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The Know youw Gear Podcast.
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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.
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Hey everyone. Welcome to the Know youw gear podcast, episode 439. Hope you guys had a fantastic week. It's ready for some fun. Maybe fun gear talk. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see how lucky you guys get. Anyways, are you still using the PV amp to showcase cheaper guitars? I. I mean, I would say I am, except for the fact I haven't done it. I haven't done it in a while and I'll get to that. Hold on, let's read the second half. Any intent to change that in the future? Would be nice to see something you can buy easily. So what happened? I'll just tell you guys up front and I'll always what happens? So I, I bought that PV amp, which I still have. If you guys watch. It's been in a bunch of videos to be a. Yeah, to use an amp. Whenever I'm using a guitar, I don't really have an exact dollar amount, but let's say a guitar that's 500 and less. I try to keep it in an amp that would be something you either heard or have reference of. It's hard to put a 300 guitar through a three thousand dollar amp and then go hey, how did it sound to you? And you have, I have no idea what that amp sounds like. And, and a lot of people think it's about making the guitar sound better or worse. Like, hey, you're just trying, you know that I can't tell how good that guitar is because you run it through a nice amp. I mean, I think anything can sound horrible. Anything can sound good regardless of the price. Quick shout out to Michael Nielsen's channel today. He did a cool video basically showing you how a. Let's just say how a $30 pedal can sound like a $300 pedal. Let's call it that. So I'll put a link to that. So check out his channel for that video. But my point is it's really about reference. It's like, it's like when I say, oh, this neck feels like a offender. Mexican standard neck. A lot of people put their hands on that neck, you know. So you're like, you have a reference of it. You're like, oh, I know. How about that is. I've either owned one or I felt one, or a friend had one or there wasn't a store so anyways, I thought, let's do that. But what happened was a Guitar center reached out to me and asked me if I would do a review of the Katana Gen 3amp. And I said, no, no, I won't do that. I've done Katana reviews in the past. I'm not going to really do a review of that. There's not really a video to. To see that I think would be interesting. You know, it's not something I would want to make. And it's. I don't think anybody's asking for it. So. And I've told you guys this a thousand times, there's only three reasons to make a video. I want to do it, you want to watch it, or somebody wants to pay for it. Now in this case, Guitar center wanted to pay for it. However, I also have to weigh those three options together. How much I really do or don't want to do it, how much you really don't want to see it or do want to see it. In this case, I felt like, yeah, Guitar center wanted to pay for sponsor a video, but you really didn't probably want to watch it. So what I did was I said, well, I have an idea. And here's the idea. I said, why don't you send me one? And they had an exclusive one in blue, which I thought was cool. I said, send me one and I'll use it because everybody has one and so or has heard one and that would be a good reference. So that kind of replaced the pb. I still have the pb. It's the backstage. Somebody asked what it was. It's the backstage amp. It's an old one from the 80s. You can't. And that's the other problem too. No one, you can't even find them. And when you do, they're all over the place. And then unfortunately, nothing like a Josh Scott video. But obviously I noticed that even though I picked up mine for like $100 in mint condition, all of a sudden people were getting 150, $200 for them. And I was like, okay, that's probably because. Buying them because we're reminded about the nostalgia or they. They like the video. So to answer your question, I. I don't. I plan to use the PV again when it makes sense. But that's why the boss Katan is in. In the videos more. And that's just because it makes sense. So it's a good amp. If you guys. Little segue. If you guys saw this week we did a video on the new Black Star stage, what I call stage three. Why am I calling it that? The Black Star ID IDX50. I don't know, what's that little PV Black Star crossover. So I did a video on the new Black Star ID 50X. And it was really fun video because I did it on Veterans Day and then I edited it. I was editing it and then I gave it to my patrons as I do the day before, say, hey, you want to check this out? And a bunch of patrons like, hey, did you see Anderton's say that? It was horrible? And I was like, what's horrible? So at 2:40 in the morning, I watched the Anderton's video and I was like, oh, okay. And I thought, well, fine, I, I, you know, I have my own opinions and they still stand the video. So I didn't change anything in the video. I just thought, well, maybe I'll add the, the, the Anderson's fix. So I added that. And that segues us to bird. Yardbird 68, by the way. Yardbird 68, funny story. Every time I saw your name, I thought, oh, he's, he's a fan of birds. I don't know why. I just like, oh, bird 68. Then all of a sudden it hit me like, Yardbirds. Like the band. He's probably a Yardbird fan. So now I'm like, okay, yeah, because there's no bird called a yardbird, is there? But I was like, but I don't know why. I just thought bird watcher. I thought you were a bird watcher and like guitar. I just, I fantasize sometimes about your guys's names, how you come up with them, why that happened, right? Why, you know, why does, you know, whatever crazy name you guys come up with. And so when I saw yard 68, I was like, oh, he's into birds.
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Now? I'm like, no, he's into the Yardbirds. Okay. So anyways, he says, hey, concerning the Black Star amp, he started talking about the video I did, which all ties us in. If you download the new software, which is what I did in the video, if you didn't watch, I play. I did my whole video the way it was. And then I added a part at the end where I did the Blackstar new firmware that they made for Anderson's. If you guys don't know all this stuff, click. I'll put a link to that video down below. Anyways, he says, what does he say? He says, after you download the new software, is it possible to go back to the original? I would Imagine there is. However, I know for a fact there is because I would imagine that you could just restore the amp back to factory settings, which is what I would probably do if I didn't like it, is just go back to factory settings. So and that's pretty simple. You know, in the old days you just look it up the manual. Nowadays you just go Google search it or chat it or whatever and go, hey, you know, how do I reset my Blackstar IDX50? And then you just follow the steps reset to factory and you would be in the old version. And so if you want to watch that video, you guys will see whether or not I like the Anderton's version or not. You know, cliffhangers, right? So try to get you suck you in to watch that video. Get those, get those clicks so I can get those pennies, man. Gotta get those pennies. But pretty cool. So why I'm all bringing this all up together is because there's a two parter to this. I'm gonna continue to use the boss Gen 3 Katana because it's just a familiar amp to everybody. And it seems like everybody's really happy when I do that, when I use something that people can reference or understand. And so I'll continue to do that. But also at some point.
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You know, I don't know if I'll be, I'll be able to, to. I don't know what I'm trying to say. I don't know if I'll be able to kind of like say I can keep both amps. In other words, I don't know why I would want two of those amps. So I'm really curious to see which one I keep. And I'll let you guys know. So that's why I'll keep you guys apprised of which one it is. But Yardbird has a second part of the question. He says, hey, since you said the speakers are the weak point and I think that in both amps, by the way, so. So definitely the Black Star but also the Katana. I can tell you absolutely a speaker upgrade to the Katana makes a world of difference. But I would imagine even more so with the Black Star because the Black Star is more voiced for amp sounds. And it's not worried so much about as a playback monitor like the Katana is or an acoustic amp. So keep in mind, you know, boss had to, boss had to design a speaker or use a speaker that sounded good for amp sounds, but also for an acoustic sound and also when you hook it up Bluetooth or, or if you play your background music, they need it to all sound good like that. You can imagine guitar speakers themselves sound horrible for playback on music, much less if the music has a bass guitar and drums in it. And of course on top of that acoustic. So the katana speaker, I'm sure is a compromise of how you get all that way where I don't think Blackstar, I think actually Blackstar went on the cheap and just picked a cheap speaker that whatever, the speaker sounded the best out of the cheap speakers. I could be totally wrong. I really hate to kind of, you know, broad stroke somebody like that, but I mean it's, you know, I've been around for a long time and this is a real, you know, hitting a price point is very important. They got to stick to 369. They're doing all this stuff, the amp. And in my mind I just imagine them, you know, with a, you know, three or four speakers going okay, which one sounds the best and which one sounds the worst and which one's the cheapest? And they go, okay, this one sounded the best, but it, but this one was the cheapest. Okay, well this one sounded not as bad as the worst and it was still pretty cheap. And then they, they're just trying to find that sweet spot. So your question is to. Your point was, since you said the speaker is the weak point on the amp, how about doing a deep dive where you install different speakers such as Celestian and Creambacks. I wouldn't do that. I can just tell you exactly what I'm going to do with the Black Star ID x50 period, okay? Because I have them. So I have a cream back selection. I also have a cream back neodymium selection. Keep in mind, on solid state amps or whatever, amps like that, those speakers, at least on the black Star is a 4ohm speaker. What's important to understand is that when you switch it to 8 ohm or 16 ohm you lose volume, okay, Physical volume to say power. I'm not an amp guy, so I'm not going to talk about what is really happening inside the amp. I don't really care. I'm just going to tell you that when you switch from 4 ohm to 8 ohm, you will have an amp that is not as loud. And I mean that when you crank it up when it's 50 watts, it just won't be as loud. So you're losing volume with. That's how. Because the resistance is increased. I'm not going to put a 4ohm speaker in it because I don't have one. So I'm going to put an 8 ohm cream back slashing or cream back neo because I have both of those that I can put in there. I have a cabinet with a red back slush in a green back and a cream back. Cream back. And I, you know, alternate that sometimes to hear, you know, different sounds. But in those amps I've kind of learned that the cream back is the way to go. For me, if I wasn't going to use a cream back, I would use a vintage 30. Maybe the vintage 30 would probably sound even better because it's a little more bassy and maybe that would help the amp but because it's so bright. But. But basically if I was to do it, which I will film it and show you guys the before and after, it's going to go like this. I'm going to stick a cream back in that amp. If it sounds better, I'm going to be like hurrah. And then it's done. And then if it doesn't sound better then I just put the original speaker out and I end the journey because.
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That'S it. So I just don't want to do a 20 speaker swap. It's just, it's not worth it. It's not worth it to me. If that's a video I thought you guys would really watch, maybe I'll consider it.
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So the 11 says Phil. Remember Phil's V30 days? Yeah, I still use V30s. I just don't use them as much because I like the cream backs for the amps that I'm using. But I do have V30s so. Yeah, the 11 is correct. I used to play mostly all V30s with just a few other speakers. Now I mostly play creambacks, but I do have different speakers in all the cabinets, so. Well, not really. So this Marshall behind me is a 2121936 vintage. So in other words, it came with vintage Celestian style speakers. It was the Marshall version that has cream backs in it. Now this Morgan amp comes with a green back. That's what I have in that. The Friedman next to me right here has a red back selection in it. The Magnetone I think has a warehouse speaker in it. So I mean I have lots of different speakers and different cabs. I have a 212 cabinet with V30s. I have. It's another Marshall cabinet with V30s that I'll use. And keep in mind the main reason is I think the 1936 is really big and bassy and full sounding. I think it sounds almost as full as a 412 sometimes, especially in a small room, it just sounds huge. So the creambacks really added some highs that I thought the cabinet was missing where my other Marshall cabinet which is a slant 12 so it's vertical. We was always very bright with no low end. And the V30s really warmed it up. So it's to me it's really. It's not just one speaker fits all for me. It's like strings and pickups for me. It's like there's certain things where I like. But predominantly, yes, I like creambacks now for the most part. And that's what I go back to.
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Brian says, I haven't tried the red back. What's the difference? You know what's funny about the red back is it would never go on my radar. But I walked into a guitar center which is that way you start every joke now. So I walked into a guitar center and I said, hey, no, I'm just kidding. So anyway, so I walked into a guitar center and there was a Fender. I was trying guitars, of course, So I was looking at guitars and I grabbed a guitar and I was looking for an amp and there was a Fender Reverb Deluxe. A 65 reverb deluxe. And I was like, oh cool. I know this amp plugged in. It just sounded so good. And I was like, man, this amp sounds really good. And then I saw the FSR sticker on the. On the, on the hang tag. Fsr. FSR stands for Fender Special run. Means that it's something different that they did different. So I was looking at what different was different about it. And I looked in the back and it had a red back celestion. And I go, oh. I assumed that it was adding fullness and bass, but so I bought one. I bought a red back slash. And what's nice is I have three identical Friedman cabinets. It's the same 112 open back cabinet. So because I have three identical ones, what's nice is I can put the cream back which is what comes stock with. Then I found out this is what kind of made it all make sense for me, that at some point for some reason Friedman has switched. So if you have a twin sister dirty Shirley, if you have the matching cabinet, which I do, which is the silver faced Friedman cabinet, It used to come with a cream back. Now it comes with a red back. By the way, the Friedman dirty Shirley combo comes now with a redback Celestial. I didn't know that either. I found out when I put in redback Celestial in Sweetwater and those cabinets came up and I thought, oh, this is perfect. I'll buy redback. I'll stick it in my silver face Friedman. And, and. And then because I did that, I thought, well, I should get a green back and stick a green back in the other Freedman, and they'll have all three cabinets, and I can ABC them. And that's what I did. And here's what I learned. The red back is a little brighter.
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That's what I thought. It just sounds like the cream back, but a little brighter sounds really good. I would not pick it over the creamback. But I liked it. I really liked it. Do I like it with the twin sister more than the creamback? I don't know if I do or not. Again, I might, because here's the problem with it. It sounds really great. But one of the things that I like about creambacks is the same thing I like about V30s is, is it's not that they sound so good, by the way. Listening, people listening. Later, I'm doing the air quote thing for stupid reasons. It's not that they sound so good. It's that they work so well with all the situations I put things through. You know, when you're. When you're running a cabinet, but you're going to run a Friedman amp in it and then a magnetone amp in it and then an angle amp in it, and then, you know, and then a 5150amp in it, and, you know, you're switching stuff. It's just. It's just nightmarish to try to always match cabinets to. To amps. You know, I don't live in that kind of world where if I was really a one amp, one speaker kind of person, maybe I'd focus on that, you know, if I was on a stage somewhere. But I'm really usually using them for utility purposes. In other words, I'm changing out things all the time. So I just learned that the creambacks and the V30s work well for me and my ears and especially, like I said, the V30s, I know them so well, just like the creambacks now that when I try an amp, I know what the AMP's doing versus what the speaker's doing, which is helpful information to have, especially when conveying information to people in a review like, hey, this amp has a lot of this in it. And that. And somebody will say, well, how do we know it wasn't the speaker? And I'm like, well, it is the speaker, but I'm telling you because I can discount what I know about the speaker from my. From my, you know, what information I'm giving you guys. So.
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Let'S see.
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What else are we doing? Something we gotta switch over. Let's do. Let's go into another topic. Phil, have you reviewed a monoprice? Stage right. Amp. I have. Not.
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Inexpensive gear like monoprice and things like that. How that usually happens is one of two things. Drive those videos for me.
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Either a company reaches out and says, hey, we'd like you to check this out, or do a video. And again, if I think like, yeah, I think the. You guys will watch that. I think you guys would like that. Let's do it. If you guys keep mentioning, like this, it's the hot item, I go, well, I maybe make that video. Not so much that it gets views. It's. I'm not after views. Views don't pay you anything. I'm after your eyeball time. How long will you stay in the video? And the more interested in the subject you will. The longer. The more interested in the subject you are, the more you will watch the video. And that's. I like that because to me, that's a. That's a win. Win nets me more money in ad revenue. And it nets you because you're actually interested in watching it versus you clicked into it just to find out that you didn't care and have to leave. So. So that's why I like that. So basically that's my way of saying I. I really don't actively. I don't personally seek out inexpensive gear. That's one of the downfalls of having a nicer gear is that you tend to go, okay, well, I really like what I have. I'm not really looking for something better. So I kind of like rely on you guys to go, hey, have you seen this? And I'm like, oh, I'm interested in that. So I have not. The only thing I heard about monoprice that I heard from a really good source. It's a. It's a rumor that. But it's a rumor from the source. I just hear myself talk sometimes. I'm like, what the hell am I saying? What I'm saying is, is that Laney Amps told me they ripped them off from Laney. That's what I'm trying to say. It's a rumor that the monoprice is a ripoff of Laney. That rumor was given to me by Laney. I just let you know why I'm laughing is because I'm like. I don't know why I'm phrasing the way I am, but it's true. So the. The Laney guys told me they really pissed off, in fact. So you know, they were so irritated with. When they were talking to me about this, what they said was they pulled their product production lines from China because that's what said to happen was they went and had made stuff over in China and then they got ripped off immediately. And that's where all the monoprice stuff came up. So I have done the Laney amps and I have been told depend. That's why I said the rumor thing. I have told. Been told the Laney guys it's not as good. And I've been told by you guys it's just as good. It's the same thing. I don't know. So I would imagine if you watch my Laney app videos you watch in the monoprice videos, that'd be my guest. So. But I hear good things about monoprice. Not from Laney though. That's.
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Yeah. So. Right. Let's see. Nikki says, hey, what's that great camo looking telecaster? Hang on the ball, that is a crooked guitar and that's in Paisley. It's a little far back from you guys. So that's why it probably doesn't look like that. So that's a crook telly in Paisley. If you guys don't know what crook is. Crook is the company that makes guitars that made guitars for Brad Paisley. Funny story, right? Paisley guitars used by Brad Paisley forever. When you saw Brad Paisley with a Paisley telly, it was a crook forever until he got some deal with Fender and then they did a Fender deal and now he's all with Fender. I'm not really such a huge Brad Paisley fan. I really like him as a guitar player and I like country music. But I'm not such a huge fan that I know all the details of where he is and what he's doing. Like who's his sponsorships with. But kind of got the impression he's all in with Fender now. But that's an actual crook one. Which are very, very, very nice guitars. So maybe if you guys want a deep dive of that. I do a deep dive of a. Of a crook telly. As you guys know, we. We do a lot of. We have a lot of deep dives planned. We've done a bunch where we're just expanded out of the. This is what the hot guitar of the week Is. Or this is the YouTube sensation of the month. Or. And. Or this is what companies are sending to everybody. I just kind of get burnout on that. So we started integrating all the other weird guitars that I've been pulling, like the old. The Parker PM20 and the Moonstone guitar and the Sears and robot guitar and stuff like that. So you're going to be seeing a lot of all kinds of stuff sprinkled in. It's just, I think it's fun. It gives you guys more reference since we're doing the sheets on the website where you can compare and contrast. And of course, all the deep dives are formalized in a way that at least the information is somewhat standardized. So you can compare and go, hey, this is how this did. Let's look at another one did. So, but, but anyway. So yeah, if you guys think a paisley crook telly would do well, give it a thumbs. Give this video a thumbs up. If I see a crap ton of them, I'll be like, oh, I guess that's what they want. So for. For those to be fully informed. I'm pretty sure if I was gonna guess it's like $4,000 one of these things. It's pretty nuts. I know what you're like, how do you know? Do you not know what it costs? I don't know what it costs. It's not mine. It's just here. There's some guitars that are just here. I told you guys. Some guitars are from Semi company. Some guitars are mine. Some guitars are here for other reasons. This is a guitar that's here for other reasons. So we'll. We'll get to that eventually one day. Why it's here. I. I have play dates for my. Don't you guys have to. Don't you guys love your guitar? I love my guitars like my wife loves pets. And I have play dates like my wife has, you know, pet. She has a cat come over and visit my cat and the dog comes over and visit the dog. Right. I have guitars come visit my guitars and I send my guitars to visit other people's guitars. You don't do play dates with your guitars.
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I'm stupid. Stupid dad jokes are just dumb. I'm sorry. I apologize for that one. That one was too dumb. Okay.
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Let'S see.
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Oh, here's a good old classic. Somebody wants to know, why does everyone make a Strat or a telly? Well.
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It'S probably not for the reasons you think.
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There's. There's, you know, the answer should be as simple as everybody Makes a Strat a telly. Because Strat and Telly's are the dominant force in the guitar world. And everybody, you know, everybody wants one. So of course everybody makes one. That's actually not what I've learned in all these years is why everyone really makes a Stratton or Telly. There's multiple reasons why everybody makes a Strat or a Telecaster style guitar. Okay. And you can almost tell what the reason is by the execution of their Strat or telly. Some people sure they want to get in on that strattelly market. Hey, everybody's buying those. Let's get one of those too, right? Makes sense. Makes sense, right? It's the hot thing. It's why, you know, trends are trends. However, there's a lot of people, a lot. We'll put a category like this. There's a lot of guitar builders who believe the Strat and the Taily are not that great or they could be improved upon. And I would use some, you know, obviously you could say like the Silver sky or Sir Guitars or something like that where companies are like, hey, I think, think I can make this better. And they tend not all, but look at G and L. I know defunct now, but basically look at G and L, same concept. I can do this better. And by why I say they not only think like that, but why I think they think like that is they, they, they jump over the most important part of why you would copy a Stratton telly. And I'll get to that last, okay, there's a, there's number one reason. So if I was going to give you three reasons why you would copy a Stratton telly, I'm going to do them in order. So number three was the basic one. It's just because everybody does that and it's a market to get in. Number two is the one I'm talking about right now. You think you can do it better. Those always seem to be easy to spot because they design their own bridge like G and L did or like prs did, they design their own headstock. Not only not keep copying the Fender headstock, but almost keep away from it entire entirely. But more importantly, they change attributes and they change things. Maybe they change the neck carve, maybe they change the neck heel joint. Maybe they change the pickups entirely, you know, out of the style of that. There's a. So that basically they want to make something better. They've decided that Fender is a great company and they make great Strats and tellies. But there's a better one out there. They can do it better. They want to one up them. That's number two. Number one is the biggest reason why everybody does it. It's because the parts are the most readily available. You understand, when you go to as many factories as I've gone to, you're going to notice some trends in factories. And one of the biggest trends is what is missing in factories, machine shops. There's not a lot of them in these factories. And when they are, they're not very big. They're usually outsourcing their, their components. And this can go, this can be as. I mean, think about some companies. For a while they weren't even sourcing their own pickups. I mean, of course Fender and Gibson made their own pickups. And now PRs, of course, you know, they make their own pickups. Well, of course they, they did always I gu. But there's a lot of companies, believe it or not, they didn't do pickups. And there's a lot of companies this day, you know, that didn't do their own pickups. And so you gotta understand, so you, you, you, you have to then rely on the outsource. If you're not building it yourself, you need somebody to supplies to you. Well, not only is it the easiest thing to get Fender Strat and Strat style and Telestyle parts because they're so copied, but because they're so copied, they just become easier to get and so cheap to buy. You can buy them so cheap and you can imagine what you, you know, if you've never built a guitar before. Let me just tell you some things that you really need to understand before you get to factories, employees, you know, insurances, all that stuff. Just yourself. Just yourself. The thing about guitar, and I've said this before, that you need to understand is you can build an entire guitar in your garage. What I mean, that is, that's exactly that. I mean, I guess you could put a car together in your garage too. But a guitar, you can put it together in your, in your garage with mostly tools you can find at Ace Hardware, okay? Or Home Depot. So you take a body, take a brick of wood, you make a body, you take another, another plank of wood and you. I don't know why I called it a brick of wood. I apologize for that. Take a piece of wood, you make a body. Take another piece of wood, you make a neck. And then you have to start worrying about things like, well, I can't make a truss rod. I can try. Some have. But it'd be a lot easier to buy one. And look how readily available they are now. And cheap. Oh, I need tuning keys. I can't make tuning keys in my garage. I can buy tuning keys. I can't make a bridge. Now you can fashion a bridge or you can, you know, can bend some metal and make a bridge. But imagine how not a tremolo. Tremolo is a little bit more complicated that for the average person in their garage. So you can imagine as any manufacturer, no matter how big or how small, just having a huge variety of parts, massively cheap really does, really does focus you in what you want to build because it really does dramatically change how much it's going to cost. Okay, here's a good example. I'll pick on Music man since I'm staring at my screen right now and I see this Music man majesty behind me. This is a USA made Majesty with its own bridge. But if you get a Majesty import, it has a more traditional Fender style two point tremolo. Because of the fact that it's more available to get that way they might use something based on like a Wilkinson Tremolo. So the importance of this is the reason why there's so many Stratton tellies is because it's so easy to get Stratton telly parts. It's just so easy. It's why Stratton telly parts are impregnated into so many other guitars that don't necessarily need to have those parts because they're so cheap and you can just see it everywhere you go. And this is because.
- [28:26]
Because as many manufacturers, including small ones will tell you, you know, I hate to always. I really do hate to tell you guys personal stories that I have not cleared with anyone, but I don't think he would mind. So Matt at Texas Toast and I had a talk, this is a couple years ago, and he said at the time Texas Toast was using a bridge that he had designed and, and he was having machined and essentially he told me that the machine shop that was making it basically didn't want to make it anymore. Not couldn't make it, just didn't want to, I guess. I think that's the way I'm remembering the story correctly. I'm sure, I'm sure I'll correct it later if I'm incorrect on that part of the statement. The important part was, is what he said to me. What he said to me. I think most people like you, without the reference of what I just gave you would have heard this so strangely. But I remember when he told me, I was like, oh, I totally understand. He said, I wish somebody would knock off my bridge. He goes, I wish a company overseas would just make a knockoff of my bridge so I could buy my bridge cheaper. Because he knew exactly what I'm telling you, which is you can get Fenders bridge for a nickel, you can get Gibson's bridge for a dime, you can get everyone's bridge for nothing. Because that's the, that's what happens when a very popular guitar becomes very copied. As it gets copied, it gets easier and easier and easier to get those components. And as it gets easier, the they get cheaper. And as they get cheaper, it gets harder to justify not using them. So the reason why everybody makes a Stratton telly is because it's freaking cheap. And not just cheap to manufacture or put together, just the. All the components are cheap. And, and that's why. So. And I hope somebody knocks off Texas Toast Bridge one day so we. He can get the bridge at a better price. So.
- [30:17]
So, okay, so let's see.
- [30:23]
What else.
- [30:30]
Okay, hold on a second.
- [30:33]
Let's do this one.
- [30:37]
Okay, let's do this one. It says, hey, this is from Kat's Music Journey. Says, hey, I saw the Court video. I knew they were big factories, but the sheer size and volume of the manufacturer is insane. Thanks for sharing the insight. No question. Grab one from the chat. Cheers. Yes. You know, it's why I was focused on that, you know, so you guys know when I, I got the, you know, you get the scent, right? You get the smell, like the opportunity. When I first talked to the guys at Court Quartet Guitars a few years ago and it was a friendly conversation via email, I was like, well, they're being nice to me. We're being friendly. I go, well, let's go in for the ask. And I was like, I want to come to the factory. And as you guys know, I've kind of told this story to death. But I only wanted to see it because they said they did a 1.2 million guitars. And all I could think was, I need to see that. I need to see that. I don't know why. And now I know why. It's one of the few things in my life that I've done and I had no idea. I could not explain it to myself, my wife, my friends. I could not explain why I needed to see it. But I need to see it now that I've done it. I totally know why I needed to see it. And that's my secret to Keep for myself. But what I learned there was epic. But more importantly, it was.
- [31:56]
I mean, it's. Yeah, it's crazy. And I'm glad I got to share it with you. Like I said, they let me share everything except for one thing, which now ties in. I'm doing really good with the Segways today. Look at this. I'm like flowing it ties into. I grabbed it from an early riser question from Hero Glop who said, hey, Phil, do you. Do you know if the new Asian Fender standards, which is the standard Strats telesp bases, are selling failure or success? Well, funny enough, one of the things I was not able to show you was there was three. There was four buildings you didn't see at Cortec. I didn't show you the Strandberg building. That was not on Cortech or Strandberg. So, you know, that was on me. I just didn't show it to you. It basically, if you saw the master building, which you did in the video, they were making some Strandbergs in that building too. You see them in the background if you're looking in that video. So same, but different, you know, because they have their own specialized employees, like. Like Pure S does and stuff. So I didn't share that with you. That was just. I could maybe show one day share some footage with you. I don't know. The three buildings I didn't share with you guys was the Ibanez building, the Fender building and the Squire building. Those are the three buildings I did not share with you guys. And so the Fender building, as you can imagine, is where they're making those Fender standards at. And they're making a lot. So is it a failure or success? Well, as of August, when they were building, which is building for fourth quarter, I'm going to say it was somewhat of a success because they were building a lot of guitars.
- [33:16]
They make a lot of guitars. The thing that I think, the way people think sometimes is, is not 100%. They don't see the whole picture. And maybe sometimes you want to back up and expand out. Looking at this guitar, the guitar world through my eyes. Let me see how my show you through how my eye sees this. When you see that $600 Indonesian made fender standard Stratocaster Arteli and the market slows down, your first thought is probably like, how did it go over? Because, you know, it got a lot of hate. Well, first of all, you can almost guarantee that if everybody hates it on the Internet, it's a huge success.
- [33:55]
Not always, but Most of the time. So, you know, I've never had a video that got a million views. Not one that somebody doesn't say, you've jumped the shark. And this is the worst video you ever made. I don't mean like one in the million. That's like the comment. They're like, this is the worst video you ever made, Phil. Like, okay, cool. And then, boom, now it's 3 million views. Okay? So just. I don't know what it is. So people just have no. A lot of people with no sense of something have an opinion about it. I guess that's all of us. But my point is, what's going to happen now is we see everybody's buying down. In other words, the market's tighter. You know, people are not spending as much. We see that in the guitar industry. Everybody always thinks, and I've told you guys this before, everybody thinks. Everybody just stops buying. It's not what happens. First of all, some people aren't even affected by a recession. Recessions are strange or even. And I'm not even say we're in one. I'm just talking about markets. I'm really going to talk about the last recession because that's where pull a lot of information from, because I survived that market. In this industry, what people really do, they do pull their discretionary spending to a point, but they also kind of just change, you know, like, I used to buy $3,000 guitars, but I'm not gonna do that now. I'm gonna buy a pedal or I'm gonna buy, you know, a $300 guitar and fix it up. I'm still gonna find a way to enjoy myself. It's kind of like I'm still taking the kids to Disneyland. We're just staring, staying at the La Quinta and not the Marriott, right? Like, that's like people. For some reason, only people in comment sections across the Internet have this pass fail system attitude towards everything. Oh, guitar marks down. Then nobody buys a guitar at all. And all companies go out of business. I'm like, that's not even close to how it works. Well, how it works is people pull back. That's the first thing they do. And they would pull back. You go, oh, it's going to be tough. Except for companies like Fender, what they'll do is they'll. They have those price points to pull back too. So where you would have bought an 800 guitar now, and you slide down to their 600 guitar, they still get the sale. Yes, it's not the same, but they still get It. So I see a lot of people saw this coming with those models when they came out in January, that they saw the market and they were like, we need this price point for the market. Look.
- [36:10]
I'm not saying.
- [36:13]
I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to say this, actually. I'm buying time in my. While I try to figure this out.
- [36:19]
Look, obviously you saw the videos I made at the Cortek factory where SEs are at. You see what PRS is doing. You see that they're basically making guitars that can survive a softer market. They cannot sell $5,000 guitars in a soft market. Now, when I say cannot see, this is the pass fail. I don't mean they won't sell none. They're just gonna sell a lot less, right? They're just gonna sell a lot less. They're gonna sell a lot less. Well, they gotta sell something. So they create a new market or they expand the market that will survive or do better in this market, which is se. Same with vendor. They're just going to expand the markets. You know, everyone does this in this industry. And again, I'm only talking about the music industry. I don't want to talk about other industries. I don't want to hear about what everybody says, oh, this is what's happening in my industry. I'm like, great, but this is a guitar podcast. In the guitar market, if you can't sell your 300 pedal, you make a new, more affordable line of pedals. And you push on that a little bit, because again, you still have a buying. You have a buying. You have a buying community that loves your product, and they want to buy something because this is how they reward themselves with joy to some degree. And then you need to give them something that they'll pull the trigger on. And sometimes there's two ways to do that. Lower. Lower your price, which is what a lot of people are doing right now, that will definitely get some people to buy. Create a new price point that's lower, or create a product that's more exciting, that just gets them to go, I don't even care about money anymore. Just gonna throw. Throw your wallet down, right? I call it vacation spending logic. You know, when you're on vacation and they're like, how much is that coffee? And they go, $11. And you go, well, I'm on vacation. I deserve this $11 coffee. The rest of the year. I getting 711 coffee. I'm getting this $11 coffee, damn it. And everybody. You know what? I'm buying everybody $11 coffee. I'm on vacation. I call that vacation logic, where you just, your logic goes away to some people. So you can do that logic anytime. You can be like, I need this. I'm doing it. So to answer your question, they were building lots, which they were building lots in August for fourth quarter. I don't think they were going to oversaturate. Obviously I have the end because I was there at the factory and I know bunch of things that, why they were doing what they were doing. When I say that, I mean all the brands and all the brands seem to be. All the brands seem to be on the same page about where the market's going to be and where the prices and the products need to be to hit that market as a whole.
- [38:44]
So. So I don't know. Susan says, what's a vacation? I know.
- [38:53]
Hey, you know what? Next year I didn't do vacation this year. I try to always. We always try to take a three day weekend like every year. And this year will be the first year. We just didn't take a three day weekend or a weekend. I don't know how, how it happened. We both looked at each other going, the year's almost over. So.
- [39:10]
Anyways, so. But it's okay.
- [39:17]
Let's see.
- [39:20]
A lot of people like, oh, vacations, vacations are a fun thing. Take vacations. My best advice to give you guys as I don't do it myself.
- [39:29]
I usually do, but definitely take a vacation.
- [39:35]
All right, so here's a fun segment. So we're gonna change things up today. We're gonna do gear of the week today, okay? So I thought it'd be fun. A little change of pace. We're gonna do gear of the week instead of Guitar of the Week. And we're gonna go over, since it's the holidays coming, we're gonna go over the new gear that's coming out and some of the deals that are out there. I thought it'd be fun to kind of go over, recap it, talk about it and see what's going on out there. Because, you know, I remember. You know, it's funny, I remember just like it was yesterday, episode 300 and 300 and blah, blah, blah, when we were like, there's no real deals on Black Friday and now it seems like there's deals. But is there? Because you know what's funny is when I was looking at Black Friday deals and I would see real deals this year. And this is what I want to talk about before we go into the segment.
- [40:27]
Every time I see a deal right now. I don't know what made me do this, but I did it. I saw a deal. I go, that's a really crazy deal. Like, how can. Why are they blowing this out for that? And then I went online and looked at used, and I was like, whoa. These things are being. People are dumping their used gear. So every time I've seen a really good deal, just be aware, use is where the money savings really is. But let's go ahead. I had. I had a nice. Having new graphics. I have new everything. Let's do head. Let's do a gear of the week. Let's hit it. Let's switch screens. And now it's time for gear of the Week. All right, so I thought the first piece of gear we would check out this week is the Troika. This is a pedal that's JHS and Third Man Hardware, which is Jack White's company, I believe. And they made a delay with three sliders. And it's, you know, they keep making these outrageously crazy pedals with delay. And this was one. And I watched the. The video with Josh from ghs. So, you know, I guess he said he filmed this last year. So even though he's been recently in an accident, this was obviously from last year. And of course, because of good marketing, as always, they sold out in a minute. So if you wanted one, you can't find one. But what's weird about this is it sounded really cool. So let's check out how it sounded first.
- [41:57]
Now, what's strange about this is that Black Mountain also did a pedal where it's like a Roto echo delay pedal with a roller that does what I thought some sounded kind of similar to this, and they sent me one. I actually have it.
- [42:11]
And then right when I was going to release the video, they told me not to release the video. So I never released it. But anyways, I thought it sounded really cool and I actually kind of like better. So this is their demo of that.
- [42:38]
And of course, another piece of gear, unless you were outside this week enjoying your life and not watching YouTube. The Joyo Jam Buddy 2. Now, I did a video of the Joyo Jam Buddy 1 years back, but the Jam Buddy 2 has more stuff, I guess, including a magazine rack. I'm just kidding. This is a cell phone holder on the back, and it has USB C. Looks like it has a headphone out. Of course, the Joyo logo you see on that grill is a speaker. There's two, I think, two little speakers in there. So you can hear this. This is a little amplifier on the floor that will have reverb and delay and effects. And of course you can jam along with backing tracks and stuff. And it's about $100, it looks like. So, I mean, I found it for $95 on Tolman's website, so I haven't seen it for sale anywhere else yet. But pretty cool. I don't know much about it. You know, they did a big product launch, and as you guys know, we kind of try to stay away from big product launches. If I get caught up in them from time to time, you know, but anytime we smell it coming, we kind of back off and then try to talk about the product later and spend some time with context with it.
- [43:42]
Okay, so this is not new product, but this is discounted product for the holidays. They did this last year. So DiMarzio Pickups is doing a 25% off sale on their website. But what's cool to know is that you can also get them for 25% off at Sweetwater. However, I did a little research. If you buy a pickup at Sweetwater and get the discount, you don't pay shipping, but you pay sales tax. If you buy a pickup on DiMarjio's website, you don't pay sales tax, but you pay shipping. So what I figured out putting them in carts is you have to buy at least $200 or I want to say three pickups or let's just say 200 plus dollars worth of stuff. So if you buy $200 worth of stuff, I would definitely just go direct to DiMarzio where you don't pay sales tax because the shipping only increases per item per about a dollar apiece after the first initial shipping charge. Where Sweetwater, the sales tax is just a percentage of the total. So in other words, if you're gonna buy one pickup, you might just go with Sweetwater. If you're gonna buy two or three, you might want to check out DiMarzio's website and save yourself a little money. I'm gonna buy a Super Distortion and I'm just gonna buy it straight from Sweetwater because the tax on one pickup is like $8, and the shipping for one pickup at DiMarzio is like 13, $14. Okay, so this is something you guys all sent me. This is the IK Multimedia Tonx plug. Headph is kind of like when they did the Katana headphone amplifier. And I think Blackstar has one. A bunch of companies have these. Essentially you plug it into your guitar with an 8th inch cable it's a little box, it's got a little volume control on the side and just like the probably the Tonx little mini pedal, you can put your amp tones in there. And it's basically a really good headphone amp for 150 bucks. I'm not really into headphones, so this isn't really marketed towards me. But I know you guys love them and I understand the value of being able to play guitar and not interrupt people if you're in an apartment or home or on vacation or traveling, it's just really cool that way. And I do have a little headphone amplifier. It's just, it's also a little speaker and that's why I like it. I use the Spark Go and it's fine. And why I like it is it's not as small as this, but it's small and I can use as a little Bluetooth speaker. And for me, when I travel, I always, I used to always take a Bluetooth speaker so I could have music in the hotel room when I'm getting ready in the mornings or in the afternoons when I'm relaxing and working. And so now having the Bluetooth speaker also be a little guitar amplifier and with a little headphone amplifier, it to me it's, it's just a, you know, it's what I'm interested in.
- [46:09]
Okay, so for me, this was the highlight of the new gear coming out. This is the Gretsch Streamliner Jet Club. One pickup electric guitar comes in three colors. This olive drab, a black and a pink. It's one pickup stream down. Now I. What I love is it's got the cool Gretsch headstock as far as I'm concerned. It's got the, the white Falcon looking over dramatic headstock that I love. And really, to be honest, without that headstock and the Gretsch logo, this guitar is not very exciting. But they did another version, the Gretsch Streamline Jet 1 pickup. And they actually have a two pickup version in a blue color, like an off white, like ivory and then a black. And there's a bunch in this whole series. I absolutely love the Streamliner Jet 2 in this green. I think it's fantastic. These guitars are about 319. So you're talking about pick up guitars ranging from $189 to $350. You know, it's one of those things. Yeah, there's already guitars just like this at these prices. But you know, owning a Gretch is a cool thing. And you know, I'm curious about the neck carves and the vibe. Now, this isn't new gear, but this is more of what we're seeing is dealers just blowing out stuff. This is the Jimi Hendrix Love Drops Flying V by Epiphone, and it was $1500. Sweetwater's got it down to $11.99, but however, one of my patrons found Empire Music has it for 9.99. Now, of course, they're charging shipping on that where Sweetwater isn't. But either way, essentially 4 to 500 dol off this guitar makes it a little bit more obtainable. Still not affordable, but more obtainable. And, you know, things like this. You know, if you're a Hendrix fan and you want this V, I suggest you buy it because, you know, after they blow them out, they'll go back up. In other words, the used value will be close to this. So. And I pulled up some reverb listings, and these are actual ones that sold for about 900 to $1,000. And looks like the prices are coming down right now, but I think that's because they're dumping the new ones. So, again, it's not a smoking deal, but I think, you know, a couple months ago you'd be buying a used one of these for the price they're trying to sell you a new one. And I know Black Friday's coming and you got to look for deals out there to see what's going on. And there's a lot of deals, especially now with the market. But one of the deals I liked that I picked up was the Boss Tu3 tuner. It's normally like 110 bucks, and they're selling them for $79. And I'm sure Boss has lowered the map because when you go look at them on reverb, I mean, they're selling for 40 to $60 on average, which is crazy. To think that a pedal From Boss that's $110 is getting $40 used. That's crazy. Boss always got like 60, 70% used. At the worst was 50%, but 79 bucks isn't horrible. Now for a new one. So if you can't find one of those good. If you can't find a good used one, I'd suggest checking this out for 80 bucks. It's a dependable pedal, and the prices will only go up in the future. Again, for sure. If I didn't mention, it's also available for the same price at Guitar center and Sweetwater. So my guess is it's again, it's a Roland So if you got a local mom and pop shop that does boss, go check them out. You'll save some money and help out a small dealer during the holidays. If you guys like this segment, this idea, let me know. And if you want to make it better, help me out by sending me some deals. You see, you can send it to the asknowyourgearmail.com email address. I'll put the link in the description. Don't send me your life story, just send me the deal that you see on Gear and where the link to where you're getting it or the mom and pop store that's offering it. Also, if you see new gear or new exciting things, same thing. Don't send me a long story, just send me what you found and that will help us out to make this better.
- [49:41]
Gear of the week.
- [49:46]
Okay, so I gotta say how much I appreciate my wife doing the. And now it. And now it. And now it's time for Gear of the Week. And. And now. You know what's funny is I have the. The Guitar of the Week one. I can do the. Cool. Now. Now it's time for Guitar. Now it's time for Guitar of the Week. Yeah, I gotta get the gear one to do that. Okay, couple things. I like playing with all these. Look, I'm kind of working this out. The space station starting to work now with all the segments that I can switch between. Okay, so here's a couple things that I wanted to go over because I'm looking at comments real quick. Let me scan real fast. And. And here's one. Here's one that says. What does it say? It says.
- [50:36]
I'm scrolling. Give me a second.
- [50:45]
Maybe not. Hold on.
- [50:49]
Somewhere, anywhere.
- [50:51]
Oh, here's one. Somebody's asking me. Oh, it says which DiMarzio pickup sounds most like the Seymour Duncan JB. So I don't think.
- [51:03]
Picturing somebody's eyes rolling their head right now. Anyways, just. I don't know of any DiMargio that actually sounds exactly like the JB. I. I don't. They're kind of voiced different. I mean, all the pickups that I know from SEYMOUR Duncan are DiMargio are voiced differently than that. I would say most people would relate the super distortion and the JB as being the two competing products in those. For. For Duncan and DiMarzio. I'm not saying they sound alike. I'm just saying those are the two competing products. Right. Like if you look back at the 80s, everybody either had a JB in the bridge or they had a Super Distortion. That's kind of like the thing, right? I would say that if I was going to. Because I like the jb. So to me, there's. If I thought there was an actual DiMargio JB pickup, being that I'm friends with DeMarcus, I would probably just put that in one of my guitars. But when I want a jb, I put it a JB in it.
- [51:59]
However, I would say the closest I have I. In my ears to the guitars I have that have picked up, it would be the tone zone. And I'm sure a lot of people would disagree, but.
- [52:11]
And here's. Here's what's funny about that.
- [52:18]
My screen did not freeze. My brain froze as. I don't know if I'm. I don't think I'm clear to tell this story. So I don't think I can tell you guys. There's a story. How about this? There's an article on DiMargio's website where Larry DiMargio talks about the story about making the pickups for Eddie Van Halen for the Access or the. Essentially the Music man guitar, the signature guitar. And. And I don't know to this, I cannot for the life of me, because I read that article. I cannot remember what's in the article and what was told to me personally. That might be outside the article. As far as I know, he didn't tell me anything outside what he told you guys. He didn't leave anything out. But what I want to tell you is that when they started making the pickup for Eddie Van Halen. So I'm gonna. This stuff is mostly known, and if I'm gonna go outside the bounds, you know, I'll deal with it later.
- [53:03]
When they made the pickup for Eddie, he really liked the jb. That's really what he liked, in fact. So, you know, when the way the story was told to me by Larry was, you know, they were invited out, just like Seymour Duncan was invited out. A bunch of pickup manufacturers were invited out to essentially make a pickup for Eddie Van Halen's Music Man. And the Music man guys told him that he was coming out of a guitar that looks kind of like a telly and a Les Paul came together, which all of them were like, what? You know, imagine not seeing the Access or the Music man guitar. You can imagine how if somebody described it like that, you know, now it makes sense. Like, oh, I see it now. But then they were like, what? And at the time, Eddie liked this Seymour Duncan jb. So it was like a shoe in that Seymour Duncan would get the contract. And through happens, you know, through this, the story that happens. What happens is, as we all know, Larry DiMaggio and DiMargio Pickups gets the contract to make the guitars. Ready are the pickups. And they made some prototypes and they took them to Eddie and the final proto prototype. I know, I know this is in the article. So I'm cool with this. They, they narrowed it down to like two pickups for the, for the bridge. And they said which one? To Eddie. And Eddie said, I don't know, Steve, you decide. So Steve Lukathur was standing there and Steve Lucas like, you like this one, Eddie? And Eddie's like, okay, that one. And so Steve Lukather picked, essentially the story goes, Steve Lukas picked the pickup that is in that guitar. To this day, by the way, if you buy a musicman Access, a USA one, it still has the same set of DiMargio pickups that, that were made for Eddie Van Halen when his. He had a signature model. They never changed. The pickup that was not picked was the tone zone. So that's why I say I think the tone zone one. I like the tone zone. I have a lot of them. But it was, I think and I. Like I said he didn't. Larry didn't tell me this personally, that hey, we were just trying to make a Seymour Duncan for Eddie. But I would imagine if that's what he liked, everybody was chasing that sound. I would imagine that the pickup that's in that guitar and the tones in there, which is slightly different than that pickup, I would imagine those pickups would have a Seymour Duncan vibe. I don't say it's the same. So what I'm saying that is I have guitars with both of them in them. And I, I think to me the, the, the tone zone and the JB. The main difference to me is the JB's got more mids. Seems like the mids are just a little more like in the, you know. Right. Which is why I've always think that almost all DiMarjos do so well with Marshalls who are very mid heavy amps. And the Duncan's do well with Fenders, which are very mid scooped amps. That's just kind of how I always kind of look at those, those pickups. That's. That's again a what I call a broad brush brushstroke. So you know, if somebody goes, no, no, Phil, you're wrong. It's not that I'm wrong or right, it's just I'm kind of Just giving a big, broad brushstroke. If we dialed it down to specifics, it would just, you know, we'd be able to pick apart what I just said. But as a general saying, you know, it's. It's pretty. I think it's pretty accurate. So. So I would say the tone zone, that's just my. That's my long way. But I want to give you, you know. Yeah, Brian says super distortion was super distortion because it was good enough for Ace. Of course, the superstores super distortion is a great pickup, especially if you're trying to go for vintage sound, you know, and isn't that funny to say that now? That's not funny. Like, am I, you know, right. I'm gonna trigger somebody saying that. That the 80s is the vintage sound. That's a vintage sound now, too, guys. You need that 80s vintage sound. It's like the 70s, 60s, 50s goes on and on.
- [56:35]
So.
- [56:38]
But yeah, that would be my answer. So Run Riot says, hey, I don't really like the jb. Something about the mids. Yeah, well, it's really. I think they're pronounced. I like midsummer, but I don't like the JB's mids. So, you know, that's interesting point there, because that's going to go to another good question that I got here and this all ties back in. I'm doing great on Segways today if I can figure this out.
- [57:09]
Maybe not. Maybe I can't. Maybe I can't figure it out. So. So basically, I can't find. I just read the question. So.
- [57:23]
All right, I grabbed it.
- [57:27]
And.
- [57:29]
I can't find it, but I just saw it. So I'm going to go off what I can remember if I apologize if I get it wrong. Essentially the question is they're asking me about out of phase sounds.
- [57:42]
So I saw it. I read it real fast. Maybe Amanda grabbed it. Maybe that's where I just saw it. Things are just kind of flashing at me, guys. So, you know, in the show, I get a lot of things flashing at me. So the question is, somebody was asking, essentially, this ties into what we're talking about mids. Just a second ago, about mid range, they were saying, hey, why would a guitar manufacturer make a guitar that has this. That out of phase sound? They said. They were also mentioning that I sometimes refer to as nasal. So if you guys know what we're talking about.
- [58:12]
Phase in, phase out of phase sound. The out of phase sound to me is always this really nasal kind of nasal mids. And. And this is A perfect example. Mids to me are everything. The mid range frequencies, to me personally, bass I think is, is. Is. Is important and treble is important. But to me, when the mids are wrong, everything sounds weird. Like a cocked wall. There's a sound that digital does and it sounds like a cocked wall. Now some people like it because if you like Michael Shanker, you probably like the cockwash sound. He was. He was known for doing that. But sometimes when you don't want that, it sounds weird. It sounds like the wall pedal's still on. And. And the question is, why would they do that? So I'm not doing guitar of the week, but I do have. I have. So it's a Keisel. I do have a Keisel. Since you guys know I have the PM Delos, which is right there. It's my guitar with keisel. But what you may not know is I have this carcass. I'm not kidding. I have a. I have a guitar. It's a delos. But it's used for abuse. As you guys remember, I used to abuse my Copper Strat and do all kinds of things, different pickups. So this guitar has all kinds of wiring in it, pickups in it, and all kinds of stuff that I do to it to work out ideas. And this actually has an out of phase switch. So I'm going to show you why you would want an out of phase sound. It's. I could probably tell you all day went like this, but it would never make sense.
- [59:37]
Okay, so I'm on neck pickup. What I'm playing doesn't matter. I mean.
- [59:44]
Single coil. Okay. So I'm gonna play some drums, play the. Play the guitar. I'm not gonna play a song. I just want to show you this is not out of phase. So I'm going to show you that first. Okay, Here we go.
- [60:11]
Okay, so that was regular. Here's the same thing. Out of phase.
- [60:33]
So where normally. Turn that off. Where normally you would not want that sound. I wouldn't. I wouldn't want.
- [60:46]
Okay. Country, right. Picks through. It's got a thing. This is not out of phase again.
- [60:55]
But it cuts through a mix. I mean that.
- [61:02]
So that's why you would want it. And that ties into two things. One that answers that question, but also answers the question a second ago when they said they didn't like the JB because they don't like. They like mids. They just don't like those mids. Yeah, that's what people understand is the mid frequencies. They're a bigger spectrum Than you think. It's not just mids. There's. There's mids, there's mid range frequencies. And I same thing when they're, when the mids are wrong, I just can't unhear it and I can't stand it. And when the mids are missing, I just feel like it's lifeless. Like, you know, it's just void of everything that I love about, you know, that makes me want to play music. So mids are very important, which is why I've said this for years. When it comes to pedal manufacturers and amp manufacturers specifically, and of course guitar manufacturers, their ears are to me more important than their technical know how. I have seen, in my experience, I've seen smart people who can build an amplifier and design, you know, all kinds of things, you know, whether it's technology based equipment like, you know, modelers or pedals or what have you. But their ear is shit. And they just. Everything I just tell them like, yeah, that's great.
- [62:17]
But it doesn't sound good. And I've seen people with great ears who can't build, but can find somebody who can build and vice versa. And my best advice in this industry that I've seen is this. If you have a great ear and you have the technical know how, then you're set. If you're missing one of those, go find the other counterpart. Which is why some manufacturers are smart and they hire artists to do signature product. Because the artists have the ear, they go, yeah, so because there's an argument, it's like, hey, look, I built this amp and it's built beautifully. And the artist's like, yeah, but it sounds like crap. So that, you know, you can't have one and not the other.
- [62:53]
So.
- [62:55]
Let'S see.
- [62:59]
Eldon Ray says DiMargio's ear must be. You know what's funny is that is a, a weirdly odd compliment. Isn't that funny? Because I think, you know, I'm sure he has a great ear. I think he has a great ear. But I, I don't. I know your point. I get your point. Because he has like all the artists. Artists, right. He definitely worked with everybody and so did Duncan. Because you gotta understand, seymour, Duncan and DiMargio pretty much forever were the two pickups we went to. I mean, there was a time in my life where if you asked me who makes pickups, I'd be like, DiMargio and Duncan, they go, who makes pedals? And I'm like, DOD and boss. Oh, and mxr. Probably MXR and boss. And then maybe dod, right. But that'd be it. Like everything was two things.
- [63:42]
You were just forever. I just remember, I mean obviously it wasn't true. There was more than two things, but you would just know two things. That's all you knew was two things. There was two companies who did a thing and that's it. And then there was 5,000 companies and now there's 5,000 brands but only two companies who do things. So it's all. See how it works. There was two companies originally and then 5,000 companies and now 5,000 brands with two companies kind of. All right, we need to get back. We need to get us up.
- [64:16]
I don't say, I'm gonna say. Mr. Rowe says that's why the answer guys did the thing with Blackstar and had them and had whooped so they whoops Black had them do with Black Star. So they're hearing, had the Black Star engineer come and make the patch. Yeah, like I said, I like both versions but I think I prefer the Anderton version a little better. Like I said when I said that, I think I said in the video, but I'm saying it now too. I preferred their version. Anderton's version, I preferred it better, but not in the. I didn't like the first version. Now I like their version is I like the first version and theirs is just a little better. So.
- [64:54]
Fast Teddy.
- [64:59]
You know when they say a comma is really important? Fast Teddy 333 or Fast Eddie? Fast Eddie 333 says, hey Phil, did you sell your 12 string guitars? Nope. No, I own two 12 string guitars and at some point there'll be two videos for those guitars. It's not that. It's not, it's not a time restraint. It's not the videos aren't ready. It's not the guitars. It's. It's that they're specific for of videos that just aren't. They're not ready to be ready yet, if that makes any sense. But yeah, I still have two 12 string guitars and there's two. There'll be two videos. There'll be two 12 string videos at some point.
- [65:41]
Crud Dog, Crud Dog says, hey, have you heard of revival pickups? I have not.
- [65:48]
I have not. There's so many. Right. Joe says Lawler is another good pickup maker. Oh, there's a ton of great pickup makers now. But yes, Lawler is fantastic. So. Okay, let's go to.
- [66:02]
Refresh this.
- [66:08]
Jeff says, hey, I have a classic vibe. 60s Strat and I play classic Rock and blues. I'm thinking of putting a Gibson mini humbucker in the bridge. Thoughts? I've done that. I've actually put a mini humbucker in a guitar and the bridge in this ever ending quest to have a balance of sound, you know, like, oh, the humbucker was just too overpowering. And. And then I went to single coils and the volume dropped and I didn't like that. So I tried a mini humbucker. I tried the mini humbucker in the bridge and it was fine. So when I say it's fine, you might love it. I. It didn't solve my particular problem, but you might not have the particular problem I had. I had. The problem is, like I said, I wanted to switch from neck and back to bridge and not have a massive volume dropout. So I wanted the pickups to be more voiced. How did I solve that? Eventually.
- [66:53]
Yeah, I went to lace. So all my pickups are lace and I have the blue, silver, red set. And. And so that's where I went. And. But you know, I understand some people don't like the lace sound that. But I'd say give it a try. I wish I still had the pick guard. I had a pick guard that had the mini humbucker. I would just send it to you. But I still, I tossed it at some point about a year or two ago. That's why you shouldn't toss it. Shouldn't toss stuff like that. Antique rocker says, hey, in the video you install P rails in a trip triple shot system. So he's talking about the triple shot. So let's make sure. Because this is one of those things where people are gonna be like, what? So I have a video where I did an LTD guitar. And the video was I took the. The P rails, which is a Seymour Duncan pickup. I'm going to show you that the P rails are some of, I think, the coolest pickup Seymour Duncan's ever done.
- [67:40]
And here's what it is. Move things around. So the P rails is a pickup that is a humbucker. But of course this is like a P90 and this is a single coil. So when they're both on, you have a humbucker, but then you have a P90 or a single coil. And then you can get something called.
- [67:56]
Whatever he called it. He said.
- [68:01]
It'S funny because I know what they're called, but because he just said it now my brain's spacing it. He said, you put the triple shots. So the triple shots, let's talk about that. So The P rails, of course. Now, you explain what that is. The triple shots are these cool.
- [68:18]
Pickup rings that Seymour Duncan makes that have little switches in them. And the little switches let you do everything that I basically did in that guitar a minute ago. So you can see these little switches right here. There's two. So you could. If you push them both out, you'll have. I. You know, I. I forget all the combinations because I gotta read the instructions again. But essentially, you can have a humbucker, a single coil, or you can have it out of phase, or you can have the outer humbucker, a single coil, or the inner single coil. There's all kinds of ways you can wire this up. And I did a video wiring it up. And. And yes. So in that video. So now we're all up to speed. That's what those things are. He's asking, I have a video, if you want to watch it on that. I show you the guitar and how to install those. He says, do you still have the guitar? I don't. I don't have. So let's be very clear. There was a time where we would keep guitars. We keep no guitars now from videos, unless the video just happened to be a video that I use my personal guitar in for some reason. So any guitars for videos are just. Immediately they're gone. So usually what happens is somebody just emails me right after the video and says, hey, you want to. I want to buy that. And I go, Shauna says, okay. And we send it off or, you know, we trade it off or sell it off, or it's. It's just how we. How we churn the gear. There's just no reason to hold on to anything that isn't specific for me. So a good example is, yes, if a company makes me a specific guitar for me, right? So it's specific to me. Not just like, I pick the color, but it's specific in every way for me. Well, yeah, then maybe we'll keep that guitar because there's, you know, a reason to keep it. Maybe a sentimental reason, but otherwise, unless it's my personal guitar. Guitar. All guitars we get rid of. And it's because, you know.
- [70:01]
You can't do, you know, a hundred. You know, think of this. We do more than that. But we can't do a hundred videos a year and have 100 guitars a year. There'd be a thousand guitars here if I did that. I'm not even exaggerating. It'd be a thousand guitars. So there's just no way. So that. That's why they have to go. So the only exceptions to that are, like I said, if it's a personal guitar for me for some reason, otherwise the guitars go immediately. And we used to hold on to them because companies, you know, would be like, hey, we want you to hold on to this so you can put in the background of. And actually, and here's the funny part.
- [70:37]
When I say that out loud, I should actually say it this way. A couple companies did that. A very few, not even like six.
- [70:44]
Most companies, we would just do that for them but they didn't care. So that's what it is. So like I bought the bones guitar for me for Halloween for the Halloween video. So that's mine. I obviously bought the Majesty for me. That's my Keisel. So those, that's why those will stick around because they're my guitars. The guitar over there, the Hagstrom, the Ikea caster, I did buy that to make a video. But reason we haven't got rid of it is, is because I don't want to just sell it off, I want to do something with it. So there's certain guitars like that. Certain guitars. So I guess the exception to when we'd sell a guitar is sometimes we'll donate the guitars. We do donate guitars to schools or charities and sometimes we find a good home for a guitar, so to speak. Because there's just no monetary gain to get from that. That guitar. The Ikea caster, I bought for a hundred dollars. So if I sold it, I'd sell it for a hundred dollars, you know, and a hundred dollars is good, but it's not going to fund in another video. So. But that's, I just want you to understand that's why we don't have it. So that's why it's gone. It's. We. I bought that guitar, I bought that guitar from Sweetwater, full price. I bought all the, all the pickups and those triple shots, full price from Sweetwater and just to make that video. So. And, and, and I know you want to know how did that work out? I lost money, but I make money on other videos and that's how it works. It's an averaging plan and I'm averaging fine. But, but yeah, that was a. I thought that would be a good video. I'm glad. Look, by the way, antique rocker. I know this sounds self serving but I just want to say it. When you guys mention videos like that, like, hey, I like that video for whatever reason, dude, it just makes my life so awesome because I'm like, yeah, I'm glad because it was on paper. There was just no reason to make that video other than I just thought. I thought it'd be a good video and somebody would like it. So when somebody likes it, that's the payout for that. That, I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't want to make it sound like it's hard out here. It's cool because like I said, where every video I make like that, there's a sponsored video or some kind of, you know, video, other video. But it's just, it's nice to hear that. So let's let you know.
- [72:46]
We have Damien. Damien says, hey, Phil, the saddle height adjustment screws on my Strat are sharp and scraping my hand. Can these be filed or softened somehow? I would not file or soften them. It's not going to be worth your time. You basically just want to cut them and lower them or replace them with new grub screws. And I will put a link here when I timestamp this to a video short. I have a short video, literally a YouTube short. In fact, maybe can I go to it and save everybody a little time and headache where I tell you basically, I think not only how to cut them, but also where to buy them at.
- [73:29]
Install pickup string, hack.
- [73:32]
You know what? You know what we'll do? I'll do this. I'll make it easy for myself and for you. There is a playlist. I will link the playlist to all the short videos. So a lot of times you guys will say to us, hey, I like that you taught that in that video. But I can't remember where in the video or what the video was. We clip those and put them in YouTube shorts for you guys. And then so you guys know, we do not send YouTube shorts to the, to you guys, the subscribers. So subscribers don't get notified the shorts exist. We just put them on the platform. So you have them as a resource. So you go to that playlist in there, I'll show you how to fix that grub screw and. Or replace it with a new one. And if you really, really want to do something better, you can get really cool saddles from Stu Mac. And you can. And again, I always tell people, use Stu Mac is the resource.
- [74:21]
And then let's see, I'm going to use saddles, so bridge saddles. I have a.
- [74:31]
I have a sharp Max and I think I have a video on Stu Max channel of these. I do, I do think about this. It's a double whammy. Okay, so watch this. I'm a double whammy this thing.
- [74:48]
Okay? I'm gonna type in Philip McKnight, Stumac. So whether you guys know it or not, I have videos on Stumac's website as well, our channel.
- [75:00]
And look at that. Okay, so.
- [75:08]
Look at that. So on the stumac channel, Phil McKnight shows off our new Squire Stratocraster hardware kit. I did that six years ago. 151, 000 views. You're welcome, Stumac. Stumac asked me to do a bunch of videos, and then a lot of you guys weren't loving them on the channel. And I told Stu Mac, I go, they're not loving these on the channel. So the fix was, we'll put them on our channel. We still want you to do them. So to answer your question, in that video, I show you guys a bunch of things, including this amazing thing right here called the high wood contoured vintage saddles for Strat. This thing is zero dollars because it's out of stock. Normally 63 bucks. These are saddles. You can probably find them anywhere else. But whether or not you know it, if you look from the side here, you can see. Look at how cool this is. See how they bend? They bend it. So those listening later. The saddles look like bent saddles, like a normal strap, but they're bent in a way that the scrub screws are inside and don't come to the top. And your hand feels nice and smooth if that bugs you. So that would definitely pass the sock test. So you can cut your grub screws down, you can replace your grub screws with new ones, or you can buy those saddles and never have to worry about any of that ever again. If you got less than a hundred dollars. And then Crudd Dog wants to remind everybody that Stumac is expensive. Crudd Dog, we all know Stumac's expensive. We've all felt the pain. But I think, thank you for reminding us. But yes, they know they're expensive. The important part, though, is always, always, always one more time. Always for fun. Always go to Stu Mac for resources. Go there, go there. They have every part. You just. And you go, you find the part, and then when you find the part, you then can source it from the place you want to buy or a version of if you want to save some money or just buy it from them. I don't care either way. I do both. So I'm not going to be a hypocrite and go, go to Stu Mac and buy everything. I buy a lot from Stumac and I buy a lot, as you guys know, from Amazon, everybody else. Because like everybody else, I'm like, I can't. Sometimes I even look at the price and I go, I just can't do it, Stumac. I can't do this price. But Cruddog says it's the shipping. Oh, yeah. The shipping is just beyond stupid. So I've. I've given up. I want to keep fighting the fight for you guys. Years. Years. Did you know this is not. I'm not joking. Did you know that the people at Stu Mac for the longest time couldn't find my YouTube channel because they. Every time they searched it, they typed in, Philip, why don't you make free shipping? McKnight. Because every time I said that, they thought that was my name. Because I'd say, why don't you make shipping free? That's a joke, by the way. But not really, because every time I saw Steve Mac, you need to make shipping free. You need to make shipping free. Why don't you make shipping free? My audience would like you more if you had shipping free. I'd like you more shipping free. Did you know Stu Max got our Sweetwater's got free shipping. I have hammered them so much, and every time they've given me another reason why they're never going to do free shipping. So now mo. More 10 guitar. I guess that's more 10 guitar says free shipping with Stu Max. Yes, we do the stumax special. We did it a couple years ago for a couple times, and we didn't do it. And I'm very upfront. Keep in mind, I. Because the fact. Look, it's just the way the world works. Because I do deep dives and because in every deep dive, I'm using tools and because I've been using Stu Mac tools my entire career as working on guitars.
- [78:29]
You guys, you being all audience members, people who watch the videos, click on Stu Mac. So Stumac. I get probably more clicks to Stumac than any other affiliate link than I do. So. So let's just say it's a. It's not a lot of money because this is not how it works, but it's a lot of clicks that convert into a lot of sales and. And that's good for them. And that's good. That being said. That being said.
- [78:52]
What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that the reason we stopped doing the Stu Max deal is, is they did a deal for us two years in a row, which I really appreciated where they gave you guys half off, if on a discount, half off. Stu Max deal. And we did the deal. And then the last year we did it. The reason we stopped. And if Sumax ever hears this or Stumac ever hears this, they'll know. But I'm. But I'm pretty sure we told them. I'm. I'm very sure we told them. The reason we stopped is they did it to one year where they gave me a half off deal to give you guys. And then the. That we did in December and then in January they gave it away for free.
- [79:29]
And I'm like, I'm not gonna screw my own audience over. If you knew you're gonna give away for free, should have gave it to my audience for free. And so. And so I did that put a bad taste in my mouth and that ended that. That kind of working with them. Now before you guys get all high and mighty, because you will. And I'll say, oh my God, that's horrible. I hate Stu Mac forever. You got to keep in mind that's more of the marketing side of the company and less of the company itself. So I'm just saying, like, be sure who you're mad at. So I'm not even sure if it was Stumac or the marketing agency that works with Stu Mac or whoever came up with that. But yeah, but yeah, Umbelico, I'm gonna say Embellico says, I'm sorry, Phil, but I'm not a happy camper with Stu presently. Oh, that's weird. I've never had a bad experience buying from them. The one thing is, they will definitely take care of you. So if you're not having a good time with Stumac, I'm really shocked to hear that. You should call, talk to somebody else too, Mac, because they'll charge you a fortune, but they'll. They always take care of you. That's the one thing I can say. Let's see. Paddle Palfx. What's up, guys? He says, hey, Phil, saw your review on the Blackstar id and you mentioned the Boss Katana is still one of your favorites in this category. Are you. Are there any other amplifiers in this style? We're trying. Well, they're all good. That's the problem. Right? You got the Catalyst by line six, which is very good. The Katana is very good. That new X amp is very good. The Blackstar Ide, I mean, that's the problem. They're all really good. First of all, who's copying who? I don't know. The only thing that sucks is, why do they all make them look alike? That's kind of the weird part now, but. But you know what? At this point, it's a utility product, which means something, you know. Yeah, it would be nicer if it was a little sexier, but I mean, for 300 bucks and it does everything. They sound fantastic. That's why videos like that are hard for me. So that's why, like, in that video, if you notice, like, I'm like, I still like the katana because I want you guys to understand, like, this whole, like, wow, Blackstar blew everybody away. No, they approached the same thing differently. And there's reasons why a little burp. They approached it differently. Like I said, I think more like an amp maker. And so it's like an amp maker's take on a katana, and then the catalyst is like a Line 6 take on the katana, and the katana is there. Take on whatever amp they took it from. So that's my point. They're all really good. That is. Is there a bad one? That's the real thing. Is there a bad one? Is there a bad. Yeah. All the dated modeling amps, I think, are really not great compared to these. So any of the modeling amps from, you know, 10 years ago before that predate the katana? I think once the katana came, it leveled everybody up. Everybody either had to up their game to that or copy that. And so, yeah, I would say that's the only thing. But keep in mind, they're utility products, which means, you know, I don't think they're supposed to blow us away with how great they are. I think they're just supposed to be really good. And they are.
- [82:32]
Let's see.
- [82:40]
Okay.
- [82:50]
Okay. Chris says. Hey, Phil, I'm new to the channel. I have a pedal chain stacking question. Here are the devices and amps and play a G boss GT6 multi effects boss SDE boss GE7 boss Katana 50 gen 3 Vox Cambridge 50. I don't know.
- [83:11]
What would I do? Like, how would I set that all up? Well, I would imagine if you're using the GT6. I don't know if you're using it for the multi effects or for the actual overdrives or if you're gonna use the amps. Overdrive. The SD3. SD3. I would say if I was using all that, I might try the boss G7 in. Oh, the Katana Gen 50 doesn't have an effects loop, so that's where I would put that. I don't know if I would, to be honest with you. This is what sucks. I don't know if I'd use anything besides the GT6. If I had the boss Katana, I'd use the boss GT6. The what I need to see. I need to visualize this for a second.
- [83:51]
Hold on a second. So, I mean, your SDE3, your digital delay.
- [84:00]
I mean, I feel like, yeah, the eq boss eq is better than what's in the GT6, and the SDE delay is probably better than the delay in the GT6. But I almost feel like you don't need those pedals if you're using the GT6, unless they're specific to the sound that you have. And then me, I would put the delay.
- [84:23]
I would put the delay pedal in the EQ after the modeling. The GT6. Modeler, I'd put. So I'd have modeler. And then I. Because the delay is going to be last anyways. Put the delay absolute last in the eq unless I'm using the EQ for a boost. You could put that in front of the GT6 if you want to use it as a boost pedal. Or after the G6, GT6 if you want to shape sounds with it. You have to decide what you're gonna use the EQ for. And then in front of the amps, it doesn't matter. You just put it in front of one of the amps. And I'm not familiar with the Vox Cambridge 50, so that's like, I don't know what the features on that amp is. So I would imagine it's like the Katana, but I don't know.
- [84:58]
Happy good thing says, hey.
- [85:02]
Okay, Josh of Queens of the Stone Age got a PB Decade practice amp released as a signature. I remember that in. In January. It's one of those, like, amps that they couldn't give away. And then now that they found out he uses it, they're like, they. They all went up in a fortune and then they made one. And I. And I believe we talked about this when it came out that somebody makes a pedal of that. I think even PB is going to make a pedal of it. But they were. Somebody makes a pedal of it, it's supposed to be cool.
- [85:27]
Sir Toggle. That's what I'm gonna say. T O G L L. That's how I see it. Phil, with IK Multimedia releasing the Tonx plug and apparently a nice usable PC interface, do you think the bigger Tonx modeler. Oh, do you think there's A bigger Tonx model in the making. I would imagine with the success of Tonx, they'll expand the lineup because yes, first of all, if Tonx came out, it was a price point thing, right? So they came out, they were just cheaper than everybody else. They could. They had the thing. Then they came up with the mini Tonics. They were smaller than everybody. So it was like, we're cheaper now. We're cheaper and smaller. This earphone amp thing, again, it's just because once think about it like it's like the what the universe, right? Like they call it the Marvel universe. Right. All these movies have universes now. The Predator universe, there's a tonics universe. You have a consumer and this is there in that ethos. They're like, they're in the ecosystem of, of. Of the universe. I don't know. I'm just saying a lot of words that basically, yeah, you like tonics. You're going to use tonics for everything. So eventually, why wouldn't you use a bigger tonics module especially I think if they did a big model price wise it'd be really hard for a lot of players to justify going up to the prices of what line six and everybody else has. So yeah, I think I could see that coming. I would be shocked. I don't work with Tonx guys. I don't know anybody there. So there's one of those companies that just. I, I think I tell you guys this all the time. I'm. We're, we're. We work with very few companies. Very few companies reach out to us. And the ones that do usually reach out to every single channel on the planet Earth and even. And. And on top of that. Yeah, so I don't know. There's no more to say than that. But yeah, just saying tonic. So everything you've seen tonics for me is because I just bought tonic stuff. Evil Bunny says, hey, what's up with the project? With the project? With the DMAR filter Trons? I don't know. I don't know what that is. Are you talking about the filter on pickups? I don't know what's up with the project.
- [87:22]
I don't know what DMAR means. So is a DMAR filter trots. Well, I'll come back to that and see if I can figure it out later when I'm doing the recap. Kat's music journey says, hey, saw the chord video. Oh no, we already did this one. So we got Gerald who says, hey, two active singles in humbucker wired apart. I Have no idea. Some of these guys, you got to give me reference back to the whole thing again.
- [87:47]
And harp. D wants to know what's the best pickups for playing country and a T style guitar. I don't know.
- [87:56]
I mean, I. I'm gonna go with. I. I don't play country. So for the, you know, for the most part, I played country in a bass. As a bass player. I've been in a country band, but never as a guitar player in a country band.
- [88:09]
And. Oh, somebody said, D. Armand, what's up with the arm and filter Tron pickups? I don't know. That's my answer.
- [88:17]
But back to telly pickups. Let's do that. Country pickup. Tele pickups. I don't know. There's so many good pickups. I don't know. I would imagine.
- [88:28]
I don't know. I want something to stick out of my head. It's like thinking of like a ultimate sound kind of thing, but I just can't think of anything in my Telecaster. What I play is currently, right now is I'm back to the BG 1400s. I was playing Lindy Frailens forever, and then I switched back to my BG 1400s. The BG 1400 isn't stacked. Noiseless humbucker set from Seymour Duncan that I absolutely love.
- [88:57]
So.
- [89:00]
Riverstone says. Hey, Phil, can you run through your reaver gear 7 million. Dude, my 7 million comment is hilarious. It's. I've seen it come up so many times now. So if you guys don't know, we were talking about gear once and I made a comment that I have $7 million worth of gear. Actually, I didn't say it like that, but I kind of did. Like, I was making a joke, right? I was like, oh, here's my gear. And I went to how much it is. I go, seven million. And then a bunch of people thought it was funny, which is great. Some people, though, don't really grab sarcasm. And they were like, what? They're like, there's no way. It's like. So anyways, can I go through my gear? No, there's no way. So first of all, the problem is, is that I think the. I did a. I told Dr. This before doing a gear video. We talked about it, we talked about it, we talked about how to do it. The problem is the only gear video worth making is my personal gear. Like, what is my personal gear? And maybe that would be interesting. But I mean, otherwise, like, what's here all the time? I mean, any given time, it could Be different stuff. But.
- [89:59]
I don't know, maybe we'll do it one day. It's just gotta. It's gotta make sense.
- [90:09]
So.
- [90:12]
I always, always wonder. I try to see if I actually care. Like I try to watch, like, do I watch other people's gear videos, like all their collections And I do sometimes. And don't sometimes I really. You guys can do. If you guys just give me feedback on why, you know, how interesting you think it would be and how do I could approach it would be, you know.
- [90:32]
Maybe. Hold on a second.
- [90:39]
Okay. All right, let's go here.
- [90:44]
Go back to this screen. We got Kevin. What does Kevin want to say? He says, hey, I'm working on three guitars. No guitar to play. Bad planning. If you are. If you are donating, giving away anything would love to get. We only give to 501 Cs or to teachers, after school programs. That's the way we do it.
- [91:05]
And. And so that's just the way it works when it comes to donating guitars. So if. And if you don't know what a 501C, it just means legitimate charity. We generally will give more guitars to teachers just because they're more easy to deal with with getting the guitars when we give them away. So. So I'm just letting you know, that's how we do it. When we do giveaways, we are either actively trying to raise money for a charity that I like, which is just because I want. And it really isn't about. And just to be clear, it's not about giving guitars away. It's about raising money for charities. I like. I learned over the years that I have this way of doing it because I have this channel. I can raise money for a charity with guitars. So I'll do it that way. However, a lot of times we'll just do after school programs because we can find local schools who actually just take them from us. And it just makes it an easier process for us. But that's the only. Usually the only two ways we do it. Point. And. And also keep in mind.
- [92:04]
Very rarely do we have free guitars. So a lot of the guitars that you see us, if we're selling them or whatever, just be very careful when we say I just. Because I can just pay attention because I don't really handle this. This is an important part. This is a Shauna thing. A lot of the guitars are going back. They're going back to the companies because that's what was agreed upon. But then what happens is Shauna is basically says, what's our price if we buy it. And then if the price is right, we know that we can sell it real fast and we can take that revenue and add it to making videos. So that's kind of the logic. So a lot of that stuff, or in this case.
- [92:39]
A lot of K. In a lot of cases, it's. It's actually the revenue of the channel. Like, in other words, the guitar was given in exchange for some kind of compensation. So we can pay for the time to do the video because the video wasn't going to net very much. Gary says, what about us vets? We do for Guitars for Vets. That's the charity I use. I raise a certain amount for Guitars for Vets every year, and that's how I do it. So that. So we do Guitars for Vets. That's how we do it. If you're a vet, I would reach out to them. They have an amazing program for vets with PTSD where they will give vets with PTSD a guitar and lessons. And so a lot of times it's really hard to give them guitars because they don't need guitars, they need money. So a lot of times what I'll do is I'll just donate the money and then we'll either sell the guitar or we'll figure out something out some other way. But the reason why they want donations is, is because charities like that can arrange to buy guitars. I believe. I believe and think things change all the time. I believe they have a deal with Yamaha Guitars. So they have a deal where they get a. They get the guitar and everything donated, you know, with a case or, you know, some kind of gig bag in the whole nine yards. And a lot of people. Because I've had people voice concerns to me over the years, like, hey, Phil, I reach out guitars vets, they didn't want my guitar. I reach out to this charity you're talking about, and they didn't want my guitar. And I'm like, yeah, it's very hard to give charities guitars because a lot of times they don't know what you're going to give them and they don't want a problem. Right? You know, you see what I'm saying, you know, and you're like, no, it's a great guitar. Well, everybody says that. Everybody has a different grade of what that is had. And just so you guys know, if you've ever had any frustration with charities, just understand that. I've had charities where I said, hey, I want to donate four guitars. You. This has happened multiple Times one. The story I'm telling you specifically is the one I like to talk about the most. I had four guitars. I said hey, I want to give you these four guitars. And they said well we don't want use guitars. And I said well these are brand new. I actually, I'm a YouTuber and I unbox them. I did videos with them and, and they go, yeah, but they're new. But you know you've had them. We don't know conditioning here. And I'm like, oh, it's funny because I'm actually a guitar tech by trade. I set these guitars up, they play amazing and they still wouldn't take them from me. So I was like, I was like, okay, I don't know what to tell you. So. But yeah, so yeah. So I find the best way to donate guitars if you can is to find a good charity or if the, if you can't find a good charity. Since I don't really, you know, it's not really about the write offs or anything. It's not like that. So we just give them to teachers at after school programs. Any teachers who do an after school program. And by the way, I'll do churches too. So if churches, if somebody's teaching music at a church after, I don't know, I don't think they call it after service programs but you understand at a church teaching free lessons to kids, I'll give them guitars too. I think that makes total sense. We have a guitar right now that we're going to be giving to a school or a teacher. We just don't know who because we're just gonna. If you're a teacher and you would like to see if you can be get a free guitar from us, keep in is definitely subscribe to the know your gear Facebook page. That's what we'll post it. But also you can message us because a lot of times that's what happens. We never have to post it because somebody messages us and says hey, if you have a guitar, you know, I'm a teacher at this school, you know, this junior high, whatever, and I teach and, and we do the same deal. We just have you come get the guitar and that's it. And that's all you have to do. You just have to be local. We're not going to ship a guitar. We did that before for a teacher. If you guys remember a video, we did a, we did a couple guitars and that worked out great. And then we did it again and it didn't work out great. There was Some damage on the guitars. And I don't remember because it was pre Covid. So it was over five years ago. I thought. I remember what happened was I had to end up buying. I bought a guitar to send a guitar to replace them, the guitar. Because there's something about the insurance. I don't know what it was. I just remember, like, man, this is, this needs. This doesn't need to be this complicated. So, so that's, that's. If that helps anybody, just follow those kind of rules. If that helps.
- [96:46]
So.
- [96:53]
Yeah. Ellen says, good to know this. I was contemplating donating guitars to some of my mentioned organizations. Yeah, like I said, it's. I mean, you could always reach out and ask them. Trust me, reach out and ask the charities. But I'm saying if they basically don't. Are not interested, don't be offended, Just move on and just trust me, somebody out there would like instruments to help. So.
- [97:19]
And I find that teachers, in my experience and you know everything about charities, for some reason riles people up. You can never. You never win. But. So this will probably just be another thing that riles people up. But in my experience, teachers are so used to being underfunded and not having enough stuff. They know how to get stuff.
- [97:42]
I want to say this so I understand. I want to be very clear how I'm explaining this. What I mean by that is like, teachers know, like, how valuable stuff is. Like, so if you. So when I deal with a teacher and I'm like. And they go, hey, I'll give you this guitar, they're like, okay, great, I'll come get it. Because teachers are like, just like. If I said, hey, I have, you know, 20 boxes of pencils, they're like, oh, I'll come get it. Like, they know. They're. They're teachers. A lot of teachers are hustling to fill the stuff they need for their classrooms or their after school programs and stuff. They're just, it's just in, in in their nature to basically figure out how to work, you know, work the work to get the stuff they need for their students. And so they're so easy. Or sometimes, like I said, in my experiences, the, the charities.
- [98:28]
They'Re not so much the same rules apply. Like, they're not hustling that way. It's just, it's. They'll take your check and that's about it. But. All right, that's enough of that talk. Let's. Let's end this show. But on a guitar subject, that, that's cool.
- [98:45]
I think all of them are cool, but this won't be a super cool. I can feel it in my. In my bones.
- [98:53]
See?
- [99:03]
Hmm. That's a great question. I actually want to hit that next week. Somebody put a question Amanda pinned for me, but it would be great if I had. You know, I thought about this recently. Sometimes I answer questions in real time and then it hits me that if I would just grab the question like I just did and answer it next week, I could have props. I could get things from the shop to show you guys. Instead of doing stupid gestures with my hands, I could actually show you guys with real tools. So I'll do that.
- [99:38]
Let's see.
- [99:46]
What else do we got?
- [99:59]
Oh, cool. I really apologize. I don't know how to say your name, so I'm going to do my best to butcher it, but not butcher it. I'm going to say Abrashana. So that's just the way I'm saying it. If I. If I'm wrong, I apologize just phonetically. That's how it looks to me. Says, thanks for explaining why Guitars for Vets didn't want the brand new guitar from Amazon. I sent them. I was hurt. Yeah. You know what's funny was I was. I. I wasn't hurt. I was kind of irritated the first time. I had a bad experience with Guitars for Vets that way. Because again, I have to tell you, just, just. I was filtering it through it. I'm a YouTuber. What are you talking about? You know, because here's why I say that when I say I'm a YouTuber, like, I understand why someone, they don't know who they don't have a reference of, you know, but I'm like, I have a, you know, billion, whatever minutes consumed, 100 millions of views. What? Right. Like in the guitar thing, you would think that somehow this would vet you a little bit. And, you know, when I'm talking to them and they didn't want my guitars, but I. I talked to somebody there and they explained, like, sometimes they will take them, but. So, you know, sometimes when they take them, it's people who work at Guitar Fets will. Vets will take them and like, sell them and take the money and then donate that money, you know, and there's just workarounds for that. But they explained that they have that deal and I'm like, okay, that makes sense. So I. What I do when I do Guitars Vets, like, I. I do Orange Wood. Orange Wood has almost every year reached out to me to do a video. And every year, almost Like a tradition. I do a video for orange wood and then I don't. I make some donations of money to guitars or vets. And, and. And I just find that they like money works best for them. And that's fine. You know, it's not that hard. I just like. Okay.
- [101:41]
Okay.
- [101:50]
Let's. Okay, hold on a second.
- [102:03]
I'm looking for la. I just want one last topic. I just want to end on one last topic. I don't think we're gonna have one.
- [102:15]
Let's see. And Amanda sent me a bunch. Let me just go through them.
- [102:24]
Okay. Oops, wrong way. Okay, let's go.
- [102:30]
Okay, let's try this one. This is the last one. Fat jeff8808 says just got a new Silver Sky SE when it arrived. It has some pretty bad fret sprout. I'm in Hawaii and I hope the humidity might reverse it to a degree. How long to wait before filing them? Okay, so perfect. This is a good, good question. So the frets sprout.
- [102:55]
As we know. So again, we all know this at this point, or most of us know this, that the neck shrinks and the frets were cut to the end of the fret board. So the fretboard, the. The frets are cut to the end of the fretboard width. And when the fret shrinks, because it dries out, which by the way, when I do this motion, when I say shrinks, it's like, like shrinks. Like it barely shrinks very little. The frets are now sticking out and now you feel frets sprout. So yes, in your case, the logic being if you hydrate the fretboard. Well, first of all, the best way to hydrate the fretboard is to oil the fretboard using some, you know, lemon oil or fretboard conditioner or whatever you want to use that you trust, just use the brand you trust. I use Music, Nomad and Lizard Spit. I trust them. But Dunlop and all that stuff works fine.
- [103:39]
And anyways, so I would try that more than just waiting for the moisture to. To get into the guitar. The other thing that's important to understand is that even though you're in a humid climate, because I was in Hawaii, I sweat a lot. I was like, woo, moisture. What's this?
- [103:58]
Just because you have humidity doesn't mean the fretboard is going to suck it up. It's not that easy. Right? It's just not that easy. And so what I was going to say, so oils will probably do a little better. But here's the good thing, the good thing is that if you correct the fret sprout, there's no situation where if you correct the fret sprout and round those corners and those fret ends, that if the fretboard was to hydrate, the frets would then be receded in and too shallow. That's not a thing. Because the distances that we're talking are so minute, you know, the measurements that we're talking are so minute. To give you a perfect example, when you see me caliper in the videos, the 12th fret and I say this 12th fret is whatever I say it's like 50, 51 point, you know, 03 millimeters. When the fretboard's hydrated, it's going to be 53.09 millimeters. I mean, it's nothing. It's not noticeable. It's just enough for those barbs. And that's why I've said this in, in if the frets are rounded perfectly, they don't even matter if they sprout. So, you know.
- [105:04]
That'S what's great about the sock test. It's not just a display of like, oh, the neck shrank and therefore these frets popped out. And this is bad. Without a doubt. The. If the frets are rounded properly and smoothly and perfectly, they're not. The sock wouldn't catch them no matter how far they stick out. Right. The analogy I use at the Cortex factory was if I glued. If I hot glued on a row of marbles, like if I took a broom handle. This is actually what I said, the Cortex. If I took a broom handle and we took a hot glue gun and three, let's say half inch down the broom and I took the nylon sock and I ran it down, the sock would not scratch because. But that. But think how far the marbles are sticking out from the broom handle, right? That's because there's nothing for them to catch on. The sock catches on, which is why I started using the sock to demonstrate this. It catches on the barb, the sharp part of a fret. So the best thing about that when you have fret sprout is round and polish the frets anyways. Even if you don't really kind of grind on them to pull them back, just round them over, just round them around, it doesn't matter. And that's all you have to do. So my advice to you is don't wait. Just get a fret and dress file. It's my favorite file. They were on sale for sumac 10 bucks. I know shipping Hawaii is a nightmare, but, you know, you can use all kinds of things. I've got tons of videos on that. But just smooth the fret ends over and I wouldn't worry about anything going the opposite way. And I'm. And I want you to know I'm very cautious about how I speak because the fact that I live in Arizona, I would say being in Arizona made me an expert of everything drying out where I'm not an expert of things getting hydrated. So like when people talk about dehumidifiers, like that's not a thing that exists here in Arizona. No. Nobody in Southern Arizona has a dehumidifier. They wouldn't.
- [106:51]
Right? It's not a thing. What we worry about, no one's trying to put, you know, no one's worried about moisture here, but it doesn't matter. What I can tell you is, is what I've seen every situation a guitar can be put through and just. You cannot hydrate a fretboard to the point where it's a problem if you've already rounded the frets. Now the good news though is you can hydrate a fretboard to the point where the frets don't stick out as much. But my guess is, here's my guess. I would really be curious, especially now the silver sky. You got how old it is. Because if you watch the Prsse Factory tour I did, there's some. There's definitely a lot of footage I did not show. It wasn't because it was restricted. It was just some of it was just. I didn't know if that would be interesting people. But without a doubt, the Prsse Factory has a new tool that they made. I have footage of it, a whole video them explaining it. And. And it's to basically try to pass the sock test. That's what they're trying to do with it.
- [107:51]
Basically the. That's basically true. Let's just stay in there. That's basically true. They have a. It's really cool. And so I've replicated that tool here so how it works. And it's basically really cool idea. So I'm really curious to see if anyone's. If any of the SES are failing now because now that they're doing that. So really curious. So. Yeah. But on that note, go ahead and do it. You'll be fine. Okay. On that. We did it. We did everything. We covered it all. For those of you on my Patreon, the ten dollar tier and above tomorrow is the. Is the soldering clinic tomorrow. So if you want to join me for that, I appreciate that, that's great. The rest of you, if you guys want to check out the Black Star video and you didn't see it, the new Blackstar RD50, there's a link. I'll put a link in this video so you can check it out. It's on the know your channel. It's our second channel by the way. Thank you so much. The second channel hit 30, 000 subscribers, which is amazing. And it's. It's doing so good. And so you're gonna see now, we were waiting for a certain thing to happen. Something happened. And now you're gonna see content on that channel more than what you were seeing before and more content on this channel. And it all makes sense. We're not even gonna tell you what's happening or why because we know after about a couple weeks everybody's gonna go, oh yeah, that makes sense. So instead of explaining it to you, we'll just see what happens as it enrolls. Alright guys, have a great time. And to the next time, know your gear. If you're learning something or having a good time, don't forget you can subscribe for free and help this channel. Or for $10 a month, you can join me on Patreon for live clinics where you can ask questions every single.