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The know youw gear podcast. Hey everyone. Welcome to the Know youw gear podcast. Episode 442 on Friday the 13th. So scary. Friday 13th and of course tomorrow is Valentine's Day. So of course you guys have decided to spend your time with me instead of preparing to do something with the person you love. I'm sure. And anyways, I hope everybody's had a great week, is ready for a fantastic weekend. It's also President's Day weekend, I believe. Yeah, that's true. Right? Yeah. Okay, so. So sales. Hey, there's sales out there. Don't forget that. They like to give sales for any holiday they can. Think they can come up with a reason to give you a sale, they're going to do it. So look out there. If you've been trying to buy a pedal or something, go get that discount if it exists. This is from Tumble Tumbleweed Rancher says. Hey Phil, ever played an acoustic bass guitar? Local store has a breed. Love myrtlewood acoustic bass, 32 inch scale. So if you guys don't know 32 inch scale, a bass, a standard bass guitar is 34 inches. Think of that as being 25 and a half inch scale, like the standard kind of thing. A, a five string bass sometimes, sometimes can be 35 inch scale. Think of that as like extended. But the reason why 32 is irrelevant is a 30 inch scale would be a short scale bass, like a short scale guitar. A 32 inch base I think is more like saying 24 and 3 quarters. It's a slightly shorter distance but it really doesn't affect too much. So anyways, he's looking at a 32 inch scale base. He says, I don't have any basses yet. What do you think? I am not a huge fan of acoustic basses. I've bought many acoustic basses. Of course the best one probably ever in history is the Tacoma Thunderchief acoustic bass. And they no longer make it. But most acoustic basses, the problem is, I mean if you're gonna get it because you just want to get a bass and 32 inch scale and you like it, maybe you picked it up, you played it and you like the way it played, then get it, you know, right. And there's no downside to that. But I wouldn't actively seek out an acoustic bass for this one reason, which is what I hate about when I had an acoustic basses was all the acoustic guitar players. You'd go to jam acoustically and you couldn't be heard. You had to still plug in an amp. So I Just said, screw it. And then I just got an electric bass that didn't look so electric, you know, I mean, you know, you don't want to have a bright colored one. If everybody's being acoustic, you want to keep it cool. Actually, I think with acoustic, like acoustic groups, I think it's better to have a fretless. But that's a harder thing to tell somebody, especially beginning on bass to do. But if you want to get an acoustic bass, that's fine. I'm just not a huge fan of them for the fact that you still have to plug them in. I have not, except for maybe, like I said, the Tacoma Thunderchief and maybe a couple others. Ever been able to find acoustic bass that you can be almost as loud as an acoustic guitar player? It's just the way it works. But that being said, I don't see a downside to it. 32 inch scale, it's up to you. It's my preferred scale. But it is not because it is so much easier to play as so much as just some of the ways I do things. It just really makes more sense to me. I mean, it's easier, but that's not my drive is what I'm trying to say. So. Okay. So I hope that helps. And as always on this channel, worst thing you can do on a Friday is ask us if you should buy something. Absolutely. Help the economy, help that small store. Get that acoustic bass or another bass. Get another bass. So. And there you go. It says, Okay, T Bone 2451 says Phil is PRS discontinuing certain SE silver sky colors. I don't know that officially, but when I was there in August of last year, July of last year, when the hell was I there? Summertime of last year, maybe it was June. They were getting ready to roll out the new SE colors. I got to see them. It's all in the footage and that I had. And of course, that's why that wasn't released right away, because it was not out yet to the public. I got the impression that they are not adding, you know, to the color palette, that they'll phase in colors and phase out. That seems like a good strategy for them. So I would think that although I can't tell you officially, I'm sure somewhere out there they are telling people officially. But I would just tell you that I would not bet on. Even if they say they're going to keep the colors, that they're going to keep the colors. That's actually what I want to say. This is as even though they. You could say, well, they're saying they're keeping them or not keeping them. I wouldn't even go off what they're saying. I'm telling you. My gut says if you see a new color, another color is going away eventually very shortly. Other than probably the staple colors. Right. They'll probably always stick with a couple of the. You know, just whatever the color is that does well. So. Okay. Todd H765309 okay. I says that didn't even the same the song I live in North Texas and the temps dipped and it was really cold. Yes. I have some friends that were in all the cold areas. We have a lot of family in Texas and I heard it was really cool. My Gibson Les Paul 50s standard stay perfectly in tune. It's got a big chunky neck. So that could be helpful. The temps are back in the 70s today and the G string is out of tune constantly. That could be obviously. Look, we know that temperature, climate change or climate. Yeah. Control moisture content change heat and cold change. All that stuff can affect on the instruments. I don't know specifically what when the temperature changes. Like I said, when the temperature changes or the humidity changes either dryer or wetter or colder or hotter. It is very common to have to make an adjustment to a guitar. Now you're saying that the temperatures are in the 70s. It's just out of tune and it's. And it's staying out of tune constantly. I don't know specifically what could have happened to cause that over and over again. Somebody saying strings. Sure. I mean we could throw a lot ton of guesses out of there. Strings is a guess. It could have exposed a problem that already exists because maybe it was seating in a nut perfectly. And now sometimes when you. Well, also what I don't know is how the strings are wrapped around the tuning post. Sometimes what happens is, you know, the guitar stand staying in tune and then the neck moves. Okay. So it just moves whatever. And then you have to adjust. So in other words, let's say it moves and your notes are sharp. That happens a lot. Or sometimes it moves and your notes are flat and you've adjusted and maybe because you've loosened or tightened the string, it's not seating around the post correctly. I like the string answer. Thank you, redeye5208 I like the numbers now, so I'm just gonna read them. I think restringing guitar is a good idea. Give it a good new restring and set up and see if that fixes the Problem. I would also lubricate the nut. The Gibson Les Paul's the 50s Les Paul is going to have a nylon nut. I think that works really good with some lubrication. You don't have to put it on every string. You could just put it on that G string slot and see how that works. If you don't have any like Big Big Ben's nut sauce or lubricant from d' Addario or whatever lubrication you know that they, they have out there that people use. You can use a pencil, just use some graphite from a pencil. It's, it's up to you and you don't have to do that. But I would recommend it because it could, it will help, won't hurt. So. Okay, we did that one. We did that one. Maybe we're doing better than we thought. Okay. At play Gibson, I'm gonna assume he plays Gibson or she plays Gibson. It doesn't really say play Gibson says, hey Phil, have you ever refused to sell a guitar to someone because you felt they were going to be a pain to deal with? You know, in the store we used to say have a saying secretly behind the customers backs called don't feed the bears. And what that meant was exactly what it means, don't feed the bears. So sometimes if you had a customer who was not great, you always gave them great service. But you did not throw in, you know, like freebies or do anything that would like said feed. Well, like a discount. Let's say somebody came in and gave you a discount and you want a discount, right? Let me give you example. Somebody comes in and said, hey, I need 10% off or 15% off and you can make it work. You make it work. But somebody, let's say, and I'll give you a perfect example, I'm trying to think of the, the guitar in question. There's a couple. But this one in question, and this really kind of comes, this is a perfect example is one of my employees. His name, his name's Warren, he moved back to Canada. Warren bought a guitar one day because of a customer. And what happened was we had a guitar, I think it was a PRS and I'm pretty sure if you look at my videos, it's one of the guitars that I shown. It's the PRs I shown. Anyways, we had a smoking deal on it. It was a brand new guitar. It was tail end of the recession, everything was still kind of crappy and PRS had given us some smoking deals on some guitars. So we bought them up. And one or two of those guitars just were not moving. So I discounted them pretty heavy. And the discounts were really, really heavy. And a customer came in and played it and said, oh, I love it. It's great. That's a smoking deal. And we're like, great. And then he said, you know, do better. Right, right. And what that was to us. And again, no offense to the guy, he's smelling blood in the water. And it's a different kind of relationship now. See, he doesn't understand that we got that guitar and a smoking deal. We don't really need it to stay on the wall because we bought a bunch. And it's kind of worked out for us at that point. Sure, we'd like to give somebo deal. But he's thinking we're selling it like we're taking it a loss because maybe we're desperate. And that does happen sometimes. You are desperate to get rid of stuff. But what happens is, that's a perfect example of don't feed the bears. Because the problem is, is that once you sell him that guitar for that absolute, you know, craziness, and you give him that ridiculous deal, if it's a good deal for them and it's a good deal for you, it's a good deal. If it's a really good deal for them, it's a bad deal for you. The problem is, is that even though you got rid of it, they're going to come back all the time, and you're going to have to deal with them. They're going to come back and go, hey, I want that one now. And what's your smoking deal on that? And you're like, well, I don't have a deal on that. Oh, man, I'll buy it right now if you don't have a smoking deal. So. So you get the idea. So it's not that we wouldn't sell anything. So back to the Warren thing. He. He was like, you know, hey, you know, make me a smoking deal. And Shawna was like, no, not at this time. And he left. And he goes, I'll be back. I think he said he'd be back in an hour. And then Warren's like, you know what? I'll buy it. And then Warren walked up, grabbed it, and said, can you take it out of my check? And Sean is like, yep. And he bought it. And I don't think the guy. The guy did come back, and the guy couldn't buy it because it was sold. So. And that felt pretty good for Us, you know, not like that we got the guy somehow, but it was like, I feel good. Like, then the guy has a better understanding. Like, we weren't in that position. He thought we were. Other than that. And that's just one example. And that's not really a good one. I can't think of a whole lot of examples where we. Oh, you know what? I do know one. Because believe it or not, it just came up with one of my kids, and they were having a situation with a customer in their life situation. And so the question was. Your question is, have you ever refused to sell a guitar to someone because you felt like they were going to be a pain to deal with? Not necessarily because of that. We did have a situation a couple times. More than once, less than 10. Call it that. It was 13 years where people came in drunk and tried to buy expensive guitars, and we refused them. And there. And this is why it was interesting, because this was a debate just a week or two ago over the ethics of that, you know, like, telling a customer, no, how dare you. But our logic was they were pissed drunk, just nuts drunk. I'm not talking like, hey, they. I mean, this person, like, stumbles in your store, and you're like, okay, this is gonna end probably with a cop call. Cause they're, you know, like, they're gonna fall down, hurt themselves, and then they're trying to buy a bunch of stuff. And you're like, look. And we would do the same technique every time. We'd like, hey, we're gonna hold all this for you. We're gonna give you a special deal, come back tomorrow, maybe go and, you know, go and sleep it off. And I don't think. I can't think of anyone ever getting, like, belligerent or mean about it. We did get somebody gruff, so, you know, I'm not talking about. They came in and they go, give me a pack of strings. And we're like, no, you've had too much to drink. I'm talking about, like, I want that $3,000 guitar and that $200 thing and this, right? You're like, okay, you need to. Maybe you should wait. Especially you're also concerned that they might fall down with the stuff in the parking lot, hurt themselves, and then destroy their. Their new stuff. So it wasn't a big deal because we didn't have a whole lot of bars. We did have one by the store, so that's some scenario. But refusing to sell somebody stuff is not very common. At least it wasn't common with me. Most of the time, you know, there's no real issues, you know, so. No. And then on reverb or anything like that, like, is there somebody a headache? No, there's nobody that's ever been like a headache. I always feel like if you've seen. I've made videos, even about bad situations where I've had situations selling or buying on platforms or even with my store and stuff, because I'm trying to be upfront, you know, I try to show you guys. Like, I've shown videos that I go, ah, man, I really hate this, especially with my friends, because my friends go, oh, I saw that video you made last week. I'm really sorry to hear that. And I'm like. And I'm like, yeah, it's not about that, guys. It's just. I just don't like this whole, look at me, I'm an influencer. Life is great. I get free shit. I really think that you should really try to tell the story the way the best it is, the reality of it, which is there's some good stuff and some bad stuff. I tell the stories on the podcast. It's been really therapeutic. Sometimes I've shared too much. Sometimes I maybe hold back on you guys. Not much I have. But anyways, back to the scenario. No, there's not a whole lot of scenarios where I was like, I decided somebody was going to be difficult and I'd cut them loose. And especially on repairs. Repairs are a bigger thing than ever selling anything ever in my life, a repair. Because sometimes you can look at a situation and go, this person is going to have a very unrealistic expectation. And all you can do is throw your best, you know, like, this is what I think is going to happen scenario. So. So anyways, Our RJB says, hey, Philip, in your opinion. In my opinion, this is gonna be easy because no facts needed. Who is this coolest celebrity you got to interview or play a lick or two with? Love your channel. No particular order. So in the interviews I've done, there's two. And I will share them both with you only because this up for something. My, my. Some of my patrons asked me to tell this story. So. Okay, look, for my ego. Let's get one for my ego. The coolest celebrity I ever met was Steve. I. Why? Well, because I have posters of him in my office. I own two of his guitars. And when I met him, the first thing out of his mouth was, hey, I know you. I like your channel. Which was about the coolest thing. And to get it on Tape was great on video. Sorry, kids, I didn't mean to say tape. That was pretty good. So that was fun. However, the funnest. You said coolest. Coolest, coolest celebrity or that I've ever did a, you know, podcast or interviewed, I would say was Zach Wilde. Because he was crazy. And he was so crazy. I wanted to tell him a funny story that connected him to me, and I couldn't do it. I told the patrons the story and I told them. What I'm going to tell you is if I ever get to interview Zack Wylde again, I promised myself the patrons, and now you guys, to tell Zach Wilde this story. So when I interviewed Zack Wilde. First of all, let me explain how most interviews work. Most interview work like a. I'm going to call it a farming mill. I don't know what you call it. They call it a junket. But so I want you to understand, they go, hey, your time to interview this person is at 12:30 on Thursday. And then you'll Skype or you'll zoom or sometimes you'll meet them personally. And you have to understand right before you with somebody, right after you. Somebody, somebody. They're just doing this in like an assembly line. You're lucky. You gotta. You gotta really work it. It's not. Not all of them have been like that, but some of them that I've done have definitely been like that. Like I said, even when I interviewed Gabe from, from Guitar center, like, literally, we left the hotel, we got there at 10:30, they go, you have them from 11 to noon. And then that was it. And then we. We met him. I met him, I shook his hand, we sat down and we did the interview. So it's like, sometimes it's tough because they don't know you and you don't know them. And I understand, like, you don't want to be. You don't need to become friends. But it would be nice if you could at least get, you know, I mean, hell, sometimes it's nice if they. If you can just actually cement your name into their mouth because sometimes they call you the wrong name. I've edited a lot of those out over the years, but they have called me a lot of wrong names. They're like, dave, I really like your channel. What's your candle? No kittens. Again, like, they can't remember anything. So they're just. It's just a mess, right? They're like The Know your McKnights. Fill your gear. So anyways, but back to Zak Wilde. He was Pretty crazy and intense. My favorite part of him is he, I, he must suffer. And I mean no offense. This, he's got to suffer from some kind of ADD or something because here's the deal with interviewing him. He, I had my little time spot. I got in, you know, there was a couple things I want to talk to him about. The fact that, you know, the, the squeal and, and, and no materials was one of my favorite squeals on guitar and all this. And of course he's a big part of my life. Like a, like a pivotal moment in my guitar loving life. Right. Zack Wilde, in fact, so much so. Just so you guys know, I, I mean I love Eddie Van Halen and I love Jakey Lee and I love Randy Rhodes and I love a lot of those guys. But definitely Steve I and Zach Wilde were more influential to me personally than all those guys. Just the way they lined up in my life personally. So anyways, here's why the story's funny. So he's everywhere. Like he's talking to me and then he gets up and he's walking with his cell phone talking to me. And if you watch that video, it's on the second channel. And then he starts like doing laps in his backyard. Like he's walking in circles. And then I think he, at one point he's doing dishes. Like he's in his kitchen just doing dishes. I don't know what he's doing. Like, it's just like he's, he's great, he's hilarious, he's fun. If you watch that video, I think it's eight minutes. We actually had 22. And a lot of it is just chaos. And maybe that would have been funner to leave for you guys to see the chaos, but for me it was a lot of me going, okay, anyways, back to what we were talking about. Because he was just like this and because that I couldn't tell him a funny story. So here's a funny story. So I like little stupid things. I just say stupid things all the time. Anybody who's watching this channel knows what I'm talking about. And when we would do, when we had the lesson academy, we had hundreds of students that would come and we had this kid who used to come for lessons. When I say kid, he's a teenage young man and his mother, who I always remember this was a 911 operator. So that's how I remember her. And she would bring him to his lesson. She was super into him learning guitar, being into music. She was definitely an 80s rock girl, okay? So she loved all the 80s rock music, and she would take him to concerts and all that stuff. And so he was a great kid. And he would come in and if you guys have ever been to my store, some of you guys have been to my store when it existed, you know that it was set up like a sushi counter. When you walked in, my bench was right up front. I had a piece of plexiglass, so you wouldn't touch my soldering iron, because people would reach over my bench and you could talk to me or ask me anything while I was working on guitars. So the students did that a lot. They came in and go, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm soldering this potentiometer. And you would just kind of talk to the kids. Okay? So I also like sarcasm. And keep in mind, he's in the age grade group, where I'm like, he's not an adult, but he's not a kid anymore, so I'm gonna give him some dad humor, right? Okay. So he says, in the weirdest way, only certain kids could do this. Like, he was very excited, which I made me excited. But he was also, like, being funny. And he walked up and he goes, just so you know, I'm gonna see Black Label Society next week. I go, oh, that's great. Now, keep in mind, now my excitement is matched to his excitement. He's excited. He's going. I'm excited. He's going, we should be friends now, right? But instead, he jabs a little one of those, like, oh, yeah. And my mom got us backstage passes, and we're gonna meet them. And he's saying it kind of like that. And I'm like, I know he's excited, and I think we're bonding for a moment. But I also think he's like, you know how, like, somebody's like a. They're just bragging a little bit, right? And he goes. And then this is what he says to me. I'm not upset, by the way. I'm just like, huh, huh? I'm listening. And then he set me up. So when I mean set me up, he set me up for a joke. So I gave him one. He said, when I meet Zach Wild, is there anything you want me to ask him? And I said, yeah, tell him he still owes me $5 for an egg salad sandwich. And then the kid goes, what? I go, yeah, I was at an airport, and Zach Wilde was at a machine trying to buy an egg salad sandwich, and he didn't Want to take his money. So I gave him five bucks. And he goes, well, next time I see you, he goes, I'll pay you back. And I go, it's been years. He's never paid me back. So when you see him, tell him he still owes me $5 for an exhaled sandwich. That should be the end of the story. But what happens next is next week, the kid comes to his lesson. He walks in, and I forgot about. It was a dumb. It was dad humor. No one thought it was funny. I didn't even think it was funny. I was trying. You know, it's a trying joke, right? Those. Those of us dads know what it's like to always. You lop out about a hundred jokes, ten land if you're lucky, and then you. You know, you feel good. Anyways, so he comes. He comes in and I'm working on something, and he goes, hey, I met Zach Wilde. And I'm like, oh, that's great. How was the show? And he goes, it was amazing. And he goes, and when I. When I got a picture with him, and he shows me the picture of him and his mom with Zach Wilde, and I go, that's great. And he goes, oh. And I told him that Phil McKnight told him that he. You still. He still You. He says, Phil McKnight says you still own $5 for an egg salad sandwich. Now, first of all, just to set this up perfectly, right? Then I'm in shock. Like, oh, my God, this kid said that? Not that I think it's going to be deal. He doesn't know who I am. He doesn't know what this is about. But, I mean, I feel bad for that. I'm like. And I go, oh, what do you say? And he goes, fucking get over it. So the kid said that. By the way, I'm. I'm literally quoting the kid. I know we don't curse a lot on the show, but I'm quoting the kid. You can give you the age grade now, right? Obviously, I think his mom was okay with that because she was in the room. So, anyways, I want to tell Zakweil that story, but he was just so all over, and I was just trying to manage the mess, which is, you know, he's there, he's giving me his time. You can tell they're making him do lots of this, and he's just trying to do it the best he can. And anyway, so that's my answer to those questions. Those are my favorite to interview just for those reasons. One, because that was an interesting plus. I would say Zach Wall was most interesting trying to. To talk to because it was the most skills I ever, ever had. And then that was it. So those two. But they've all been fun in some way. So. All right, let's go to, I don't know, another question or subject, and let me refresh the screen so that I see things correctly. And let me get out of this one. And then I have updated this and let's take a look. And if you're talking to me, put a question mark at the beginning so I know the subject is about me or topic is something you want me to talk about or the question is towards me. I'm trying to see. Is that an R? It is. It looks like Amos and it's Arness, because there's. It looks like the. I'm pretty sure, God, I might need my glasses because the way the font is, it looks like a M A S, but I think it's a R N A S Arness, because I remember. And I think because I remember his name was Arnes. He says, hey, Phil, it was great to see you on the Keisel video. How was that experience for you? It was a great experience. The Keysle guys are always super nice to us. They are some of the nicest people in the industry. Look, in my. Everybody's got a different opinion out there. It's okay. You know, some of you guys don't like brands that I like some stuff. But I will tell you this, and I feel bad because I'll probably leave some people out. Okay. But in this industry, in my YouTube life, obviously I talked about Sammy Ash being one of the great people that I met. There's so many interesting people I met, so many talented people I met. But when it comes to companies, and I'm only talking about companies now, when it comes to companies, there are only a few. It's a short list of the ones that are truly like, I'm happy I got to meet them. Because if I didn't, I probably would have quit not only YouTube, but definitely. If I didn't quit YouTube, I would have definitely stopped talking to all companies. And I would say of those, it's definitely Kiesel, Jeff Kiesel, and Brandon at Kiesel. It would definitely be Larry DiMargio. It would definitely be Steve at Dane Electro. It would. I mean, Sammy Ash, you know, and the. And the Ash family. By the way, speaking of the Ash family, they sent me a really nice email saying that they really like the kind words I said. About Sammy and stuff last week, which is, again, kind of why. The reason I like them. And here's why. I'm in some. You'll see some channels talk about, like, who pays and who doesn't pay and their value. Look, and today actually is a theme. I didn't plan this. This is going to seem planned now. I actually. Guitar of the Week actually has a story that's going to tie into what I'm telling you now. So I'm trying not to get too deep into it, but, you know, it's really hard to get a thank you in this business from anyone. And like I said, and I'm probably missing a couple people in this industry, but back to the Kiesel event. So knowing when I go to events like that, that it's gonna be a thank you. It's not so much a paid event. It's not like it's a job. It's like you're gonna go there. And what I mean by thank you, it's like you're gonna. You ever have. And I hope all of you experience this. I hope every single one of you, 1300 of you, have experienced this at least once in your life. You ever been around a friend, a family member, a co worker? And they're so nice that you feel like you have to keep up. Like, they're just so good. They're. As a human being, they just keep you on your toes at being a good human being. Like, you just know, oh, I'm going to see them and they're going to do something nice for me, and I'm going to. And therefore you're like, I got to do something nice because they can't. You know, I can't let them out nice me, because they're going to. You know, they deserve it, too. They deserve the love back. Some people are like that. So the Kiesel guitars is like that. For me, when I go to the events, you go there, and it's like I said, it's not like, oh, here's an. Here's a guitar. It's like, you know, for instance, give you an example. Cal at Kiesel. Well, first of all, just to give you an idea. So let me just give you a rundown. This. Maybe this gives you insight. Maybe you care. I don't know. Kiesel is like, hey, if you come to the event, obviously I'm going to be on the stage doing my thing. You know, they're doing stuff. They will pay for my cost to come to the event. And what they do is they put you in a hotel, and then they'll pay for, like, my guests, you know, from. Right. Because they're going to pay certain expenses. Otherwise, like, why would you go? Right. I would go anyways. But you understand they're talking about, like, as a performer, you know, at the very least, they got to cover your expenses. Right. And I don't like to stay close to events. I don't like to have Be at a hotel. I don't. I like to be 30 minutes from any event I'm at. Where I'm going to be. I don't want to say performing, but that's essentially what I did. I go on stage, I talked about, you know. Right. I do these things, you know. Right. Maybe I do a clinic. And so I like to stay a little bit further from the event. And the reason is, is because anyone who's at the event, hopefully. Hopefully can say this. When I get to the event, I'm there for you guys from. I got there at 9am, 9am until 5:30 when I left that place. I'm there for you guys. I don't. I want to be ready and juiced for that. I want to be excited. So I don't want to go and already feel like I've been divided up because, you know. You know, whatever. So I want to. I want to be at a different hotel and relax. So Zach, Jeff's son, you know, Sean, told them that. And the keys of the chorus, they're great that way because they're like, no problem. Now, keep in mind, they don't. They won't. We didn't ask them to pay for the hotel because it's more expensive than. And they didn't, you know, some basically saying, like, we're not saying, like, you got to pay for a better hotel. We're just saying, don't worry about it. We'll do that. But they always make sure that they. They take care of it some way. But Cal reaches out to Shauna, and Cal's like, hey, what does Phil need at the event? Shauna's like, I don't know. You know, and this is funny because I'm gonna tell you this because it's kind of crazy to say out loud. She came in the room and she goes, hey, Cal's asking me, what do you need for the Kiesel event? And I said, oh, cool. Like a writer, right? And she said, yeah. And I said, I need water. And she goes, okay, just regular water? And I said, yes. So she tells Cal, he needs water. So what that means is at all times during the day, I would like water. And so you guys know Bird, one of you guys, one of the viewers and stuff, one of the people I've met over the years who's great. Bird even saw what he's. He even brought me a bottle of water. You'll. You think I'm talking a lot on this show. Wait, do you see me at an event talking to one of you guys after one after another, after another? Because you gotta understand, I don't get a really. A bottle breaking that. And just so you know, I'm. I'm. I'm just giving you my day. I also refuse to eat during these events. So I don't eat because it's. Because here's why. If you stop to eat, somebody's gonna come up to you and go, hey, how's it going? And I'll be like, what? And I. So I, I. So Shauna knows, like, I'll have a protein shake in the morning, and that gets me through until nighttime. And then I'll have, you know, I'll go to dinner and have a blast. But my point is, that's just the way I like to do these events. And. And. And Keisel was like, no problem. And they go, we'll have everything for you. We'll have, like, you know, they had, like, I don't know, protein bars and beef jerky and water and sodas and all that stuff. And they go. And I. And. And. But Shawna goes, he just wants to make sure he has water so he's hydrated. And Cal came up to me at least six times, probably through the event. Hey, Phil, you need water. Hey, Phil, you need water. Just so you know how much water I need in an event like that to drink. So I just don't go, like, my throat doesn't dry out. Even though he was on every time. Give me water. There was even a point where I was starting to lose my voice. And one of you guys, Bird, saw that, and he literally came and saved me, because right then I started coughing. That's what happens. You know, if you guys have experienced this, you just literally dry out from. Because you're just in this environment. And the reason I say that is because. And I feel like this story is boring, and I apologize, so I'll end it up right now. But the reason I say that is I've been to events where I can't even get water. Like, I've been to an event where I was there for four days working. I was putting in 12 or 15 hour days. And I would have paid anything for water. They didn't even have water for us to pay for. And I hate to say this, it's embarrassing, but I'm going to say it. Me and another YouTuber were so desperate for water, we would go into the men's bathroom and just fill up our. I think I had a Coke can empty and I would fill it up with the tap water from the sink. And I don't know why I'm embarrassed by that. I think it's because when people came in and they're like, you're getting bathroom tap water and you're like, that was the only place we could find water so that we could go back to filming video after video after video after video. And so, yeah, so. So, yeah, Keisel event was great. I had a good time. You guys were awesome. And the Kiesel people were super nice to me and super great. And, and that was the. That was a great event. And I hope to do it again. I. I hope they do it every other year. I don't think they'll do it yearly, but every other year I'd like to go and do it. I'd like to do something a little bit more special, a little more fun next time. I think now I have a better idea. What could be funner to do for me to do so. Okay. Okay, let's see. Axe wielding Ding. Mechanic maniac. Not mechanic maniac says, hey, Phil, have a prototype. I have a prototype of a luthery tool. Any advice of where to go from here? Protection, licensing, etc. I mean, here's, here's the thing about that. So obviously, yes, you need to protect it, obviously, with a patent if it's a truly unique device. First of all, you got to do that because you want to patent it. Because the fact that what if somebody else already has it and you're going to, you know, you don't want to make 5,000 of them and then find out that you can't sell any of them because it's already been patented. So I don't know. I would say usually what I've done in the past, because I've had to do this in the past. We didn't obviously apply for a patent. We did a patent search. So you pay. I paid somebody. You can do it yourself. What? I paid somebody to do a patent search and find if there is a patent on a tool like this. And, and then they can tell you that's why I did that way. And in my case, what they told Me was there was a good certainty I would get the patent, but not a great certainty. And that's not what you want to hear sometimes. And then you can get the rundown of what's going to cost to do that. So that's what I would think about doing. And then you definitely want to have an NDA written up. You can have an attorney write it up, but you can write up a pretty decent NDA. It doesn't have to be super legalese to do. You just want to make sure that anyone who you show that tool to has signed the NDA, which is going to lock them down from ever making anything like it. And that's not going to, that's not going to be as strong as the patent by any means, but that's the very least you need. So. Because you don't want to see a version of it six months later, all of a sudden before you even get yours out. And, and that's what I would say. And then if you can find somebody, you may want to find out what the market is. Because if you're not familiar with the market, that's where it gets tricky. So I'm, I'm. Because you're asking me, I'm kind of taking it that maybe you're not already in this industry. Maybe you are. So like, if you're from another. Let me put it this way, just let me tell you a story that helps. I have a very cool radius block system that I use in my shop. It is amazing. It was made by my friend who I should say buddy, because we're not like close friends. He was a good buddy. And this was 15 years ago. He came up with this great idea. It's pretty awesome. I loved it. He brought me a prototype. He let me work on it in my shop, put it to work. I abused it. I did probably think about this like foreshadowing. Wait. It's almost like I'd be really good at reviewing stuff or seeing the problems in something. So that's what I did for him. I'm like, hey, this is a thing you should change right here. But this thing is really, really cool. And anyways, he was a machinist, so it was all made of aluminum. And I did not give him any advice. He did not ask for any advice. But what happened was he came to me and he said, said, if you were going to have somebody sell this, who would you have sell it? And I go, I don't know. I would because it's a high end product and it's really good. I would say Stu Mac. So I didn't give him any advice because he didn't ask. He. He did get an NDA. He went. I think he went to Stumac and had an NDA. I'm not 100% sure about that part. But what I can tell you is that later when I talked to him, I said, hey, how did the meeting with Stu Mac go? Did they. Did they want to buy it? Did they want to do it? Because remember, he has a machine shop, so this is a product he can make, right? It's not like, oh, he made the prototype and then he can send it to China and then they can make a 10,000. If he can get some, like, he can make this thing. He just doesn't want to sell it, right? So he wants to make it and then sell it to. Not a customer, but to a retailer. You know, our Stumac, a wholesaler let them deal with all the sales and they. He told me that they needed. They wanted three to three to 10 times the margin, basically. Long story short, he didn't have enough margin after what he would charge them. They were looking at it and they're like, no, we would have to charge an astronomical price because we like to have bigger margins. What a shock that Stumac has bigger margins. Right? But anyways, so he quit. So as far as I know, I've never seen. It's 15 years. I've never seen anything like it. To this day, it's in some of my videos. But. But I'm just telling you that story. It's the only thing I got to tell you. I hope I had more information for you, but there's. Yeah. And then Evan. Evan. Word says my Luther has a deal with Stomach. Most all the Stu Mac tools so, you know, are a licensing deal. They. Almost everything is in fact. So, you know, I have a tool that I stopped showing in videos because you guys kept driving me crazy. And I mean that like, not in a negative way, but I just didn't have any help for you guys. You guys kept saying, hey, you're using this tool. What's that tool? Using this tool. What's that tool? And I was like. And they were like, you should make and sell that tool. And I'm like, I don't have time to do anything besides what I'm doing now. And so I had a hookup. Obviously, guys know I know this two met guys. So I reached out to them and asked them if they were interested in making it, and they weren't interested at all. And what's funny about that is I'm pretty sure I could have sold about 5,000 of them to you guys. So I was like, oh, wow. So they. They weren't interested at all. So I just stopped showing it. And then some of you guys are like, what is it? I'm not going to say. And a bunch of you guys, like, I remember when you were using all those tools. Yeah, you can kind of still see them in the background. But I. And I still love them and I still use them. And a bunch of my friends at Luthiers. Well, I actually, I don't use the word Luther. Bunch of my friends that are guitar techs use them too. This is from Amanda. She grabbed this. It's papa who Gez. Whatever. He says, hey, I found my threshold for throwaway money gear is 1K. Well, you're doing pretty good. So you'll just burn thousand dollars. Okay. I think that's what you mean. Let's see. You mentioned 500 being the average last week. Okay. So I know I have context of what you're talking about. We can, we can square it up. Let's do this. He says, so let's continue on. He says for throw away money for most people on gear. Does that go for all gear? Thanks. Okay, so what he's bringing up is last year I said the impulse buying range that I've learned that happens for most of you guys on YouTub, and that means most the viewers is up to about $500. So you understand when I say $500, I don't mean $500. I mean up to $500. Impulse range is definitely still in the $200 range. I mean, keep in mind, the lower the price, the more, you know, the more people will click and buy. Um, $100 is awesome. $200 is. Is pretty good. $300 is doable. $400, you better have something really that's going to be, you know, create that FOMO kind of thing. And $500 is definitely the end. So your impulse buying range is which is. Which is good. I mean, good for you because you're making good money. But it's. I don't. And I've said this before and I just want to be clear because always everybody was talks about stuff that I don't think people. I don't. I don't believe in. So, you know, people say things, well, that's the economy or this is this, or it's this is that. And I've decided and I've told you this from years of just working with the public, selling them stuff and talking to them, and being immersed in a community of guitar players, that it's really comfort zones and not income levels. So I have. I have seen people who, like I said, they make $300,000 a year, but they will not impulse buy anything over 50 bucks or they won't buy anything over 50 bucks. You know, it's like, that's just their comfort zone. You know, I have friends that make twice what I make, but won't spend more than $1,000 on a guitar no matter what. And I understand that because again, you have. It's a comfort thing. There's a comfort to it. A perfect example is this. When my kids grew up and moved out because I don't have kids anymore. I have adults. We gave our kids some of our furniture. That's what you do, right? We live in an apartment. You're like, hey, you're gonna need some furniture. You want to just take the furniture we have because, you know, it's. It's good furniture and it's free, which is a great price for a kid when they're trying to get their first furniture. And so. And it gives us an excuse to go out and buy some furniture. Now we bought. I think we bought my daughter a kitchen table and stuff and chairs because we obviously going to give it away. But anyways, so we went and bought like, we went and bought a nice chair. So the first thing, we gave him a chair. And then we went and bought a nice chair. And this nice chair was very expensive. And we bought it at the Copenhagen, which is a nice furniture store. At least I think it's a nice furniture store. And then what happened is we bought the chair and we liked the chair, but then the chair made us uncomfortable. I don't mean sitting on it. I mean when, like worrying about it. Oh, her parents come over and their dogs are here. Oh, no, the dogs are jumping on the chair. That costs a lot of money. We were going to get this couch that matches the chair, okay? It was very expensive. And they were having a once a year sale at this. And anyways, we were looking at it and it was just. It didn't make us feel comfortable. So it's not about whether or not we could afford it or not. It was literally just like, I don't want to think about this. And Shawna agreed. So funny enough, we actually have a knockoff Copenhagen couch. It looks exactly like the Copenhagen couch that matches this chair. It's just fake. It cost. I couldn't tell you, Sean, I'd have to tell you. I think it cost 10% of that. She's probably gonna say it cost less than half. I don't know what it cost. It was a lot cheaper. So my point is, is that it had nothing to do with the cost. Although it's very expensive. It had to do with comfort because. And I, and I feel like a lot of us are that way. You know, it's like, you know, you don't want to, you know, you know, like, you know what they say, you own your stuff, don't have your stuff on you. So I think that's where sometimes I always bring that up because sometimes when people talk about prices, sometimes people use like income levels to explain price. But really I found that it really is just about how you feel about things and how you feel about spending money. Somebody has like whatever your friends do that make $300,000. I have a lot of friends that are engineers. So let's just start there. A lot of them. So, so a lot of them make good money as engineers. Not all of them make 300,000, but. And then I have a lot of friends in. In and waste management. No, I'm just kidding. I'm trying to think of like a mafia joke. No, but I'm trying to think of the term. What is it? Why can't I think of this? Because I have a couple friends that do it. They are project managers, but for like superintendents for like large construction companies and stuff. They run like a job site. Like running a job. Like electricians who run. But electricians. But electricians who run job sites, you know. Right. People who are running safety guy, but the safety guy who runs the site at the job site, they tend to make really good money, especially with per diem's and stuff. So that's one. And then I have, as you guys know, I've told you, I have a friend who is a surgeon. So yeah, that's. Always be the dumb person with smart friends and always be the poor person with rich friends. They just make you better. Okay. Anyways, Spaceman says how many guitars you have? At least one. Not as many as everybody thinks. The, the, the, the, the, the guitars behind me, a perfect example, 1, 2, 3, 3 are here visiting four videos. So there's. How many guitars are 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. There's 11 guitars there. 11 guitars. That is a gift that Nathan made me. If you want to watch that video, you can highly watch. It took two years and he made that at the PRS factory. He made that for me. He gave it to me as a gift. The warlock's here for review. The Saturni guitar is here for review. That guitar that I'm not mentioning the name is there for a review, for a deep dive. So. So that's why I said it gets confusing because you could always look at me and go there's always. Look at all those guitars. There is. I'm not going to say I don't have guitars, but not at the level what people think because. And some of the guitars are. We're like horse trading with companies for others, all kinds of scenarios. Sometimes it's a video, but sometimes it's just not a video but. And then we sell those off because again, I try to keep no guitars that companies send us because I'd rather just turn that into more videos. Okay. Mark says, hey, because. Because you get paid in cake. So yes, I should get paid in cake. It would be great. Okay, we need to. Let me take a second and. All right. Richard says, hey Phil, I want to pure a special semi hollow. Is the S2 going to be much better than an SE? No, not much better. See how you're. See how my tone changes because I really have to think about this. I own an SE and I own an S2 and I own a core and I like them all for different reasons. And it's not. And I don't. I want to be clear, it's not that one guitar I could take out in the public and one guitar I keep in a closet and one guitar I play. That's not how it works. They just, there's qualities about each one. First of all, I like the carves on the S2s and the Ses the most. I like owning American made product the most. It's just, you know, obviously it just, it's a national pride thing. Plus on top of the fact that it's like, you know, it's economy thing, it's like I'm helping, you know, my economy more so than. Or the most, you know, something like that. And it's also aspirational guitars. I aspired when I was younger to own guitars that were USA made or even made in Japan. Those were their aspirational guitars for me more so than anything else. So sometimes I kind of focus on those a little bit more for that reason. But I would say now that the S2s have the upgrades of the Better the USA pickups which are supposed to be better pickups. I mean, maybe there's an advantage there. I don't I don't have a clear answer anymore. I kind of want to stick to my gut feeling, which is you buy core PRSs to collect them because they're collectible pieces. Because they're. That's just how it works. When I say not investments, notice I didn't say investments. They're horrible investments. But collectible, meaning that they're heirloom esque. You know, it'd be something exciting to have or give, you know, to your children maybe. But S2s are USA made, and they don't seem to have that same cachet. I mean, you can find S2s for dirt cheap all the time because of that. I don't know. I don't think there's anything actually, let me put it this way, and maybe this is the best way to put it. I kind of buy all the guitars based on specifications and. And what I want, and therefore, that's all it really matters. So if the SC has everything you want, you should get that. You know, I. I guess that's kind of the way I think of it. It's really tough. Let me put it this way. I think on a side note, if you make the kind of money you could buy a PRS core but told me you picked up an SE and liked it, I would say you should do that. You should totally do that. I wouldn't say like, oh, no, no. If you buy the se, you'll always want the core. I don't think that's always the case. So the Alaskan rockstar says, hey, the Satch guitar on the wall seems to glow. Is it bright? It's white. Yeah, it's a bright white guitar. It's a. With a sustainiac guitar. I thought it'd be a cool video, so we're gonna make a video with it, and then it will go on its way. So let me do this. This is from Safar Bari. Safola Bari. He's a. He's a member. Channel member. So thank you for being a channel member. And I'm hoping I'm getting somewhere close to that name. Safoli Bot. Safoli Bari. Man, this is a lot of letters. Says, hey, is it dumb to buy locking tuners for $150? Harley Benton. So that the trim won't pull out of tune so bad. The locking tuners are not gonna dramatically help your tuning stability. Tuning stability is gonna be more about the type of tremolo you have, but mostly about the nut. The nut is like, gonna be 90% of the TR of the tuning stability. Of the guitar. Okay. So if your guitar is properly set up, I would kind of bet on that. Locking tuning keys are about speed, how fast you can restring a guitar. Now there's an argument that they do improve tuning stability and there is some logic that because they don't make a whole lot, at least then they didn't, but now they're starting to, but not as much. Cheap locking tuners. So generally by nature if you buy locking tuners, you're buying a better grade of tuner. By better, what I mean by that is better ratio. So more so 18 to 1. Right. A higher ratio, but also usually a better sprocket because that gear in there is a big part of how well those tuners function. So. And they can make that pretty bad. So first of all, here's what I would say. Definitely upgrade your Harley Benton with some new locking gears. I personally promote and and tell hip shot. I love hip shot. It's what I put on 90% of my guitars over the years. I've used Sprizelle, I've used Godo, I've used Grover. I like Godo tuners. I like Grover tuners. I like them all. I like ratio. I have some ratios on my guitars. I tend to just buy the hip shots. I don't know why, it's not where they're made thing. They're probably made in China. But I, I just like them and I can buy them for about 69 a set, which is to me, anything under a hundred dollars is reasonable. And then they have the umpire plates. Now these plates will allow you to put those on your Harley Benton without modding the Harley Benton, drilling any holes in the Harley Benton, you'll take your old tuners out, you put them in the box. Now your, your hip shot box is going to come with little spots for all your tuners. You put all your old tuners in that box. You put the box and you write Harley Benton on there so you know what the hell's in there. And then you put that away. I highly recommend this. Upgrade those tuners, make sure the nut slots are cut right. Somebody said block the trim, you can do that too. But if you want to use your trim, just make sure it's all set up as good as possible and then enjoy the guitar. The second you decide that you're going to move on from the guitar, if you decide, you take your hip shot tuners off, you put the old tuners on, you restring it and you sell it off and you put those hip shot tuners on. Your next guitar. I, I did this thing where I would put hip shot tuners on my guitars with the ump plates. And then over time, like a year or two, I'd go, oh, now I'll take the plates off and I'll drill the holes and make them permanent. And I did that to a couple guitars and to be honest with you, I don't even do it anymore. Nope, just use the plates. Who cares? They weigh nothing. No one can see it but you on the back. And I don't even think it looks bad. And then. So we're on the same page. Let's look at them so we all know what I'm talking about. And those for listening to the audio podcast. I'll describe them since obviously we have an audio version of this podcast. And I only know that because I paid the bills this week and I was. God, I hate the. I hate paying for the audio podcast. I don't know if you guys know they charge you by your time. So the longer I talk on these things, the more it costs me to host the stupid audio podcast. And, you know, so I just, I know that technically the patrons pay for it, so I don't know why I'm complaining except for just hate looking at the bill for the audio podcast. Okay, let's take a look. Here's a set right here. Let's look at that. This is the web. This is what it looks like. Pretty straightforward, worst case scenario. Okay, there's your scenario. Goes one way. So you will get these in black or chrome. You see these little plates? They call that the ump plate. That'll drop. It'll hide all these holes. These were pop in. They use the, the nut as a compression on there sometimes. The only problem is, is that the holes in your guitar headstock are smaller than these and you'll have to ream them out. Don't drill them out, ream them out with a reamer. If you don't have a reamer, try Harbor Freight, try Ace Hardware, try Home Depot Trials, go on Amazon, get yourself a reamer. Or as I've always said, because it feels like it sounds like a very old person thing to say, find a friend and borrow it from them. Because, I mean, that's what I do. I make some texts right now and I go, hey, who's got this thing? I need. I, you know, hey, I need a thing. I, you know, whatever. I'll need a tile cutter. Anyone got a towel cutter? Before I go, rent or buy a cheap one. And somebody's like, you know what was funny? What happened? This happened to me. What was it? A power washer? What was it? Something. Something this. In the last year, I needed a tool. And before I bought it, I sent a text to Ralph and I said, hey, do you have one of these? And he sent me back. He goes, yeah, I bought a cheap crap one just to get me through the day. And I. And I did the job and it still works like brand new. He goes, I thought I was gonna be throwing it away. I still have it. You can take it. I'm like, cool. So don't forget to borrow stuff if you can. Anyways. Oh, let's go here. These in case you have the three on three headstock. And you were thinking, oh, no, just. I just want to make sure you have these as well. So this is. These are for 10 millimeter holes. Sometimes you'll have nine millimeter holes and maybe even eight millimeter holes. But mostly it's going to be eight or nine millimeter holes. And that's why you have to ream them out. You're very rarely going to have any holes. I don't think there is any holes bigger than 10 millimeters. Now, if your next question is, if I have a smaller hole and I ream it out to 10 millimeters, what happens next? In most cases, you'll. You'll be here on this show on a Friday and you'll ask me that question and I'll walk you through how you're going to fix that problem. Because you're have to fix it, but you're going to be able to fix it. Okay. And it's not going to be the end of the world. And, you know, and you'll save yourself money. How much does Hipshot charge on their website? Let's look. Because they're going to be the most. So let's go classic. No grip lock open. That's the ones I like. So these are ones I get. If you get the open locking keys where you see the gear, they are a lot lighter, so it's really nice. $105. Okay, so $105. I can find them online for 70 bucks. So I bought a set as recent in the last three months and I know I paid 69 something, plus tax. So if they've gone up from them, they got it from them. What does Sweetwater. Does Sweetwater sell them? I think they do. I think Sweet Water sells hit shot, hip shot. Let's see, what does Sweetwater sell them for? They do not carry hip shot. Sweetwater you need to carry Hip shot. Hip Shot locking keys. So, you know, I have bought them from many different places because it's usually whoever's giving you a deal on them, Stu Mac has them. Stu Mac has them for 87. 49, so, you know, already cheaper. And there's a dealer on reverb. I see. I bought a bunch of. On Reverb from dealers. A dealer on reverb selling them for 64.95. So if we can go here, maybe we'll take me to this. Here you go. And there's. And there's. They're charging tax, though, but. Or not tax. Shipping. But look, 64.95745 shipping. And, yeah, I found. Like I said, I know. I've paid 69 for them. So you can find deals on these hipshot open gear locking tuners. I don't know if you'll find deals on every single scenario, but you'll. You should be able to find a deal on those. Sometimes you see flashing, like, pyrotechnic. It's me jumping all these screens because there's different brightnesses on the screens. And I'm having trouble because I've opened so many tabs now for Hip shot that I'm having trouble finding where you guys are at to get back to you guys. Ah, here you are. Okay, I found you. You're right here. You were there the whole time. I didn't lose you. Okay, hold on a second. I hate to do this, but. A little cough and a little water. Okay? Okay. So, Adam, this came from Amanda, too. She grabbed it because I didn't see it. It says, hey, I have a. I have really got into 80 shredded. I. Do I need to buy another guitar, or will my hss, Strat, or Prsse do the trick? Absolutely not. You need another guitar. Make sure you tell your significant other that it's. It's Valentine's Day, and you need. You need absolutely a shredder guitar. You can't do it without the right guitar. You look at this way, you wouldn't ask somebody to flip pancakes with a wooden spoon. You're like, that'd be silly. It's just dumb, actually, if you think about it, right? You don't put beer in a coffee cup, and you don't put coffee in a beer stein. There's a reason why you have the right tools for everything. And so there you go. Now that you've officially clipped that and showed whoever you need to see that, that's what you show them now for you and me. No you can totally play anything you want on those guitars. HSS Strat. I mean, that's like half. I mean, you know, half the 80s guys were just playing hot rodded Strats with a humbucker in the bridge. That's all you really need. Do you need a thinner neck? Yeah, you know, they're nice. I mean, you can come up with. You can come up with an excuse, but no, you don'. Need that. The prsse. I mean, that neck that. I mean, there's shredders playing that. Have you seen. Oh, my goodness, what's her name that shreds on the. Well, there's a lot of people that shred on a PRS custom 24, but Oriante, man, Oriente playing a custom 24, right? So, I mean, it can. It can. No, you have the right equipment, but do you have a good reason to buy another guitar to do some stuff and have some fun? Look, man, you only live once, and there's worse things to do with your money, you know? But on that counterpoint, if you're on a budget or you just got in a position where you want to spend some money right now. No, you don't have to. You can totally pull it off. Remember, it's. There's a saying. There's a saying that I absolutely hate, which is tone is in your fingers. Remember, it's all the tech. It's in you. It's your you. It's all about you. If you could just play. You just learned to play the guitars, the music. You learn 80 shredded it don't matter what guitar you're on. By the way, the reason I hate that is I've kind of. I've listened to this on the channel now for eight years on this podcast. You know, people are like, oh, tone is in their hands. You know, here's why I hate to say one. Because it takes away my reason to buy more crap, and I kind of sometimes need a reason to buy some crap. Okay? But that's not the main reason. Somebody will say, Eddie's sound is in his hands. Eddie Van Halen. We're talking about Eddie Halen. Let's pick on Eddie Van Halen for a second. Because everybody understands Eddie, especially because he was a pioneer of so many things, man. The sound is in Eddie's hands. How many times have you heard, like, I've played Eddie's rig, right? Guitar players, well, famous guitar players. Like, I plugged in Eddie's rig and I sounded like me. Eddie sounds like him. The tone is in your hands. So you should practice more. Because the tones in your hands. Well, first of all, you should practice more. Sure. You should always try to be better. I mean, that makes total sense. And obviously, if you have deficiencies, you should work on them. But that all being said, let me give you a counter argument. I'm not saying other people. I have literally seen the same people make these two arguments. The same person, right? They'll say, it's all in your hands. Doesn't matter what you play through. Man, Eddie's tone was so much better when he was playing through marshalls in 5150s. Wait, I thought it was in his hands. Why doesn't the 5150 sound like the Marshalls? None of them should sound like Marshall. What's a Marshall sound? Nothing's the. The amp, nothing's the guitar. Everything's in your hands, right? Somebody goes, hey, you know, I like the. I like the Mesa Boogie sound. There's no such thing as the Mesa Boogie sound. It's only in people's hands. There's no right bands all the time. People. I just recently heard it. Somebody was talking about a band, an 80s band who just did a new album. I won't pick on them. And they. And somebody's like, oh, their new tone sucks. And I go, how can their tone suck? It's in their hands. It's the same tone. Are we arguing now? Their hands suck? Is that the argument is like, oh, I used to like Metallica's original tone and now their new tone sucks because Kirk Hammond's hands suck. Now, see, he's not that he chose different amps and he chose different microphones and different recording processes or are actually actively searched out a different sound. His hands just changed. They changed. So, you know, this is gonna get me in trouble. Cause people really hate this because this is really a go to for a lot of people on the Internet. I, of course, like I said, I don't try to talk in absolute. So my argument is, of course your hands matter. Of course your technique matters. Of course, all that matters. It matters a lot. It probably even matters the most. But it ain't everything you put, you know, you put you. You take think about this perfect example. You don't even need the guitar player. Thanks to technology. You could take a stem of a track and I isolate a track. Let's say somebody like Dimebag Darrell, who's running crap, tons of distortion, right? Crap, tons. Those Randalls take his. Take a track from a Pantera album and then reamp it through a supra 18 combo. And then you're going to go, well, it sounds just. It still sounds like him. I'm like, yeah, but does it doesn't sound good. It's not. Not. I mean, the heaviness is gone and it's sounding fart. The speakers farting. So. No, I'm going to say no. And again, that doesn't mean that's all that mattered. I think that's the whole problem with the absolute argument, right? All that really matters is the amp. All that really matters is the speaker. All that really matters is the pickup. All that really matters is the tone wood. All that really matters. Your strings. All that really matters is your hands. All really matters is the engineer and where they place the mic. All that really matters is the room you're in. And I'm always like, I don't know. I like, I don't. And here's the funny. I don't even like that as an argument. It's not even fun anymore. It wasn't even fun then. It's always been, hey, all these things matter. What things can I use to get where I want to be? So that's my, that's my argument. Because tones in your hands. Now here's the funny thing, and this is a nice segue and I, I'm gonna do some searching real quick. This is a segue. It's because I gotta give credit to a channel. Now, you guys know I've been trying to do more shout outs to small channels. And the reason is, is because you gotta understand the way I'm looking at this. And I just wanna be clear, like, and again, like Buddy Blues last week we'll do a meet once a month because it takes prep and work. And again, I'm following a bunch of strict rules, which is like, I don't know them. And it's got to be a channel I'm watching and enjoying. And because of this, I have to tell you, I really, I really want to just tell you guys up front and straightforward as hell and maybe even a little brutal honesty is deserved here. The reason why I'm doing this for you guys is there is a lot of channels out there. I have, I came up with the idea, like, maybe I should promote a channel every week. I have suffered through some of the worst YouTube content in my life for you guys. I have done a lot of things on this channel that I'm like, I love doing it. And you know what? I'm glad I have a community and people get to enjoy that. I, you know, Obsess over measuring something, or maybe the video is good, but boy, there's a lot of bad guitar content out there. Not only just bad in the way it's made, just they're, they're wrong or they're misguided and their egos are just. It's just a lot of bad content. And then there's a lot of stuff that I think with a little nurturing could be good. And the reason I say that is not to bag on anyone, it's to say, this is why I want to suggest content to you. Not because I'm the gatekeeper of good content, but I think that we should all be sharing when you find something good. Because there's so much negative stuff in the world. There's so much negative stuff on YouTube that, you know, when I started doing YouTube, I didn't have to contend with the today's news, right? The show like in your algorithm was like, Pete Thorne. I watch Pete Thorne. Then I watch a little film ignite. Oh, check out this new YouTuber called Agu Fish. Check out this guy who's not Even a professional YouTuber, but he's talking about a pedal he likes now, getting us into a feed where it's dominated with obviously the politics and all the other stuff that's going on in the world. We're competing with real stuff. We're competing with movie stars, we're competing with. I mean, as I'm a podcaster and keep in mind, I'm competing with podcasters now. And I'm like, they, they've sold like a billion dollars in movies and now they're a podcaster and I'm on a platform as a podcaster. And, and remember, if they succeed at this, they'll make three times what I would ever dream of owning and are making, but to them, a waste of time and money. So. So anyways, the, the point is, that's why I want to suggest stuff to you. But I gotta tell you a funny thing, and I love a good video and this just happened to have me in it and I didn't find it. Believe it or not, my son found it. But I know the channel and I've done a shout out for the channel before. So I wanna find the channel. I gotta go to my own history. And that's why I said it takes a second and hold on, I gotta click it and then mute it and then go. So Steve Cassidy guitar. I've made a comment about him because he did a video about a Nuno guitar. And I even said Because I really believe this. He has the best classes ever. So, you know, if. If I. If he was not a guitar channel and he had those glasses and he was just some random YouTube channel, I'd probably get a set, I'll get a pair made like that. Because I'm like, that'd be cool. You guys probably would say no, but I'm just saying I like it. But anyways, he made a video and oh, now he's changed the thumbnail. Good for him. Now I'm on the thumbnail. Let me grab it, let me highlight it. Here it is. Okay, I'm going to grab it. I will link it right now. Okay, I'm gonna put it in the feed. Here's the link. And then that way Brian can grab it too and share it if he wants. Okay, so here is the feed. Let me share it with you guys. Here was his video and again, I apologize for the delay, but I gotta. There's a. I wasn't prepared for this. You know, sometimes I. There's subjects I want to talk about, but I kind of let you guys run the show, as you guys know. And then sometimes when you guys go into something I can segue to, I go, so here's the channel. You guys seen him before, obviously. He's got very cool glasses, by the way. He's also got this cool guitar where, you know, you see where they make the guitar look like cartoon like his glasses, really cool. But the title of the video is how these players became my unlikely guitar heroes. When I thought I was done and look, I know it should be easy like because he mentions me in a positive way, but so you know, that's not what was interesting. He took clips of me before and after the Tim Pierce lesson courses. It was rather interesting to watch. I highly suggest you watch it. I was, I was sitting with my, with Shauna and my son and my son came over and said, hey, I want to show you this. And he showed it to me and I said, oh yeah, I know this channel. I've talked to him before and I've seen his channel and I like it. And. And then my son of course skipped to me because, you know, it's all about me anyways. And I watching it, I was like, yeah, that's a good point. So anyway, so I wanted to shout that out. I don't know how we got on the subject. Oh, it's in your hands. So I mean, obviously improving your playing helps because you can see it in that video. And obviously he cherry picked a good playing in fact, I would say he cherry picked one of my best playing for my modern ones and he didn't cherry pick one of my worst ones, which I really give him credit for that. When I say credit, I mean thank him. Thank you for that, by the way. You could have picked a really embarrassing clip and really made your point a little harder. But I'm glad you didn't. So anyways, that's my argument. When we say you should, you should obviously invest in your playing and work on your playing and stuff. But it's just one element in everything. So. This one came from Elroy who says, hey, Phil, shout out to the Jonathan Wong 4, 5, 8 music on YouTube. I don't know the channel. He definitely needs to change that name. It's too long. He says a Canadian dude who loves short scale U bases. Oh, the U, the, the U basses. Like the. Okay, the ukulele kind of. Oh, no. He says love short scale bases. You guys should collab or maybe you should make a short scale base content. I have lots of short scale based content. I have like seven videos about short scale bases on the channel. That's the problem. I have so many videos over the years. Everybody always says, hey, you should make a video. Really, it's. We should remake it. I'm not saying we've made every video. We've made a lot. And the other problem is, no, there's no problem. We'll make more. So you guys know this week we did not release a Deep Dive. That was on me. I gave it to the patron. So if you're a patron or a channel member, you saw the deep, the, the Deep Dive. I'm not trying to tell you to prompt you to do, to pay for this. It's going to come right out like early this week because we're going to do two next week. I'm not happy with the video. It's a great video. I say that because I think it's good. I like deep dives. I think they're good, but I just don't feel it yet. So it needs a last edit. So I gave it to the patrons in hopes that they would kind of suss out the problem. And I've gotten a couple suggestions from them and I just don't know what it is. You know, the thing about content, when I make content is I really want to give you everything. I want to tell every detail to you, but I know it will kill the channel. And so I pick and choose what things will keep the flow going. And then sometimes when I'm watching it. On this particular one, I just felt like I'm not telling the story in completion. So. So you'll get two next week because there wasn't one this week. And. And I think part of the problem is a lot of the patrons and channel members says the video is good. And I'm like, no, no, no, it's not. It's not good. Something's wrong. Help me. And they're like, no, it's pretty good. I'm like, no, don't tell me that. Okay, so anyways, I need. I need. Okay, so we need to go to another one. This is from Jeff. Jeff. The Jeff. Jeff says, I'm sorry to do that to you, Jeff. I do it to every Jeff. I just. Eddie Izzard's joke. Jeff to Jeff. Jeff is the best joke ever. I just don't know why. I love that. I can't hear it. Anytime I hear Shawna. Anyone say, hey, what's the password? I'm like, Jeff to Jeff. Jeff. By the way, if you guys think my password is jeff2jeff. Jeff, go ahead. Anyways, this is. Hey, buy a pyro guitar. Prs Gibson. I don't know what pyro is. Okay. Into high prices. I will never buy them again. Yeah, okay. I think I know where you're going with this. You're basically saying you've bought some expensive guitars and you won't go that way again. I've done the same thing. I have the most expensive guitars for you guys this year. And I'm gonna do something that I think is what I want to do. So I'm going to do something that was good. I bought some really, really expensive guitars for the channel. Okay. Really? Really. Okay. So. Okay, now when I say I'm going to try to exaggerate, don't think I bought like a $70,000 vintage guitar or something, but expensive guitars and not to do. I just, I'm. I think is. As a YouTube community, we have to evolve. I feel like I've evolved. We all evolve a little bit. I'm really kind of burnt out on the whole $3,000 guitar versus $300 guitar. I'm like, that's not a thing. Those are fun videos to watch, but we've done so many of them, all of us, that that's just not really helping anybody. What I really want to know is this. I want to take a very expensive guitar that every high end musician, YouTuber, you know, just says is the greatest thing since everything. And then I want to figure out how to much do I have to spend to get there? In other words, like give you example, this is the videos you'll see. These deep dives, these will be out by March. Okay. There's two of them in particular are coming first. And the idea is to say not. I mean, I hate to say it. It's bad news for some of you that don't want to spend some money or not in the position right now where it's like, you know, it's like, hey, here's $7,000 guitar. And oh wow, this $300 sounds like it's going to be like no $7,000 guitar. How good of a guitar do you have to get to, to where you're finally there, or do you have to get to $7,000 to get there? And I think the answer is one. I hate to say it, I don't want to give away the story because I think the videos will be good, but I think you actually deep down know the answer, which is if we're talking about guitars that are five to $7,000, five to $10,000, four to $10,000, I think once you start breaking 1500 bucks, you're pretty much there. And I know that's a lot of money for some of you guys right now, and some of you guys don't spend in that range. I understand that. But I think what helps you as a channel as, as doing what I do is to say not. It's to me, I would hate the idea if I look, I think you could buy a great guitar for 500 bucks. I've seen it a million times. Hell, you could buy a Firefly we all talked about all the time. Everybody agrees Firefly are pretty decent for two $300. That's not the point. We're not talking about decent. We're not talking about good enough. We're talking about great. What's great. This guitar is great. Everybody thinks it's great. It's really expensive. How close you have to spend to where that line is almost exact. Not. This is just as good once you factor in we're talking about just exact. And I, I kind of found the answer. At least I think I found the answer for me. This goes to his point, which is I think he found the answer for them. And that's what I think you'll find is some of that is the comfort of what I said. Where do I want to spend to be comfortable? You know, when I started this channel, I used to tell people $1,500 is my limit. Thanks to inflation and the horrible people around the world doing all the fun stuff that's made the world all just so entertaining for all of us. I think that number is more like 2,500 for me. In other words, that 2500 is. After that, I start feeling like, man, I just, you know, and that's a lot of money. And then I think somebody would have to check if anyone wants to do that for boredom. Uh, let's say I said that in 2018. 17. 18. Let's call it 17. Even though it's probably 18. I was saying that with inflation, what's $1,500 now? What's. What's fit. What? Yeah, what's the equation? Like, if I wanted to spend fifteen hundred dollars in 2017, what's that equation now? Can somebody Google it and post it on a comment so I don't have to do it or chat it or whatever you call it. Groot it. Whatever you do. Go. Go to AI do whatever. Somebody give me the number. The 11. Just pointing out I used to buy cars for two grand. Yeah, yeah, but we're not talking about car cars. We're talking about guitars. Okay? So anyways, I'm curious. I'm curious to see a lot of you guys. I'm just reading some of you guys. NAPS Mark said $3,000 is the number for him. Yeah, I think it's going $2,500 about right. Yeah. And what I'm saying, I'm not saying I want to spend $2500 or $3000 or even $1500. I'm just saying, like, if I really want something, that that's where I peek out. And I've spent above that, and every time I've gone above that. And so, you know, there's a thing that throws people off, which is like, well, what about a company who sends you a guitar, and that guitar is worth a lot more. And you go, well, I have that. And you're like, but you didn't pay for it. How do you feel? What happens is it doesn't really change anything. I think a lot of YouTube channels that you watch, if you ask them this, they'll kind of come and tell you this in their comfort zone. Their comfort zone isn't what they pay. It's what they own. Notice It's. It's. It's like I told you. So when I say these guitars are expensive, keep in mind, it's like, I don't even want to keep them sometimes, not always. So. Okay, Wiz Dog. Thank You. He says about $2,000 in today's money. So that makes sense. So, so think of this. So. So even if I wanted to only spend fifteen hundred dollars, I'd have to spend two thousand to get fifteen. So it makes fifteen normal. So. But anyways, Ron Carleo says, is that with tax. I try not to think about that. I don't, I don't know. Keep, keep in mind the reason why this is so tough. And I want to just tell you this and some of you guys will back me up. Some of you guys back me up with this. If you've been doing this as long as I have. I don't mean YouTube, I don't mean all the stuff I've done. I'm talking about guitar collecting, buying, loving guitars. Since you've, you. Since I've basically been 15, right? Since 15 years old, I've been obsessed with this topic right to the point of insanity, you know, Without a doubt. In fact, I made a joke in a music store this week because I was buying some more pedals. I told you, I'm on a pedal kick. I'm buying tons of pedals. And they said, I bought two pedals from them at the store. And I made this joke. And I mean not to offend anybody because I know, you know, but I. It's going to be a little offensive just to be prepared. And they said, they said, oh, you're buying pedals? And I said, yeah. I said, it's kind of reminds me of my friends in the 90s are like, I'm trying to. I'm not, I gotta, I gotta chill out. No more cocaine for me, just pot. I'm like, yeah, I gotta chill out. No more guitars, just pedals. I don't mean to offend anybody who's had a drug issue. I'm just trying the, this, the, the analogy works. In other words, like as an addict, I'm saying, I'm like, this is. I'm not curing it. I'm just like kicking it down a little bit. But anyways, the point is, anyone who's had this addiction like me or this passion, which is probably a better word, isn't. It doesn't sound better. I have a passion. A lot easier to tell your wife, honey, I have a passion instead of I have a problem. Anyways, this passion I've had for this, this very long period of time, when we talk about price, it gets a little difficult. Here's why. Because mostly I'm trading at this point. Money's not changing hands very often and when it is like, I don't physically. I don't think I physically, like, not for myself, bought a guitar, like, you know, go and go, okay, I want that guitar, and here's cash without some kind of trade, even if the trade's not with that person. Because a trade doesn't necessarily have to be with the person. So it doesn't mean I'm like, trading this guitar for this guitar to this person. I could be like, I bought this guitar from this person, and now I sold this guitar out, you know? Right. I'm swapping guitars. So essentially, what looks like. And this is where it gets confusing to people. In fact, it's really screwed with some of my family members and my friends over the years because they've actually found out the hard way from my wife. When they talk to her about something, she corrects them really fast. And not because she's defending me, because she's. Again, she's just setting the record correct. They'll go. They'll say something silly like, I bought a Harley Davidson for 27,000, and it was a good deal. And Shawn's like, oh, that's crazy. And like. Well, I saw Phil bought, like, three guitars, and in. In the last year, and she's like, well, he's swapping guitars. He got rid of six guitars. He got three. He got. And then he got rid of two, and he got one, you know? Right. So, like, he's swapping. So he's spending money, but it's churning some of the product too, you know, because the guitars don't hurt as much financially when you lose money. Man. I'm really off topic. Let's. Let's grab up some of those last questions. Let's get out of here and have a. So that you guys spend some time with your. Some. Some hopefully some loved ones over the Valentine's Day. If you don't have loved ones, don't worry about that. Just do something else for fun. Okay? Happy good thing says hollow flash Hardtail plays and sounds and feels amazing. So I never so never sell but worry about nicking Nicki. I think nicking or scratching it because it's flashy guitar is supposed to say, nice Wife says it's mine. So if scratch it, who cares? I used to be habitually have this problem with scratch guitars to the point where it used to stress my wife out. This is before I owned a store. Okay. I don't know what that was. I think it had to do with the fact that, you know, like, a lot of us, when, you know that had a, you know, obviously not a horrible childhood by any means. But, you know, you get to a point where like, wow, I have a job now. I got out of school. I'm. I'm making some money and I can, you know, I got it. But I have a kid. I'll take care of kids. But you can buy yourself a little nice thing, and you buy yourself a nice thing, and all of a sudden it's like that thing becomes super important. Way more than important than it's ever should have been, ever. But my point is, I would buy a guitar and then of course, you know, had to be pristine, and then it would get nicked or damaged, right? And then I could see the stress in my wife's face when she's like, oh, no, he's gonna get rid of it now because it's not pristine anymore. And I'd like to tell you that I worked through that. I didn't. What happened was having the store was the therapy for that. What I lear one cares when you resell it. No one cares. Look, everybody's going to have a different opinion right now. That's fine. I'm telling you, this is not so much it's an opinion. All this is opinion. But I'm telling you, not that I'm not trying to tell you that my opinion is a fact. And here's the reason why you have to believe me. I'm just giving you the resource of where my mind has come to this opinion. People would come in the store and they go, oh, I have a used American Strat. And I go, okay. And they go, what's it worth? And I go, $700. And they go, I don't have the. The case. And I'm like, 700 bucks, right? Because you want to use the American Strat as a store, you're like, I'm going to flip it. Or you're like, I'll take off 50 bucks because you can't take off a hundred because that's a brand new case. Because if you go out, take 100 bucks off, they're like, that doesn't even make a sense. So you notice that when you didn't have cases or gig bags, when it didn't have the exact case. Now, collectible pieces are different and unique pieces are sometimes different or things that people really get highly focused on. But like, I can tell you so many times, somebody come to the store with a Paul Reed Smith core, and they go, hey, it's in mint condition. But I don't have a PRS Case for it. I just have this PRS gig bag. And you're like, that's fine. And you would adjust it, but because remember, the pain goes both ways. Just like if you said, hey, I bought this, I have this epiphone, Les Paul, and I put in a set of Seymour Duncan's in it, and I put Grover locking keys on it, and I upgrade all the electronics. And you're like, huh? Yeah, it's worth 400 bucks regardless of all that stuff. You just lost all. You just lost your ass. Sorry. That's just how it goes. But it works the other way when they're like, I got this epiphone right here, and it's got a ding here and a mark there. And you're like, all right, we don't care right now. Granted. Should you keep. Should you care about care, take care of your stuff? Sure. Will it help you on resale value? Absolutely. Especially when buyers are scrutinizing and stuff. Obviously, when you're taking the stores, you're always taking a little loss, so they're not going to scrutinize as much because they're going to fast flip it. But the point is, is what I realized is, is that when buys and sales happen, people care a lot less about things. What I mean by that, it goes the other way. Somebody go, hey, how much does you use Strat? And I go, well, thousand bucks, you know, And I just told you in the scenario, I gave somebody seven, and they're like, okay, I'll take it. Does it have a case? No. Okay, I'll take it anyways. Or you could do this. I would do this. No, it doesn't have a case. Oh, man, if I had a case, I get it. I have a use case. I can sell you 50 bucks. Okay. So. So anyways, my point to the story is, is I don't obsess over that so much because I noticed that it doesn't really affect as much as you think. And if something's really valuable, it will affect it a little, but not a lot. So that's. That's just my point. But also, I will tell you one thing. I'll also tell you is, is you have to enjoy this stuff. Please. That's the best. You know, not only because you spent the money for it, but that's his intent, right? It's like one thing about. One thing I like and I. About guitar. Us. Guitar. Us. Us guitarists. Guitarists like us people who love guitar and talking about guitar. Notice, unlike, like, toy collectors and a lot of collectors. And again, I have friends that do that stuff, and I like them dearly. But, like, I don't understand. And I'll never understand. As much as I love looking at toys from my youth and collecting and stuff, I don't collect them. But when I watch these, because I watch videos, all kinds of stuff, and I'll watch toy collectors, and they're like, it's still in the package, never touched. Like, to me, there's a little sadness that comes over me. Just like if somebody said, hey, I have a 1987 Gibson Les Paul. It's never been played once. It's still in the case, plastic's still on it, Locks have never been undone. I'd be like, sounds horrible. So, like I said, so you want. You got to use it a little bit, is what I'm trying to say. Or you got to move it on. If you're not going to enjoy it. I think you're enjoying it. I'm not trying to imply you're not. I just. I understand what you're saying about Finish his stuff. So I don't know. That's my thoughts on.2 cents on this. We're gonna end with Elroy. Oh, we did Elroy. I did him. Out of order. Is that what he did? All right, on that note, I want to say thank you to all for hanging out on a Friday 13th. I know it's Valentine's Day, Present Day weekend. I thought in honor of Friday 13th, I would wear my Shop Smart, Shop S Smart shirt because Ash is the only one who could. Who would kill Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. You guys. Some of you guys get that joke. Anyways, so I want to thank you all for that. Two deep dives next week. Don't forget to check out the second channel. The second channel was banging this week and. And a little fun thing that I told the patrons and I. Maybe I didn't tell you guys. That's probably interesting. Not only does bonus content go on the second channel, not only does the clips go on the second channel, but the thing that happens with the second channel is unique is I'm not editing or in control of the. The. The content that's there. I'm barely even managing it. I see it a lot of times when you guys see it. And so somebody mentioned to me that it has a much different vibe. It does. That's the whole point, is to give it a different vibe. It has a much different vibe. I actually like the divide. It's a lot funnier. I wish I was as funny as the second channel was. Anyways, on that note, I want to say thank you all and hope you guys have a awesome weekend. Until next week. Know your gear. I want to take a second thank everyone who's been sponsoring sponsoring podcast for all these years. Discount free bonus. You get access every month. But did you know $10 every month. Just like this podcast is, just more live, more settings or questions. But hope you guys will check out the options. And on that note, I want to wish you all very happy. You can also get all that, but also every month that is live where I know your gear questions in real time. Kind of like what I'm doing here on the show, except for I have all the tools, all the equipment parts, you name it. And more importantly, you get to put your questions.