In fact, sadly enough, I know that I saw like a month later after they sent me an email saying, hey, we'd like to sponsor videos. I'm like, oh, I love you guys. And then I saw it, like, way too late. But anyways, Antique Electronic Supply, which they also call it, I think tubes and more. And anyways, they do parts and so, you know, you buy bags from them in bulk. Buying potentiometers in bulk, so buying potentiometers in bulk to cut costs. And so it was, it was really great for years because what I would do is I would have the parts hanging on the wall and a customer come in and say, hey, I need a new pot. And I'd say, oh, it's 699. And I go, but if you buy one of the ones I use light brands. I go, if I have. If you buy one of the ones I buy in bulk, it's like a dollar cheaper. And it was great because it cost me like $2 cheaper. It's a way to make an extra buck and save the customer a buck. It's a win. Win. So anyways, my point is, is that when buying in bulk, what I learned is, man, you can get a bunch of bad ones in A row. You know, when you buy onesie twosies, you don't notice it so much, but so it's possible. I've had. I had the worst situation I ever had is I had like 4 or 5 25k potentiometers that were just bad on an EMG repair I was doing. And I was losing my mind, you know, because EMG installs, they come, you know, you know, not, not. Not very common, right. So you don't see it over and over again like you do everything else. And so I was just like, am I doing something wrong? What am I doing? And it was like, eventually, you know, you know, testing, like, no, it's a bad part. It's a bad part. You can test your pots with a multimeter and see if that's the problem. It could be that. It could be something else in the wiring job you did. So. So, you know, one thing I like to do when I'm doing a build from scratch, when I'm not one part swapping, I always build outside the guitar and then test outside the guitar and then drop the whole thing into the guitar. Because I don't like to chase a problem like that again, you know, everything's about. Like, if I. Today I have eight hours or nine hours, and I want to get as many guitars through as possible. I'm not trying to spend an hour and a half, two hours chasing my tail on it. One guitar's issue. So I will tend to. So that's one thing I could recommend is if you're installing everything into the guitar and then doing it, you never know what's going on. Something could be grounding out because of the shielding paint. Something can be just flexing in there. Sometimes these pots, you know, if you hit the shafts, flex a little bit, something doesn't work. It happens all the time. I've told you guys this in the past that a lot of times you can just. When you're like torquing down the nut on a potentiometer, all of a sudden the potentiometer doesn't work. And it works just by loosening the nut a little bit. And all of a sudden it works again because it. Whatever happened, it compressed down too much and again, I don't say shorted out, but in my mind, that's kind of what I picture it happening as. It just. So, yeah, I would definitely do everything on, you know, like a wiring loom or just do it on, like. Like I said, just. I don't know, like, just do it on your bench. And. And that's a good way to isolate the problem because it removes all, you know, outlying issues. Okay, what else? Okay, this one's from. I think it's Andy and I apologize because I grabbed it and I. I just see ndy but I think I. I missed grabbing the A. Says what's up. Phil, recently heard you mention that you have an Aria Pro 2 guitar which caught my ear as I own. Own. I own. Oh he owns some and I don't know many other people who do. I have the XX Deluxe Deluxe XX Deluxe Zebra V. What did you have? So I had an Aria Pro 2 so I don't have anymore. I had an Aria Pro 2 was my first real guitar. So my first guitar I ever got was JB Player. And then I wanted an Ibanez more than anything. But you know, just Ibanez was not something that was too expensive. It was too premium by. By. Oh, get out. And so there was an Aria Pro that was essentially a Jackson copy that I got. And that's what it looked like. It just looked like a Jackson copy and that's what I got. Had a fake, fake looking Floyd Rose bridge on it and it was humbucker single single. And I loved it because it was, you know, it was the best thing I could ever have and. But I don't have anymore. I got rid of it when I got an Ibanez that was like eventually where I wanted, you know, from day one. That's what I wanted was an Ibanez. So I finally got one. I got one for my. My high school graduation. My mom bought me an Ibanez. So. But I loved it. And so you know, I still look at Aria Pros because I kind of like would like to own one again one day but you know, I just haven't found anything that you know, tickles my fancy. So that's answer that. Okay. Mark wants to say. Mark. Mark says. Ever tried the fret fixer? Sold on Reverb. I think might have been you, Mark. Somebody sent me a some email. I got a lot of emails this week guys and I was reading a lot more and I'm not responding. I just didn't have the energy. I kept like I said, we think just giving you the idea. We think the antibiotics just wipe me out because I was fine until I started taking antibiotics and then I was just wiped. I haven't had antibiotics in 20 years. I have. So I have no idea what the effects of them do on me. I just know that I got exhausted. So anyways, I saw somebody's Email on that. I clicked the link. I think somebody sent me a link and I looked at it. It looked like the Stumac fret kisser. So here's the deal with that stuff. I'm not very. I get a lot of companies reaching out all the time about tools that they sell. And I'll just say it this way, and I'm not saying this is the case with this, this fret fixer. When I see a tool that is like a tool that you can buy from Stumac, that tool, if that tool is not like minimum half the cost, I'm not even looking at it. Here's why I want to save money. But to me, the thing about Stumac is the warranty. It's like a powerful warranty. So Stumac has a very good warranty. Where they warranty most things for life, not everything is guaranteed, although they claim it is. I have a bunch of files that I keep thinking I should email them and going, hey, are these under warranty or should I toss these? Because I've worn out some of my crowning files over the years and been buying them. But every time I've ever had an issue. And this is pre and post YouTuberness, so I know everybody goes, yeah, but you're a YouTuber. This is before I was a YouTuber too. I would just email Steve Mack and go, you know, my hammer broke and they would just send me a new one. You know, just so. So that sometimes, like when I talk about Music Nomad stuff, I talk about like, I'll like a product. There's. It's very important I go, I like it, but I got to like it a whole lot. Unless it can't. Again, it's really, really cheap. Because without that warranty, then the cheap doesn't have a factor in that. So I'll. I'll take a look at that. The fret fixer, what I saw is. So you know, what is musicnomad make? They sent it to me. Let's try the fret fixer. Is that the Fret fixers? That's not Music Nomad, is it? No, the musicnomad one is this one. This is musicnomad sent me this, and I have not put them through all the paces yet. So as I've told you guys, when companies send me this stuff, I put it through the paces. You know, I try to stay away. It's just how I do things. I try to stay away from tools as sponsorships. So you. So you guys know I'm very rarely do I do any Kind of sponsored video as a tool. When I say sponsored, that's misleading. They send the product. I'm just. They're not paying me to make the video. Does it make sense? I try to keep that as, you know, like, fair. You know, Stumac isn't paying me to do a video of their tool and then musicnomad's not paying me to do their video. Just keeping it fair so that I can give you like a here's what I like about it kind of thing. So in Music Nomad especially, they tend to send me a lot of tools. They just send them to me. Whatever comes out, they're usually sending it. The owner seems to send it to me, which is very nice. And like the save file that I did, the video of which I bought that one, but he sent one later. Isn't it funny? He sent me one. I was a little regretful. I was like, man, I can't believe. I would have just waited. He was gonna send me one, I guess, but. But my point is, is I try to put those through their paces. So I don't know. And then because it's just on the topic list, by grace, I'm saved. Says anyone used the Music Nomad Music Nomad nut files? I have them. They're in every video. If you see the case, you'll see it behind me. Um, so I had them and I have been using them for years. And I've said this before, I could probably do a video about them, but it's so easy to just tell you guys here what the issue is and I'll tell you, they're very good. The quality is there, so there's no issue there. But I have been using the longer form files that musicnomad. Sorry, the longer form files that Stumac has made for so long. I'm just used to it. So to me, that little yellow handle thing is cool. So I want to share it with you guys. Music Nomad. So I know you guys know, but it's just nice to have an illustration. Okay. Oh, okay. I tried to cheat and just put musicnomad file and thought it would come up, but they actually came up with a file. Okay, so this is a set. You can see. Here's a 16 piece set for $239. This is what I'm talking about. This plastic thing that you see here, this. It's really small, which is cool, but it's really cumbersome to me. It's strange. Now this file that I'm highlighting right now, which is about an inch and a half. I don't think it's 2 inches long. It pops out. And I found myself every time using it, popping it out to use it. And then I was holding a little teeny like inch and a half file, doing the nut slot, and I was like, I think if this, if you bought this, and I really believe this, if you bought this music Nomad file kit, this nut file kit, I don't think in most of the cases, like I said, because somebody's gonna go, I did it and I hate it. That's fine, okay. But I'm just saying, in most cases, I think you would get it, you'd find its quality, it would work for you, and you'd be happy with it. I like that. They're very put together nicely. They come in a little case, or you can get a case for them. I have a case for mine. Very nice. Easy to find because they're bright yellow. I think that's not a problem. But I think if you're like me and you've spent 20 some odd years using one type of tool, like a long Stumac file, in fact. So, you know, Stumac doesn't even make. Just so you guys understand, Stumac doesn't even make the files that I use, the. Net files, they make a version of it that they've, you know, refined and they've sent me those years ago. And I don't use those either. I use the ones I've been using for literally forever. I just like them. They have little handles. In fact, if you ever see on the wall, if you can see the details on my wall, you'll see a bunch of them have handles. And then one, you'll see just a bunch of electrical tape. Because I've cracked the handle so many times, I'm just like glued and taped it back together. So there's just something about, you know, when you. You have a tool that you use so long that you're just used to using it, that the skill set is. Supersedes everything. So that my ability to use that tool effectively outweighs whatever the new improved tool can give me. So that's why I just tell it to you guys like that. And that's why I'm scared to do certain videos, because I would be in the video just saying, oh, yeah, use the Stu Mac over the. The music Nomad. But that would be for me, not maybe for you. Like I said, I don't know. If you didn't have 20 years holding a certain file, if that the new file would even Be a problem for you. So that's just what I'm saying is that's my suggestion is I would check them out. So, you know, I would actually say I don't know. So if you guys have, you know, if you have your Sweetwater, you know, rep, if the music Nomad tools are returnable to Sweetwater, in other words, you can buy them and return them. I would definitely suggest checking out a set, paying the money. If you could return it, try it, and if you don't like it, send it back. If that's. I don't know if they're non returnables. I don't know if it's like speakers and stuff. Like speakers are non returnable and stuff. But if it's returnable, I would say it would worth the chance to check them out. So let's see. Oh, Tony says no. Okay. No, Tony's responding to somebody. Somebody asked what pickups are in the black guitar. Do I have a black guitar today? I guess. I don't know. I don't have a black guitar. I have a red guitar with a black stripe. Okay, let's go to another subject. You know what's interesting is. Let me do this. Let's refresh this. Perfect time to sip some water and see where I'm at. Okay. Zach says, Phil. Oh, we did Zax. Cameron. Cameron says, what are part casters worth? A shop here in town is selling them with premium components and genuine Fender parts. For what American Fenders go for. I don't think they're worth very much. They a parts caster. Is that. That's my opinion. But it seems to be the general opinion of a lot of players that you, you know, you, you tend to, let me put it to you in a way that makes sense, kind of what you're saying they're doing. Um, if, if I was to buy, you know, a Fender body and a Fender neck and put it together and throw in like really nice, like Lindy Frailin pickups in it or. And then, you know, and then throw in a, you know, a really nice, you know, I don't know. I'm trying to think a Callahan bridge, you know, and some spurs of locking keys and deck it all out. My guess is no one will want to pay me what I paid for just the parts. So in my experience, it's almost worth more if you break it back down to parts. Again, there are exceptions, but they are very few. So could a store or a place be building guitars out of parts? I see it all the time. There are all kinds of, I've met all kinds of luthiers and repairmen across the country who take war moth parts and build guitars and customers pay them top dollar for them, you know, they'll go, yeah, that's what I do. I just put it together out of all, you know, parts and, and then I give the customer a bill and they, they pay it. Sure. I mean, it could be done. So, so. But in my experience there, you know, it's the value points out there. That doesn't mean it's, don't buy one. It just means you need to be aware. That's the thing. The. I've said this before. Guitar players focus on resale value because of the fact that they know every guitar player who's honest with themselves knows that in most cases you're not going to love a guitar. Your life experience with guitars is more times you're, you know, even though you think you convince yourself you do love it, over time you just find yourself not playing it as much and then it has to move on and try the next thing and experiment the next thing to figure out who you're going to be. And having a better resale value makes that more possible. Obviously, if every time you bought a guitar it was worth, you know, 1% of what you paid, unless you have a lot of money, your journey is going to be pretty short. So soil sample says, hey, what do you think of fret erasers? I know micro mesh pads are best, but my wife bought me fret erasers so I, I did a video using fret erasers. So, you know, I got a set. It's funny, you know, it's funny to me. I got a set of fret erasers because I said once in a video, I don't use them, I don't prefer them. I use other things. And then somebody's like, I really wish I could give this opinion of fret erasers. And then I bought some fret erasers and I said, exactly what I'm about to tell you now. I like them. They're really cool. I prefer the way I've been doing it. The micro mesh pads, I don't. Again, I'm not saying one way is better than another. It's just what I've been using and what I prefer. It works for my workflow and. But I still have a set of fret erasers because it takes forever to get, you know, get through them. I've worn down a little bit. I like them, I like them. I do not prefer them over my other Methods. But again, it's not a better or worse scenario. It's a, you know, 10 years of doing it one way versus, you know, trying to do it a new way. I just have a system. I have systems that I like. Although I do change. I don't want you to, by the way. I just want, don't want people think like I only do one thing one way. I revive myself all the time. But again, it has to present itself as a superior. Something superior, like has to be like, like, wow, how could I ever not do it, you know, this way ever again? Let's see. Killer Tom says Park guitars are great because you don't feel bad hacking them up. And again, I agree with Killer Tom. I love parts casters. I'm just, we're talking about resale value. But no, I think parts casters. So, you know, I think if anything we've learned from real professional musicians in life is that a part parts guitar is the best way to get a high end guitar cheap. I mean, essentially that's why they did it right then. Most of them did it because they wanted exactly what they want. A parts guitar is a way to get a custom instrument at almost a below production price. That's why it has value. The problem is, is that when you go to resell it, it's just like a custom instrument. Now somebody's like, yeah, but if I was going to build a parts caster, this is how I would have done it, not the way you done it. So they want a discount to try your way. Okay, Wendell, what's up, Wendell? He says, all I know is micro mesh pads always work to polish frets. I love micro mesh stuff. I just, I don't know what it was. I don't even know how I eventually had found it. I just one day got it. This is, you know, at least 15 years ago, probably closer to 20. And I just started using them and I was like, I just love this. You know, somewhere around 2000. Well, it was during the recession. So let me just talk about this. During the recession when I was doing repair, all of a sudden I became hyper focused on how fast I could get something done and quality because I was like, you know, more money because you're trying to figure out your flow patterns, you're trying to figure out how you want as much money coming inward as possible in a situation where money's not coming. So I got hyper focused. And I always remember that. And here's why I remember it. Because the first thing I did, I remember I spent I want to say $2,300 maybe that doesn't sound like a lot to somebody, but some of you it's. Maybe it sounds like a Fortune. I spent $2,300 in tools, and I don't mean in tools, in additional tools for only the purpose of speeding up how fast I could do things. And I believe micro mash was one of those first things I bought where I was like, I just want stuff that's going to let me do the job not only better, but faster. Like I said, I just want to get through the same work faster. And because of the fact that, you know, in a, in a world where, you know, you're concerned about money every day because there's this economy that's scaring you, you, you don't want to say no to work. And so I was saying no to work all the time. People come in and go, hey, can you get this done? And I'm like, yeah, in two weeks. And they're like, two weeks, like, okay, I'll go try somewhere else. You're like, man, I mean, I'm happy I have work to do, but also would it like to be nice to say yes? Bring us more work. More work. So, so I started doing that. Okay, Wednesday store says the best battery amp, so I'll give you my favorites. That doesn't mean they're the best. Okay, so you know, my buddy Larry has the new X1. It's a little battery powered amp that has a wireless unit. He loves it. You know, I liked it, it's fine. So I'm just letting you know. I mean, he's got a Grammy, so he's probably not wrong. The reason I'm gonna tell you that is he likes that one even though it's less expensive than the ones I'm gonna tell you I like. So I want you to at least have that to weigh in on me. I really like for at least expensive battery powered amp. Like if you're looking for like the lowest price battery power amp, I would say it's the black star fly. That one. I think there's probably 79 now. Who knows? I haven't checked with inflation. Maybe 89, but still sub 100 when I bought my first one. I think they're 59 bucks to this day. I think it's a great sounding amp for that price point. Still one of my favorite sounding for that price point. Me personally, again, it's my favorite. Then I would say at $99 to $120, my next favorite battery power amp is going to be the Spark Go. Funny is. I just want you to be aware I don't think the Spark Go sounds as good as, as the, the. The Black Star Fly. I think if I sat them side by side. I haven't but I'm. I mean I'm. I feel so confident. What about tell you if I set them side by side and plug guitar into them, I would pick the, the Blackstar Fly for tone. Just has a bigger box for the speaker and it sounds fuller and better. But the Sparko has a Bluetooth so you can Bluetooth your your phone to it which is great and it has a lot more settings and more effects and, and it's sounds really amazing. If you're going to use headphones because it's got a headphone. I do not use headphones. So I just want you to know for those of you who are like mentioning headphone amps, I just don't use headphones so it's not gonna. I can't suggest that. But a lot of you have great suggestions for headphone amps. Then I would say my next favorite battery powered amp is the Spark Mini which sounds way better than the SparkGo and is relatively inexpensive. At least I want to think it is. Let's look at the Spark Go Mini. The Spark Mini is $1 million. No $229. Okay. So I think in my personal opinion for $229 and especially if you wait these Spark, they're like the stock market. Like I just want to warn you guys like if you're buying Spark at full price, don't fall for that crap ever. I do all the time on accident. Spark is constantly blowing them out. I don't know what their business model is, but it's constantly. If you buy a Spark at whatever the regular price is, just trust me, the second you like literally the second you do it, it's going to be on sale the next week. So I would look for a deal on Spark. I don't know why is Spark loves that. I think that's one of the worst optics things that they do is they're constantly blowing their stuff out and then you know, but anyway, so get the deal. Spark Mini I think is probably my favorite sounding battery powered amp. I. I won't say period, but I'm just saying it's favorite. That's not 500 or more. Okay, then once you go break in 500. I like the Yamaha THR32. You know it's the 30 and 2, not 32 but 30 dose. And I have that and the wireless unit for it, which the wireless unit now kicks it out to 600 bucks because it's like another 150 bucks. 600. It's ridiculously priced for what it is. I absolutely love it. No questions asked. If I only had one practice amp, that's my practice amp and everybody's gonna have a different opinion of that and just gonna tell you why my opinion is this. It depends on your goal for mini amp. Mini meaning small amps, battery powered. My goal is clean tone. I play mostly clean. I do not play mostly distorted. And then when I do play distorted, I play with a little bit of breakup. And those unfortunately tend to be not where a lot of the smaller amps sound really good. They sound good with a lot of distortion and delay and they just sound really good at low volumes. And it's all mushed up and sounds good. And to me that's where I lose it a little bit. And so I don't know why, but the Yamaha one just on I. On the clean mode and. And then I have a mode with like a little bit of, you know, it's like a clean, but a little bit of breakup with a little bit of reverb. I don't even use delay. It just sounds great. And on the spark, the magic for me is you set it on the floor. It's great on a desktop, but I put it right in the floor, right in front of me, like right at my feet and it just sounds great. So those are my favorite battery powered ones. There's a lot of other great ones out there. I would highly, you know, suggest you look and then use your budget. Those are just my favorites. None of those, I would say, are the best. Local Christian rock guitarist. That's a long name, says no pig nose. I had a pig nose. Are you kidding? I couldn't see the movie Rock Rock. I couldn't see the movie Crossroads and not have a pig nose. Man, I tried to make myself love the pig nose so much. Do you know, I never. I even did the wawa trick. If you guys don't know what the pygnose is, it opens up like a cabinet, like a, you know, and you can open up and have an open box sound. You can close it, have a close box. And then if your friend moves it, it makes a wah sound. I had my friend doing it. Like, look. It's like a wa. This is me convincing my friend that it's cool. Like do the wall look. And I played chords and he wad it you know, the cabinet. I'm like, it's good, huh? And he's like, this sounds like dog crap. And I'm like, no, no, it's good. And I'm like, don't you mean pig crap? Anyways, I go, no, it's good. It has a pig's nose, a chrome nose. And Ralph Macchio was. He had it. It was amazing. And it was not amazing. I'm sure it was good at the time. But the problem with things like products like that is I did not discover the Pignos when it was probably the best sounding portable amp that you could have. And I think at some point, I'm sure the Pygnos was the best sounding portable amp you can have. And I'm not saying. Well, I'm not. I. It's been too long since I've heard it to say it's not a horrible amp or it's a good amp. I don't remember. I just remember trying to like it and never getting there. Um, that would be the same experience I had with the little Marshall mini stack that we all had, you know, and you stick it on your belt, walk around the house playing guitars and sound like farts going, this sounds good. Come look. It's not. Not a ham radio sound at all, I promise. And I just, you know, you just never could enjoy the sound. So bch guitar says the cigarette pack amp, that's the zinky amps. So if you guys don't know what the cigarette pack amp is, he's got to be still making them zinky. Hold on a second and let me show you what they look like. Now. They're called smokey amps. Here's a website. We'll share them. I'll give you the lowdown. These are actually. Oh, my God, they're $50 now. I remember when they were 25 bucks. So this is a smoky amp. I believe Smokey is still up owned by. Oh, I don't know. Oh, no. Yeah. Bruce Zinke. Yeah. So if you guys don't know who Bruce Zinke is, first of all, he had Zinke amps. Let's start there. And for a short time, I believe he either owed Supra Supro, he owned Supro, or he was making Supro. He was definitely making Supro, but I think he owned it. But more importantly, what most people know Bruce Inge for is he designed amps for Fender, including the Pro Sonic, which is a very coveted and very loved Fender amp that essentially was a Fender amp that had Like a saldano gain on it, you know. So they had a 210 combo with reverb and then a head that didn't have reverb but was like it's high gain. If you don't have. If you've never played the pro sonic, the supersonic, you know, came afterwards. But the pro sonic was first. That was Bruzinke. So he's definitely well respected. But amongst other things he used to make this thing called the Smoky. Let me show you to you. This is what you can get. Now. It's a plastic case, It's a little speaker. You plug your guitar into it and then you get this speaker and if you turn the guitar full force you get distortion. And if you back off the volume you get clean. When I say distortion, it's mild. And then there's a second jack here and that's an output. And you can run it in to a cabinet. This would, this would power a 412 cabinet off a 9 volt battery or any cabinet to be honest. Any ohms, any cabinet. Or you could run into input of a amp and then run it as like a fuzz box into an amp. Now originally the smokies looked like this. In fact, my father in law not only has one, he has the one I sold him because I used to carry these in my store because Zinke would sell them to us. But hold on, let me go, let me show. It's funny. This was. Okay, so originally they look like this. Or at least I'm finding screenshots in the Internet like this. So originally they were in a pack of cigarettes, right? Okay, so let me show another one. Hold on. Oh look, some Paul Malls. So here's one on the ebays and it's $99. So this is an actual pack of cigarettes. So you would buy these from Bruce and it was a literally a package of cigarettes. And he built the amp into the package of cigarettes including the 9 volt battery used to open the top of the cigarettes to get the battery out. And he told me that he got a cease and desist from the tobacco industry, which is not someone you want to get a cease and desist from. I probably told this exact story for. Because I feel like I'm having deja vu. So anyways, yeah, so. So they basically they stopped him from using cigarette packs anymore. And then so he started putting them in a plastic casing. But that's the smoke amp. And, and so he says why? Why? Because it's funny. It's just funny, right I mean, it was like you had an amp. I mean, I. I sold them. We sold. We would buy them and, like, at 26 or two dozen at a time, and we would sell them like candy that when they were cigarette packs, when they went to the plastic amps, we stopped selling a lot less. People would just come in your store and they go, what's that? And they go, it's a pack of cigarettes. Turn into an amp, and they'll be like, that's hilarious. I don't know why it's hilarious. We just thought it was funny. And then they did it. So they said. And then he stopped for a while. I believe if you sent him a pack of cigarettes, he. He would put the amp in it and send it back to you. I think I heard that story once, but I don't know if that's true. And I definitely don't think he does that anymore. I think he's done with that stuff. So. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. I don't know. Yeah. Okay, let's do. Let's do. Now it's time for Guitar of the Week. Okay, so let's do Guitar of the Week. And what are we gonna do? Today's guitar. So here's an interesting thing that happened. A company reached out to me and asked me if they could send a guitar out, and I thought it'd be a perfect guitar to show on Guitar of the Week. So what's funny about Guitar of the Week is usually I bring out a guitar that's like, got a little history with me or something that I've owned or something. I think it's cool. But when we started doing this, we thought, wouldn't it be cool at some point when we do videos, if there's not a reason to do a whole deep dive on something? Maybe we'll just talk about it on the. On this channel or on this. On the show. So let's. Let's talk about it. Here's what it is. First of all, we have a company that we've talked about on this channel before, which is Shyg. Now, what's interesting is I was calling them Shiji, and apparently I was saying it wrong because. Well, I'll just be honest, because I watched another YouTuber say it. Actually, I watched five other people on YouTube say Shiji. And then I said, Shiji. And then the owner's like, by the way, it's Shyji. So Shaiji is a company. If you have. If you've seen. You guys have seen it. Because I've done videos in the past and other channels have done it too. Shy D is a small company in China that makes high end guitars. And I actually told him like, I want this guitar as a discussion point because this is what I like to talk about with certain guitars. As you guys know, I have a very, I have a lot of opinions about certain things and like a lot of us do. And one of the opinions I have is that, you know, sometimes I, I think when they build guitars, you know, overseas, they kind of rigged the system. What I mean by that is, you know, some of the bigger manufacturers, they essentially go, yeah, well hey, build us a guitar. They go to an overseas manufacturer and they go, build us a guitar and make it not as good as the USA one and then we'll sell it for less money. And although I understand that hit a price point stuff, you know, there was this time, there was a long time where people said, a lot of people in this industry said, oh well, they can't make a good guitar overseas or they can't make a good guitar there. Only good guitars are in these places. It's only in USA or Japan or Germany or, you know, you know, and I always was curious about that because, you know, I'm like, why is that the case? That doesn't make any sense to me. And so obviously we know Eastman guitars, which are high quality guitars and we've talked about them in the channel. So Shaiji, by the way, spelling is, what is the spelling on it here, look at the headstock. Let me show you the headstock. That's oh, without my clip on tuner. There you go. In fact, we'll go to their website. Let's do that. Let's, let's do this. Here we go. So this is, it's S H I G I E shi G. You can. Right? And this is the guitar we're looking at is the LPV8. Now this guitar is $1400. And that's what I found was interesting about it because it's expensive and it's one of those things where it's like, if you're gonna say, which is fine, I'm not here to sell it to you, I'm just here to talk about it. If you're going to say, hey man, I can get an epiphone for $500 or hey, I can get a guitar Les Paul made in China for 200 bucks. This is true. But the question is, how good can you make a Les Paul copy? You know, how good can I make a guitar overseas? And if you've Watched any videos of Shaiji before? You know that? They make really good guitars. So this guitar, the one thing I don't know is I had a question myself and I don't think it says what the frets are made out of. I don't know if they're stainless steel or not. It doesn't say on their website. They feel really shiny to me, but I can't tell. It just says 22 jumbo large frets. Fret size, but not fret material. So. Okay, so let's talk about. Let's talk about a couple things and then I'll show you. So. So this guitar in particular. Let me get back. Let's go to the screen. This one comes with Seymour Duncan 59s. That's a 59 set and it has a Godo bridge. This has locking tuners. They look. They look like Godot. They say made in Japan. So they have locking keys that are made in Japan. They're vintage style. You can see here, like, so mahogany neck, mahogany body. This one's kind of hefty. I'd say eight and a half to nine pounds. Not quite. Yeah, about almost nine pounds. Just shallow of nine pounds. It has a maple cap underneath here. It's not a flame cap because obviously they painted it, but they do have a flame top version. If you look here, I'll show you. They have a honey lemon flame and a honey lemon non. Oh, honey lemon and honey lemon flame. And they look exactly the same. Oh, it's because it doesn't change when you click the tabs. Nice. Okay. Bow nut, which is cool. And then it has passive volume tone. No, no coil splitting, by the way. 19 inch maple top. Oh, sorry. 19 millimeter maple top, 12 inch radius fretboard. Net width is 43 millimeters. Neck angle is 14 degrees. And it's a C carve. This definitely feels like the Gibson C carve. That's not the big 59 carve. So it's not as chunky. And then it has a plastic binding around the body. And of course, the gold on this looks really good. They did a really good job. This is a poly finish. They don't say, but I mean, I could just tell it's polyurethane finish light. I love this. It's got like the Gibson Modern. See how they did the carve here? They just carved it. Just not as extreme as the Gibson Modern. So that's kind of cool. A little modernizing it. So let's. And it comes with a case. I'll show you all the case. In the case candy 2. And then we'll discuss it. And this again, I'm looking more for a discussion topic than so much an outright review of the guitar. Let me situate my seat real quick. Let's turn on the volume on the guitar. Okay. Switch cameras a little bit. All right. Okay. So I know you're probably like, what am I playing. Playing through? I'm actually playing through something you probably don't know. So let me tell you for pedals, I'm not running any pedals yet, but I will be using a overdrive pedal and delay. The amp I'm running is the PR12 by Morgan Amps. It's essentially a Princeton with a 12 inch greenback celestian. I have it mic'd up with a Sennheiser. Sennheiser 6e6. Oh, what the heck is it? I'll tell you in a second. Let me look it back up. I should know it by heart, but I'm like, I don't know which one I grabbed. So let's go back to the guitar and we'll start with the neck pickup. We'll play some cleans and turn that off. We'll play some. Well, and then we'll just let me move around the pickups a little bit. So start with the. The neck. Okay. We'll go to the middle position. Okay. We'll do the bridge. Okay. Now what I want to do is I'll just turn on some overdrive and delay. And then we'll play a little drum track to that too. So here we go. All right, so let's some switch cameras and we'll talk about the guitar again. Just mostly just to give you some sound clips of it so we have reference of it. I gotta tell you first, I'm most impressed, of course, with the Seymour Duncan pickups. I've always loved the 59 set. I kind of like a guitar like this. Really illustrates how good a. Just a. You know, I don't want to call it run of the mill. That's not a nice thing to say. But it kind of run of the mill. 59 Seymour Duncan set. Just throw it on guitar. And you know that a lot of that tone was definitely those. Those pickups just sounded good. Okay. The guitar, though, where the guitar comes into play is not so much how much it sounds, it's just how it feels. And it feels. You know what it feels like to me, it feels like an esp. It's got that very, like, ESP polished feel to it. You know, it doesn't Feel it looks very Gibson. It feels very esp, very Edwards kind of thing. And I think the point is, is like sometimes, you know, we discuss sometimes like what stuff worth, you know, is it. Is it. Is a guitar worth $1500? Is it worth $2000? Is it worth 200 bucks? You know, it's, it's nice is it's just to see that, you know, especially Shaiji, that over the years I've tried a ton of guitars that had the guitars they have that are like Strat style guitars. They have Tele style and then they have like, like the modern, like the SIR modern. A lot of sir vibe guitars. Just really good quality feeling stuff. So it seems like they're keeping with that tradition. If you don't mind, let me show you what came with the guitar. I don't drop things. Okay. So I wasn't prepared. I don't think so. The first thing that you get is a nice case. Now this case is very and I mean very custom shop Gibson look. So if you guys have seen or own a Gibson custom shop, this one's darker than that. But if you can't tell, this case is definitely vibed. They even put the nice shy G logo right here. It's not a medallion like you would see on the Gibson but it, the case is very. And they didn't do the pink inside but it's gray. But it's a nice quality case. It feels, I mean it feels exactly like a Gibson custom shop case. So obviously that's what they're going for. What was really cool is the extra stuff. So. Oh, drop it cases. So a cool option I thought was cool for fun was so it came with the typical cream switch tip. But also look, it's like it has accessories. It also came with the vintage style switch tip which is. I don't know what you'd call this. I'm sure Trogly knows. I never really asked. To me it always looked like burnt plastic. It's the oranger look that you see like on the custom shops. So for those that like that, they match that color pretty good to the custom shop ones. So you have both switch tips. You get to choose. Which is only funny because you know my Gibson custom shops, they came with the darker one. I would have preferred if somebody said aged. Sure, aged. I'd prefer if they came with both. So I could pick. Then it came with a pick that has their, their branding. You have the adjustment tool which is identical to the one Gibson gives you, it looks like. And then you get a custom this would be cooler if it was shaped like a Les Paul because it matches the guitar. But so you get a pick caddy, so to speak. It's a wooden roasted maple pick tray for your picks. So you can put this on top your amp and throw my cleaner and stuff. Hey, you can throw that other switch tip in there and all this stuff and put all your stuff in there. So a nice amount of accessories. I didn't look. I don't think it comes with certificates. Oh, there's more. So it comes with a key to the case and then you get a printout. Oh, and this is nice. So not a fancy certificate though. But at least it comes with paperwork. There's a sheet. So let's see what it says on here because it has a lot more detailed information. Their website. So it's got the C carve. The frets are nickel, 2.7 millimeter nickel frets the lot. The locking tuners are marked as Shy G locking tuners. And then the Goto GE10 3B bridge. And there's oh, Daddario 10-46s African Mahogany wood for the neck and the body. Two piece African Mahogany body for or sorry, two piece African Mahogany for the body. And African mahogany is just slider for the neck. The. The scale length is 24.6 inch neck. And the serial number, which is is also really cool, is handwritten on the back. So they hand write it right here on the back. Kind of like how PRS does. But it's underneath the finish. I would say it's executed beautifully. Looking at the guitar, I purposely did not spend a lot of time with the guitar. I opened it to make sure it was fine because I didn't want to open a guitar for you guys and be like, oh, it's broken. So here's what's interesting about the guitar that I want to talk about. Instead of like a review of like, like a deep dive, so to speak. Just more of a reaction. Playing the guitar, feeling the guitar. It feels nice. It feels expensive. It feels quality. I don't know why it has to feel expensive. It just feels quality. It doesn't, doesn't, didn't. Doesn't signal me. There are some things obviously because it's, you know, it looks like a copy of a Gibson. So the headstock's got that very copy Gibson vibe, right? And you know, so that was the tails. But the nothing of the quality seems to flag me as being like, oh no, is this a, you know, knockoff cheap importance. So it feels really good. I think the really quality thing is how the nice the frets feel. They really polished in fact, so polished. I thought it like I said they might be stainless steel because they were really polished. So it's really cool. So I want to say first, thanks for shy g for sending the guitar out so us we could do this. You know, when we originally started doing Guitar of the Week we thought about this going it might be a really cool thing to like highlight smaller, you know, smaller companies or companies that don't really. The way we do the deep dives, the way we do the deep dives either it has to have a draw. In other words, you know, if I'm putting three days of work or two days into work into making content, you know, either it's got to draw enough of you interest from you guys to watch it, that's what pays for the video or they have to co sponsor or sponsor it somehow so we can actually get, you know, justify this work. And a lot of times we're dealing with small, some smaller companies, they just can't afford that to do it that way. And so we were like, well, what about highlighting, you know, some builders on the, the Guitar of the Week? Now this is the funny part and this is why it's mentioning for Shaiji. Shaiji is the first company to take us up on the offer. No other companies have been interested in doing anything on the Guitar of the Week as a highlight. We've come up with different, we've tried different angles. You know, like what if we charge them a small fee? What if, you know, what if we, you know, don't charge them anything? What if we, you know, whatever, right? Just figuring out what it is that will appeal to them to make them want to highlight. And so far nobody's interested. So I want to thank Shaji for being the first one. That was really fun to share with you guys. Let me know if you guys like it. Like you know, Guitar of the Week. I don't want to change Guitar of the Week from what it is primarily is just going through some guitars that I like. But also, I mean just, just the sheer volume. I'm not going to have enough guitars to keep doing Guitar of the Week forever. It's not going to make sense. So we could keep pulling guitars or we could do this like highlights of, you know, you know, smaller builders or unique builders or when I say smaller, I mean, you know, not the big mainstream guys. So there's your options. If you're a company, you're welcome to reach out to us and Talk to us about it. Like I said, we floated ideas. Just be willing to work with us. We've, we've, you know, I'll be up front. Shy didn't, Shyji didn't pay anything. We were just so shocked. They finally said yes. We were like, okay, do it. So, you know, whatever. Oh, the weight, Leland. I said the weight. This is actually, it's, it's, it's not quite nine pounds, but it's right under nine pounds. So not weight relieved in any way. So it's not a light guitar. That's one thing I'm like, you know, I love the lighter guitars, but it's not, it's definitely, I would say if you get one, you're going to expect to be about £9. Keep in mind though, the Gibsons can get about £10. So £9 is not light, but not super heavy by any me by any means. And then also the great thing about this format is you guys can ask any questions about this guitar if you guys are curious about it. So like I said, it's interesting. What's nice about them. And I've worked with them over the years as a company. They are a very small company. It's a small group of builders. They actually show you. So you guys know the thing about Shaiji that I like is if you do some searching online, you can actually see their shop and them building guitars. They actually show themselves building the guitars, which is very not common for Chinese manufacturers to show anything for whatever reason, you guys, you know, everybody's gonna throw their opinions out there, which is fine. I don't have any concise, you know, specific information to tell you, like, oh, let me tell you why they're not doing it. You can come up with all kinds of theories, why. I only like to talk in what I know and I just don't know why they don't. But these are one of the few companies that I've seen where they literally will show you. I've seen online. I've seen a Shyji guitar built from start to finish on their videos so you can find them and watch them. So, so there you go. Okay, let's go to another subject. Drink some water. Well, we have Clan of House cats says, is it unwise to keep a guitar with the neck that hurts your index finger or other fingers after playing? If you really like the guitar, question mark. Sure, I understand that. I'm going to say no and I'll give you that answer based on this. I had a bunch of guitars in my life where I I loved them and wanted them so badly. Either the way they looked or just it was like this, you know, like something I aspire to own and then getting it, you know, one of a couple guitars come to mind. I had a PRS Custom 22 that had this amazing finish on it. I don't mean a wood finish. It was painted. Just a beautiful painted. My buddy Matt still owns it and that's who I sold it to. And it was just this amazing looking PRS that was so cool. And the neck, for whatever reason caused my hand to hurt after. After playing, you know, just playing it for a little while, it was weird. It wasn't too thick, it wasn't too thin. Just something about the shape, something threw my hand off and I would get that. The soreness that I get sometimes, you know, in your tendons. And I had to let it go. I had a Sirtelli. Same thing, just the neck for some reason, you know, I'd pick it up, I'd play it and just after playing a little bit, I had a. I had a Jackson V. My, you know, one of the guitars I don't own is a V. And I've told you guys I'd love to own a vlog. And. And I had a Jackson V and the same thing. Just for some reason it just. Just was uncomfortable to play. And no, it's. It's just not worth it, you know, comfort it to me. Comfort is everything. The more I. I will play a guitar that I don't like the way it sounds for comfort every day, you know, every day without any. Without any exceptions. I will force. I will force myself to like the way it sounds if I have to. But I cannot force myself to like the way it plays. I just can't. And I've. The only suggestion I have that's contradictory to that is definitely put your time into it. You won't hurt yourself in the long term. I don't believe so. Playing it for, you know, a period of a couple weeks. So maybe give time to make sure that it's not an adjustment you need to make. Because I have played guitars where, look, I started out because I didn't know any better playing guitar, you know, wanting these guitars with the super thin necks and the shredders, you know, shredder guitars. Even though I'm not a shredder by any means. And I really don't even enjoy soloing, I like playing the rhythm side, you know, if I'm in a band, I only want to play the rhythm part, you know, And So to me, that guitar was. Those guitars were great, but those guitars were not very conducive to what I was doing. And then once I played a neck that actually was conducive to playing chords more than solos, I was just like, wow, yeah, why didn't I. Why didn't I take to this faster? So I would say, you know, don't play a guitar that makes your hands hurt. And. And. And I know it's going to. I know it hurts, man. I know it sucks. I mean, not physically hurts. I know it's. I know what it's like because like you said, you love the guitar. I've had a guitar where the sound is great and just not, you know, perfect example. I just said it right. That. That heritage right here that I'm pointing out is. It sounds better than my gibbesins. There's no comparison when I ab them. That I like the way this sounds and I like the way it looks at just the neck when I play it. Just because it's a little thicker. I just find myself, like, I can only play it for about 30 minutes to an hour before I start, like, not enjoying the feel of it because it's just a little on the thicker side for me. And so I switch over. Now, if you're so lucky in life, as I've been, to be where you can have a bunch of guitars and it doesn't really matter. I tend to have a few guitars I really like playing. And I do have a. I do currently own a couple guitars that I could say that, you know, I don't love the way they feel, but I love the way they look. And it doesn't hurt me to have them laying around and play them every once. Well, Hero Glop says, hey, can we expect a comparison of the Princeton to. And the Morgan PR12, you know, the Morgan amp, which I'm glad to play today. So I got the Morgan Morgan PR12 combo. I was really conflicted whether or not I wanted the head or the combo, you know, but deep down I was like, I like combos more than heads. And it's. If you watch my channel, you would go, that's not true. Because you have more heads than combos. That's because, you know, I have a lot of amps because of the YouTube channel, but I generally like this playthrough. Like, it's just a combo amp. Just keep it simple. One thing. Grab it. But heads are way more convenient for me because I have cabinets and I can just put them on cabinets and I've been wanting a Morgan PR12 for so long. But the problem is. Problem was when I say I wanted it for so long, it wasn't based on how it sounds. I never heard one. How I even found out about it was in 2020, January of 2020, I was in California. I interviewed Steve Vai and Mike Saldano. That was. I did this in a day. I was at a trip. I did a trip. I interviewed Mike Saldano, then I did Steve Vai. And that night I met Joel Morgan from Morgan Amps and a couple of the people from Badamps. I'm not gonna say any names because I'll tell you why. And anyways, we met and we had a good time that day. And they said, hey, we're going across street to this bar. Want to go? And I said. I went, that is the most drunk I've ever been in my life. Never. I've never been anything close to that before and never anything close that since we drank. I don't. I'm. All I know is this was on. It was on like Hollywood Boulevard. Like we were down like in Hollywood Boulevard. We were at a bar. And then we were at a bar so late that they kicked us out. And I think we went. I think. I'm pretty sure we went to another bar. Cause I know we went to another bar. And just so you know, I was drinking beer all night. They were drinking liquor and we drank so much. I even was wondering, you know, all as the night got, like. It was like till like four in the morning kind of thing. I don't know. It was late. It was super late. I have no idea what the time was. It was. It was to the point where you couldn't be out anymore. And then I walked to my hotel room because my hotel room was like there. We were on that street. We just walked. I walked. I remember being able to remember walking there and going to my hotel room, going to sleep, realizing I had to wake up the next day and go back to work. And Joe Morgan was hilarious. I remember laughing so hard that night. And I made a comment to him that night. I remember thinking saying to him, yeah, I need to check out a Morgan amp. I know you do. Like an amazing AC amp, like a VOX style amp. And I said, and this is embarrassing to me. I said, I really like Princeton's. And he goes, well, I make a Princeton. I make the PR12. It's basically a Princeton. It's just a modified, better Princeton, you know. And I was like, oh, oh. I didn't know. I didn't know. And so what happened was I told myself, one day I'll buy one. And right now, as you guys know, the market is slow and if you look at anything, you're gonna get an offer. And I got a ridiculous offer for a PR12 that I thought, well, you know, based on the fact that I like Joe and it's supposed to be a Princeton, I'm going to pull the trigger and do it. And so I bought the amp. Got it. I absolutely love it. Do I love it more than my Princeton? I think so. But I'm in honeymoon mode. So don't believe me, don't trust me. I will tell you this, and this isn't going to help a lot of people because these are expensive amps. It's a very expensive amp. But I will tell you, behind me, to my, what you're looking at behind me is a Princeton 64 reissue. This is a 64, if you guys not familiar how it works. I have a 68, 68 reissue is a silver face. The 65 is the, is a reissue of Princeton. The 64 is a hand wired Princeton. The 64 Princeton, which I bought used and I bought used for. Think of this, I bought that amp used for more than I bought this brand new Morgan PR12. So that tells you something. So comparing the hand wired Princeton to the Morgan, I would prefer the Morgan right now. If I had to get rid of one, I would get rid of the Princeton and keep the Morgan of the hand wired because of the, you know, well just, I think I prefer it. But regardless that if like it was a price thing like you know, I mean the fact that the Morgan is even. The fact that I'm even saying is as good as that and it's less expensive, I actually believe it's probably a little better in some ways and less expensive. So, so that's really, that's my insights. Will I do a video? Absolute plan to do a video? Of course. I really like to do a video. Why? Because I would really have liked to have a video when I did it if there was a good video out there. I watched a ton of people's videos but a lot of them would only compare it to the, the Josh Smith version. So Josh Smith, the blues player who's amazing by the way, has a PR12, his own signature PR12 with Morgan where it has a boost built into it and a lot of people compared the two and just to be up, up front, this, that they sent me the deal on, you know who it Was. I'll tell you who it was in case you're interested in one yourself as I get them. Because it's. You'll know who it is because it's Pro Audio Star out in New York. So Pro Audio Star sent me a, like a smoking deal offer. And I was like, oh, let's do it. You know, that's a good deal. But. But I'd be remiss to say if I didn't say this. I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you guys this. Without a doubt though, there are smoking deals on PR12s used right now. I found PR12s a lot even cheaper than the smoking deal Pro Audio Star sent me. But to me, it's like having it brand new and knowing it's brand new and it was a good deal. I just went with that versus taking the chance on used. I don't have a problem used. But you know, you still have to take a chance. Kane says Engel. Yes. Are you asking me about the angle? Is that your question? Do I still have the angle? The answer is yes. I have the Engel Steve Morris amp. It's right there. That's out of view, but it's still my high gain little amp that I use for sure. I'm selling my Engel Fireball 25 on my reverb page. That's. It's. I love it, but I just don't see the point. I literally use the Steve Morris for all high gain. Just use that. So. And you know, again, I, I've. I've sold so many amps off recently paired down just to. I'm trying to just pair down just to the few amps that I really, really feel like are more unique to each other. So yes, the answer is the question again, will the Morgan replace something? Most likely, if it stays, it's replacing something. Okay, old man Fran says, hey, Phil, I think a lot of players buy up due to peer pressure. Peer pressure? Who the hell you hanging out with? Hey, man, only sissies don't buy expensive guitars like I get peer pressure. I. I'm giving you crap. Let me, let me finish your comment and then I'll, I'll. We'll get into it. Says if I'm a new player happy with my entry level guitar. But I don't know. But I don't know what. I don't know what would you. What would be a valid reason to upgrade? Okay, so let's take this at face value so I understand what you're saying. Peer pressure first of all, obviously the peer pressure is real and real in the concept of, you know, it's like, look, I. When I was young and I started playing in bands, that was the first peer pressure you feel is the whole, if you don't have professional gear, hell, remember the ads? The ads be like, you know, looking for guitar player must have pro gear, right? That was like a thing like don't show up with, you know, you had to have professional gear. And so, yeah, I understand that stuff for sure. Look, there is. Everybody has to figure out for themselves where the, you know, the. Where the point where it's good enough for you is. Okay. And that's how it did for me. I have a video coming soon that, that I worked on that is going to talk about this exact topic. So I don't want to double up on this and that, but I had an interesting. Had an interesting experience with guitars recently that it's going to kind of clarify what I'm meaning by that and. But to get to your point is, you know, the sad truth is there are, there are amps that are like, I'll talk about amps. Their amps are so good that when you hear them you go, wow, I know now what I was missing and I can't go back. There are guitars now that are so good that I've owned or I currently own and I played and they're so good that I'm like, wow, it's so good. I can't go back now. All of that said is if I never experienced the better instrument, the better amplifier, the better pedal, the better guitar, I wouldn't have missed anything. I would be fine. Who cares? Your tone is slightly not as good, you know. But that being said, I have also experienced where I bought stuff that was expensive and I go, it's good, but it's not much better. And that's where you know to stop. You're like, okay. To me, when I hear the difference of a really nice amplifier, nice guitar, playing this guitar, and I compare it to a guitar that's less expensive and I go, wow, this really sustains more. This does something that I like. It has something that I unlocked something for me, I really feel connected to it. This is a good investment in myself, you know, in this in. And I'm gonna do this. That. That's. You're gonna find. Feel fine with that. But I have also felt the experience of trying to convince myself that what's happening is that when it's not. So to me, that's where custom shop guitars come into for me, Custom Shop guitars. As I told you guys, I buy the custom shop guitars and I go, yeah, they're better, but they're just not that much better. I don't feel like I've really unlocked something that I couldn't, you know, I couldn't access without that. And that's just my experience. Amplifiers, though keep in mind that a lot of it that gets amplifiers in trouble for players is there is truth to the fact that some amps just don't sound great loud. And if you need a loud amp, you need a good. You need a good amp that sounds loud. But there is also. I have the opposite experience now. I like my amps not to be loud. So I'm looking for an amp that sounds amazing at lower volumes. And that is a different requirement. And I've tried to force amps to do that and they just don't do it really well. So that's why I like amps like Princeton's stuff. This thing sounds fantastic at a reasonable volume to me, where if when I plug into a bigger amp, it's just. There's just too much going on and it's too loud or too boomy. Bitmap wants to know, will you get rid of your black Cat? I sold my Black Cat. Yes, my. The Jet Black Black Cat. Black Cat Jet Black. I sold it went up on my reverb store about two weeks ago because I have the Mark Samson era, uh, bad cat. And even now, you know, not. Not because of his passing. So obviously I sold the Black Cat Jet black. Before Mark Sampson passed away. When I was exposed to the Mark Sampson amp and I played that amp, I realized then it was a truly unique amplifier to, To. To what I have. And like I said, it's that. It's that AC Fox thing that just sounds amazing. And I was like, okay, this is what I need. I need this amp and it fits perfectly into something I don't have. Again, it's not about like having all the sounds. It's just there's a couple key sounds that I'm really interested in having. And that amp sounds really great to me. The Mark Sampson era bad cat is. I think it's one of the best bad cats I've ever heard. It's extremely expensive and, you know, if you're so inclined to do that stuff, you know, I plan to. Somebody gave a suggestion and once I have hearing in both ears again, I'll start working on it. But I have some affordable amps, videos that I'm working on because of that. I mean, there's a lot of practicality to the lower price stuff. Let's see. Okay, hold on. I want to jump back over. We still haven't. I don't think we got to the core of his question. Did we. Do we get. Oh, so peer pressure. So to answer your question, yeah, you know, look, you'll get. You'll. The reality is the best thing about. So at the core of the question of peer pressure, in other words, people judging you for what you have. Okay, look, I can't give you any. Any input that is different than just my experience of this. I wish I had some wise thing to say. I just don't. Here's what I've learned for myself, though. When I know it's right. I don't give a crap what anybody says. That isn't cause of your age. And that happens too, you know, the older you get, the less you care about what people think. That's for sure. But regardless of that, I find the more I like. I know this is right for me. This is the right sound. This is the right thing for me. Once I know it, then I don't care what people have to say. And so I don't want to just connect it to an age thing. It really can be as simple as once you find a sound that you're pleased with, you know, so, you know, I have a sound that I love to play and I have friends and they'll go, man, that's. They go, why does it sound so. Whatever. Horrible. I'm like, I love this sound. Like, I have no apologies in my tone at all. Just like, I don't. I'm not offended. I'm not mad. My love of it is so strong that I just don't care, you know, I'm like, oh, sorry, you don't like it. But this is what I'm going for. This is it for me. This is the sound I like. So. So, yeah, so I think that's what you think of. That's what I think of when I think of pressure to buy better gear. But always, like I said, you're. There's no FOMO in this. You know, there's no. I told you guys. This I love. Look, the Amplified Nation app is amazing. This is. Princeton's amazing. All this stuff's amazing. But Blues Jr. With a compression pedal still as happy as anything else. It's just. It's just, you know, the nicer amps just have a little bit more. A little bit. A little bit more. Like a little bit More sustain a little bit. You know, to me it's all about the mids frequencies just smoothing out a little bit. But again, the one thing I learned during my journey of trying to figure out what's the magic of this dumbbell thing is I figured out, and I said this before, the dumble thing is really being replicated almost everywhere you go with guitar players and their pedal boards. When a pedal board, When a guitar player puts together elaborate pedal board, this is where I think a lot of people, including Paul Smith, got it. A little confused by it. I used to look at pedal boards, you know, players all, all assembling a pedal board. They're essentially building the perfect amplifier. That's what they're doing. Some could, some not so much. Some are using a ton of different effects to create different soundscapes and tapestries for their music and style. Sure, of course. But when I see a guitar player and they got eight overdrives or whatever on their board, they're building the ultimate amplifier. They're figuring things out. They're like, you know, this. If I just had this clean, but I had this overdrive. But if these three overdrives stack, then I get this sustainable. And so when somebody says, oh man, this one amp does it all, I'm like, yeah, but I would easily be as happy with a couple pedals into a basic amplifier and I'd get that same sound. And the proof in that, by the way, that I think even the most amazing musicians would agree with that statement for the most part, is if you look at them, they do exactly what I just explained. When you look at the best musicians in the world that we covet, you see them on stage with these elaborate rigs, right? But then they go and play somewhere at a small gig or a fly date, and then they just have a couple pedals into whatever back line amp they got and they pull off their sound and everybody goes, oh. Because the sound is in their hands. Yeah, it's true. The technique's in their hands, but still they still have to convey sound to you, right? The talent is in the chef, but still you have to eat the food they're creating, right? They still have to have some ingredients that get you there, right? And you can tell they've just learned how to find that sound in different pieces of gear. I found the same thing, especially doing tons and tons of videos, is that it's like when you say, I see it all the time as a comment on YouTube channels all the time, they're like, hey, every video of the YouTuber sounds the same. And they're like, yeah, it's because he's. I'm like, yeah, well, they sound the same. Not only because they play the same. I play the same. So I'll just pick on me. I play the same. I'm also seeking out the same tone in everything. I. I find I'm just looking for the best version of that tone in my head. So. So that's just a thought. Let's see. Okay, then. Let's go. Keep moving along, because we want to. Want to end the show with a special little thing. Smelliest smelly cat. The smelly cats. Jazz says, what size tubing is used for silencing trim springs? I don't know. I can tell you what I use. I get it at Ace Hardware. I want to say, I don't know. Quarter inch. Is that a thing inside? I don't know. You know, it's funny is you think? I. Sadly, I just don't know. When you measure the tubing, are you measuring the outside diameter or the inside diameter? The tubing I use is definitely like an. Is like a quarter inch inside. So I could put like a. Like a guitar cable plug inside of the tubing. Do I have any here? But that's what I buy from Ace Hardware. That's where I get my tubing. I just buy an Ace Hardware. It's really cheap. I buy like. Like, you know, whatever, eight inches of it or whatever the hell it is, and then I cut it up in pieces, and that's what's in the back of my springs and my guitars. So, in fact, let me grab one. Okay, so here. Because, you know, at least this is a video. So if you look at the back of this tremolo, you'll see exactly that. This is surgical tubing. And so those of you who are experts out there can help us out. Somebody tell me what you think this is. So this is the surgical tubing I use. There's plastic tubing as well. This is the stuff I ended up liking. You can get it in black as well. But when I went there that day, I went. Once they had black, and then once they had the. This stuff that obviously just the typical color of surgical tubing. So there you go. That's the best way to look at it. So that's the size I use. And then I take a X acto knife, and I slid it down right the center, and you can see I cut about. I don't know, about an inch to 2 inches there. And then I. You saw how I Do it. I just wrap it around the spring and then once I do that, no sounds. Now for those of you right now, because there will be who are flipping out because why would you do that? You love the sound of the springs when they, when they make noise. Well, good. I do not. The reason I do not is that the same reason I use something to mute the headstock because when I play, I sometimes stop abruptly and when I'm recording, I want it to not ring. So. And I don't want to use a noise gate. So that's why I use that. It's just a way to keep it under control for me. So there you go. Okay. Randy Crook says, hey, I will be picking up a Gretsch Electromatic 6A5655T tomorrow. Very excited. Second guitar purchase and task of replacing 26 guitars. I lost in the house fire. You know that. So it's interesting. So the second guitar is a Gretsch. Electromatics are always great. So again, I'm sorry to hear about, you know, the horrible thing that happened to you, but, you know, it's. It is interesting to see what you're buying next guitar. Maybe this is maybe just, you know what, so you don't have to super chat. Maybe just email me like update and I'll share the updates of what guitars next. What's. We'll see. How do you build back your 26 guitar collection? That'd be. Be interesting to hear of that and maybe share that information with everybody. PW says, do you prefer Patreon memberships over YouTube memberships? Because YouTube takes a bigger cut. I'm more interested in giving you my money than YouTube. So Patreon. Not only does Patreon give me more, but I'm grandfathered into the very first version of Patreon. I adopted Patron very early on. And so Patreon takes a silly, silly little amount of money from me. Okay. They do not take very much money at all. In fact, if Patreon tells me, like, I think they block one or two services from me in hopes that. Because they tell you, they tell me that I'm grandfathered in, but they also tell you, like, and these two services, if you ever want them, you have to. I have to hit a button to give you a reference. Like, if I do that, it cost me a couple hundred bucks a month because they would take so much a bigger hit for me. So I just leave it that way. So, yeah, Patron charges a lot less, but also Patron to me is more conducive to the, to the community environment that I build over on Patreon, which is more interaction with you, the people who care about the channel and, and more posts and, you know, I can do other stuff. It's just easier to control. However, some people voiced. So I only kept it solely on Patreon and then some people voiced that they prefer YouTube. So what we do now, and I'll. I'm keep working on it, is I do everything on Patreon and then I kind of send a version over to the YouTube Premium, you know, members to, you know, so that's what I've been doing. And so, yes, I'm working on that. So, yeah. But yeah, it's hard to do two platforms. Yes, YouTube takes more money, but also it's also not so much about that. It's just I get to do a lot less with the YouTube side than I can with the patron side. YouTube, I don't mind that take more money. I just wish they would give me as much, much stuff as Patreon gives me and I wish Patreon would give me more to interact with. Okay, let's go to Phil. That's me. Phil says, hey, I have a PRS custom 24 on the G string. Frets 1 and 2 are sharp, but the rest of the neck are okay. What is causing this? How can I fix it? Great show. I mean, that's really hard specifically hit off of just, you know, you telling me what it is. One and two are sharp, but the rest are okay. That's on the G string. So the first you had. So obviously you had open G. Your intonation's right, then the first fret, then your second fret's off, then you're there. I don't know. You know, there's. I'm sure. I don't know if I've actually had to deal with that particular one issue. What I'm doing now, Phil, is I'm actually copying and pasting this into my little pad. I have a pad. Even I. Which I think I do really well with not seeing stuff visually. Even though I'm a visual learner, I kind of need to work this out. So I think on this one I'm gonna. I copy pasted it just now so I can take a guitar and replicate the problem and see. I have some theories, but I don't want to just shoot guesses. And that's all I got for you is just guesses of why I think it's doing that on the G string and for the fun of it, just so I don't leave it hanging. My first guess is I'm thinking something's wrong with the nut. And the reason is that I'm thinking that maybe just the way the nuts cut, when you push the first fret, you're sharp and the second fret and then as the distance gets away, it's fixing itself. I can see that because you're pushing everything sharp. I mean, the good news is sharp is the right way. If it was going flat, that would be weird. So sharp is the, the problem. I, without even seeing it, my thought is there's something wrong with the nut slot something. That's where I would start. But I will take a deeper look. Arna says, hey Phil, hope you feel better. Do you have any recommendations? Oh, by the way, thank you for saying that. By the way. I had this like dream today. I was like, what if I'm on the show and my ears open up? You know, my ear opens up and I can hear during the show and it didn't happen. Says, do you have any recommendations for adding a poker chip to a heritage H530? I assume your H150 is similar. There is no room. Yes. So I like you, by the way. Some people are like, what? I hate that. But me like you, I kind of wish the guitar had a poker chip, little plastic ring. The answer is yes. I been. I'll tell you what I'll do for you. I want to do it to my guitar. So I'm going to do it to my guitar. I'll film it and then I'll have it for you. Without looking at it. I haven't looked at it. I haven't even started the process. I just know that I can't take the typical poker chip and stick in there because the way they, they inset the, the, the three way switch into the heritage, it's too low and it's too, too, too the, the sh. It's the, the base is too thick and it's the, the height is too low. So I'll work it out. I have some feeling that it's basically just me drilling out the poker. Poker chip hole a lot bigger and then setting it in there somehow. But there's a part of me that believes the only way to really do it is pull that three way switch out of the heritage and put a more traditional three way switch and just put the poker chip in there. That's what I'm thinking is going to happen. But either way we'll discover it. I was on the fence about doing it Myself. And now you said, you know, you could. You're curious. I might as well do it, film it. And I'll probably make a YouTube short or something. Either way, I'll make something quick and then I'll have something to post. So again, it'll be interesting. And with the new system, as you know, I don't have to do anything special. I'll just turn on the cameras and when I do it, I'll just film myself doing it. Rich says. What does Rich says? Hey, I'm curious about the synergy. How do you think Friedman modules compare to your real Friedman amps? So I beat the Friedman stuff that I have to the Friedman modules. Here's the thing about all the Synergy modules that I have. When I have compared them to the real things, they are very esque. So, like, the Friedman is very Friedman esque and the Fender is very Fender esque and the Saldano is very Saldano esque. And what I mean by that is, yeah, it sounds like that amp. I've heard people, I watch reviews where they say it sounds exactly like that. I would never say that. I didn't think they sounded exactly like any of the actual amps. They were replicating, but they were esque close. Very close. And you know, it's one of those utility kind of things. Like, do I prefer the real Friedman to the Friedman synergy module? Yes. Do I prefer the real Saldano to Saldano module? Yes. Do I feel the real fender to the fender? Yes. Like the angle to angle? Yes. PV 5150 to the. Yes. I prefer the real amp every time to the module. No exceptions. No. Even close, like. No, no, they're really close. No, I prefer the real thing every time. But utility wise, I can't put all those amps in one amp, so. And they are very good facsimiles or whatever you want to call them of the real thing. So in other words, you know what's, what's funny? I had this exact Talk with another YouTube channel that I highly respect. Way better channel than me, talent wise. And we were talking about synergy. And I said this to him and he said yes. So I feel like this is good advice for this situation. I said we were both talking about the new Synergy amp, the new 20. I don't have the new 20. I haven't tried it. I bought the 30, so when the 20 was coming out, I wanted a smaller version. So I bought the 30. They don't make that one anymore, but that's what I got my hands on. And then of course, I have the 50 watt. So I said to him, I said, do you like the Synergy as much as the real amps? And he goes, not really. And I said, yeah, me neither. I said. I said, I like them a lot. I don't like them as much or more than any of the real amps they're copying. And he said, yes, I agree. I said, now this is what I said. I said, but when I record them, they sound exactly the same. So I don't know how to translate that to a viewer. And he says, yes, that's exactly the problem. I go, that is the problem in the room. If you were sitting here with me, I don't know why I forgot your sign on. I apologize. Let's see. Rich, right? Rich, if you were sitting with here, I guarantee you that if I plugged into the Saldano module Synergy and plugged in a Saldano amp and we AB'd them, you would go, oh, man, Phil, the Saldano is just a little fuller, a little, little bit more. Just a little bit something more. And I go, yes. And if we put mics in the room and we put that on YouTube, everybody would go, I don't. They sound exactly the same, guys. I don't know what you're talking about. And you'd sound like a lunatic going, no, they're different. And they're like, I don't think they're different. So the synergies record almost exactly like the Relapse. In other words, what I'm trying to say is whatever's happening that they're missing, whatever little last element that synergy is missing to make them exactly like the amps doesn't translate to an. It would not translate to an audience. It will not translate in a recording. It will only be you. And then you have to decide if that's what really matters to you. Is like, for me, having a Saldano with a Fender in one amp is so crazy. I don't know how to go, oh, the Saldano is still way better. I'm like, no. Having, you know, the module being on a swap out and do stuff is crazy to me. It's. It's so. It's really good. So that's my official answer on this energy stuff. Doctor. I'm just gonna call him doctor again. Says Yamaha thr 5 vs thr 10 verse PG PG Spark mini, positive Grid Spark Mini. I like the small footprint of the Mini, but hesitate on the amp. It runs entirely from an App leaning to the thr10 so far. So if you don't like apps, I would definitely go with the Yamaha stuff. That is one of the my favorite things of the M High amp series is I, I don't want to pull up an app, I don't want to dial in some sounds. Now keep in mind everybody's going to say this and they're right. You can set up the settings in the app on a Spark product like a Mini and never have to do it again. Now keep in mind that's not entirely true because I once had my original Spark for some reason have an issue and it would and it so it doesn't matter. But I'm just saying for the most part, for the most part I have not had the issue with the Mini is what I'm trying to say is I put the sounds in and they stay there. But there's something about just not wanting to use the app. I would argue and some people are going to argue too. That's kind of the whole point. Part of the Sparks is that they have the app and all the features that the app brings and that, you know, you should utilize the app. Sure, all that's true, but I just don't like my phone around me when I'm playing guitar. I don't like anything around me. I work for a living off my phone. My phone is work, my phone's near me, works near me and you know, I, I so I, I'm easily distracted back to work. I spend more time scheduling not work time, not work time. I'm pretty much always working and scheduling not work time. So to that I would say the THR series for sure. If that's a concern you have, sound wise, you know, if you're asking which ones sound better, they're comparable in their sounds. They're different but comparable. So you wouldn't be upset with either one going you missed out. But I would say the Yamaha if you want to stay app free. Inshu44434S says hey Phil, random topic. What do you think is more similar, a Strat Tele or a Les Paul 335? I mostly pay a 335 type telly, mostly use the neck pickup. So in my opinion the 335 is a Les Paul. I don't think they sound different at all. I, I don't. I played my 3335 and I think my 335 literally sounds like a Les Paul. And I think a lot of what doesn't sound like a Les Paul is visual and mental. It looks more bluesy, it looks more whatever. But essentially I think a 335 is just a Les Paul. So they sound so similar to me. Let me put it this way. If I recorded my 335 in my Gibson Les Paul, I would expect not to be able to detect which one's different for the most part. So to me a Strat, my Stratton telly are very different in sounding very. So I think the 335 and the Les Paul are more alike than. Than the telly and the Strat are alike. Milhouse Studio says, hey, the Spark Neo headphones are sensational for practice. Many things for the years of common sense. Boss, you know, thank you first of all and thank you for that stuff because like I said, unfortunately I don't do the head. Especially now I have no hearing my right ear. But thank you for the info on the headphone stuff. As you know, I don't do a lot of headphones, so I never know. And I've heard nothing but good things about the new Spark headphone stuff. Tsize says, hey, quick question, Phil. I wanted a gold top Gibson for 15 years and now I can buy one. But why is the deluxe standard P90 $2600 but the humbucker costs $2800? I don't know the real answer. I just know a guess. They just. It's based on, it's based on sales. So it can be as easy as, you know, they just can't sell the P90s as well so they lower the price. Wait, is that right? Yeah. Why is the deluxe standard. Deluxe standard P90 26 but the humbucker 28? I think it's as simple as that. I don't know if it's a real cost thing. I don't think that's actually like it costs $200 less to manufacture or whatever the cost equivalent is that gets it $200 less to the consumer. I think it's essentially that because every manufacturer does this, especially in the guitar industry, they set pricing sometimes based on cost, but sometimes it's based on, you know, how do they move units? They're one of the best examples of this and I've, I've illustrated this before to explain is that a three quarter size child's Squire is not less, does not cost less to manufacture than a full size Squire. I've had this discussion in very private talks many years ago with the people at Squire and we talked about this and they're like a perfect example is that when you think about it, like I said, when you think about it out loud, you're like, oh yeah, I don't know why I never thought of this. You're like, if you think of a 3 quarter size Squier Stratocaster, it has three full size single wheel pickups, it has a full size bridge, it has six full size tuning keys, it has essentially a full size nut. The neck is still a piece of maple with either rosewood or maple fretboard. It's just a few inches shorter. That's it. Okay, so it's a few inches shorter piece of wood. The body is still whatever it is. Maybe it's a four piece poplar body, but still it's still essentially just the same materials, just a little bit smaller. Okay, so you could go, well, you save a little bit on the less paint to paint it and a little bit less wood, you know, for the length and a little bit less. But then think about the time this same time goes in the CNC machine. Cutting a body is cutting a body. It doesn't really how much. I understand it's smaller in diameter but the run time isn't going to be much less. Same with the neck. It doesn't really shorten neck. The hand time for sanding doesn't really change the fret frets. Same fret material, same fret time. So if you think about it, when you think of a 3/4 guitar being almost 30, 40% less to the consumer than the full size equivalent, but they're Talking about maybe 4% or 5%, not even that cheap, it's not even cheaper. Like they said, it's not even physically cheaper. It's the same cost. They just said this is their official answer to me because. So you know how this came up was I was in a private area, Fender, and I was talking to the people at Squier and I said why? You know, basically we're talking about 3/4 guitars and I was talking about things that they could offer that I think would be better for students. And they were basically saying like look, this it, it's almost a loss leader selling 3/4 guitars for us. We, they cost the same as mounted full size guitars and yet we make, we have to sell them for almost 30, 40, 50% less because that's what the consumer will pay. So that's what we do it for. And so sometimes it is as simple as that. So I would say that it's very possible that Gibson just charges less because the P90 people won't pay as much or more for a P90 than they will for a humbucker. And I think that's probably the answer. That's my best guess. It's just a guess, but it's my best guess. Mr. S says Fenderish Synergy Model Module versus Fender, Princeton versus Morgan Princeton. Ish. Thanks. Okay, so the Princeton in my opinion is a very unique amplifier. I have the Synergy module T deluxe and doesn't matter what cabinet I run it through. Okay. It is, it is very Fendery. In other words, it's got that Fender top end sparkle. It does the Fender thing. But I wouldn't call it a Princeton. So if you're looking for the Fender clean, you know, the vibe, the feel that, that compress. What I like about Princetons is they compress really hard. That's the best way I've heard it explained. And that's the way I just regurgitate. That explanation is compression. I feel like when you hit a note it's just really, really instant. You know, the snapback, the tone comes back to you very quickly and it's soft but it's still very instant. I guess that's the only way I could put that. I wouldn't call the synergy. Even the Fender modules like that. They're more like the 65 and the Fender twin. Bigger sounding, more open sounding amps but not so like I said, compressed tight. And then the Fender Princeton versus the Morgan. Ish. I think I talked about that earlier. You know, right now it's going to the Morgan. But how much of that? So here's what I don't know. Okay. I like the Morgan. I haven't spent a whole lot of time with it. I'm very impressed right away. Great. But also keep in mind here's what's not a fair fight. The Fender Princeton. Although it's a hand wired and very. This is the most premium Fender Fender currently sells of the Princeton. Right. It has a 10 inch Jensen speaker in it and there's a 12 inch greenback selection in the Morgan. So what I would do, what I'm going to do to officially see what is going on is figure out how much of the Morgan amp and the Fender amps different and how much is this two speakers? Because I could tell you the Morgan sounds a lot better. But what if it's as simple as, you know, you just put the Prince in through the 12 inch celestian greenback and it's as good if not better than the Morgan and the Morgan won't sound as good as through the Tinge So I'll do a little. I have a cable. If you guys haven't seen it a long time ago using videos. I have a special cable. I can use it to switch when combos to change out the speakers real quick and stuff. I'm going to change the speakers. I'll figure out how. What of it is the speaker? As we know, a speaker is a huge part of the tone. So the Morgan can just be better because of the speaker. It's very possible. Okay, and then Finish up with NM112-209999. I really am wanting to get into Gretsch guitars. I don't have any yet. I want a Helo, I want Helotrons. What are your thoughts on those pickups? I don't know what Helotrons are. So now I have to google Helotrons pickups. Helotron pickups. Helotrons have much lower inductance. Yeah, well that would be all the Filtertrons gonna have lower inductance. Gretch TALK Forums Helotron Bridge. Okay. I have no experience with these pickups. What models do they put them in? I can find. I'm finding them easy. Genuine Gretsch Helotron Bridge. So. So here's what I know about Gretsch pickups from Joe Carducci, who used to run Gretsch. Back when I was working with Gretsch over the years, there was obviously different owners of Gretsch. Okay, so Gretsch was owned for a while by Baldwin pianos. For a moment, Gretsch was owned by Gibson. How hilarious is that? At one, Gibson didn't want it. A little fun fact. If you guys didn't know that, that's actually absolutely true. At one point, Baldwin owned Gretch and then Gibson bought Baldwin and was like, yeah, why would you want Gretches? We have hollow bodies. We have guitars. I always think today, could you imagine if Gibson owned Gretsch too? Like that's too. That's essentially. But okay, whatever. So anyway, so. And then of course now the current. Then Gretsch goes back to Fred. Gretchen. I think he's the third and that's. He owned it. And then now it's still owned by Fred Gretsch and the family. But of course, built, manufactured. Well, same thing. Manufactured, shipped and marketed and everything by Fender. So what he told me was, is that over the years, different owners, different owners of the Gretch line, different visions, different models, they made so many different things that they just constantly, you know, there's so many different pickups, so many different models that they've done. It's like endless. And that's how I feel about Gretch. So that's why I'm explaining to you why I'm so, like, I don't know, Helotrons. I mean, I'm like. I'm like. I'm sure it's a very popular Gretch pickup. I'm just not familiar with it. I really like. I like the dimargios Filter Trons that he just came out with. As you guys know. I talked about those. They're really good. I really like TV Jones. To me, I don't have a winner there. I really like TV Jones Filter Trons a lot. Like, a lot. So I think that's the real, like. So you guys understand where I'm at with this. The fact that I like the dimargio is as much as the TV Jones is. What the compliment to dimarjio is, is because I really like the TV Jones stuff so much. Those are what I tend to have in all my gretches. That's where I go. So I'm really single minded when it comes to Gretsch. I would love to learn more and do more videos about that. Maybe do some more deep dives of those style guitars. So I'll look into that now that you mentioned it, but I haven't tried a whole lot of stuff. It's one of those things like, where do you start? So I need to pick a direction and go down that road, try some new stuff. And as you know, in my pickup collection, I never had any of the Helotrons either. But I can tell now I can see looking at them. For those that are curious, let's just share them. This is a genuine Gretsch Helotron bridge pickup. So you can see here. So what I don't know is I see the one set of screws. So I don't know. Pickups. Hello, Gretch pickups are sold. So I don't know if this is a single quail. I don't. I just don't know, you know, is it. Is a. Is it a humbucker? And then I will definitely be learning about it. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up buying one and taking it apart and looking at it. I'm kind of. I know it'll probably get in my head and somewhere over the weekend. So we'll see how that goes. All right, on that note, it's time to button up the show. All you guys. I just want to say thank you. Not Only for hanging out on the Friday show, but also for really supporting the interview with the. With Gabe, the CEO of Guitar Center. That video was crazy. It did 128000 views. Guitar World even Share did an article about the interview. It was a very cool interview. I had a lot of fun. I got an hour with him. That's all I got, you know, because the time restraints and stuff. So I was able to, you know, get out some of my thoughts and talk about it. He was very nice to do it. So, you know, I was hoping that what will happen in the future is we'll get another podcast together. Maybe a more deep, deeper involved one. The I can't tell you anything because I don't know on their side. I'm just going to tell you my thoughts. I thought I'd end up in the show with that discussion. So this is what I'm in with, I'm sure. Look, all he knew about me is I said a bunch of crap about them and him on my podcast. So the fact that they invited me to come talk to him was nice. It was a really, really cool thing. But also, you gotta understand, I went into it knowing, like, he could be really defensive. So I started, if you notice, I started that podcast with, hey, this is a really cool thing that you guys did here with this mock guitar store. Because I'm like, okay, I'm trying to break ground with you and break bread and then start having discussion. One thing you probably notice, I don't know, it could have been in my head. He did seem very nice, but he was, I'm sure he was a little defensive of the fact that he was waiting for me to unleash anytime with some tirade or crazy thing. So I, I kept it pretty even and killed. But he was very nice. One thing I, I thought that's really important, and this is why I'm telling you guys about this is the fact that they invited me to come out was because they had been paying attention to not only what I've been saying on the podcast, but what you guys have been saying in the comment sections and just getting a vibe of what's going out there and they're in a situation. Look, companies, some companies need to listen. Well, companies need to listen to customers, but some companies really need to listen to customers because it's kind of like, I use this as analogy. It's not for anything other than just an illustration. I think it was Domino's Pizza. If somebody can correct me in the comments if I'm incorrect. But I think I saw once Domino's Pizza did a commercial saying, hey, you spoke, and we listened. You said, our pizza tastes horrible, so we're making it taste better. Like, I remember some kind of commercial like that. And I remember thinking, I like. Hilarious, right? How that's funny now that's marketing. But you still have the guys. The idea of what I'm trying to say is the census out there, a lot of people are like, guitar center is failing. There's a lot of issues with it. Obviously, if you've been watching this channel, I've been saying that for years. Here are all my issues. And they're listening because I think they realize, like, they. They got to figure this out, it's got to improve or it's going to die kind of thing. So I want to thank everybody who left comments. I'm pretty sure they're paying attention to those comments. I'm not just saying that. I can tell you a lot of times, most companies don't pay attention to any of the stuff we're out there doing on the Internet, but I think right now, they're paying attention to us and what we're saying. So. And I got to tell you right now, no matter what I said to him that day, which I said some stuff off. Off the podcast and on the podcast, and I'm sure he listened to a lot of it. I don't know how much of it, but I'm sure he, you know, I obviously heard me say it, but, I mean, how much did he take in of it? I don't know. I think some of it, but I really think they're paying attention to you guys. So I'm just telling you guys, if you ever. If you care to give a voice to that, give a voice to that. So really cool. The last thing I want to end with is just a last thought on the Guitar center interview as a whole, and just to understand my belief system and. And I just want you. You guys can put in the comments what you think of this, but I'm just gonna tell you my experience so far in this industry with being in retail, being in, you know, all the levels I've done. And then, of course, now this, you know, this YouTube channel and the podcast and who I'm. How I interact with. I said it in on the interview with him, and I'm gonna say it again. There was a time and I said people, but I'm just gonna say me, because it was me, too, but it was a lot of people. There was a time where if Guitar center went away, I would be. Wouldn't have gave a crap and been happy. Especially when I owned a store. You can imagine if all the five guitar centers around me closed when I had a store, I'd be like, woohoo, right? Who cares? However, what I have seen in the last 10 years, and I've seen a lot, and I mean intimately seen, is that every time a brick and mortar store, whether that be a chain like Sam Ash or a Mom and pop, closes, what I've personally seen is the majority of the customers go online. And the reason I say that is this. And I said this to Gabe off the podcast at the end. And if you ever want to know what we talked about off, it wasn't off the record. I just. We did. The cameras were done and we were walking to the other building and we had a conversation as well. What I told him was. And what I'm telling you is the Internet has not made any new customers. In my, in my opinion, there's no new customers. In other words, like the online sellers are not creating a lot of new customers. You know, brick and mortar stores who create the new students, maybe guitar lessons online are creating new customers, but I'm talking about retailers. Online retailers for the most part are not creating new guitar players. They're not creating new guitar customers. Which guitar players are guitar customers. And that's why I talk that way. So that means the fact that they're growing year after year, then every year there's more Internet sales than before, means they're taking guitar customers. They're taking them, they're not making them. And you could say that theory is wrong. But I'm going to show you in the numbers how exactly in the last 10 years, that is exactly what the numbers are showing is that there's less brick and mortar and more online and not a bigger pool of customers to pull from. There's literally just sliding, right? Like an abacus sliding over. We're sliding brick and mortar customer to online. Brick and mortar customer to online. And that's why I. I don't have no incentive to help Guitar center, by the way. They didn't pay me to go there. In fact, I. Cause of you guys, because you guys are so amazing. Cause I got 127,000 views. The video made enough money to pay for my whole trip. So thank you, I appreciate that. But anyways, my point is that I believe when guitar center closes 300 stores, it's not going to flow those customers to the brick and mortars. They'll see a small part portion of that, but the majority of people will then go online even more so, and the online will go in greater, greater numbers and greater numbers. And I think that's just how it goes. So I think at this point, Guitar center is as much holding the line for brick and mortar as the brick and mortar pops. Everybody can have their own opinion about that. That's just my thought process. It doesn't mean I'm right. I'm just giving you my thoughts on that. That's why I did the interview and I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. I'm glad they let me do it. And on that note, I will see you guys next Friday. I have no idea what videos come out this week. It's whatever I finish editing and hopefully if my hearing comes back by Sunday, I'll even finish a video. I really want to come out for next week. All right, guys, on that note, thank you for your time. To the next time. Know YOUR Gear the Know your Gear Podcast Today's episode of the Know youw Gear Podcast is brought to you by Patreon Members Channel members and viewers who.