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The know youw gear podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Know youw Gear podcast. This is March 20th. I gotta look at the clock March 20th, and hope you guys had an exciting week. Ready for some guitar stuff, maybe? We have guitar stuff to talk about, I'm sure. Let's get into some subjects and some topics, and I'm going to start the first one. So I had an interesting thing happen. So. So my. My son was telling me. He's like, hey, I saw a video about you. And I go, oh, you saw a video about me? Good. So anyways, it wasn't like that. So what it was was he had seen a YouTube channel, which I knew the channel. So when he said the channel, I'm like, oh, I know that channel. So let me. Let me share it with you. And I thought this was an interesting topic to show. So let me just show you that. So this is a channel called JoJo Fry Rocks. It's a great channel. If you don't know her channel, you need to check it out. I've watched videos of hers in the past. She kind of comes at it from the approach of someone who's on their guitar journey. No egos, which is always great, right? She's just kind of giving it to you how she feels or how she see things, sees things in the market or the industry. And she did essentially a reaction video to the. One of these podcasts. And there's a lot of this. We see a lot more of it, especially now that the second channel is doing great. And we'll get into the second channel to today's show. But why I'm bringing it up was I watched it and I was like. I was a little perplexed. And so I want to talk about it. And so here's. Let me give you the summation of what she was saying. So the clip she's talking about was the one where I talked about my buddy who's one of my best friends, and how he went to a music store and he was gonna buy a Gibson Les Paul. Some of you guys remember the story, but I'll give you the recap. He was. And by the way, to help me, to help me, since there is, you know, a few hundred of you here live and some of you are from Arizona in the Phoenix area, to show. To show. I'm just curious. I'm gonna tell the story, and then I would like anyone local to pay attention right now to what I'm about to say. So the story goes like this. Like I said, I'll give You the reader's digestion. He went to a store because he wanted to buy a Gibson Les Paul, a nice Les Paul. He happens to be a surgeon. And he went in there and he. I told him that they have a don't touch policy. He went in, he didn't touch anything. He got a salesman to show him two Les Paul's that he was interested in. And when he was playing one Les Paul's, the salesman told him that, got the guitar and said, no, you actually need an epiphone. And does anyone. Can anyone guess? Just to show you I'm. This is going to help. I think JoJo rocks. Anyone guess what store that was in the. In the Phoenix area? Let's see. Because I got a feeling it's not going to be a hard store to guess. Even though I think there's two, maybe three stores in Arizona that could easily have had this experience in anyone could have. But there's one store specifically and not so much anymore. They're much better now than they've ever been before, but by far by leaps and bouts. But anyways, and if I see it in the comments, I'll. I'll. I'll tell you. Well, not tell you if you're right, but I just want to. I'll talk about it. Hey, look at that. The first person said Bizarre Guitars. You're absolutely right. And so you know Bizarre Guitars who. I was friends with the owner before he passed away. I have many unfortunate stories of bad experiences at Bazaar Guitar. He was kind of known for it, as we all know, even though we all miss. Miss him. But like I said, I think I said it in that video too. I said I. I know why you're. You're a jerk. Because he was proud to be kind of like Jerky. But why are the employees jerky? By the way, I've since I even bought a Gibson Les Paul from Bizarre Guitar in the last few years and it was a great experience. So like I said, they're not the store they used to be by any means. Okay, they've really reformed. But back to JoJo. What she was talking about was she was trying to. Or she was analyzing the story and it was. She was in shock. And she came to this conclusion at first that, that. Not that the story is not real, although she had her doubts that she doesn't understand why a store would do that. And more importantly, she's good for her. She's never had that experience which I. So if you don't know, JoJo is, I believe in England, right That's just my guess. I don't know if she's ever said it when I was watching videos, but obviously that's. Her accent seems English to me. So what I'm gonna basically. Long story short, I'm trying to say she's in England or in Europe or somewhere like that. Ireland, Scotland. My point is, I really was like almost sad when she was talking about her experiences in stores. I'm like, wow. She was like, I've never experienced that. And what's funny to me, I don't think I know anyone. I can't think of a single person that I know that's a good friend that's into guitar. Like I am male or female that doesn't have two, maybe three crazy and bad guitar store stories. It seems to be very common here. And that is why I want to talk about this. Because, you know, I was recently talking about the story and this is all going to tie in. You know where I bought that Gibson SGA Guitar Center. That was a. So you guys know that video got clipped and that video went viral. 130, 150,000 views on that. And just to let you know on a side note, before we go any further, Guitar Center, I gotta give them props. You know, they reached out to me and asked me if I would do the Fender video. If you haven't watched the Fender Telecast video that I'm pointing out right now, I did that video this week. There's no way I would have ever been included in any early launches of any Fender products or any known products. As you guys know, I do very few entry launch products. So I do. I very rarely get the product before it comes out or when it hits the market. And, and definitely not when it's premium brands like Gibson and Fender. So that was Guitar center. And to their credit, you know, they had just watched me pummel them publicly with their customer service. And more importantly, they've actually set up the appointments so that me and Gabe, their CEO, can sit down and talk. And they, they know I want to talk about some of those issues. So again, props to Guitar center for, for taking that and still working with the channel because as you guys know, it's really hard to, to critique something and then expect to, you know, to expect, you know, them to keep working with you. It's. It's really tough because it doesn't always happen that way. But why I'm talking about this is, it's back to this. The gentleman that sold me the SGA Guitar center and I was talking about the Fact that it was really difficult. You guys know that story too. And this all ties into what JoJo was saying. And I think what JoJo maybe didn't get from the story, which, by the way, her observations, by the way, your observations, if you see this, they were great. I enjoyed all of it. And even you even started to touch on this. I was telling my wife, she's like, oh, she almost said it. She said it, I think, for a second, and then she didn't run that vein through. And that is even though he's a surgeon and he can definitely buy collect Porsches, the whole story that I was telling that day on the podcast was about the, you're not good enough to own that guitar thing has to do with. If your skill isn't here, then your guitar that you buy can't be here. In other words. And that goes for. And actually, this is what's funny about that salesman, what I believe happened that day with him and that salesman. The salesman heard him play guitar and decided he didn't have the money to buy a Gibson. And I know what you're thinking. You're like, well, wait a minute. What does money have to do with, you know, what is how good you play have to do with how much money you have? Well, because most musicians actually buy expensive guitars, don't have money. I hear this all the time. Musicians go, you know, I don't have any money. Musicians don't have money. They don't buy expensive guitars. It's absolutely not true. Musicians buy expensive guitars when they have no money all the time. That's what trading's for. That's what layaway is for. That's what loans are for. That's what payments are for. That's what credit cards are for. That's what girlfriends are for. That's what. I mean, come on. Who hasn't heard a girlfriend or wife guitar player joke, right? You know, you know, guitar players are like, I didn't get a job, I got a girlfriend. This is a very normal thing to see that guitar players who are really good, talented players not making or having a lot of money have. Have nice guitars because they find a way. They find a way. You know, I mentioned once, maybe I didn't. Maybe I never mentioned this, but I'll just let you know. So, so you guys know, I've obviously been with my wife for a very, very long time. When I, when I. And when my wife and I moved into our first apartment, we used base cabinets as end tables and a 810 cabinet as our coffee Table. It's absolutely true. In fact, she once said a joke and I always liked it. In fact, I'm having a moment because I haven't thought about it in probably forever. She said, yeah, whenever he had a gig, I had no furniture. So think about this. We didn't even have, in fact, so just to be clear, we didn't even have a bed. We had an inflatable mattress. So we had an inflatable mattress. We had base cabinets for end tables, base cabinet for a coffee table. And you know, that's what we had. And I had a base and I had, I had, I had gear. We just didn't have anything else. And you know, that's just a musician logic, right? I don't need a coffee table. I got an 810 cabinet, lay it flat, just speakers down so we don't spill anything into the speakers. So. So my point is, I think that's what was interesting about that story was they heard his playing, the person heard his playing and decided that he wasn't either able to or gonna buy an expensive guitar. That's why he kicked him loose and didn't sell him the expensive guitar. That's what I believe. That's what my theory is. And this really comes down to something that's really interesting because of the fact that it kind of ties into the Guitar center story where, you know, my wife and as you know, and I talked about this after the podcast that day when we talked about Guitar center and I talked about the fact that, you know, I went into Guitar Center. If you really analyze that story, I want you to think of it the way through, filter it through my eyes. If you could for a second, as someone who had to do retail for over a decade, owning a store, how would it cut? What would I do? In fact, I asked my wife what would she do if she was that, that kid in the store. And I walked up with the SG and I said, Hey, I want to buy this 1900 or 1700 dollar SG, but it's got some damage. And I said, but I want to buy it. And I said, what would you do? And she of course said verbatim this and it's the same thing I would do. So I'm just gonna tell you from her point of view. She said, first I would offer tax out the door. I wouldn't even hesitate. I'm like, I can do that guitar for tax out the door in Arizona. That'd be an 8% discount to see if they would just take it. Why? She goes, well, first of all, let's. I gotta give her credit. First of all, she goes, in our store, they never pick up guitar with damage like that. We would already have caught it. I said, yeah, but let's pretend we didn't catch it, right? So you guys know, in our store, because we had lesson academy, we would pay students or give students free lessons, but exchange lessons if they would tune guitars and clean guitars after or before their lessons. So a kid could come in and we had a cart, and they would walk the store and they would take guitars down, tune them, and, you know, still didn't mean the guitars are all gonna be in tune, but. Or wipe down, but at least we put. Try to put a head on it. But anyways, my point is, she said, if I didn't know, I would have said, hey, tax out the door. If they would have said yes, then that'd be the end of it. If they said no, she's like, I can do 10% with work. And if they said no, she goes, okay, I can do 10%, plus strings or some other accessories. Again, trying to smooth it down, and then eventually land on maybe 15% and then hope not to have to go to 20%. As you guys know, the dealer margin would be 30%. So we don't want to go super low if we don't have to, especially if the customer wants it. But the point is sales 101, I'm not really. We weren't really good salespeople in our stores in that. In that regard, we were just really informed, as you can imagine. Probably seeing the channel now you can see what kind of experience you would have in the store. If you asked me a question, I'd pretty much have a good answer for you, which probably made the customer experience pretty decent that way. But, oh, wait, I don't want to get sidetracked, but I got to offbeat bass gear. What if the student tunes, everything drop D. That actually happened. There was a kid that my wife hired. Same thing. He had a single mother, by the way. He ended up joining the Marines. I always remember this because he was taller than me. Ralph's six foot. I'm six foot. He was taller than us, and he was kind of scrawny and, well, not scrawny, but I don't know, say, scrawny. And he would. We. My wife would hire him to tune guitars, and me and Ralph would bust his chop sometime. And then he. When he graduated high school, he went and joined the Marines, and he came back, and then he was a really buff, like, six Three, dude. So me and Ralph were like, I hope he doesn't remember all the. The razzing we gave him. He didn't. He was pretty good kid. But so, you know, we couldn't figure it out. We didn't know what he was doing. He didn't. He tuned every guitar to drop D. Not to. Not to get us. Not because me and Ralph were razzing him at times, just because I guess he plays in drop D. And so he would. That's what he would do. He would tune it up. Drop D. Play drop D. And so what happened was we didn't know. And every customer would pick up the guitars and be like, this guitar is not in tune. And we would say, all the guitars should be in tune. And they'd be like, this guitar is not in tune. And then he's like, I remember customers like, he's on his third guitar. He's like, this guitar is not in tune. He's all. None of your guitars are in tune. You said they're in tune. I'm like, we just had somebody tune them this morning. So, yeah, somebody did that. But back to the. Now I'm sidetracked. I'm sorry. But it just brought back another funny story. So back to sales 101. You know, you should have a process. That was my critique of Guitar center, and actually that's my critique of the industry. And then I. I want to tag on to what JoJo was saying, which is that's really the problem, that the industry as a whole are as mostly guitar players and guitar stores and not salespeople, not customer service people. They don't think that way. To me, it's as a customer. Again, basic sales 101. A customer says, I want to buy something, and they give you one objection, which is a very easy one. Whatever it is, hey, I want to buy it, but not today. I want to buy it tomorrow. You just have to find the objection and move on. If somebody came to me and said, hey, I want to buy this, but there's a dent in it, and I'd be like, okay, well, I can't remove the dent, so what can I do? You know? Right. How do you, you know, is a discount going to work? Is a free restring gonna work? What is gonna work to make this process move forward and make the sale? My point with critiquing the kid at Guitar center was his. His responses were these canned 1970s movie car salesman responses with, but that's a really good price. Oh, it's a really good deal. Like, that's not. That's not gonna fix. That's not my objection. My objection was I wanted to. I wanted some kind of adjustment. So I think this all ties in together. Is what I'm trying to say is that the story about my friend where they didn't sell no Les Paul and insulted him is the same story where I've had where I walked in stores and they couldn't help with an easy objection and move the sale forward and make the process easy. And just so you guys know, we had a bonus podcast this weekend. In the bonus podcast, we talked a little deeper about this because of what I'm going to talk about Guitar center about. And one of the things I told them was, absolutely, I've said this before, I wouldn't have bought the SG if I didn't have a gift card, but I really wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't for the fact that I had the gift card. I liked it. And in that experience, I was like, you know, I want to see how this plays out, like I said on the podcast, because I think this is going to be a good conversation to have with Guitar center, because I think this is a problem that retail has to deal with as a whole because of kind of what JoJo said, which is the Internet is winning, and these. These brick and mortar stores, they're going to have to give something to us that the online can't. And I think that's a little service and maybe a little smile. Like, you know, you don't have to smile, but, you know, be nice if you weren't grumpy sometimes. So. But anyways, I thought I'd point it out. Not only I'll put a link when I timestamp this to her channel, you can check it out and even watch that video. Watch your observation. It's really interesting for me to watch people respond to the things I say in the podcast, especially the way she did it. She was. She came out as a skeptic, which was great. And she wrestled with it. And I don't even know if she actually got to the end 100% agree with me. Which is not the importance of anything. It's just to have. She just gave her viewpoint of that situation. And I will tell you this. JoJo rocks. If you watch this, somebody sends this to you. JoJo Fry rocks. I'm sorry, I'm not saying the. Fry Joe. JoJo Fry rocks. You will get a viral video. If you come to the United States and film yourself in a music store. I would pick about six random music stores. Any six, I promise you, any six in the U.S. in fact, probably two. But I just want to be safe, I want to win the bet. Pick any random six music stores, a half a dozen, go in them and film them. And I guarantee you're going to have one interestingly bad experience. Whether it's because you're a woman or because you're. Whatever it's gonna. It's just a weird thing here. So the fact that you said that there's. That you. They don't have those kind of experiences there in England is crazy to me because it ties in. We actually had a customer, a viewer send me this email last week as well. And it ties on to this. He was in a Long and McQuade in Canada and he's. His story was that he has an electric guitar, Yamaha electric guitar and I believe an amphier. And he wants to upgrade now. He wants his next level, his playing and get a high end acoustic. He was looking at a Martin D28 or D45. You guys know that's a very expensive instrument. And it was on the top row. And he had a little awkwardness asking for stuff off the top row. By the way, if you're watching this man, I have the same problem because he said what I always say, which is it's hard for me to ask someone to get something down like that. I'm not 100% committed to it yet I'm entertaining the idea of buying it. Sure. Am I a buyer? I'm possibly a buyer. I have, you know, the cash, I have the want, but it's. The stars have to align. You know, just because I have a couple bucks in my pocket and the guitar happens to be in the room doesn't mean it's going to be. You know, it's like a dating app for guitars, right? We got to do the first date. Got to see how that goes, right? So I got to do the first date with a guitar. So he was a little nervous about it. So what he did, which is in his email he was explaining that he was sitting there and essentially looking like he was looking for the guitar or trying to get the guitar, waiting for someone to come to him because. And so, you know, back to him again. If you're watching this, I 100% the same way. I feel that if they come to me and say, hey can I help you with thing? And I go, actually I'm curious about that guitar up there. Can I try it? And I feel like if they get it. Then if I say, yeah, I'm not really feeling it, then I can move on to, you know, my way. However, if I have to flag down someone and say, hey, can. When you get a minute, can I get that guitar down? I feel more like. Because I put them out, I guess, you know, is how I would feel that I feel more inclined to have to buy it. And I'll tell you this, what I do all the time, and I really don't like this part of my personality, but it happens a lot. If I end up not buying it out of guilt, I end up usually killing too much time in the store trying to find anything to buy. So I didn't waste somebody's time, and that's fine. Sometimes it's just picks or strings, but sometimes I'm buying a pedal. In fact, I'll do it a lot. I buy a pedal, and I'm like, I just feel like, oh, I bought a pedal. That's something, right? I wasn't loitering in your store. And so basically, what I'm trying to say, it's not just an America thing. Because when he was explaining that story in Canada, my suggestion to you is buy it@sweetwater.com. i am not sponsored by Sweetwater. This is sponsored by patrons. And obviously Guitar center works with me, too. Notice I didn't say guitarcenter.com I. Oh, I know they probably don't ship to Canada, but I think there's a workaround. I saw Landon and thing. Landon put a comment. Is there a workaround for that? Can you get stuff from Sweetwater into Canada? But Sweetwater, here's the deal. You can pick out the guitar exactly what you want on their photos and then have it delivered. And there's a return policy. I didn't think about the fact you're in Canada. That's a little tricky. So hopefully some Canadian friends will put some comments on if there's a way to get that stuff done like that. But. And don't forget, you know, I know guitars. Like, that's tough. First people are gonna say, hey, go see your mom and pop stores. It's tough. A lot of mom and pop stores are not carrying guitars like that. I mean, there is some, but not a lot, so. But yeah, it's interesting. I think this whole industry is interesting. And for. For obviously for. For my own personal purposes, you know, I don't want to go into detail, but I noticed this massively differently as my daughter now is in management for a company. I. Keeping it vague for obviously reasons. And the way that they train, they're outside this industry completely. And the way that they train for sales and up sales and helping customers with all kinds of items and the way that they do things. My wife and I have had long conversations about how this industry is so far removed from that concept. So, in fact, one of the things that my daughter, because my daughter trains people, they focus on is getting a good review. Not like at work, review, like, please go and put a good yelp or go to put a good positive. I'm like, yeah, now I thought about it. I'm like, I don't think I've ever been in a music store ever, including my own. Somebody said, hey, really like it if you give me a good review. You know, if you enjoyed the service. I never thought about this, like, yeah, this industry, but yet I have been to appliance stores. I've been to so many businesses where they're like, hey, it'd be really nice if you gave us a good review. You know, just helps us get more customers. And. And then you think about it going, yeah, no one's going to give you crappy. Well, not no one. They're not going to give you crappy service. Then ask for a good review. So, yeah, it's kind of funny. Usually my guitar buying experience is pretty. Unless I know the people there. That's usually the only way it works. If I have a good experience at a store, it's usually because I know somebody there. We're already friends or we became friends, but most of the time stores are pretty, pretty bland, you know. Oh. So Anthony says, hey, don't worry, Phil. They can be just as bad, if not worse in the UK and Ireland in guitar shops. Well, that doesn't make me feel better, but I will tell you that I don't. I was gonna ask Shauna to pop in and maybe say something on the show, but I already know the answer. So I'm just gonna answer for you. For her in her entire life, and she's. Her first experience in a music store was when she was, I want to say 16, maybe 15, but 16. Little fun fact. We knew each other as friends, but we didn't know each other know each other, and we were going to lessons at the same music store. And so anyways, again, if you were to take. If you were to ask my wife out of all the music stores she's been to, and she's been to a lot and all the stuff she's bought in music stores, and she's bought quite a bit as Far as I remember, she's only mentioned to me one time that she's ever had a great experience, and it was in the Sweetwater store. Physically in that store, a young gentleman walked up to her and asked her if she needed any help. She. She walked up to me right afterwards. I didn't see the interaction, but she walked up and she goes, that's the first time anyone's ever walked up to me in a music store in my life and asked me if I need any help. And I immediately. So you guys know, I immediately shot looked to see if she had her lanyard or anything on, and she did not. She was not wearing any garb because we were there, you know, and I was. I didn't. And I was not with her. So, you know, so there was no, like, oh, she got the Phil McKnight treatment. Like, you know, because I was obviously there as a guest of Sweetwater. The, you know, the employee didn't know her. They just came up to her and asked her if she needed any help. And she was like. She was. She was blown away. Okay, I feel like I've put enough of that on the topic. Let's go to some other questions. Topics. Let's talk about good stuff. This came from Amanda. This is from Jeff. It says, hey, Phil, I love your content. I recently acquired a 2014 Fender FSR Fender. So you guys know FSR stands for Fender Special Run. It means it's like a limited edition. They do a run, and there's all kinds of reasons for that. Sometimes it's because they want to do something special. Sometimes because when they're slow months throughout the year, they actually do FSR to keep excitement up and sell guitars. Really Smart move. He says. Okay, so we got an FSR Strat with a grease bucket tone pots. What are your thoughts on these and how do they really differ from treble bleed for tone? So the grease bucket thing is cool. I've had it on guitars, but it's nothing that I've actually actively searched for. Like, a lot of players, I don't really use. What's different than obviously, like a treble blade. That's a totally different thing. So. So how does it really different from treble bleed? Well, because it's more in line. A grease bucket is more in line with a tone control. In other words, not exactly, but it's more in line with that than it is with a treble bleed. Okay, so what a treble bleed does is essentially you attach it to your volume control, and what it helps with is that when you roll the volume back off. When you roll the volume back off on your volume knob, not your tone control, your volume knob, what happens to a lot of players is you lose the high frequencies really fast. Okay. Faster than you. You lose the low frequencies. And so what happens is it works almost like a tone control. And the idea, when you roll back to clean up your amp, which is usually what some players are after, right? They want to just clean up the amp. There's a little distortion. They clean up the amp, but they get a little bit of this because they're losing their high frequencies. They're just kind of. They're kind of going in the mud. So by installing a trouble bleed, which you can do very easily, and I recommend everyone try. Try it. Some people hate it, some people love it, but it's definitely worth trying, especially since you can buy them. We used to sell them. You can buy them with alligator clips, or you can just add alligator clips to them so you don't even have to solder them into your volume pot. So I'll put a link to a video. I think I have a video, but so does Stu Mack, and I think Stu Mack video's older, and it's just to the point more. But anyways, if I. Oh, I think I do. I think I have a complete video that's not that long. I'll put my link to my video. So anyways, by doing that, what it does is it lets you, when you roll off the volume, retain the high frequencies. In other words, you don't go right into the mud really quick. So that's really cool. In fact, let me pull that up real quick. Okay. And. Okay, so. I want to look at something, because what I'm looking at, so you guys know, is with the grease bucket turn tone circuit, what I want to see is how is it actually different? Because I've installed a couple. I've removed more than I've ever installed. And funny enough, Okay, I'm looking at something real quick. So you guys know some modification I get. It rolls off the high frequencies. Grease bucket, okay. It's claiming that it's. The way it's different is that when you roll it back, it doesn't. You don't lose the high frequencies, but you don't also add bass. I don't believe a treble bleed adds bass when you roll it off. So I don't know why that would be specifically different. But. But the grease bucket, if I recall, it's connected to the tone control, right? Yeah. As you roll off the tone, it acts like a low pass filter, cutting highs and high pass filters simultaneously reducing lows. Okay. So yes. And then I believe it goes the other way around. Right. The grease bucket, if I'm remembering off it rolls off the highs, keeps the low end clean, producing a smoother, more mid focused and cleaner tone. So different because I don't think in my experience and I'm getting. I'm doing off memory because it's been a while since maybe I'll experiment and try one again. I don't believe it's rolling down volume. So that would be the main difference between the treble bleed is that you're actually reducing volume. Where I believe the grease bucket, because it's connected to the tone control, it's doing a similar sound thing but not adjusting the volume. So I think that's the main difference. That's the way I would see it. So. So ITV9 says hey grease bucket when it's on 10. It's like having no tone control. Sure. Well, so is. So is a. So you know, they have a, A lot of. Fender has the tone controls that have the, the disable, you know, where you go click forward. What do they call that? The no load. No load tone control. Where it clicks and then it's out of the circuit as well. But this isn't something I overly worry about. I have played guitars over years that have no tone control. Guitars that have tone control. I find I rarely never use the tone control in a guitar. But I have decided for whatever reason that I like having it because it doesn't hurt to have it there. But also I find that when you remove it again, because when you put a tone control in, unless you have that no load switch where it takes it completely out, you do change the sound slightly. And I actually okay with that. You know, I don't, I don't, I don't have guitars that are that dark. So yeah, no load tone control. I believe that's what it is. And as far as I know, the no load tone control is specific to Fender. Right. It's a Fender only part because that's where I've sourced them always from. I'm gonna search that too. I have a lot of them in my guitars. I stopped putting them in my guitars because I fell in love with. I fell in love with when the, when the original, the very first Wolfgang USA Wolfgang EVH guitars came out, the USA ones, when we first received them, they had two low friction or zero friction potentiometers. So they were like fast, like the Engvase So if you guys don't know what that means, it just literally feels like. That feels like the tone control and the volume control were broken. So you can just roll them back real fast. Have you ever seen. Anyway, he takes his finger, his pinky, and he rolls it really fast. Like that makes the violin sounds. And I thought that was cool for a second. And then I don't like them now because. Because when you're playing, sometimes when you bump the guitar, they. They turn. The vibration makes them turn. Obviously, I think Eddie Van Halen did not like them either because after I don't know how many batches, but it was not very long before all of a sudden all EVH Wolfgangs going forward coming to the store now had a. A very heavy tone control. Not the volume. The volume stayed with a low friction. The tone control went to a high friction tone control where you could feel it turning. You're like, ah, you know, it's like, you know, you had to mean it to turn it. And ever since then, I like the high fraction friction Frick. High fraction high friction knobs for tone control. So if I'm adding a tone control knob potentiometer to a guitar, I used to do the no load from Fender forever, but now I do the high friction. And that way I don't have to worry about it turning if I don't want it to. And I'm fine with it. I don't really need it out of the circuit. So it's not something I. First of all, it's one of those things I can't even hear anyways. It's just about paranoia for me. I've played a couple gigs and I've recorded a couple of times where all of a sudden I realized my tone control was cocked back just a little bit. And I was like, oh. And I actually had this bad experience once where I was playing a guitar and I could not get the note to squeal. And I was like, what's going on? And I hit the note, I hit the note and it's, you know, my normal rig. And I was like, I don't know what's going on. I can't do the thing that I want to do. And it was because the tone control had get cocked back just a little bit and it was just taking enough of the high frequency that I could not get the pinch to work. So I like the high friction potentiometers for, for, for. What do you call it? For the tone control. Patrick says, hey, is that the 75th anniversary Telecaster on the wall. It sure is. It's right there. Whoops. Right there. So if you guys didn't see it, I did a deep dive of that guitar. I just gotta tell you how fun it was to finally be included. You know, I'm very rarely. I wish to never. But I'm very rarely included in these big marketing pushes. And sometimes I like that because you guys don't like the marketing pushes. But it sometimes sucks when it's like, new guitars, because I'm like, oh, I'd like to see it. And guitars like this, they're limited runs. So by the time if I got one, you know, to check out and do a breakdown video for you guys, they wouldn't be any to say there wouldn't be any for you to buy. So I don't know why the video would make any sense. But what I really enjoyed the most was I watched a lot of people's videos of that specific guitar, the Ultra 2 Telecaster, and then, of course, my breakdown video. And what's funny is how different. How different. And that's why I said back to. I was saying earlier, I gotta say, I gotta thank the Guitar center guys again. They're the ones who sent that. Fender did not send that out. Guitar center sent that out. And to the credit, you know, if you watch my video, I had some complaints about it. I found some things with it. We talked about that, like we always do in the video to you guys, you're like, yeah, you probably didn't. You know, you. Some of you saw it and probably didn't think I said anything that bad. But you gotta understand, like, in my experience, that's why they don't usually want me. I wouldn't say allow. That's why usually some companies don't want me to be in the original marketing pushes because some of those negative things that got presented to you guys, which to me is just valuable information if you're thinking about considering one. Somebody said, hold on. Yeah. Lumatoro says, hey, yeah, it's like a standardized test for guitar reviewers. Reviewers. Yeah. I. You know what? It's. I. I agree. It's kind of funny, right? When you. Yes. That's basically what I'm gonna say. Yes. What I find is there was very few to no reviews on the guitar anyways. Most everybody was doing a reaction to how great it was to get one sent to them. And I don't mean that in, like, a negative way, but that's mostly what I saw was like, look, they sent me one. And then you're like, oh, I'm like, okay, I don't know what I would do with that other. That. I'm happy for you. Let's see. And then also somebody says, I love the 70th anniversary. Oh, broadcaster one and seventh. So you guys know, funny little tidbit on that guitar with guitar center. So GuitarsCenter reached out and asked me if I would be interested in being in the telly the Fender launch. And so, you know, they said, we know you don't usually like to be in the marketing launch, so you could release it, you know, weeks later. Whatever you want to do. Do whatever you want. And I was like, no, no, I want to release it right when it comes out because that's when people are going to probably be watching. And I go, but what's funny is I didn't get to choose the guitar. So, you know, kinda. So they didn't know which guitar they could get from me to do the video. So they specifically asked me, like, give me my favorite three of the four that are coming out. I gave them my favorite three. This happened to be one of them. And that's the one they sent. So that was really cool. So. And I was really kind of like, I was either that one or the silver one. I was kind of hoping that would show up. So when that one showed up, I was like, really, really cool. Because it's interesting. I thought, that's an interesting Telecaster. To me, it's different. It's, you know, a lot of people are like, oh, it's the same old, same old. Yeah, but all Fender stuff, same old, same old. All Gibson stuff, same old, same old. You know, it's, you know, it's why we get so excited about the silly little changes that are silly. Let's see. Let's go to the next one. How we doing? We're doing good. We're moving quite long. Cesar says. Hey, Phil, love your content and been watching old podcast episodes. Where's Cosmic Hippo at? Oh, you know what? Where is Cosmic Hippo at? In. In the. Oh, he's right there. Here, I'm gonna. Ta da. So, yeah, what he's talking about. So you guys know, if you don't know what this is, this is the Hippo from Bella Fleck and the Flecktones. Flight of the Cosmic Hippo. Pretty much the instrumental bands. I'm not really into instrumental bands. Just something to say. It's pretty horrible to say. I've seen Bella Fleck three, four, maybe five times in the Fleck Tones. I've seen Gary Hoey once. And that's about the all day. So I love Bella Fleck and the Fleck Tones. We used to go, whenever they would come in town, we would go see them. And so I got a cosmic hippo. Look at that. And it's a stuffed animal. So if you guys don't know the song Flight of the Cosmic Hippo by Bella Fleck. So he's referring to the fact that this used to be in the background. A lot of stuff is in the background. Because now you gotta. The way we kind of see it now or I see things now is this is like my office, but it's also a studio and then the repair shop's a studio. So everything's kind of set up studio wise. So, yeah, a lot of the cool little things I wish the Chotchkis and stuff I used to put in the backgrounds aren't there anymore, so. But yeah, it was on my guitar racks, so I thought I'd grab it. It's cool that you mentioned that. Now I'm gonna listen to Bella Fleck again this weekend. Oh, Lumatoro says, hey, my autistic self really appreciates the lack of words and instrumental bands, you know, what it is for me, I love instrumental music. So let's be clear. I listen to it in the, in the truck. I listen to it, you know, when I'm, you know, in the house working or whatever I'm doing live. I don't. You think I would, you think, you know, by personality type, I would be cross arming like with most of you. You know, this is the way musicians watch music, right? Cross armed and staring at what they did and what they can do and, you know, judging whatever or appreciating or dissecting or giving analysis. Me, I'm more of a sing along kind of person. I go to a show to have a good time. So I want to go and I want to. I want to sing, you know, badly in a crowd with everybody else. I want to sing out, you know, and I want to have some fun. So that's what I like. Of course, I like bands that have great guitar players and great instrumental players because it's fun to watch on top of that. But the instrumental stuff I really don't enjoy that much. Bella Fleck and the Fleck Tones. What's always interesting is every time I've seen them, they had a different guest artist. One time was Stanley Jordan that came and played. So I believe one time it was Jeff Coffin before he was actually in the band. So I always love That I always love the fact that every time we saw him, somebody would just come up on stage and do stuff. And. And, of course, just, you know, I always used to describe seeing Bella Fleck and the Flecktones like going to the circus, which was just crazy to watch and listen to. And it was. It was amazing. My only regrets is we used to go see Bella Flecktones and people would bring like a. You know, especially the outdoor events, people bring a blanket and have wine, and I didn't drink wine. And now, you know, now I'd probably get a. You know, a bottle of wine and sit with Shawna and watch Bella Fleck and the Flecktones watching wine. So. But yeah. Yes. Satchel says, I haven't thought of Stanley Jordan years. My dad was really into his jazz stuff. Stanley Jordan was amazing. The only negative thing I can say, I don't want to be negative, but it's just a. It's kind of a compliment that unfortunately has a negative connotation to it, which is the one thing that blew me away, is that when Stanley Jordan came and played with Bella Fleck and the Fleck Tones. Anyone who knows Stanley Jordan knows, like, masterful player, of course, on every level, but also masterful tapper, right? And he started tapping, and Victor Wooten started tapping, and I just. And Ralph was there that day with me. So Ralph agreed with me that Victor was just a little bit more impressive overall, as Victor sometimes is, because he's really showmanship on top of technique. And I said. I remember saying to Ralph, wow, Stanley was amazing. But it was crazy to see Victor either at that level or higher when that's really kind of Stanley's forte, right? It's weird to see a musician who's got their thing down and then a musician who does a bunch of different things kind of at their same level kind of really shows you how crazy Victor is as a monster player, you know, And. And I know that's. And this is a side thing just to say, and I know that's a thing that only people like May. I won't say us, but people like me think, you know, I know that. I know now because I've actually not from just not only interviewing guitar players or musicians, you know, bass players, but hanging out with them through these intervents I've met with them or just because I've learned to know them over the years, they're the ones not thinking like that. They're actually up there having just a great time. You know, I used to believe, and I think Some of you guys believe this and I don't believe this anymore, that, you know, Stanley Jordan and Victor Wooten were like Crossroads, Ralph Macchio and Steve. I used to believe every time two musicians got on a stage it was to see who was better. It was a show, you know, like, oh, you play, then I play. And now I know on a deeper level they don't think like that. Even if it presents like that. That's not what they're doing. They're just literally having a good time. So it's crazy. So. And I'm glad that I got to learn that in my life because I don't think I would have ever seen it from the audience view. I've always seen it as, oh, Steve, I is playing against Yngwie. Let's see what happens. And now I know they're just having a blast. And we're the ones talking about who's trying to one up each other or who did. Yeah. Chamber says, just jamming. Exactly. It's funny, I think it's because I think that you somehow think. And maybe sports like that too. I'm not into sports, but maybe like when you see people at the super bowl playing, I'm sure they're stressed about winning the game because it's their job and their career and all this stuff. But deep down I wonder if they're just still 15 year old kids just having a blast on the field. It never occurred to me that a musician, a tenured musician who's accomplished so much, is on stage still having fun like a 15 year old kid. I always thought, oh, they're performing because it's. The word is performing. They're putting on performance, they're doing a job for you. And it never occurred to me until I got to meet some of them and hang behind the scenes of it and talk to them frankly and. And off the record so many times to know. No, they're just having a good time and they can't believe they get paid for it. So. So all right. Oh, I don't know. I'm gonna upset Sean, Eric Brooks, he says, phil, what do you think of the band Geese? I don't know the band Geese, I'm gonna look them up today and put them in my. When I'm on the treadmill. I don't think I go to the treadmill tomorrow. I did it today, so we'll see. But it's nice to have something new to listen to. So when I'm that machine, that machine's just. It's not fun so it's boring. So anything new is good. Okay, let's see. Let's. Let's go to the next one. Oh, sorry, I missed one, did I? Oh, next one. Okay. I don't know. So Jamman says, hey, Phil, you talked about your throwbacks and your Les Paul, but which models are they? Sle's. I don't remember. I should. There's a card that came with them. So I had a different experience, like I said, with you guys. They sent those to me, so. Because they did a podcast on the show, and it was kind of like, hey, we'd like to send you a set of pickups. And so what happened was he asked me, John at Throwback asked me some questions on the phone, and it was like, what kind of magnets you like? What do you want? And I told him what I like, and then he sent me a set. And I remember he said something, they're this, this, this, but I'm going to put Al Ninko 5s in them. And then they came, and then I saw the card. I, for some reason, I didn't commit what they are to memory, and I put them in the guitar. But what I will do for you is I know where the. I can't get to it right now because in the shop, but I will get the card and then next week I will tell you what. What they are, and I will actually do guitar of the week with that Les Paul and. Or add it to the guitar that we can and share with them what it is. Again, I apologize. And. And the good news is I told you I have a set that I bought that's in a guitar. That guitar has got a breakdown. Deep Dive video. And that video will be out pretty soon. I say before the month, but it's really soon. It's so the patrons know that they saw the video that you're gonna see next yesterday. So it's not after that video. It's one after the next video of that. Lumatoro says, hey, how do you best use the noise gate? Is it always in the beginning or is it the end of the chain? I like to put in the effects loop of an amp, especially if I'm not using a pedal board. I'm just using the amplifier. Usually if I'm using an effects loop, it's because of the amp. It's not because of the pedals. So my two reasons why I use an effects loop is either the amp is noisy when I'm running some higher amount of gain, or some amps, they don't react well to a bunch of pedals in front of them, even if the pedals are off, because obviously it's, like, buffered. It's pushing whatever. Mesa Boogies are really bad at that. But even my Freeman's have acted up with certain pedals, right? And every once in a while, I'm putting some different pedals and I kind of a montage of experience expensive and cheap pedals on my boards at any given time. You know, I don't really have a. You know, I don't really have a. I don't know what you call it, like, show off your pedals kind of thing, you know, like, all my pedals are the best. I have Strymans, as you guys know. I like the Stry. I like the Atlantic New X more than all my Stryman delays. And there's your con. And. And I'm very aware I've abed them, and I'm very aware that the Strymans are much quieter and there's just something. They're more articulate. But I just like the flavor of the nux. But that being said, sometimes you get some noise there. So I'll just put the effects loop or the noise gate in the effects loop. If I'm not putting the effects loop, I put it at the end of the chain. So that way it suppresses all the noise and hissing. I'm not really just trying to keep it from just keeping the guitar noise down. So that's just where I put it, if that helps. Somebody mentioned that Chuck Norris passed away. Yep. I just want to tell you guys that I don't know if you know this about Chuck Norris. He did not go to heaven. Heaven came to him. So I know, I. You know, it's funny. It's funny that Chuck Norris, you know, legacy is not only his amazing, you know, movies and all the accomplishments he has as an actor, obviously as a. As a. As a martial art artist, martial arts artist and trainer and teacher, you name it. But the memes of Chuck Norris are just the most amazing memes ever, right? The Chuck Norris. The jokes, I guess, would you call it the memes? And to the point where they're not against him, they're with him. So the fact that even when he passes away, something so, so sad is that. That when you see the memes of his, you know, of this, and you read them, they're not even like, oh, that's kind of mean, right? You're like, oh, that's awesome. Right? I saw that one today. That's how I found out. So you guys know that Chuck had passed away? I didn't see anything that said he passed away. I saw a guy that just all of a sudden say, chuck didn't go to heaven. Heaven came to Chuck. Chuck Norris didn't go to heaven. Heaven came to Chuck Norris. And I thought that was a weird one because usually you're used to, like, you know, Chuck Norris's daughter lost her virginity, and he went and got it back. Like, I'm used to all those. And then I was like, what a weird one to say. And then it was probably about an hour later when Sean was like, oh, did you hear the news about Chuck Norris? And as soon as she said that, I added it up and I go, oh, did he pass away? And she's like, yeah. So, yeah. Yep. Let's see. Yes. Jeremy says Chuck Norris knew the power of humor. He sure did. Sean says is basswood for weight and for. Or for cost? Yes. So basswood, when they use basswood for bodies, they use it for two reasons. One, they can get lighter pieces. Okay. Mahogany is all over the place with weights. You know, especially all the variants of mahogany like sapali and stuff. Sometimes they're heavy, sometimes they're light. Ash is the same thing. Ash can be extremely different in variant of weight. It can be really heavy or it can be really light. Alder is very consistent. So you can generally get a lot of alder in the same weight. It's really cool. A lot of times Steve I has been noted as saying that when he had the. When he had the gems made in basswood, it was to save weight, even though I believe at least the ones I played of his were alder. So I think all of Steve I's personal gems are actually alder, at least most of them. But bass would that. So that's why they do it light. But the manufacturing part, they like it because it's soft. So it's easy on the tooling, the sandpaper, the machines. It's just a lot. It's just. It's really easy. Think about this. Basswood until. And you know, they didn't really use in guitars until, I believe, the 80s. I mean, some people say it's a little earlier than that, but really it comes more mainstream in the 80s. Until then, the only thing that really, when you do your research, the only thing they're really using basswood for is making duck decoys because it floated and it was easy to carve on. So the. The one thing about basswood that that's tough is it's soft, so it dents really easy. That's why it's hard to find a lot of Ibanez guitars that don't have dents. Especially the RGs. They really dented up the. Somebody said Sophie Lloyd. Sophie Lloyd also has a sustainiac. I did an event with Sophie Lloyd in 2024 and she had her sustainiac and I got to see it and stuff and. And same thing. I was like, oh. And it makes total sense now why she has it again. I was like, why does she have this? Why do they all have this? And I'm like, yeah. And it's funny. Sophie Lloyd, I've seen her twice on stage where I'm watching and she has the sustainiac and then she has an in ear monitors and like she'll pull one out or she puts one in. And I'm like, right, right. Because she's probably has very little to no stage volume. So now the Sceniac makes total sense why they're all switching to it. It's a cool tool. But you're like, why did they all switch to it? You know, why did they all adopt this? And they adopted it because again, what are you gonna do without stage volume? I had read an article that said John Petrucci has a little 1/12 inch speaker on the side of his pedal board that he can turn on and off. I believe that's what I read. And he turns it on so he can put his guitar facing that and that's where he's getting some feedback. But until then he said he didn't have any way to get feedback because there's. There's no enough sound on the stage. So. Yeah. Warlock says it chips the paint because it dents. That's right. Yeah. And obviously it flexes. It can dent and the paint can't flex. Let's see. Okay. Okay, so we'll move on. I was like looking to see if there's any more sustaining questions. Okay. All right, let's go back. Let's go back. Okay. This one came from Amanda. This is from Ellie Worth who said, I have an HSS Strat, but the middle pickup gets in the way of my picking. Should I get a very high output pickup like a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails or a quarter Pounder and just lower it way down? You sure could. Absolutely. That would help a lot to do to normalize that. I actually have. So, you know, I have a. My. My stu hand base has a bunch of pickups. See all those pickups? For those listening later, I'm pointing at a base With a lot of pickups and there's one in my way. And so I took out one of the P pickups and I put in a new one that's more powerful. And I lowered it so I have. So when you look at it, it looks weird because my Pete 1P pickup is about a half inch higher. It's high. It's crazy, right? Maybe it's a quarter inch, quarter inch higher. Quarter inch higher than the other one. And it's. That's how I. I did it. And it worked out fine. You could absolutely do that. The Herman Lee guitar, that's how the Herman Lee Cleo works. Is that it has. Or the Chloe. Chloe. The Cleo Herman Lee guitar. The Herman Lee guitar has. The middle pickup is the Fisherman, but it's. It's hotter so he can push it down. So you can absolutely do that. It's up to you what you want to do for the middle position. I mean, Quarter Pounder works. I like the quarter pounder. The Seymour Duncan hot. The rails. The rails that they make work absolutely perfect as well. Yeah. David's got. He's got the hell we all got says. Hey, Phil, if you were putting a humbucker size P90 into a guitar, which ones would you use? I've researched lots of options and I can't decide. Side. My favorite one is not a humbucker size one. It's the T90 by. By T.V. jones. And it's slightly smaller. It's about the size of a TV Jones pickup. But you can put it in your neck position if you're trying to do that. And it's going to have a big hole around the side. I don't know what it is about that one. That one's probably my favorite one. And then I've tried a bunch. You know, Seymour Duncan's got one and everyone's got one. Demarci's got one. They're all fine, but none of them feel like P90s. I have a video where I compare a P90 size humbucker to the P90s and you kind of hear it. There's just something magic in the P90 shape. You know, the way the magnet is, the way the wire is, the way. You know, just the physical shape of it. You know, the. You know, how the. How it's just. I don't know, there's something about the P90 that's just a little bit more magical than just putting a overwhelmed single coil. To me, every P90 shaped humbucker sounds more single coil to me than P90 and P90s, to me, they sound like single coils that went to the gym. These single coils did not miss leg day. They're like, we're there, right? So P90s sound huge. And to me, a good P90 sounds better than a humbucker. That's how I know I got a good P90. When I put a P90 in or if I have a guitar and I pick it up and it's P90 and I, I immediately can do this. I plug into an amp, especially an amp that's light on the overdrive so that you know the more you hit the amp in the front end, the more your drive you're going to get. Hit that P90. Hit it, hit the cord, you hear it grab a guitar with humbuckers, plug it in, put it in there and then watch it go. Oh, it's less. That's what you want. That's what I want. You want the P90 just to feel. To me it's more mid range, more throaty, it's bigger. To me, it's one of the biggest sounding pickups you can get. I mean, think about this. The original humbucker was just trying to be a P90 but quiet. The, the, the original humbucker, when it was designed by Seth Lover, he was just trying to make a P90 that was quiet. That's essentially what he was doing. And, and in fact, if you think about it in a weird, funny way that you could almost argue in a fun way that a humbucker is the equivalent to when they make a mini humbucker for a single coil, right? You're, you're essentially making. So when you think of like the dual blade designed mini single coils humbuckers, they're essentially shoving a humbucker into the size of a single coil. I think that's kind of what they did when they made the humbucker. They were just trying to make the P90 into a noiseless. So it's just, it's a little wider and a little shorter because of. Physically that's just how they probably could make it work. But that's what they were after. And so I've heard it said once, and I do agree that when a PAF is magical, it sounds a lot like a P90. It's kind of funny, right? And that's my experience as well. P90s are also very clear and articulate. I don't know why it happened to, I'm going to say my generation. If you're, if you're older than me. If you're the older generation, to me, for some reason, P90s were a thing for you that you understand. In other words, like, some guitars have P90s and some guitars have humbuckers. Me, growing up P90s were just not a thing. There was two kinds of pickups. You were either there was a humbucker. That's what everybody was going after. You're trying to get rock or metal or whatever you're after, you're doing humbuckers. And then there was single coils. Now, whether that's a telly or a Strat, but that's a single. You were going for blues or, you know, right? And. And then there was the anomalies, right? The anomalies would be like Yngwie Malmsteen, right? Or the guitar player for Iron Maiden or something like that. You're like, they're playing a single whales and they're playing rock or metal. This is. Is so strange. But to me it's like, oh, Bryan Adams played a Strat, Huey Lewis played a Strat, you know, and then, you know, Metallica played humbuckers. And it makes total sense because there's this obsession in the 80s with more. Everything's more, right? Got to play faster. You got to play, you know, right? You got to have more distortion. And more importantly, your pickups has to have more. So it wasn't even like a humbucker was enough. Remember in the 80s, it was like, we need more. We need a super distortion now we need an X twin now we need emg. Now we need an EMG hotter now we need EMG with an afterburner. It's a real thing. So more, more, more. So in the more, more, more world, the P90 was lost to me. It just wasn't a good pickup that I ever examined or thought about. As in my younger years as a musician, I didn't own a single P90 guitar. I didn't look at them. If I saw them, I would think, oh, I don't know why I thought this, but I would think like, oh, that's what a jazz player plays, or something like that. And then I don't remember when it happened to me, but many, many, many years ago, I got a guitar. I didn't buy it, but I had a guitar, somehow borrowed it or had it and had P90s. And I remember plugging in to a Marshall JCMA 100 and hitting and playing and going, I don't know what's happening here, but this is just magic. And why, why Did. Why did everybody. Why did everybody keep this from me? Why are there being asses about this? This is something I would like to know about. And to me, this is like, this is not a Strat through a Marshall, which is cool. This is something else. And So I think P90s are great. So I actually. Everything I search for in my life now is P90. Either I want a P90 pickup or I'm searching for humbuckers that have the magic of the P90. So. So back to your problem. I. You know what, they're all going to be passable, but in my favorite P90 that will fit on humbucker spot is the T90 by. And the reason I say this is because one of the things we did or I did, as you guys know, I experiment with like the delos going, hey, do I want to, you know, change up the delos since, you know, we have the Kiesel delos? You know, do I want to make my delos a little bit different? And I experimented with doing a 3P90 Delos. As you guys know. I played the Reverend 3 3P90 and I thought it was amazing. I love the whole concept of three P90s. It's like, again, it's like a Strat that went to the gym. It's like, this is great. And it's not like the noiseless pickups where I feel like I'm losing the high frequencies a little bit. I feel with the P90s, I'm getting all my high frequencies plus these mids that I want. And anyways, this, this. I bought tons of P90s from everybody and I was experimenting, experimenting and for some reason, my favorite one and becoming the 2T90. And so I had. I had a delos with the T90 in the neck and a T90 in the bridge and I was experimenting with that. And. And for right now, it's on hold. So just. I got other things to deal with. So that's not something I'm pushing on right now. But I will highly recommend the T90. I will tell you though, it will fit in a humbucker ring, but it's going to have gaps on the top and the bottom. If that bothers you, that. I'm sorry it bothers you. But I would highly recommend that pick up to try. Let's see. Phil, I've got a rare. You got a rare. I've got a rare comma thought, thought. Wait. Oh. Though not highly. I get it. I got a rare but not highly sought after amp 1970 Ovation Cat. Any advice on finding a market for it? I understand the Partridge Family use them. He says, smiley emoji. I don't know, man. Like I said to me, stuff like that, you either find stores that sell in that vein and they can help you, or you go to focus groups. You go to a group, you know, online groups that are collecting it or into amps, or you just put it on reverb. Because again, your reverb is going to be your biggest audience pool. And you just put it out there and see who's interested in it. So my. My experience says somebody out there has been waiting for you to list it. So. And it's just about the price at this point. So. Let's see. Dan 14:55 says rude and belligerent customers. How does one deal with them when selling guitar products? You ever kick anyone out? I have. I have never kicked a customer out of a store. Notice how I played on the words like a politician. I was never physically there. I was adjacent. No, I've never physically kicked out a customer out of the store. I mean, you know, obviously we're not going to include criminal acts. Like when I have criminals, you know, people like robbing or stealing or stuff like that, then you have altercations, of course. But I've had belligerent, custom belligerent people in the store. Not a customer. Not even like a, oh, hey, I'm upset about this price or whatever. And now I'm belligerent. Like, I've had belligerent people in the store. We had to have it removed. It wasn't very common, but it did happen. So, you know, actually, just. Just because I'm. I'm. I'm friends with this person, I'm not going to say anything that's going to, like, help you decipher who they are. But I will tell you that, yes, I had a belligerent sales rep in my store and. And I had to call the police. And I remember it was a really tough day because I just wanted him to leave. I'll tell you this. Hold on more. I wanted him to leave, and he wouldn't. And we were friends, and we're still friends now. He was just a little intense. He was having an intense day. And so I kept asking him, like, hey, man, you should go. You gotta go. And after, he wouldn't, eventually, I'm like, okay, you gotta. I called the police. So I called the police, and the police showed up. And then the police were like, they. They go out and they talk to him and they Come. And they go, do you want us to take him to jail? And I go, oh no, I just want him to leave. And they go, we'll take them to jail. We just take him to jail. And I'm like, no, I just want him to go. And I go, you know, and you know, and they go, why don't we just take him to jail? I never seen a cop ever in my life that wanted to take somebody to jail. Jail. I was thinking, I was like, is this guy, like, what happens? Is this. What is. Does he get a quota? What's going on? This guy, this officer really wanted to take him to jail. And I was like, no. So finally he left. So what happened? So you know, what enraged him so much was you can imagine how this ended up being in my life before I was a YouTuber on YouTube, doing what I'm doing now. That is just. I had made some videos on YouTube for our store. That's why I said never. This channel has never been about my store when I had a store. But I did have a channel about my store. Does it make sense? Like Anderton's like everybody else, every store, like I made videos in my store. And so me and Ralph made a video one day and what happened was it was about a product. And apparently I wasn't wired correctly then either because what happened was in this video, me and Ralph made some critiques about the guitar. They were very honest and fair critiques, although with some embellishmently funny things to say. We said some funny things and I'm not sarcastic right now. We just said some stuff. We critiqued the guitar just like you would watch the Anderton's guys do, right? They made a video, except for we were just apparently critiquing it too hard. What ended up happening, which throttled him out, was another dealer in town who wanted the line of products who he was not allowed to sell the products to. Because that's how it works with stores. Some stores are territorial. In other words, I have the territory for this product line in my zip code or city, and this other store has been wanting it and wanting it, but they couldn't have it because. And the dealer. And sometimes. So you know, it's not that it's like a law that they can't do that and it's not even like a policy. What's reason why the store couldn't have the brand is the. The rep. If the rep gives another store the brand, he's taking a chance that me, the current dealer, will either stop carrying the Product line or decrease sales. And he was smart enough to know that we were moving enough product that this other store was not gonna move product. Like, us people really stores this day, and there's that don't really understand how much product we were moving. We were very effective. We didn't know that. We were too dumb to know for a while. But, I mean, I've told you guys stories in the past about, you know, selling, you know, seven figures with something in a company, like, not acknowledging it. So we didn't think it was a big deal. And then we find out later, like, that's not even a thing. Like, dealers don't move that much inventory in that period of time. So we were moving a lot of stuff. So what happened was I made the video. What happened was that the. The other dealer contacted him and the company. More importantly, here's what the dealer did. The dealer contacted the brand and said, this is video. This is who you're supporting. This guy has your brand. And look at what all the crap he said about your brand. And this is a product. And what happened was. And just so you guys know, how it escalated was he came in the store. He didn't call ahead, so he just came in. And he came in like a. Like a whirlwind. It's just the doors fly open. And he's like, phil, I can't believe you did this. And, yeah, you said this. And what's wrong with you? And I'm like, hey, you need to calm down. And then what happened was he said, you need to take that video now. And, you know, he was dictating all this stuff to me, and then I stopped and I said, I don't think you understand. I'm the customer. I buy this stuff from you. This is my stuff. I bought this stuff from you. Right. I'm just. We assessed it. It's. I don't understand the problem now. Now I'm more. I don't want to say intelligent, but I'm more in tune with how this industry really works. It's very corrupt. It's a very corrupt industry. It's basically, we're. We're a paola industry. You know, if you ever learned about payola, this industry is. Is not only good at this, it's not really used to being critiqued for real. So a lot of fake. Fake reviews, a lot of fake people saying fake things. And the brands. So the brands don't re. So when you guys say, well, how could they get mad? All you said was, it was heavy or it didn't stay in tune. They're not used. A lot of brands are not used to any kind of critiques. They're used to the world where they paid endorsees or spawn, you know, their. Their artists. They paid artists to play their stuff. And the artist said it was the greatest thing you ever heard, right? How many times have we ever heard from an artist? It's the greatest thing ever, right? And then you never see him with it ever again. I. I don't know why. I don't know if this is true or not, but I feel like sometimes these brands, some brands drink their own Kool Aid. I've had brands tell me things that are kind of funny. Like, I'll tell. This ties into the story. I once had a YouTube channel. I. I reached out to them and I said, hey, I saw your video of this, and I'm looking at one. What do you think? And they go, oh, I got rid of it. I didn't even like it. And. And then I'm not gonna. Two things I'm going to tell you. I'm not going to tell you who that YouTuber is. I'm just going to tell you that I've never talked to him since because I actually was pissed off. So I re. I. And I said, hey, what did you think of this product? And then they proceeded to tell me the product sucks, and they got rid of it. But their video was the exact opposite of that statement. And the reason I say that is then what happened to me? Even though I never talked to that channel again, the company, the rep from the company reached out to me, and they were talking to me, and then they mentioned that YouTuber and their glowing review and how great it is as a product. And I'm like, oh, man, you drink your own cool. You think because you paid them and they said nice things, you believe that? You believe the nice things they said. I was like, this is crazy. So that's what happened to me in the store that day with the rep, the sales rep. But so, you know, like anything in life, I always try to make the effort to. To make amends we made. We were friends. He's in a different industry now, a better one, and he makes more money and he's happier and. And, you know, I'm glad, you know, that it worked out. And I understand why he was upset. I just don't understand why he had to come and start yelling at me. But he. I understand why he's upset because he just got lit up by his boss and they wanted to remove. That was the thing they were telling him. They wanted to remove the line from me. And I don't think he was also reacting to the fact that I didn't care. So somebody says, was it Mark Ignisi? No, I've never talked to Mark Ignisi, so. So, you know, I've never met or talked to him ever. Let's see. Okay, let's see. Yeah. Brian says, how dare you buy stuff and then talk about it? Well, that's kind of how my brain worked at the time, was like, hey, I bought this stuff, and I'm just giving an opinion on it, by the way. And this is why I try not to. To I tell these stories maybe for insight or funny. And it's, you know, part of the podcast. I just. You guys are talking, but I want you to understand some of these stories. You really. If you. All you take away is that there was a guy in my store upset, you should really understand that that moment probably made this channel what it is today. It's definitely why I started a side channel. That's why there's a Philip McKnight channel. That's why it was not the store channel anymore. So I. I still made videos for the store with Ralph, but I started my own channel separate from the store. I didn't talk about the stuff in the store. I was just wanting to be my own channel. Because what I learned that day was that the then and then. So, you know, it happened to me even on this channel. As you guys know, I've told you guys stories about how certain brands were very upset about stuff I said on this channel. And I explained to them this my own independent channel. And I'm not promoting the store, your brand. I'm just talking about the stuff I like to talk about. But this is. It ties back in. It's why I wanted to remove myself from that. And it's just how it is. I don't know how to explain it. Okay, Joe says, hey, Phil, any thoughts on the early 90s Fender strat ultras with the lace pickups? I think they're amazing guitars. I think the neck's a little thin for a Strat, but it's not too thin. It's fantastic. I think they look cool as hell. A lot of them have cool paint jobs. And those lace sensors are the best lace sensors they ever made. I think the new lace sensors are okay. You know, I have had my ins and outs with the new lace sensors pickups over the years, you know, because they've changed the kind of formula A little bit. But man, the, those ones with the actual base plates on the bottom are fantastic. I think it's one of the best pickups. And so you know, I really think, you know, Fender, in my opinion what happened with that is if you notice what happens with Fender and Gibson and all these companies, there's this evolution of getting away from, you know, what really sells the guitar kind of concept. In other words, like, you know, you have Eric Clapton, he's playing lace sensors and you have Jeff Beck and he's playing lace sensors and you have these Ultra Strats, these, you know, these Fender Strats and they have lace sensors and people are loving lace sensors. And I used to believe because I didn't know the industry like I do now, I used to believe then like, oh well what happened was grunge came and the lace sensors were modern looking. And then players didn't want the, the modern looking pickup. So Fender went to the noiseless. And now I'm more understand that really what happened was Fender just didn't want to pay lace sensor. They, they, they don't think lace sensors sold their guit. They don't think demarzi or Seymour Duncan sells their guitars. And, and if you look now you can see the evolution of this, you know, we're talking about things you're not supposed to say. In my video of the Ultra 2 70th anniversary, I made the comment that that pickup looks like a copy of a Joe Barden pickup. I just my opinion for whatever it was, but I think it would be for $3,000 because I guitar is very expensive. A set of Joe Bartons would have made that guitar, I think way more appealing to me. And, and, but Fender doesn't make those decisions anymore. They don't put a lot of aftermarket pickups. In fact, I was saying this to a friend a couple weeks ago. I said, yeah, Fender and Gibson really, they never put, they really never put any other artists or any other brands pickups in their guitars. And then he cited like four Fenders right away. Oh no, they do this one, this one, this one. I go, yeah, those are artist guitars. Same with Music man. Unless it's an artist guitar. And the reason they're doing it is because the artist wants it. So if an artist wants DiMargio or Seymour Duncan or bare knuckles, then it's in the guitar. But generally speaking those companies do not want and I know for a fact that sometimes Fender and Gibson obviously talk to those artists and see if there's any way they can put non Branded pickups, you know, in there and only use their brand. So Mighty Guitar Mod says it's Joe. He says Joe Barton. It's Joe Barton with a D. Joe Barton pickups, you can google them. Okay, Somebody said throwback mentioned what pickup. I have. It's throw. Was throwback in the chat. Brian, if you see the throwback thing, can you post it so I can see it and then I'll. I'll tell everybody what it is. I don't have to look. I don't do well with numbers. What I mean by that is like when people call like, you know like the RG550 ibanez. To me it's like a fat strap pickup. Okay, cool, right. This super distortion, the jb, you know, like all that stuff works. Names work for products. For me, when people call products numbers, I just, it's. I think it's just my attention span. Just like I'm not gonna remember that. Soon as somebody goes, it's a 48602. I'm like, I don't know what that is. I won't remember it. Damn. Okay, hold on, let's. While I'm doing that, I'm going to go to the next one. Oh, that's a good question. So I'm going to read out loud just so I know to work on it. This one was from Derek who says what is the actual pickup type when not using sustainiac. Is it a single coil magnetite? I. I'm guessing I think it's a hum. A noiseless single coil. But I will verify that for the, for the breakdown video so that, so they have that information. So the, the way we, the way I make those videos, like the video they saw yesterday for this for the patrons first I template out the idea. So there's. You see a first draft of the video. It's all the sections and all the things I want to talk about. And then sometimes the patrons will tell you like they'll see it and they'll go oh wait, that was a little fast or that was a little confusing. And sometimes that's a good information to have. But a lot of times not always, But I'd say 60% of time I already knew that going in. It's just I'm placeholding there. In fact, it's a little tough because when I'm making videos for my. When I don't share with the patrons, I leave little black little screens. So it means no lets me know like what goes there. Because I'll kind of add more information, add more Information. What I'm trying to do is I'm always trying to put as much information in a video as possible, but keep the video flowing. And so sometimes I'm like, there's too much information here, and it's just. It's rattling too fast, and then you're getting numb to it. And so, you know, I just try to temper the videos again. I'm trying to. I'm trying to teach you kids something. No, I'm just kidding. Like those teachers, right? I'm trying to gauge these kids so that they learn. I'm trying to make a video that you guys actually want to watch, but then maybe we'll, you know, have some information you want to learn instead of just, you know, giving you the verbal stuff. Quarter Town Rick says. Corker Town Rick. Corker. Corker Town Rick. The specs on my IV, JP Jr says that it has a basswood neck. That'd be incorrect. Is that accurate? No. Is it even possible? It is possible because I have. I have a guitar with a basswood neck. So let me show it to you. Hold on a second. I should have had hold music today. I'll just hum IPanePro for you guys. The girl from Ipanema. You can't get copyright strike, right? I don't think so. All right, you're about to see the only guitar in the world. This is the only guitar in the world that has a basswood neck. When I say only, I don't mean this exact one and no other one in the world. I mean this model, this guitar has a basswood neck. This is a Parker. That's my thing. So this is a Parker fly. You guys have seen this before. This isn't a poplar body, this model. Not all Parker flies are the same. Some are mahogany bodies with mahogany necks. They're different ones. But this particular one that I'm holding right now is one absolutely for a fact. A poplar body with a basswood neck. So your question is twofold. One, is it true that the Ivy LP Jr. Has a Basswood neck? It is not true. Is so. It's not. Is it possible? It is possible. Here's why it's possible. The reason why this Parker guitar has a basswood neck is that this entire back, this whole thing you see right here, this whole shape, including this neck all the way up to here, is a piece of carbon fiber cloth that's been wrapped, and then it hardens. And then the fretboard is also carbon fiber glass. Carbon fiber glass. What they call it. So the. The basswood neck is encapsulated like a skittle. It's a candy inside. The basswood's inside. So they did they use softwoods, they said for tone. Just telling you what they said, don't freak out. And then it's entirely surrounded in. And that's why they paint the backs always in fact in the right light, which I can't give you here. You can see the carbon fiber weave that you would see underneath. So. So that's how they did this and that's why they do that. It's why it's so thin right there. And this guitar is like 4lbs 3oz or something like that. Super, super stupid light. So anyways, so that's the only basswood neck I know. Of course that does. That was Parker. And of course they do it because again, it's reinforced with its carbon fiber. It's. I mean it's 360 degrees, totally surrounded with carbon fiber, seamed up and glued up. So other than that, you cannot put this in the case. Use a basswood neck. It's too soft. It wouldn't work. So my guess, here's my guess. With my experience with all the, what do you call, afforda guitars, right? The Forda brands, their spec sheets are a disaster. So. So the. Yeah, so that's all it is. It's probably a basswood body with whatever neck. And then they just put basswood neck. First of all, a lot of these companies, the afforder brands are, you know, they are non English speaking people and so they're using some kind of text type, you know, software. And it's always getting messed up or they just don't care. It's not something they're really, you know, they're, you know, so that's, that's my guess. But there's no way that that's a basswood neck. Even if it was had two carbon fiber rods in it and a dual action truss rod. There's no way it's too soft. It wouldn't make. It would not work. So that's how I know. And the reason I should tell you, when I went to the Parker factory and I saw them build these guitars, I had a very detailed conversation about this. Because when they said we use basswood for the necks and poplar for the bodies, I went, what? Because like anybody, I was like, I don't understand. How is that possible? And then they show me the process and I go, now it makes sense. They gotcha. So that's how I know it wouldn't be possible any Other way because they're the only ones that had figured it out. Okay, I already answered that one. We're almost done here. Okay. Nope. Okay, let me get out of this one. And let's see. 60% of the time works every time. So. Let's see. Hold on. I'm just reading some stuff, seeing if I'm scanning. If you're talking to me, put a question mark at the beginning so I know you're talking to me. I asked Brian to post something and then I never looked to see if he posted it. So now I kind of feel bad. Now I'm scrolling to see if Brian posted stuff. Because, you know, nothing like, hey, could you do this? And then I'm not going to pay attention to it. Okay. And then what else do we want to button up on? I think. Yeah. Nella says basswood for tone. Then they encapsulate it in carbon fiber glass. Lol. Yeah. You know, look, I've said this before. When it comes to how things sound, you know, I've heard all the theories. The only thing I will say is this. There's a little part of me that's always going to end with, It's not that I don't believe in tonewood. It's not that I believe in tone wood. It's just when everybody argues what it is that's important or not important, the one thing I know is that not all guitars are the same. And you think about that and you say it out loud. And I tried, I thought about it thinking like, that's kind of normal. And then you realize it's very not normal. Tube amplifiers are like that too. They're not all the same, even when they're the same amp, right? When you take a guitar, like any guitar, a Strat, a Fender Strat, which is very pedestrianly, you know, everybody's played one, so everybody knows a mass produced instrument. And you think, wow, you can't even find, you know, multiple strats that are exactly the same. They don't feel sometimes the same, they don't sound the same, the variances are slight, but they're there. Again, novices won't notice it. They'll be like, that sounds the same to me. It's, you know. You know how many times I've played, you know, something to my kids and my wife and I go, what do you think of the difference? And like, I don't hear a difference. I go, how do you not hear that? What is wrong with you? Just kidding. And then I smack them around. No. So anyways, My point is, I always. I always thought this. And you really will learn it. I'm sure the builders learn it in the hell that they're doing a building, but repairing things and modding stuff. What you realize is that when customers just want a simple thing, you're like, this is, why can't I do this? Why can't they. We achieve this goal? Why can't we just do this just with some modifications? And because, like I said, sometimes the guitar has a mind of its own. And that's where I've learned, like, okay, if it's not tone wood, fine. If it's not brass saddles versus, you know, aluminum. If it's not these things, if it's not the pickup that matters, if it's not all these things that matter, then why can't we duplicate the process so much, you know, so easily? Because so many things. Like, you know, if I get a computer monitor and I buy 10 of them and I put them in a row, because I've done this. Actually, when we built our store, I bought, like, TVs. I put. We put TVs up on the walls, and I bought, like, six of them, I think, or four of them. They all look the same. It wasn't. I mean, I know you can edit the colors and stuff and all this stuff, but I'm just saying they all look the same. It's not like I put them on and go, why does that TV look grainier? And why does that TV look brighter? And why does that. Like, they're the same? Like, get. You can get, you know, if you have two light bulbs. I have two light bulbs right now. Next. I bought two lights that I have next to me right now. They're the same. I look at them and I can see they're the same. It's so easy to get two of the same of a lot of things. But two of the same guitar is a very hard thing to achieve. So I've always just decided that at some point I'm going to give in to the idea that, okay, whatever. Whatever it is, if it's tone or whatever, I'm not going to buy it in 100. Any of the, you know, this ideology. But I am going to concede that, yes, there is something that is creating a variance. So. Yeah. But back to the whole silliness of, yeah. Tone wood in the Parker. Yeah. I mean, you know, my guess, and I believe this, it was just marketing. They needed to market it that way. So. Because think about this. Even when I. When I show Most people, a parker fly to this day. It's harder now because less people know what they are. But back in the day when they were more popular, oh, everybody goes, oh, that's a guitar made of carbon fiber. And I'm like, oh, no. Like an Aristides is made out of, you know, carbon fiber or man made materials. But a parker is actually made of wood and man made materials. It's a combination of both. But everybody looks at it and just thinks that it's not wood, but it is. So maybe that's what they were thinking. It was like, we need to, you know, my, my guess is they use basswood in poplar because it was light and cheap. And then it kind of worked for all those carves because that's a lot of carving on that body. So I would, you know, because they charged a lot more for the mahogany. My guess is because it was a lot harder on the tooling. And. Johnny5494 says, hey, Phil, I have a large keisel and gem collection. How does the parker fly compared to them? It's worse. The parker is a. It's. It's that, you know, you know, you. You know how you have that friend and they have a dog and they love that dog. And you're like, how can anyone like that dog? Because the dog is like kind of a jerk. That's probably how Ralph felt about my dog. Because I, we had our, our dog before we lost him a couple years ago. He always punched Ralph in the junk. Like to the point where I think Ralph secretly thought I trained the dog to do that. Because Ralph would come over and the dog just went right nose in, bam. Right, you know, right. Just. And it punched like it was a big dog. So it was not like, you know, I mean, not like a, you know, 80 pound dog, but it was 60 pound dog. 60 pound dog punches you in the junk. It's not a good feeling. And I'm sure Ralph every time went, why the hell does Phil like this dog secretly? Because it punched him in the junk. I thought it was funny, but anyways. No, but my point is the parkers are a thing you love or you don't love, but it's not something that you would pick up and go, I get this for the most people. Most people are gonna. They're going to not like it. Some people go, oh, it stabs you in the chest. It absolutely stabs you in the chest. It's weird as hell why it does that. It's so, you know, that arm comes up and it have you play it for a while, you can feel a little bruise right about there. You'd be like the hell. So. And yeah, it's a little. It's a little thinner. So I've heard people go, they sound exactly the same as anything else. Nope. I can a B my guitars. And it's a little thinner sounding than like a fuller, you know, a PRS or a Gibson or something like that. It's. It's not. I'm not even addressing looks. There are some things that are good about it. Obviously it has a lot of functionality because it has the, the transducer pickup and the magnetics and it's not going to go out of tune because again, it's carbon fiber and the, the components are built really well. But I have an affection for the guitars that like the majesty that I'm pointing at right now. The majesty, which is why I did the podcast with Petrucci. The. The Emerald acoustic. That's carbon fiber for, believe it or not, PRS guitars. That's the thing I like about them. What I'm about to say in a second, it's why I liked this Ultra 2 75th anniversary guitar with a crazy finish. This Parker guitar, this Joe Satorini guitar. I'm sadly enough, I'm a traditionalist when it comes to what I like to play and what I have, an sg, a Strat, a Les Paul. That's what I love. Very basic, very boring. It's like you take me at 31 flavors and I'm gonna either chocolate, vanilla. I'm not gonna experiment. However, that's my as a guitar player. As a guitar player. Give me a strap plug into a Fender amp and I'm never gonna be happier. Give me an SG plugged into a Marshall. I'm never gonna be happier. However, I love the trying. I love the Parker, the Aristides, the Emerald, the Majesty from Music Man. I love Trying. I love the somebody out there. I love the idea. Somebody's like, I'm gonna change the guitar world forever. And. And I've. I've said this many times. So many of them don't do it. You know, it doesn't work like, like Parker. It ends up failing. And that should make me sad, but it doesn't because I think there's winners and I think that's how anything works. You have to, you know. And I, I have a video I'm very excited about. Gonna tell you the title since the end of the show, that I'm super excited because it's coming very soon. So you know the title is called. I don't know what it's called there. It's called. It's called the Guitar that Changed the World. And no one knows what it is that it's. It's. It's a video that I've been working on for quite a while. I love it. I hope you guys end up loving the video. There's this weird guitar. I'm just going to keep it simple just to give you the, the census of what's going on. There's a guitar that was a colossal failure for this company. Okay, so this company made this guitar colossal, epic, like bad. Like lost a ton of money. It didn't last very long. It just wasn't a good investment for the company. It wasn't a good guitar. It didn't do well. No one likes it. They're not even collectible nowadays. Nothing about this guitar was great. Except for in the video I'm going to show you how this guitar single handedly created a ton of different guitars that we all love today. Because the company, even though the guitar failed, the technology and the, the style form that they had to develop to make this guitar, that is what succeeded. So that's my takeaway with this story. My takeaway of the story is that Parker might fail, but some of the things that are in a Parker exist in the guitars you love today. Right? That's the irony of this is sometimes the product doesn't do well, but the design, structure, something from that gets translated into something else that makes it very successful. It's an accidental, you know, success. And there's a lot of accidental successes in this industry when it comes to products that did badly. But like I said, or if it's not the technology or the design, it's the actual engineer. There's a lot of engineers I've met in this industry and talked to over the years. And the thing that they did that we all love, they were also responsible for 10 things that were just flops. And we all like make fun of to this day. And they will tell you that literally without those kind of like how I was making the comment with, without a company sending the rep in my store to scream at me, I would have never thought, okay, I need to get myself off my guitar store channel and onto my own private channel. And then here we are today, right? See how things. You never know where it's going to go. All right, let's do one last question and then we're going to call it. Sorry, I just saw the joke Cola Joke and made me laugh. Okay, let's see. Hold on, hold on. Okay, let me add this one. All right, we have anything last. Okay. So. Okay, hold on. I don't know. Maybe this is it. Maybe we're in the show. I think we're all dipping out now. I think that was the end of it. I didn't see any. If I missed the subject or question you guys had, again, I apologize. So, Okay, here, how about this? So this question is, can you do a video where you create the exact same guitar out of different woods and run signals through it in an oscilloscope and see if the wood matters? I wouldn't make that video. I'm sure it's been made by other people. But here's why I don't think that way. And it's a great idea for a video and somebody should make it. But I'm just. I'm going to tell you not why the video is not a good idea or not why that doesn't matter, but why I can't make that video. When I break down guitars and I show stuff to you and I share what I see with you guys, it's never about. There's a magic formula that makes a great anything. It's always about who's. There's. There's real value and then there's bullshit. Right? Sorry, trickery, whatever you want to call it. Snake oil, right? Our industry is no different than any other industry, okay? There's water that comes from, you know, a spring, and then there's city water filtered and then sold to you for the same price. Okay? It's not that the city water filtered is bad. It's that why would you pay the same for water to be pulled from a spring and then driven, drove, and then, you know, brought on a boat to your, you know, where you're at, and then somebody just takes a garden hose down the road and then puts it through a filter. The point is, you want to know what of it is real when you're paying for it? Because as many things are a quality in this, especially in our industry. And let's think of this. There is many magical unicorn sales gimmicks, right? And the industry likes to just. They like to hang on to things that are not true because they know that we'll pay more for them, you know, and so they throw that on there. So my point with wood, when I talk about if a guitar is made out of mahogany or sapele or alder or basswood or poplar or whatever, it's always in context of the value proposition of what you paid. Okay, so in other words, every. And I'll use an example because I've ordered a ton of keys now over the last couple years, every keys I've ordered, the wood had nothing to do with tone or sound. I always pick based on what I think I'm going to predict for the weight of the size. So, like, I. So I. I ordered a guitar that was smaller head. You know, a smaller headless guitar. And I just said, okay, Alder's fine, Because I was like, I don't care, because I know it's small and it's not gonna be heavy no matter what I do. But a guitar that was slightly larger, I was like, okay, I need it to be mahogany or I need it to be light. You know, pick something that's gonna be a lighter piece of wood. And so. So like I said, it's. It's always a source of function to me. We're only talking about electric guitars, acoustic guitars. I have a totally different argument. So electric guitars, the SG over there in the corner, that's made of mahogany. I could care less if it was made of mahogany or basswood or poplar. I really don't care at all. It's. It's to me. And here's why. Yes. And technically, if you were to take that guitar and make it out of poplar and it doesn't sound as good, would I not like it? Yeah, I wouldn't like. Because it sounds good. But as long as it sounds good and plays good and, and. And here's why none of these guitars that you're looking at. Well, I like this. I have a guitar here that's made of carbon fiber. The emerald. It's carbon fiber. I have a guitar that's made of alder. I have a guitar that's made of mahogany, maple. That guitar is made of alder. This guitar is made out of maple caps. It's hollow. It's all hollow. So what tone. What is that hollow? That's mahogany. I don't even know what. I do not know what that majesty is. I'm sure we look it up. I'm pretty sure it's a burl maple cap. And I think it's a veneer. I have no idea what that body is. You'd have to look it up to know the Fender, of course I know is Alder. The. The heritage is mahogany and maple. So like I said, there was no thought process in. When I bought these guitars what they were made out of. It was more of A. Oh, okay. When I look at a guitar price and I'll. I'll pick on the Paul Reed Smith right there. That's a good example. When I, when I buy that guitar, what I looked at was, okay, it's made in the usa. It's mahogany body, one piece with a two piece half inch in the center maple cap that goes a quarter inch. If you guys don't know how PRS does it, they take a. They take a half inch top maple cap and they cut it sideways and then they flip it out like this, like. And so that it's thicker in the center and thinner on the side. So it's a half inch in the center and quarter inch on the sides. If you don't know, that's how they do the core. Prs mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard, abalone birds and. And why I'm mentioning all that. Notice that I'm not giving you a list, like a grocery list of things that make this guitar great. I'm giving you the list of why I believe when I paid what I paid. That makes sense. When I look at. It's 5x, no exaggeration. It's five times more to pay an employee in Maryland than it is in Indonesia is five times more. So, okay, the materials cost five times more than they cost in Indonesia. Better. No mahogany in the US I could care less. But at least when I look at the price tag, I could reverse engineer and go, okay, that's what I'm paying for. If I want to pay for it, I pay for it. That doesn't make me go, oh, this is the only thing that's good. And now I won't buy the Indonesian guitar. No, I buy the Indonesian guitar and I go, no, part of the value is it's actually better for dollar for dollar than this. And so that's my whole point with that. That's why the video doesn't work for me. Because I wouldn't care what the results are if you told me that. If you could prove to me a good example, if you prove to me right now that mahogany always sounds better than Alder. I would never make a decision to only buy guitars made of mahogany. It would just not appeal to me because most of the reason I buy guitars is two reasons. Two reasons why I buy guitars. The way they look like that Majesty, that looked crazy and I thought that looked cool and then it played nice and sounded nice. That's like those things and that's it. The. All the componentry is just to help me validate Pricing. And sadly enough, most, the most of the things that validate pricing now is brand. Because that tells me why. Because, because the brand tells me what the resale value is going to be. And that tells me what, I mean, you know, what, what I will have. What if I get rid of it, what I'm gonna lose. So I love videos like that, but they're just not for me because it's not something I'm out to prove. Like I said, I'm more of like a. Okay, perfect example. You'll see in the next video. I talk about scarf joints. And I said it clearly then. I don't care if a guitar has a scarf joint or not. I don't care if it's a solid piece of, you know, one piece neck. I don't care about any of that stuff. It's just if somebody tells me guitar is $3,000, I'm like, oh, okay, well then it should have these things that make it expensive, right? It's kind of like, it's kind of like if I go to a nice restaurant, like a nice, let's just say a steakhouse, and they go, okay, it's $70, $80 for the steak, whatever it is. And I go, okay. And then they go, they have this bourbon and it's like 12 year old, you know, bourbon and double, you know, whatever. And I go, okay. And they give me the price and I go, okay. And then if I went to the same reason restaurant and they said, okay, it's a hamburger. And the hamburger is 60 bucks, right? And the white claw. And the White Claw is $25. I'd be like, what's going on here? That's just weird, right? It's not that I don't like a burger and a seltzer drink. It's that I just don't found the value that way. I hope that all makes sense. All right, on that note, I'll let you guys go. Just a reminder, for anyone who's a patron in the mid tier level that does the clinics, the clinic is tomorrow. So don't miss the clinic. You can see the rebroadcast just like you can see all the old clinics as well. If you haven't signed up to Patreon and you want to, you can sign UP as a $5 member and support the channel. If you want to become the. The level that gets you the clinics as well, it's $19 for the month. But there's a coupon code when you go to patron. Don't forget that coupon code. It gives you half off for the year. So it makes it 10, less than $10, like $9 a month for the year. You just pay for the month. The year. And then there's a top tier, if you're so interested in that. And I appreciate you guys considering that stuff. And again, I mostly just appreciate you guys hanging out to the end of the show and supporting the channel. And then I got to give you the last cool news is all, because it's the coolest news. And I thought only the people hung up the one. And I'll know this. The second channel is killing it. Killing it. In fact, it's killing us. The second channel is if it does not slow down, it's going to beat the main channel in views. It's already beating us with subscribers, is out subscribing us, which is funny, and we're out subscribing ourselves. But more importantly, it's beating us in views. And that's because engagement's so high. You guys really seem to like it. The videos are really going. And so if you guys haven't checked out the second channel, you can see clips of this show. But more importantly, with a different angle, there's bonus material, including a new bonus podcast this week where we talk about some stuff with LR Bags and Jack Higginbotham. There's pedal reviews, there's amp reviews. There's all that stuff if you're so interested to check that out. But also for all the you supporting that channel, thank you guys. That's just crazy. I'm almost like, please chill out. Let this channel win a little bit. But I'm glad that, that people are liking it because it's, it's took a lot of work and it takes a lot of work to do that channel. So, you know, and I appreciate it. And on that note, look for the new videos this week coming out and then I'll see you guys next Friday. As always, thank you for your time and Know your gear. The know your gear podcast.