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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 it going, everybody? Welcome to the Know youw Gear podcast, episode 426. It says 226, but it's 426. We're not going back in time. We're here. In fact, we can fix that right now as we speak. Maybe. Yeah, we can do that. Okay, so I hope everybody had a fantastic week. I had a. I had a fun week. I'll get into that. Some, some of you guys know what kind of week I had, so I'll share that with you guys. We have some subjects, we have some questions. If you're asking a live question, put a question mark first so that they know that you're. You're talking to me and, and they'll forward them to me. That's how I kind of get them off this second screen. I have. And of course you can super chat if you'd like. We've. And what else? And then of course, we have preloaded questions and topics that are from patrons and channel members. So what do we want to get into first? I think the, the first boring thing to talk about was when I say boring, I just don't have any insight. So I just got to kind of tell you guys a lot of questions, a lot of questions about the Fender New Ultra Vintage Gu. Basically, if you guys don't know, Fender's got a, you know, the Sir Killer. God, I love the titles that people put out. The Sir Killer. The Attack on the Sir Guitars. So Fender has a new guitar. Let's take a look at it. And it's, it's a. It's an Ultra, which means it has stainless steel frets. In this case, it has stainless steel frets. And it has vintage specs. And I think it comes with a light relic. Right? So let's go to Ultra and see what happens when we get that. And then we should be able to see by new best match. Let's go by newest, newest arrivals. This is it. It is the Fender American ultra luxe vintage 50s and 60s. We'll take a look at the 60s. I'm more of a 60s fan, so we'll go that route. So 2899. So everybody was like, $3,000. Are they crazy? And I'm like, well, I guess that price point makes sense when you think about the pricing. The vintage line is in the mid 2000s. The deluxe lines in the mid 2000s. So of course they're going to bump for this, for the stainless steel and you know, the, you know, maybe there's a light relic on this. Is that what I'm getting from this? I, I feel like there is heirloom lacquer. So I feel like they're giving this a light, not a relic, but kind of like a worked in kind of feel or look to it. I mean, obviously the neck's got a yellow tint to it, so it's been aged. I mean, personally I have to put my hands on one and tell you if I like it. But I mean I like Fenders and I think this sounds cool. I mean it's exactly what I've been saying for years. Do something modern with something vintage. I love. See to me, I look at a guitar like this, let me just open this up. I look at a guitar like this and everybody's gonna have different opinions, of course and please share yours. But I look at this and I think, oh look, that looks like a vintage guitar. Of course it has a humbucker, but it's, you know, a vintage color. It's got the aged in D dots. It's got the, you know, the aged looking Fiesta red. If you like the Fiesta red. I think they also have a, a green metallic. Oh, look at that. So interesting that they pick green metallic for a lot of reasons. I have a, a guitar that's this color, exact color that I had custom made that I have downstairs that we're working on some stuff with. But anyways, I like the idea, you know, give it the green mint green pick guard, modern tremolo. I love the idea that something like, look, the headstock looks a. I love the idea that it looks a little old. It is a little new. It's kind of like. And I'm not, you know, I'm not into this stuff the way a lot of people are like vintage stuff. But to me, if I was going to own a vintage car, and I'm sure a lot of people will hate this, that love vintage cars. But if I was going to own a vintage car, I'm more of the speed of like, yeah, give me a vintage car that's got the modern air conditioning, the modern seat belts, the modern seats, the comfort, you know, that's kind of what I like the look of older stuff, but I like modern stuff. It's just, I like the creature comforts. So. Yeah. And Brian 5:5791 says isn't the Ultra with Nitro 2. Yeah, I believe it's a Nitro Sellers lacquer. So again, you know, a little bit of something the old, little bit something new. I mean, I hate to say it. If you kind of go through all the podcasts over the years with me, it's kind of what I've been saying Fenders should do. Now, if you're having a visceral reaction to the $3,000, of course it's $3,000. But I guess the question I would ask you is based on what they sell everything else for, what would you expect the price to be? I mean, it's not that I'm saying it's worth it. It's not that I'm saying I would pay that. It's not that I'm saying $3,000 a good price. I'm just saying like, you know, I mean, I didn't find the price shocking is what I want to say is. I can't, I can't, I can't be shocked by something. I was like, if you were to ask me, like, oh, what does it go for? You know, here's a good example. And this ties in. I got a lot of grief. And you know, and I have to say this. There's a part of thing I'm working on myself to improve how I do content over the years. And one of the things I have to do to improve is, look, you get a pummeling from the, the, the, the community for a lot of things you do and say it just, you can't help it. It has nothing to do with guitar. YouTube, it's just YouTube. It's social media. You know, you say things and people have these reactions and you kind of know, you know, I was watching the Billy Corgan Steve I interview and in there they both said something like, oh yeah, the Internet's going to have fun with what we said. And you're thinking, you know, this is Steve. I. He's even like worried about what trolls think and say. And when I say worried, understand what I'm saying. It's just a headache you just don't really want to have. So reason I say that is sometimes I'll say something and I've toned it down because I'm like, you know, I want to be truthful, I want to say the thing, but I really don't need the whole Internet to lose its mind on me for a weekend. And so one of the things I'm talking about that ties in this Ultra guitars. When the Herman Lee guitar came out, I Think I said in the video, and somebody have to correct me because I'm doing off memory. I think when I said, oh, the guitar is $6,800, which I go, wow. I thought it was less than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be like eight. I'm pretty sure I said eight. I. I might have. Because you got to understand that's. That's an edit. If, if it does say eight, that was an edit that it was put in later. And if it doesn't say 8, then it says 10, then that's the truthful one because I did edit it. And then I toggle back and forth with my mind going, do I really want to say $10,000? They're going to lose their mind when I say the Herman Lee's worth $10,000. I based that off of, I guess, 20 years of experience in the industry. I was like, when I saw Herman Lees for $6,800 while the whole Internet went, that's ridiculous. I went, yeah, that's cheap. That's. The Ronte, which is a private stock, was more than that. And it was less interesting and less difficult in its process. And I thought if you wanted. Look, do I think it's, I mean, worth 10,000? I wouldn't pay 10,000 for it. So it's not worth 10,000 to me. But I mean, what do I think they would tag it for? 10,000, 8,000 for sure. So I thought 68 was a little low. I actually said this to my patrons on a patron hang once. I said about the Herman Lee, I said, if this was two years ago, 2023, 2022, and the Herman Lee came out, what would you think they tag it for? Sure wasn't going to be 6800. I think 6800 was there, wanting to make sure they sold out of all 200 in the new market, which is softer. So I think they were actually discounting it. And here's what's funny. They're all asking 10,000 now. In fact, I've seen two go to officially have sold, one for over 10,001 8,000 used. And that's the resale market. Now, do I like that? No, I don't like that. I don't make anything from it, so why would I even care about it? I'm just saying it's not so much that I have a reaction like, of. I don't internalize these things. I don't go like, how can somebody pay that? What is somebody thinking? I would Never do that. I just look at it and go, yeah. That's what seems to be happening now. Thank God. There's so many amazing price points for so many amazing products that I'm more interested in. But, you know, teach their own. If you got all that money, you know, and you want to buy yourself a $10,000 guitar instead of a $10,000 watch, have at it. I don't really care what you buy with your money. So same with this Ultra guitar. I didn't have the reaction is what I'm trying to say. A lot of the comments that were sent to me were like, phil, did you see the $3,000 Fender guitar? What are they thinking? What are they thinking? I'm like, well, they think they're thinking that they're giving you what you want, and they're Fender. And they price things now at $2,500 and $2,000. I mean, it's like. Isn't it like 1800? Let's take a look. It's like $1,800 for essentially a Fender standard USA Strat. Now, I know they call it the Professional, but let's look at that. Professional 2 and 16.99. That's not bad. 18. Well, 1889, if you get it, an exclusive Sonic Blue color. 1889 Professional 2. Why is one so much cheaper? Oh, they're on sale because it's a soft market. See, these are on sale. 10% off. Save 190 bucks. But regularly. 18. I thought they were 18. So look at 18 for their professional series. Now, I understand that they. That's not the Bass USA made guitar. Now, the Bass model is below that, even at like 12. But that's what I'm saying is that. That's the way I think Fender would think. 12 for a bass price USA instrument. 18 for the midline USA instrument 2000 plus for the deluxe or the. Whatever you want to call it, the Ultra Line instrument. 25 ish for a vintage instrument. And then of course, some vintage with stainless steel. I mean, you know, that's what I'm. I'm pretty sure the vintage Fender Vintage 2. Right? They are, and I'll please understand, just because I don't need the headache of it. I'm not defending the pricing. I didn't make the pricing. And I. I'm not saying these are great pricing. I'm just saying this is what they're doing. So what they're based on what they're doing. This is how I'm assessing it. So, yeah, look, a vintage guitar, a vintage one is 2419. So what do you think they're gonna want for, you know, locking keys. Right. Which, again, these are very, very small differences in price point. But Fender, of course, is gonna get what Fender can get. So. Of course. So putting some stainless steel frets on it, put some locking keys. And I don't know if it's an upgrade, but it's a change of the pickups. And. And again, I think some light relicing or some light wear. So again, another $400 for that. Do I think $400 is reasonable for that? No, but. But I will tell you this, and I'll. I'll try. Unfortunately, I'm going to segue a little bit right now from this because I don't want to talk too much about the Cortech trip because I'm obviously making the videos. So a lot of you asked about that. And this just so happens to tie into this pricing and logic. And I want to tell you some of the stuff and a lot of the stuff, as you can imagine. So first I want to tell you that I actually, when I went to PT Court. Okay. And then for reference, if everyone doesn't understand the confusion, let me explain it to you. Cortek is the name of the company. So they're called Cortek. Court is the brand. So if you see Court by itself, C O R T. Court is their brand of instruments. So it's a brand name, it's not a company. PT Court is what they call the Indonesian factories. And PT in Indonesia is essentially like llc. So it's like saying Court llc. Right? So. So. So when you hear people say Kort Tech, that's the company. PT Cort, that's the factory in Indonesia, and Cort is the brand. I hope that kind of sums it up. I. Obviously, that's what's great about spending a couple days at the Indonesian facility. I got to learn a lot. And I hung out with essentially the entire executive team and the ownership of Cork Guitars. And one thing that shocked me, I was hoping for some of this, but I gotta tell you, they let me film 100 of everything and see 100 everything. Nothing was off limits. Not only not off limits for me seeing it, nothing was off limits for me filming it. Now, what will be published to you guys will have to be approved by them, without a doubt. You can. I mean, I can tell you 80% of what I filmed is unpublishable based on our agreement of what would be published and not published. So I don't even need to send 80% of it to them. I'm going to try to send some stuff that I think, like maybe what about this? Can we, can we show this a little bit, A little bit of this? You know, and I'm trying not to do stuff where I say I blur things in the backgrounds and stuff. I want to show you guys as honestly as possible what's going on and why I'm telling you about that part now is this ties into the pricing. You know, one of the questions that came up at court was there wasn't just. This wasn't a one sided deal. This wasn't like I went to Cortech, they let me see their factory and then I left. We had meaningful discussions about the future of guitar, the industry, what they're doing, what other people doing. Insights I could give insights. I, you know, so I learned a lot. I came back, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say this, I came back too smart from that trip. And I say that honestly. Just so you guys know, it may. I'm not, I don't mean an underhanded brag. I mean there's a lot I didn't want to know. Not negative, just, you know, it's right. Talk about demystifying some things. I was like, oh, okay. I have a fuller understanding of a lot of the overseas manufacturing process that I didn't really understand or maybe thought I had an idea of. And I'll share a lot of that with you. So one of the things I want to tell you that was that ties into this, this guitar was they asked me a question. Actually, it asked me a ton of questions. But one particular question was, do I think stainless steel frets are a fad? And I was like, oh, this is like the show where people just throw questions at me because apparently I'm supposed to answer, right? And I was like, you know, and I said, this is, is. So I'm gonna tell you what I said. I said, I believe stainless steel frets are a fad that will now last forever. And what I said was, and I'm just gonna stay to quoting myself so I don't have to, you know, sideways on this. I said, just like organic is a fad that will now stay forever. That implies quality. And this is the same thing. Stainless steel implies quality. Whether it's true or not is irrelevant. So for those of you that want to get all upset about. No, no, Phil, it is quality. I'm not arguing that. I'm saying whether it's true or not is irrelevant. People treat the term stainless steel frets, like it just means quality. So therefore it doesn't matter if it is or isn't. It's a perception. So I personally think it is quality, but that's not exactly what's happening in the market. And they, they were very interested. And I say they, I don't mean just Kortec. There was other brands in this discussion, okay? And the other brand said okay. And they followed like with why? And I go, here's why. I think stainless steel frets matter. I asked them a question and by the way, I'm going to give you the answer so you don't have to wait for it. None of them could answer the question. I said, what does a refret cost for stainless steel frets on average in the United States? And not only did they, they didn't know the answer, they didn't even have a good guess. They were a little even weary to throw a guess. And I told them, I said, would it shock you that prices are now 4 to $500 for a stainless steel refret, some high as $600? And they were entirely shocked. They had no idea. I'm pretty sure their guesses were more in the $150 range. And I said, I get it, you're not in the repair business, you're in the building business business. And so the reason I told him is I said, think about this, you're telling a customer, I said, this is the analogy I use. Stainless steel frets is like saying, imagine a $30,000 car. So a $500 guitar and tires which are frets, cost the same. So a $500 guitar, if you want to refread it in two years, costs almost $500 a refresh. Now that was stainless steel frets. But you guys understand a good refret now 350 would be on the cheap end for, for sure. And this is just from asking. I, and I asked them all to do themselves favors since I know they do tour and talk to their vendors, their dealers. I said, please start going in the back of those dealer stores and talking to those repair shops. You'll learn a lot about why the customer market is thinking the way we are on these shows and why we're doing this stuff. I said, imagine if I told you a thirty thousand dollar car would need thirty thousand dollars worth of tires in two to five years if you, if you drove it a lot, that would be astronomically crazy, right? So if a dealer came out and said, well, I'll make you a $30,000 car, but I'll give you lifetime tires. You can imagine what a value is being being given to the consumer to say that. So when a 500 guitar has stainless steel frets, it's like this $500 guitar never needs fret work. That happens to be some of the most expensive work you can have done to a guitar. And perceivably, I don't think it's actually, but perceivably some of the most difficult work for the personal guitar player, hobbyist, whatever you want to call it to do themselves. Okay? So without a doubt, I believe I took a survey and I know for a fact this is true, that if, if I asked you guys what, what are you the least likely to want to do to your guitar? It's definitely refrats. Refrats are the least likely you guys want to get into. And I said that's the, that's the value proposition. There, you know, is the standstill frets. And so back to this ultra guitar. Yeah, that's what happens. Their offenders basically building you a guitar, whether you realize it or not, that essentially never needs a refrain. Now there's going to be a, a person. There's almost a thousand of you hanging out. So trust me, there'll be a dozen of you that I've worn out frets, stainless steel frets, and I will stick to this. I have still never seen worn out stainless steel frets. Me personally, I've not refrated a guitar in my years with standstill frets. That doesn't mean it can't be done. I'm just saying the likelihood that you're playing to a degree that you're wearing out stainless steel frets is very low. It is very low. I actually think it's none. I think it's not possible for the most part, but I think it's if, if I. Obviously I don't believe in absolutes, so I'm going to say it's just not likely. And so, yeah, I think when we talk about the market and we talk about pricing, there is value to talk about. But I don't think an ultra offender vintage guitar is a value proposition. It's a want proposition entirely. So I just don't have the reaction. And that's why I went this long way to explain this, because sometimes when I talk this way, somebody goes, well, you thought this was a good deal. I'm like, well, there's, there's ways, I think for myself, which is what I care about, a price I want to pay. And then there's, let's come at this. Like, as someone who's in the industry, who's looking at the industry right now, I'm. Am I a buyer at $3,000 for the Fender Ultra vintage guitar? Not only because I'm not in the market for one. Would I pick that over a Sir guitar? I think I would. But I also really love the Fender neck. It's one of my favorite necks. Without a doubt. All guitars I love are in proximity to a Fender neck. That's just how I think and how I. I operate. It has nothing to do. And that has nothing to do with how I grew up. I grew up on Ibanez guitars or fake Ibanez guitars and Ibanez guitars, which were really thin necks. And I just don't have an appreciation anymore for thin necks. They don't really go for my playing, but they don't go with my playing, which is, you know, obviously very basic playing. But Fender for some reason is always the right neck for me for the most part. So I think I would prefer a Fender spect. Like a Fender spec, like a sir. I think I would like that a lot. And I would imagine it's. Let's take a look. Since. Since what's easy is Sweetwater does both SIR and Fender guitars. Let's take a look at a SIR guitar, which would be a classic, I believe. Let's take a look. So let's find one. And I apologize. Okay, Here's a signature pt. We want to stay away from the signatures. Here we go. So a classic S. We're gonna go with the same. So this guitar is about $600 more than the Fender. Comes in a lot more colors, which is kind of cool. And I love the sir neck. It's a good neck. That's one thing that this guitar has a lot of. The SIR is like the. The Tele styles. I thought the necks were a little chunky for me, but this neck is a pretty good neck. I. I don't know. Assur is definitely a premium brand. So I could argue $600 more. You get the premium premium brand, which definitely sir has built itself as probably the. One of the most prestigious premium brands out there. I would put them in the top 10 prestigious brands in the current market for sure, without any question. You know, when you think of expensive guitars. But. And I also factor in used. I'm pretty sure you can buy a used sir classic for less than that new vendor vintage. The question is, what would I pick? I'm trying to think, actually. Let's play this game. The game that I'M just. Because I'm trying to throw myself, you know, put myself. I'm cornering myself, so to speak. I'm trying to think if they were to give me one right now, like, if Sweetwater's to call me and say, hey, we want you to do a video, and we'll send you either the Sir Classic or the Fender. What would I pick? I don't know. I just said I like the Fender more, but I. I would like the Fender more, but I think there's a part of me that would rather have the Sir. I don't know. I'm not touching them. I'm not connected to them. It's not about resale value. It's just about, you know, what would I. I think in. I think sadly enough, I'd pick the Sir. And when I say sadly not because sir is not great. Sir is great. The reason I'm saying sadly is my logic would be what I have versus what I don't have right now. And I have a lot of Fenders that I like, including I have a vintage Fender. A vintage Fender, too. I have a Fender professional. I have a Fender Deluxe. I have a. I have a Fender. I think I Ultra as well. Like, I have a lot of Fenders that I love. So I think the sir would be a little bit different. And so I'd probably go that way. But I think if I was like, you know, if that wasn't factored in, but. And also because I think value wise, I think the Fender is. You guys are right that they put it really close to that sir. But I think 600 in savings is close enough. I don't know. Again, this is all just, you know, non. You know, what do you call it? These are all, you know, I'm just guessing. I'm not really being presented with that in real life. So I'm just kind of give you my. My take quilted. Mabel says sir has more features. Fender better resale value. Sure. I would imagine. Yeah. Well, for those things, I've. I've. I've owned a bunch of Sirs, you know, and like I can tell you right now, I've. I've gone through a bunch of sirs. Six or seven, probably in my life and more so PRs. And yes, you take a beating a lot of times on them, especially if you buy them new. And you know, that's true with anything nags, all the. All the premium brands. It's. The irony is when you. When you finally get to the point where you're dumb Enough, weird enough, smart enough, whatever makes you feel better to buy these expensive exotic instruments. You find that there is. The value proposition is not really there a lot of times. And the resale proposition is horror, horrifying, bad. It's just bad. So yeah, where you know, Gibson and Fender always kind of stay true to having great resale value. So you when you decide if you don't want to keep it, you don't get brutalize with it. But yeah, but it's an interesting topic. Will I check out one? I'm gonna say no. Obviously I'm not on Fender's list for sending out guitars to the channel and I've made my choices for the next few months of guitars I want to do deep dives on. And there is a Fender. I am reviewing the Fender. Hold on to share with you guys because I just saw it. I am reviewing this guitar. A deep dive maybe it's funny now it's not pulling up. Oh, here it is. This is the one I decided to do a video on. So I'll be a video in the next month of the Fender American Vintage 21966 Jazz Master Electric guitar. Sherwood Green metallic. This one which is a 2,700 guitar. So again, in that price point, it's about the same price point, but this is the way I went to ask to answer somebody who's not asking a question yet. Well, why did you pick that? I picked it because I pick a lot of things to make videos based on these podcasts. You guys had mastered a lot of recent questions about a 7 and a quarter inch radius fretboard recently and jazz masters recently. And I thought that's the guitar that. So I reached out Sweetwater and said can we make a video like this happen? And I'd like to have a discussion and a deep dive of this particular instrument. I think this is a, a good guitar for the curiosity of the players that are watching the channel right now that things are interested in. So that was my reason for checking there. Okay, okay, let's, let's, let's grab this one came from Amanda. This is from Amadeus who says hey Phil, opinion on the Charvel San Dima Strat quality sound. I have the Tele version, Seymour Duncan's etc. And he's in the UK. Well, thank you Amadeus 733. I like Charvel San Dimas. I like the Charvels period. I have a DK24 now, but I had the San Dimas and then I had a SoCal, I had the USA ones and the Mexico ones and there was some fit and finish things on the Mexico ones that were not up to the same par as the USA ones. When I say that it's usually just the next because they're unfinished maple necks. The USA ones didn't shrink and didn't have any fret sprout. Where the all the made Mexico ones I had had fret sprout including my roasted Mexican Mabel ones which is fine. I corrected it and for half the price or less than half the price I was happy to do so. It's one of those things. I don't think a guitar that's 900 to $1,000 should have Fred sprout. But you know when you can buy, you know, one for half the price of the USA and and get what you want. So I, I have the, the main Mexico DK24. I didn't pick it any reason for it being better than the San Dimas or the Socals. I just. That's where I eventually went to. It makes sense. I was trying guitars and then I just found one. I liked it and now it's custom painted and I'm going to keep it forever. But I love the Charvel made Mexico stuff. I just think it's great stuff for the money. Even though sometimes you do have some things you have to do. Chris says, hey, I just got a Wolfgang Special. Why does it have a 500k volume pot and a 250k tone potential that originally they didn't. They originally they had 250k low friction or zero friction EVH potentiometers. That's what they shipped us with. I was a dealer. I was one of the very first dealers for evh. So that's how I can tell you that I was. In fact, when I met Eddie Van Halen I only got to meet and all my friends and family got to meet Eddie Van Halen. Because not only was I one of the first dealers in the, in the area that I was in which is a, you know, the Arizona and I think that counts for New Mexico, New Nevada and something else I was. There was only like three EVH dealers and two of them stopped being EV dealers right after they became dealers because of some problems with the amps and stuff. There was some drama if you guys remember back then where the amps all came unbiased or on high end. They came unbiased, which is great. No, they came biased incorrectly where I didn't have an emotional freak out about it. So I was just like, okay, let's get that resolved and move on. So the original Wolfgangs were all the 500k0 frictions. And then what I was told by the EVH people was that they changed it to a high friction 250k pot and a low friction 500k pot. And that was an Eddie Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen. It was Eddie's decision. So after playing it the other way, he decided he liked it this way. The low friction, I think on the tone control was because. So he wouldn't bump it or it wouldn't travel on its own. If you know anything about the zero friction or low friction pots, you know that not only can you barely bump them and they turn, but just playing really hard and the guitar vibrating, they would actually just move. So. So, so you'd have to put something underneath them or compress the knob down a little bit so it's a little harder to turn. So I think the decision Eddie made on for stage purposes was to go ahead and put a high friction pot in the. In the tone control so it wouldn't move. That makes sense to me. And it kind of aligns with what they were telling me. And then the 250k was a tone choice that he said just that he liked the way it sounded better. That would make sense. You know, maybe he thought the guitar was a little bright and that would darken the guitar a little bit. I'm sure that's possible. Is, is. Is my. I don't know, but it's one of those things where, you know, we could argue all day about what sonically it's doing to the guitar. I mean, we know it does make a physical change. You know, we, we put it on a scope, so to speak. You can tell that it's. There's. That highs are being restricted. So therefore there is not as predominant in what you're hearing. There's more resistance on them. However, would you hear that without an ab? Not in my world. There's a lot of things that. Where the arguments are both true and false at the same time. Does this make a sonic change or tone change? Yes, but only if you compare it to something would you identify it without the comparison? I would say no. Like if I handed you two wolfgangs and one had two 500k pots and one had one 500k and 250k pot, could you tell a difference from that one change? I don't think you could what I mean by comparing. Maybe, but just would you be able to go, oh man, this definitely doesn't have the 250k in the tone pot. Now I don't think you would be able to detect it. And that comes from. And so you know what that comes from is from years and years of doing comparison videos. And I think this is a skill that a lot of channels, YouTube channels. And again, doesn't matter how subscribers they have or how perceived smart they are, whatever their qualifications. I think anyone that just makes a thousand videos comparing things or a hundred videos comparing things can tell you what you learn from that is a lot of things you cannot detect unless you do the comparison. And when you first start making content, you're very excited to share this comparison with people. Like look at the difference of these two things. And people have this reaction like wow, that's different. But then slowly over time you realize but without the comparison you can't tell. Right. And that's a. That's what I've learned. So. But that's why I believe they did it. That's why they told me they did it. How about that? That's why they told me they did it. And so that's why I believe it's why they did it. So. Okay, let's do this one. Also Amanda sent me. This is from Dan Morgan. 9795 says why does the signal path go from left to right on multi effect units and right to left on real pedals? I don't know. I don't really pay attention. So I don't know. I don't have my multi unit here. It's in the other room. I don't even notice. I. Maybe you're right. Maybe it does come in on one side, not the other. Don't know. Some pedals do that too, by the way. That's not, it's not all pedals are, are in from the right and out from the left. Some pedals are backwards and it drives me nuts. I don't know why they do it. It could be just physical, you know, the physics, the physical placement, you know, where they have to be in the, the board, the electronics or there might be a logic to it. I really don't know. Is so it's not one of those things I've given a whole lot of thought to. I can, I would imagine if you're ocd, it really would drive you crazy because you're like, you know, you want some consistency in life. But, but I guess if I have ocd, my OC doesn't work that way. It's not the thing that bothers me. So I don't take notice of it. So. Okay, let's go over here. Let's refresh this one, which is a good time to sip some water. And this one came from Clan of House Cats says, hey, are you going to see Megadeth on their farewell tour? I probably will not, but I don't know. Like I told you guys in the past, I used to go to all the farewell tours. Was a big deal for me. And then Covid happened. We didn't go to a lot of video. I have a lot of videos. We didn't go to a lot of shows. And then since post Covid, I've gone to a fraction of the shows. Like I did go see Elton John farewell tour. I just don't go see as many shows. I am baby stepping back into shows. It's just, it. It's affected me in every way and my wife as well. In every way. I just don't like going around people anymore. I'm not afraid of being sick. It's not that. I just. I think what happens is, is when you take some time. I thought when you take some time away from being around crowds, that maybe I'd long for it again. In fact, I have the opposite. I'm just like. Every time I go around people, I'm just like, I don't want to be here. I'm not anxious, I'm not upset. I just. I look at it as like a hassle because you go so long without that hassle. So will I do that? Maybe so. We'll see. I mean, that's a band that I definitely would like to see. I've not seen Megadeth live, so it might happen. You never know. Richard says, hey, new gear this week. Awesome baseman with a Caesar Cesar Diaz SRV modified and Avril Lavigne telly. Oh, the Avril Lavigne telly with the one pickup that was cool with the three way switch, right? It says N90s Charvet. Remember the Charvettes CIG170 plus the earthquaker master General Fuzz. That would be a lot of gear in one week, man. You've definitely. I wonder if you scored that all in one shot or if you just been like years there Each day you're like, well, if I'm going in, in for a penny, in for a pound. They say, let's go. And this came from Alex says, hey, I got a new Gibson Les Paul last year. Won't stay tuned. Hard to intonate Falling out of love with it how, how do you sell a lemon? Disclose the problems well, you should Disclose the problems. But also you'd have to determine if there's 11. Lemon, have you had a proper setup done to the guitar? Have you take it to someone who is an experienced guitar tech who can actually dial that instrument in? This is a thing. Have I seen Gibsons that are quote unquote defective or bad and won't stand tune? Yeah, I have. It's not common. You know, first of all, the first flag for me is intonation. When you're like, when the guitar won't intonate. Well, those guitars will intonate. There's very, very likely issue, unlikely issues that it won't intonate. So that's a flag right there that it's. It should be in. It should be able to intonate. It is not common that they would do this, but they have. In the past, Gibson has put the bridge post in the wrong spot, which has caused intonation to be a little difficult. Usually that would be on one or two strings. Um, so it's possible, but it is. Like I said, just because it's possible doesn't mean it's probable. In other words, it's most likely your situation. So good news for you is the fact that it's not intonating. I would say take it to a really respected guitar tech and let them diagnose it and tell you. And more importantly, if you've taken it to a tech and they've said it's not going to intonate and it's a crappy guitar, definitely get a second opinion. Because guitar techs are people and people have biases and sometimes guitar techs just hate guitars and they just don't tell you that. It's. It's possible. The, the. One of the experiences I've experienced in my life as a customer and as a competitor for guitar techs, so obviously having my shop and then competing about against other people or just being a customer like you guys. Some techs strive to do great work and build relationships with customers and they see the value in that. And some techs just hate that you didn't shop in their store. And a lot of you have had this experience. I've had it multiple times where, you know, you bought a guitar and you didn't buy a guitar brand or a guitar that they sell. And first you didn't buy from them, so they're a little pissy about that. Secondly, you just didn't carry. You don't buy a brand that they carry, so therefore they don't like your brand. You know, I always tell people it's A really not a good sign when you bring a guitar in. If attacks like, oh, it's a Floyd Roses and junk. There's guitar youtuber text that crack me up because they'll, they'll call things junk, guitars, junk. And I'm like, yeah, I get it. You know, I'm sure some mechanics that do cars have some opinions about cars. They like working on certain ones. But I've said this before, when I talk about, as a guitar tech, when I talk about guitars, a lot of times it's not about the quality of the guitars. It's about how easy or hard my work is going to be. So, yeah, I could have a moment where I look at a guitar and I go, oh, those are the worst. But it's not the guitar is bad. It's just, it's more work and for the same pay. So of course, like any human I think would look at a situation going, same work, more work, same pay. It does kind of, you know, not put you in the best mood, but you have to kind of put that aside. And hopefully the best guitar techs have something to prove all the time to everyone to like, I'm gonna prove to you that I can do a good job. I'm gonna prove that I can make this guitar that sucked and make it amazing. The, the, the best thing is when you come in and you go, this guitar will not intonate and will not stay in tune. And they go, oh, yeah, I haven't looked at it yet. And, and hopefully it's just an I'll talk. They can actually walk the walk. But that best is when you know, they're like, I'm going to, you're going to come back and you're going to be amazed. So I would do that. And the reason I say that is because whatever the work is going to cost you is going to be probably less than what you're going to have to discount the guitar saying that it won't intonate and won't play right. And then what's going to happen is, is something I've seen happen many, many times in my experience with the guitar world in buying, selling guitars, repairing guitars, which is, somebody's going to make money off you. You're going to discount it because you're an honest person saying, hey, it won't intend to your knowledge and it's not staying in tune to your knowledge, and they're going to buy it and they're going to make it play great and then they're going to flip it and sell it for more money or they're just going to buy a great deal. I've personally done it to people. Look, I try to be a good person but sometimes like I'm just not in the mood to like educate the whole world about something. So I have done it in the past where I've walked into a deal and somebody's saying something that doesn't sound right to me and they're like this guitar is garbage and let me tell you why. And I'm like, I'll take it for, you know, your blowout price. Sure. And then I get it and I'm like woohoo. Do a quick setup to put some love into it. Now it plays amazing and I got a huge discount. You know, sometimes you're just, you know, why not? So I'm basically telling you that's what my advice to you. I have no idea how to say this Kasporius is does anyone make a humbucker size mini humbucker and do they have. Yeah, everybody makes a humbucker size mini humbucker. Okay. And do you have any experience with a double rail mini humbuckers that came in the 2012 Gibson Les Paul Studio 70s tributes? No, not specifically with the dual rails. Like a lot of the seventies Gibson Les Paul's with the mini humbuckers. I've played a lot of them. I like them actually. I think they're one of the secrets finds in the market. Those pickups sound great. They kind of have, you know, it's kind of all the stuff that Paul Reed Smith is trying to sell you now with the Narrow Fields. Right, that's where I think of the Narrow Fields is where the mini humbuckers for the Gibson Les Paul's from the 70s where it's like, you know, you get the punchiness of a like a P90 kind of vibe. And the pickups sound a little sweet and sound really good. And when I say sweet, I mean just like they sing a little bit. You know, you hit a note and you're like oh, that's really nice. So I would say in, in my travels, the Gibson Les Paul's with the mini humbuckers are definitely in the eyes. The eyes have, are telling people what they sound like more than their ears are telling what they sound like. To me the guitars sound full, very, very defined upper mids and they sound really good. And like I said, the notes sing a little bit. I think they're one of the best sounding Les Paul's out there. A lot of people just look at them and it's kind of like, I don't know, like just the pickups look small, so therefore the sound is small. I don't know, it's like a visual thing. The guitar doesn't look right, so you got to kind of check that out. But. But yeah, I like them. I have. But I have very little experience with all the rail versions of the pickups. Anyways, Global TV123 says, Hey, I have a question about which pickups I should get for my Squire Strat. I like the blues, jazzy type of sound. Can you tell me which one would I buy? Sound styles 5k. Don't worry about the 5.5k, 6k, 7k, 10k, all that stuff. That's not everything when it comes to pickups. What I would tell people is for pickups, when it comes to Strats, try to stay within the two or three ways of looking at, I think are going to help you. The 50s aerostrats are going to be very bright and articulate. And so when you strum a chord, it's going to chime like bells. And a lot of people like that. Just think of that, you know, bright. Every note just like a bell, like ringing bells. Just sounds great. The 60s, although some people consider that too bright. And sometimes they'll say it's glassy. And both those assessments can be Right, Right. You know, somebody's gonna say, I love how bright and articulate it is. And somebody's gonna like that sounds classy to me. So you have to think about what you like. A 60s era pickup. And again, whether that's from Seymour Duncan or it's from Fender or whoever, you know. Right. Lindy Fralin 60s era pickup, to me is going to be a little bit darker and it's going to push the amp just a little bit more so you get a little bit more. So you don't have to worry about, you know, you know, maybe putting a boost just to get the amp to break a little bit. That pickup will help you. And then of course, I would say the third option is definitely the modern single coil pickup. Maybe like a noiseless pickup or something that's overwound, that's going to be more aggressive. I prefer most of the time the 60s style pickups is what I usually put in all my guitars. My custom Shop has a 60s style Strat pickups in it. The pickups that I make that are single coils are 60s for sure. A heavy 60s, kind of slightly like a little bit more wound than a 50s. And then I use A metal base plate to give them kind of more punch. That's what I'm going to go for. Only reason I tell you that is because a lot of my guitars have single coils, are the single coils that I made. But that doesn't really mean anything. You can get lots of good 60s aero single coils from a lot of companies. It's just, you know, again, it's just like anybody. I, I was like, well I, I didn't want to buy it if I could make it, so I made them. So, So I would say that's the way I would think about that. And not so much focused on the outputs, the resistance, I should say. So the resistance is good information to have, but I always tell you it's good on the back end. And that's why I do the deep dives the way I do, which is I want you to list the pickup and then reference the resistance and see how it, how it was perceivably to you. That's why I gave you the information, not to tell you that the resistance is the indicator of what the pickup will sound like. It's more like, hey, this was really overwhelmed. How, how, how did you perceive that pickup and how close to that belief system is it for you? So, okay, Tucker Cowboy says, hey, what about custom shop pickups? Like the Fender custom shop pickups? Yeah, when I say Fender pickups, usually it's the custom shops. I, I usually recommend the custom shops. The 50s fender custom shops. The 60s custom shop pickups I think are fantastic. They make a, I think they make one version of the 50s and two versions of the 60s because you have like an early 60s sound and a late 60s sound. Just think of this, the later, like the 60s, 69, 68 era type pickups, that's, I always think of them as being world warmer or darker. Again, it depends on what you're looking for. When, So I say warmer, which means to me, when I hit a chord, it sounds like the core sounds a little fuller sounding and less ice picky, like more like a slap and less like a, you know, karate chop, you know. Right. Kind of like more. However, some people would then also call that like dark. To me, dark means like dark, like muddy and you can't, you can't hear. And that's a little bit of where your amp is going to really help a lot. And you got to kind of know your amp and where your, what your amp likes to see. So, so that, that, that kind of, that kind of steers you down the right way. It's. Pickups are a difficult thing, but you don't need to overthink them so much. You just need to kind of figure out, you know, like I said, what are your. What your main goal is. And then go with that way happy good thing says, hey, welcome back, Phil. How was the food? No gravy. There was no gravy. So food wise, I didn't really. I didn't eat any Indonesian food. It had nothing to do with anything. The way this works, just so you guys are clear. So I'll give you the rundown of the trip, and then we'll go into guitar of the week. That's a good way to segue. So the trip. How'd the trip go? So I left Arizona at about five in the afternoon on a Monday. And this is because of time zone. It gets a little confusing with the days. Okay. But I left at 5 in the afternoon, p.m. on a Monday. I got to LAX. I want to say it was like an hour flight, but it was like two hours to get through the airport. I got flagged in the airport because of my Kemper unit. They had to pull my Kemper unit. They had to rub the. The little. Whatever. Just trying to say the F word. Whatever that stupid thing is. The swipey, you know? You know, they got to make sure my Kemper is not a weapon. I mean, it was made in Germany, I guess, but they're like, is that a weapon? Is that a weapon? Anyway, so they pulled that. So there's no line in tsa. I walked right through. Except for they pulled my Kemper because they pulled my Kemper. They decided to tell me, hey, maybe he just liked me, that there was something in my crotch. I'm not making this up, guys. And they showed me on the screen, there was a red dot on my crotch. And they're like, there's something in your crotch. And I'm like, okay. And then they said, hey, oh, yeah. Somebody's like, wanded. No, no, no, no, no, honey. No, no, no wanding. This is. They walk up to you, if you don't know what's happening to you, this is what they're saying. I'm not really paying attention, okay? I really just like. To me, I'm just getting through the process, right? So I pay attention enough to go to the next step. And so I'm listening the worst way you can listen, which is listening for the thing that tells me what I'm going to do to get to the next step. And he's like, I'm Going to be touching you with the back of my hands, not the front of my hands. And I'm like, oh, okay. And he's like, and I'm gonna be touching your. And he goes, your. Your crotch area. And he's like. And then he's like, do you want to go to a private room? And I was like, never let them take you to a second location. He didn't find that funny, which is funny to me. Come on, look, you're about to touch my crotch. We can have a moment, can't we? Just like, you know, I don't, you don't have to buy me a drink. But, you know, like, at least like, act like my jokes are funny. So the guy gets down on his knees and, and, and I like to point out I'm not it one. I'm not embarrassed, I'm not upset. Because I'm really thinking if there's one job I never knew I didn't want in life, it's the ts guy who rubs the back of his hands on your crotch. That's the, that's like. I mean, holy crap, there's a whole list of jobs I don't want to do in the world. And I didn't even know that was a job that I didn't want to do. So he does the front, and then he makes me. Rubs my butt. But there's nobody in line, so I'm always watching, right? So I'm like, okay. I'm like, okay. So then he goes, hey, there's nothing there. I'm like, whoa, buddy, there's something there. No, I'm just kidding. So he goes, you're good to go. So then I, they, they, they just, they leave all my stuff disheveled. And so of course I have to put all my stuff back in my rig, my whole rig, you know, my mobile rig back together. Go get on the plane. Fly to lax. Get to lax. LX was not an overlay over. It was like a three hour, four hour layover. Not that bad. I get on the plane that goes to Hong Kong. Hong Kong flight was 14 and a half hours. I get to Hong Kong. Hong Kong layover was seven hours. So I stay in Hong Kong airport for seven hours. That was fun. And then, then I take the flight to Sarabaya, which is in Indonesia, and that was a four and a half to five hour flight. And I get to Sarabaya and somebody at Cortec claimed me, which is good. There's a little bit of funny story to that too. But more importantly, I Got claimed. So I got through. I got my visa. I got my. Because you have to get a visa, you have to go and you have to fill out this thing on an app and then you give them $35American. Exactly. And then they give you a visa and then you go through customs and you got to tell them like, hey, I'm only here for two days and I'm going to leave. And they're like okay, great. I think they give you a 30 day visa. And then so, so I got there. So that was a long trip. The way back was a little bit longer. So you know, it was 36 hours from the, the time I left the airport in Sarabaya to when I got my front door. Because in Hong Kong they pulled everybody off the plane. Not off the plane, they pulled everybody out of the gate and they made everybody check their passports again and whatever. And long story short, we left the airport an hour late and then there was bad weather so we flew around that. So we were two hours late. So when I got to lax, my flight had, I missed it. So they said I could go the next day. The next flight was 6am the next day. So I just rented a car and drove. So. So I'd like to point out that my wife is amazing. She stayed on the phone with me for six and a half hours straight in the car making sure I had somebody to talk to or listen to so I wouldn't fall asleep. Because I got home at 3:16 in the morning a.m. and I. And when I arrived in the driveway, I'd been traveling from, like I said, the Sarah by airport for a little over 36 hours. So it was a little, little long. So how was the trip? That's the trip, food wise. So what happened was I got to Sarabaya in the afternoon. It's like I told you, it was late, I didn't need to eat. So I went to sleep, got up the next morning, they took me right to the factory. We stayed at the factory and then for, at noon what happens is the employees pray. And while they pray we went and we went to a, an office area and we stayed there and we had lunch and had coffee. Obviously the java is right next there. So the coffee is amazing. I should have, I should have brought, I took it downstairs. I should have showed you guys the gift they gave me. I'll tell you about the gift. So anyways, anyway, so back to the food. So we had Korean food because the employees are Korean, interesting enough. I was in Indonesia, I had Korean food. It Was very amazing. And then so that night we went out to dinner. We went out to Italian restaurant. It was a very, very, very, very expensive Italian restaurant. The kind of Italian restaurant where they had lobster in the, and the pasta and they brought out a giant lobster and then had you approve it. And then they went and they made lobster out of it. It was very nice. And then the second day, same thing. I got up in the morning, had hotel breakfast and then I went and we had lunch again in there, in the office. And then that night we went and had a Korean food, which all the employees I with were for Korean. So they said, this is like a really good authentic Korean restaurant. You're bringing it. So look at that. Okay, so I got this gift. So I didn't get any Indonesian food, but I did get this beautiful gift from the people at Court Guitars. And it's poop coffee. So if you guys don't know the story of poop coffee, this is a real thing. Okay? So, and I, everything I'm going to tell you, I'm going to preface it with I was jet lagged. I was. I worked all day in the factory, so I'm tired. Okay, I'm going to tell you the story the way I remember it best. If there's something that I'm historically inaccurate about, I am apologizing it before. I'm going to give you the right, the best idea. So they gave me this, this is called, this is called poop coffee. No, it's. This is called. If you guys don't know, this is called. It's from Indonesia and it's called why can't. Oh, copy Oppy Cop something. Okay, so it's Kopi Luwak. I'm probably saying it wrong. Again, I apologize. Kopi Luwak. So what happens is in Indonesia there's this, there's this animal that looks like this ferret. That's what I'm gonna call it. This ferret. And it eats the coffee beans and I guess the coffee beans ferment in its stomach and then it poops the coffee beans out. And then people pick up. And I'm gonna explain why they pick up the coffee beans and then they, they, they make coffee out of it. So, so I'm, I'm about as dumb as they come. So I just called it poop coffee. They were not offended. They thought, they said that's what every dumb American says. They didn't say dumb, so don't take offense to it. They said every American calls it poop coffee. And I'M like, yeah, it's poopy coffee. So this is like a hot. This coffee is like a hundred dollars, maybe more. And then they told me the story. So the story was essentially that before Indonesia was a country, because it became a country essentially after World War II, it was inhabited by the Dutch, invaded by the Dutch, whatever you want to call it. Right? I'm pretty sure that it was invaded by the Dutch because they were celebrating this week their Independence day from the Dutch. So. And the Dutch took all the coffee. So apparently people there. This is like, before they were Indonesian, right? Because it became a country. Indonesia became a country, I guess, in World War II or after World War II. Yes. Somebody's saying the CV at CAT. Yes, they're pronounced. Their. Their spelling is correct. It's C I V E T cvet. Cat is what this calls. We can just call it Indonesian ferret for now. So again, no disrespect meant. So anyways, they. This is the only way they could eat to drink coffee. So they. The Dutch took all the coffee. So if you lived on the island, that's how you got coffee. And then later comes the delicacy. So they gave it to me as a gift, which I think is these are the most beautiful gifts because of the fact of, like, you know, look, my friends are like, are you gonna drink it? Hell yeah, I'm gonna drink it. It was a gift. Yes, I will drink the poop coffee with faith and love that it's. I will give you guys. I'll tell. You know what, if you guys want. I don't know why it would pertain to that. Maybe I'll have a cup poop coffee on the live show, and you can see my reaction to it, but it doesn't freak me out. It doesn't weird me out. So I'll tell you right now, there's nothing in me that's like, what this was an animal's butt one day. Like, nothing about that for some reason throws me off. There's a lot. There's a lot of things that I. Let me just put it this way. It's weird, right? No gravy, no jello, but I'll poop coffee. Look, none of us are perfect. We like what we like. So that was a beautiful gift. So that's why I didn't have any Indonesian food. It wasn't for any other reason than just the workload. There is nine buildings. So if you to understand court better now, it's not one giant building making 1 million guitars. It's nine buildings. And I can't tell you what all the buildings are because obviously some of them are specific, but obviously one is the PRSSE building. So. So PRS tells you that they have a building at Cortec and it's their building. It is absolutely their building. There's nothing made there besides pure S guitars. I have all the footage from that. That is absolutely true. Then next to him is a smaller building with another brand that is exactly that brand has only their guitars there. Notice I'm saying brand now because different philosophies. PRS has decided to go all in on Court and say, hey, we're partnered with Court and that's who. Where we have our guitars built and we're very involved in the process. The other brands, basically the opposite, I'm not allowed to disclose them. What I would tell you is this. If you think of the eight biggest brands in the world, just assume four of them at court and you're gonna be 50. 50. Right? So yeah. And so, and I don't think it's a secret like I said, but you have to understand it from my point of view and from Court's point of view. Court has a, Court has a super huge, massive financial interest in making the companies happy that are giving them all the money to make instruments, amplifiers and pickups for them. Okay, so there's an amplifier, you understand, There's a factory that makes guitars or sorry, this factory that makes acoustic guitars, there's a factory that makes amplifiers, there's a factory that makes pickups. There I was at all of them and filmed all of them. There's a factory that does premium guitars which is like the mid price premium guitars. There's a master factory which does the high end guitars. And so you gotta understand. And then there's like I said, independent factories that are, they're named after the brand that like, like PRs where it's just, that brand is made there. So, so what's important is, is that I take very seriously their business which is, you know, this is why they let me come there is because they trusted that I was not going to do it. If you guys assume it and you're right, that's up to you guys. I'd love to say yes. I can tell you pretty much every major brand you can think of. You're, you're probably right. And sadly enough, it's one of those things where, you know, without being there, I could have guessed and told you and I'll probably be right because I actually know I can't Say now. And that's because I obviously took. I take this all very seriously, what I did, which is get to see the largest guitar factory in the world, and it is basically the largest guitar factory in the world. So by size, by volume, so lots of content coming. Speaking of guitars, let's do Guitar of the Week. We'll jump off and do Guitar of the Week. Let's do that. Ready? Now it's time for Guitar of the Week. All right. Guitar of the Week. So Guitar of the Week's not a really guitar. It's just. I thought it'd be fun to share with you guys something fun. So if you guys remember the end of last year, we did a giveaway where we were giving away tons of stuff. You know, we gave away shirts, we gave away tuners. Lots of tuners. We gave away a ton of pedals. Remember Dane Electro gave us, like, 100 petals or something like that. 50 petals. Whatever it was, we. We gave away all these pedals. And the people at Lace Pickups gave us some pickups to give away some aluminum, and so we gave those away. And the. The guys at Lace reached out to me and said, hey, thank you for, you know, obviously, that's promotion for them. I'm giving away their stuff, and you guys get to see it. And they said, hey, let us know if you ever need anything. We'd love to send you a set of pickups for yourself. And I was like, oh, okay. And I didn't respond to them because I didn't. I just didn't want to set a pickups for the sake of having a set of pickups. And what happened was one day I was playing a guitar, and I thought, I don't know why. I don't know. I don't know why, but I think this guitar needs Lace pickups. So today I'm showing you a guitar that I've shown you before, but more importantly, a guitar with new pickups. So I'm going to show you some funny stuff. So this is my Kiesel Tim Miller guitar. And this is in the Monster Burst. I'll go to the side camera because the colors not really pop in this camera. Look at this. So this is a blue to purple burst. And I changed the knobs. These knobs. I like knobs where I can see. See the actual numbers or the lines. In this case, there's no numbers but lines. Because I like to know if it's off or on. I just like to look at it. Now, this is a beautiful color guitar. This is a neck through this is a one piece neck through with a quarter sawn maple neck, right? Yep. So this is actually one piece and not three pieces. So on the sides, does that matter to me? It does not, but I just picked it. So mahogany back and sides and of course the maple cap. And you have a quarter inch maple cap hardtail bridge. I went with chrome. There's a reason why I went chrome. I thought, you know, there was a part of me was like, if I get black, it will blend in and you won't see them. Which is nice. But I thought, you know, I wanted something to pop. I don't know why. So I went with the chrome. Lace. Aluminum. Now here's the wacky part. I. I like the aluminums that they sent that we gave away. I thought they were really good, but I just thought they were a little weak. And when I say weak, I don't mean distorted. I meant like, I just feel like, man, it's just not getting that. They're just not something happening there. So I said, hey, I told the people at Lace and they said, you know what you need? And I go, what? And they go, death Buckers. And I'm like, I don't think I need Death Buckers. And they're like, no, you do. The Death Buckers. Worst name, Lace. Death Buckers. I'm not offended. I don't like when I say. When I say worst name, I don't mean offended. It's like the metal pickups from prs, it's like, these are not, to me, Death Buckers. Just like the PRS pickups are not metal. It's like you're not. I don't know. It's not. So anyways, these are called Death Buckers. So if you guys want to know, these are the Death Buckers pickups. So very cool. I have it tuned up in standard. Let's turn on the guitar, so to speak. I'm running through the Amplified Nation amplifier behind you with the 112, sorry, 212 cream back selection cabinet. But I have one of the 12s mic'd up. I have a delay in reverb running from my new X Atlantic pedal. I will start with clean. Let's go to the side camera. I will start with clean. Then we will kick the overdrive on and then I'll do some boost on the amp as well because the amp has a foot switchable boost. So we'll start with the neck pickup and let's hear how this sounds. Here we go. You guys feeling the Death Buckerness yet? Now I have this wired up so this is neck pickup I how I have it wired, I have a three way switch and when I go to the middle position it immediately makes the two pickups single coil so I'm coil splitting them so I've wired it so that if I want single coil there is no push pulls on this it's just if I want single coils I go to the middle position so I'll do that for you here's the neck and I'll switch the middle Sam okay, let's go ahead and switch the overdrive on the app which is going to be very light. Now what's nice about these pickups is because they're really articulate and clear I can run the amp a little dirty, a little dark and why that's important is an amp like this because of the sustain and the way it feels. I like it for individual notes. Think of it like I can't play like Eric Johnson and Joe Bonamassa but think of it like you want a note to sound really big so let me show you like the concept. Okay, now let's go ahead and hit the boost and then we'll hit some drums because why not? Okay. And you needed that. All right, so that is the Tim Miller headless guitar and I want to show you this because that was funny. Okay, I want to show you something funny. One of my favorite things about this is they made this boomerang F hole and then these pickups, when I put them in I saw this and I can't unsee it but I love it. Look it, it's like a happy face youe can't unsee the happy face right now it's an upside down happy face. This guitar sounds great. One thing to understand about aluminum pickups is they're super light okay? And when I say super light less than half the weight of a traditional humbucker pickup so if you think about a humbucker pickup I'm not sure how much they actually weigh But I will tell you this between the two aluminums, removing two physical humbuckers and putting two aluminum humbuckers probably took about 8 ounces to 10 ounces of weight off the guitar doesn't sound like a lot. That's half a pound. So the guitar is really light now the guitar was light before. This guitar is stupid light. It's great. It's. It's like a strandberg. So it's. This isn't in the 4 pound range but this guitar is probably 5 pounds 1 ounce now so you get the idea. Super light, something silly. So it plays great, feels great. If you guys are looking at Kiesel headless guitars, because this comes up a lot. One thing I will tell you about the Tim Miller guitar. Some people like Dr. Andre Flood, I don't. I don't remember in his review if he liked the switch being there. The output jack. A lot of people don't like the output jack being straight down like this. I've had no problems with it in my lap. Like, if we go to side cam here, I've had no problems here, that this isn't causing any issues for me. So I just want to let you know, and when sitting in this position again, there you go. Give you that TSA crotch shot. The. Nope, no issues there. Although the jack a little bit hits into your thigh a little bit. Just a little bit, but not very much. Not enough to where it would bother me. I don't think it would bother most of you, but the one thing I will tell you about this guitar that's important to know if you're looking at the headless Keisel guitars, is this neck is the thickest neck. It's not a thick neck, but if you're like, man, I really don't like the modern thinner necks. Even if you get with the Keisel regular neck or the thicker neck option, it's still gonna, for a lot of you, feel like a thinner neck. This neck is the most. I think not chunky, but the most like a traditional regular neck, not a. Not a shredder neck is what I'm trying to tell you. So that's one thing that's about really great about this neck, and that's one thing I really like about it. This is my favorite. This is my favorite Keisel neck of all the guitars. So I don't know what specifically. What I think is different about is it feels more C carve than any other ones. And I could be wrong. You guys could ask Jeff on a Wednesday show and he'll probably say, no, it's the same. Same as any other neck. But I've actually played multiple Tim Miller guitars because I was at the event. And so I want to let you know, this doesn't feel different to me than those. Those all felt the same way. So again, not chunky by any means, but not the thin neck. So if you're thinking about a headless guitar, but one of the things is you want a more traditional feel in a guitar. This is, to me, the most traditional sounding. Also because Tim is so tall, he's like, I think he's 65. I'm not sure. 66. I'm not sure how tall he is. I just know this. I'm six foot and I. The whole time talking to him, I was staring upward. He's a big guy. So this guitar was. He made this have them. He had them make this specifically if you have longer arms or if you have a bigger stance. So Brian wants to know if it will hang on the hook. It will not. It's a big downfall. It sucks, sucks, sucks. Hopefully one day Kiesel will change that. That's. I think. I know it sounds like a silly thing to. To think because you're like, you know, who cares? But I. I would rather hang my guitars or hang them on my string swings, string swing, zither stands. So, you know. Yeah. But I. I will tell you this. I think Keisel is considering something, but I don't know if it's going to be executed or if it'll go across the models or what it will be. But I. I mean, obviously, anytime I've had his ear, that's one of the things that come out of my mouth is, man, it'd be really great if we could hang these headless guitars. I try to push it. So you guys know, I actually. To help you guys and help myself, but help you guys, I go think, how cool if I could hang those headless keys behind me on Friday shows. That's free marketing for you guys. You can, right? They are not there because I'm not putting sideways hangers up right now. So. And the only reason I'm not. The reason I'm not doing sideways hangers is because I'm like, I'm convinced maybe they'll eventually make headless guitars that you can hang on the wall. So. So that's my. That's my hopes. Okay, let's get into the next subject. I hope you guys enjoyed Guitar of the Week. Any questions about the guitar specifically? Besides that, let me know. And if Amanda sees them, she'll. She'll forward them to me because she's still forwarding me tons of questions, which I will eventually get to. So. Yeah. All right. And I'm just looking real quick to see if anyone's posting anything about the guitar before we move on. Flapjack says, hey, I don't think headless guitars will ever grow on me. I understand that. The. I think. What do I think? I just can't get into them. You know what it is? I'd like to point out very, very clear. I don't like the way they look. There's no headless guitar that I look at and go, wow, that's cool. It's not the way I look at them. It's a function thing. First of all, to me, the idea that you can pick them up, and because of. Just by design, there's no tuning keys to bump. And these are really hard to turn for the most part. These little fine tuners. When you get a dial in, you just know that it's going to be in tune, you know, which is a nice feeling, convenience, you know, you pick them up like this guitar, super light. You pick it up, you put it in your lap right here. I don't have to worry about my desk right here. I don't have to worry about the headstock hitting it. There's a metal. There's metal at the end. This is the tuner. There's metal at the end. And, you know, if it bumps something, I. I feel like it's pretty strong. It's a convenience thing. And then, of course, travel, it. It makes travel possible with a guitar. I can. I have not had any issues, as you guys know, if you've been a following channel for a long time. You know, at one point I was supposed to go perform at a Sweetwater thing, and. And they just wouldn't. I couldn't get on the plane with my bass. It was just really difficult. And. And, you know, everybody tells me, oh, this is how you do it. But I can tell you from. All my professional guitar player friends will tell you that. I mean, they're professionals, and they're. They're getting on the planes about 80, 90% of the time, which is pretty good. But that's still a 10 to 20% chance you're not going to get on the plane with your guitar the way you want it and safely. And I've never, ever not got a headless guitar on a plane. So it's. It's. It's not a big deal. And even if I was concerned about it, I wouldn't take this one traveling with me. When I take a headless with me, I usually take the delos. And the reason is, is because if for some reason they did pull some crap where they're not gonna let me on the plane, I would just detach the neck and then throw it in my backpack and just go. There's no way I'm checking the guitar. And for those of you that don't understand, and maybe you won't, because it doesn't pertain to your life and people filter again the things that happen out there through their lens. When you make a living where I'm not a musician that's touring, but I'm like at Cortec, when I went to Cortech, I did not check any luggage. I had four days worth of clothing ranger rolled into my. Into my little carry on. Okay. Like, clothes were a second problem for me. Cameras, recording gear, the Kemper, everything I need. Because if I got to Indonesia and my bag got lost and they take just one day to get it to me, oh, we'll bring it to your hotel. Great. Halfway through this trip, where I won't be filming anything and I won't be paying for these expensive travel costs, you know, that would be horrific to me. It would be emotionally, just physically, emotionally and financially, just horrible in every way. I could not afford for that to happen. So you have to take your gear with you if I'm going. And so you understand, just like when I do any YouTube. Get. When I flew to Indiana a couple weeks ago, same thing, me and Sean, I took a pelican style case. Oh, it was a gator case, but it's a copy of a pelican case on the plane. I even had TSA ask me, is that a gun? I'm like, no, it's not a gun. It's cameras. It's your equipment. You cannot. It cannot get damaged, and it cannot get lost. It cannot. And so that's what's happening in the world today with musicians where, you know, it's not like they're traveling for a month, you know, to. They're. They're doing fly dates and they cannot, you know, you could go, look, I. I'm saying this because it's true. It's. It's the conversations, the honest conversations I've had behind the scenes with real musicians. They could lose my underwear. I'll wear dirty underwear. I can't. I can play on stage in dirty underwear with a guitar. I cannot play on stage with clean underwear and no guitar. So, I mean, it's just how it is today, guys. So checking things is that's. It's not that they're afraid that they're gonna break them, although that happens. It's. If it gets lost for any reason or damaged, you're out financially. And not to mention the emotional part is think about what that does to your audience. You know, now they're not going to see you perform. Well, they. They took their time out of their day. They paired they hard earned money. And now you're not There you're not performing. And like in my case, could you imagine how so, you know, Court has invited me to go see the Chinese factory. You know, you think they would do that if I was there going, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm still waiting for the, still waiting for the airline to bring my cameras so we can start filming this thing or hey, do you guys have any cameras? You know, you just can't. You, you can't, you can't have that. So again, it's very important stuff fits on the plane and it's getting very difficult to get that stuff on the plane. So I've never had a problem bringing a headless guitar on a plane is what I'm trying to tell you. So at all. Oh, Elroy says how much the guitar the week weigh? This one's about five pounds. Five pounds, one ounce. Oh, and I've been working out. No, I'm just kidding. Woo. Yeah, it's super light. We. It's, it's, it's chambered here. It's not chambered here, you know. Right. So it's solid here. And of course it's not chambered where the, this piece of maple is. So it's a big piece of maple. If you wanted this guitar lighter, if you were thinking about order one and you want to consider it being lighter, I would actually consider doing a mahogany neck. So this maple neck is probably adding most of the weight for sure. So I would think about a mahogany neck as a way to save some more weight if that's something you're. You're so inclined to do. But yeah. So. All right, we can go on the next subject now. All right. I'm trying to say the name. I'll just call you Pell. Pw. PW says getting out of China. China with your videos might be difficult. So you already know I already did that. So to get to Indonesia, you got to go through China. So I was in Hong Kong. So both times I had to go through Hong Kong with heavy layovers to Indonesia. The layover, seven hours in Hong Kong and back. The, the layover was like six hours or five. Six hours in Hong Kong. And so yes, I had to go through China's security. And, and as I told you, we were late. My flight was late because China security rechecked everybody who was leaving off the plane. So they didn't seem to. So for the reference, they didn't seem to care about me. I just, I just noticed that everybody with the blue passports didn't seem to get asked a lot of questions. You got past it really fast. But they were definitely asking a lot of people a lot of questions before they left. Let's. Let's go to Paul Gilbert's a God. He is. He is amazing. One day I'll tell you a funny Paul Gilbert Funko pop story. Funny, but not today. Hey, Phil. Keep rocking, man. No question. Oh, no question. But loving the show for years. Thanks, man. I appreciate that. The next one is from Tesne R. It's just a bunch of letters, man. It's like a small H and a big T and a thing says Happy Friday. By the way, thank you for the super, huge super chat. It says, Happy Friday, Phil. New guitar day Ibanez RG655M swapping to the Godo 1996T. I think that's a great bridge as the edge is a bit worn out. Yeah, that's a good way to go. I like the edge bridge, but I think I'd prefer the Godot for most parts. I really like the Godot stuff. I think Godot is one of those things where it hits every. It hits everything. It's. It's good quality, it's priced well. Like it doesn't feel like a huge, massive, you know, overpriced piece of equipment. So Obviously the Goto 1996 is a great bridge. I have that in most my guitars. In fact, I think on all my guitars, if it's not the goto 1996, it's probably the original Floyd from back in the day. Like I don't have any new original Floyd's. All my stuff would be, you know, like just the. The old school German Floyds. Okay. And then we have Litvay. Litv says, hey, it's coffee geek Litvay here. I am sure Court gave you quality poop coffee, but most of the stuff that comes across the pond is either fake or harvested in cages by force feeding. Yeah, I don't recommend. Yeah, so that's a good point. Thank you for. For bringing it up. So they were talking about this again. I sat. Jet lag. Tired, sleepy working. It was also like a 95 degrees Fahrenheit and 90 humidity. It was. It was a good time. So anyways, Litf, they told me the exact same thing. They said that the animals are not treated very well and so you have to buy certain kinds and. Yes. And that it's mostly. A lot of it is fake. So I'm assuming the way they implied it was this was the real deal and this was on par or something. And Even then they kind of implied that the animals are not treated very well. So that is a thing. So yes, because obviously, you know, so I understand that. So yes, Aussie English podcast says, hey Phil, my clumsy cat pushed my Gibson SG out of the rack and dented the binding. Edges of the dents are raised. How can I take care of these edges? I'm not looking at it. So I don't know. Binding is a little trickier then, you know, wood you can steam out. Binding is plastic and usually with plastic you can sand and fill it. So I, So here's the easy part. I'm not going to be able to tell you how to do it without seeing it and give you some better advice, you know, on that. What I can tell you is I have done many binding where I filled it back in, you know, right. You depends on what the dent is, how I'm going to sand it. But then fill it and then reset and sand it, smooth it and blend it out. And with nitro you can blend nitro, which is great because nitro never feel fully cures. I told you guys, I'm not a finished person. I don't do finished work on guitars. Nitro is something that I mess with a lot of, A lot of average, good, average to good guitar techs, which is where I put myself in as someone who's doing average good work, you know, which is all you need, you know, for most, most quality work will work with nitro lacquer. Because the fact that it's, it's a pretty easy thing to blend out. It's a pretty thing to mess with. It's not as difficult as some of the polys and all the other stuff. So. So yeah, you can do that. And I've done it a few times on Gibson's on other guitars too. And it, what it for me, what I decide to do is usually the size. It's like, okay, I think I can fill this in, blend this and no one will notice or okay, this is going to go to another shop in town that does that more, you know, more, you know, does a better finish work. So. So again, because finish is just finished work is not my thing. It's not. I don't repaint guitars and I don't do, you know, serious damage repairs like that. It's a different wheelhouse and yeah, and all the people I thought that were good at it, that could hire went to work for themselves. So I would just refer people to them and work with them. Okay. So Amanda sent me this one from Wiz Dog says. Hey Phil. Inexperience with finishing up a warm off next after you get them fret level frequently necessary with those. Not anymore. Back in the day you would definitely want to do a fret level and, and, and crown it with a warm up neck. That's something that you hear all the time. Oh, you're going to have to level and crown it. The last three warm up necks I have, I've gotten, I have had to do zero fret work on them. They were fine. The reason being is they are, they are of a standard of quality. Now that's up there with so many of the builders, whether that's sir or Paul Reed Smith or Keisel, where they're doing a lot of. They're, they're making sure the neck is right, the fretboard is level, the frets are pressed correctly, you know. Yes. The question is, you know, it hasn't been put on a body and hasn't been assembled yet. So sure, you could have some issues, but I have not experienced those with newer modern warm up necks. Fifteen years ago I remember when a customer would bring them in, I would do some work on them, you know, level spot, do stuff like that. But it's gotten so good. And also you gotta understand the, it's not only the quality of the way the necks are made, but the quality of the testing equipment and how readily available it is, you know, to test the neck with a lot of the equipment that Stu Mack makes. You know, this is something I thought of, that was an interesting way of looking at this. One thing I did that Court thought was interesting was I filmed every station in all, basically nine buildings, okay? So I filmed every single station. And the reason being is I knew that they would not let me show you every single station and every detail. But I wanted to see every station and I wanted to have a reference to it. Since the discussion was do what you want, Phil, just obviously, you know, we got to be particular about what things get out that are, that are connected to brands, right? That being said, it was in. It was really interesting to me how many of the tools were Stomach tools and music Nomad tools. So for reference. So you guys know the entire Court facility was using Music Nomad not files, the yellow nut files. So something interesting to know why that matters is this is a factory that's making millions of guitars, right. Where cost is a factor. Right. So it's. So I want you to understand this. It's not that they're just making a lot of guitars and maybe that makes the tools very important because it does, but it also. It's very important because it. Obviously they're not going to spend more than they have to on certain tooling. And so they notice that those tools last. Now, here's an interesting thing, and I want you to be aware of. I had two things happen, and they would have never connected the dots for me if it wasn't for those two experiences happening within 15 days of each other. I interacted with a friend who had a set of Music Nomad files, and one of the files wasn't working. And I was like, that's really weird. Like, it just didn't feel right. Like, I've used these files now, as you guys know, I've been putting them through their paces. And I'm like, this doesn't feel right. Something's not right. And I told him, I said, you should probably reach out to musicnomad and let them know you have a defective file or two. I've not seen this yet. Then within 15 days. So two weeks, I was at Cortek, and every station's using these same files. And I'm picking up the files. And by the way, they let me do all kinds of stuff. So I was testing stuff and going through stuff, and then it got me thinking. I'm like, there's no way that they're using these files daily with these thousands and thousands of guitars. And that my. My friend wore his out. So I had a hunch, and I just typed into my phone Music Nomad Nut files temu. And guess what came up. TEMU sells fake music Nomad Nut files. So I want you guys to be aware there are fake Music Nomad files. Now, I know what you're thinking. I don't buy crap from temu. I don't know if you're thinking that. Some of you are like, I bought those files. I love Temu, okay? But I'm talking about the ones out there that are like, I'm not going to buy from temu. But what I want you to understand is someone can buy those from TEMU now and throw them on Reverb. They can throw them on Amazon, okay? I want you to be aware the replicas looked in the pictures, very accurate. But if I'm right, and I think I am, that the My Buddy set is fake. Those were very authentically looking fakes that he had. So I want you to be aware there's fake tools out there. I know we talk about fake guitars. I know we talk about fake pedals, amps, but you know, you forget there's fake tools. And I want you to be aware because fake is not exclusive to a website anymore. It can be. Somebody could buy a thousand fake nut files off TEMU and throw them on Amazon. It could happen. They can throw them on Reverb. So I want you to be aware of that. The other thing to know is this one thing I could say now that I've never really thought about until today. And I'm going to say it now no matter how it sounds. You know, Stumac and Music Nomad are professional grade tools. Like I don't really look at them that way. Sometimes I think of them as the hobbyist tool. But you know, I want to tell you that I spent half a day in Indiana two weeks ago, as you guys know, in their mod shop where they actually have the eight Plek machines or six Plek machines and they do all the modifications. I have videos coming about that they were all using Music Nomad and Stu Mac Tools. Then you go to Indonesia. I'm on the other side of the world in the world's largest factory. Music Nomad, Stu Mac Files. As you guys know, the Quartet factory is my 36th factory. I've been to. Of course, I'm counting shops like Neil Moser Shop I consider a factory even though it's a shop. But you know, builder I should say building facilities. And the most of them, Stu Mac and Music Nomad. And so I thought, wow, you know, sometimes just to give you perspective, the industry that survives on these products being right for you guys are living on those tools. And so I'm just sharing that with you as much as I know it comes across like he's just promoting those two brands because I am, but I'm promoting them differently. I'm promoting them from this hindsight of saying, hey, look, I know there's some inexpensive tools out there and they're probably really good. I've shown a lot of them. There's a lot I believe are really good tools too. But I just gotta say it never really hit me that yeah, when you're buying those brands, you're actually buying professional grade tools. Professionals are making, well, thousands and sometimes millions of guitars with them. So that's impressive. But also be be aware there's fakes. So that's my PJ32 says Stumac emails daily. Just turn that stuff off. I always have to turn all that crap off. You have to go in and unsubscribe and do all that stuff. Yeah, they all do that to you. I somebody always asks Me like, hey, you know, my Sweetwater engineer? And I'm like, they don't send me anything. I have all that stuff turned off and. And the only thing I get sent is the pictures of the guitar. When I buy a guitar, they'll send me the pictures. So. Pedal Palfax. Hey, what's up, guys? Says, hey, Philip. The E609 mic that you are using for the cab recording, at what location on the speaker do you place it? Cheers and Happy Friday. So I talked about this a week ago or so, and they made a pod clip on the second channel. By the way, you guys, thank you so much for supporting the. The second, our sister channel. If you don't know, there's a. Another channel. We have another channel and it's bits of the podcast. It's also isolated content that's. We think is better suited for the super nerds. We have really spent a lot of time and I'm not exaggerating to the point where I almost. I was so exhausting. I almost wanted to quit YouTube and thought about it twice just because I was like, if this is what we have to do now to make it, I don't know if the world's worth. This is worth it anymore. But you know, coming out of the other end of it, it's, It's. I'm looking back thinking maybe I feel better about it. The second channel is when we notice certain content here is too nerdy. It's just too nerdy. Like, you know, like, maybe you can sit through 10 minutes of me and John at, you know, Throwback, who's probably one of the smartest pickup guys out there. You can sit through 15, 20 minutes of that. I think the average good you guys, that. Most of you, the nerds, the super nerds, though, they're like, why did it stop? And the comments were always really confusing to me. To the, well, why did you stop? And the other ones are like, that was too long. And so we really decided we needed a second second channel that notches up the Nerd. So it's more. More information. More. More. Just more. And so we. That's what they were doing on the second channel. And you guys are thriving. It's thriving. It's at 350,000 views per month, which is. I mean, that's well over a quarter million views. That's really great. So very, very cool. And so I'm just telling you, not only do we use the pod clips because they circulate better on a another platform, but also we're putting some of the, the bonus material, the deep dives of certain pickups or guitars, our pickups. I said pickups. Pickups and pedals and stuff like that. So just letting you know about that. But, but back to pedal PAL fx. There's a clip on there and it explains how I do the E609. So that's why I'm going to try and tell you. And it's easy to search because unlike this where it's just two hour form, stuff that's timestamped, we're cutting them and putting them on their channel so they're each easier to search and find. So on the E609 I've talked about this, the placement. So what I did today. Just want to tell you what I did today and that'll help you. This amp I run a very long. It's not here now, but I have a very long like a 15 footer. I think it could be 20 foot or 25B, but it's a 15 foot speaker cable. So I'll run the speaker cable out of this Amplified Nation amp and I run it into an aux box that's sitting right over here in fact. Yeah, it's right over here. I was going to say, in fact, I was like, I don't have an angle to show you today. But then the aux box goes into this interface and I record it using the software I have on this computer. So I'll record the sound of the amplifier and in the auxbox I have a bunch of preloaded settings that are different mic placements of different cabinets. And one of them is a 212 cabinet. And I kind of like, oh, I love the way that sounds. And then what I do is I then run a. The microphone, the C609, this cable running down now this way towards me goes into another channel, into this interface. Okay. And I compare the two sounds. So I kind of loop the first sound recording and then I move that mic until I get to a spot where I'm like, oh, I liked it. Where it sounds on the, on the aux. And I've been doing this for years and I kind of finally came out and told you guys this. And I think I told you, I told Glenn Fricker, I think I told Warren Hewitt too from his channel too, you know, the studio guys. And they were like what? And I was like, yeah, it's, it's like dummies. It's like dumbing things down for me like, because I again, I'm not going to sit here to, to do guitar of the week. I'm not gonna sit here and. And a B test, you know, for two hours. The mic placement, you know, And I know sometimes you're like, well, mark the mic. But I'm not using the same cabinet, same amps all the time. I like to be able to say today, like, a couple weeks ago, I used the magnetone and see, and I took the mic that was there and I moved it over there. And it just. It was easy for me. It's easy for me to do that. So that's how I'm doing that. So why you ask where it's placed? I. I have no idea. I'm not exaggerating. I have no idea. I think that is. I think the cone of that microphone goes about an inch to 2 inches further. Doing my fingers right here than that microphone. So I'm not quite on the edge of the cone where it'd be the basiest. But that's where I decided that placement happens because I just wanted to sound close to what the AUX was doing. And that's what I've used. You could. I used to use the two notes for that too, as well. I just find it's easy that way. And. And to answer the question that no one's asked yet, but sometimes people ask us, well, why don't you just use the oxbox? I would. I absolutely would. I think it sounds great. And there's some people who actually prefer that if I would make videos with an aux box or even a Kemper so that there's not so such a personalized amp in. In the sound. But for. For every person that thinks that, I think 20 to 100 people think, no, I like having real amps. I want to know what it's really sounding like. And so that's how I do it. Pedal pal. So, unfortunately, I cannot give you some great studio advice. I just tell you how I cheated. This is how I'm cheating. In the army, they said, if you're not cheating, you're not trying. I don't know if that's true, but I know this. It's working. So. And the E609 is just a microphone I like. In fact, if you watch my very first videos, I was always using the E609. I love that microphone. I stopped using it because people kept complaining, oh, why don't use a 57? I'm not familiar with that mic. I'm not familiar with that mic. So I switched to the 57 for years. And, you know, I hate to say it, just one day I was like, you know, I guess if that's what burns the channel and no one watches anymore. And it ends because I switched back to the mic I like, then it ends. But I found myself personally finding a better sound faster with that mic than I do the, the sir 57. SM 57. I feel like the 57 I was. Oh, it's great because it's clearer, brighter. I should say it's brighter. But I always found myself taking longer to get the spot where I was happy, where this mic seems way faster. I just really get to it faster. So. And at some point, at some point, if this takes too long to do, I just can't get stuff done. I mean, efficiency is, is a big, huge part of this. Okay. All right. The Harvard. The Harvard yard says, hey Phil, do you think it's worth getting a slanted neck pocket shimmer to replace the small one I used? I had trouble getting the neck to fit to begin with, so I'm not sure if it's worth it. So you're talking about like a pocket shim, like, like one of those pre made wood ones. I have not tried them per se. People have said that they're fantastic. I still use I told you sandpaper. I just shimmed. What? I just shim. I just shimmed like a really expensive guitar. Oh, the EVH access. The. The Access. The museum in Africa access. That guitar just. The action was just too high. The bridge was against the body. There was nowhere to go. So I shimmed it with sandpaper. So I pulled out some probably, I don't know, 400 grit sandpaper. By the way, not specifically matters at all. Just what was laying around. Cut off a piece, shoved it in there. That's what's in there. It plays great, feels great. So it's up to you guys. I personally don't see the point of, you know, these car pieces of wood. It's up to you guys. You know, it works for me. So. All right, let's. Let's button up this show and if I missed a super chat, I'll try to come back to it. I missed out. I had a bunch of patrons loaded in questions, but we didn't get to them. So hopefully we'll have those as backup. Let's do. Whoops. Get me out of this real quick. Hold on. Just trying to grab some of the ones. Amanda sent me a bunch. The trip feed says, hey, Phil, am I going crazy or do my Gibson humbucker seem louder than other brands? I believe Gibson pickups are louder. Than most brands. That is true because there is things that are in place that make that happen. Probably how strong the magnets are is a big part of it. So. Yeah, I think, I believe so too. What, what I think you're referring to is you plug in a guitar, let's say a guitar equal type guitar, so guitar with a, you know, a humbucker pickup. Right. I'm not talking about a Strat or anything. You plug in the amp, you strum a cord, it has a sound and then you unplug it. You plug your Gibson in, you strum a cord with the same type pickup and same position, maybe neck or bridge, and you strum it and you. It's not that the amp is distorting like it's being pushed up. Like there's not being signal being pushed amp. It's all of a sudden the amp is physically just seems. I don't know if physically is the right word, but it just seems louder. It's louder. Yeah, that. That can be. Pickups are. There's a lot of reasons that go into pickups. What causes that. But yes, some hiccups are louder than others. And you know, what's the advantage of that? Well, you could say it sounds better. But keep in mind that if you were to plug your other guitar back in where it's a little quieter and turn the amp a little bit, you'd probably perceive that as sounding a little better too. So that's. It's, it's. I like Gibson pickups. And there's a lot of reasons why I think they kind of. The way they, the amps feel to me feels really percussive. I feel like something's happening, but I don't know if it's. Like I said, it's nothing that I specifically go, oh, it can't go to any other pickup. And then there's two questions I want to hit right after each other. Just one real quick. Somebody was saying, I'm gonna say Brandon. It's not Brandon, but it's Brad. Oh, it's Brad. And then their last name, it says, hey, do you face the sandpaper grit against the neck or, or the body? I tend, tend to put it against the neck grit up. Keep in mind the reason is, is because the sandpaper I use most of the time has. It has adhesive on the back. So I'm just sticking it against the neck pocket. That's why I do that. There's no specific logic that I've assigned to it going, this is the best way. There's no, like, oh, grip something, or it's just adhesive down. So it's just easier for me to do it that way. And if I don't have adhesive, I just do it. Because that's when I do it. I have. You know, sometimes I have adhesive. It's just have it. But I don't. I wouldn't put any thought or care into either way in that way. And then there was something else. There's two. Let's do this one. This one is. This one is. Our guitar company is ever going to allow live feed? If they are, I haven't seen one. Would you consider doing this? I know that you like to edit your guitar company is ever going to do a live feed. You mean like a live video from a channel? Some do. I think, if you're. If I know what you're talking about. Some have done it. PRS has done live feeds, and so has Keisel. But I don't see a whole lot of companies. I don't know if I'm understanding that question so much. Martin says. Martin Murray says, I use the Sweetwater checklist card as the shim. Yeah, that worked. Use what you got. I used to use business cards. In fact, I used to use business cards because they were free and I had tons of them. And the only reason I switched was because over years of taking guitars apart, you started noticing, like I said, almost every Fender would have sandpaper shimmed in there from the factory. And you're like, oh, okay, well, this is a thing they do. And then you start. I was like, why sand? And I thought for sure. I think I told you guys the story. And if not, I'll tell you now. I thought for sure. Like, oh, sandpaper. There's gotta be some reason. Like, you know, kind of like what the question earlier was. I mean, it grips better. Maybe it's better. So at a factory once, I said, hey, I noticed you guys use, you know, sandpaper to shim the necks. You know, what's the logic in that? And they go, we have lots of it. Lots of used sandpaper. They're like, yeah, instead of throwing away, we just cut a piece off and make a shim out of it. So it was just a practical. Practicality thing. There was, like, no thought put into it. And when I say a factory, that was Fender, but other factories too. I. I can tell you, like, two or three factories. When I asked, they all gave the same answer, which is, we have it. It's cheap. It's free. Well, it's free. Because it's. We're going to throw it away because it's used. Most of them used huge sandpaper, but some of them use new. And of course, they'll use, like, the corners and stuff. So it's just, again, practicality had. No, it's not. Not. Not any other reason than just. It's the cheapest way to do something. So let's do it. Yeah. So that's it. And then. Yeah. What sandpaper gives you the best tone. They'll come up with tone sandpaper. Trust me, they'll come up with it. Okay, and let's do one last one. And let's do this. Let me go here. Let me re. I just want to refresh to make sure I didn't miss one over on this side. And if I didn't, which I didn't. Let's go and grab one of the live ones. And thank you guys for hanging out live and asking questions and sending topics and also hanging out to the end of the show. All right. I don't know. I always say last one, then I can't find one. I don't think I can find one that fast. Let's do. Let's. I'm gonna hit what's. Amanda sent me to see if there's one here. Nope. Okay. Nope. Oh, okay. Here's a good one. Somebody asked, do. Do pickups go bad? They do not go bad. There's nothing in a pickup that would necessarily go bad, especially from the normal wear and tear of using a guitar, like playing the guitar and stuff. So I. I'm told that a lot by. By customers would say, hey, this pickup went bad. And most every time when we got in there, it was the switch went bad or the potentiometer went bad, or the wire broke or a ground came undone or a cold solder joint, but everything but the pickup. Do. Can you have a bad pickup? Sure. Most likely. What Most pickups, when they go bad, it's because somebody's messed with them. You take them out and you understand that the 42 gauge wire is thinner than a human hair. Now, I don't know that to be 100% true, as I don't have any hair, but if I did have hair, I would compare it and confirm for you guys. But unfortunately, no joke aside, so 42 gauge wire thinner than a human hair, basically. And so it's very easy to break. Very easy to break. There's a famous story about Eddie Van Halen damaging a pickup. And you guys will know what this is when sometimes the guitar string the high E string gets caught underneath the bobbin and gets caught underneath there. And apparently he was doing that so much on a guitar that it would just kept chopping at the winds of copper wire, which essentially were, you know, thinner than human hair. And then a lot of times they'll use nylon tape. So the nylon tape is wrapped around the pickup. That's what it's wrapped around for, is to protect it. But apparently he removed his nylon tape. I guess the story, I think, is loosely something to the effect of he probably took the tape off to wax pot, it, dip it in wax, and then when he dip wax in the. The. The wire cut on the. The. The string cut on the wire, and then it broke the pickup. That's all it really takes. Now, I've also seen this other weird thing where the wire breaks, but the pickup still works because it's still touching. And the one thing about wire, pickup wire, that's very confusing for a lot of people is people don't understand that it's actually coated. So when you look at pickup wire, that copper wire, you think you're looking at bare wire. You're not. It is coated, sometimes enamel coated, but it's either way, in most cases, it's coated. Which is why when we make a pickup from scratch, we'll use a little piece of sandpaper to scratch that material off the wire. Or sometimes you can use a lighter real fast and the heat will melt off the. The coating off the wire. But it's so small, of course, you don't see it. So the point of this. The point of this is, is that usually if a pickup goes bad, it's because the wire has been broke. And that's what it is. So. And that happens a lot of times when you're pulling the pickups and putting them back out. Fender pickups, taking the covers off and sticking back on. Sometimes people don't realize there's a little notch cut out in the. The top cover to go around the section where the two wires are then soldered. And of course, the. The very thin 42 gauge wires wrapped around the eyelets because there's little two eyelets that you're soldered on there. And so what happens is they'll put the wrong pickup cover on and it cuts the wire. That would damage the pickup. Then of course, that pickup is broken. It has to be rewired. It has to be rewound, I guess is the best way to put it. You take it off and rewind it. So that's possible. Demagnetizing the pickup is very uncommon. I'm sure it's possible. I have not come across it. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It's just I have not come across that particular issue. I. Only thing I've come across crossed is I have gotten new guitars. Have gotten new guitars. I have received new guitars as a dealer, not as a YouTuber and not as a, you know, repair tech or not as a consumer, but as a dealer in volume where like a slug, like an individual slug was not magnetized. So it's happened more than two or three times. So that's why I, you know, I can think of it is you get like six individual magnetized slugs and then all of a sudden like the D string or the G strings not, not making sound. And then you realize, like, it's not, it's not magnetically charged. So they didn't, they didn't gowse it. So that's possible. But like I said, in my experience, especially just sitting in a guitar, you know, and no, pickups just don't go out. They don't go bad. They are the least likely component, I think to physically go out, you have to damage them almost. In almost every case, you have to damage them to get them to stop working. Which is a lot different than pots, because potentiometers wear out. Wires wear, you know, from movement. You know, that happens. They break. And switches definitely break just from, again, physical movement. So I would, I would say that. I would imagine 9 out of 10 techs would agree with this statement. Of course, when I say that, that's just setting myself up for failure, isn't it? But I, I believe nine out of two guitar techs would tell you that if somebody brought them a guitar and said, it's not working because the pickup, the pickup stopped working. We don't say anything, most of us, and we just know it's going to be something else. And then we go through. So it's like that's the last thing we're checking. We're checking the switch, we're checking the output jack. I wish I could give you. Excuse me, I wish I gave you an order, what they were probably going to be, but it's like with no particular order, Alpa jack, switch, pots. That's. That's what's going to go bad, like. And when I say go bad, like, your pot got loose on the top. You didn't lock the nut and it started twisting and the wire was here. And then as it twisted it, it cracked the wire. I Broke it. The output jack, same thing. It got loose, it twisted. The two wires intertwined like this and then one breaks off. You broke it. Switch physically going back and forth or up and down, depending if it's a blade or a toggle. You broke it. Again. When I say you broke it, I'm not saying that, you know, the low, low quality components didn't cause that effect with you, but it's usually you broke it. Whether you should have been able to break it or not is another question. But in most cases you broke it. And then other than the one thing which could be from the factory defect, defective workmanship, like, you know, cold solder joints and other things that again. But pickups being bad are the least likely in my experience. Now here's another last caveat that's important. I don't work on and have very limited knowledge of vintage guitars. I have worked on vintage guitars throughout the years, coincidentally. In other words, a customer who likes my work has brought me vintage guitars. I was not known for doing vintage guitars. I did not have a shop specialized in vintage guitars. I have heard from vintage guitar repair people that pickups go bad. So I would make sense to me that, you know, yeah, I don't really deal with guitars that were 60, 70, 50 years old all the time. So maybe there's a different factor. But I'm talking about normal everyday guitars that you guys are probably seeing. I've not seen the issue you're talking about. So there you go. All right. I'm not a little vintage. I have a vintage guitar switch and it's is bad. Yeah, parts. Parts wear out. All right, guys, thank you guys so much for hanging out. I hope you guys look forward. We have some more videos. You can check out the second channel if you haven't done it. We post almost twice as much stuff there as we do here as it's. Sometimes it's the. The pod clips, but of course there's just special stuff that gets edited because it's faster because they edit on that channel. So I do the work, they edit, makes it faster. This channel I do the work and edit makes it slower. And we'll hopefully have the court video and the prsse video and the Indiana video. I went to Indiana, then I went to Indonesia. Anyways, those videos will be out soon. And then of course some deep dives that I'm excited about will be out even sooner than that. So look for those, if you wouldn't mind. I appreciate the support and as always, I want to thank you guys for hanging out to the end of the show till next Friday. Thank you for your time. Know your gear, Tip your waiter if you're learning something or having a good time. Don't forget you can subscribe for free and help this channel. Or for $10 a month, you can join me on Patreon for live clinics where you can ask questions every single week.