Phil McKnight (0:00)

The Know youw Gear Podcast. The Know youw Gear Podcast is brought to you by Patreon members, channel members, and viewers who like and subscribe. Thank you for making this possible. All right, how's everybody doing? Welcome to the Know youw gear podcast, episode 414. So I hope everybody had a fantastic week and is ready to talk guitar. Guitar stuff. Start the weekend off talking about our favorite thing. And as always, we'll give a shout out to the. To the. To the moderators. They have blue names with the blue wrench. They help me facilitate the show every Friday, so I want to thank them for that. And then also I want to thank the channel members and, of course, the patrons who make this show possible. It's important to always sip water. Okay, so. Okay, so we got a lot of stuff to get into. I think I'll just start jumping into the questions, if you don't mind. I grabbed some early riser questions, as I do, and the first one I saw was from Fausto, and it says, hey, Phil, what do you think of jhs? Not a Dumble mistake video. So I didn't know much about it. I saw some of the patrons talking about it, so I listened to it. So if I get the situation correctly, the not a dumble pedal was made by mistake. In other words, there was two dumble pedals they were referring off of. They ended up with the wrong one or they. So they had A and B pedals to deal with. Both were good. This is what I got from it. Two petals. Both are good. They thought they cloned the one. They actually cloned the other one. So now what they're gonna do is blow out the rest of the original ones and then make a version of the new one. You know, stuff like that happens. I don't know. I don't know if it's, you know, it's a good marketing. Did they do it on purpose or is it, you know, a mistake and they're just owning up to it? I don't know. I don't really have an opinion about it in any, like, real form, you know? You know, I think about it, and I'm like, I think what I've understand about pedals and. And my time on YouTube here more so than anything else, is that pedals are all about more pedals. There's always another pedal, and there always will be another pedal every week. And. And I think JHS is becoming the master of the new pedal. Always having a new pedal, always affordable, always kind of, you know, I told the patrons this I'll tell you this too. I can't tell you who. You'll try a guess. You'll be wrong no matter who you pick, I promise. Somebody who I know in this industry, who's in, who makes pedals to some significant degree said that basically this is years ago, that the key to success with pedals is always have a pedal out every four months. Make sure it's affordable and make sure there's a reason to buy it. And 90% of the sale is based on the name. Now that was in passing and it was, it was a very cavalier kind of comment and I'll even give you the context and what it was. They were talking about some of these goofier pedals out at the time. You know, the pedals that make sound effects and stuff. And they were saying, you know, like. And I said, who, who buys that? And they said, that's the secret, right? The secret is pedals are more of a marketing game than a legitimate product anymore. And so, you know, I'm not throwing shade on that. That's how YouTube is turned into, that's how guitar companies have turned into. It's how social media has really change the landscape. And the main reason is this. It's not only times are changing and things are happening, but you gotta understand there used to be a thought out, long process because of necessity, right? You wanna release a new product, you have to develop the new product. And now what you have to do is think about the marketing cost. And I've said this before, marketing cost is one of the biggest costs to products, which is why I think JHS has been so successful. He's essentially created his own marketing. So therefore his marketing costs have been, you know, to get, to get the audience base that JHS can get on a pedal immediately without having to pay 50 YouTubers to do that. And I'm sure, and I'm sure there's still, you know, my understandings are still supporting YouTubers and doing it through YouTube too, but you understand they don't need it like they did before where a lot of pedals companies, you know, they got to pay out these channels. And I've said before, in my opinion on YouTube, for whatever it's worth, I've been on here almost a decade, the most of the money on YouTube is made through pedals. Like if I, if I, if I was going to focus on, you know, company sponsored content, I would absolutely focus on pedals. Pedal companies because they get, because a YouTuber can sell a lot of impulse by product, a lot of $200, things can be sold. So, you know, if I. If somebody pays you a couple thousand dollars or a thousand dollars or even just gives you a free pedal, whatever their deal is, when they give it to you, they can recoup that back very easily. It's very hard to recoup back, you know, when you pay a channel a significant amount of money on something that's not an impulse buy, you know, and hope that in six months, you know, they sell enough product for you to make the sponsorship work. But back to JHS and being smart enough to create his own marketing. Not that it doesn't have cost. It's just obviously he has more control of the cost and he has more control of the messaging, which is important because you never know when YouTubers go rogue and do silly things. Um, but that last part is, is that it used to be this whole idea of, let's develop the product and then we'll launch ads and Guitar World. We'll have this signature artist do a thing, we'll make a video and we'll put it out, but, you know, right on our website, and we'll make, you know, store displays for our dealers. It was just this long process, and you roll it out over months to get everybody to notice it. Now you can launch a product in 24 hours. I'm not saying they do, just saying you can. You can launch a product so fast, you could just mention the product. You know, I. As you guys know, this ties into me picking on me. I started Blackstock pickups. I've talked about the reason why they were started. What. What led to that. And. And. And what ended up happening or ends up happening is we sold so many. It just became all I was doing. And I had to, again, make a choice. Do I want to be a pickup winder and have Shawn and me making pickups and my son making. Making pickups all week for you guys and make YouTube second chair. There was no way to do both for me to do it the way I wanted to do it. And the only thing that's important about that is that because, again, like Josh Scott, I have this platform. So I mention a product and we sell a thousand, you know, and that sounds so great. Like, so many pickup manufacturers. I have friends that make pickups I can name. I'm not gonna. I can name five right now that I think are great. Probably better than me. Sold maybe half as many as me in the last five years, as I did in just one year or two years. Because, again, the hardest thing they have to cover is getting the message out there, and I can just do it on a Friday afternoon. So I think that's what he was basically saying when he made the comment, my friend, about the fact that pedals have become more of a marketing thing. And I think Josh Scott has done it, in my opinion, with the most integrity. You can do that. I don't think he puts out something. Look, there's some pedals. I think they're funny. I think the funny names are funny. And I like the idea behind the concept of doing it. But I think Josh JHS has come across it with a value principle to it. Like, hey, let's give somebody a legitimate product instead of lining the. The, you know, used guitar stores with just unsellable used pedals and a reverb, you know, and boat anchors sitting on reverb. These are legitimate pedals. And he's really marketed both ways, so that. Because I think he understands the second part of this. Although my friend is right. You could just sell junk pedals to everyone and they'll just do it because we're all impulse buyers and we're all guitar freaks. And why. Why we're hanging out on Friday afternoon talking about this stuff. But I think eventually what catches up to you is those use bins. You know, that's what gets you. That's what kills it for some companies. They can make a lot of junk pedals, but only for so long. Once you realize that there's, you know, 20 different dead pedals out there that no one wants. And that's where I think Josh Scott has been really good at getting the value proposition, but more importantly, keeping the resale proposition going. So very interesting. So. So searching for tone says so you're saying is to pay you for promotion. Actually, I don't want to go into the YouTube side of it too much. But the problem with channels like me, and I would say just because they're friends and dear friends, I don't mind saying, like Tim Pierce, I think the pedal show, it falls in this line too. There's a bunch of channels that. That I'm friends with that I know. I mean, I know a lot of channels and they all have different business models. And some are really more of a demo channel. Some of them don't make no qualms about that. Literally demo product for companies. And so essentially that that company pays them and they make a video. The company pays them make the video. There's a lot of channels that are like me where it's a mix, it's Like I'm making my own content that's non sponsored and it goes more viral, it does better for me, it brings in a bigger audience. YouTube pays me a lot more. With those dividends I can make a living on my YouTube side of my channel instead of the sponsor side. I have no, you know, I tell you guys all the time about 5% of all my revenue every year is sponsored content. Because you know, it just makes sense to pull in some sponsors sometimes, especially if it's something I'm trying to get my hands on or if it's something like hey, the payout's gonna be significant so that I can, I can buy products like you know, buy whoops that PB T15 that I bought to make that video. You know, again I only say this not, not to talk about me but so you guys can really champion channels that are more independent so you understand what they're going through. My channel very successful. I did a video of this T15 this week. I hope you guys watched it. It's at 50,000 views. I'm very proud of that. 50,000 views. A lot of views on a product that hasn't been out for 30 years and has no interest to the community. But I thought it was an interesting subject and interesting video. That guitar and that amp with tax is about almost $500. So if you get 350 for the guitar plus tax, 340 for the guitar plus tax, $100 for the amp plus the tax. That video is currently made and probably will cap out at about $306. So now I'm fine. I have patrons, right? Maybe somebody clicks an affiliate link. But you understand that even a smaller channel would demand almost double what that, what I made on that video just to promote for a company. So. So that's what I'm saying. Independent content is hard to do and that's why I just want you to be aware of. So what I'm saying is it's harder for everybody. It's harder for small channels to make money and it's harder for small builders to. Not only because they got to pay these YouTubers including myself, but then you have a lot of the choice channels that I like that won't even do it for money. They you have to bring them something interesting. You know, I will say it over all the time. Keep in mind, I'm not only talking to you, I'm talking to every potential sponsor of my channel. You have to trade me something of value. You either have a product that my audience wants to See, that's a trade. I will borrow it. I will do the video for free. Why? Because you will watch it and it will be a good video. That's great. Or you have to pay me to do the video because the audience won't engage with it as much and I lose audience. But hopefully from that interaction, I use the funding to make the non sponsored videos. So if you look at this year, I'm about 50, 50. So far, 50% of my videos have been. Actually, that's not true. 60% of my videos have been unsponsored and 40% have been kind of sponsored. So, so you get the idea. Okay, so that's how you sprinkle it. And everybody has to figure out their own way. I only share it because it's a Friday show and it's my show and might as well share it and I have no reason. Hockhead418 says. What PB amp is that? That is the Backstage Plus. I have two of them now. Funny story, for those paying attention, I thought was interesting. So I bought that amp specifically because I've been looking for a, an amp that I love that I want to use for the inexpensive guitar videos. As you guys know, whenever I make a guitar video that's like sub$400 or sub$300, you know, you guys don't like it when I play through like a crazy expensive dumbbell clone or Magnetone or some crazy amp. The Synergy, which is like $1,500. I understand that makes total sense. It's like, why are you showing me a guitar with an amp that costs, you know, 10 times more? So I've been using like the Katana and the Catalyst. And part of the problem is, is this. I like pedals. I use pedals through those amps and I like those amps a lot. But I, I liked the Katana clean tone more than the Catalyst, I think pretty much. And I like the Catalyst overdrives more than the Katana. So I was just constantly toggling between those two and I made it a special endeavor to, to find a new amp like. And, and so I, I, I looked at what was out there, knowing that I could reach out to a lot of those manufacturers and saying, hey, if you want to send me that amp, I'll use it in videos when demoing these guitars and you can sponsor it. The problem is, is when I tried all the amps on the market right now, and Black Blackstar was probably my favorite, some of my favorite amps, I was almost there. But then I started trying old crates, old pbs, old Marshalls. And I came across this backstage plus, and I just absolutely fell in love with it. It was scratchy pots. It was horrible. It looked like a train wreck. I cleaned it up and made it better. And then I bought a second one. I mentioned it last Friday. I bought a guitar, guitar center for $109. I bought that one from Guitar center, used. This one had a broken PB logo. So when I bought the new one, I thought, the other one's more ragged. I'm cleaning up right now. I'm going to use it as a backup. And I thought, oh, I'll put the broken PB logo on that one and the fixed logo on this one. But then when I was taking it apart, I noticed if you can see here, it's going to be very hard. It's not broken. You cannot tell, but trust me, this is not broken. Maybe from the side view. Hold on a second. Side camera's probably a little clearer because, yeah, it's going to be clear. Look at this. This made me laugh. It looks broken. It is not. It's really hard to see the details, but somebody cut that off. See the knife mark? See that? Somebody sawed it off. Somebody sawed off the A on this PB logo. In other words, somebody thought they, they modified it. I was like, oh, you ruined it. But maybe, maybe they thought this looks better than that. I don't know. I, I wanted two of them. I figured for 100 bucks it was worth investment. I like the amp. So to answer your question, that's what the amp is. If you want to see the amp in action. If you. It's on the new Pvt 15 video. I use it in the video. Cause of course that's the appropriate matchup. But it also will be in, I think Monday's video as well, because that's another more expense inexpensive guitar. And I'm going to be using that PV for that. I really like it. Sounds good. And my logic being that when I'm playing a $200, $300 guitar, I'm playing through $100 PV amp. I say $100. So you know, these things. Can people try to charge $300 for these? If you look around, you find for a hundred bucks, 150 bucks, they're not great. Don't, don't think this is me going, man, this is the, this is the find you guys just don't know about. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying this amp, I liked it. I enjoyed it. I like the way it looks. I like the way it was working. It's a 110 inch speaker, 35 watt amp with two channels and a foot switch has built in spring reverb. It solved a problem for me. The problem being I don't know how many of you, there's probably somebody still going to do it are going to accuse me of rigging the game with that amp. In other words, like, yeah, the guitar sounds good, but it's because that amp, I'm like, well, it's probably not going to be because of this amp now. So if it sounds good, it's not because it's going through an expensive amp. So. So the flash says, I snagged a PBT15 for 300 bucks. I had to have one. Yeah, you know, if you. If you don't mind not getting. I couldn't find a really good deal on one with the case and the amp. I really wanted to have the case in the amp in the video. But you know, my brain kept going. You know, I'm like, wow, it was like 500, the cheapest one I could find with the case and the little amp. And I kept thinking, if the video did a hundred thousand views, it makes about five, six hundred dollars. So I was like, oh, that's the break even point for that amount. I was like, that's not going to work. And so I was like, let's keep it. I found that one for 340. And I was like, okay, 340, that's more doable. Because like I said, I figured. I figured if the video did, you know, a hundred thousand views, you know, I'd make a couple hundred bucks, you know, and. And so we'll see. Willie wants to know why is there a mic on that amp head? Because I think it's funny. So 100%. Why? That's it. You see, the mic's not plugged in. So what happened is I use a Sennheiser E609 for a lot of videos. I like that microphone a lot. And I'm doing a video for an amp and the amp is in true stereo. And I was playing the amp and I was doing the video. And I thought to myself, they'll probably ridicule me on the Internet for not recording it in stereo since it is in stereo. And I was like, okay. So I ordered another E609. I have no use for that other mic other than making this one video. So I bought this mic. They're not expensive. They're 100 bucks new. And then I had to buy another little mic stand. So I bought another mic stand. And then I go, what am I gonna do with this thing? So I just thought it was funny to stick it there because I think it's funny. So that's why I did that. So that's why there's a mic on the head. So it's funny. Okay. Sound music says, hey, Phil, could you do a video on or an episode on strings? I could do that. I've done a bunch. You'd have to go through the catalog. I've done flat wounds. I've done tape wounds. I've done pure nickels. I've done coated strings. So I've done them all. I've just not done a run through of all of them. Maybe I'll do a run through of all of them. Okay. Amanda sent a question from Blake. He says, hey, Phil, lately I've been looking into getting an SG or similar style guitar. I think you should do it. SG is one of my favorite guitars. Do you feel the neck joint on the 61 versus the standard is a legitimate concern or an overstated issue? I don't even know what's different. There's nothing. What is it different with the neck joint? Oh, where it sits and how the little. Like I'm looking at mine, I don't notice. You know what it is with sges. Here's what I'll tell you. The good and the bad of the Gibson sg. When they're right, they're amazing. And when they're not, they're not. And I just find there's no. Yeah, kev's like the 61 has the long 10. I don't notice or care. I don't play. You know, I'm not. My hands on. I used to see you guys play. You know, there's no money above the fifth fret. Anyways, the point I'm making is, is with sgs, it's funny to me. I'd like to say there's a type of SG I like. It's not true. The one that's behind me right now, this one with the dual P90s. This one has the 50s carve, a little bit chunkier neck. I love it. It sounds fantastic. It plays fantastic. I love it. And weight wise, it's about a half pound heavier than my other SG, which has the thinner 60s neck. And like I said, it's just. You try them. I would definitely. When it comes to Gibsons, when it comes to Gibsons, if you're talking about Gibsons try to go and try one and play one. I find almost no two Gibson and necks are alike. And I've really learned that horrible experience when you try to find two Gibsons you want to, you know, you like. I find one I love and I try to find a backup or a duplicate. It's almost impossible. The necks are just too all over the place. The shapes always a little off. The thickness is always off. Something's always off. Epiphone is more consistent. So I think you can feel pretty good with that. So Sean Brooks says. Hey, Phil, did you see the new SEs and the S2 studios from PRS? Thoughts? I saw what a lot of you saw. I saw some pictures on Instagram of them. It looks like they're really going to push the narrow field. This is the 25th anniversary of the SE. So you guys know. So it was 25 years ago is 2000 when the SEs came out. If you guys remember, the very first SE. They have not, I think, done an official anniversary thing yet that I saw. But it is their 25th year, so I can't imagine they're not going to do it since last year was the 40th year of PRS and they did a. Or was this year. Yeah, this year was the 40th anniversary party of PRS guitars. So 1985 to 2025. But this year is also the 20th anniversary. 20th anniversary. Did I say 2025th anniversary of PRSSE. So I would imagine they're going to do some really cool stuff. I'm hoping that they're going to make the. The telly. You know, the telly they did, the core that I reviewed that I thought was it just. I thought it was way too much money for what it was, comparatively speaking to other PRS guitars. I'd really like to see an SE of that. I think that'd be a cool guitar. I think that would be One of the SEs that I would be like, yeah, I'm interested in buying this, you know, and having it to play because I thought they played and sounded great. I just, you know, wasn't a huge fan of the price points for comparative to other. You know, like I said in that video, I compared it to my CE 24 with a, you know, beautiful quilted top and a semi hollow was less money than the tele version. Ted, to me that just doesn't make sense. Like, you know, but I don't know much about the new SEs, so as you guys. So they have narrow field pickups. Okay. Sorry, I'm just reading some of you. Hey, RNA Music's in the house. Hey, RNA Music. How are you guys doing? It's always nice when I see a familiar name. Okay. Amanda also sent this one from Lunamatic. Says, hey, Phil, thinking about putting hot rails in my American Pro 2 Strat. What are the positive negatives of single coil size humbuckers versus full size humbuckers? They're not. I did a video actually comparing them. Of course, you know, in that video, you know, it's subjective and all this stuff, but just you're asking my opinion, so I'm just giving. You know, that's a good resource because that's kind of where I come up with the opinions I have for this podcast is through the experimentation I do in those videos. And my. In my opinion, it's not. They're two different animals. And I really have likened the mini humbuckers to sounding more like P90s, which, keep in mind, the original PAF is basically trying to sound like a P90. You know, that's just kind of where. Where it goes. So to me, if you put hot rails or any kind of these mini humbuckers in your guitars, I really think that if you ABM to a humbucker, you always go, oh, it doesn't have the low end. It. It has more mids in the pronounced mids. It doesn't have the fullness of a humbucker. But if you compare it to a P90, you're almost like, wow, this is all the things I like about a P90, but they don't make any noise. And so. And it fits in this spot. So if you like P90s, I think you'll like mini humbuckers. When I find guitar players don't like mini humbuckers, it's because they really like all the things that a humbucker brings to the party, so to speak. And the smaller humbucker, the mini, is just not all of that. It's. It's approximately. It's approximately the same. Sorry. So. So that's where I would put that information. I like them, in other words. But if I want a full humbucker, I want a full humbucker. I don't actually go, oh, the mini is the same. It's just not. Okay, let me go here, let me grab. This is the first. The first super chat question. Antique rocker says, hey, I heard from several sources that Vermont has more certified Luther's. Sorry, I'm laughing. Sorry. Suited by luthiers. I always think of Master Lulia luthier for those that remember that joke from the show. Okay, so anyways, has more certified luthiers than any state. Their guitars show up in local sales sites. What is your opinion on Private Lulia Guitar Luther's guitars? You know, so everyone. Everyone's bias. It's what, you know, I told you, everybody's got a bias. It's just knowing what the bias is. So I'm going to give you my bias. And then, you know, you take that bias with the information, you know, over the years on the channel. And this. This is where the bias comes from. Over the years doing the channel, you know, when you have this ability to make a video and maybe get 10,000 or tens of thousands of guitar players to see something, you realize. Like one day, the day I realized for myself was I made a video and the company the. Of a pedal. I made a video of a pedal, and. And that company made a million dollars off the pedal. Now, I know what you're thinking. Like, how do you know that? Well, because they are one of the few companies that had my physical address. And they scared the hell out of me and my wife because they sent, like a professional chef to my house that knocked on my door. And when we opened the door, she was like, hi, I'm a professional chef from some catering company, some high inexpensive catering company. And I was commissioned to make you this stuff. And. And it was a card, and it says, thank you so much. You sold a million dollars worth of these petals. And anyways, now the funny part of that story is because I can always hear Ralph in my head, my friend Ralph, he goes, man, you know, you make a company of a million dollars and they give you, you know, some food. Like, yeah, but they said thank you. And they told me up that point. Back then, YouTubers didn't know the channels, had no idea who was listening or what we were doing. So I would make a video and people would say, like, oh, you're a shill. And I'm like, oh, okay, I'm a shill. I didn't know. You just didn't know. Okay, Some were in the. In the game, but most of us were just making content. And you're aware that some. Something's happening, but you didn't know what. The reason why that's important. This all goes into the Lutheran thing. And so what happened was, over time, you start realizing, like, wow, I've sold a lot of stuff. In fact, there's one, if there was one. Like, I tell horror stories of the story all the time. There's one horror story of this channel, and it was that a small company, very small, like one person owns the company and makes. Made a product, sent me the product. I came with this great idea. I said, hey, I don't think you're presenting this product right. I want to make a video presenting this product. And they were like, they didn't see my vision and. But they didn't have any choice because I was probably the only channel that responded to them with any kind of volume of views. And I did the video and the video went viral and they made a lot of money. And then they took the money and they spent it all at the NAMM show and they lost all the money at the NAMM show. And then they came back to me and said, remember, they didn't pay me to do this video. I just got. I got. I guess I got a free product that was worth about $30. And they said, hey, we'd like you to do another video. And I was like, are you. Are you kidding me right now? I tell you all this because so you understand, at some point you realize. I realize, like a lot of channels, you realize you have some kind of value here and you're giving it to people or you're trading it. Like I said, it's mostly a trade. You know, hey, everybody goes, must be nice to get a free guitar. And I'm like, I don't know. I haven't got a free guitar. Not from somebody who's not my friend. Usually it's a trade. They just want to trade the value of something. So I always tell people, I go, imagine you went to your work tomorrow, and instead of your paycheck, they're like, hey, you like toaster ovens, right? We'll give you six of them, right? That's a trading. So my, My point to the story is with this. I don't want to say power. With this reach. That's the best way to put it. With this reach, I have reached out. I have talked to so many small luthiers thinking, why not help them? Fender doesn't need my help. Gibson doesn't need my help. PRS doesn't need my help. They don't need my help. They sell lots of guitars. You know, I don't need to subsidize billion dollar companies by doing free content for them, right? Doing a video of another Squire so they can, you know, make, you know, eight figures. And I literally. So I reach out. I have been doing this now for easy eight years. In eight years, I could honestly tell you, 90% of the luthiers I've worked out, I worked with have been the most horrible experiences of my entire life. If not just on YouTube, if they didn't get screwed by one or they didn't do half of what they promised, every horrible snitch situation has come out. This is my bias again. I'm just telling you the bias. I'm not trying to tell you not to buy from luthiers. I'm telling you this is just why you don't see as much of them on the channel. I try all the time. The problem is it comes in some kind of back and forth problem. It either is they don't do what they promised, which is weird, or they, you know, they don't understand. Like, I'm going to report the experience I have. And sometimes I get to the point where I make the video and I go, if I report this experience, this is a horrible experience I've just had. And I go, this is not what they want me to say, right? This is crazy. Or more importantly, what's happened on the backend is I have got the product, everything. Did you know, it did get here, it was fine. And then what happens is I do the video and then 50% of time, and I feel like I'm rounding down for sure. 50% of the time. You guys start emailing me, hey, I watched your video. I bought that guitar from that company and it's been six months and they won't respond to me. And now I have to get on the phone and like, hey, you know, respond to my viewers. Otherwise I'm gonna have to slam you publicly on the podcast. I don't say that specifically, but you understand that's probably what's been conveyed. And I like, hey, why do I have to be involved in this? And so because of that, now when we work with luthiers, smaller companies, just smaller companies, we vet them. And I can tell you right now, most of the time, they go right away. As soon as we try to vet them. I put a lot of time and effort. If you see like a company like Beltone, I want you to understand something. When I highlight a small company like Beltone, who's who, Steve, the owner, is in Florida, makes great guitars. I have literally spent, I can't say hundreds of hours. That's ridiculous. But weeks of, you know, whole work weeks devoted to just vetting him, reaching out. Who has had a bad experience, who's had a good experience, who has he not sent a guitar to that's paid for it can he make any guitars in a timely manner if I send him this effort. And that takes a lot of time and money. So because that we've actually started making the smart companies, you know, pay us for the time to vet everything. And. And so, you know, most of them either can't afford it, which is fine. When I say fine, I mean, we can work with that, or they just refuse to do it because they just, you know. But you gotta understand, it's a little different. It's so much easier to make a video. This is the sad part. It's so much easier to make a video. Not because of. Fender pays me. Fender's never paid me. And I don't even work with Fender directly, ever. Companies like them, at least when I do a Fender video, I know when I do the video. I'm not gonna get an email on Thursday going, hey, I bought a Fender guitar from Sweetwater and they won't return my calls. And I think they took my money. Like, so. To answer your question, that's the thing about small businesses is that there is a lot of really amazing ones. And I would say just to be kind and not sound cynical, two out of every three are a problem. So when I find good ones, I recommend them. Absolutely. I absolutely recommend them. And. And I try to keep pushing on them if I can. If I could do another video for them, I can. And, you know, and I. And if you ever want, I won't probably name names because it's like. Because here's the problem. This is the punching down, punching up theory. Some of these builders, if I out them and say things about them, I could collapse. Not collapse their company, but I could cause them irrevocable damage talking about them, you know, over some silly things. So I will tell you one funny story. And it's just the one that always kind of sticks my head is the funniest. I once had a small. Actually, I'll tell you two funny stories because it's too small builders. I had a small builder reach out to me, by the way. I'd like also point out that 99% of the time, the builders reach out to me. It's not the other way around. Right. I'm just, like, interested in them because I'm like, oh, a small builder. Somewhere we can highlight a small builder. So, you know, I've done videos of small builders like Fox 3 Guitars. And I was like, this is really fun. Let's do a video. And as soon as I did the video, everybody put, yeah, they just. They're not. They're out of business. I'm like, what? They're not making guitars. I don't know if that's true. That's what that. You can read the comments. That's what it says in the videos. And we sent them an email. We never got a response. So I don't know if they're still around or not. So fox three guitars, you're still around, let me know. Anyways, I had a builder reach out and they go, hey, we want to build your guitar. We want you to do a video. And I said, okay, cool, let's do the thing. And you know, obviously the, the, the trade will be, they'll build, I'll keep the guitar. Okay. And that sounds good. It is good. But keep in mind, I have a lot of guitars. I'm not really interested in a guitar at this point. I'm right. I really want to make videos. I like doing what I do. So I go, but we'll make it work because that's the best way to work with you. And they, I, I screwed up. I mentioned that they were building me guitar on this channel and apparently you guys flooded with orders. And then they basically told me not up front, but I found out like months later that they got so many orders like, well, we put yours on the back burner to, to make everybody's guitar. So I was like, oh, cool. Well, hey, you know, that's good for them, right? So a year or two went by and somebody actually asked me like, hey, you never did a video of the guitar. I'm like, well, they never sent the guitar. And then somebody I know from the channel, a patron, sent me a message saying, hey, I was at their, I was at their facility and, and they showed me your guitar. And I go, oh, okay. I kind of had given up on that. It's been two years. I didn't know they were going to still build me a guitar. And yes, I ordered a guitar from them. I'm like, cool. And then I found out later, the guitar they showed them, that wasn't my guitar. They were just, when they asked, they go, aren't you making filming guitar? And they go, yeah, yeah, we are. We are. Buy a guitar. But that's not the funny story. The funny story that happened to me, well, that was funny. But this one's the funniest. A builder reached out to me and asked me to build a guitar. I came up with this crazy concept of guitar. I, I spent all this time figuring out like, this will be great. I sent it to them and they said, this seems strange. And I said, yeah, but it's going to make a great video. It'll get people excited about your brand. Because, you know, at the end of the day, I make content, you know, I make interesting content for people. And it's, you know, that's how I. That's how I pay my bills. You know, it's not. I don't get commissions from your guitar sales. I want you to look great. But I really need the video and I want to make the video fun. And. And so I came with this crazy idea because it would have a crazy look and a crazy title and it'll be fun and get your name out. And of course, the quality is what people matters, and they understand that they can custom order something different. And so I. I have him build the guitar. And forever goes by never and ever. Like at least a year, at least, maybe longer, and I haven't heard from them. And then one day I'm watching YouTube and there's another YouTube channel slightly bigger than mine. I'd say, well, slightly. A couple hundred thousand bigger. They have my guitar, and I'm like, hey, that's Mike. So my first thought, you can imagine, is, did that freaking youtuber copy my idea for that guitar? That's so weird. How would they know? How would they know? I figured out what happened. When I say I figured out, I mean, I found out what happened. They talked to a bigger YouTuber than me and they go, they sent him my guitar. And then the irony of this is, apparently that YouTuber didn't sell very many guitars. So then they reached out to me afterwards and said, hey, we want to make you a guitar. And here's what they did instead of, well, obviously it didn't make sense to make me that guitar. And I also did something that was probably, at the time, dumb. I didn't tell them that I saw that they had sent my guitar to somebody else. I didn't say anything. I just said, yeah, if you want to send the guitar, we'll do the video. They sent me a guitar. And the guitar and they sent me was so butt ugly. It was so weird. It was just this rando thing that they made. So. Oh, another one. Another fun story. A company reached out because a lot of them, they always reach out the same thing, and they go, hey, we want to make you a guitar. And then you can tell your audience about it. In other words, sell our guitars for you, you know? And I said, cool. And they sent me a guitar and they said they had a weird Story. The story started weird, which is like, we're going to send you a, you know, a shop. A lot of them want to send the guitar that's in the shop. We'll send the guitar. It's going to be a little ragged, a little beat up, okay? I said, don't worry about it. You know, I, you know, they sent the guitar and. And I get it. And everything about this guitar, everything about this guitar is pinging me the wrong way. All the hardware is really inexpensive Chinese hardware that you can, you know, you see on the $200 guitars or $100 guitars, the truss rod, everything is wrong. Like, you know, look, you get a sense of where everybody builds guitars. It's not that everything's metric and some stuff are standard. It's just you just kind of know what stuff and the finish they were using. And there was a bunch of things they were using. And I was like, I've never seen any. Actually, us small luthier shops build guitars like this. So I reached out to him really kindly and said, hey, is. Is this guitar made overseas? And they said, no, we make them here. And I go, some weird choices that you made, especially in this, you know, some of the measurements, some of the spacing. And I said, so I go, is. So I go, so this one, you definitely made this one, right? And then as the story unfolds, it started unfolding as well. The plan is once I do the video, they're going to order a bunch of those from. From Asia. And I'm like, what, Wait, wait, what's going on here? And then it slowly comes out. They don't really build guitars. They just. They had these prototypes made in Asia, right? And once I do my video, they'll. And this, everybody wants this. They're going to order a bunch. And I'm like, now I want you to point out, I want to point out to you that they wanted this guitar to sell for $2,400. What I thought I was looking at, by the way, it was really cool design. I'd say one of the coolest unique designs. I think they designed it. I'm not sure. But anyways, my point to the funny part is I would say this guitar should be cost about $299 to $390 max. And so. So that's my answer to your question. That's what you deal with. I'm not going to stop. I'm still going to steal stuff, but still. Still deal with this stuff. But I'm also going to keep vetting them. And deal with all the things, because again, once you make those mistakes, I don't want to make them again. I've made a lot of them. When it comes to pedal companies, we talked about this. Amp companies, you know, I take my time. I make sure that I don't just do the romance video, which is. I get it. I say, hey, they sent it to me. You know, it's. It's a lot hard. It's a lot easier to do. When you're a newer channel, you get the romance. You know, somebody sent you something and you feel pretty inspired because you're like, wow, somebody really respects what I do. And now I can't wait to tell my audience about it. And really, what you're doing, you're setting your audience up for disaster, and you just don't know it. So I literally got to stop saying literally all the time. Sorry, guys. I really, really mean this when I say it's. I'll vet. Continue to vet stuff, and especially new products and stuff. I'm actually doing that right now. There's a product that I want to release this video right now. But the product, I just. I think. I think it's legitimate. I think it was cool, but I just want to keep going and make sure it's right. So. But. So that's my long, very long and probably boring answer. Antique rocker to tell you that I think you should support local luthiers. I think you should support small businesses, but vet them. Ask to talk to customers, ask to try to find out stuff, you know, because of the fact that it's unproven product from an unproven business. And it's not even as simple as, you know, you get it and it's not what you like. It could be you don't even get it. You don't even get the product. I would say, I don't know, 20%. I'll just keep it that 20. I'm just, you know, I'm going off feeling here, not actual numbers. I don't have stats and figures for me, but so 2 out of 10 times when I talk to a small business about a product, it never even comes to fruition. They don't even make anything or send anything. And that's even when I kind of gave away everything, saying, hey, I'll just do it on a loaner. You know, I'll do that. Like I said, if I think there's a video there for you guys, I think there's something interesting. Because keep in mind, I make the money. If you guys watch the video. And when I say watch, it's not how many clicks I get, it's how long you stay engaged. I need you guys to stay until the end of the video to make any money. So. So if I can make a good video that is interesting and you guys can learn from. I make money. It doesn't matter if they sell 10 or 100 guitars. I want them to do well. That's part of the co sponsorship, you know, co sponsorship. But it's not, it's not paramount for me. It's not the thing I care about the most. So. Which is, you know, I don't know. Think of it what you want. It's just the truth. Vim69 what's up Vimps? He says, phil, thanks for the fret sprout clinic yesterday. If we want to use the Dremel tool for fretwork, which wheels do you use? Okay, so those are. Okay, so yesterday's. I do a weekly clinic for the patrons now. $10 and above. This is not so much to create a lesson program behind a paywall. This is. I'm just trying to come up with reasons why to justify the fact that you guys have been supporting the podcast. So it's like $5 you get a bonus podcast and you ad free versions. $10 you get that. Plus you get to see these weekly clinics that I'm doing. They're live. But obviously if I miss a week, I'll just, I have pre recorded ones I'll play to you guys. But it's just a really cool, you know, way to say thank you. And then the $25 ones, we do the coffee hang so twice a month. So. So that's what he's talking about. The end plan so you know, is that that stuff will eventually work itself to you guys either through this channel or the secondary channel. As we as I find what's interesting and you know, and so like I said, you know, I appreciate you supporting, but you don't have to rush to support is what I'm trying to say. You'll get the kind. It's kind of like when I tell you I'll wait for a deal on a guitar. If you wait, you'll get the content that I'm charging people for in time. It's just these people are just supporting the channel so I'm trying to give them a value, that's all. So back to vims. So he's talking about. So yesterday was this fret sprout, which was the worst Fret sprout I think I've done in a couple of years video. But specifically he's asking about the wheels. So I have a video on the podcast talking about fret polishing. And this is the Dremel wheel I use. And there's two kinds. I'm going to share it with you right now. Okay, so these are the two kinds. Vimps. The one I'm using in that video is the green, which is the extra fine. You can use the fine ones. I've. I suggest you buying the complete set. The two kinds, $37. I know it's a lot of money. I know it is. You don't have to buy this from them. This piece here should come with your dremel. So you know this mandrel thing, you shouldn't need to buy it from them. If you have a dremel, it should have came with it or in one of those kits. But these two wheels, this set, $37. This will last you forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. So is it me or is this math whacked? Hold on a second. Don't buy this set. How is this. Am I missing something? Because $15.51 times two is not $37. So Vimps do not buy this complete set. Right? It doesn't says complete set. I assume it's five. Buy these individually for $30. This is 30, right? This is $31 and right, $31.02, so $6 cheaper. This is that crap they do at the grocery store. Doesn't that piss you off? Like, I'm so dumb at the grocery store, I'll do it. I'll be like, you know, Case, you know, it's 12 pack of Coke, $3.99, two for $12. I'm like, wait. And I'm like, oh, that's the. Come on, man. Come on, Stumac, you're better than this. You're better than this. Do not buy the complete set. Buy them individually. But if you're only gonna buy one, buy the greens. I very, very rarely use the red ones. The fine ones. I use the extra fines. Cause I'm usually trying to use them to super polish the frets, which is what I did in that video. And if you can find them for less, that's your resource. I don't know that those are specifically made by Stumac. I don't know if that's a specific product to them or if it's something you can get anywhere else. Somebody will probably put it in the comments. I tend to buy from Stumac. Not only because they support the channel periodically, which is nice, but I do it because that's where I bought it all before. And I'm usually. Most of the stuff you guys see me use is stuff that I've had way before I started doing YouTube. Because stuff lasts forever. That stuff lasts forever. You're not really going through that stuff like crazy, so. Oh, okay. Dr. Frankenstein says the mandrel is included in the set. Okay, now that makes sense. All right. Thank you for clearing that up, Dr. Frankenstein. Because otherwise I was like, man, Stu Mac's math was whack. I'm so glad. I'm so glad we've now vindicated Stu Mac from. I get to see that email on Monday. Phil, that's not what. We didn't do anything wrong. Why are you slamming us publicly? I don't know. Happens. Okay, let's go to another question. We'll take one from Amanda. Amanda sent this one. Yardbird 68. What's up? Yardbird says, what is the purpose of reverse wound reverse pole, Stratocaster pickups or other types besides being able to play your music backwards? I like your joke. That's a good dad joke. I'll go with it. But of course, we know the real purpose is for reverse wound reverse poles when we combined it with another pickup to go noiseless. So that's it. Aaron Daniel says, phil, I have started doing repair work, and I have lots of parts. How do you organize to use with others? So, parts, I just have lots and lots of trays and bins, and I keep them all together and that's it. So I keep all my output jacks in one drawer, and I keep all my, you know, like 250k. The thing that I would say, you definitely just organize them. The only thing you really want to organize and keep track of is your 250k and 500k potentiometers. You want them to be in different drawers because it's. It's just a. It's just a mistake waiting to happen. You know, it's. It's weird how your brain works. The. The video I did, I did. Yesterday I did. Which we'll. We'll segue. We'll do this. We'll do guitar of the week right after this finish this thing. Segue into the video I did yesterday, which was from Fender. It's a dual humbucker Fender guitar. And when I was doing the sheet, even though I. I just was. My brain was like, Fender is 250k. 250k, 250, 250k and I kept saying 250k, and I kept writing 250k. I was looking at the potentiometer. Potentiometers. They said 500k. I know that humbuckers are 500k, but it's Fender. And Fender is just associated my brain to 250k. So that's why I like to keep them. My 250ks and 500ks and my linear and tapered, all separates and categories. And sometimes use a sharpie and write on them even to make sure. Because otherwise you're, you know, as you get older, you're doing a lot of squinting, looking at the edge, trying to read stuff. And sometimes they don't put it on there. It's in the serial number and you have to kind of look it up. It's a pain in the ass. So that's how you do it. But that brings me to what brings me to now it's time for Guitar of the Week. Guitar of the Week. So if you're watching right now, this is the most exciting Guitar of the week for you guys. Here's why we're giving away a guitar. So this is Shauna's thing. She did this. I want to thank her for this. The fine folks at Guitar center reached out and said, hey, would you do some videos? And I. I'm like, yeah, of course. That's what we do here. We do videos of guitars. And they said, hey, we have this limited edition. And I gotta. I gotta tell you, the. The. The why is funny when I'm giving Shauna Shawna credit, not only because she worked it out, because also she just. She just thinks so much differently than. Than I do. Right? Here's why. So they go, hey, here's what we're doing. We're doing a limited edition Fender guitar series. Okay? So it's a FSR FSR Fender special run. Okay. So these are how many they're gonna make? Who knows? Probably my guess, because they have 300 stores. Probably something like, you know, 300 units, maybe they might make 10 per store. 3,000 units. Who know? Who knows? But it's a limited run. And they do an Italian, A Strat. They're hard tails. And they are. Let's show you the guitar and talk about it. They are. I did the video, but I'm gonna do the Guitar of the week, too. Because I want you to. To maybe win this. All right? Okay. And I'll explain everything works. So this is a sandblasted ash body, okay. In vintage natural or antique natural. So it looks actually Butterscotch when you see it in real life. So it's. It's sandblasted, but it's also fully chambered. It's hollow almost. Right. So the guitar is like in the six pound range. It comes with a hardtail bridge and it comes with. Originally it's going to come with a three way switch volume tone. But if you watch my video, you'll see I did this. They don't. The one you win doesn't have that. Two Seymour Duncan pickups. You got a JB and 59, some of my favorite sets of pickups by far. And then you get a roasted maple neck. Look at that. And locking keys. And then a hardshell case. This is made in the USA and this sells for $2,000. And if you click the. If you click the link and enter your email address, I will be picking the winner on June 6 and announcing it right here on this show. Hopefully one of you will be live when I announce it because I'll just make the whole thing more exciting when it. And so Guitar center agreed to give one away. So. And why I said I love that Shauna did this is because usually companies don't want to give away something that is finite or hard to get because, you know, it's a limited edition. It's not like they need tons of promotion on this. Part of the promotion is the fact that it's gonna sell, just the fact that it's limited. So let's, let's share. Let me back up a little bit. Go to the side camera maybe. And I got two things to share. I got some really cool things here. Okay. All right, let's do this. We have the guitar. Turn this on. Okay. And what am I running? Let's go back. Let me just show you. So I'm running the Amplified Nation amp today. I figured with the $2,000 guitar, let's run through my favorite amp. So amphibination amp mic'd up on the cab. We got two cream back selections. That's cream with a C. And of course, the head is mic'd up. Just kidding. Okay, I'm using a boost pedal. So I'll show you the boost pedal, which is the. Right now I'm using the Taurus servo boost pedal. And I'm using that too. And then this is where it gets cool. Hopefully no more mistakes. So if I get through this without any mistakes, I'm going to share something even cooler. Well, for me, something cool for me, but not for you. What's cool for you is you can win a $2,000 Fender USA guitar. Okay, let's. Let's play it and I'll let you hear how it sounds. Okay, so let's go ahead and do us. It's okay. So check this out. We're on the bridge. Let's go to the neck pickup. It does that cool thing that I love guitars do. I call it the Halloween sound. You know those little ghosts at Halloween that make the sound that did that. Okay, so let's take the boost off. So this is the amps overdrive without the boost. And let's roll the volume back. Okay. So if you notice today, that one. The guitar sounds amazing. Okay. And this might be the. I'm. We're gonna. Maybe we'll get a world record. Like we're gonna break. We're gonna break the Internet today. Two things are happening simultaneously. So please click the link down below if you want to try to enter to win this beautiful six pound chambered blast. Sandblasted ash. Gorgeous fender Telecaster American Pro 2 with a roasted maple neck. By the way, this is my absolute favorite neck I've ever played of any Fender ever. This actual neck. I like this neck. Within seconds of playing this neck, I knew one thing was gonna happen for sure. If I didn't keep this guitar. I was going to take this neck and put this on another guitar. If I didn't like the way this sounded or felt, I was gonna go with this. But it's just a. It just feels so good. And I think it's gonna look great when it starts wearing and relicing. But the other thing that's funny, why we're gonna break the Internet today is so that is Guitar center giving that way. So thank them for that. But. But also, guess who helped us out. Sweetwater. What? Both. Here's what happened. So Sweetwater was nice enough to help us with a problem I had. As you guys know, as I do these videos, the live show, I'm always like, oh, you're muted, Phil. We can't hear you. Oh, the guitar's muted. You're not here. Sweetwater sent this. Let me hold on a second. This thing. Actually, you know what we'll do from the side. I didn't think about the fact that I got this cable underneath. Okay, so let me. Okay, give me one second. So this is it. This is the radio hotspot. And this watch what happens if I do this? I go, hello. How are you guys? Wait, are you guys can't hear me? Wait, you guys can't hear me? This is a momentary Mute switch. So when I was playing, instead of switching over here like I've been doing and messing everything up, I just have a quick radial pedals, which, by the way, these are made in Canada and. And they're beautifully made. So this is a mute switch from my microphone. So now, like I said, if I just push it, you'll see. I said, you don't hear me now? What did I say? So anyways, it's a momentary mute switch. So I want to thank Sweetwater for hooking us up with the mute switch so we can make this video. And then the irony of this is that, you know, the guitar came from Guitar Center. But you know what is nice is I tell you guys this all the time. I like these companies. The companies I like, I work with, you know, and the companies I don't. I don't. And the irony is, is that's the beauty of the fact that I don't, you know, you don't. I don't work for these companies. I work with them. And so that's just how it works. So I want to think that as just. So now we'll have error free video guitar of the week or problem free guitar of the week. Want to think about that? But again, one more time, shout out for the. Please enter to win this beautiful guitar. Absolutely right. Look at that. So what's great is somebody even asked me. They go, what was. Is the one we're going to win? Is it going to be light? They're all chambered. They're all going to be light. So really cool. And Guitar center is paying to ship it to you. So we don't. As you guys know, sometimes when we do giveaways, you know, they provided the guitar, but we, you know, we pay a couple hundred bucks for the shipping or whatever the shipping ends up being. They're taking care of that as well. So. And the contest is ran by me. So you just use. It's just you click the link down below, you enter your email address and I hope. Well, I hope one of you win because you're the ones watching. Would be weird. Somebody didn't watch. Won it. If you can make sure to subscribe to the channel, I'd appreciate that. It's just another way to help promote the channel and stuff like that. So very excited about that. Love the guitar. Let's see. Where is the guitar? Where's the link for the gorgeous guitar? Let's see if I can do it right here. And I'll do this. There you go. And I'm pinning It, I just pinned it to the top, I think. Yep, I did. So now that's the link that takes you to enter. And like I said, the only thing it's going to ask you for is an email address. That's it. So Jeff says, I'd want to put a dark stain on all those grooves. Yeah, they had it two colors, so they have a Strat. So, you know, you can get the Strat version, which is hss, and then they have them both in the this age natural and then black. I just thought the age natural looked better, you know, more interesting. And I was doing it off of a vibe because originally I got to see the promotion pictures which really weren't very, you know, like, very helpful. I was like, I just instinctively, I was like, that color looks like it'll do better for a video. And I thought it'd be fun. I thought it'd be a fun video and, and it was great. And I gotta say, you know what's funny about this? And I say this a lot. And I just need to say I don't think you guys understand and, and maybe you don't need to understand, but I, I, when I have companies that work with me, it's sometimes extra special because, you know, it was nice guitar center to give away a guitar. But it's also nice that in that video I'm like, hey, they should have put a coil split. And then I put a coil split in it. You gotta understand, like, that's not a video I think companies usually want. And I'm not saying they wanted that video. I'm just saying I really appreciate that companies understand that. I think you guys really enjoy content that is more transparent or more honest and, or, you know, because the truth is, I like this guitar way better with a coil split. In fact, when I was playing it the whole time kept thinking, man, it really needs a coil split because it's right there. You just do it. So I just like, like that and I like say so. That's what I want to say. All right, so please enter to win. If you would like to. Let's go to another guitar question. Let's get that out of the way. John says, hey, are all of the hand wired Chinese tube amps like VHT and Monoprice and major brands made in the same plant? Many look a lot alike. It's possible a lot of them made the same plant. You got to understand China's got a lot, a lot of factories way more than a lot of us can comprehend. I do know for the Most part, if you have a guitar amp made in Indonesia, it's most likely being built by Cortec Cortex, pretty much the biggest, I think, Indonesian amp manufacturer. And it's probably going to be growing the most epically. So you're going to start seeing, I think, more and more and more amplifiers being made in Indonesia at the Cortec facility. As you guys, some of you know, Cortek also now owns Digitech, and I think it's because it's part of their investment to expand past just being the guitar, you know, a massive guitar builder. China, though, I mean, who knows? But, yeah, a lot of them are probably alike because a lot of them are made in the same place. I can tell you, though, that I have now dealt with two or three companies. Two for sure. But I kind of feel like there may be another one that I'm not thinking of, that I've worked with that have had their amps made over in China and have now pulled them back because of the fact that they were getting cloned so much. They were getting knocked off. And it's just the intellectual properties was just too much. It was too brutal for them to deal with. So a lot of that. So. And ironically, when you mentioned, like, monoprice, that was one of the amps that is a clone of their amps. And they were like, in fact, when I did a. That was Lainey. When I did a video for Laney, a lot of you were like, oh, you can get a monoprice for a lot cheaper. I'm like, yeah, it's because the factory knocked them off and started selling them cheaper. So they moved them back. You know what happens? You know, what are you gonna do? Well, I guess move that back out of China and go back to England and make them in England. So. Yeah, but, you know, I would like to do more inexpensive tube amp videos. A lot of you guys are like, you're always doing the expensive ones. I'm like, I am, but I'd like to do more than expensive ones. Let me know when in the permanent comments. This video. What inexpensive amp brands you like Me see, I can pick some up and do some videos. So. Okay, I have no idea. What am I. Okay, let's go back to more questions. Sometimes I'm scanning around and I'm just not seeing what you guys are talking about. Let's go to where would Dan. Dan says, hey, is the blue amp head mic'd? Oh, we already did this as a joke. It is mic'd up as a joke. And I already kind of explained I kind of stole the thunder. I answered that earlier. But yeah, it's a Magnum as a joke because I have these two mics and I thought that was funny. And I just think it's funny. Somebody caught it last week that I did it last week. Then we have. Mr. G says, hey, for you. Does a telly with two humbuckers scratch your itch? Your telly itch? No, no. Maybe when they're coil split. Little telly vibe in there. No, I still have to have a traditional telly. I prefer tellies with humbuckers. Look, I'm a tele Strat guy. Mostly Strats, but Strat and telly guy tell it, you know, and all the iterations. So it's like, you know, the GNL iteration, the Keisel iteration. I just like Strats and tellies. That's what I like. Given to my own devices. That's where I lean towards. I like Les Paul's, I like jazz masters. Look, you know, the gretches. I mean, if you, you know, if you can have a collection of guitars, there are really beautiful instruments. Sgs, I really feel, you know, like, you know, you get to play these guitars very exciting. But like, if you force me down to one guitar, two guitars, it's. It's going to. Well, first of all, one guitar is going to be a Strat. It's just going to be a Strat. And it's going to be a Strat with two humbuckers. And then if you force me down to, you know, two guitars, it's going to be like a strata telly. And on the telly, I might go two humbuckers. I might go traditional telly. Just. Just depends. But no, it doesn't really scratch it. What telly's scratch it's for is for some reason when you put two humbuckers in a telec, it is just a really very. The guitar has a lot of utility to it. In other words, I can get a lot of sounds you can get. You know, I mean, look at the guitar players who use a dual humbucker telly, like John 5 or Jim Root or Richie Kotzen, because he uses like, he uses dual humbucker tellies. Who is the country artist we were looking up that uses it? Brad Paisley, I think. Wait, is it Brad Paisley? Let me tell you, I may be wrong because we were looking this up. Keith Urban, Chris Shiflett from the Foo Fighters, Rishi Kotson, John Fies, Jim Root. There's a lot of players out there that use A Telecaster with two humbuckers. And it's very. Especially if you can coils with them. It's a. It's got a huge amount of utility to the guitar. You can get a lot of stuff done. But no, if you said, hey, if you want a traditional telly, would that scratch that itch? No, but it depends on how bad you really want to telly some players. I think you got to really love a telly sound. A lot of players own a telly and then never play them because they never really truly fall in love with the telly sound. Okay. Okay. T Sized says, hey, Phil, I had three Chinese Epiphone casinos that all had problems. Thoughts on Epiphone Casino Elitist sounds like the best option. Instead of paying $2,000 to $3,500 for a USA casino. Yeah, you gotta understand when you have problems with import guitars, you gotta understand it's a volume thing. I've said this before, and I'll say it over again, and it's just because I think it's just the best advice I could give. It's not hard to make a good guitar. It's hard to make a lot of good guitars. Everybody goes. It's kind of like, it's where I like to kind of push back on people who are like, anybody who, in the comment sections who's so cavalier about how, like, they can do something right. You're like, I could build that. I'm like, sure, you can do that. You can build it. But can you build 5,000 of them? And see, that's the problem. You know, I use this, I used it earlier. I'll use my own pickup building as the, you know, explanation of this. I can make a set of pickups and I feel very strongly that you'll love them. I've had a huge amount of customer satisfaction. I'd say almost 99.99% customer satisfaction. We'll call it that. I feel very, very happy about that. However, could I build 5, 10,000 of those, you know, and make everybody happy? I don't. I don't know. It's tough. The more I make, the more problems can slip through. So. Same thing with anybody else. So it's, it's the same thing with that. It's. If you get a epiphone guitar and you have a problem, it's not an indictment of all epiphone guitars. It's just high volumes. And when they make high volume guitars and their focus is price point, you gotta understand the focus of an epiphone. The focus of a Squire, the focus of a Firefly, the focus of a Harley, Ben, is cost. It is what they think about. You know, it's why sometimes I get jerky when guitars are really expensive on the channel. And I'm like. And they're, they're cost cutting on them. Like, wait a minute, you know, this is supposed to be, you know, if you have $5,000, it's not that you, you know, they should have to kiss your ass. It's that you, they shouldn't be chasing the. How cheap can they make this? It doesn't make sense. We've. Right. You know, it's like I would imagine, I've never had one. I imagine if I bought a car for six figures, I'd be really irritated. If I was like, where's the cup holders? Like, ah, those cost money. You'd be like, wait a minute, what do you mean they cost money? This is where I'm spending money. This is where I get my stuff. So. So when they make, when the focus is a price point, you are going to see problems and you have to be not so much. I'm not telling you to be. Excuse those problems. I'm just being aware that you could also find tons of examples where they don't have problems. I've said this before, I love it. If you gave me 10American strats, I would hope that when I take them out of the box, nine of them minimum, nine of them are great or good or playable or fine. And if you give me ten $99 squires, I would expect hopefully five of them to be good or four of them to be good and the rest be, oh, you know, okay. And probably two of them have an issue or one have an issue. That would be my expectation. Right. It's just because again, they're moving a lot faster and they're keeping the price down. So I would say you could try going with the Elite or you could just search for one that can be a better, a better, you know, find a better epiphone that you were looking at casino. So something that you don't may not know. But both I believe Guitar center does this online and I, and I know Sweetwater does it. Okay. So I think that's why Guitarson is doing it. So I'll just give them both shout outs if you call them and you tell them that you're looking for specific guitar. I think Guitar center wants it to be high end guitar. But Sweetwater will do it. I've seen. I was at Sweetwater's campus I saw them do it. They. The rep. You can. If you have a sales rep at Sweetwater, you can literally say to them, hey, I want this guitar. But I know there's pictures, but I just don't want a turd. And they can. They can. They put it in their computer and they'll pull it from the warehouse and bring it right to their cubicle, and they can check and play it and give you a first person. First person kind of play by play of what they're experiencing with the guitar and give you a more focused, you know, thing. They're probably gonna hate me for saying that. So both of these companies, but they'll do that now. If they don't do it, don't worry. There's tons of mom and pops that be glad to do it. So, I mean, you know, you just reach out to a mom and pop and say, hey, do you carry this brand? I'd like to buy one. Can you, you know, can you personally inspect it? These are the issues. Especially if you've had three, you know what issues you've had. So you give them the list of issues up front to look for. This is what you don't want to see. I don't want to see these problems. I've had these in the past. So fire dog says 1971, says he's secretly using the PV backstage. You know, it's funny about the PV backstage. And I. And I caution. Because this is actually worse than anything else, right? The only thing worse than, you know, the only thing worse than basically, you know, loving and praising expensive amps is sometimes when you praise inexpensive stuff because it causes a frenzy of buying. That's why I said I worry about stuff like this. You know, you don't want the. I'm gonna call it the bad monkey effect, right? Where everybody paying $300 for a bad monkey pedal, even though they were just average. This is a very average amp. I like it. It does the job. It's a very average amp. But mostly, you know what it is. I just love the way look I looking at it. It's a time and a place and just. It's cool. And it, like I said, it sounds good. It does. What I want is good. But. Yeah, okay. Grumpy Mike guitar says, are Vega trims still your favorite or have you found something you like better? Cheers. So I like the Vega trims a lot. They're just expensive. So I. I tell you guys, it's just like ratio tuning keys. I have them on some of my guitars. A Vega trim on some of my guitars, but I don't necessarily buy them from all my guitars. It's just too expensive. You know, it's. It's not, you know, it's not feasible to put it them on everything. My favorite Tremolos are probably. I. I don't know which one I'd put over the other because they're different. The whole thing about the Vega trim is it's a different feel to me. It feels more like a Floyd Rose and less like a standard Strat Tremolo. So to me, when I want a standard Strat Tremolo vibe, I go with like the Godo 510. That's what's usually in all my guitars because it's relatively inexpensive, it's easy to get and it, it feels very familiar. Which is, I want to say more stiff, right? More just, you know, even at how. No matter how you adjust the springs, just. It's more stiff like a Strat Tremolo. The Floyd is more. It's smoother. It's not like a Bigsby where you're like said. I think of the Bigsby is like riding in the Cadillac right up and down the. Going up and down the hills. Just everything's really nice and smooth. The Floyd is a little bit more like that, but not as. Not as much. And the Vega is nice if you want something more like. And I think the hip shot bridge is a little bit more like the Vega, but I think the Vega is more so like a Floyd in the way it feels. But yeah, there that's his expense. Otherwise I put them in more guitars. The. It's one of those things when, you know, they sent me a bunch of those bridges and we gave most of them away. They actually gave them all away but one. So you know, it's one of those things like I look back at those times and go, maybe I should have kept all those bridges and shoved them in stuff. Shoved them in my guitars. But I think it was. I don't regret having fun and giving. Doing the giveaways. Will says, hey, I'm very interested in limited edition guitar center sandblasted Fenders. Have you had a chance to check out the Strat since the telly video? I have not. So this was. What happened with this video is this is one of the few cases where I was given privy to the product way before the launch. So I didn't physically see what they actually look like any of the others until they dropped. The day I dropped the video I only had like a sheet and it just said Base, in fact, my specification sheets that I made the reports. I didn't have like a report of their guitar. So I had to like guess what everything was. I was like, that's a JB. This is a 59. It did. It didn't. It didn't say in there in their sheet. It was very basic. I knew it was chambered, but I figured that out and I knew it was sandblad, sandblasted ash because it said that on the promotional paperwork. I knew it was roasted maple neck. I did not know the nut was bone. I had to test it and find its bone. So that's how I knew it was bone. Trying to think what else? A couple of things. Like I just determined. It also comes with. I didn't say in the video, but it also comes with locking strap locks. So the black strap locks like the Schaller ones. So it comes with these and the pieces that go on your strap. So I thought that was a nice little touch too. They really did it well. But I would imagine the Strats are pretty much the same. But I just don't know. I just don't know. Okay, Analog harmonics says can you use a patch bay with the speaker cables for an amp heads into a cap cap? No, I hate digging behind the amps in the shelves. Look, I'm not an amp guy that way, but I can tell you right now you don't want to run any, anything like speaker cables into anything that's not rated for the power. So like patch based and stuff like that. No, there's a reason why all those amp switchers are pretty expensive, so especially a tube amp. So again I'm. I want to caution you, I'm not an expert in this area, so I can't speak as one. But I'll give you a rough. Because obviously if you're asking question, you're not familiar, so you can seek out better advice. But I want to give you the basics of the advice. The basics is one of the concerns I know that you have when you run tube amplifiers into these real switchers is not only do you need something that can take the power that's coming through the speaker cables, but more importantly, when the amp isn't being used, it needs to put a load against the amp, right? So the heads, the tube amps need to see a load just like if they see a speaker. So that's why you can't just willy nilly use like. All right, just amps like, you know, patch bays and all kinds of stuff like that. So and doctor, my balls itch. Look, I said it correctly with a z. And a ch says, humbuckers should have covers.in lace only look good on Fender necks. What are some other purely personal, not right or wrong, harmless opinions? Oh, there's tons, right? I don't know. You know, it's funny. I kind of. You nailed two of them, Dot. You know, I think when it comes to the. People have preferences, right? They have preferences. But what's happened? The Internet kind of galvanizes people's weird opinions in a. In the weirdest way. Like, they become. They become. They become less of like a. I prefer no gravy on my mashed potatoes to. Anyone who puts gravy on their mashed potatoes is a moron. It's weird how it goes up like that. So, like, yes, somebody has an opinion like, hey, I think humbucker should have covers too. Anyone who doesn't put covers on their. On their humbucker is an idiot. Or they don't know tone, Right? There's always some kind of weird insult added. And again, very galvanized, like, harsh opinion. One of my favorites is, I would say in the hardest opinions, it would be. There's the categories that I can make fun of. And we're all guilty. Okay, well, not all of us for being so intense about it, but we're all guilty for thinking it. Just a lot of people type it. You gotta have stainless steel frets. Otherwise the guitar is junk. That's a weird one to me. I like I said, I prefer stainless steel frets because they last forever. And I guess in the. Well, not a guess. I just know this. You put stainless steel frets on a guitar and you never have to worry about doing a fret job again. Is a pretty cool thing. And I even would argue that, you know, I would. Even if you said, hey, they're a little brighter sounding, I'd be like, yeah, I'll deal with that. If it means I don't have to refread a guitar. Especially since refreads now cost four times what they did, you know, 10 years ago. I mean, on average, it's crazy how much they keep going up. And for those that are have not. You should I get this a lot. People send me emails going, I just got a quote for refrat. Does this sound right? I'm like, it sounds right. They go, this is ridiculous. I'm like, yeah, things are getting ridiculous out there. Roasted maple necks are another hot one. It's like, hey, you know, we never had roasted necks. We don't need them now. And I'm like, okay, then don't get a roasted maple neck. You gotta have tubes and an amp. Oh, like how the tubes are mounted in amps is like a big thing for people. Oh, they mounted the tubes to the PC, you know, the PCB board, and it's horrible. I'm like, okay, you know, you know what's funny to me is I have some friends that build, you know, design and build amps and I, I play their amps and I've never had problems. And they tell me stories about when they have problems in their amps and how they deal with customers or artists that are dealing with their amps. And they tell me how they work on it. And then people go, oh, they do this to be cheap. And I'm like, well, they're trying to balance, right? To me, it's like a lot of, it's like a balance. They're trying to figure out how they can make a thing as most profitable as they can, but give the quality they need to give. It's like I said, you can't go with the concept of. In fact, it's funny, every time I do see an amp and I'm using amps as an example where it's made to this perfection, right? This thing, like, oh, this is it. Then the comment section is that price is ridiculous. And I'm like, well, that's what no compromise looks like. I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying you have to pick some kind of weird connection. Firedog 1791 says hand wired versus PCB. Exactly. You know, it's funny, I get to ask that a lot and not as much as before. I, I have hand wired amps, I have PCB amps, and I literally could care less about which one's which. You know, I hear like, hey, the hand wire ones, you know, they're easy to fix in the long term. Great. I'm sure that's true. I don't care what I think about all the time is, you know, it's, I just like an amp and it's just that funny to me. Like, I like that PV amp, so I just liked it. I go, okay, I was playing it, I liked it. I played the Amplified Nation amp, I just really liked it. The mono, sorry, the Morgan amp, I really liked it. The Morgan, the Magnetone amp, I really liked it. My Fingerprints and amp, I really like it. Blues Junior, I really like it. There's no, there's no thought process in my head that says like If I've never been and never would be a person, if I was in a room and somebody said, I play a blues Junior, And I go, a blues Junior, Right? I'd be like, I have a Schmoogen Morgan amp, you know, right. Or whatever. Some kind of amp. It doesn't. It's not like that. I just plug into an amp and I go, wow, this sounds really good. And then so, you know, it has nothing to do with money because I've plugged into so many expensive amps that I just could not stand. I just plugged in and I go, yeah, I don't get this at all. Like, this isn't. This isn't. You know, I would say one. And I'm kind of getting off your subject, but I'll round back to it. I would say with amps. When it comes to amps, my favorite amp that people hate is like the Blackstar amps. But I really like most Blackstar amps I've ever played. I liked. I like most of the amps. I really like it. I have no issues with them at all. And. And yet people are like, they're junk. And I'm like, I think they're great. I just. I don't. I don't know what it is. But anyway, so back to those opinions and guitar stuff. I would say the biggies have to be weight relief. Oh, man. You know, I'm trying to go through a catalog of the videos I've done because that's where you see this stuff, you know, for me, it's where I see it and it's like a. Make a video. And then somebody goes, oh, you had me. Until you say weight relieved. I'm out. I'm like, okay, I understand. It's not for you, right? Or the opposite. Somebody goes, I don't play a guitar over eight pounds or ten pounds. And it kind of works that way. But I would say the biggest thing, bigger than pickup covers, bigger than the type of pickups. Everybody seems to be really focused on fret wire. That seems to be the biggest thing is, you know, if it's not stainless steel fret wire, somehow the company's taking advantage of you and stuff. And the reality I've talked about this is it's really a pain in the ass to work with for the employees, time wise. It's not only the tooling and wearing down your tools and stuff. It's just like, it takes more time and. But me personally, just my personal opinion, if every guitar company tomorrow said they're just going to stainless steel frets. I'd be like, that's good. I don't care. That sounds good to me. I don't have to worry about frets anymore. I will tell you where I, where I notice it most is like, when I play like my delos. I put so many hours into the guitar every week and they look brand new, the frets look new. They just no spots. And I just think that's like. It really feels good knowing that I don't have any issues. Okay, I'm laughing. I'm not gonna say anything because I'm gonna pull it up right now. Okay, let's refresh my screen. Okay. Christian says, hey, how many years pass before you redo any type of your best guitars in a $300 videos? I don't know. I mean, it's been a couple years now, so I guess a couple years pass, But I'll do it. It's a nice suggestion. We have. We have a lot of videos that we were working on and you know, I try to, I try to sprinkle the videos throughout, you know, like, here's a deep dive, here's a topic video. So those are great videos for topics and they just take a lot of research. I do a lot of research when I do those videos. Even though it's my opinion, it's still. You got to base it on something. So I got two together. I'll probably. My biggest problem right now, Christian, so, you know, is because we set up the new rooms and the new systems, I, you know, I've spent a couple months where I'm really not taking any personal time off. Usually a lot of those videos actually happen on my personal time because I'm daydreaming, you know, staring at, you know, lake or something, doing, you know, relaxing and dreaming up like you know, writing down ideas for video content versus trying to execute on them. So I'll work on that. Do says, hey, Phil, what do you think of Mad Love pickups? I've never heard of them until just now thinking about getting some of their standard size wide range humbuckers. But 290 for a set is a lot. 290 for a set is a lot. I don't know much about them. I will tell you that in most of my experiences with small pickup builders is their pickups will tend to be better as long as they're executing correctly. In other words, as long as they're doing a, you know, not screwing it up, Most handmade pickups are going to do sound really good. And there's a reason why. It's because some of the things that we don't like about pickups as a whole, besides the small, small nuances of pickups, right? We're talking about just like the real things is that when you build things like a pickup and scale, and once you build thousands of them or tens of thousands of them, they can start doing things. It's just like the food industry, right? They can start adding things to the food that wouldn't make sense for a chef at home to do. Right. You can't even make something like that at home that bad. So a lot of small pickup builders is just because the way that they get their hands on magnets and on wire and stuff, it's really hard for them to get really low quality stuff. Like, it's really easy to buy a cheap pickup made over in like China for 20 bucks. But it's really hard to get those materials that are that bad like that in raw materials. It's not impossible. It's just not as likely. So. So that's my way of saying maybe take a chance. But yeah. 300 a lot. Clan of house cat says, hey, that telly is like the Joe. Oh, the. I can't say the name, dude. I don't know his last name. Duplanter. What? Charvel. Let me look it up because I'll Maybe once I see it phonetically, it'll make sense. Once I see who it is, what band he's from. Oh, yeah, it does. I'm gonna show the guitar. Look at that. There you go. Yeah. Roasted maple neck. Locking keys. I mean, this is a satin finish. What pickups are in it? Does it say that's a mahogany body? Ebony fretboard. Still very cool, though. I don't see the pickups. Oh, just this strivel. Custom MF humbuggers. Oh, from Gojira. Yeah. Maybe I should have known that. So he's. So he must be. I only know the one guitar player in Gojira because I did the reviews of his. His DiMarzio pickups. So this must be the other guitar player. I'm. Obviously, I like the band. I'm familiar with them. But, you know, there's a difference between being a fan of the band and being fan of all the members in the band. And Gojira is one of those bands. Like, I like the band a lot. I have their music, but I don't really necessarily like to dissect them. Plus, to be honest with you, at this point, if I know your name in a band, it's probably because you were a band. When I was a kid, when I had the kind of time to sit there and learn everybody's names and, and read all their names. Actually, now you think about it, it's probably. I know everybody's name from Guitar World magazines. Like that's where you learned everybody's names. I did was from the magazines. You would read about them. But now I just know the bands. The only time I know any individual guitar players is if they're necessarily just the guitar player. Right. Or like Polyphia. I know the guitar players because I interviewed them. Tim and Scott because I interviewed them and that was something I'm like, I probably should learn the names when I interview them. And then we have. I'm going to try Hayden Field Games and I'm going to say collectibles. Me. It cuts me off at C O L L. So I'm going to say collectibles. I says, phil, is it worthwh to make, make. Buy an inexpensive guitar and try to upgrade into a decent playing guitar? It is worthwhile for a couple reasons. So let me give you the ups and the downs because it's, it's an answer that's very important that it be accurate because it could. If you just say yes, then I'm not really considering all the, all the downfalls. Modding guitars has two really, really positive upsides. One, you essentially are going to have a custom instrument made to your specs and liking at a price that is considerably less than having anyone else do it. So, you know, if you go to a custom builder and say, hey, I want this guitar built with these specifications, it's going to cost a fortune and you can do that yourself, you know, and, and the best and the most famous guitar players of all time have done this. They've just gotten parts and puts guitars together and it's way, way easier and way cheaper and it gives you something unique. And that is always interesting because this is an emotional endeavor, playing guitar. And half of the game is the emotion. It's how you feel. If you're not. If you're not playing guitar or playing music because of how you feel, you're doing it all wrong. Right? That's the whole point is to play music and feel. Feel something or even to work on a guitar and feel something. I feel something when I just work on guitars. So that's one major benefit of modding guitars to make it more affordable. The other thing is it's an experience like just doing it is something to do. Look, sometimes you need something to do. Some people are retired. They want something to do. Some people, you know, what are you gonna. Like I said, I. I do things. One sometimes because it's my job. So repairing a guitar would be like a job, and I do it. But I do a lot of things because I'm fighting the, The TV and now I'm fighting the phone and the tablet, right? Screen time, that's what I'm fighting. It's like I'm in reverse of what. When I, When I. Because I'm. I'm. I'm an empty nester. When I'm at the coffee shop and I see some young mom telling her kid, get off the tablet, get off the phone, I'm like, yeah, I wish somebody would scream at me to do that because I'm just as bad as kids now. We all are. We're all literally like just this, all the time, staring at this all the time, staring at the TV all the time. So to me, it's like, how do I find things to get away from screen time? And so modding a guitar is not only a great way to teach yourself stuff, learn a new thing, but also get yourself away from things that are bad habits, like maybe screen time. So those are two benefits. Now, what are the negatives? Well, if you don't, if you do what I call marring modifications, where you mar the guitar, change the guitar physically, you're going to lose your. The money you save. So that's where you can flip that coin. You can literally go, okay, yeah, I. I made a guitar and I modified it, or I bought a guitar and modified it for 600, and it would have cost me, you know, 3, $4,000 to have this built. So I made a lot of money. But now, even though you could have bought another guitar for $600 and sold it for five, now you're going to sell this guitar for two or three. So you want to be able to reverse the modifications you did if you ever go to sell it and keep those components, because that's the better value. So that's one of the downfalls of modifications. The other thing is you might screw it up. But I always tell people that is part of the journey, is that when you mess it up, you have to fix your mistakes. You know, it's a weird thing, and I know that the audience is varied, and I know that most of the audience is going to be older guitar. That's just how podcast audiences are in general. And then, of course, guitar on top of that. But there is a lot of younger. There's a lot of teens that watch the podcast, which is strange to me, but thank you for showing up. And if there's one thing I could say to young, a younger generation that I, you know, not to be like the old man, like back in my day, but seriously, if there's one thing I could say is sometimes getting yourself into a jam, into a problem, and then learning to get out of it is the best absolute thing you could ever do in your entire life, especially if it doesn't put your life health at risk. Right? And the best lessons I've ever learned is taking something apart. And then almost literally at that age, thank God, young enough not to have a heart attack. Almost having a heart attack with the feeling of, I don't know how to put this. I can't figure out how this went back together, but I got it back together. And then that really, really cemented the, the knowledge I got. You know, this thing that's like, wow, how did I do that? And, you know, it's just that there's just an old, you know, you know, think about tools that we learned today. You know, building Legos, you know, building puzzles, building things, taking a blueprint and putting it together. But there's something that we said of reverse engineering. Reverse engineering is just the greatest thing. It's taking something apart to see how did it be, you know, how. How did they put it together in the first place? Can I put it back together? And what can I learn from this? And why did they make these decisions? And what a, What a great way to lose an afternoon, right? Just totally, I'm going to do this and see how it works. And I think part of that is lost because, I mean, a lot of those skills, how you got them was, especially back when you were younger, was you were either like me, you were broke, your parents were broke, or they wouldn't pay the money to do stuff. Right? Things that you wanted to do, or you rural. Like, I wouldn't, I didn't grow up rural, but I mean, there was just. There wasn't access to anything to get to stuff, so you would just have to fix things. That's just how it worked. You'd fix the things that you had or modify them. And so I think that's a skill set that you can learn at any age and you should do. And guitar is just so great, especially since, and I say this a lot. Guitar is, it's great. It's not like building an amp. Okay? Building an amp is great. I've done Two of those, those are fun, but like, no one gives you like a, hey, don't forget to turn the volume knob off on your guitar. You might die, right? There's really not a whole lot to hurt yourself with on a guitar other than maybe a solder burn. Scratch yourself. I'm trying to think. All the wounds I've gotten. Mostly the only thing you, the only thing you really hurt yourself with guitar is, you know, you, your knuckles and your fingers just get raw from working on stuff, but that's about it. So definitely do it. So that's the upside of doing it for sure. There's for sure. And then, and you know, and going back to our earlier discussion about hard opinions and people having hard opinions, that's another hard opinion thing, the modification thing. Some people think it's silly and a waste of time and you shouldn't do it. A lot of people argue that, you know, hey, you shouldn't buy something cheap and fix it up. You should just buy something more expensive. I once said, I've learned this lesson twice because I learned the lesson, oh, now I have a mute switch on my foot so I can actually cough if I need to. Hold on. But the funny thing is you learn perspective when you have discussions with people. That's one thing the Internet doesn't give you. You can see comments, you can see me pontificating here on the Internet and that's great. It's information maybe. But a one on one conversation is the most interesting thing that you can do with somebody to hear their ideas and actually your ideas and then kind of massage the two ideas instead of argue them. And I remember the first. This one I'll give you because this one's really interesting. I was at the PRS event, I think I want to say 2018, and I met a kid. I say kid, he was in his 20s and we were talking and he mentioned that he had like eight Harley Bentons, right? He really liked them. And I, without thinking, just sometimes, you know, crap comes out your mouth without any thought. I said, wow, that's like a real guitar, you know, Like I'm like, price wise, like I'm thinking eight Harley Benton's times a minimum of 200 bucks. That's $1600, maybe $300, right? You're like, that's $2400. Like that's a real, like you could buy a real guitar, you know. And I said that. And he's like, yeah, but I have a telly, I have a Strat. And he was walking me through and he's like, I have a seven string. He has a collection of guitars. And then I have this moment when I'm talking to this kid. I'm like, I'm like, well, you know, yeah, but you know, there's some benefits to having one really nice guitar. You know, maybe one guitar, one nice guitar and then a couple of side salad guitars, you know. And then he, he gave me, he's like, yeah, but for my budget, I can buy these one at a time and I can fix them if I want and modify them. And he was giving me the. Walk me through the logic and I'm like, you know, he's making total sense. It's just, it's just I'm. And here's the worst part of this. And I even told him this in case he's still watching this day. I remember the conversation. So I'm just. I'll tell you what, I remember what I said. I said, you know, to be honest with you, I just said that because that's what people say to me all the time on YouTube. You could buy a real guitar. Like. And I just think about it going, yeah, I guess deep down I really don't care if you have 50 Harley Bittens. I guess if that makes you happy. I don't know why I had an opinion about it all. It didn't even make sense to me. In fact, I could probably argue that if I had to start a guitar collection again and with $2,000, maybe I would just buy a half a dozen Harley Benton's or Fireflies or whatever guitars and just start it that way. I don't know. So it's funny to me, there's different ways to do these things. And then I once had a kid at the store and this was a kid, this was like a teenager and he was buying something in store and I mentioned to him that, hey, if you save a little bit more, you can buy the next model up and that could be more of like a lifetime guitar for you. And he said, yeah, I could. He's like, but he's like, this is what I have now and I can get the guitar now and I can enjoy it now. And he goes, and you know, life will work out. And we're thinking like, yeah, I mean, that's just how it works. Life will work out. And plus, you never know when those accidental mistakes take you down a road you never expected. And I've. And the one thing that I've learned of doing a thousand, I always say this, doing a thousand YouTube videos, deep dive type videos. The one thing that I could tell you all, if I can impart a thing I learned and share it is I don't know how to differentiate that hundred dollar Ikea caster hybrid thing from this expensive made in Japan Gretsch thing to this USA GNL thing to this T. There's just no way to do this in my head. Like, I want to tell you that the nicer guitars are better. And the truth is there are just things about them that you can appreciate. But I can't tell you that for any certain per certain reason that they will be better for you or for me. My favorite guitars in my collection are not even close to my expensive ones. Not even close. None of my expensive guitars make it in my top 10. Not one. And it's not because they're not great. It's just because that's just how it goes. All the stuff is. Like I said, I equally happily playing this backstage PB as I am this Amplified Nation. Although this Amplified Nation is really nice. In fact, you know what's sad? I'll tell you what I'll do next week for fun next week on the, on the guitar of the week. Since I have two mics, instead of micing up that head, I'll mic up that amp. And with our little switcher now from Sweetwater, I'll hook it all up and we can, we can hear the Amplified Nation amp to the PV amp. So it'll be fun. It'll be absolutely fun. I will pre. I will warn you guys right now, I have a really cool amp that I'm doing a video for. This is an amp that I requested to do a video of. And it's an idea. And it's a relatively expensive amp. Say on the, on the wrong side of $2,000, right? If there's a no such thing as the right side of that. And Ralph came over last Saturday, played it and he went, wow. And I was playing the, I was playing a pedal through it and he's like, wow, nice, huh? He goes yeah. And I go, hey, you want to hear the pv? And he goes, not really. And I plug in the PV and I play it. And then he goes, okay, the, the nice one's better. And I go, yeah. And he goes, but not a lot of better. He go. He says that peevees. He was like that Pee Wee's sounding a little too good for, for a comparison of a $2,000 to a hundred dollar amp. I said, I know, I know. That's how it all is. This is the reality of it. Okay, let's. Let's go. Let's do another Feels Trip. Feels F E E L S Tripp says, happy Friday, Phil. Looking to get my first Les Paul. Is a Gibson headstock cracking mostly a meme, or should I be concerned? Well, you don't want to drop it. And. And that means, in the case, that means by itself, on a stand, you know, I. I have successfully not broken a Les Paul headstock. Have I ever broken a headstock, period? I have not. Not me personally. I have not broken a headstock. I have cracked one truss rod. I broke a truss rod once. That was before I ever did guitar repair. And I can almost argue. Well, I'm not going to argue it was my fault. It was a very unique. It was a base. In fact, a base no one's ever seen. It was a prototype washer and base that I bought from Washburn. They were clearancing out their. This is a bass they never made. It was like a prototype. And when I got it, the bow, and it was so horrible, and I went to turn the truss around and just snapped. I was like, what just happened here? So to this day, I don't know if I did it or if it was maybe defect, but I did that. And I've definitely nicked and dinged guitars and smacked a lot of headstocks and chipped headstocks and stuff. I've done all those things. But should you worry about it? What I will tell you is, is there's an old saying which is, you know, you want to own your stuff and not it own you. If you are worrying about it in a way that your fear is you'll pay all this money and then it breaks, I would almost suggest you thinking a different way. I will tell you, don't think about. Don't worry about Gibson. You can own a Gibson. Okay? That's not what I'm saying. You can have a Les Paul. But what I will tell you is this. What I've learned about me personally is I thought, and everybody's different. You have to kind of like, right, everybody's different. But I have. I've. I thought if I made more money, I would buy more expensive things. And that's just how things will go. And what I've learned is as. As I make more money or as I made more money or make more money and I buy more expensive things, I tend to not use the expensive things out of that same thought process. Oh, I don't want to damage this. This costs a lot of money. There's something freeing about a guitar that you can just play freely. It's really nice. So if you want to buy one Gibson and, like, have it and kind of cherish it and baby it, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. You know, a lot of us aren't slash, and we don't get, you know, 100 of them get, you know, gifted to us by Gibson. So we play them. And so if we drop one off the stage, it just happens, you know, a lot of it. I'm not saying that's entirely the case. I'm sure he buys too, just like Bonamassa, but you get the idea. It's. It's the first time I ever bought a guitar, and I smacked it. And I know Sean is sometimes watching the show right now, and she'll probably remember what guitar it is. I was so distraught, I bought it. I don't even remember. So here's the deal. I don't remember what guitar it is. She probably does. I just remember the guitar was expensive and I bought it. And this is about 10 years ago, and it got damaged. I smacked it and it got damaged. And I was so distraught. I was so distraught. Like, it wrecked me for weeks, just emotionally. And that was the end of that. I'm like, we're not doing that again. So now it's like, I gotta buy guitars or play guitars that I feel comfortable. And I do own a couple guitars currently, right now that I'm not comfortable with because they're too much money. But I did buy them for a collection purpose, like I said, not to make money or flip them. But just, like, you know, I decided, like, I think I should do this. I want this. As people know, my Ivan is universe. I play it, but it's very, you know, pull it out, play it, enjoy it, put it back. But I'm not, like, slinging it around, so. Yeah, but headstocks cracking. I just don't drop them, don't smack them, you know, or you can get another brand. Alex wanted to tell us all that is all. Okay, let's do. I gotta do this one, and then we'll switch over to Amanda, and then we'll button up. Phil says, not me, but another Phil says, I want to learn to set up a PRS SE Custom 24. Can you suggest a budget guitar to practice on? Okay, so you want to learn how to set up the PRSS SE Custom 24, but you want to budget. Yeah, I mean, the budget guitar. Here's the problem, Phil, is I can Almost say like any of the knockoff PRS guitars, you know, all of them. There's tons of them, you know, you know, Harley Benton makes one. Tons of companies make a knockoff prs. I think even Firefly, all these brands just go out there and find the brand who's knocking out for everybody really cheap and you'll find a purest copy. The only downfall is it will work. Except for the PRs will not. That bridge will not be exactly like the PRS bridge. It'll be pretty close. The PRS bridge has different screws. They use screws that have notches cut in them so that the. The bridge plate rests on all six screws. And that's a very important part of the setup process to a prs. So I would almost suggest if you do that, then you gotta kinda put the purest bridge on something I would just learn on the prsse. I wouldn't over. Don't overthink this. There's a video I just recently made and I wanna thank the patrons for this because some of the. I told you guys earlier, I said, hey, I make some repair videos and we're doing these clinics and we're doing it to kind of give value to patrons and stuff. But I did a video and it's like how I forget the title of it. It's a repair video and it's like how to set up a floating bridge in like five minutes. Right? Or something like that. Something less than that. I think it's two minutes. And I did the video and it wasn't that it was going to go to Patron behind a paywall. It was. I just. Sometimes when I make content like that, there's no dividend for me. And I'm just please, if you could indulge me at the end of the show a little psychology time for you. For me, this is for me. Look, I don't have to make money on videos. The reality is sometimes, a lot of times I don't make anything for making videos. Which is why a lot of YouTubers talk about how much they make on videos. Because it's like you make content, Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. This particular content, it's just not going to pay a dividend to me financially. Right? It's a good video. I made it. A lot of people have really appreciated it. It's just how I do things. It's probably can find a variation of it on the Internet. I'm sure I'm not the only one doing it this way. But the important part is I make this video, and it doesn't matter how many views it gets. It's not gonna get a lot. It's not gonna. And it's not. It's a short video, and there's not gonna. YouTube's not gonna load up with ads. Maybe I make 20 bucks to give you a reference to this. I have a video that I made a repair. A great repair video that. That did really well, and it made eight. Oh, sorry. Made $83. And I remember to this day laughing, going, I charged, like 130 to do that job. And I taught everybody how to do it for 80 bucks. And I thought, wow, that's not a good business model. But, hey, you know what? That. That also was years ago. And the truth is, I've built this channel off of giving the information, so I really enjoy it. However, what happened with that video was I did it and I thought, you know, I don't care if I don't make any money, but I really don't want to hear anybody's input about it. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to be trolled on, and people just seem to get really grumpy about things, and I just want to see the comments. So I gave it the patrons, and this is a funny story. And then I released it for. Some of you actually probably saw it because it only got a few hundred views. I released it to the public. I go, I'm released as the public. And the first three comments, two of them were douchey. I was like, I am not in the mood for this. And I took the video down. I go, I'm not in the mood to teach you guys something and have somebody be jerky about it. And the jerky comments are always my favorite. They're always the same. And it's. It's not anyone's fault. It's just. It's like, you know, it doesn't matter what they say. What matters is I released the video. So. So, Phil, what I'm trying to tell you is you'll see from videos like that, which I'll have out, that you should just get the prsse and just learn to work on it. They're very, very, very easy to work on. Floating bridges are super easy. The problem isn't working on them. The problem is teaching how to work on them. So that's what I have to refine. So that's what I figured out. I finally figured out how to explain it. Sometimes when I do a video. You guys see a lot of videos on YouTube. Some of them are the person's skilled, but it's not. The information doesn't hit you very easily. Right. You have to kind of watch it. No one wants to watch an hour to figure something out. So whenever I can figure out how to make a video that explains something quickly, in minutes, I like to do it. So we'll see. All right. I love it. I'm not old. And bitch says, why would you teach me how to change strings when I can just buy a new guitar? That is a great. You know what? That should be a shirt. That should be a T shirt. Yeah. Scott says unless you use a big hammer to set up your guitar, you'll be fine. I absolutely agree. I don't think there's a whole lot of things you can do. I would say here how we'll end on this. And if I. I don't think I missed any super chats, but if I did, they're, they're. They're held for last or next week. But here's what I will tell you. And the first part probably might sound scary. I would say 50% of all the repairs I've ever done were to fix something someone did to their guitar. Okay, that's. I'm being as honest as I can about that. So I know that sounds almost scary, but it's. It's true. It's absolutely true. I think a lot of repair people would admit the same thing. That being said, two things. Nothing I ever charged was super expensive to the point where you were like. You were, you know, detrimental to where you're like, oh, no, I could have bought a new guitar for what you're gonna charge me. So fixing your horrible mistake was not super expensive. So in other words, when somebody brought something to me and I'm like, okay, well, this is what's going to cost. Fix it. So you can't really. We can't really make a problem that most people can't. Most people who are semi competent doing this for a living can't just fix. So don't worry about that. That's one. The second thing is what did I normally see the mistakes on? So when I see mistakes on guitars, the number one most common mistake is electronics. Somebody has wired something incorrectly. They have forgot a thing. They wired a thing backwards. They wired everything wrong. It's just because it's kind of like it's, it's, it's. You know, there's so many schematics. It's usually everybody's trying their first soldering job somewhere. That's the, that's the that's the. Not a big deal and nothing like, oh no, because you did this. Now this switch will never work again and you need to buy new parts. I mean, unless you burn out the pots or burn up stuff, very unlikely that anything can't be fixed very easily. So say that. The second thing, and this is probably the most important thing that's going to help fill is the thing that I noticed the most that people work on the guitars that haven't. They snap off screw heads off guitars like especially bridges. You crack bridge posts, cracking bridge posts, stripping screws, cracking the. The, the heads to tone pros, bridges, just scratching, destroying them, chipping them. Just using in the wrong pro. Inappropriate tools, the wrong tools or putting the wrong amount of force or not knowing something locks or does something and not having a full understanding of what's, you know, what is in play here. Right. Those are the most things I've seen that you do. And I will give this as I the best piece of advice almost every time that's ever happened. I always ask, you know, because look, I've dumbassed my myself so many times that I just don't judge people for it. And I think that always comes across if you're talking to me, you know, like, hey, I'll go, whoa, yeah, well look what you did. And they're like, I know. And I go, I've done worse. And I'll. And I go, what? What did you do? You know, and. And they're usually pretty forthcoming about it. So here's what I've noticed about those. They all say, I knew it wasn't going to turn, but I thought, I'll do it anyways. In other words, follow your gut instinct when you're working on stuff, you know, and more times than not. And this is where I would rather have this conversation and I think any tech would, with any of you is when you came into the shop and you said, I need to adjust this. And I went. And they went, oh, see, I was turning it, but it just didn't feel right. I'm like, hey, you know what? Better, better that we can just finish it off versus something else happen. So that's the main thing. Just, you know, and same with the PRS. The PRS number one thing with PRSs SE is on setting up the bridges. The number one thing that happens is you snap off the head to one of the screws. And that's a pain in the ass because you have to get out your vice grips and then twist out the screws in there. That's the worst thing. Actually, no, that's the second worst thing. The worst thing is you snap off the screw. The screw to the bridge on an se, especially because the bri. The screws are softer, and it snaps off flush with the body. And then we have to tap. Tap it out. That's a pain in the ass. That. That's the worst thing that can happen. So, you know, just be careful doing that. That's it. Okay. All right. On that note, I want to thank everybody for hanging out. I hope you guys had a good time. I hope you guys enter to win the. The Fender guitar. Like I said, it's can't be. The worst thing to happen is win a $2,000 guitar. What's great about this is it was nice to have this as a. As a way to do a prize. You know, a lot of times we're always trying to give away something really cool, and it's really hard to find somebody does it. And I'm really happy that Shana and Guitar center worked this out to do something really cool. And on that note, I hope you guys have a great weekend and play guitar. And until next week, thank you for your time and Know youw Gear. The Know youw Gear Podcast the Know youw Gear podcast is brought to you by Patreon Members, Channel members and viewers who like and subscribe. Thank you for making this possible.