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Know youw Gear podcast. Hello, everyone. How's it going? This is what happens when your audio interface just turns off. It just turned off. That's what happened. I reset the computer right before we started the show so there'd be no issues. And of course, the computer decided to forget its audio interface. So I hope everybody had a fantastic week. We have some stuff to talk about, some cool stuff, guitar stuff, some. Maybe some stuff that's going on. I'll stop to see what you guys want to talk about first. Let me just tell you a funny thing that happened, and I have never. You know, it's a. At this point, being around guitars, new experiences are few and far between for me. And I had a new experience last weekend. So last Saturday, my wife wanted to go to the home and garden show. If you guys don't know what that is, that's where you pay somebody to park, and then you pay somebody to get in so people can bark at you to buy crap and to sign up for contests. I've been to a many of them. This one was the most aggressive. This one was in Phoenix, and it was at the fairgrounds. It was pretty aggressive. In fact, we were almost startled by the people, like, hey, come over here. I got a question for you. My wife has really thick red hair, and some lady was almost chasing her, like, come here, I want to do your hair. And they were like, I thought it was. I was like, is that really happening? That really happened. But anyways, so we invited Ralph and his girlfriend. So his. Him and his girlfriend met us there, and the four of us went to the garden Home and garden show. And there was a couple nice things. We saw a couple cool little displays and stuff of things. And. But we didn't say anything to each other. Nobody was really talking about the specific thing, the, you know, the elephant in the room. But we were all, like, really tense from the. Just a. Just not used to, you know, having people bark at you, you know, trying to sell you stuff, jump on you. I was like, you know what? It was like I actually said this to Ralph. It was like, imagine you just walked into a place with 600 timeshare people, and they're all gonna try to sell you a timeshare at the same time. And in fact, they're so close, one person's like. As one person's barking at you, the other person starts. It was really intense. Now, why that is interesting? Cause that's not. But it led to something super interesting at some point. Shauna says, hey, do you guys wanna Go now. We were expecting to spend the entire day at the garden show. Instead, we barely made it, like an hour and a half. Okay, so Ralph and his girlfriend's like, yeah, actually, we want to go too. And then we all kind of. We couldn't even. We didn't want to run through the gauntlet again. We couldn't do it. So we collectively, as a team, almost broke out. So, you know, physically, Ralph was looking for places to, like, break the fence line and get out, sneak out. But we actually found an escape pattern out through a secondary exit because we kept thinking, like, they got to have a fire exit. So we were able to leave the show and not have to go back through the. The maze of death. So what happens is we're in the parking lot and Ralph says. I said, what are you gonna do next? And he says, I think I'm gonna go to Guitar Center. And I go, really? And then his girlfriend said, what's Guitar Center? And I said, you've never been to a Guitar Center? She's like, no. And I go, you wanna go? And she's like, yeah. I'm like, okay. She had no idea, guys. No idea. So Shauna, of course, being a good sport, she's like, okay, I'll go too. So we drove the four of us to Guitar center, and we went into the Guitar center. And it was a normal guitar center for a Saturday. A lot of people playing 6,000 different songs, a lot of activity. The store was quite busy, doing. Well, it's a well stocked store, so lots of stuff. I walked in and me and Ralph saw immediately this British made JCM 2112 combo for like 500 bucks. And I go, $500 for a British made one combo that was right next to one of the new combos that was like $700. And I grabbed a cable, I plugged into it, and I grabbed a guitar. And me and Ralph are testing it. And his girlfriend is like, she's really nervous, right? Like, and I'm not sensing anything weird, but I'm like, wait a minute, you know, she's just like, is that okay to do that? And I'm like, yeah, you just do whatever you want. You just try stuff out. And she goes, she's like looking around and she's like, this is like a circus. And I go, yeah, it's kind of like a circus. And I go, it's circus of gear. And we're all checking out gear and doing stuff. And. And what happens next is. She goes, they just let you all free for all. And Just do whatever you want. You can just touch. And so, you know, this guy's grabbing, like, this $3,000 guitar, and she's like, you can just touch that guitar. And I'm like, yeah, you just do whatever you want. Ralph's like, yeah, you just do whatever you want. And so it was weird because I was like, okay. At first. I'm not thinking about it. You know, like, okay. She obviously, she's just never been in a guitar store. She's never been in a guitar store, period. So let's start there. Never been a guitar store, never been a guitar center. So think of this. Her guitar center was her first guitar store. And she said. I said, it's not that weird, is it? And she says, I don't know. There's no other store I've ever walked into where everybody's just having a free for all. For all the products and just doing whatever they want. And then it hit me. I'm like, yeah, where do you walk into a store? Like, you don't walk in the Target and just grab a blender, open the box, pull the blender out, start making margaritas, right? Like, I'm like, yeah, this is. And I was like, well, maybe like some of those warehouse shoe stores, we walk in, even the shoe store, you know, people get the shoes and bring back and come back, right? And. And. And hold on a second. So anyways, she's like, I've never experienced this before. You know, she'd never seen this before, and it was interesting to see it from her perspective. Now, of course, we're friends with a bunch of the employees and the manager of the store. So we introduced her, and it was very nice, pleasant experience. I ended up buying a cabinet, playing it right now. I got myself a 212 cabinet that I absolutely did not need. Absolutely did not need. But I just thought the story was not so much funny in the whole chaos of it, because I think we've all experienced guitar center chaos. There's nothing interesting there. I just had never thought about the fact that the music store is kind of the last place where you go and you just kind of do it, you know, help yourself and do stuff, you know? So he says, what about a clothing store? Yeah, I guess. Actually, no, sorry. I mean, you're not shopping at nice clothing stores. If you go to clothing stores, you got to get somebody to let you into to try the clothes. You can't just start. I mean, you could put clothes, I guess, on top of your clothes in the store, but I don't Think you should do that? I mean, not like, from a Technically. From a legal standpoint, but just from a. Like, you know, come on, a little more class than that. But. But yeah. No, you have to get somebody. They get you a little, you know, they get you a little room, and you go in there and change, you know, I mean, yeah, you can physically touch all the clothes and stuff, but you can't physically just go around trying stuff out. Now, sometimes if you're, you know, I understand if you're buying your clothes at the Target, I've done that, too. Yeah. Well, even at my Target, they make you. They have. Somebody let you into one of the dressing rooms. But somebody says, bookstores. You know, I will tell you this. Maybe a Barnes and Noble, but I don't know about you guys. See, you guys must live in much nicer places than we live. If you go into a bookstore and start reading all the books, and you sit there on a chair and open up a book and start reading, sit. Somebody's gonna come talk to you. You're not there to sit and read the books. You can look at books. You can sit, you know, you can. Some of them sell coffee, like the Barnes and Noble. But I mean, I understand you guys point, but I'm talking about. First of all, let's just back up a second. Even if you guys. Even if I accept the answers of bookstore or shoe store or clothing store, where else do you go and pick up $3,000 things and just walk around and do whatever you want with them? Yeah, Bins of Legos. Now, Legos are pretty expensive, but I still don't think it's that level. I can see why she was a little like, this is alarming. Now, by the way, I'd like to also point out she didn't think the $3,000. She didn't know they were $3,000. And by the way, I don't think it mattered. I think she was just as shocked with two or three hundred things. So I do think it is very unique to have an environment where you can walk in and touch very expensive items and literally help yourself. And do, you know, kind of. I mean, think of this at one point, and I'm not exaggerating, I picked up a $4100, sir. It was green. And I plugged it into a $3000 Friedman Jakey Lee head into a 1500 cabinet. And you, like, sitting there, think about this going. And no one's helping me, of course. Um, but I'm like. I mean, that's. I Mean, do the math on that. I'm playing like $8,000 worth of gear, and I'm just allowed to handle it and do whatever I want with it and check it out. And it is an interesting. I can see from an outsider cider, why it would be shocking. Somebody said, Tiffany and Company. I bought stuff at Tiffany's and Company. And again, I don't know, I really. Wherever you guys, I want to start. When you guys say these things, say the state you live in, I'm going to tell you right now, because I've been to Tiffany's and Company more than a couple times buying stuff. And there's a security guard outside the one at the Scottsdale Mall. Like, you go there and then there's a. There's a guard. They have guards there. When I went to Dolce and Gabbana, same thing. There was a guard there. So, yeah, I can tell you right now, you're not walking in The Tiffany Co. Or the Dolce and Gabbana stores that I was in and just walking around. Well, first of all, you can't make it more than a foot without somebody trying to help you. So. So because. Or try to weed you out of that place. They're. They're trying to get rid of you or try to help you. So. But I would love to know what places you guys are at where you can do that in stores like that. So somebody says the gun store again, I've been to the gun store. Not really a free for all in the gun store either. So. Interesting. What else? Yeah, somebody says Paul Blart. No, you guys, if you ever been to the Scottsdale Mall in Arizona, it's. They're like in suits. They're like. They look like, you know, Secret Service security. They're standing there, it's very aware. They're not like hiding, but they're very in front of you and they're right usually by the door to let you in. And then sometimes. So you guys know some of the stores, you cannot get in them unless you tell them. Like, you're. You're there to shop. You. You can't go. Like, ah, we're just curious. Like, sometimes you walk up in there and you. You gotta tell them something. Like, hey, we wanna come in and check things out. And then they let you in. And then sometimes there's, you know, I guess. Well, I don't know, Maybe I fell for it. I think that one time there was too many people inside. We had to wait until there was less people. Cause there was like a Person to employee ratio that they were going off of. Or at least they sized me up and figured I wasn't spending. So the funny thing, I'll tell you my quick since I'll tell you I went to Dolce and Gabana, I'll tell you my Dolce and Gabbana experience is. Is. Oh, maybe it was Louis Vuitton. I can't remember. So I could probably look it up, but I'm not gonna. So just remember it was one of those two. For sure, it was Dolce Gabbana or Louis Vuitton. Anyways, I went in there and I was specifically looking for a gift for a friend, and they were out of stock online. I was trying to find it, and I walked in and I said, I'm looking for this gift from my friend. I walked in, very nice, pleasant. I think I told this story before, anyways, and they said, yeah, we don't carry it. And then the other employee goes, oh, no, it's in the back because it's the least expensive thing we carry. And I was like, oh, I bought the least expensive thing they carry because that's. That's the kind of money I can spend at the Dolce and Gabbana or the Louis Vuitton store. So. Which is funny because I say that and then I just literally, you know, you can buy an amp in a store. I guess so. Anyways, I just thought that was interesting to see her experience. I had never thought about it the way she came at it. She was like, this is really crazy. And then so, you know, just on a side note, and then, because she's friends, you know, with us, and we're friends with the people at store, the management system manager, the employees, they not knowing she had this experience, then proceeded through casual conversation to talk about the hundreds of thousands of dollars of theft that occurs in the store per year to the epic amount of theft. Uh, and then she was like, yeah, you could tell it in her face, like, yep, I can see why there's a lot of theft here if everybody's just doing whatever they want. So somebody says, I think malls are finished. Could be. You know, I don't know. It depends. I've been thinking that for years. It's kind of like a lot of things. I just don't know if it's. It ever goes to absolute zero. It just keeps running the course for the next 20 years. Okay, so I just wanted to share my guitar center fun story. And then Brian says, how dare you buy something cheap here? No, they weren't mean to me at all. I can't remember if I told you guys this story, but they actually bagged it up and made it really, really pretty and did everything. I mean, it was amazing service. It was. And it wasn't even a snidey comment like, you know, like, oh, that's the least expensive thing we carry. They were just explaining why it's not on display. It's just not something that they normally carry because it's like an inexpensive thing. I think they were saying it was a really popular in holidays gift, so they maybe have it for the holidays. So. Okay, let's see. Next thing Nella says, hey, Norman's Rare guitars sold lock, stock and barrel to a company that owns Carter vintage guitars. Hope nor enjoys retirement. My understanding is that Norm's gonna stay work in the store. Probably maybe he dictate his hours a little bit more, but I don't know if he was really not dictating his hours before. But yeah, I saw that. You know, what I learned from that is, you know, I'm not a huge vintage guy, so there's not a whole lot of. I've never been to Norm's guitars. You know, I like you. I've seen tons of videos of people, youtubers, artists, just people there at the store. Never had a real drive to go there because of the fact that, you know, I. I've been to Groons and the same thing with groons. I went to groons once and that's all it really took is I walked in there and I went, yeah, this isn't really for me. I'm not really going to buy vintage guitars and I'm not going to. And then what they have that's not vintage, you know, I can, I can get that somewhere else. It's. It's just not. It's not what gets me excited. And I've been to a lot of vintage guitars, even around the world, and there's some that are really nice, but I'm just not into super vintage guitars. But interesting enough, I had a revelation. Somebody had was talking about this and they were talking about the owners that bought Norm's Rare guitars had, I guess, recently bought Carter vintage guitars. And I don't know if that's entirely true. I don't know. Like I said, I've always liked Carter vintage guitars. But does anyone know when the new if. If Carter's was sold first, when that sale happened? The reason I say that is I know Carter's grew into a bigger store and, and I know I've Always been a huge fan of Carter's, but one of the things I liked about Carter's was I thought the prices were super reasonable, you know, sometimes a little crazy because it's a consignment stuff. And I bought a guitar from them a couple years ago, maybe two years ago. And I remember seeing it, thinking, I don't know, I thought it was priced a little high. And I was like, ah, you know, Carter's has always had great prices and I didn't really do my due diligence and research it. And then I bought it from Carter's Vintage Guitars. And then when I got it, I'm happy with it, still have it. But I'm also, I still have it because I'm pretty sure I paid about $700 more, $600 more than anyone is trying to sell a guitar. And this is even a few years back. So it was on the high end for sure. And I thought, oh, well, maybe they, you know, because it's a really, you know, nice piece of art, you know, guitar, maybe it was just special and they put a higher price on it. And, and then I've tried to buy stuff online at Hardest Guitars and to be honest with you, the last like two dozen times that I've been on their website, I always thought, same thing, I find stuff. And so I was thinking about. So somebody mentioned casually, and again, I'm just talking about this, so to get you guys feedback, somebody mentioned casually that since the new ownership came in, Carter's price has been high. And I was like, well, I didn't know there was new ownership, but I did notice that the prices were all of a sudden higher. So I don't know. But keep in mind when I'm scanning through there, I'm looking for like, you know, a cool piece of gear, used piece of gear that I may be interested in. But again, I'm not going to buy like a 63 thing or something like that. It's. First of all, I'm not a vintage collector, so that's one and two, I'm not, that's not the eras I care about. So I barely care about 80s era guitars. So it's like so you can imagine the 70s, 60s era guitars. Don't, don't, don't do anything for me. So let's see. Yeah, David says old retail is going corporate. I would imagine what you're going to see is, you know, for things to survive, people will come in with bigger pockets to diversify them. You know, I'm sure this, this owning a Bunch of vintage stores is to basically, you know, be able to shop when they're looking, because, remember, they got to be constantly looking for vintage inventory. I told you guys that when I had a store, there was always a list of people that when a vintage piece came in, because we didn't do vintage gear. But every. Every shop in the country, no matter how big or small, has. Has a rolodex, so to speak. I know it's in your cell phone now, but you have a list of names of people that are more than happy to come and buy any vintage gear you take in. So when somebody comes into your store, this is what usually happens. They become a filtering process. And the pawn shops work that way, too, sometimes. That's why a lot of people are like, you know, like, oh, you can find a really good vintage guitar for a nickel in a pawn shop. I'm like, well, first of all, they can look them up online. But more importantly, they also have a lot of these. A lot of the guitar buyers out there, the vintage guitar buyers, they hold on just looking at my stream for a second. Okay. Oh, so figure out why that is. Let's see if we switch to this and see if this helps. Hold on a second. Okay, let's try that. See if that helps at all. Yeah, because it's telling me there's not enough. Okay. Boy, the show's just off on a great start today. Anyways, what I'm trying to tell you is there's all kinds of vintage buyers that will give finder's fees. So if you work in a pawn shop, you know, they're like, hey, if you call me and you have an old guitar and you buy it, you can, you know, I'll give you 200 bucks for finding it. So somebody says, when did Norm's guitar sell? I heard the notification this week. So that's the news that broke this week. So if it happened earlier, they just. It could have, obviously, But I'm sure it didn't happen, like, in a day. I'm sure they've been working on it for a while, but the official announcement was this week, so. But, yeah, when was Norm sold? This week? Yeah. Pawn shop said, okay, so Ms. Mr. Peabody says pawn shop stopped being good in the 1980s. I never had a great experience at a pawn shop. Like, people, when I was starting out playing guitar, my guitar teacher, one day I went to a lesson, and he said, oh, I bought a Marshall 412. And I go, oh, yeah, you did? And he's like, yeah, for, like, a Hundred bucks. And I'm like, a hundred bucks? And he's like, yeah. At a pawn shop, they didn't know what they had. I was like, what? And then I, of course, you know, when I could get to pawn shops, I was like, that's where you go. That's where you go. And every time I went to a pawn shop, it was always just piles of garbage gear at way marked up pricing. Like it was crazy. Like, I'd be like, oh, yeah, here's an amp that should be 60 bucks. And they have it for 120. Everything was like double. So I, I just never had a. A feel for it, you know, that way. So if there was that. But I, I did it probably up until about 20 years ago, I'd pop in a pawn shop here and there, you know, just give it a last try. But, you know, some people probably have better luck. Jim says, hey, are you going to the NAMM show? I will not be at the NAMM show because I'm doing the Keisel Connect event. So you guys know, if you guys want to, I think you can sign up or maybe it's closed out. Oh, no, you know what it is? You can't get in a lanyard, like with your name on it or whatever, but you can still get into the show. It's $10 if you want to go. I'll be there all day, so you can come and check out and talk, you know, check out guitars and talk to me if you want to talk to me. Or I'll be doing some clinics, I think, or some podcasts there with. With all kinds of other artists and people, and it's a good time. I had a great time a year as two years ago in 2024, and I'm hoping to have another great time this year too. That'll be the Saturday of the, The Saturday of the NAMM show. So I don't. I just don't have any. I don't have a reason to go to the NAMM show. So the NAMM show is just not. It doesn't. It's not set up for me to do anything that is useful in any way. So I just can't. I can't do it. So you guys know, and then on top of that, not only is it this. So basically it'll be going for fun. And if you're going for fun, you know, the one thing I like about the Keezel Connect is it's outside. So it's a lot nicer to be outside with a lot of people. Than trapped inside the NAMM show and maybe getting sick. So I'd rather not get sick if I can help it. So plus, like I said, I'd rather hang out with viewers or people who support the channel than just the companies because, you know, I. I just, I just like get like. You know what it is? I enjoy your guys's conversations more. This is the conversation I enjoy more. We're talking about guitars or we're talking about the industry or something fun. When I talk to companies, it's always. It usually works itself into some kind of work arrangement deal. So Brian says NAM is getting bypassed by the early releases. Well, I'm pretty sure Covid killed the whole NAMM release thing. I mean, it just. Everybody got used to how they got to put out product. Speaking of which, let me share this with you guys. So I saw. Let me go here, let me open this up and. Oh, yeah, I'll get in trouble for that. Okay, give me a second. I want to share something for you. So on one of the late night talk shows, I guess it was this week, it looked like it happened in the last day. Let's see. Okay, hold on a second. Give me one second. I'm pulling it all up for you guys right now. Okay, so Ed Sheeran performed a song and let me share that with you guys. So he performed a song. Let's go right here with John Mayer and Dave Grohl. So Dave Grohl's on drums, they had Pino Paladino on bass and of course John Mayer. And John Mayer's playing a charvel. And I think John's playing through the saldano and the other guitar player was playing through the mesa boogie. The reason why I'm sharing this with you is if you're paying attention, Ed Sheeran is playing a Paul Reed Smith hollow body with a custom paint job on it. And it says se. And if you guys want, I'll show you the closer up picture. But before I show you the closer up picture, I don't want to. Hold on. Look at that. And you can go here. And there we go. You can see here and you can see the se right there. So it says Paul Reed Smith se. So for those that are paying attention. So Ed Sheeran just did a major appearance playing a Paul Reed Smith se. That if you guys know, because I know you guys all seem like, you know, just if I knew my audience, I'm just gonna tell you. I can guarantee that half you guys are Taylor Swift fan and the other half are Ed Sheeran. Hand fans. I just know that about you guys. So anyways, Ed Sheeran. So if you know anything about Ed Sheeran, you know that he does this art and it's like, you know, it's like a Jackson Pollock style, you know, splattered paint kind of art. In fact, we could probably just pull it up, right? Ed Sheeran art, Art. And I'm just gonna. Yeah, look at that. This is it. So we go here. This is the Ed Sheeran art. Oh, view artworks. And so if you're paying attention, like I was, he's holding a prsse hollow body and it definitely has this splattered art that he does on it. So somebody was saying, hey, Ed Sheeran model. Okay, so. Who's Ed Sheeran? He's probably nobody you care about, but I would say one of the largest pop singers in the world that plays guitar. He has a signature, I think a Martin acoustic. He has his own signature looping pedal because of that. So again, the interesting thing about this is, is that, you know, for those, it's kind of like the Taylor Swift thing. You know, it's a. It's a huge pop artist. A lot of you guys are not going to be appeal. Pop artists aren't made for people that are older. They're made for young people and you know, that want to have fun and go to the clubs and listen to music and so. But it's always interesting when a pop artist is playing a guitar or doing something like this because again, it's. It's going to land the next generation. That's where it comes from. Right? Usually you're gonna hook the people that just never thought about it. But anyways, my point is, is that I cannot confirm or deny that I have seen a guitar that looked very similar to that. That's what I'm trying to say is that I'm sure there'll be a lot of chatter about whether or not he's got a signature guitar and this is it. But. But I can tell you I've seen that guitar before. I know it. I just feel it in my bones. I thought it'd be fun to share. It's a cool, cool looking guitar. If you want a splatter paint, hollow body se. And so yeah, I would say, I want to say that I would be shocked if Ed Sheeran doesn't have a signature guitar or two or three. Who knows? We'll see if it's a. If it's put out in the NAMM show. And again, this is one of those things where you could Go. A lot of you are going to go. Well, you know, I don't care about a pop singer, but I've always kind of pointed this out many times when it comes to the pop singers, like when Taylor Swift was getting people into playing acoustic, just like all musicians who play guitars. I think what I pay attention to is the artists that don't have any instrumentation on stage. You know, I like, you know, I like all forms of art. So I mean, if I see a singer on stage with, you know, 10 dancers or 20 dancers behind them and they're all doing a dance routine, I can enjoy, enjoy it just as much. But it's when you go and you realize, like, all the top 10 pop stars don't have any real musicians on stage or musicians at all. And so it's really cool to see, you know, see any real musicians on stage. Plus, I mean, you know, it was kind of cool. I liked seeing Dave Grohl play the drums and John Mayer play the guitar, and then Ed Sharon thought it sounded good. It's really a lot of fun. And ultimately, this is where everybody's going to have a different opinion. But let me just tell you why I think this way. If it wasn't for pop music, I would have never got into guitar. I did not listen to the deep cuts first. I did not discover the blues. I did not discover, you know, jazz. I did not discover those music. At first, I literally was like, what's a, you know, I think I mentioned this. I, I, you know, I, my first experience with a musician really was Nikki Six from Motley Crue. And I thought he played guitar. I didn't know he played bass. I thought he was playing a guitar. And they just had a catchy song on mtv. So to me, without pop music, I would have never got into guitar. Would have never happened for me. It wasn't something that I, you know, like I said, I didn't, I didn't get into the right crowd of, you know, and they happen to be guitar players. I didn't get the bug that way. I just saw essentially, you know, pop star playing guitar and thought, oh, okay, that sounds fun. Let's get a guitar. And so I, I, I just say that because I think a lot of people can come that way from guitar. So, so, but, and, and you know, what's funny is when we talk about this also, when I started playing guitar, the rock music was still considered popular music. So it's pop music where now I would. Very few rock bands are actually in the, in pop music. Hell, no rock, no rap in pop music. I don't know if you saw that. I guess they said rap hasn't had a number charting top 10 pop song in a while either. So. Let's see. Jimmy Fortham says, hey, are you going to do a second episode of the Amazon Tele build? You start in July? No, what happened was we, I thought that was. So when we started doing the clinics, I started thinking of things that I thought was interesting in the clinics. And that was a build idea. I was like, oh, let's do a clinic a thing. But whether you're on the, you're on the patron side for the clinics or you're on YouTube, I can look at analytics very easily and see that no one was engaging with it. And so it becomes a thing. Like I understand just like Jimmy, I understand that there's a few people are like, man, I really like that. That's the same thing on YouTube. You have a few people that like something. But you gotta understand, the way I look at it is everything is the same work level for me, it takes the same amount of time, effort, energy. And it's not. And trust me, I don't make this channel isn't big enough to where it's like, oh man, and this is the million dollar hits. You know, it's not about that. The difference in money sometimes could be $30 or $300. I mean, we're not talking about windfalls here. When I make a decision on YouTube and whether or not it's like on the patron too, it's just at the end of it, if you look at the analytics and you go, okay, well people weren't engaged. And again, that's what I'm looking at. Not how many people view it, but how many people that viewed it and were intent watching it, intently watching it. You adjust. Because I'm not going to make stuff that no one wants to watch because like I said, I don't make the videos for me, I already know the stuff I'm talking about in the videos. So. So Jimmy, that's there. Will I approach it back again? Maybe, maybe so. But there's something else coming to with the clinics. So again, this was the. How do we. How do I approach the clinics? I didn't even know at first what it was I was trying to do at first. So, okay, what do we got? Another subject. Let's go over here and let's grab this. This one came from Amanda. This is rad. Fury says, hey, I bought a Strandberg 7 this week and I'm wondering if I should have gotten the tremolo version instead. What are your thoughts on the Strandberg trims? I'm not a fan of headless tremolos as a whole. They're fine, but every. I don't own a tremolo based headless guitar. And it's. Because it's not like I don't like that. Like, I'm not saying it doesn't stay in tune or I just. If I'm playing headless guitar, it's, it's, it's a function. I want the guitar to be easy to play in tune. Low thought, low energy, effort. Grab the guitar, know it's going to be comfortable. Headless guitars are super comfortable. You know, I think they're ugly. Everybody's like, headless guitars ugly. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. I don't think a lot of people think they're great looking guitars. It's a function thing. It's. They're very comfortable, very. They sound big. They're not toy. Like, you know, like playing a smaller guitar or a travel guitar, you, you're holding a full size instrument that is ergonomically cut to hold it in because it's not even always about the distance this way. That's how that helps for when you're traveling. For me, it's the distance up and down. You know, I don't want to bend down into the guitar. I don't want to feel like I'm hunched over. Funny thing that happened to me a couple years ago. I got this pain on my side and I was in a really bad car accident, like a really, really bad one. And we thought maybe it was from that we went to a surgeon and it was possible. They said it was some cartilage in my ribs were damaged. And, and then my trainer and I were talking about one time and I said, yeah, it's just weird. I get a weird cramp sometimes on my side. And he said, oh, that's from poor posture. And I was like, poor posture? I'm like, yeah, I'm sure I'm, I'm sure I'm just as dopey, you know, sink down as everybody else. So I went and did some research and what I found was that it says that this, this thing that's happening, this, this cramp that I get on the side is not only from poor posture, but one of the biggest causes playing guitar because you're bent, you're hunt, you're hunching over and you put your, that you're, you're. I guess this part of your body right here. I'm sorry, it's part of your body right here. It's just hunched in a position. Uh, so I've been, I restructured how I'm playing, but I was always conscious of the fact that I always kind of felt the more hunched over I was, the more uncomfortable I was for periods of time. So that's another thing I focus on when it comes to headless guitars. But anyways, no, I don't think you're missing out with the tremolo. I mean, it just depends. I have both, as you see. I have tremolos and non tremolo guitars. And when people go, what do you prefer? I prefer a tremolo to have it. But however, I think it's because I think like more like a bass player with a five string, four string kind of logic. Like sometimes it's time to play a five string, sometimes four, sometimes it's time for a tremolo, sometimes not. Sometimes it's seven, sometimes a six. It's really just about what it is at that moment. I don't really feel like I'm missing anything. I just have that. I just think that this is what I, you know, this is just what I'm using right now in the moment. I like being in the moment with the instrument. Yeah. Juli says, I'm hoping I'm saying it right. Julie says 10. Pierce recommended some tool to help with guitar playing. Ergonomics before. I can't remember what it's called. It's not cheap. A time made. I'm pretty sure Dr. Andre Flood uses it as well. Yeah, I've seen it. And it's a little cradle looking thing and you hold the guitar and puts that position. I'm not going to play in that position. You know, I want to, but I'm, I've created my habits. My habits are what they are. So the, the way I hold guitar, which is cowboy style, is going to be. It's, it's, it's essentially just how I play, you know? Right. I, I wanted, I wanted to, I want to have all the better habits, like position of guitar and all that stuff. I just don't. And when I try, I'll default back to the old way I do it. Oh, okay. Yeah. You're not gonna like my answer. Dave says, hey, Phil, have you tried the AM4 yet? So that's the fractal. I'm just not there. Guys. I've tried all the fractals I've tried. I told you guys this. I've been down this road. The, you know, when it comes to line six stuff, the fractal stuff, the quad cortex, every time I go down these roads, it's just like I told you, I got a kemper. I've said this before. It's not that I think the kemper's the best by any means. I just put my effort into learning it and using it. But. But they all work. Like I said, I'm a huge fan, as you know. I know they're the future and. But I can functionally just use this kind of equipment way faster for me for recording purposes. And I just like it and I get a sound that I really like, so there's just things like, you know, that's just where I landed on that. But, you know, like I said, I like it. I just love the. The real stuff more so. And I like to tell you the synergy modules are not the thing I think are really great. I think it's the sin 20 head. It's really cool just to have a 20 watt head that, you know, I can play at low volumes. I can play it loud and it's got impulse responses out and you can, you know, and us. And I, and I use the. So you guys know I use the big hairy guitars. The. Michael Niel. Yeah, he's my friend. So yeah, it's a plug for him. But I was just looking for some impulse responses one day and I thought, oh yeah, he makes them. And so I went on his website and they were 20 bucks and I just bought them, so. And I like his cabinet. Let's see. Mr. Zombie 1974 says, hey, do you think. Do you think they'll ever incorporate AI and dig digital amps? You know, I don't know. It's one of those things, you know, I don't know. The way I would see it is if they can make money. Yeah, like that's all it's really about. If they can, you know, figure out how to sell us something and make money. Yeah, but if they can't, they can't. I don't think it needs it. Like I said, I don't think the problem with modeling is that they are absent of technology. Maybe if the argument is the AI will make it easier for the end user. But I think you guys sometimes confuse. And I've said this before, it's like when I complain about apps, right? And I say it all the time, it's because of the guy who talks about the in shitification thing, right? The apps. My problem is not apps. Like I said, I live on apps every day. I make, you know, I pay my mortgage, I pay all my bills with the ability that I've used apps. I started a YouTube channel solely on apps. And I do so much of my day to day work with an app. There's one app in particular I use for almost. I use it for almost everything, and I love it. However, that's because a good example, like, I decided I have a funny argument. So here's my funny argument. An app like DoorDash. Okay? And again, I'm not gonna go down the politics of DoorDash, but just the app is I go on the app and I push, you know, hey, give me this food. And the food shows up, right? And that's the end of the process. So I understand the concept of that and I don't have a problem. I'm not complaining that there's an app for that. I think that's totally a good use of an app. What I don't like about apps, and this is gonna tie into modelers too, is I don't like it when you in it. You, you, you, what do you call it? Insert something in that doesn't need to be there. If I'm going to a speaker at a, like a fast food restaurant to order and they're like, do you have the app? I'm like, no. And they go, well, you need the app. And I go, well, no, I don't, because you're talking up to. You told me I need the app, therefore I don't need the app. See, if we're talking, then the process is it doesn't need this other thing. That's a perfect example. My barbecue has an app. I don't need the app on my barbecue, so I don't use it. It's not that I'm upset that my barbecue has an app. And anybody who wants to know what the app is, apparently it tells you how. Tells you when the. So you can. Tells you when the barbecue's hot. And I'm like, okay, so I don't really need that. So same thing with modelers and stuff. I like technology, makes things easy. But I'm not necessarily like, I don't look at modelers going, oh, it's complicated to get through screens. My issue is workflow and speed. Think of it like when you watch Tim Pearson, he talks about his, you know, his space station that he makes. To me, everything is about workload and speed. For me, that is just because that's how I learned to work as a guitar Tech is I don't make money or I can't function if I'm spending all my time doing something that's not the actual thing. That's what I'm supposed to do. Does that make sense? So, but anyways. But that's just my thoughts on that. So same with modelers. I think with the modelers, if they make it easier, great. But it's not necessarily. I think modelers are complicated. I've had to demo all of them at some point. So you just learn them. My problem though is again, I don't need to go into a menu to do something when I can turn a knob real fast. And that's what I'm usually doing. It's not because I'm always tweaking my sound. It's because I'm always in a situation. Like for instance just now, I plug in and let's say there's just a little bit too much low end. I don't want to go. Hold on, guys, let me go in the menu and change the low end. I want to be able to tweak that on the fly. So that's what I've really convenient. So to me, you know, it's. It's kind of like. And this is my last tirade, it's kind of like. Like, you know, when they talk about now, they're taking all the physical buttons out of the car and they're putting a screen. And that's fine. Except for. For me, it's not because I'm old and I'm used to knobs. I'm just. They're efficient. I'm driving and I can reach and do something tactile. Just reach and touch. And so to me, it's efficient. I don't need you to make something that's already working more modern for the sake of being modern is what I'm getting at. I don't really care. It's not because I don't want to learn new stuff. It's just because it works. Fix the things that don't work. How about that? Okay, so let's jump to another subject and. Hold on. I just got to go into the. That was weird that it won't display. Here it is. This one's coming. G Money. G Money Online PRS support Auto responds with Due to circumstances behind our control, please allow 7 to 10 days to respond. Sounds like not taking responsibility. Your take. Well, they just laid off some people. Maybe they laid off customer service. No, seriously, that's the future, man. See, that's what the technology Gets you, you know, it's a, it puts you, it's putting itself between you and the person. It's not helping you. So. But I'll tell you g Money, I don't know what your question is, so let me just tell you first how this works. PRS does not sell direct to consumer unless you bought something off their store. Like you're buying a shirt or stuff like that. And if you did that, you understand you're gonna get very little to no support on that. So they just kind of do that. That's not a, that's not a money making mechanism for them. They just have it on their website. So PRS is a company unlike some other companies like Fender, who has decided 100% they want to be with dealers. So they expect you to go to the dealer. They're going to say things so complicated and long and nice to you. I'm going to tell you right now, if you bought it from a dealer, go to the dealer. That's the dealer's job. If you go to the dealer and you're not getting something done, rip the dealer a new one or then go to prs. But as an escalation, in other words, don't go to PRS customer service. You need to throw a fit, get a manager and say, look, I've tried to get resolved, something resolved with your dealer. It's not getting resolved. And if you can't get a hold of PRs for that, which I can't imagine, it can't happen. Go to another dealer and say, look, I went and bought a prs another dealer. I need you to take care of this. I need you to service this. Because it's not just one dealer. And so the reason I tell you that is because the importance is that that is what PRS has decided. They have decided that they are 100% in lock, stock, barrel with dealers right now. So they don't want to sell direct. I had some unofficial discussions with them, as I've discussed about on this channel a couple years ago, about them selling direct in when they were overloaded with ses. And I told the patrons probably a little bit more than I ever should tell anybody. But uh, but even then they didn't get the whole story. Cause it's just, it's again, it's privileged conversation. I gave them my insight and why I agree and disagree with that kind of idea. And I thought it was more of a desperation move. The important part is that they decided not to do that. Okay? They decided not to go to direct. Right. What they decided was to give the 30% off and then they will rebate the dealers. The dealers will then sell them to you. So if you're having a problem with PRs, try the dealer. So, because they're not really. I couldn't tell you now, but I can tell you when I was a PRS dealer, they had like two customers. I'm not making this up. They had two. This is like, you gotta understand, I'm not talking about PRS was a small company. I'm talking about PRS was still making as many guitars as they. Now they had two customer service people. And I think one of them, like, if I recall, and I'm not making this up, I think his name was Sean. Sean. He was on like a wireless phone and you would call him and he'd be like taking out the trash. Like, not really, but you get the idea. He had. He has other responsibilities. Like, I think he had a set up SEs. So I think you would call and he'd have like a PRS customer service and he'd be like setting up. I sees. So they don't really put a whole lot of. It's like keys of guitars, which. Keys of guitars doesn't make sense. So when people complain about customer service, I agree, because they are direct consumer and they should have. And I have a lot. I've said this before. I'd say I'm probably going to say it to him next week. I think they need more customer service. I think they need a redundancy of customer service. At Kiesel, one more person, whatever they think they need, they need one more. So if they tell me they need two, they need three. And if they tell me they need three, they need four. You get the idea. But for some reason, like I said, some companies that. I don't want to say what I'm saying, for some reason with PRs, I would say go to the dealer. That would be my advice. And then like I said, and. And I can tell you that for a fact, I've had. Well, I hope no one ever had to go to another dealer about me. But I know somebody's came to, you know me about another dealer. Hey, I bought this prs and yeah, it was a big pain in the ass. Nothing's more fun than like, especially like a phone call, stay kind of deal where I'm like, great, somebody who's never going to buy anything from me and I got to help them out. But hey, it's the job. I took the. I took the dealership so to speak, as a dealer. So I did it. That's my suggestion to you, G Money. And uh, yeah, Devin Dubs says, hi, Phil. I am finally discovering feeler gauges. Oh, wait, you know what? And so a little trick. It may not work. It's always worth a shot, G Money. When you call into any kind of call center, or in this case PRs, the office, because they don't have a call center, if you can't get anybody phone, hit the Spanish button. I'm not telling you this is a half assed theory. I used to run a dialer system for a large call center. I told you, I used to do reporting and dialer and stuff. And very rarely, in fact, I've never seen it. But it's possible there isn't Spanish speakers. There are bilingual speakers. So in other words, everybody who speaks Spanish also speaks English. So when you call into a company, a lot of companies, especially small ones like PRs, won't usually automate everything for Spanish. So they'll automate English but not Spanish. It's just a little trick. So when you hit Spanish, it goes right to a person. And then when they start speaking Spanish, just tell them right front like, I don't speak Spanish, but I really need to talk to somebody really bad. I've had people hang up on you when you do that, you know, because they, you know, they don't care. But in some cases they'll actually start talking to you and then you can get. That's a good little trick to get somebody on the phone if you're having that kind of experience. So a little, little trick, little, little tip for you if it helps. Okay. Devin says, hey, Phil, I'm finally discovering feeler gauges and it has enabled me to totally blind. Totally as. Wait, has enabled me as a totally blind person to do setups. Thanks for all your measurements. You're welcome. You know, it's funny is this came up on the last clinic and is a good time. So Devin, thank you for the compliment, but also thank you for the opportunity to share this with somebody. You know, not everything gets disclosed in a video. So what's nice is, is sometimes when conversations come up, like at the clinic or like here, we can have a little, little behind the scenes. I measure in millimeters and some people get upset with that, you know, especially Americans. Let's just face it, they're the only ones saying anything. And I had asked somebody asked me a question, I thought it was funny. And they said, hey, is that, is that because you were in the military. And a lot of times in the military, as a mechanic, you know, we measured in millimeters, you know, Right. We measured in metric and not standard, but that's not where it comes from. And I was like, oh, it's funny. The reason why I measure and I say everything now in millimeters when it comes to action is because in the store, I worked very hard, which is probably what made the YouTube channel do okay. I worked really hard to be able to communicate with people. And one of the problems you have is that most people, especially anyone under 40, has never had, like, wood shop, metal shop. A lot of those programs are gone. Some, maybe they're back now because they were kind of back when my kids were in school, but there's a gap. In other words, there's a big gauge group of people in their 40s and 50s, and that definitely just didn't get a lot of those kind of those classes. And so they don't understand a lot of measurements anyways. So I was trying to figure out a best way to explain to the customer why, you know, when I made an adjustment to guitar, what I did because of kind of like my tirade last week about frets and how little material comes off. You know, when we adjust a neck, sometimes we go from 1 1/2 to 1.75 millimeters. You can't detect that physically. It's just. I need to know it, because it's physically the numbers that matter to me. But somebody's like, oh, you raised it. I'm like, well, I raised it almost an amount you can't detect. So you had buzz at 1.5 millimeters. You have no buzz at 1.75, and you can't detect the difference. Let's be all happy. And so what happened was I needed a way to communicate them. So what I did was I figured out one day it hit me that pics are in millimeters. And so, like, pics are, you know, 0.75 millimeters or 1 millimeter or 0.0505 millimeters or 0.6 millimeters, but they were always in millimeters. So what I did was I found this company that made bulk, crappy, cheap picks, and I ordered in buckets, all the increments, like half a millimeter, you know, like a paper thin 1, 0.25 millimeter, a 0.75 millimeter, a 1 millimeter. I didn't do 1.25. I think I did, but I don't remember 1 1/2 and 2 millimeters. And so what I did was I'd order the picks and then I could hand them out to people like, oh, I took your. I took your guitar. And I was able to show them physically, like, here, I took your guitar from this 2 millimeter pick to this 1 millimeter pick. So now when you're at home and you're thinking something moved, use your pick as a gap gauge between the top of the front and the bottom of the string. And that was just, again, because I wanted to be able to have this conversation with somebody to show what I did. So. Because so many times what I saw was. And experienced as a customer was these. These people, these people, these guitar techs that were like, I know. And you don't. You know, I don't listen to you. You listen to me. And although I can appreciate anyone who has a skill set, you know, that has. You know, I'm sure your doctor loves to hear how you Google stuff, right? But that's. But the point I was trying to make is instead of arguing with them or debating, I wanted to be able to say, yeah, this is what I did. This is how you can detect it. So just. That's a fun fact. I never thought about it until it came up last week, our last month's clinic or this month's clinic. It was this month's clinic. So I thought it was fun. Maybe we'll be able to clip that out and put it somewhere as a short. Be a little fun. R Hab says, hey, Phil, do you. What do you think about the Nuno guitars? I haven't really seen them, you know, other than the pictures, what you guys see. So obviously, if you guys don't know, Nuno has left Washburn and has started his own brand, and it's because of me. No, I'm just kidding. I was unhappy with a Nuno guitar. And Nuno's like, that's it. Film ignites the happy. I'm going, I'm leaving Washburn. No, I'm. That's not true at all. So, you guys know, not connected, even in a funny little way. So Nuno has left Washburn. My guess is because the support of Washburn has just dried up. Washburn's been slowly not giving a crap for years and more and more giving a crap. Remember, I'm still Patrick to those counting the Washburn scenario. But so he's starting his own brand. He's gonna have imports, he's gonna have acoustics, he'll have electrics, you know, and then the question I got was a couple people said, are you gonna see yourself buying one? No, not really. You know, unfortunately, I said this. I'll say this just to be very clear. It's like my gym, Steve. I gym. I don't have the pia. I don't want the pia. I have the gym. I have the guitar that represents the moment of time in which I, you know, like, I was a huge Point of Graffiti fan. So that album, like, 92, I think that's why I like the guitar. I like him from that album. I like the guitar. I don't really need the newest thing from him. There's nothing. I'm not emotionally connected to it anyway. I have a nice guitar I can play. So I've said this before when it comes to the. The, Like, I have a student urge bass behind me. I have the urge. One, not the urge. Two, not his newest model, not his model with Warwick or who he's with now. It's because, again, it's just these are nostalgic purchases for me that, you know, just obviously, I love guitars. I love music. And. And so these are the moments, you know, it's like when people buy vintage guitars and they go, I want a guitar from the year I was in high school or, you know, my, you know, my birth year guitar, whatever. I can see the same logic. It's just, you know, stuff. And I can tell you right now, there's no artist guitars that I have, or none of that stuff that I will keep. Does it make sense all of this will go? All this nostalgic stuff? Well, you know, first of all, if I die, yeah, it goes. But I'm just saying it one. One day I'll just be like, okay, it's out of my system. I've had enough of it. And, or. And. Or it's. It's worth more than I paid for it. I'd rather have the money and move on, you know, because again, it's not a guitar that I play. It's literally wall art. Like I said, I think two things can be true. Some people are like, guitars are, you know, they're for playing, not for wall art. I'm like, nah, both. Some guitars I have just to stare at. Some guitars I have to play, so. But I'm only loyal to the guitars I play. The guitars I stare at. I can just get bored with them really easy. Josh Rod. This came from Amanda says, hey, did you ever break an expensive guitar at your store? I have not. However, I have watched a lot of expensive guitars get broken at my store. Ralph broke an expensive guitar. I don't think Shauna ever did. I broke his. Nathan, I think did, if I recall, did Nathan damage my personal guitar? I think it was on the bench and something happened to it. I kind of remember that. I have to ask him. I kind of remember that because I think I remember him drop something on or something happened and he had a face like, oh, no. And I was like, it's fine. I'm not really a big freak for dents. So you guys know, like, you know, I don't like if a guitar in here got damaged, a dent or something. As long as I don't have to feel it when I play. I really don't overly freak out about it. Just, you know, that's just which kind of. I just, you know, I. I just. I can tell you it's not something to, you know, overly freak out about. I used to. Long, long time ago. And what I actually, you know, that's not true. I used to freak out, like, if I had a guitar for like I had a $500 made next to a Strat and I got a dent and I got upset and it was like really upset me. And the reason is, is cause $500 was like $5 million. So, yeah, I would get upset now if the guitar was super expensive to the point. And. But I don't buy guitars that I'm not comfortable owning anymore. So if I buy a guitar and I'm just not feeling comfortable owning it, I just sell it. Because sometimes that's how it works. Some guitars are so expensive, I just can't. Even though I love the guitar, I just can't find myself to get in the. Yeah. What's the saying, right? You know, you own your stuff or your stuff owns you. I don't want stuff that owns me. So. But expensive guitars, like a customer's guitar or a store guitar. No, the only thing I ever did in the very first store, we were probably in business a week, maybe two weeks. I mean, it was very. We had these guitar cables and they were. They were like cloth braided guitar cables. And I had plugged into an amp for a customer, and I left it on the ground and I went to step away and it wrapped like a. Like a bullwhip. It wrapped around my ankle. Like it caught me and it. It caught and then, like it wrapped around. And then when it caught, because the, the. The whatever the braiding was made of, it wouldn't slide okay. So it looped me like a lasso. And that's what I want to say. A lasso and I fell into the wall and hit a bunch of guitars. And so at the time as, like, I said the store. We just opened the store. We were a Schecter dealer. So it's probably like, three Schecters is what I damaged. And I damaged them all. It was like, clank, clink, clank, clank, clank, clank. The. That wasn't bad. It was the embarrassment. Like, Shauna jumped up. Everybody's like, oh, my God, are you okay? I mean, I. Dude, it was like, they think this is way before. You know, we had cameras in the store. Way before everybody had a cell phone pointing at you all the time. It would have been a really horrible thing to watch if I had to watch the video. But it was. It was that it happened fast. I, like, plugged in the thing. I went to step away. It ra. It. Like I said, I. It caught me. And just when my leg went forward, it stopped, and I just went right into the wall. So that one happened. That one's pretty bad. So funny I laugh now because I'm like, oh. And it just. You know, I was embarrassed. I jumped right up. I was like, I'm fine, but I wasn't fine. I was like, it sucked. And. But. Yeah, but like I said, I've had tons of guitars damaged. That's just the, you know, part of the business. And it takes you a while before you get used to it. Some people never get used to it. I have friends that own businesses, and they just never get used to it. Every one of them upsets you, like the first one. But me, at some point, I got to the point where it just didn't. It didn't. When I say upsets me, everything sucks. But I'm talking about, like, you don't sleep for days. You can't stop thinking about it. You know, you just kind of. What happens is, is at this point in my life, and it happened a long time ago, so it's been a while now, at least a decade or longer. You get to a point where you survive so many different things that every time something happens, although it sucks, you don't immediately go into your head that it's all over because you're like, oh, I survived much worse. That's what helps when you survive stuff Mr. Zombie says. Sell on Shectors. Yeah. Yeah. The. Yep. It. It sucked. So. So, okay. Fast Race says, would you buy a guitar that had. That has had a neck repair? I personally don't, but that's because I. I don't really think anybody ever prices stuff accordingly so you know, I don't agree with the, the world on this. This is by far the majority has spoken and they're spoke. They, they're saying the opposite of me to me, like if I see it, let's just take a guitar that's pretty easy. Let's say Gibson Les Paul studio, right? What are they like, you know, used. Right. Let's just for fun, can we just pick numbers? I don't have to do the research on this. Let's say they're $2,000 new. I know, just throw numbers and they sell for like 1400 dollars used to me if I saw a Gibson Les Paul studio with a neck repair from somebody I trust or at least a place like yo, this store did or somewhere, you know, somebody knows what they're doing, did it. The highest I'm paying is seven. I'm half a used. It's half. That's the only reason I buy it, to workhorse it to play it. I learned this from so many gigging musicians. So many gig musicians have really just destroyed guitars that they bought dirt cheap. You know, they would, they would buy guitars that have been fixed and refurbished and all that stuff to work them, you work them in the ground. It's like buying a used car and going, hey, I'm gonna run this car until it stops running and then I'm gonna buy another one. And, and, but I find every time I see a neck repair guitar, you know, it's always like $200 off for neck repair. I'm like, not even close. Nope, not doing it. So to me, your resales is shot is in my opinion, first of all, you almost can't guarantee a neck repair doesn't happen again. Just like you can't guarantee any kind of breakage like that. But more importantly, it's not that it might ever break again. It's, it's, it's not that so much. It's just again, it's just never going to hold value. So Zach says I'm considering getting one. Either a Firefly or Firefly makes great guitars for the money. Yes, they do. Do you see Herman Lee did a review of a Firefly guitar and everybody sent me an email saying, hey, did a shout out. I thought that was really nice. I had already seen the shout out because I told you guys, YouTube tells you when you're mentioning a video now. So I was like, I got 18 videos. I don't know what I did recently, but 18 videos mentioned me or tagged me in them. And I watched most of them and I Know some of you guys are like, well, because you probably said it and now people are doing it. But no, like a lot of times it had nothing to do with me or it didn't matter. Okay, let's do another. Okay, hold on a second. Drinks and snacks. That's great. Sign on says, hey, are warm up next worth taking the plunge? Are they much different? Assuming your stock neck is going fine. I don't know if they're different in the idea of quality. I think Warmoth makes fantastic necks, but yeah, if you want to change out a neck. I own three guitars with Warmoth necks. I love them, they're fine. Highly, I highly recommend warm off necks. So. So yeah, I like, I highly suggest Warmoth. Rex O Matic says, hey Phil, which of your pickups or others would you suggest for Squire 60s classic vibe thin 9 upgrade? Well, we don't do any of that stuff anymore. So we'll have an announcement soon of our pickup change and what those mean to everybody. But in that, in the thin line, we don't make anything because like I said, we don't do anything other than what we're about to release. Suggestion wise. I mean, I like the Seymour Duncan ones, they're pretty good. Go with those. It's tough because I don't have a whole lot of reference. Pickups are really hard to reference. So Lemon Lust says, hey, would you ever consider Aristide's guitars? Yeah, I reached out to Aristides last year or over a year ago like I did. I told you guys, I, I solicit very few companies, but Air Steve's guitars are very expensive and just to be understand, just we're on the same page. I. I reached out to them in the hopes to borrow one of their guitars. They told me it was not a good time because they're backlogged on guitars and that when they catch up they will get back to me. And so I'm assuming they still haven't catched up. So at some point I'm gonna have to just go, okay. There's no way they're gonna be able to send a guitar for a loaner. So I just have to buy one, you know, it'll happen. I mean that's what the patron funds are for. We use them to basically fund all the expenses. So thank you guys for Patreon the channel, because it literally goes to all the expenses. Last year I had a. I couldn't even tell you, but let's just say a 99 fail rate on the guitars I bought that made videos on breaking even. So keep in mind, like I said, I'm using you guys as patron funds and I'm buying gear and I'm making videos. And then the idea is that I, you know, if I break even, so to speak, because I didn't have to use my own personal funds. Well, they are, because they're turned into my funds once they become patron. But what I'm basically getting at is, I'll put it this way. If I were to double the amount of videos I did last year, where I bought and did videos of guitars, which we. Which was, if you watch my review was over half the guitars. Well, if I doubled, it'd been all the guitars, right? So I guess not. I'm just saying if we would increased it any more than that, I'd stop making YouTube altogether. There would be no reason even make any videos anymore. Unless, of course, I'm just gonna work full time and just make videos for fun as a hobby. But then I wouldn't make this many. There's just no reason to make this many. So. So Aristides. It's on my radar. It's. I'm trying to do it. What we try to do. What I try to do now is I try to get any guitars like that as a loaner or something like that. And before we just, you know, before I just outright buy it and do the video, just because, again, it just helps subsidize the channel a little bit. Just a lot of money. But we'll. We'll. We're entertaining some new ideas this year. So. So we'll see. Let's see, Let's see. I'm sorry, some of you guys are making me laugh. I'm not making videos anymore either. Yeah, let's see. Okay, so bv. Bev says, man, isn't this Amanda Telfill? Okay, she. Is that a company that owned a UK vintage store took over Carter's a few years ago. Perhaps four years ago. Oh, okay, that helps. Like I said, I didn't think anything of it. Still like Carter's. It just. I. When I heard that, just like this, I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, kind of feel like the new Carter's isn't the same Carter's when it comes to, like, the way, you know, the prices were and stuff like that. But I'll still shop with them. I just noticed it wasn't as amazing as I remember. And that's just the way things go, I'm sure. This is from Polly, who says, hey, I just got an Amazon telly Plan to sharpen it. What would be your favorite budget? Telly pickups. Oh, back to telly pickups. I'm leaning towards Wilkinson. Al Nico fives. Oh, Wilkinson's pickups are good. Trav Wilkinson once told me a funny story. He said. He said, remember this? This is what he said. I. I wish I could do it here. I don't know if you guys ever seen Trav Wilkinson. He reminds me of the guy from Jurassic Park. He's like, we spared no expense, that guy. And I want to give him just credit for this quote he gave me. It was great. He said, quote him correctly. He said, remember? Okay, I'm gonna do it. Remember, a single coil costs $5 to make, and a humbucker costs $10 to make. And this industry will kill you if you tell anyone that. And I remember thinking, like, I thought I was exaggerating, and he was not exaggerating. So Wilkinson pickups great for the price. He makes great pickups, so. Oh, Brian says you have to pay to park at Carter's now. Yeah, Yeah. I haven't. I don't know. Let's see. Okay, this one is from none of your business. I gotta put the spaces in the correct words. Okay. Is a player having too many choices of guitars, pedals and amps, etcetera, hurting the industry like Lee Anderton says? Well, there's a saying that's a sales thing. So it's interesting that Lee went that way. There's an old saying, you know, Right. Confuse them before you close them or close them before you confuse them. In other words, too many choices makes it hard for the consumer to make a choice. Look, the reality is, if you are into this, if you're hanging out on a Friday afternoon listening to me, and here, it's because you enjoy this. A Being things, learning about this. Like I said, a. A hobbyist is an educated consumer. It's someone who just loves to learn everything about the thing they love, and they become very educated on it. Right. Like a connoisseur, if you will. Right. So we're. We're. You know, you're gonna. You understand. I have friends. I have friends that can outplay. They could play as good as anyone out there. Hell, they probably have a Grammy. And they couldn't tell you. Al Ninko 5 from El Nko 2. When I say they couldn't tell you the difference, like, listening to it. I mean, they couldn't tell you, like, If I said El N. Oh, it's not on Nicko 2. Not on Niko 5. They'd be like, what the hell are you talking about? They don't care, right? We decided we care. Hold on a second. Just pour myself some water. So we're so. Yes to a basic customer. I could see where this could go. Overwhelming. Except for here's where it's not. This is where I would disagree with Lee in this case. Gone are the days of crap good and better. That is not the world we're in. We haven't been in that world in a long time. You can absolutely buy great stuff for super cheap. There is no if I only had enough money, I could have good gear. Now it's about a brand. You still have to pay if you want to be able to brag. If you want a Gibson or a Gretch, like a, you know, really, right. Or a, you know, a Fender, you know, or whatever brand or. Sir, let's go. Sir Tom Anderson. You know, a Nags if you want, you know, a Novo if you want a Phy Nation or A2 Rock if you want a Friedman. Yeah, you're gonna have to put out some money. And those are great products, as they should be. No one should look at a 4000. Like, look, when I do these deep dives, you think when I have a $4,000 guitar, I'm like, oh, it's really good, guys. I'm like, well, no, it's. Of course it's good. That's. That's given the question is, why would you want it? That's the way if we want to answer that. So the reality, though is those products are good, of course, but they are also for the bragging rights. You know, you can buy a Toyota Camry or run forever. It's a great car. For those that still think they're good. That's not the point. The point is it's a great car. When I say that is, you know, you don't get in a Toyota Camry and go, yeah, I wish I had roll up windows in ac. Everybody has ac. I live in Arizona. I was talking my. My wife and I were trying to explain to our kids that my wife's first car in high school was a Buick with a steel steering wheel and no ac. Like, like they were like, what? That car can't even exist legally. Like, my kids, like, they believe that there's probably a law on this says you can't have a car with no AC in the desert. That's illegal. You're like, no, literally, you. You would go and you would just buy a car if you didn't have money. For ac, you didn't get ac. Right. It's how it worked. And so this is my point is, is that now you get a Camry and the base model has safety features and it has AC and it has a nice stereo system. And now you gotta buy silly things like, you know, heated or cooled seats or all the other stuff or leather. Right. And that stuff, that was always what the really high end cars have. So my point is that the gear industry follows suit with that too. If you want to have a SIR guitar plugged into a 2 rock, then you have to pay for it. You have to pay lots of money for it. But what you're getting is not far removed from essentially a lot of the $500 guitars, $600 guitars. Everybody's going to have differing opinions. But here's where I focus my opinion. I'm not telling you like this instinctually. I'm telling you from. This isn't from owning a music store. This isn't from repairing guitars. This isn't. This is from all the deep dives I've took away. I've took apart everybody's guitar. I have made a nice little side income consulting for companies on what I've learned over the years to the point where sometimes we actually were having discussions like maybe, you know, maybe less live shows, maybe more consulting gigs. You know, the reason is, is because it's not. It's because like I said, you take stuff apart, you look at it, you start learning. This is what makes a guitar different and not different. And so I'm telling you that when I take apart a guitar, I can find a flaw with every single guitar. When I say every single. Yeah. The emerald carbon fiber guitar came flawless. No floss, good for them. Carbon fiber, right. But my point is, is that there's a novo I have here. There's flaws in that. There's a flaw in every guitar. It will be small or, or large. So back to the consumers being confused. The reality is you can buy a really good guitar and a really good amp and a really good setup for whatever price you want to pay, not what price they want to sell it to you at. There's every tier pricing. I mean, you know, there's maybe that's a good video, right? Give me a budget. We did. What guitar would I buy? $500 could I buy rig for $250 that I would play? Yeah. An amping guitar. I believe 100% now it's going to be used and I'm going to have to peck for it and find it, but I can find it. I believe I can find it. And I know you guys know too. You can find a decent guitar and an amp for 250 bucks now, and it's decent. I'd get a Line 6 Spider amp that has all the sounds, a little practice amp, that thing. I could probably pick one up for $35 if I search around a little bit. And that gives me a hundred and, you know, $15 or whatever left or 215 to find a guitar. And I can think, well, I just get a Firefly and then I'd be sad. So consumers being confused. Well, they're confused, but they shouldn't be because it's almost impossible to walk in a store or a legitimate online retailer and not get something that's going to be more than adequate to learn and play guitar on. I mean, there's, you know, it's just, it's really fine when we find an issue. You know, Herman Lee, when he was talking about the Firefly, he found some bad fret marks on it. He was talking about that. And here's the deal. I was watching it and. Because, you know, because you're going to find issues on Fireflies. But the reality is none of that would stop somebody from learning to play. They. That, that is something they'll discover is a problem later after they're not only a player, but they've learned a little bit about guitar so they know how to make the best next choice. So my point being with that comment about too many choices. Yeah, I guess in the idea that if you click a thing, except for here's the sad thing, you could go to ChatGPT right now and say, hey, I'm a. You know what? We could probably do it. I just asked ChatGPT go, hey, I'm a beginner. I want to learn electric guitar. I want to spend 300 for an electric guitar and amp. What's a good suggestion for amp and guitar? And I'm sure it's going to get you in the ballpark or you can even tell it to go, hey, I want to buy from Sweetwater and tell me what a Sweetwater is a good choice. So I think there is lots of good products out there. And I think that when we talk about how confusing and over crazy it is, that's just us nerding out. I don't think the consumers are. Are that perplexed by it. When I, when I used to have to sell guitars in the store, I've had a few moments and I have no problem talking about Them, you know, just like I've at this point, you know, all 400 some episodes, I've told you guys all something. I've shown my ass enough times, literally, you know, enough times on the show saying something that, you know, if you, you know, that's going to lose the audience, that's going to lose the audience. I, I've snapped a few times in, in my store that happens, you know, 13 years. Yeah, I cut. Not all customers were great. And, and one of my favorite things to think about and not at the time I snapped, I did say something to a lady and it's. And it, I don't necessarily regret it, but it, it stuck with me for a long time. Like I kept thinking about it and thinking about it like, you know, I wish I wouldn't have done it. And to this day I'll say I wish I wouldn't have done it. And one of the things that happens was people would come in your store, it was always parents, parents would come in your store uneducated and they'd want to buy their kid a guitar. And they came to the store in the hopes that, you know, in my hopes, they're like, here, I'm here to help you make the right decision for this kid. And you know, you would, you, you found that. Exactly what I said. You know, the, the price is dictated by the consumer, not the other way around. So I would say, you know, they come in, you know, like I told you, I could find you a $300 and get you a good guitar. This particular woman came in and said, she goes, I'm looking for acoustic for my son. I said, okay. And she said, you know, can you show me one? And I said, yeah, here's my favorite acoustic guitar for beginners. It's called the CD60. By the way, they still make this guitar. It's Fender. Fender CD60 at the time came in natural black and sunburst without electronics and a hard shell case which we would trade for a high end gig bag. Okay. And I know that sounds. The case was thin. So, you guys know, no deception there. We won't. We would sell the case for 50 bucks just like we'd sell the gig bag. But sometimes it's easier for kids to throw it over their shoulder than carry it. We give them their choice. They just pick case or gig bag included. The guitar was $249. Okay. We did not give discount on it. So I'm just telling you that's the map on it with the case. And we would include a little Starter pack, which I think was like a tuner, some picks and something else. Like a chord chart or something, right? So essentially, it's everything they needed, right? They're set in. And she's like, I don't want to spend that. Now, look, I had been around enough times to know broke, Okay? I know when somebody's broke. I'm like, okay, I get it, man. You know, if you guys want me to tell you, I'll tell you the time I sold a homeless guy a guitar. It's a weird. That's broke. And I learned a lot about homeless people on that day, too. But anyways, she said, do you have anything cheaper? And I said, yes. And so I showed her another guitar. This guitar was 199. She's like, cheaper. I'm like, okay. And. And again, I'm like, okay, look, lady. And so what happened was we had the SA100, which at the time used to be made by Squier. And it now has been rebranded to Fender. And since then, too, by the way. So Fender. So it was a Fender Acoustic that they sold at Costco. Sa. Sometimes they call it the fa, in fact. Oh, yeah. The SA is the squire. And then it changed the Name to the fa. Fender Acoustic fa. Fender Acoustic 100. It was $99. It was playable, right? You know, it had. It was playable. You know, it was our. We had it in case, like I said, we didn't want a customer to leave the store, you know, and go to. Go to Amazon. And this is what happened. She's like, oh, what about that guitar? And I go, yeah, that's the FA100. It's a hundred dollars. And I said. And she's like, is it any. And she goes, could you play it for me? I got to remember the story in order. And I said, sure. So I had to demo it to her. She's listening to it. And I'm thinking to myself, you gotta understand, as a business owner, I'm. I'm just thinking in my head going, like, it's $20. That's what I make on this guitar. It's $20 a thing. And I'm helping her with all these guitars. I've already into this 30 minutes with her, and here's where it gets funny. I have all these canned responses, as you would if you sold anything. You know, hey, Fender's good quality. They have a good reputation. They have, you know, lifetime warranty on this guitar. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You can sign up for lessons. We support you. I have all These canned answers. But she just out of nowhere says, is that a good guitar? Now, keep in mind, I had just gone. I've just explained the spiel of all the guitars, all the brands and all the prices, and we've come to the. There. By the way, there's nothing cheaper in the store. There's no other. This is it. You get this or you have to leave now, because I don't have anything else. And she says, is that a good guitar? And I said, if they could find a way to make this cheaper, they would, right? I know that doesn't sound so bad, but I said it kind of jerky. And I said. And she was not upset because it wasn't that mean, but it was enough to where she was like, what's this guy's problem? And I'm like. I was just like, that's it, lady. That's the. That's the closer. That's the sales. I'm not kidding. This is what I'm saying. I go, they could sell. If Fender could make this guitar for $98, they would. They just can't figure out how to make it any cheap. So that's what it is. The cheapest thing in the store. And so she bought it. She never came back again. I wouldn't blame her. So my point is, is that there's great choices out there. The customer should not be confused. And the fact that we have option paralysis for gear is because we're obsessing over silly details that don't matter. Arguing with ourselves at night, looking at the same three types of versions of tube screamers or clawn pedals, is the silliness that we enjoy. We enjoy it. You do it because you enjoy it, not because you're stressed. So I don't think a lot of consumers are stressed because they can't find a good product. I think we obsess over it. And therefore, people say it's confusing, but it's not. So that's just my thing. Plus, so, yeah, somebody said, evan says, you've reached the bottom. That's kind of where I was at with it. I was like, there's just no way cheaper. Let's. Let's do one more. Hold on. I'm just refreshing. Okay, let's do one more. Oh, interesting. Okay, so this is from David Ties into Something that's Funny too. David says, hey, I have a small amp, and I found out it's a bass amp. I've been using it with my electric guitar. What is the difference in a bass amp and electric Guitar amp. So there could be a ton of difference. Keep in mind like the Fender baseman 59 is a bass amp that guitar players use. Because that's what happens. Guitar players figured out because it the bases were overloading it and the guitar players could really, you know, play it. The difference between a bass amp essentially is going to be in two major differences. Three, three major differences. Let's just give it to that one. The speaker is probably the biggest difference. Cause it's using a different type of speaker. Guitar speakers. And the best way I always put this is guitar speakers are the unique thing, not the other way around. So there's not like a bass speaker is unique. A keyboard amp, a bass amp, a PA speaker, a car speaker. Essentially they're all speakers that can take a frequency response across a spectrum. In other words from highs to lows and in between where a guitar speaker is more specialized in what it does. And they generally not very good for using for a pa, a bass or car series stuff because they'll. They'll blow because they're really. Guitar speakers are thinner on by nature. And again they don't have the frequency response. Not all of them. Some do because members now they have guitar players playing eight stings and eight strings and chugging and stuff. The next design difference in a bass amp would be the construction of the cabinet. In other words the sound sizing. You know, you might make it deeper, bigger to create more low end frequency or be ported. So again it's just going to create more bass response. Sometimes that's good. Some guitar players want that. It's not necessarily a bad thing for the guitar. The last thing is usually in the amp, there's the eq. The EQ is going to have more again range. It's going to have more highs and more lows frequencies to adjust to the bass sound. Running your guitar through a bass amp is not bad at all. Does nothing bad to the bass amp. There's nothing wrong with that. The only concern people would have is that it's going to be very clean and sometimes referred to as sterile. Because again it doesn't have that type of speaker and it doesn't have the kind of, you know, tonality in the tone stack to give you the tones that guitar players tend to like. But running a guitar through a bass amp is not a bad thing. Or in fact you can do both. You can sometimes run your guitar through a bass amp or your bass through a guitar amp. Depends on how loud you crank the guitar amp. But you're fine. Funny story, was Last week I mentioned that I have the Phil Jones amp and we're talking about amps. And I mentioned that the, that The Fender Fender Rumble 40 bass amp is a great bass amp. And then when I mentioned earlier on the show that I went to Guitar center and checked out things while I was there, they had a bunch of bass amps. They had mark bass and dark glass and a bunch of bass amps there. And so me and Ralph sat and played through all these bass amps and I did not like any of them. And then I went and I go, you know, I just, I said, Ralph, I said, I just recommended last night because I. This is Saturday after last Friday. I just recommended this Fender amp again. I used to have a rumble 40. They're 230 bucks. 240 bucks plugged into it. Absolutely love it. Still highly Recommend it. Best 240. It's funny. You could buy a Fender base amp that you could take to a small gig at that point. It'd be a very small gig, definitely at home use. And it costs the same or less than a decent boutique pedal. It's pretty impressive. And. And I thought it was funny. I showed Ralph. So I'll tell you guys too. The Fender Rumble 40, I did not go through all the rumbles when I say that on both sides. Little fun fact. The Fender Rumble 40 not only $240, not only a great sounding amp with great options like direct out. It's also made by Cortech in Indonesia's factory. So it's made in the Indonesian factory. So little fun, you know, because that's not, you know, that's just different. I know somebody's gonna like everything's made. The cortex factory. Yes. That's why I went there. I wanted to see everything being made. So. But a little fun. So if you're looking for a good bass amp is what I'm trying to say, that's the one I would, I would check out. Okay, so on that note, we did it. We solved all the world's problems, which is important. We talked about some guitar subjects and we did everything. If you guys just let you know if you want to try to check out the. The 10 Pierce course before the deal expires. Like I said, you can save 30% off. There's a link down below. You save 30% off and you get to try it for 30 days. And they kick up a nice piece of that to us, which is. Helps fund this channel. So it's a win. Win for all of us, I hope and I appreciate you guys at least check it out. At least go check it out, right? And so I recommend that. And then also I put a link for the Hills guitar that I showed you right there. So there's a link there. If you don't want to use a link, just understand that if you're buying a Hills guitar in the US you need to use Hills. America is their website. So some people have trouble finding it because they're the US Distribution of the, of the guitar. So think about that if you're checking that out. And then was there one other thing to share with you guys? Let you know that if you want to sign up to become a patron, the $5 tier this Sunday is the bonus podcast for patrons where it's just like this, except for a lot, lot less people. So I get to answer everybody's question. So if there's ever a question you really, really want to ask me, you can pay $5, become a patron and ask me on Sunday. And so, and so, you know, when I say that you don't even have to be there live. If you'll go in there, you'll see that there's a chat for, we have a chat for each event and you just go into that chat. Once we cross the event, we delete the chat out. So you put the thing in the chat chat and I'll just go back and read it. So, so there, there you go. And then also if you want to sign up the $10 level, you get clinics where we do guitar clinics. And then you get obviously everything below which is the ad free version of the show, plus the bonus. And then if you want to do the top tier, you can check out that option if you want to. And, and also coming soon, we're gonna give the, the ten dollars and up to here a ten dollar discount on merch because we're gonna try to work out a merch deal with like that. So trying to always give a little bit more, especially since each year I try a little harder to do a little bit more. If you notice on the channel, because you know, life sucks. I don't know why, you know what I'm trying to say? It's like when everybody's trying to make things harder and worse and more expensive. If I'm trying to make things a little better for you guys so that we can at least have some fun here. All right, on that note, I want to thank you guys all for hanging out to the end of the show and until next Friday. 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.