Another Round Of Layoffs At Fender Guitars

The Know Your Gear podcast. Hey everyone, welcome to the Know Your Gear podcast for February 27th. I'm like, why am I yelling in the mic? February 27th, 2026. I hope you guys all had a fantastic week and are ready for a new episode of the show. So we can go over things you want to talk about, things you're interested in, maybe things you're not interested in. We have a lot. There's some stuff that's going to come up and I thought we would talk about it. Some viewers reached out to me, but I had actually already talked to a couple of employees that are friends of mine and they kind of mentioned it too. And so let's just, let's start with that. So we've been talking about Fender for a lot of years on the channel, especially on the podcast. As you guys know, I'm a huge fan of Fender. You're a huge fan of Fender. They're the largest guitar company in the world. So obviously we're all fans. There's some stuff going on that I think it's worth talking about. And I'm going to give some opinions on it once I give it. So the first thing is, so Fender looks like they're about to do another round of layoffs again. And this is, this is, I think this is all circumstantially bad for a lot of reasons. Obviously, anytime we talk about layoffs, we're talking about people losing their jobs, things that they, that they pay their bills with, they feed their families with. This is their livelihoods. It's always a sad topic and it's always a delicate topic. I just hope you understand. So when you're making comments, please keep in mind that these are people that are affected by this, you know, not just whimsical comments to our, to our will. The layoffs I understand are going to be in April. So now things could change. I don't know if it's 100% going to happen and there's no way around that. Let me go to it and share it with you. So the, I talked to an employee who said that they were kind of told or they kind of know. So I'm hoping all the employees have been told. Let's go to the web. Shall we? The websites. Okay. So this is a website called the Warn Tracker. It tells you of potential companies that have over 100 employees that are going to be laying off. And on here it says, I'm just giving you the information that Fender is planning to do a layoff in April 7th, 2026. And it looks like for about, let's move this way. It looks like they're going to do about 100 to 250 people laid off. And this looks like it's listed as a permanent layoff. Okay. So that's just where I'm giving you that. There's a link down below for those that want to check that out. If you're curious where I was getting the information. Now, like I said, I was giving the information first from an employee that told me and they don't know if they're included in this or not. So you understand this is why it's a delicate subject. Why are we talking about it? Well, it's guitar news for sure, but that's not why we're actually talking about it. We're talking about a couple of things. Now, the one thing I want to tell you is I don't know if this is, I just don't know. Okay. So I'm just going to tell you, I don't know if the new CEO, but Cole is coming in and this is him cleaning house. I don't know if this was decided before they got the new CEO. But either way, we know Fender's got a new CEO. I personally think with no information more than what I just told you and what I know for here, it could be he just walked into this. And this was already kind of something that had to happen. But who knows. But you know, it's an interesting thing for the last five years on this podcast, if there was one continuous thing we talk about, there's two actually. Let's talk about two continuous things we talk about. Gibson always in the news for some kind of lawsuit and Fender always in the news for some kind of quality issue. And I just don't think that Fender, in my opinion, and that's what I'm sticking to for the last five years, Fender has let the quality drop. It happened during COVID. It got really bad in COVID. And I don't think it's come back. In fact, many friends of mine, some Fender dealers, some people at the guitar centers have consistently told me, which is more important, that they don't talk to each other. And they're in different parts of the country to have the same stories like the Fender quality. They're constantly dealing with a lack of Fender quality of quality in the Fender guitars and the products. Somebody mentioned their price hikes. Their price hikes are astronomically crazy. And now we can talk about some of the economical issues that are causing price hikes. But I've said this during COVID. Fender was the first always, in my opinion, to jack up the prices as soon as there was like, oh, there's a supply issue. Oh, prices skyrocket. Oh, wait, there might be a supply issue. Prices skyrocket. Oh, wait, demand's high. Price skyrocket. Oh, wait, demand might be high. Price skyrocket. You know, I was looking, I'm going on a sidetrack here. I was looking at something the other day and it almost, it just literally took the breath out of my, out of my chest. I'm going to show you something. If you remember, I feel like now, in their defense, it could be two years now. Okay. It feels like it was less than a year or a year-ish that I mentioned that I was in the market for a Fender tone master amp. And I just didn't want to spend $1,500 for a digital type product, you know, when you can get a used Fender bassman for $1,000. Now, what I'm going to show you is, is that the Fender bassman right here is $2,199, $2,100. By the way, you can still find them all day for $1,000. So, you know, I just got one for $1,000. $1,050, shipped, done, in mint condition. So that's half of new. Now, what's the tone master digital version going for? $1,839. And what's funny is, I would have swore I saw one that's $1,900. I wonder if I go into this, if it's one of those tricks. Oh, look, it literally, I was right. I, I was losing my mind. I was in here two days ago, when I made the purchase for the real one, I was like, let me look at the tone master again. And I was like $2,000, no way, look at that, already dropped it, $160. Okay. So, obviously, no one's paying $2,000 for the tone master stuff. I think this is a bad idea, this, this, you know, and I understand price is a little bit lower. And I understand prices are not always to the discretion of the company. You know, like I said, we have external, external prices problems, right? We have labor costs, you have regulation, you have taxes, you have tariffs, you name it, it's coming at everybody in all directions. Like I said, you know, my, my stance on, on, on the political sense is that there's always a nightmare. There's always a catastrophe. There's always a reason why something's going to happen. And it seems like it's more and more often now. And it's just, and the pick says $1,000 where first of all, you could go, let's take a look. Let's take a look to see where you can find one right now for a good price. Let's, this wasn't going to be about Fender basements, but I feel like now it has to be a little bit Fender baseman 59. Okay. Go here. Oh, look at this right here. First one I pull up. Look at that. Here's a use one of guitar center for $1,000. Here's a use one of guitar center for $1,200. Here's a use one of guitar center for $13. Here's another use one of guitar center for $1,029. And great condition listed. Here's one of guitar center for $12. So here's one for $15, but that's a little bit more. Here's another one for $1,099. This is without even trying guys. I just did this in minutes. So not even trying. You can find one for $1,000. So, so you know, I think there's even a better deal. Hold on a second. Hold on a second. I'm going to try this real quick. Sadly enough, if it's sold, there's no history. So there's no way to show you, but let me try Fender baseman 59. Okay. So I found one of my local Craigslist for $1,250 here. That's in Tucson, but hold on. I just want to make sure. And so here I'll open it so you guys see it. This one's in Tucson for $1,250. But so you know, just a couple, I think a week ago, I can't remember a week or two weeks ago. There was one for $1,750. I didn't, I wasn't interested in it. I was thinking about it and then I talked myself out of it and then it disappeared. So I didn't know if he pulled it or if it's not there anymore. Let's just see if I can find it real quick. Like if it still exists, it doesn't. So anyways, so yeah, that's not, that wasn't hard. Search it for a deal when you can find something for half off immediately is not, it doesn't mean it's hard to find. So back to that. What does that mean? I mean, obviously somebody saying that basically this is all to allude that somebody mentioned in the comments right now that Fender has hiked their prices up too high. I think that's part of their problem too. You know, I think, I think they've been too eager to keep hiking prices up, but they have a plan and when I say they have a plan, I have a theory that they have a plan. Let me tell you, if you guys have been on Instagram or YouTube recently or Facebook or TikTok, you have probably seen some somebody saying something like, hey, everyone, Fender sent me an exclusive model. Hey, everyone, I just got the exclusive Fender model. Hey, everyone, I just got a Fender only available on Fender.com. Hey, everyone, I just got a model only sold at Fender.com. You're seeing a lot of that. I was able, in fact, I shared with my patrons, I was able to find a, I don't know, half a dozen, six, which isn't a whole lot, but very quickly. By the way, I did that in like 10 minutes, just like I was looking for basements. And then of course, I was approached by Fender to basically do a, you know, a marketing push, right? In other words, hey, like highlight a product and talk about a product. And of course, send people not to the local Fender dealer, not to Sweetwater's guitar center or, you know, anywhere you choose to purchase. The money only comes, and this is the important part, if I send you to Fender.com. I got to send you to Fender.com. I get a piece of the sale. Now that's an affiliate link. And as you know, like all influencers, I do affiliate links. However, I've been clear about this. The only real exclusive affiliate link I generally will push is Stu Mac. And the reason being, I use their tools and have for over 20 years. And as you guys know, they were in my videos and also in True Transparency, I helped Stu Mac set up that affiliate link so that they don't have to pay me to make videos, because that's how it usually works, right? They pay you to do a video. My logic was, let me do whatever video I want and I'll put my links to the tools I use. And if they buy something that helps my channel, that's where I was motivated to do that. But mostly if I'm promoting an affiliate link, it's usually to Sweetwater or Guitar Center or someone or Reverb, where you make the choice of what you want to buy there. I don't really have to worry about, you have to buy the thing I'm specifically pushing, right? The reason why that's important to me, this is a side note is, I learned this the hard way when I do the deep dives. If I do a deep dive, and all of a sudden I find a problem in the guitar, the amount of guitars that would convert for sale is dramatically affected. And you can imagine that could mean thousands of dollars in a period of time, over time for me. So in any content creator, so what happens is, it really kills your motivation to find the flaws in the guitars when that is specifically connected. It's not like a company telling me to not say anything negative, it's specifically connected to my sales. For example, I constantly, as you know, I buy a guitar and then I do, I find a flaw in it. When I go to resell that guitar, you can imagine, it really tanks the value. No one's really super excited to buy a guitar that was on Phil McKnight's channel that he didn't give 100%. You know, this is the greatest guitar ever. No one really wants to own that. Usually if somebody wants to buy a guitar, it's because that was in a video so they can show their friends like, hey, this was on this channel. And look at how well it did and look how much praise this person gave it. So that's why we don't generally sell a lot of guitars straight to the public. I just churn them off to, you know, local dealers or the guitar center and just take the hit. So I don't have to think about, you know, that when I'm making the video, I don't have to think like, oh, if I point out this other defect among the other three defects, now this guitar is really worth a lot less. I don't want to think like that. So my point is not to not to talk about this. I'm just talking about the, the, I think the strategy here is clear. In my opinion, again, I got to say my opinion that Fender's definitely not only selling direct, this seems to be an active movement to go direct. And it's probably to, to not so much so you guys know, so not so much in an evil like to circumvent their dealers in the, hey, screw the dealers. Let's, you know, let's keep all the money. I think it's because the dealers aren't moving enough product and they're in a bad way because I think they have like $186 million in debt. That could be a factor of that. But the biggest factor is, you know, they got to, they got to move product. And so if the, if the small dealers can't move it, the influencers can. I want to let you know this is something I had private discussion with my wife and I was confirming some numbers with her. As you know, I was a Fender dealer for over a decade in a store in, in Arizona. And my store was one of the premium Fender dealers. Now that doesn't mean against guitar center. I can't compete with that as a small dealer, but I'm talking about when you take the other Fender dealers in the state of Arizona, we were always top one or two in the state. And there's about 10, I think. So, so we're always number one, number two in sales. Without a doubt, as a YouTube personality, I having a channel just looking at affiliate clicks for what you guys buy at Sweetwater and Guitar Center, Reverb, you name it. I sell way more per year here than I ever did at the store as a dealer. And I would assume, I'm assuming that a lot of influencers are flipping gear to us die hard gear freaks more so than some of the dealers are now, or is at the rate. And think about this, they're cutting in the influencer at 10%, but the dealer has to get at least a 30 to 40% margin. You know, it could be, it could be a way for Fender to really see an opening in the problem. In other words, and just go for that. And I could be coincidence. I'd find it, you know, you see them kind of saying, hey, we have to lay off some, some people make some changes. And then also the direct marketing got really aggressive. I've, they've been doing direct marketing for years. I've been a Fender affiliate for, I feel like a year or two now, maybe longer. And this is the most aggressive. I've seen it. I don't know. And so, you know, unfortunately, when I sign up for these things, because it's through your affiliate networks, I don't know if in that rhetoric of contract, if there's any kind of disclosure laws, like no, you know, like they put in there, I can't disclose. So I'm not going to disclose any of the personal information that they send to me about those things. Just so you guys know, I can try and figure it out, but I would bet I don't want to read 20 pages just to tell you guys, oh, this is what they said in my last email. So I just want to let you know, I'm kind of not talking about that particular, but what, what they did say, send me does seem to line up with what I'm seeing out there and what you could obviously see out there, which is a ton of influencers really pushing fender.com. And the idea that I think it's because they, they'd see that as the, either the next way to get revenue coming or they're trying to fix a problem where there's revenue not coming from their dealer networks. And, and this really is disappointing for one reason, one reason only. I really think, and I, you know, what do I know, just like a lot of you guys, we're all just talking here on Friday. I really feel like they just focus on the quality, you know, just focus on the quality. And so you know, I can kind of tell you this, I can tell you that for sure they know they have a quality issue because I was given privileged information internally from employees. Who are no longer there. So, and I don't mean they're, they left and they're like disgruntled. I mean, just they are no longer there now. So because they're no longer known now, I don't know that, you know, if they figure out who told me, I don't think there'll be any repercussion to them. That they were in meetings just within the last two years with executive team or the, the, you know, their, their management at fender discussing what, how bad the quality assurance reject rates were and how much money it was costing them. And I think we even talked about that. You'd have to go back in a back episode. So like I said, my point is fender knows that there is some quality issues. And I think last year, if you think about last year, this time last year, fender, January, fender, fender, January, February, fender, we'll call January, February, February, Fender area from now on and Fender area of 2025, you know, I independently bought some of the new fender made in Cortex factory standards. And at that time, like I said, they were fine. I just wasn't excited about them. It didn't prompt me to get anything, you know, like, wow, this is what a great future in mind. But again, it felt like again, fender just trying to, you know, constantly cash in on an idea and not just focus on, hey, you could probably get somebody to pay $800 for a made Mexico telecaster. If it didn't have issues, you much easier than just getting them a $600 one made in Indonesia or China. That's just my opinion. Some of you are going to say no, because some of you are definitely focused on the price always. And it's like, oh, I know, I just want to be cheap and cheap, cheap, cheap. But I think sometimes there is sometimes you really want it cheap is not an affordable affordability issue, although that is a factor. Some of us, you know, hey, yeah, I don't got the money to pay $1000 for a guitar. So that's just an affordability factor. But I think a lot of people are just, it's not worth that kind of money. So if they make a lesser expensive option, I don't mind putting in the work to fix the flaws that I'm probably anticipating that one's going to have because the other one above it's going to have to. And we had just talked about in the last few weeks, and I don't remember the episode. I apologize if one of the, if one of you put in the comments, which one it was, where I was just talking about the fact that when I was mentioning Reverend guitars and how I could blindly almost recommend a Reverend guitar because they don't make cheap junk and they don't make any $3000 guitars. Like they just make this, you know, right in the middle meat and potatoes guitar. And yeah, they're not cheap or super affordable, but they're really good. And I used to talk about Fender Mexico the way I now currently talk about Reverend, you know, like, hey, Phil, I want to get a guitar that's really good. I can't spend a lot of money, but I'm not looking for the, you know, the cheapest, you know, Amazon deal out there. And I could say, in fact, I did on this show for at least five years, I would say, made Mexico strat. How many times does somebody say, hey, would you pick a John Mercer, Silver Sky, SC or Mexican strat? Hey, Phil, would you pick a Shakhtar or a Mexican strat? And every time, Mexican strat, Mexican strat, Mexican telly. And now I'm like, it's hit or miss with Fender every time. Hit or miss. And so it'll be interesting to see how these changes affect. I'm hoping that they, you know, that the people that affected by this, I hope they find new jobs soon or they figure out something. But it's, I thought I would just share the news and talk about this because again, it's something we've talked about. We just keep talking about it. And, and I feel like the situation doesn't get better, but yet Fender just keeps having issues. So I don't know. David says, hey, should I buy a Charvel HHR Reverend? You know, here's the funny thing about this. And I don't know if it's a joke or being serious, but let me answer it in the craziest way that's going to really are true. I'm going to articulate my point. My Charvel DK24 is one of my favorite guitars. It's made in Mexico. I like it so much that, you know, when I was pairing down my collection of guitars, as you do, you know, it kind of plumes up and you're like, okay, I'm not playing all these. Let's pair it down. I had to choose for the type for the type of guitar that guitar is between my music man, John Petrucci, you know, six string guitar at USA or that. And I picked the Charvel over that and I kept the Charvel and I got rid of the Petrucci. Because as great as that guitar was the music man, I was like, I just think the Charvel is just as good. I like the, you know, I put some DiMaggio's in it and even though it had Duncan's and I like it. But I got to tell you that guitar did not come out of the box that way. It had fret sprout twice, even though it had a roasted maple neck. It had a couple of their issues. I have to had to remove one of the string trees because as I, if you go look at that video, I'll show I told you guys that it just would not stay in tune. So I had to remove one of the string trees, make some adjustments and ultimately change it to another couple of components in that guitar. That guitar at the time, I don't know what they go for now, a DK24 Charvel made in Mexico at the time was $1,000. And so, and that was, I think I've had it for, I mean, since 2020 probably or 221, at least five years because paint Huffer painted it. And I, right after we did the, the great guitar build off and we, we had him paint a guitar for us. So basically what I'm trying to say is I love my Charvel. I'd recommend it, but I'm going to recommend it much differently than the Reverend. I've had, I've had my hands on a dozen Reverend guitars on the channel, off the channel, friends guitars, much fewer issues consistently than I've seen with Charvel's. So, and that doesn't mean one's better than the other. When it comes to the guitar that you want, how it sounds, we're talking about just out of the box quality, out of the box quality. I would give that to the Reverend. Okay. Let's, let's see any, any comments or questions specifically about this topic right now and then we'll move on. Steve says, Hey, only Fender offers the dishwashing sponge. I know you would think that the dishwashing sponges would have saved Fender financially with that decision, but unfortunately it did not. So, it's funny. Some of you guys are talking about Princeton sponges and then again, let's see. You guys are really, really talking about the sponges a lot. I would say, although the, the joke of the sponges is funny because it's just a weird goofy product, but, um, but, oh, here's a good one. I was going to say, you know, really, I think the quality issues where they focus on salty starfish says, Hey, do you think there's a quality difference in Indonesia versus Mexico made vendors? Um, not really. Uh, I think, uh, I think I've been to both factories, although it's been a while since I've been to the Mexico factory. So I've been to obviously the Indonesian factory is recent and within the less than a year ago. So I have probably dated, you know, information mentally from the main Mexico factory. Um, and I'm a big proponent for the main Mexico factory. I think it's a, I, like I said, I think it was one of the best ideas Fender ever did. You know, you have a factory, the main Mexico factory, uh, not only as a dealer, but as a Fender fanatic was one of the greatest things they ever did in, in the, in my opinion, because it was did through a bunch of things. I was going to say three, I'm just going to make up numbers, but whatever the number is, I'll just go through the things. First, it allowed them to be close to the manufacturer. So you go, you know, they're in, in Sonata, in Sonata is just an hour or two hours away from, sorry, they're not in Sonata. They're in Corona. And Corona is only a few hours away from in Sonata. So they, you know, they can go to that factory, you know, Indonesia, as you know, it took me 36 hours to get there from 30 hours in total travel from LAX. Okay. Okay. So Fender's got to travel 30 hours to get to the Cortech factory. It's not an easy, uh, easy trip. Um, cause there's not like a direct flight to Indonesia from LA. So, so you can understand it gives them more control that way. Secondly, um, you have a quality, you have a great quality, you have a workforce with a great work ethic and skill set because one in five people in Mexico play guitar. So you have a likelihood that people in the guitar factory actually play guitar. Trust me, very few people in the Indonesian factory play guitar. Is that a factor? Do you need that? Um, well, you know, I've had people like Paul Reed Smith and Jeff Kiesel mentioned that the majority of their workers are guitar players and that's not necessarily cause obviously Leo Fender didn't play guitar. But workers who play guitar, they have our passion and therefore they look at the things a little bit differently than just a quality of work as a pass, fail system. Um, the other thing is, uh, it allows Fender to pull the trigger a lot, uh, closer to when they need things. So for instance, let's say they need inventory for, they're trying to figure out fourth quarter needs or whatever, you know, across the world, you got to make decisions, you know, not only months in advance, sometimes years in advance. Mexico allows them to make that decision a lot, you know, closer to when they make, you know, they need it. They can pull that trigger a little closer. They also don't have to worry about anybody else making any other products in the Mexico factory. So the Mexico factory only makes Fender products. Besides, of course, it makes Charvel EVH, which are all Fender branded products and Jackson. So it's all Fender products. Okay. Um, where Cortech, although Fender has its own building and so does Squire. There is some cross contamination and more importantly, you are kind of giving your sauce away to a third party, you know, Cortech now knows whatever Fender teaches them. And as you've seen, Cortech is adapting as a factory over the years. It's becoming instead of the, the place where manufacturers go and teach them how to make a thing that they want. They're going there because they already know how to make a thing better than they know how to make, you know, and so, um, I love, so basically that's my way of saying, I think Mexico Fender is a better place. I think it's a better decision for Fender. I think it's a better decision for us. Um, it's a better decision economically for us. I mean, some people say I'd rather by USA. Me too. Oh, I mean, heck, I think every, is every guitar here today, a main USA guitar. Okay. No, one. So I didn't plan that. I have one guitar that Gretches made in Japan. Every guitar on this wall that you see behind you. Oh, Ireland. Let's not forget Ireland guys. Okay. So Ireland, Japan and the rest is made in USA. So, um, you know, obviously I'm a fan of USA made products. I'm an American and I'm proud of my country and the workforce that, that I'm part of. But that being said, I like that, you know, when we can work with Canada, I like when we can work with Mexico, with their neighbors. Um, you know, there's some benefits to us on a lot of fronts, just like there is to them. So I kind of really like that. Uh, I think Cortec makes a great guitar, but I also think that part of the thing about Cortec is they're not going to like, Cortec is they're not going to allow Cortec to make a better guitar than Mexico. And I'd like to pick on them for that, but when I was there, I didn't really see anything different than anybody else's philosophy. Um, as we truly know now, Cortec is not making everybody's guitars at the best ability Cortec can make a guitar. They're making the guitars based on the price points that these manufacturers or these brands want the guitar to be sold at. And, uh, that's just how it goes. But, uh, and, and, uh, I like the Indonesian made standard TELIS strats, bases, they're fine, but I would still rather buy a main mix go personally. If it was me and I'm friends with the Cortec guys, think about that. I'm really close friends with them. Uh, okay. Uh, so let's go ahead. I think we got it unless I missed anything. Anyone's comment. Um, and, uh, And then, okay, we'll end on this cause it's the last vendor type subject. I see it says, uh, this is from Mardy B. Mardy B says, Phil, what's your overall impressions when comparing tone master amps to their two component parts? The tone master amps are very good. Uh, I actually call them decadent. I feel kind of like, um, you know, when you look at right now, I have a boss katana behind me. It's funny. You can't see it. It's not funny. There's no light hitting it that way. But anyways, I love the boss katana. I love those kind of amps too. You know, right? The rolling cubes, all that stuff. In my personal opinion, I think the tone master series is as a level above all of those. Um, but they're so much more expensive. Like I can't, I can't, you know, I hear, keep hearing it in my voice. I can't get to $1,500 on these things. I can't get to $1,200 on these things. Now I don't have a need for that. See a need really kind of helps you focus in your price point. Right. A lot of people don't understand it's like when they look at something and they go, oh, I don't think it's worth $300. And I'm like, well, you also don't need it. Right. So let me give you an example of a need. I'm not hauling my 65 deluxe reverb to a gig three times a week. Maybe I'd have a different opinion if I was where not only what if I got the tone master 65 deluxe, it would be a little lighter. Also, I could direct into the PA with an IR. That would definitely change my opinion of how much it costs versus how much my amp costs. And I really wanted a tone master basement 59 for a couple of reasons. One, the basement 59 tone master has reverb, something I have to add to the basement. It also is a little lighter, which is always something nice because the basement is actually pretty heavy because of the four speakers. The basement also has like an attenuation thing so you can crank it. So great. My problem with it and why I don't value it for not only $1500, much less than now $2000 point is I could never get my hands on the try one. And so without trying it, I've had an experience with the tone masters, all of them. One experience with all of them that I thought was a little negative that I didn't like, which is they don't like all pedals. CF Ender amp to me is the ultimate pedal platform amp. You know, I'm sure there's two rocks and there's all kinds of great amps out there too, but I'm just saying when I think of Fender amps, like that's what you do with them, right? You put your pedals in front of them. You know, they have this ultimate clean. They sound great. You know, they're relatively loud and not super heavy. It's not like you're taking a half stack, but then you run your pedals and all pedals just sound really good for the most part. With the tone master series, I want to say they're bitchy. Like all of a sudden one pedal sounds like a AB I could AB a tone master 65. I'm just picking on 65 and the Princeton can be the same too. You tone master 65 against the 65 deluxe reverb. I could put take I could pick 10 pedals if I wanted to for this challenge. I could pick five where they sound exactly the same through both amps and you go, oh yeah, they're the same. And the next five and every case the tone master sounded fizzier and worse. It just something it doesn't like about pedals fuzz pedals. Fuzz pedals specifically I didn't have a whole lot of luck with on the tone master series. But if you're not using fuzz pedals, who cares? Right. I mean, it's not something that affects it. Why do I think that happens? I don't know. I've already when I did my a being trying to decide if I was keep which one I was keeping because that's what happened. I bought a tone master as you guys know, I did a video. I have a 65 deluxe reverb. I abeed them, maybe them, maybe them and eventually decided I like the 65 deluxe reverb. And I even said, and I think somewhere in this on the podcast as well, if I didn't already have a 65 deluxe reverb, a real one, I probably would have been happy with the tone master, but I'm not getting rid of the real one for the tone master just for saving a little weight and then having a direct out. The intonuation was not super important to me as I don't really crank them for overdrive. I'm not running my fingers for overdrive. So that's my thoughts on that. Although I've heard rumors that the new the new hyperdrive EVH tone master essentially series amp sounds really good, but I again couldn't find one physically to try. The EVH guys reached out. I reached out back to them. I got ghosted. That was the end of that. So I'll still try and find one and I'll get one on the channel if I can. Let's see. Steve says the pedal show speaks of this. If I recall when this pedal show did a video on the tone master, they literally came in the same conclusion I did, which is they liked it. But of the two, they definitely wanted the real real thing, whatever that means, the real tubes and they got real tubes. But but like said, tone master stuff, I think it's good. And I think it and I don't think it needs to be cheap. I just think it's priced just just a little too high. And the reason why not because of an affordable aspect, it's because to me it's not a forever product. And so it's a lot easier to justify some products like a guitar, certain guitars, certain amps, because you know you're going to probably have them until you're sick of them. And so then you'll sell them off tone master digital products. It's not even about them breaking. A lot of people worry like, oh, when they break, they're going to break, they're going to break. You know, digital products just don't hold value. Perfect example is I've recently decided, which I have not announced to you guys officially that I am not. I decided I'm not using my Kemper anymore. And guess what? If anyone's interested in Kemper, you should reach out to me direct message me. You're going to get a Kemper. A great deal. I have tried to sell the Kemper. I tried to give it away, not literally like donated, but sell it for dirt cheap. And everywhere I went, and which is not, I'm going to say everywhere. It's not like 100 places, like four places everywhere I went had way too many Kempers and they couldn't take any more Kempers used. It was like, it actually had a flashback to my teenage years when we had, we still do. We had Zia records here in the Arizona where you trade records and tapes. When I would go and try to trade in certain CDs and it was like, you know, and they're like, yeah, we have, we have 13 of those. We're not taking those on trade right now because everybody decided they're done with that band. That's what it was like having. So in fact, I did some trading yesterday at Guitar Center and I took a pile of stuff and other pile stuff. And the only thing that didn't keep or the only thing they didn't take was my Kemper. And I even sarcastically said, they said, just so you know, they said, Phil, we don't want your Kemper. I go, okay. And they go, and even if we did right now, we would probably offer you a low price and insult you. And I said, don't even care. Whatever price you throw, I'd probably take it. And they're like, nah. I'm like, okay. So this is my point. Why is everybody dumping their Kempers right now? I have no idea. I know why I'm doing it, but I'm not announcing it. Why? Because I've switched to another product after having the Kemper for about five years. And I really like my Kemper. It's not, I've not fallen out of love with it. For again, work purpose flow purposes. I found something that work purpose flows better for me. I can't even argue sounds better. Might even technically not sound as good to me. Or at least it sounds as good as the Kemper, but work flows faster and easier and more practical for my needs. So, okay. So let's do the next thing. What do we got? Looking at the clock, make sure we're on time. Let me grab a couple of these. If you don't mind. And that gives me a little second to sip some water. Antique Rocker says, hey, I purchased a beat buddy mini two instead of the beat buddy. $160 versus $500. What am I missing by not getting the big boy to use the foot switch? So I use the foot switch. I have the external foot switch. I had the beat buddy mini. I liked it. So, you know, totally fine. What are you missing? I don't know. I don't use 90% of the functions on the beat buddy too, but I like the way it sounds. I think to my ear, the beat buddy, the new beat buddy, the one I have sounds better than the old beat buddies. I think they are some rhetoric in their marketing about how they resampled and stuff. It just sounds a little better. But is it worth the 160 versus the $500? I don't, I don't know. Not, not that I, like I said, I know of. I just know I like the new beat buddy. I use it on the regular and, and that's about the end of that. But beat buddy mini, I think, especially you paid 160 bucks. That's great. I sometimes see them used for 99 bucks too. Same thing. 160 bucks, 99 bucks. I don't think you can go wrong. I don't think you made a bad decision. How about that anti rocker? I don't think you made a bad decision. I think if anything, maybe stick with the, the beat buddy mini for a while. And then if you start feeling like, wow, I wish it had more features, then maybe start looking in the features of their, the newer model to see what it, what it adds. Chris says, can you recommend a good humidifier? I tried the Varnado and it doesn't get above 30%. Are you talking about like to place into a guitar? So as I've said, I really don't use a whole lot of humidification. We use some humidifiers here only when like right now humidity is 49%. So I'm okay with that. I don't keep optimum humidity in the house or even around the guitars. I don't optimize to 50 or 60%. What I do is I told you guys, if, in my experience, if your humidity goes below, I'm going to say 40%. So once you're in the 30s, like once a couple of weeks ago, the shop was at 32. And I was like, oh no. And I knew it and I knew something was going to happen. And it did. One of my guitars fret sprouted and I was like, I knew it was good just cause I had left it in there for two days. It's too dry, a little too dry. So I don't really have a whole lot of recommendations for that humidifiers. I like the Dodaria ones and I like the, what is it? The music nomad ones are pretty good. But, and then for a unit, I have a home home back is what it's one you buy Costco. That's what I use. Some people say it's not the one you should use. I've been using it for years. I have no problems. So, half custom guitars says, hey, new amp day. All right, what'd you get? He says, I just got the high tone custom low watt combo. I never heard of it. What are your thoughts on the high watts? Oh, so high watt like the brand high watt. So it's the high tone custom low watt combo. But is that a high watt thoughts on high watt and high watt stamps style amps? I have played one or two high watt amps. I know very little about them. When I said I played them, they would come in like one came in and trade or maybe two came in trade or I've found them and used to her here and there and I plugged in generally understanding. At least I think that they're like a Marshall type product. Are there a Marshall variant? Right? You know, in my lot, in my, in my life, amps have really come down to like the three grandfathers of amps for me. So there's Marshall's. So everything's like a Marshall. So like there's a freedman, right? There's, in my opinion, like a high watt. Obviously there's the, the Royalist from Tone King. There's the badger, you know, the semester amps, some of the Wagner amps are Marshall Esk. Just a bunch of Marshall Esk amps. And then the next is the Fender amps. So then there's all the fence, fenders, and then all the Fender variants, right? And then it gets confusing because I sometimes I feel like some amp builders are kind of like pickup builders where they just kind of throw all this marketing jargon that confuses me. Like voice, like a Vox and this and this. And I'm like, I don't know. And then even though Vox should be the third, right? So there's Vox and then all the Vox variants. So then you would have like Matchless or Bad Cat. But then again, they all start shooting off different directions right after a while. Like Bad Cat's got stuff that sounds like a, you know, a Marshall and they got stuff that sounds like a Vox. And I was, so those are the three, but then sometimes I always go the Mesa Boogie. And I don't really consider like, to me, the Saldano and the EVH and all that stuff, that's an outlier because I know just enough to know that their, the Saldano is a thing and then they kind of vary it off that. I kind of think of those as somehow modified Marshalls in some way too. And again, generally speaking, not as like a, you know, oh no, let me, let me tell you how the circuit works. This is what they're based off. I'm not talking like that. I'm just talking about like to my ears, to my usage when I'm using stuff. And then the rarest concept of all is Dumbles. But see Dumbles again, I feel like all modified things for modified things to me. And that's why I said some amps just feel like they're modified versions of stuff. So that's what I know about like High Watts. And I don't know. So I don't know. I haven't tried many, maybe I'll have to try more. That's a good way to segue into a topic. I was actually talking, funny, Michael Nielsen is in the chat. I was talking to Michael Nielsen about this, but I was talking about much other people and then again on it today. And this subject came up. This is a good time and this is perfect because we'll do this and then we'll go into guitar of the week. So somebody asked me, did I see Dr. Z, the owner of Dr. Z say the death, it's the death of guitar amps. It's the death of guitar amps. I did not. I went to go look for it, but also I was trying to get ready for the show today. And so I started laughing. Now I got to tell you, I don't want to talk about this like I saw whatever he had to say and I'm going to react to it. I'm not reacting to what he said. I actually don't care. So I'm reacting to that statement as this thing seems to keep coming up. Wampler says it's the death of pedals, right? Dr. Z is like, it's the death of amps. And I think as a content creator, look, you got to have a snazzy title, right? You got to get somebody's interest in. You got to give them something like, you know, hey to bite on, hey, here's what I'm going to talk about and here's what's going to happen. But I think the problem with those, although they're great as a title grab, I think there's this reality that I sometimes, I know you guys know that that's just a title to grab your attention. And then maybe there's some context in it. But I want to tell you that one of the things that I think about every time I see a pedal builder or an amp builder, because you could almost argue and I would argue that on my right now. What do I know that, you know, what do I know about the amp market, you know, more than Dr. Z? You know, he's an amp builder, right? How should some random YouTube guy in his bedroom talk about what he thinks? And I think the problem is, is because I think even though that's a good argument, I'm going to argue a different argument today when it comes to a pedal builder talking about the pedal market versus an amp builder talking about the amp market and a guitar builder versus someone like me. I like to point out I'm not vested or interested in anybody's products. In other words, I work with all kinds of people and I wish them the best because they're some of them are friends and some of them are just good companies and I want to support their products. But I don't make any of my money off of products being sold. It's not how I make my money. So I really don't have any skin in that game. I have skin in the make YouTube content that you guys are interested in. And so that's my thing. So if we want to talk about the death of YouTube, sure, I might have a differently biased opinion of that versus thing. But here's what I think I want to react to. The statement, the death of guitar amps. I would rather change that every time when you guys hear them say the death of guitar amps, the death of guitar, it's the death of electric guitar, hey, it's the death of pedals. It's no just goodbye to the bad companies. That's what it is. There is no absolute zero. There's not even absolute zero when there's technology that comes in and takes out something, right? They still print maps. That's a fact. You have GPS on your phone. 12 year old children have phones that have GPS all day. They still print maps. You can buy a book of maps. They still make them. There's technology never absolutely kills anything. Cars still go, right? Everything goes. You can already, I'm sure somebody's going to find an outlier. Please do, right? Throw it in there and tell me why I'm wrong because you found one thing that it's not correct in this or 10 things, which still are not going to be enough. My point is whatever's happening to amps, because it is amps are declining at an epic rate right now. And so is pedals. And is that death? No, it just means it just means that some of the bad companies and when I mean bad, I don't mean mean a crappy just the companies that aren't the top. And I'm kind of sound, you know, I kind of like mad at myself for saying bad companies, but I just think it illustrates the point better than being super, super fluffy right now. The best survive. The best amp companies will survive. I was talking about Michael Nielsen. I was telling him a story yesterday and the story was two things. So I want to go to it. One, I was saying when they say grunge killed heavy metal, I say no, I say they're wrong. Oh, let's argue. You guys are going to get flared up right now. It didn't. Here's how I know it didn't. Pantera was a metal 80s metal band first before they were Pantera. Allison change was a 80s style metal band. There were tons of bands slash was 80s style hair metal stuff. What happens when grunge came? Yes, grunge came and there was some Tom Morello is a shredder. Billy Corrigan from smashing bumpkins is a shredder. He can shred. He can 80 shred. He was an 80s shredder. They, a lot of them were. What they did is they adapted. They said, hey, kids aren't listening to guitar hero style music that are about the girl they want to have sex with. What, what's going on? Oh, they're listening to these bands, these bands who are not wearing, they're not teasing their hair there and they adapted. Some adapted badly and didn't do well. Okay. Some adapted so well, we confused them with the actual genre themselves. Allison change is not a grunge metal band. Right now when I said Allison change adapted, some of you guys are like, oh, but Phil, Allison change is not a grunge metal band. They're not, but they are definitely held in that era as a band that didn't get killed by grunge. They adapted in it. You're like, you think they just started that week and they were already in the market. They were making music and then they changed. Things adapt. The market adapts. Let me tell you why amp companies are hurting right now. And I, again, Dr. Z, by the way, I think Dr. Z makes some of the best amps. Okay. And I think, by the way, if you watch his videos, I love some of his most to the point comments in his video. So I want to let you know this isn't about Dr. Z in any way. And I'm going to watch what he has to say because I'm curious, but I actually didn't want to for this a little bit. Like I said, I didn't have time and I was like, oh, it kind of works out better. I was explaining to, again, Michael Nelson, this is funny because it just happened yesterday, a theory I have and it was about the boss Katana. And it was like, I just did a video this week on the second channel about one of the AmpliNation amps, which are, in my opinion, a more obtainable, not affordable, more obtainable version of Two Rock. So if you're looking at like a Two Rock style amp that's five grand, you can get yourself an AmpliNation for about four grand. To you, you're like, that's insane and insane. But to some people, man, that makes it from, you know, hey, $3,600. I got a shot at this $5,200. There's no shot. Okay. So my point though is, is that some people put in the comments, oh, my boss Katana does this. In fact, every channel that makes content can tell you very easily. Every video they do about any amp that's expensive, somebody says, oh, my boss Katana can do that. And so here's what I was explaining to Michael and my, I play very lightly, or quietly. Okay. None of my family thinks that, like if you ask my wife, she's not going to tell you I play quietly. None of my neighbors probably think I play quietly. I don't know if they can even hear me. But all of my guitar player friends do not think I play loud. In fact, they think I, they're always, I'm, I sent my amps very quiet. I'm not, not, I don't crank the amps. I've just, I used to a long time ago. I don't anymore. I probably stopped 10 years ago, maybe even longer than that, maybe 15 years ago. I don't play very loud. When you have amps, let's pick on the AmphiNation amp because it's right here. Just like the Katanas right here. I'll use these two as examples. When you play that amp, as beautiful as I think that amp is, I actually think it's a work of art. So you understand. I think an amp like that, that's handmade, you know, with the blue suede and stuff. This is just an art piece to me. This is a thing that I truly love. Do I need it? No, I could totally gig anywhere with a Katana. I'm not against that argument. I just think that this makes me feel a certain way, right? I think maybe this is how people who buy like a thousand, no, a thousand, you know, whatever, $25,000 watch. Maybe that's how they makes them feel. I don't understand that concept. So, you know, I don't go, oh, I want a $25,000 watch. I go, maybe it helps their self-esteem. They're walking around and like, hey, what time is it? You're right. To me, this is what makes me feel good. So that's why I have this. But my point is when I turn this amp down, the one of the best attributes of this amp, like a lot of two amps is the power section. I've taken that out of the equation. Okay. And then because I'm not using the power section to even not only its fullest ability, but just to any ability, the speakers are taken out of the equation because they're not really moving like they're supposed to. So I make adjustments and I'm using pedals and all kinds of things to make things sound good at lower volumes. And I obtained this. I'm very happy when somebody says, oh, I can get my boss Katana. I sound like, yeah, you can as long as we're playing fair, which is putting these two amps at a handicap by not using their full power. The reality is I don't care what boss. I don't care if you have the artist boss. I think there's a hundred one artist boss. There is no one is ever going to convince me that any, any boss product care cranked on a stage with sounds as good as a Marshall amp cranked on a stage. There's just no way. I'm not saying it sounds bad. I'm not saying I couldn't use it. I'm not saying you're crazy if you like it. I'm just saying there's no one. You're like, have I AB them? I'm and I play them both. I'm going to, I'm going to go, yeah, the, the Marshall, I think is better. And then I would probably tell you, can we turn this stupid thing down? And then I would probably then go, well, the Katana works for me or the artist Katana, whatever. So my point is this is why I'm talking about adapting. I talk to amp builders all the time. They, they don't listen to anything I say. And I don't mean because I'm a YouTuber. I mean, because when I'm speaking, I'm speaking to them for, I'm you. Right. We're all here on a Friday talking about crap that doesn't matter. This is who we are. People are so fanatical. We're so fanatical about the thing we love music and guitars and amps that we just want to talk about them. Play them, talk about them, look at them. Right. Right. I mean, I look at guitars and magazines the way I think some guys look at like playboy sports models or whatever. Right. They're just staring at girls all the time. I'm like, just, oh, look at this guitar. So my point is when I talk to amp builders about the future, I'm like, oh, look at this guitar. When I talk to amp builders about the future, hey, we need more lower wattage amps because the power section is not really relevant to a lot of us. You know, we need amps that are good, but not, we don't need $5,000 amps that literally are 100 watt amps. And the amp builders are stuck with the rock stars. They're still also, they're also talking to professional musicians and the professional musicians are giving them the opposite. Hey, this is what I need. But that's the minority. None of us are rock stars. In fact, even if you're gigging on the regular, you're being told to turn down. I just told you I don't play that loud. I haven't played a gig in the last 20 years that I wasn't told to turn down. And I don't crank that loud. It's because they always just want the volume down. So I guess my point is, is that whenever I see like pedals are dead or the death of pedals or the death of guitars or the death of amps, it's really just, hey, it's the survival of the fittest and the ones that figure out where the market's going, they're going to do fine. They'll do great. And the ones that don't, they're going to be in trouble. We see it all the time. You know, we saw it with G&L. They made great products, but they just didn't adapt not only in their marketing, but they didn't adapt in their pricing, their design, their delivery strategy with their dealers. And so I, that's my two cents on this subject. And every time this subject comes up, because I just want to say every time I hear the death of something, I kind of always chuckle a little bit like, yeah, it doesn't die. Okay. That's not what happens to it. It just, it's changing. And the change means somebody goes away. And maybe that means they die. I don't know. There it is. There, I just contradicted my whole statement for fun. Um, Matt says, Hey, any reason why you can't download episodes on YouTube premium? I did not know that. Let me check. Actually, no, let me check right now. I will check after tonight. I will look as far as I know, there is no setting that allows me to, to stop you from that. Uh, but if there is, and I've clicked it somehow, I'll fix it. You know, last week I got it, I get this every about, I don't know, I want to say 10 episodes. So every three, three months, let's call it 12 episodes every three months, about once a quarter. Once a quarter, I get a couple of comments going, Hey, you've turned off your closed captions. Hey, turn on the closed captions. That's not me. Uh, I, uh, there is a setting that you can turn off closed captions. In other words, so your, your video doesn't have closed captions. I think I heard or read once that that's even illegal to do. So it's weird that it's an option. Maybe it's made an option for certain countries or something. Um, but I don't do that at all. But if you notice, it's never happened once ever on an actual video I made, but always on the podcast. It's because sometimes there's a backlog on YouTube. I'm not sure the official answer, but they don't get to it. They don't do it. And then it eventually they update it and they do it. It's always them. And I've in the past, I've sent them a message and every time they send me a response a day or two later saying, Oh, it's fixed, but they didn't fix it. It just caught up and then they just tell me. So I stopped emailing them. So I'm just letting you guys know, uh, I'll figure out the download thing. Um, and, um, and if there's a problem, I'll fix that. And on the closed captions, I appreciate you guys putting comments. I, uh, said, I used to answer you guys. If I'm not answering now, it's not for any reason, then there's nothing I can do about it. So that's my official statement. There's nothing I can do about it. I always check it though. So anytime anyway, you guys put the, Hey, there's no closed captions. I load a check to make sure I haven't accidentally hit any kind of weird setting. Um, so, um, and I also think that part of the problem. So, you know, on the closed caption thing is because I don't monetize the show until after it. It starts replay. It starts replay. And you've probably heard this before when you don't monetize and you're a channel like me with this kind of, I mean, there's 1500 of you live. YouTube's like punishing you a little bit. So they, they'll throttle down. So not only do I not get the monetization for the first two hours of the show, which is on approximately 6,000 views. Just so you guys know, you guys think it's 1500 views because there's 1500 of you. There's 1500 of you at any one minute or one second here right now. But through the two hours, we're going to cycle apparently four, four times your number because there's about, uh, sometimes about four or 5,000 people. So I lose out on the four or 5,000 views that we do because we're not monetizing. And then they throttle down the, the, uh, sharing it afterwards because it wasn't monetized yet. It's, it's so, you know, just for, because it's sponsored by patrons. So I guess it doesn't really matter anyways, but it's about $150 per episode is what we lose. There's 52 episodes. You do the math. You can do the math that we do the year by doing ad free at the beginning that's, uh, you'll hear a lot of channels say, Hey, I don't make much. Well that's probably because they had like 30 people live and they get 200 views, 6,000 views on a two hour stream like this. It's about 100, 150 bucks to the channel that we are skipping. Um, so I'm just letting you know. And then, but the, not to tell you like on the money side, I just want you to explain that that's why I think YouTube is also not worried about closed captions and also messing of the features. They put us as a back burner. We're no different than if you have a new channel at that point and you're not monetized. They don't care about it because there's no money for them to make. So, okay. And then cigar dad's thing, used to have also stopped letting us use the playback speed. Yeah, I don't know what that is. I mean, I know what it is, but I don't know why it would affect that. There shouldn't be anything that affects that. There's nothing in the settings we can do to prevent you or have that or anything like that. Let's grab this one. This one was from Amanda. This is from Amanda. She said, she grabbed this and says, "'Hey Phil, read that reversing the saddles "'on a tunamatic bridge can improve intonation "'on wound strings, is this true?' "'I would argue whether it's true or not "'would probably be irrelevant "'as I don't think that's why anyone does it.' When you top wrap a string on a tunamatic bridge tailpiece, it is generally been used for attention change, to change the way it feels when you're doing bends. And I've talked about this before that one of the things I always thought was funny was, I think Greg Allman from the Allman Brothers did it and Zach Weil did it. And I always thought that was funny because these are probably two dudes that never cross paths and said, hey, that's how I do it. And Meg, me too. So it's funny to me when different musicians, kind of like what I was saying about the story about Fender, with different people, when different people who are playing different things that are in different places can come across the same idea, sure they could have heard them the same, but for them to adopt them, to me kind of solidifies them as being more of a true thing than so much just a, you know, a wives tail or a myth. I have top-wrapped my tailpieces on my guitars and I have noticed the exact same thing. You, when you wrap over the top, your tension is decreased, the feel of it decreases. And so if you're playing 10 to 46, they feel a little bit looser. So I've heard that there is sustained increase, you know, increased sustain intonation. I could see that as an argument. I don't know why intonation would, so here's my point. As someone who's worked on these guitars for so many years, I don't know what it'd be physically changing because the intonation is from the saddle, from the bridge saddle to the nut, right? That's where intonation is affected. Intonation is not affected by anything past those two points. So it's from that tip to that tip. So it's like really where the string rests into the saddle from, so in this continue, this part. Oh my God, I was gonna use a sharpie, doesn't matter. So you get the point. This is the string, this is the string, this is the saddle. The intonation would be affected from when the string is contacting this point forward if this is the bridge. And then on the nut, the same thing would be before the end of the nut. By the way, so you guys know in your screen, I'm probably doing this weird holding it this way because I have something in front of me. So I had to turn this around reading your question. So my point is intonation being affected, is it possible? There is another factor in intonation, which is tension. Guitars, what I mean by that is you could hit a note because remember, people think of intonation as just being distance where sometimes it can physically be tension because hitting an open string lightly, you go, oh, it's perfectly intonated. Let's say take a A for 40, that's not really gonna be your intonation 100%. Your intonation is really affected more. You're gonna notice it more than more you go up the neck. So maybe with tension, it will get different. So maybe by change the intention, you can improve the intonation. There may be an argument there, but I'm gonna stick with my original statement, which is whether it is or isn't a factor in intonation, I would say that's not why anybody's doing it. That could be a byproduct that they notice. The function of it is to change the tension on a less pallet to make it easier to play, especially players who play really thick strings is what I noticed too. So if you haven't done it, you can try it. You just top wrap it. I have a video. I'm pretty sure it's either the, I think it's the guitar miss video, which is like a million view video, and I discuss that in detail, why they do it and why all that stuff. But so pop, pop, it's something says, you can just use a guitar to demonstrate it. I could, but then I have to hold the guitar awkwardly in front of the camera and then point. It's not set up that way. It's not how it works, unfortunately. You got to set up your rig the way it's set up. So in the other rig, I can show you guys in detail anything, but here it's the second I go and grab a guitar and just start pointing at things that gets a little bit more difficult. Plus, because so many people consume the podcast's audio only, I have to describe it verbally more than I have to show you anyways, because otherwise people listening in the car right now are gonna go, I don't know what he's talking about, because he's not saying anything. Triple, this is also from Amanda. Triple trains, triplet trains, 1373 says, hey, have you ever had two guitars sound alike? And what would you change to make them sound different? I would say that's the rarest thing I've ever come across. Two, even identical guitars sounding the exact same and feeling the same is probably the hardest thing to achieve. I've probably spent more time in my life trying to get two guitars to sound alike than I've ever found two guitars sounding alike. To the point where it's almost like, I think it's a futile effort. I don't know if I would ever, somebody's like, I got two identical strats, same wood, same pickup, same height, same this, same measurement, same string, same set up, same frets, and they don't sound alike. I'm like, yep, that sounds more like it to me. I think it's because the variables are so much that it's too hard to get all of them exact. Have I ever played or had two guitars that sound exactly alike? Maybe, I don't remember. I don't think it's ever happened. I don't think. I mean, generally speaking, like, could I convince you on a YouTube video by strumming a couple of generic chords and saying through the microphones going, oh, they sound the same, don't they? It's funny about the one dimensional kind of concept of showing things on a platform like YouTube. You can really convince people of some bullshit real easy. You can go like, hey, look, ding, this sounds like this, ding. And if you haven't figured out why honesty is so important on YouTube is really the real thing you need is somebody to explain the personal experience to you. And although that can be tainted with their bias, which is why knowing their bias is important, and it can also be tainted with their experience or lack of or maybe too much experience, at least if you have an idea, if somebody's telling you like, hey, regardless of what you're hearing, this is what's really happening, right? That's where it really happens. But yeah, in a YouTube video, I can make two guitars sound exactly like, because you just stop doing anything that's gonna increase the variable of that. So like I said, a perfect example is like, strum the strings open on one guitar and then strum the strings open on another guitar and go, look, they're the same and they're gonna sound generally the same. But will all the other things that are really important to you be the same? Probably not so much. So, and I didn't really get too much in that to my channel, but in the beginning, I did a lot of comparison stuff. And then over time, you do comparison because people like it, but then what you realize is that it's almost impossible to give them a real good comparison. You would just have to tell them the difference. And then the skeptics come in. It's like, it's weird that the guitar community has the same skeptics as every other community, but we do have them like, whoa, you know, you didn't show us the proof of that. Like the proof of it, I was just telling you what I think. So that's my thought on that. Two guitars sound I like is very difficult, which is why I think, so you know, and I think a lot of sane people, we'll call them sane guitar players, think that tone would, not that it exists or doesn't exist. It's where tone would debate came from, where tone would comes from, the concept is two guitars never sound the same, usually. Say never is a hard word, right? Generally don't sound the same. And so then the argument becomes, oh, well it's cause they're different woods. And if they're not different woods, it's just different, you know, densities of wood or different grains or different, you know, tight, you know, right? And so that's the, that becomes, I think where that argument comes from. The reality is, you know, the best I've ever heard it put is this. When somebody says, oh, everything sounds the same, like, oh, if that's true, then it'd be a lot easier to make money in this business. If I could make every guitar sound the exact same, that would be the easiest thing to do, right? Is I could sell them. The problem is that guitar players go into a music store and they pick up seven of the same guitar and yet six of them they don't like and one of them they love. If you could convert all of those seven to being the one they love, you would make a lot more money. And I told you guys that I've learned this the hard way as someone who had to sell guitars for a long time in a store, that was my money tied up in those guitars when guitars just could not sell. I don't mean one person didn't like it. I mean, every guitar player came in, they just didn't like it. They didn't like this guitar and you do a full setup on it. They didn't like it. Just there's something about the guitar. It just didn't appeal to anybody. You just learn, like, you know, just not everything's gonna be great. Some guitars are just not great or even good even. Let's see. Guitar sample, no, guitars, amps and coffee. Oh, see, that's good. I like that name. So guitars, amps and coffee says, hey, I found a Jackson X series Kelly for $100 at a thrift store. That's awesome, especially the thrift store because I hear all the time that they're gouging down and stuff. Says, any suggestions for a pickup upgrade that would be for that guitar that would kind of 80s rock van Halen kind of vibe? Definitely go with the JB Jazz, but dude, find a used one. Stick used JB's in there. So somebody's always yanking out a JB in the guitar, JB Jazz, you know, get yourself a used set of Seymour Duncan's, that would definitely do it. Or get yourself some used DiMargios or some copy of those kind of pickups. A lot of good copies out there. Mighty Might makes good copies. What's it? Why am I having trouble with that? They make the SLS guitars. Why can't I think of the name of them? Guitar fetish. They make some good copy pickups. So you can always get copies. If you want the real deal, I totally understand that. So just, but by used, pickup used is sometimes a great deal. So, and a JB is a great pickup, especially for the 80s. I think it's the, for me is the JB and the super distortion. It's the DiMargio, Seymour Duncan, like they owned the 80s. Paul says, hey Phil, what are some good rule of thumb to maintain gold-plated hardware? Don't sweat on it, wipe it down all the time. That's, first of all, they usually, it's plated like crap. You know, as we all know, it's usually cheap. But the biggest problem you're gonna have is your sweat destroys it. And it getting sweat like wet on it isn't what destroys it. It's just the, when your sweat dries, the salt and the acids in your skin, the corrosive stuff that's in the, not in the skin, in your liquid, in your sweat, stay behind and they dry up and they eat at the bridge. So, I would say the best thing you can do is wipe it down constantly, have a nice cloth. I would say 100% cotton, you can do flannel or microfiber. Have that dry, don't, you don't need chemicals. You don't need to spray anything on it. You don't need anything, just dry it all off. And that's great. You don't need to wet it. Don't worry about, you know, just wipe it off. If you wipe it off when it's wet, if you're, if you wipe off your sweat, when it's wet, you should be fine. You just wipe it off. If your sweat has dried, you're gonna need something to clean it. That's up to you. You could use a guitar polish. You can probably use Windex, whatever it is. Just keep in mind that anything that you pick, you know, just make sure it doesn't get on the screws too because the screws can rust and stuff. But that's not really what you're worried about. The gold plating kind of stuff, but definitely keep it dry. That's the biggest thing you can do. One trick that I saw a guy do, and he did it for years, and I used to think it was crazy, and I kind of think now it worked, was he would use sweat bands. And I remember thinking it was so weird that he would play on stage with sweat bands, you know? And I used to do his repairs, his work. And he told me, it's because he sweat so much that it got on his guitar and it ruined his guitar. So it destroyed like the finish on his chrome, on his hardware, it ate through his strings. And so he would put sweat bands on and that way it would soak up the sweat. Plus he could use them to wipe off any of the wet, you know, the wet of his guitar. So, I don't know, man, maybe. Sweat bands is the key, I don't know. Just passing the information. Frank says, hey, Phil, he's in the market for an attenuator. Would you recommend something like the Tonking? I love the Tonking Ironman, it's one of my top favorite attenuators, from moving up more expensive Oxbox solution. The Oxbox is the worst attenuator ever in the history of attenuators, I'm gonna call it that. Michael Nielsen and I were talking yesterday, it seems to be a drop today a lot, but we were talking for a little bit. And he said, the five-way switch on, I hope I don't get in trouble for this. Michael says that he called the five-way switch on the Oxbox the blankets. It's like, how many blankets do you want on your sound? One, two, three. I said, actually, I don't think that's accurate. I think it's the blankets' pillow, so if the Oxbox is one blanket, two blanket, then two blankets and a pillow, then it's two blankets and two pillows. Oxbox has the worst attenuator, but the Oxbox has one of the best direct sounds. I absolutely love it, so I love my Oxbox. And I'm working on this as maybe as an idea for a video. The 10 pieces of gear that I can't live without, I don't mean right now or the company sent me. Talking about just in my whole life, this is what I've had. If this was gone, it would change me for the worse. The Oxbox is definitely in that top 10, no problem. But not as an attenuator. I use it sometimes as an attenuator, but it just darkens the amp up a lot. And it's just not something I like, but I love it for direct. In fact, I like it better than most. Antenuators, I've owned a lot. I have a lot currently right now. There's a lot. The Fryat Power Station. Fryat Power Station, like the Boss Waza, which I think the Fryat's way better than the Boss Waza, but like that, they're different kind of animal, right? Cause now what they're doing is they're putting themselves in place of your power section. And that's really cool and a unique feature. But to me, if you're looking at the Ironman, one of the things I like about Tonking Ironman is, you're just, you know, like if you're like me and you have like a little 12 watt combo or 21 amp, and you just want to, you know, put something in front of it, I would highly suggest the smaller version of the Ironman, the more affordable one, it's like $500 versus the bigger one. I have both, but if your amps under 30 watts, go with the smaller one. I don't think you'll ever regret it. It's really good sounding, you know, a tenuator. So think about something like that. There's a bunch of others. I have like the Surra one. I have, look, there, and somebody always does it. Anytime you say anything good about tenuators, and somebody's always got to mention their tenuator, there are a lot of good ones. Very few to know bad ones, and any, if they are any bad ones, they're just because they're old outdated stuff and they just have gotten better at it now. But I would say Ironman is one of my favorites, especially for the price points, but also the Surra one's really good too. But I'm talking about just if you just straight up just need tenuation, no other frills. You don't need it to be a power section, so you have an effects loop in the thing. You don't need it, you know, option, you know, you don't need the other options. But the Oxbox, like I said, I recommend the Oxbox only if you're gonna use it for either direct recording or you're gonna use it on stage to run it to front house. Oxbox, I think, is one of the best choices you can get out there. Nellis says that Oxbox is expensive. It's super expensive, and I've sold this story so many times, and I just want to be very clear. The Oxbox, I don't have a thing with UA audio. I don't have a relationship with them. So when the Oxbox came out, every YouTuber was like, it's the greatest thing since everything, and that's what happens when it all comes out, right? And I'm like you guys, I'm skeptical. You should be skeptical. Hey, you'd be skeptical of me. You know, you don't know why. Like I said, sometimes I'm like, hey, this company worked with me and they're sponsoring the video. Even knowing that, maybe you're skeptical, it's fine. I try to be as transparent as I can, but still, you can have Honeymoon, not only with a piece of gear, and then you don't trust everything because they're in love with it, but also I can have a Honeymoon ratio with the company. Maybe I like the company a little bit. That's why I try to tell you who's my friend who's not, you know, on, not as a brag, but as a, hey, I have a relationship with this person, I like them. So I'm kind of probably talk about them like, I don't, you know, a little bit nicer, is what I'm trying to say. I try not to, but I try to pick friends that can take a little abuse. But, you know, it goes on the way it goes. My point is, Oxbox, I was skeptical and so I was gonna buy one, but I was really afraid to buy one because everyone got one for free. And I was like, everyone got one for free, which means it's probably not good. If they, like when a company sends every YouTuber or something, I'm always like, oh, that's the trigger for me. As a YouTuber, if I see, you know, a channel get some piece of gear sent to my company, I don't think anything of it, that's just the company wants to get it advertised. They probably worked out a thing like, hey, I'd they like it and does it. When I see almost half the channels that I'm watching with the same piece of gear, I know it's a marketing push, but then I'm a little skeptical, not because it's a marketing push, because I'm like, everyone likes it. That's a lot of people to like something, you know, in a very short period of time of having access to it. But anyways, back to the Oxbox. I was skeptical, skeptical, skeptical. And I did not, it's hard to say, how do you look at this? Okay, I did not buy my Oxbox, but Oxbox, but UA Audio did not give me the Oxbox. I was very upfront about this on many podcasts before. Sweetwater reached out to me and asked me to do a video for them in which they offered to pay me. And I said, I actually would really want an Oxbox. Will you send me an Oxbox? And, because I want to try one. And I did that as the compensation for, so instead of payment, which is dumb because I could have just got the money and just bought an Oxbox. I don't know why I didn't do it. You know, I could do it either way. I guess it didn't matter. But I took it as compensation. And then I made a video of the Oxbox where I was just not, I think in the video, so you guys know it says product provided, which implies that it's sponsored. I was not required to do a video of the product in any way. It's just the way I do product provided is, if I know somebody to the company, it's product provided. If a company loaned it to me, but they're getting it back, it's product provided. If a company's paying me, it's product. I just tell it, like, kind of like I tell everybody it's sponsored, even if it's not even remotely sponsored. Even if I just, I worked with them five years ago and I haven't worked with them since and I bought a product, I'm gonna put product sponsored. So just so you guys know, because I, you know, why not? So anyways, Nella, the reason I'm telling you that is, I'm telling you as someone who's had an Oxbox now for three, four years, I absolutely love it. And it's a super crazy expensive and you can find deals on them. So if you're interested, find a deal on one. But it's worth it. To me, like I said, I couldn't live without it. Let's see. Oh, I'm not old and finished. It says the Blitzkreen marketing on the Acoustasonic made me decide, would never buy one. Yeah, it's probably where I got a lot of my skepticism for the Acoustasonic. And I'm different. So you guys know, you guys are looking at it like, oh, it's the YouTube community and the corporations against me. I have a little bit of paranoia baked in that you guys wouldn't have, which means when I see some great channels, right? Some channels that are way better than mine. And I don't mean more viewers. I'm not talking about that at all. That's irrelevant. In fact, it doesn't even usually factor in anymore. When I see a channel that I go, oh, that's a really good channel and they were sent this product. And I go, okay, I don't think you can go with it. When I see a couple more channels, I go, okay, I don't think you can go with it. When I see like 90% of the guitar community and they're all promoting a product and yet that company's not reaching out to me, I get a little paranoid not cause I'm like, they should be talking to me. It's more like, oh, they don't, that's like specifically they don't want to talk to me. So what does that mean? But I should take it as they just don't like my content, which is probably all it is. But sometimes I'm like, you know, sometimes I'm like, oh, maybe they don't. So Acoustasonic. And that, and you know, the perfect example, Acoustasonic, it was promoted by everyone. One of my favorite bands in the world, Bowling for Soup, he's got one, he plays it, he loves it. Some people, Dovey Doss got sent one, he's a friend of mine and he still plays his. See, I look at that way, are they still keeping it? Do they keep it? Cause sometimes that tells you a lot too. In fact, I think it tells you the most and sometimes. But what's my point? My point is, but then they tanked as a product. So by the time I thought I'd buy one and pull one on the channel, maybe do a deep dive, they had tanked. So I'm like, why do it? None of you guys want one cause it tanked. Okay, we gotta get back to guitar stuff. Let's finish it up. Let's finish up the show. What are we gonna talk about? Something, let me refresh this. And go here. Oh, oh, that was that one. The pic 5663 says, Phil, if you reopen your store now, do you think you would have made a killing? I don't know. I was doing really well then. So, you know, we did not, you know, we were not huge, but as a business, we were doing fine. I mean, I started my store. We started a store in a like 1400 square foot, not even 1400 square foot store front. And within the first two years, we moved it to 3,500 square feet. We moved our lesson, we built our lesson rooms from two to 10. And then I think at 1.12, I'd have to ask Shauna, 12 lesson rooms at some point. And then of course repair was always backlog. Now, does that mean like, you know, you're killing it and you're making millions of dollars? No. But as a business, if you can open a business and do well, I mean, the bills were all paid, you know, employees were paid, everything's fine. We weren't really having issues. And then when I started doing YouTube, it was kind of helping a little bit, but it wasn't the goal. So if I open it today, for, I guess the answer your question, let me ask your question, what I made a killing. If I open a store today, I would, it would be nothing like my store. My store is a, was a dated platform that is now dead. It is not why I closed it, but it is now currently a dated platform that is dead. I was a top tier, for an independent small store, I was a top tier fender dealer. I wouldn't be a fender dealer now. Has nothing to do with fenders problems. It's just, you know, there's, you can be, there's so much better ways to make money in the music industry as a dealer now. I would probably had changed about five different things with the store. So, you know, so to, to modernize it, I see lots of stores. The reason I know this is I see lots of stores and I know friends that have stores and I go in and all, and so, you know, I have to work. I don't have to worry about them paranoid and going, is he talking to me or me? They all know, if I've told them all what I think, everybody that I'm a friend with a store knows what I think. A lot of them have what I like, I go in there and I go, yeah, this is like my store is dated. You need to change this. So, so if I opened a store, I wouldn't be anything like that. But I would do a totally different business model. But if you're a question is more tying into the YouTube, would YouTube being a YouTube channel help me? It could, I guess. I mean, obviously it puts you on the radar. I'd have a social media falling to pursue. But, and that regards, I could probably just promote anything at that point. Couldn't I? You know, you know, as you guys, you can tell, and when I make my decisions, how I keep adjusting, I'm trying to focus mostly on the YouTube platform and not so much the outside lingering monetary platforms. So, I hope that kind of answers that question. Let's see. Tribunal nonsense 95 says, hey Phil, how often do you see Tom style bridges with a collapsing radius recently got a boutique 24 model where the 12 inch radius bridge has already flattened to 20? Huh, collapsing. So what he's talking about is like the bridge sinking. So in other words, it was radius that I think what he's saying is 12 and it's flattened out to 20. I would say, you know, I don't have any real memories of seeing it on the regular. I would imagine it happens if the bridge is too soft. A lot of the bridges are not as good built as well as others. So maybe that's a problem with it. Maybe it's stronger tension strings that can flatten it out. It's not something, cause again, when I come across guitars now, they're usually new guitars. So we're focusing on how they were built, not the issues they would have like a repair issue. When I was doing repair issues, it's a problem business. So if somebody has a problem with it, my guess is that most people that that happens to, they don't notice so they didn't bring it in to be fixed. So generally speaking, when you do repair, you know, usually you're dealing with what they see. Sometimes like they'd bring it in and you find other additional problems, but I don't know if I would necessarily, I can think of any time where I've noticed that problem more than maybe once or twice. And again, I always give myself a caveat for that. Like cause I could say I haven't seen it, but I've definitely probably seen it a couple of times. It just didn't stick in my head as being something to think about and remember. Bruce on the coast says, hey, our strings mostly made by a few OEM suppliers or do most of the many companies selling strings manufactured on. You know, when I started in this business, I was told there was only three string manufacturers and they make all the strings. Everybody said that everywhere they went, everywhere. You would go into the store and they would all say that everywhere they went. And it was not true. When we started the store, we had multiple accounts, we had GHS. And I know you're talking about builders versus making the strings, but there was actually GHS was making their strings. And then there was, didario was definitely making strings, Ernie Ball was definitely making their strings, DR was definitely making their strings, our cocoa was at that time, definitely making their strings. Labella, Tamastick, trying to think of us, a couple others, right? So different accounts and generally speaking, everybody was kind of making their own strings. Not in every case, but in most of the cases. And then over time it kept dwindling and dwindling and dwindling down. And yes, Fender was making its strings in in Sonata in Mexico. And then one day Fender stopped making its own strings. By the way, when Fender bought Squire, Squire was a string manufacturer. And that's why they bought them. They got all the string equipment and they were making strings. So they were making their own strings and now didario makes Fender strings and didario makes a lot of strings. Elixir doesn't make their own strings. As far as I know, nothing's changed, but that could be a little dated because I can only tell you up to about two, three years ago. So sometimes they OEM their strings. But yeah, there's a lot of companies now that OEM strings for a lot of companies, but there are still not quite a few, but there's still a good amount of string manufacturers out there making their own strings. So if the concern you have, and this is the answer to the question you didn't ask, but I think it's the intent of that question, are you being duped? Am I buying? And I'm not saying you asked that, but I mean, that's really the core of a question like that, whether you realize or not. Am I really buying the thing I'm buying? Because that's, it's your money. You worked hard for it and you want to get the thing that you want. You're like, hey, I want to buy this brand and I don't want to be buying the brand I just walked away from, right? Believe it or not, even if a manufacturer OEM strings for other manufacturers, they have other requirements, like in how the string is constructed, the metallurgy in it, the construction style, whether or not it's a hex core, a round core, the thickness of the wrap wire versus the thickness of the core wire, the makeup of those two wires, the wrap style, all of that stuff, right? Gets factored in and when they make strings. So what I'm getting at is even if let's say in theory, and not all cases, I'm just saying in theory, that didario makes strings and you go, I don't want to buy didario, I want to buy somebody else's strings and you go to another manufacturer and you find out that didario is making their strings, like in the case of Fender. I'm not saying this is true in the case of Fender, I'm saying it can be true with some manufacturers where you're like, I'm just buying a didario string, it's not entirely true because they could have a different specification for that wire and the string construction and therefore it's a different string, even if it's made by the same people. And so there you have it. If you're concerned, I can tell you that didario makes their strings so you can trust that. Ernie Ball makes their strings, you can trust that. StringJoy makes their strings, so you can trust that. I'm assuming, so notice how I said yes, yes, yes, these are things confirmed, yes. I assume the DR strings is still making their strings, at least I'm still buying them from DR because I don't believe they're made by somebody else. I just, I think they still are. And then I thought I heard JHS is no longer making its strings and again, if that's not true, I don't wanna spread that rumor, I'm just saying I heard that. Like I'm, heard a rumor, I'm not telling you that so you can spread that rumor. I'm saying that in case somebody can mention it, like no, that's not true, like I work with JHS and that's not true, that'd be really, really nice to know. And stuff like that. But yeah, the biggies, I stick to mostly, I do use DR strings a lot, I stick to mostly Ernie Ball, didario and stringJoy, those are the three I use on the regular. For some of you guys love elixirs, I totally understand that because a lot of people are diehard love elixirs, I think I have one of the most loyal customer followings out there, strings, I just don't use them because I don't use coated strings very often. So when I use coated strings, I'll use elixir and I've tried a bunch of brands, like some brands sent me stuff, I even did some videos for them and I've used those and then I stopped getting access to those. So, you know, I couldn't find them to buy. But I use coated strings sometimes. I think I mentioned this before, so I'm mentioning it right now. If I use coated strings, it's only on guitars that I don't use. The logic being like if I have a guitar, like a perfect example, let's say I have a guitar and I know I don't pick it up very often. It's a once in a while guitar because I'm using it for something or maybe I'm inspired to play that. I'll put coated strings on it, that way in six months from when I pick it up, I don't pick it up strum and go, all these strings are dead and now the one time I wanna play it in the last half a year, it's not, you know, so I put coated strings, so it's almost like, I can tell you right now, if you walk into the room and you pick up a guitar and you go, this coated strings, just know that that means I don't play it very often. And so that's something to think about. And then this just ties in, we'll end on this note. Although I will have a last thing, I saw a question I wanna grab. You know, perfect example was last week, this guitar, the Kiesel, was supposed to be guitar of the week. I had decided this guitar would be guitar of the week last week and I was gonna share this guitar with the story with you. Instead, I didn't, I did the Ikea caster. The reason I did that is, I could not get this guitar to sound or play good. I was just picking it up and it was just, it just was not, it was like, I don't know, something was off, like it was brittle and I was playing it and I just feel like I needed to change the strings to a different style of string. I have a really light gauge of strings, this is nine to 52 and I was like, I gotta put a 56, I bought a 56 for it. Cause I was like, okay, I gotta make this thing play red. I don't know what's wrong with me. And then I picked it up again after of course I didn't do guitar of the week and the opposite happened. All of a sudden I was like, oh man, this thing rings. And I was like, what is going on here? And I just loved it and it plugged it in and it was sounding great. And the reason I'm sharing this story with you is it's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. When I say sometimes I don't play guitar for a while, it's not cause I have too many guitars. Like don't tell my wife that. So don't let's spread, not spread that rumor, right? I don't have too many guitars. But sometimes a guitar just doesn't, I don't know man, it doesn't do anything for me. And almost like, why did I buy this? I'm gonna just put this away. Maybe I'll get rid of that. And then you pick it up again and it's amazing. And that's why sometimes having a bunch of guitars is good. It's not just a placebo effect. It's not just somebody justifying crap in their head. It actually has a real function to it. I told Sean it today. I said, it's funny. I never get in my truck and go, man this truck drives like crap today. And then the next day you get in and go, man it drives really nice today. I don't feel that way, but guitars, I have an emotional reaction to my guitars all the time. I pick them up strumming and I go, just mud. What is this? I need to change the pickups in this thing. It's so bad. And I put it on the wall or put it in the rack and then I play something else. And I play that for days and things are fine. And then I go back and try that guitar again and all of a sudden it's great. So I don't know. So yeah, so I love talking about that. And it's like I said, my favorite subject to talk about is the emotional aspect of guitar playing more so than technical. I think technical helps you guys in making decisions, especially on YouTube, but emotional to me is the thing I'm interested in talking about. On that note, somebody asked me, do I still have a Fender Mustang app? I do not. I have converted to the Katana. I am the house of Katana now. I am part of the Katana family. And we'll end on this funny joke, because it's not a funny joke. This is so funny to tell you. I'd like to tell you that I love the Katana. I'm using the Katana. I don't work with boss. I've never worked with boss. So you guys know, boss has never sponsored an entire, an video ever since channels going. And in fact, I've only had one conversation with boss and if anyone at boss hears me tell this story, I have the email. Okay, so I'm just gonna say that. I keep all my emails with everybody. I have the email. I don't think the person who sent me the email works with boss anymore, but I want it only time. And the reason I tell you that is because I talk about bias all the time, right? What's your bias? Well, here's the thing. I love the boss Katana. I love boss pedals. I collect boss pedals, as you know, not as much as I used to, but still. And this will tell you, and sometimes you're like, oh, it's probably because boss pays them or boss gives them free stuff. I've never had a sponsored content with boss and I've only had one email and the email to this day makes me laugh. And I can't believe I'm sharing it with you. I once boss reached out to me and asked me if I would check out a piece of boss equipment. And I was like, sure, I'd love to. And at the time, I was taught by another YouTube channel that you always respond with, what's your budget? Because I didn't know what to say. What do you say? And so you guys know, it's not about money, even though you think it is. Because sometimes companies, for some reason, even if you try to be easy and like, hey, we want to send you this new pedal, you want to check it out, you're like, yeah, send it, I'll do the video, it's great. Some companies want you to charge them or have some kind of compensation thing because then it's more like a contract. They know they're gonna get their video, life is good, it just works out great. I'm not saying this is the case, I'm just saying with boss, I'm just saying something. So what I did back then, I'd done this in years. This is years and years ago, years and years and years ago. So boss reaches out and says, hey, would you like to check out this piece of gear? And I said, absolutely. I go, I love to, I love boss, I collect boss. I said all this nice stuff, cause that's what I do. Cause I'm like, hey, let him know, let him know I'm a true fan, you know, right? That's more motivation to work with me. And I said, sure, what's your budget? Now, keep in mind, if they would have said nothing, I'd be like, okay, send the gear out. Or if they said, hey, our budget's $300 for the video, whatever it was, at the time I would have took whatever they said. They responded with, oh, we'd love to pay you, but we paid Rob Chapman and Mary Spender too much and we don't have any money for the rest of the year. Oh my goodness, lost my voice. Rest, army trade, sir. Apparently you can't say those two names too fast. I'll lose my, they said, I don't think this is true, but I'm just telling you what the email says. Again, I have the email. They said, oh, we paid them and we don't have anything left for in our marketing contract, our marketing department for social media. And I remember thinking, wow, that hurt. I was like, you could have just said, you don't have anything in your budget. You didn't have to tell me like, yeah, we picked a better channels than you. You didn't say I liked that, but that's how I felt. That, my saying is, I want you to understand when I say I like the Boss Katana, that was my only interaction with Boss and I still love their stuff. So there, so I love the Mustang. I loved all the amps I've ever tried in the idea that I liked them, if unless I said I hated them specifically, the Mustang I really liked, but for some reason I just go back to the Boss Katana. I was talking about this recently. I think the new Black Star ID 50 is sounds better than the Katana. I think the catalyst sounds better than the Katana. For some reason, I just end up back at the Katana. I think it's because it's just tried and true. It's portable, it's easy. It's great. That's my answer. All right, I hope that makes sense. Anyways, on that note, I want to let you guys go. You guys, there was a video today. We released two videos on the second channel. I'll put a link down below to the second channel. If you guys don't know, we have two channels. There's the Know Your Gear channel, which is not this one, it's the other one, where you can see clips of the podcast with more context. And by the way, if you saw a guitar the week, last week with the junk guitar, we call it the junk guitar in the title of the video, but it's called the Ikea Caster, there was some new information discovered that I shared. In fact, PB reached out and gave us the exact, not only the neck that saw that guitar, the date, who originally bought it, all kinds of stuff, you can check that out. So you can check out the second channel if you would like to do that. I'd appreciate that. By the way, the second channel is killing it. I wanna thank you all for that. It hit 600,000 views this month, almost 700,000 views, which is impressive for a channel. And it's closing up on 40,000 subscribers. I wanna thank you for that. On this channel, we hit 462,000 subscribers this week. So I wanna say thank you for that. Also, if you guys wanna join Patreon, just keep in mind, there are three tiers for $5. You're supporting this podcast, and I appreciate you doing that. And it means a lot to me. And if you pay for the year, you get a discount. There's a second tier that includes guitar clinics and guitar maintenance and repair clinics, all kinds of clinics. And if you do that, it is, if you wanna do it for one month, it's $19 for the one month. But what we did is we raised the price the monthly for a per month up, but we decreased the yearly down. So instead of paying 120 bucks for the year, now you just pay one something, 108 or 114, something like that, it's less. So we dropped the rate. So you can check it out and support the channel that way. And then of course, there's a top tier if you so inclined to do that, but the main two things we focus on is the $5 tier supporting the podcast and the $10 tier. If you wanna support the podcast and get additional repair and maintenance videos, information, and of course live clinics where you can ask me questions specifically, and we can actually go through your problem with pictures and stuff. So that is the speech. On that note, I wanna thank you for your time. Till the next time, know your gear. Then know your gear podcast.