Fender Wins Lawsuit To Stop All Strat Copies

The Know Your Gear podcast. The Know Your Gear podcast is brought to you by Patreon members, channel members, and viewers who like and subscribe. Thank you for making this possible. Hey everyone, welcome to the Know Your Gear podcast episode March 13th, Friday 13th. And it's March 2026. If you guys didn't know the year, that's the year too. I hope everybody had a fantastic week. I have prompts on my screen and sometimes I'm like, they're ready and I'm reading them. And sometimes I'm like, oh yeah, that wasn't the right screen to start with. Okay, so anyways, let's get into it. Let's get into the main topic because it's going to be the main topic for sure. So, barrage emails I got this week. You could imagine everybody's like, hey, hey, did you see the news? Did you see the news? So the big news this week, if you haven't figured out, is that I was going to make a joke. I don't even have a joke. Let's just go right to it. Okay, here's what it is. So let's go off the Guitar World article, shall we? The Guitar World article says, Fender wins lawsuit in Germany. And it says, reinforces the value of originality. By the way, Guitar Center, our Guitar World, sorry, Guitar World. I know you, they're a sponsor, but come on, reinforces the value of originality. All right, Fender secures legal ruling to protect the Stratocaster body design. I liked, look, I'm, I'm, I'm clickbaiting like everybody else, right? I like a, I like a, a good title. Sometimes they get you, you know, to click on it so I don't die on the vine, so to speak, on YouTube. But man, the clickbaiting this week was pretty epic. So what does this all mean? Look, first of all, we're going to start with this. I'm not only not an attorney. I don't really know the law that much. So even, I've probably seen a court drama. And so if you're taking any legal advice from me, you're on the wrong channel. Don't take legal advice from guitar techs. Don't take, no, yeah, yeah. Don't take legal advice from guitar techs. Don't take guitar advice from lawyers, maybe. So anyways, here's the deal. Please hear me out what has happened. So essentially, I'm going to give you a really dumb down breakdown because I don't have to worry about anything else. The dumb down breakdown is there's a Chinese company in China who's importing guitars that look like fenders, like everyone else, except for the Fender headstock as well. They weren't putting Fender. This isn't a, this isn't a fake or so to speak, what do you call it? A, not to say a fake, right? But anyways, what happens is, is that Fender sued them in the German courts. And they didn't show up. That's my understanding. They didn't even show up. So by default, they got the judgment or they won the case or whatever you call that, whatever the legal ease is that the attorneys are going to put in the comments. That's technically not the right thing. But the important part is, is that Fender wins this thing. Okay. And what happens is the argument was essentially that the body shape, as we know, Fender lost its legal battle in the US many years ago to, it was in, it was, it was fighting that essentially the Fender strat, strat body shape, the Tele body shape and the P-based body shape were trademarked and protected. And what was ruled was essentially they're not, they're public domain now. So in the United States, the Fender Tele, this is important as you know, it's just these three, the Tele body shape, the Stratocaster body shape, and the P-based body shape are considered public domain. That's why anybody can make them. Now the Fender headstock is trademarked and protected. Okay. And if you don't know the difference between copyrights, trademarks and patents, I suggest a quick little, you know, a Google search to get your, get your senses because they're different and they get conflated as being each other. Okay. So that is different than what happened in Germany. In Germany, they decided that essentially the body shape, the strat body shape is copyrighted now. Now not trademarked, copyrighted, a little different. Okay. Now why does that matter? Well, according to everybody, it means the end of all guitars into Europe that are not fenders, which is, I don't think is accurate, but more importantly, let's just give you, I'm going to give you some opinions. You're probably not going to like some of them. That's okay. You know what? You'll live. I promise, right? Get yourself a cool beverage and get through it. First of all, I find this utterly stupid. I really think the German courts really, which is funny because I always think of the European Union as being way more consumer advocate than the United States. There's way more laws protecting consumers in Europe, in my opinion, than in the United States in the most part, at least in my experiences. And this is a, this ruling really is not good for the consumer. It's only good for Fender. Oh, let me hear my argument before I go on because I know I'm going to get comments about this. The reason is, is that the Fender strat has been around for 60 years and the copies of the strat at least 40, 40 years. Right. Okay. So you got to understand, there's 40 years of Fender strat copies in Europe right now. They're already there. You can't stop them. So let's be very clear. Again, not an attorney, but certain things I'm going to tell you. You can own a strat in Europe. Okay. A strat copy. You can own it. You can sell it. If it's your personal property, right? You didn't build it. You're just selling it. You can buy it. You can own it. It's, it's, it's, it's, you cannot build one in Europe. According to this, which we'll get into that in a second. And you can't ship one into Europe, but we're not the manufacturers. We're the consumers, right? So as a consumer, if you currently own a SilverSky and we'll get to that, or a Fender strat like Qatar, you can still own it. No one can stop you. You can sell it to your friend. No one can stop you. You can buy it from a friend or a stranger. No one can stop you. So you got to understand this isn't like, you know, they protected Fender's body shape and now Fender's protected. This has been going on for 40, 50 years, which means now there's 40, 50 years of guitars in the Europe that are there that are legal, but now going forward, they wouldn't be legal in theory. Okay. The other thing that's interesting about this is copyright laws are a little stranger than trademark laws. I, I have a copy. I own some copyrights. I own some trademarks. I know very little other than what I've had to go through to get them. And one of the things about copyrights is to me, it's a little weird that it's a copyright because this is like, they're basically encapsulating the idea that it's art. You know, they're saying the strat body shape is art. I saw a bunch of channels say anything that looks like a strat is now protected. I would argue one, no, because essentially I think what they really secured was just the Fender strat shape, the original, like what's behind me here, that strat shape and look. I did not see anything. I didn't read anything that would make me think that if I was making like a Sir Modern or something like that, that, that I'm stopped from sitting it in. What's interesting about this is just like a copyright, we, you, you all know what copyrights are because you've all seen them as musicians because usually when you see copyright fights, they're the, in the biggest arena we see is music. So like somebody uses a song or this music and it sounds like somebody else's copyright and song. And we know like as rock musicians that like the chords GCD are used in almost every song. So no one can copyright GCD and say, hey, anyone who uses these chords can't, can't make a song. That's not how it works. It's how close it gets to the original art, the original song, right? And sometimes like a lot of us, again, we're not attorneys, but we could be jurors. So a lot of times you heard a song and you go, wow, that sounds exactly like this other song. Case in point was Vanilla Ice's song that basically sounded like Queen, right? Do do do do do do do. Famously. Even the light says no, it's different. Cause mine goes ding, ding, ding. Digga ding. Ding. Right. So that was the argument there. The point is that when it comes to copyright, if it's slightly different, sometimes it's different and they can file a fight it out court. So what I read, I don't really see where Fender. Fender is still going to have to fight anybody who's singing in guitars. So like my first thing that somebody asked me a friend asked me who says, that mean they can't ship Silver Skies of Europe. I said, I'd be very doubtful if that is the case. Okay. So I'm pretty sure PRS is still going to be sending Silver Skies to Europe. However, I'd like to play a little game if we could. Let's pretend they couldn't. Let's pretend that Fender could lock down the Fender body shape from all manufacturers. This is why they'd be screwing the consumers in Europe and the government there would be helping them do it. First of all, um, first of all, they're already there. There's like I said, 50, 60 years of fake Fender-esque guitars in Europe. So people can still get them. What will happen is those prices would skyrocket. If you had a Silver Skye in Europe or in Germany today and you know, you can't get any more into your, into the country or into the union, well then you wouldn't sell yours cheaper, would you? We'd raise the price and then Fender having no competition, they're going to raise the price. Why do I think that? Because Fender's raised its price anytime it could. So if you give somebody a monopoly on the shape, especially the shape that's been around for 60 years, they're going to take advantage of it, especially a corporation. So I just don't like this ruling. I don't like the idea of it. Sadly enough, I think it'll get challenged or fought out with other companies, but I don't even know if it's going to have to because I think that as long as enough companies are slightly enough different, I think Fender's not going to go after them because I think that's what's really got to happen, right? Fender's got to go after these companies. But in the case of a friend who's in Europe who said, hey, should I buy a Silver Skye before it's too late? I said, well, if you want a Silver Skye, you should probably get it anyways, because they're not going to get cheaper, right? They're going to get more expensive and that's not factoring this in, but factoring this in, you might have a hiccup. I will tell you, I can't tell you officially who because I got to keep it off the record, but I did talk to a couple of companies this week that actually make Fender-type guitars and all of them said, I said, does this affect you? And all of them said the exactly the same thing. I don't know. I don't think so. I don't know. So they're going to reach out to their attorneys and find out if there's any issues before they ship guitars into Europe. So I think it's a horrible idea. And I understand, look, and I'm not against Fender trying to protect itself. I just think the idea that somebody's going to lock down the whole design of a guitar, the shape that's been around forever and used by so many is a dumb argument. I've said this before, then every acoustic guitar is a Martin basically, right? Every pickup truck's a Ford pickup truck. You know, I made the joke to my wife the other day. I said, you know how I know the difference between a Dodge pickup truck and a Ford pickup truck? One says Dodge and one says Ford. In fact, I like to push this argument just to be funny, but it's kind of, it made me laugh. I said, you know how I know the difference between a Squier and a Fender? One says Squier and one says Fender. Even Fender understands that. Otherwise, why would it say different names? Why does Fender put Squier on a guitar if every guitar that looks like a, like, let's just argue strats. Why is Fender putting Squier on a Fender Stratocaster if every Stratocaster is a Fender? Because they're not. Some Stratocaster shaped guitars are Squires. I don't know why I'm pointing that way. Some are Fenders. Some are Sers. Some are knockoffs from other brands. Some are Delos from Kiesel. Some are, you know, insert here, Shecters. A lot of people have been making Squier shapes or Strat shapes. Oh, I'm sorry. Strat shapes for a long time. But that's just my two cents. I saw a lot of the, the problem is, is that a lot of comments, a lot of videos seem to be around the idea of what if this is the future and we lose all this? I personally am like, I like Fenders, so I'll still buy Fenders. However, I don't, I don't fear that I'm not going to be able to get a better quality instrument or another different brand that is a shape that I like, like a Fender Stratocaster. I'm not, I have no fear of it. Not just because I'm not in the, are you in the USA and not in Europe. I don't think this is going to be a huge win for them. Keep in mind, there's another option too, just like with Fender Headstocks, that one of the things back to the, why I think this is bad for consumers in Europe is Fender could, this could easily work itself out as if, let's say Fender could lock down the Fender Stratocaster shape in Europe, they could license it. They probably would, I would imagine, because it'd be a lot cheaper than fighting everybody, because keep in mind, they fought one Chinese company who didn't show to court. It'd be a lot different like when they, when they were fighting a lawsuit in the US, they fought that lawsuit that they lost against, it was Schechter, it was, I think it was Lakeland, it was Wormoth, right? It was a bunch of companies that came together. I would imagine in Europe, the same thing could happen. You could have Sir, you could have PRS, you could have a bunch of companies come together and fight Fender in the courts there. However, I would imagine, I would imagine that if Fender was smart, they wouldn't want to fight that. What they could do is use this, this court win or whatever you want to call it, this ruling as a licensing deal, like, hey, if you're going to make a thing that looks like my, the Fender strat, you need to designate that with license by Fender and also pay us a royalty. Again, bad for the consumer, because now the consumer has to pay more for anything that's not a Fender. And again, I could argue a totally different argument if this was a brand new product, and this is where I want to put a little caveat or a disclaimer. Every time I talk about stuff like this, whether it's a Gibson or whatever, somebody, usually a small pedal builder, not picking on pedal builders, just it's usually what you are, but sometimes others and builders, small builders and sometimes medium, large builders reach out to me with emails and tell me how wrong I am that really, you know, if you, you know, they explain their side, which is if I made this product, I need to protect it and no one should be able to copy it. I'm not going to read your emails, so don't send it. The reason is, is because I always approach this from one angle and one angle only, which is consumer protection. Why? Not because I'm a consumer, but because I have been in business long enough to know that the only thing that really matters is customers. I don't care what anybody says. Ask G&L how they feel about having a great guitar design and no customers right now. That's what I've learned. And the reason I know that is because when you have, you know, I mean, there's a thousand you watch right now, when you have a group of people that, that, you know, watch my content, when I talk about a product, they sell lots of it. That's the marketing, the concept, right? You know, it's in people's eyes and ears. So the point I'm trying to make is, is that customers are what really matter. And if they don't feel safe buying from you, if they don't like your product, if they, if it's too expensive for the wrong reasons, they don't buy and then you don't sell. And no law, no court is going to save you from the death of no having no customers. So I'm always going to advocate for, hey, it's not only, it's, I think it's better to have consumer protection laws and laws that are more focused to protect consumers, but also, I think as long as customers are out there buying, you're, you're better off. I'd rather, you know, a perfect example of that is this. I'll say it, I say it so many times. I sold it, I said it, I sold it. I said it to the CEO of Sweetwater to his face, Mike Clem, and I watched a bunch of employees that work for Sweetwater, but, buts pucker a little bit, little fear in their faces. I said to his face, Guitar Center pays me three times more for every affiliate click than you do. And I said, but all of my viewers buy Sweetwater, buy, buy a huge margin. In fact, by the, by the math, three times, if only, you know, if three times if you bought from Sweetwater, that would probably equalize out. You even buy at a higher rate than that. The point is, is that Sweetwater gives me the lowest amount of, I guess, commission off an affiliate click than any affiliate that I have, buy, buy not even by half, but like I said, sometimes a quarter, but because they have the customer base. I don't send you to Sweetwater. I've told you guys this before, you were already going there. It just so happens, you like this channel and you like Sweetwater, then somehow you click the links and we get a little something for that. My point is exactly this, the customers rule the roost. You're there in charge. So, so that's my two cents on the subject. Anyone else got any cents on it? Oh, it seemed to be a lot of big headlines this week. I really think it's nothing. So, you know, I don't think it's going to affect anything other than I kind of like the idea that they kind of put the knockoff, you know, import guys a little bit in their place, but keep in mind, you know, I have opinions about that that are, like I said, as long as counterfeit is the word I was looking for, as long as a product is not counterfeit, I'm usually okay with it being copied. Me personally, that's how I look at things. Like I said, as long as I or a normal person can determine what I am buying, then I really don't care because I know I like Fender over, let's just pick two brands that I like. I like Schecter guitars, but I prefer the Fender Strat over what Schecter makes as a Strat. That's just my personal preference. It's not a quality preference. It's just a preference. If Schecter put Fender on their headstock and made it look like exactly like a Fender, and then I bought one and found out it was a Schecter, I would be a little upset, see? But I don't because it says Schecter on it. It's kind of the first tell. It's kind of like when I'm looking at Gibson's and I says, you know, any brand but Gibson's headstock, I go, maybe this is not a Gibson. So, and yeah. All right. Yes. Ellen says, the government does not care about the holder of the mark. Trademarks are intended only for protection of consumers. I believe the same thing. Keep in mind, Ellen, just to be clear, this is why it gets confusing today. They didn't win a trademark case. They won a copyright case, which is really odd that it's usually that's not something we talk about when we talk about headstocks and body shapes. We usually talk about trademark. Like I said, designs, you're going to talk about patents or, you know, right, you know, like, you know, when they create it from, you know, like a design, right? Trademarks are sometimes names, sometimes a shape, you know, or a logo, right? That's usually trademarked. And then copyrights are like considered like usually art art. Okay. And again, these are very vague, you know, kind of brushovers, but just keep it at that way. But yeah, I don't, the big thing I took away was, um, uh, I think a lot of people saw a lot of videos and, you know, clutched their pearls and freaked out, so to speak. And I just want you guys to know one thing. If you're in the United States, nothing's changed for you at all. And in your, if you're in Europe, well, there are lots of used and still not sold new products that are fender shaped that you can get your hands on. No, no problem. So, um, so if they are successful at locking you guys out, I would boycott fender. So I can tell you exactly what I would do. If fender won a lawsuit here in the United States that stopped all manufacturers from making anything that looks like a fender shape, I would purposely never buy fender again as a consumer. Not because I don't understand the desire to want to protect the thing that they created, but at this point, like I said, it's a little too late in the game. You know, we're not, you know, we're not going to wait 60 years later and lock everything down. So, um, what is my, what did we make a joke to the night? I said, uh, we were talking about trademarks and confusion and I said, no one's ever walked into Chuck E. Cheese thing is Disneyland and no one's ever walked into Disneyland thing is Chuck E. Cheese. That's my opinion on that. Okay. Uh, let's see. I want to say chained, chained. I'm going to, I'm sorry, chained, whatever. So Phil, any ideas why so many Floyd Rose parts are out of stock on their website as well as Sweet Waters for months? A lot of Floyd Rose issues, you know, as you know, Floyd Rose Germany shot down and then they moved it to Floyd, Floyd Rose USA. And so that's if you're looking for German parts, they're gone and then they got to make the new USA parts and they've been in a backlog because you got to understand they have corporate accounts and then they have regular accounts, you know, or they sell to us like the average guitar players. So, so Floyd Rose sells to us and then these corporate accounts, you got to stand some of these guitar companies, they get, they, they weren't getting parts for a while. So they got scarce and then they need parts. So they have to backfill that. That's part of it. Some of the import parts, look, we've had every problem. So parts are an issue for a lot of reasons because even though, you know, we said, hey, the market slowed down, keep in mind, look at all the things going on. If it's not a tariff, it's a war. If it's not a war, it's a COVID. If it's not a COVID, it's, you know, you name it. Sonami. I don't know. At this point, I mean, it's like every, every, it's just one thing after another. So there's always supply chain issues. So that's part of the problem right there. So I haven't noticed it myself, but I've noticed some other problems. Like I have problems getting certain parts, you know, certain bridge parts and certain things for other manufacturers and same thing. It's just, you got to go where you got to go. Like sweet waters out of stock. However, I'll tell you, sweet waters sell so much volume, you think they'd always have in stock and I find sometimes that's why they're so much more expensive. Why they're always out of stock. Is their volume so high? So a lot of times if I can't find a sweet water, that's my first inkling is to go find smaller dealers right away because somebody's sitting on a part. Cause, you know, again, marketing, everyone knows to go to sweet water. So we go there first and we don't think to go to like Dave's guitar shop in Minnesota because he's sitting on, you know, all the parts you need. So you do got to hunt and peck around a little bit. Sometimes if you keep refining your Google searches, it helps you a little bit too, you know, just find it in stock, you know, just tell the internet what you need. That's usually the way I like to search things is tell it exactly what I want. Not a, not a, not like Floyd Rose part, right? Or when we, you know, bar, I put like, I need a Floyd Rose, black tremolo arm, four cell, you know, and I type out the whole sentence and sometimes that helps the search refine a little bit. A funky pose, I said, man, Dave, Dave has everything. You know, it's funny is I think I always go to the Dave's shop. I always make up that name and I, and it's funny because I know there's a bunch of actual Dave's guitar shops and Dave's music stores. So it's kind of funny that I make it up, but it's real. Let's see. Okay, hold on a second. Let me grab. By the way, if anyone has any feedback on my thoughts on a vendor, let me know. I love to, love to hear why I'm wrong. Okay. Grandmaster Pash, this is a grab from by Amanda says, Hey, Phil, I want to match my vintage PAF with a modern reproduction. What do you recommend? I mean, I think when you're thinking about the, the best replica PAF, it's throwback pickups. You're going to pay through the nose through them. They're like $800, $900 a set. I mean, you can buy an individual one, but in my experience, if, like you said, a vintage, if you were a vintage collector who collects, you know, real PAF pickups, I'm not saying that's your case, but I'm just saying, and you wanted that, you wanted something that was die hard, closest you're going to get. It is two things I can tell you. One, I don't think you can get any closer than throwback pickups. Two, I believe everything they're saying. So the, I, there are some pickup manufacturers out there that I think make great PAF pickups. In fact, tons of them. In fact, if the question is as simple as who makes a great PAF pickup, some of them are Duncan, DiMargio, Bare Knuckles, just to name a few. And we're not even going to the small ones yet. We haven't even got to like, you know, all the small builders that I can highlight. So, however, reproduction, the best reproduction, no one does better than the guys at throwback. And, and here's why. So, you know, I'm a nerd for guitar. And so I, I obsess about everything guitar, but there are different levels of nerd. And some nerds only focus on one thing. So like guitar is a broad spectrum of things. I'm into guitar. So I, I'm pretty knowledgeable about the electronics in a guitar, the woods about the guitar, the woods in the guitar, you know, the fret material, the construction concepts, you know, the shapes, the names, the branding, the history. I mean, I'm into all of it. And I kind of look, but you got to understand, while I'm doing all of that, someone like me who's learning a little bit of everything. So I kind of learn as much as I can. Somebody like John at throwback is, they're focused on one thing, guitar pickup, but not making a great guitar pickup, making an exact copy of the original, using the machines, doing the research to find out not only what the right wire was, but the right machine, the right shapes. And then not only reverse engineering it, but then paying the people that are not cheap to recreate those things. So that's, that's what I would say is what I would, I would say, I'd go so far as this. There are, there are people, so I don't want to like throw shade, right? There are people that make $800 sets of pickups besides throwback. I've turned down free pickups from them because after my research, I could not figure out what they were doing different than anyone like me or, you know, anyone else that's making pickups can do where throwback is a different level, right? That's a different level of scrutiny to master one thing, which is these, these original pickups. So that's why I say that. The price though is, is brutal. And I, and I've said this before, so you guys know, I have a set in this guitar, they, they did give me that set. So, you know, but I did, I did not buy another set, but I bought a guitar with them that had an option to not have them. I could have had Lindy Freyland's in that guitar. Lindy Freyland makes great pickups. Another pickup company I highly recommend. If you want a great, you know, PAF style pickup, Lindy Freyland, way more affordable. But if you're looking for the most accurate, something that's going to feel, you know, and look and be and sound like the original in every way, even though those details only push it a little bit over the edge, you know, there's no, and I say this like, there's no way for me to go, oh man, you think, you know, if you've spent $300, you'd spend, you know, once you go to eight, you're really there. The difference is going to be a small gap in what you're going to perceive as, you know, the difference of quality, but there's a little bit of fun knowing that they obsessed about it to that, to that scrutiny. And so that's why, and that's why I did it on my guitar. I said, you know what, I like Lindy Freyland's, but I'm going to pay the extra for the throwback. So I did. So, but, yeah. So, yeah, WizDog said the trick to throwback is they have a sale once a year. Last year it was the SLE-1. It was 20% off. Yeah, they do 20% off only on Black Friday. I saw that last year. So, and I was going to get something. I thought about it and then I decided instead, let's just get the guitar with the pickups in it. And then I did the DiMargio sale. I bought a bunch of DiMargio pickups, which apparently you guys did too, because my pickups did not show up until last month. So, maybe I'll tell you the story. I just, I just told the story to Larry DiMargio. So I can probably tell you guys now, I was telling him about how the pickups I bought in on Black Friday, you know, it takes about eight weeks to get pickups. Well, it was like February and I still hadn't got the pickups. So I was like, I think I'll reach out. So I called, I'll just tell the story. So I called DiMargio pickups and I'm a little, I was a little nervous. Here's why. In my years in retail, there were two places on the planet I did not enjoy calling. New York and I'm not really super familiar, but whatever part of Canada is Canadians. I know they're all Canadians. Whatever part of Canada is the French Canadians. I say this like go Dan. So I'm going to say go Dan. I'm a Western person. So apparently like you can tell I'm like, hey, what's up? Let's have some fun. People in New York a little, they're a little abrupt, little Kurt, little right. And they get upset. Not mad. They don't get through fits. It's just, you can feel this, you can hear and feel the displeasingness in their tone. And same with the French Canadians. Like I would call go Dan. So, you know, at our store, I've said this before, this is absolutely true. At our store, we used to all play rock, paper, scissors when go Dan called the store to see who would have to answer the phone because it was going to be horrible no matter what happened. They were always mad about something and they weren't mad. It was just their tone. We were told all the time like, no, they're fine. So anyway, so I had to call DiMaggio's customer service and I was like, I should call because I'm like, what if it got lost? You know, because I'm thinking, oh no, what if we get lost in the mail? Because it's been a while and I called and the lady answered and I have a horrible New York accent. So I apologize, but it kind of, it's important. She's like, DiMaggio pickups and I'm like, hi, hi, my name is Phil McKnight. I ordered some pickups on Black Friday and I was just making sure they didn't get lost in the mail. And then she goes, oh yeah, look, hon, no, uh, this, then we took in so many orders. I know my New York's like Boston and it's all throw mess. Anyways, she's like, um, no, no, uh, let me look up your order and I go, okay. And she goes, oh, look, yours is going to be out in a week. I can, I can go down tomorrow and make sure they hurry up. And I'm like, no, no, I'm good. I'm good. She was so nice. And I was like, and then afterwards I was like, I was like, uh, yeah, ghost buses, what do you want? That's what I was waiting for. I thought when I called it was going to be like, what do you want? And then I was going to be like, oh, my pickups and they're going to be like, suck it. So I told Larry the story. He laughed. I said, she was super nice. They were great. I said, but it's just a weird thing over the years. You know, sometimes you, you call, um, here's, here's why I should tell you this. So you guys don't think I have like any kind of weird anti New York or anti French Canadian thing. First of all, the, the golden people, uh, were just weirdly, strangely abrupt and short and like kind of like, it was tough on the phone, but I have had two experiences with two companies in New York as a dealer and both I thought were going to physically punch me at one port. And I'm not exaggerating. Um, uh, one, one was pick boy picks. The guy, I think he was the owner. If he wasn't the owner, he was definitely somebody who was not happy with me. I went to the pick boy picks, um, uh, booth. I was a dealer for pick boy picks and they had just picked up the line of, of, of, uh, but no, what was the baseline? Um, Ken Smith, they were a Ken Smith. So Ken Smith came with an import base that looked like a jazz bass. It was just a jazz bass. And then funny enough, another dealer in town who got it and I noticed it had been sitting there all year and they hadn't sold it. So I went to the pick boy booth and I was, I was, I'm a huge pick boy fan, pick boy picks fan, by the way, have tons of them. And so I went there and I was, uh, talking to the guy and, uh, I, he said, oh, by the way, did you see our new Ken Smith bass? And I said, yeah, the one that looks like a jazz bass. And he's like, yeah. And I said, yeah, I, I, I don't get it. And he goes, what do you mean you don't get it? And I go, no, I saw, I saw it. I go, yeah, we, we tell Fender. I'm like, I don't really need it right now. And he's like, I don't understand. What do you mean you don't get it? And I go, well, your ad, you know, I, I, he had the ad right there. And it's just a picture of the, the bass. And I go, it's just a picture of the bass. It really doesn't tell me like, is it for jazz? Is it for metal? Like who's the player for this? Like what's the market? Who's, who's the buyer? Like, and he's like, and I forget what he says, Nick, but it was something like, look, let me tell you something. Right. And that was kind of funny, right? So I was like, oh no. Okay. Now the other story, which I'm sorry to tell is, is I, I may have walked into this myself, but I told this story before. So I'll be super brief. I once went to Fedora basses booth and they had a, a Victor Wooten ying ying bass. If you guys don't know what that is, just think it's like nine grand and super expensive. And then I went sitting there and I go, oh, look at that. And I'm staring at it and I'm looking at it. And I'm, I'm doing the, the Wayne's world. Like, oh, it's so amazing. And this guy, which by the way, he has a name tag. This is an important part because the name tag is not the owner of Zon. Okay. Right. It's just our dam is saying Zon. I mean, Fedora, Fedora, it's not the owner of Fedora. So it's just as employee and it's got a thing and he's, right. And so I go, um, I go, yeah, I'm just looking at the bass. It's so beautiful. And he's like, you want to play it? And I go, sure. And I pick it up and I play it and he goes, that's going. And I go, how much is it? And he goes, that's going to Victor Wooten right after the show. It's not for sale. So I'm like, I just played Victor Wooten's bass before Victor Wooten. That's amazing. So I got out my pocket knife and I went, no, I'm just kidding. So then what happened was, and I told the story before, I used to play our Coco strings and I said, Hey, I heard this rumor because our Coco strings closed down. I said, I heard a rumor that down the road from you guys, our Coco strings closed down and you guys got the machines and the employees and now you're making our Coco strings. Are the Fedora strings just relabeled our Coco's? Are you making our Coco's? And he gets so mad and he goes, who told you that? That's a lie. Right. And I'm like, okay. He goes, I'm the owner. And I'm like, what? He's like, I think he's like Joey Fedora, Joe Fedora. And I'm like, oh, I didn't notice that because he had a different name. He's like, I don't like people to know who I am. I'm like, okay. I'm standing there. Sean is standing there. Sean, of course, she takes a step back because she's like, what's going on? Right. And so I'm sitting there going, what's going on? And he goes, look, our Coco had two kinds of quality. Fedora only has one kind of quality. I'm like, okay, I really like our Coco. So I thought it was like, I'm like, I think I'm complimenting the guy saying, Hey, I like them. I think you do stuff. And anyways, so at that point I was like, okay, don't sometimes you got to be a little softer, a little bit backed off with the East Coast good companies is what I learned. So what I'm trying to say is the Demarsian people were super nice. She was super, super nice because I was like, this is going to go bad. All right. But anyways, but in all fairness, I got to tell you, and this is a prop to Fedora. Sean and I, that was in 2005 when that happened. So that was 20 years ago, 21 years ago. And to this day, Sean and I say at least once a week, only got one kind of quality, not two kinds and almost became a mantra for our store and our current business now. So it's kind of funny that I'm telling that story kind of like he was a jerk, but it was also like a story that we made fun of so much that it just became a mantra of ours too. He's like, yeah, we don't have two kinds of quality, we're kind of like a good example. I think I said it a week ago on the, on the Novo video, the patron saw the original and she goes, is that going out today? And I go, it's not going out today. It's not right. And she's like, oh, so not today. And I go, we got one kind of quality, Sean, and not two kinds. So the video goes out tomorrow when it's the one kind of quality. That's a true story. So we still use it. But anyways, so tumbleweed rancher says, Phil must be much more confrontational in person. No, you know what it is? You think that, but the way I am in person is exactly like this. So you can imagine, there's no filtering on things, right? I just say things. So like most people probably don't say things. I, I'm like, for instance, hey, I heard the string company shut down and you bought it and now you're doing it. See, you might think that's not a big deal, but what I've learned is most people don't walk around and either start giving opinions or telling rumors or talking about stuff. See, I immediately engage and start like this, start interacting like, hey, I heard this, is that true? Is this true? And what I've learned is certain people get upset. So you know, it's, it's kind of funny. So for the lefties out there, so you know, I once asked, I asked, I once asked Floyd Rose, how come you don't make a left-handed Floyd Rose? And he said, I don't think you understand the machining and the tooling that would be involved in that. And I said, oh, interesting, you should mention that. I said, Ibanez makes a low-proper trim for the band corn and it has a trim low arm on both sides, but check this out. They just drill out the other hole and then they put in the, the, the mechanism so they can sometimes make the same bridge and not drill out that hole. So you could put a trim low arm on each side of the Floyd Rose and then allow the customer to pick the side they want. And I said, even some right-handed players might, like Steve Raivon, might want to have it on the top. And he says, I don't think you understand how hard that is. And I said, no, I got a Makita drill. We can do it right now. I can show you. He was not happy, but we made friends since then, but he was not happy with me. It was then 10 years later, I met him again. He was super nice and he doesn't, I don't think he recalls that conversation, but I definitely going to tell you this. If there was ever a person in my life who gave me the, get out of here kid, you're bothering me. It was Floyd Rose and it was at that moment because he was done with me. He was not rude or mean. He was just done with me. In fact, right around that time, I felt the tug on the shirt that I get from Shauna like, let's go, time to go. He's done with you. So yeah, I'm not confrontational, but most people don't say crap like, hey, let's get a Makita drill and just start messing up your stuff. So, all right. But hey, it led to a YouTube channel where I do the stuff on my, by my own now. I just, I'll just take apart the stuff on my own. Okay. Let's, that's what we're gonna do now. Where are we time? Oh, we're doing good on time. Let me refresh this screen. I got water. Okay. Dean, what is Dean? He says, hey, I have a warm audio clone and it's way louder than the rest of my pedals. Think hot rod deluxe. Do I change the pot? So, okay, your word says K, L, O, N, E. Are you thinking, I'm thinking clone. Are you saying it's like a clone clone pedal and it's way louder? It's way louder than the rest of your pedals. Okay. No, I mean, I understand why it's way louder. It has a volume control. You're talking about when your volume's at lowest point. I have not tried their version of that pedal, but I don't know if necessarily I'd have, you're changing out the potential bar. Could, I mean, it could because I don't know which potentiometer they're using, whether it's, you know, it's a, it's a linear or not. So maybe that's what's happening. You're just getting all the volume right up front or there's not a taper off until the right at the end, right? So changing the potential meter could do that. Keep in mind, I don't know the pedal. I haven't seen it. Don't know components in there, but I have not experienced that. Actually, here's what I can tell you. I have experienced. I have experienced some pedals are fuller and bigger and louder in amps, but I like that. So when I get one that does that, I immediately start hating all the pedals that don't do it. So, but yeah, that's one option. I would imagine you can look the, there's a way you can just put your meter on there and check to see which type of potentiometer it is. You need to change. Yeah. Like basically what I'm saying is, and again, this is just my best guess because I'm not a pedal guy, but my best guess is you don't want to change the value like whatever it is. You want to change the type of potentiometer it is. That's what I would imagine you would want to do. So, and look, it's a warm audio pedal. So it's not super expensive. It might be fun to do. Give it a try. And I don't know. And let me know how it goes. Clanhousecat says, hey, new Lamb of God, new Lamb of God and new guitar day. So yeah, I saw the new Lamb of God album came out. Gibson, Mark Morton, LP, this thing weighs seven and a half pounds. That's awesome. So comfortable. The Mark Morton pickups sound as good and scream. Yeah, I love it when this Les Paul is seven and a half pounds, which is crazy because that one's a chambered one, which is, I find it's almost too light. I think Les Paul is for me like eight pounds, eight and a half's kind of better, but I have a couple light ones and I like it. Plexigirl says, hey, Phil, about the Bad Cat era, thoughts after the honeymoon better than the Vox matchless? It doesn't have reverb. So at this point, I've come to this conclusion for me that when it comes to personal amps and what I keep and don't keep is, I only really play the amps that have reverb. So I have like, I love my, I love my Freedman amp, right? I have two Freedman amps. I like them a lot. I have this Marshall JMP that I like and I use them pretty regular, right? But ultimately, I'm always on the amp that has, I'm always on the amps that have reverb. It's just where I find, especially if the amps, I'm using the amp clean. Because to me, if the thing that draws me into the amp is the clean sound, I need the reverb because I just want to put a light overdrive in front of it and keep it easy. If the amps overdrive is what brings me in, then maybe I might put some delay in the FX loop. But it's an amazing amp. You know, out of all the Bad Cats I've ever owned, the very first one is my favorite one, which was the Cub and it was the 15 watt. And I absolutely loved it. It's the one they stopped making and that version or whatever. And sometimes I kind of don't do that anymore now. Now I just put things away. But there was a time when a company, like if they sent out a product and I used it and then they would stop making it and make a new product and they send the new product out, I would get rid of the old product because I'm like, well, you can't get it anymore. My logic was it doesn't help the company and it doesn't help you guys because when I, you know, when you guys see a product that you guys can't buy, then you have to go to the used market. Once 10 or 15 of you were trying to buy a used one, everybody thinks it's thousands. Trust me, you know, you can swing reverb for months off of just two dozen people. And that's, and I think you'd probably do it off to 12 people. So I would just not do that. But I think if the one that got away, I think that was the very first Bad Cat because that was the one I used absolutely the most. I was using it all the time. The amps I use now for YouTube, I use the Synergy. It's just, it's just practical for me. It just makes my life easy. It's a, it is like when musicians who tour and stuff talk about products they take on tour, it's just functionally the Synergy just does everything for me. So, so if I'm doing, when I'm doing the videos for you guys, it's going to be probably the Synergy for anything that's over, let's say five, 600 bucks is a guitar, maybe a little bit more. And then anything under that, I'm going to go to the Guitana. And those are just very practical, very good. And here's what's important. I need a special mix. I need something that you can relate to. So you guys go, oh, I have an idea what that kind of sounds like. And something that can sound good enough with what I'm doing because I can't, I can't be working too hard. When I personally play, I use what I think helps me play the best. And when I play for you guys, I need something like that, but it needs to be more relatable. But amp-wise, I always have a flavor of the week or the month for amp. And I'm always, that's what I do. I'm not one of these people who rotate, like, I use this amp for clean, this amp for dirty, and I'm AB switching, or I don't have one of those. That's why I don't have one of those fancy amp switchers with tons of amps and stuff behind me. Even when I had the Rax amps, in fact, that's why I got rid of the Rax amps. Everybody's like, oh, switch between them. Like, I don't switch between them. To me, it's like, this is the amp I like. This is what I'm playing. And then one day, for some reason, it doesn't sound the way I want. Or something, my mood's different, my style's different. Something's off. I go to a different amp. I get another inspiration, and I keep going. So, yes. Let's see. Oh, it's funny. I have no idea how to say her name. I'm gonna do my best. Grandboy says, I like my Bad Cat 5W, but it hummed a lot. You know, that's another thing too. My Bad Cat's didn't hum, but so you know, another thing I have to think about all the time when I'm using amps for this venue, which is the YouTube venue, is the amps that do best for me, the amps that can be close to me and not hum. I'm already around too much stuff. So, you gotta understand, when I'm doing this or over in the, you know, in the shop, demoing guitars and stuff, you know, I already have a mixer in there, digital mixers, digital switchers, digital everything, all this stuff. It just wants to come to the guitar. Then you have the amp, then you have the microphone. All that stuff just creates a lot of noise. So, I also tend to lean towards amps that are technically, they're just quieter for some reason. And some amps are just quieter. They just don't make the noise, which is ideal. So, that's why I said. So, the reason I tell you that is because I think, I've always said this for years and I'll keep saying it. There's always going to be some confusion because kind of think of the podcast as more of my normal life, a little bit, a little bit here. Like it's just us talking, you know, you ask me what my favorite guitar is or what my favorite amp is, we're going to kind of have that conversation. But then you have to understand there's a YouTube life and it's, that YouTube life is there's gear that I need for that, right? I guess, I just want to make a quick analogy. You'd be like asking Philex, what does he use on stage? And what's he, what does he use in the bedroom? He's going to be like, well, I use this amp in the bedroom because I like it and it works for me and I like it. But on stage, this is what works best, right? It takes the most abuse or sounds the best in those venues. So, same thing. I have amps that perform better in YouTube videos and amps that I just personally like the character of. So, I hope that makes sense. I never know sometimes. Okay. Okay, let's do this one. I'm going to do a little one out of order. This is old man, Fran says, Hey, on consumer protection, should signature guitars be sold something like inspired by if it's not the exact guitar the artist plays? Oh, interesting. IE Billy Corgan's Reverend is the same one he has off the shelf. Mayor does not play an SE. Well, Mayor, sometimes I'm not sure. Well, Mayor sometimes plays an SE, but I think old man Fran, again, you know, the way I understand it and this is what's tough because I'm a little bit more informed than a normal consumer. Just like the majority of you watching right now are more informed than the average consumer, right? I would imagine if in a music store, somebody asked a question, a lot of you because you hang out here and you talk to each other and you hear what I have to say, there's a little bit higher level of information in your head than the average consumer. But I, when I look at the SEs, just like when I look at the epiphone stuff, artists have an epiphone and a Gibson, I think it's implied this is just the affordable version of what they have. I don't think John Mayer has ever said like, oh, I only play the SEs. I think in his, in his, he coined the, in the marketing for absolutely coined this. Sometimes when you see me pause, you know, I'm having a moment of like, does that a legal thing? Was I locked from that to talk about? I don't think I am. So when PRS released the SE, SilverSky, John Mayer requested that they did not say the word affordable, that they say the word obtainable. I thought that was ingenious, ingenious marketing. So if you watch any of the SilverSky SE videos, especially the John Mayer ones, they don't say this is the affordable version. They say this is the more obtainable version. And I thought that was smart. And I think the logic that I know for a fact, I think the logic was John Mayer was saying that basically, you know, they're 800 bucks. They're not affordable. That's not an affordable guitar. It's just more obtainable than $2,500. And so I think the way I understood it in his case, it was presented immediately. This is not really what he plays, although he does play an SE from time to time because I've seen him with SEs. But yeah, I don't think he like prefers that over his, his cores or even one of the, you know, they probably built him some private stock stuff, right? My point is, is that I don't think the disclaimer is needed. I think it was implied because he's like making something affordable. And I think that's how it works with most artists. Some artists, as you know, as you know, do off the rack. And it gets confusing because, my understanding too, is Billy Corgan plays off the rack, reverend. And that's what I would imagine happens. But so you know, that is only because I think I remember Billy Corgan saying that somewhere. I don't want you to confuse this. There are artists who have signature guitars with companies that are only doing import. Okay. Steve Eye, this is one example, where they have totally different guitars that we can't even get. Not every single Steve Eye guitar is that, but Steve Eye does have USA made Ibanez guitars that are made for just the artists. In fact, Ibanez has a USA custom shop that only builds for artists. If you guys don't know that, that's an absolute fact. So you, as a normal person, cannot get a custom shop Ibanez in the US. But an artist can get them all the time. They have them made all the time. So there is things like that. Just so you know, just like there are some artists, even if the company only makes import models, they have somebody ghost built, you know, a specifically upgraded, you know, instrument just for them. So sometimes they're not even playing the instrument at all that we can get production or not. But I think in the most cases, we understand there's a hierarchy to it. I seen this a lot with the Fender guys. A lot of the Fender endorsers, they weren't playing even the American stuff. They were playing custom shop versions. They were always playing something that was more hand built and more hand, you know, done specifically to their needs. So, so that's what basically I'm trying to say is like, I think that's implied a lot of times should it actually be disclosed is like a disclaimer. I mean, why not? I mean, I look at it like how PRS says, hey, this guitar is built by Cortec or before that was built by World Manufacturing and Reverend does the same thing. Hey, it's built by World Manufacturing or Mirror. I think it's Mirror, right? But the point is, I love that. I think that's exactly how it should be. I don't know if they need to print it on the guitar. I always think about that with the SEs. I'm like, I don't know. Maybe it's cool that it's printed on the guitar. Just needs to be a label. I don't think more clarification in a world where there's no added real cost to that is a problem. So I don't think it's a problem. I don't think there's anything wrong. Like if I get an ESP LTD, Kirk Hammett model, it says that Kirk Hammett may or may not play this particular model that you're buying. He plays a version of it and you're like, oh, okay. For those that just don't understand, maybe, there's a little bit of like, hey, we don't need to dumb everything down. But stuff like that, I mean, really, what does it hurt? Because you're already printing stuff. Just add it to the, like I said, it's not like the old days where there's a print shop and they template it out and they paid a fortune. One of my favorite stories was a manufacturer telling me that used to cost $20,000. Back in the 80s, $20,000 after print shop do the template for their catalogs. And then they would print the catalogs. And every change had a super expensive expense. Because they could, it's not like today where it's just all done on a computer. So, but yeah, I think it's an interesting idea. Dav Marr says, hey, Phil, I have a 2011 Roadwarn KC Jaguar discontinued in 2015 that sells for quite a bit on Reverb. I'm having trouble getting fair trade value for it on Marketplace because it's a main Mexico. What do I do? Sell it on Reverb? I'm saying, hey, look, I see the problem with Marketplace, the same thing as problem with Craigslist and all that stuff is, you're a localized buying pool and guitars that are not super desirable. In other words, the pool of people looking for them. If you go on Reverb, think about this, you're going to go on Reverb. I don't know how many people go on Reverb a day. Let's just say tens of thousands. Okay. Could be hundreds of thousands. Tens of thousands of guitar players go on Reverb every day and you potentially have like a hundred people that's interested in your guitar. You go on Facebook, Facebook Marketplace, those percentages stay in line. So if a hundred people look at your guitar, well, then that's zero, right? Because you have to have lots of people to see that guitar before you find that one customer that's interested in that odd guitar. Because Jaguars, I would say, obviously we know like Strats and Telly is not in particular order. Strats and Telly is the most desirable Jazzmasters and Jaguars. The least desirable of defenders, still desirable, but we're talking about again, you know, comparative. So I find all the time, I always laugh. I'll just be honest. I always see guys on Craigslist listing stuff that's really cool, but very unique and it sits there in rots and it's not because they're asking too much for it. It's not because it's not cool. It's just because again, how many people in the market for that, you know, that are on Craigslist or Marketplace looking at it? It's, I mean, if you're lucky if there's one or two and if they're there, they're very aware they're the only players. So you have to go, you have to go with a bigger pool for a more unique guitar like that. I know it sucks. I hate selling things on Reverb for a ton of reasons, but when, you know, I have a really exotic Telecaster on Reverb right now. Same thing. It's just, it needs a big pool because there's probably only, you know, a half a dozen or a dozen, no exaggeration. Guitar player is at any given time looking for that particular guitar and that have that kind of money. So it has to go on there. I would love it if I could put it on Facebook or Craigslist. It's just the only way you're going to sell locals if you give it away, because that one guy knows that he's, he's it. He's the one. So my suggestion is you have to do it on Reverb. That would be my suggestion. And, and then just take the money and buy whatever you want. So I tend to, I now do, so you guys know, I do Reverb now as the last resort. So if you see me selling something on Reverb, it's because either A, I've already tried to sell it and I can't. That's not as common though. What's really common is I've just kind of assessed it and that's the only way I'm going to sell it. So a good example is there's something like, let's say, if I can trade it to Guitar Center, they might have some value or trade it to Zims or sell it to a friend or just sell it to a, to a patron member or a channel member or, you know, put it on Craigslist, whatever. There's tons of ways that I've sold stuff and continue to sell stuff when I have to get rid of stuff. However, there's certain things I'm like, this is only going to sell. Like a perfect example is Gear Exchange. I like Gear Exchange experience way, way, way more than, than Reverb. Way more. I just like the people, like the vibe. I like the company. It's just everything about it more than Reverb. But, you know, unless I'm using, unless I got a lot of time and it's a really hot item, so it's just everybody's looking for it, I put it on Reverb. So that's what I would definitely, definitely think about. So Joe's saying, hey, there's, sometimes there's more traffic on Facebook groups. Sure. Any of the, any of the groups, there's specifically into those types of guitars, either on Facebook or on the Reddit and all those platforms and all our other places where they have group communities. Sometimes those are the best results as well. One of the downfalls though of that is sometimes is that when you go to those groups, if you're the outsider and you have something really, you know, expensive, it's a little tough to sell to them because that's part of the reason why they, they work so well is because they all kind of know each other. And when you're new, they don't, they're skeptical of you. So, and one of the things that only happens is the only way they'll trust you is if you give them a little bit of a deal because they're more likely to take a chance. Because one great thing about reverb is you are protected. Perfect example. I'm going to segue to a couple updates. So, you know, I told you guys the story about how I bought the Gibson SG at Guitar Center a week ago, you know, the week of last week's show. And, you know, the customer service was, it's not that great, right? It led to a funny story and I got a great guitar. So ultimately I'm going to say net positive, but also, you know, like this was kind of odd. And then I mentioned that I bought an amp from Palin Music and the customer service was fantastic. And what's interesting is I also mentioned I didn't love the amp. It's okay. I mean, I like it, but I don't love it. So, that doesn't mean I don't want to keep it. It's just, you know, it's good. It's a good amp and it has a purpose and it's good. And here's what happened. It was kind of funny. One of the things that happened with that purchase, which ties into all this was the amp I bought, they must have used a photo, what do you call it? Stock photo of the amp. Okay. So, it was, so in other words, you guys know what I'm talking about, right? It's just, you think you're looking at the actual picture of the amp, but instead it's just a stock photo of the product. Okay. So, they used a stock photo. And so, when I got the amp, one of the things that happened, I opened it. It had different knobs than it had on the stock photo. And that's only interesting because one, not all the reasons, but one of the reasons I bought it from them was they had the version I liked. The way it looked, I liked. They go, oh, I like that look too. I like that look better. And they took great care of me and like I said, I'm super happy. And I thought about reaching out to them and saying, hey, you know, you guys use a stock photo. Is there any way you could like, you know, send me the right knobs? Cause you use the wrong photo, you know, kind of like it's not my fault. And I just love the service so much. I just didn't want to do that, you know, because, hey, look, it's an expense to them. I don't know what those knobs cost. So, I decided to contact the amp manufacturer directly and say, hey, look, I bought this amp and I like your other knobs. Can I, A, buy those knobs from you or B, can you tell me where you source them from and I'll get them? And the amp manufacturer sent me back a message right away saying, absolutely, we'll send you some right now. What's your address? We'll just send them to you. And I mean, I love that. That's fantastic. That's like the service. So think about this. It's a good example. One example is not great service, but a product I really want. The other one is great service and a product that I didn't really love, right? Like I like it. Again, it just like said, there's what I'm saying this, it sounds like I'm not liking it and just saying I'm not in love. And part of the reason I told you it's very expensive amp. So one of the things is like, do I love it this much money? That's kind of really actually the real question, right? Anytime anyone spends, I've said this before, anytime, including me, anyone spends on the end of their comfort zone, you scrutinize the purchase a little bit more. So even if it's good, you're like, good for this price, I need it to be blown away. I need it to go, oh, I need to get rid of everything I own and just own this. And that's not the experience I'm having. Although I am loving it a lot. And anyways, that customer service and then that amp service, the amp builders customer service, those things solidify the purchase. And because I have a return policy, but I don't want to return it. I didn't intend to return it from the get go. I was going to return it anyways. But now I'm like, maybe I love this amp now because, you know, it's nice knowing that the dealer was taking care of me and now the manufacturer's taking care of me. And, you know, maybe free knobs is not a big deal. And maybe it is a big deal. I don't know, but it's fantastic. And then here, hold on, I just got to, I got to say this because it's funny. Rod, Rodrigo, Rodrigo, De Lallardo, De Lardo. Okay, Rodrigo, he says, because you're Phil McKnight. You know what's funny about because I'm Phil McKnight? I got to tell you why this is funny. My wife said it this morning at coffee. We were talking about the YouTuber power, you know, have YouTuber power. Not really, but we were saying like the YouTuber, what do you call it? Like the audience is always like, oh, because you're a YouTuber. And then we were talking about the fact that I have experiences with guitar center and they even flow up and down. Isn't that funny? And same with Sweetwater and same with everywhere else. Like for every time I could say, yeah, I'm a YouTuber and they took care of me, I can tell you a story. I have equal from almost everybody. A story where I go, hey, because I'm a YouTuber, they took care of me. Also, because I'm a YouTuber, they didn't even care. Like it goes both ways, right? It's kind of an odd thing, this industry. And I just say that to you because I want you to have a real assessment of it. I want you to know that a company who will send you a $2,000 instrument for, for you to do a video and let you keep it and pay you to do the video will also screw up everything and then double charge you. And then, right, like it's a weird, it's a weird when they care and how they care. Because I think what you guys don't understand is there's no, being a YouTube channel is not like being a real artist. It's not like a real thing, right? The value is only in this reach that you have, not in actually you. Like no one's looking at you and going, oh, wow. This guy's an influencer. We should take care of him. It's always like, what if he tells his audience? Which I don't know. I say that, that's actually not true because I'm constantly telling stories on the show and you think that no one even cares. But I'm just saying it's kind of funny it goes both ways on that. So yeah, on the customer service thing, it was just crazy to see that great customer service. Let's see. Hold on. Oh, see, what's funny, the real RD says, you live in Arizona, but you can't pronounce Alejandro. See, I can't read Alejandro in all that mess of letters. So that's, I keep telling you guys, there's no spacer on when a word ends. Like you guys, when you're looking at it, you're looking at it while you're not prioritizing the next 10 things I'm about to do. So when I'm looking at your guys' names, like here's a good example. There's somebody who put their name is at official dimes. See, but to me, when I look at that, you got to understand, it's just official dimes. It's just all a bunch of letters and I have to see where what letter stops, recognize the word is official, then the word dimes. The same thing with Alejandro. I didn't see that it started with Alejandro. I just see a bunch of letters and then some numbers at the end. And at some point, I'm not going to try to dissect it when I can go to the next question. That's really what it is. So you guys know a lot of times people would be talking about butchering. Names. I'm a very fast reader. You can't do what I'm doing every week. If you're not, so you guys know, there's a reason why most people don't like to come on the show again. They'll tell you that they can't understand how I'm processing all this stuff. Because I'm also getting stuff from Amanda and from you guys at the same time. And I'll tell you though, but even that, the problem is, is I'm processing too fast. I'm trying to get to the question and I'm, and if I can't read it fast, then I just, I blow it off. So sometimes what feels like even more like sarcastic comments like, oh yeah, I can't read your name. It's really just, I'm not putting any more time into it because I'd rather answer the question than sit here and try to figure out where our name stops and starts and what the letters and numbers mean. Because a lot of you guys use all kinds of like, said it's like a license plate game. Some of you guys use threes or ease. You guys all do kinds, all kinds of funny stuff. So it'd be so much easier if it was just all one word. So speaking of that, let's look at Panaman. Panaman92 says, if the bridge pickup on a strat sounds a little weak, should you raise it? Sure, why not? That's going to help a little bit. The, the two things that will help your strat bridge pickup sound a little fuller. Generally speaking, Fender likes to ship them tilted so that the, the treble side is higher than the bass side. And if it sounds a little thin, sometimes you might want to raise the bass side. So you might even not have to raise the treble side. That sometimes can help. However, get this in, in the scenario where your pickup is too close, it could also be making your pick sound weak. Here's why, because when it gets too close, all you get is this high end frequency and you don't get any of the low end frequency. So it's not even about rates. So when I say raise it, yeah, if it's too low, raise it. If it's too high, then lower it. Okay. So there is a sweet spot for a pickup. The way I would always explain it, and I just like the analogy it works for me, is like, even if you've never done it before, everybody understands that when you put a microphone in front of speaker, that the center of the speaker is, is treble, right? The cone, the center cone is all trebly and the outer cone is, is bassy, right? It's going to get bassier as it goes. And the further away you get from the speaker, you get a little fuller sounding, the closer you get, a little tighter. Generally speaking, we're kind of getting general for those sound engineers that are freaking out right now. The pickup is not much different. Since you think of as the, is the microphone. So it's not about, you know, is it too close or too far? It's, it's got to be in the sweet spot. And that means different things for different types of pickups and different types of strings. So for instance, if you have like stainless steel strings, you know, they're going to be bright. So maybe the pickup needs to be pulled away. They're also, you know, steel strings are going to disrupt the magnetic field easier, where a pure nickel string is harder. You know, it's a softer disruption of the field. So essentially you might raise the pickup to get closer to a pure nickel string. And then the thickness of the string changes this. I, like I said, I, I only thing I don't like is pickup manufacturers, a whole like to just put out and sort of guitar manufacturers like to put out a measurement because they know that if they don't, you'll get upset. And you're like, cause I get it all the time from you guys too. Hey Phil, how far do I go from the top of the, or the bottom of the string at the top of the pickup? And I go, well, yeah, you can start with some kind of generalized idea, but these are the factors, the type of pickup pickup, the type of magnet, how strong the magnet is. Right? How, how, how much, you know, how, how big the string is physically in diameter, how, what the material of the string is made of, all these things affect it. And that's why you want to use your ear and just adjust until you find the spot. And I think, and I've, I just have a theory. I don't know if this is true, but I feel like a lot of people who ask that question are a little self-conscious or just don't feel confident in their ear to find the right spot. So if they're told, they know, you know, like, if you just tell me the spot, I'll know it and then I'll know it's right. And I know, I kind of want to tell you that, you know, I want it, the answer to be so easy, but it's really not that easy. Okay. You definitely, it doesn't want to adjust it. So, so, but yeah, I'm just giving you the, the, the way you want to adjust that. Um, Gilmore's black strats sold yesterday at auction for 14.5 million. I know I threw out 14.3 and then some asshole snifed it. I didn't understand what happened with that. Uh, I was, uh, no, I was going to hope when they were going to take an out-of-stake third-party check, but you know, I think they would. Yeah. So if you guys didn't hear Gilmore's strats sold for 14.5 million, I find this is a funny, I'm going to talk about something I always say I don't talk about. I usually don't talk about this stuff. And the reason is, is cause I don't think this is guitar talk. This is, to me, the way I look at the back is future guitars or the, uh, this, uh, you know, guitars sold at auction. This is memorabilia. This is, uh, so like if you could take and interchange the name, uh, that strat, right? Um, with so many other things and I wouldn't have paid attention like, hey, Luke Skywalker's ha, uh, uh, lightsaber sold from the first movie for 14.5 million. I'm like, oh, okay. Well, people are really big Star Wars fans. Right. That's how I look at it. I wouldn't think like, man, some guy wants a really place swords. Right. Uh, if somebody said, oh, the Highlander sword from the movie sold for a ton of money, or if somebody said, you know, Boba Fett's helmet, I don't know, I'm going to Star Wars research, but I think it's, I think a Star Wars, uh, fans is being a little bit more ravenous in their purchasing. But my point is, is that, uh, memorabilia, um, the, uh, you know, the Gilmore black strat to me is no different than Michael Jordan's Jersey. Same thing. Uh, and the reason I don't just say this, you know, for no reason, um, I think I told you guys a little fun fact. The most expensive guitars we ever sold in the store in 13 years and the single, single, single largest ticket, you know, like when you're writing an invoice for purchases, the two highest tickets, which buy were higher than anything else we've ever done before were two people who didn't play guitar. Absolute fact. So the most expensive guitars ever sold and the most expensive guitars in one ticket and the second most expensive were two people who did not play guitar, not at all. So you're like, what did they buy for one was decorating a pool room and one was decorating a dentist's office, not making that up. He's like rock and roll dentist, I guess, something like that. And he had a rock and roll themed dentist's office and they wanted nice stuff on the walls. You know, they are admirers of guitar players like, uh, the person who buys Michael Jordan's Jersey probably doesn't put it on and play basketball. Right. Uh, so the person who buys Gilmore Strat may not necessarily be a guitar player. They might just really like Pink Floyd. And I don't know about you as passionate as we are from guitars, people, including me, actually, I'm way more passionate about a band than I am a guitar. I love guitars, but I'm really overly passionate. Let me put it this way. You could piss me off, dogging one of my favorite bands way more than dogging my favorite guitar. In fact, I don't even know if I'd care whatever anyone said about a guitar. So he goes, Oh, I think that guitar feels like crap. It sounds like turds. I'd be like, Oh, okay. But if you started talking crap about my favorite band, it's not that I get mad. I just feel a need to explain what you don't understand. See, a perfect example everyone here can relate to. If somebody says something negative about your favorite band, your first, your first ideas, they just haven't heard it. Right. You're like, you haven't heard the right album. That's your problem. Have you heard this song? Did you listen to it? Did you listen to it a couple times? Right. Like you're like, you're perplexed almost in there. Like how could they not know how great this band is? Right. If somebody comes to me and says, Phil, I think strats feel clunky and thin and I, they poke me and I don't like them. There's nothing about me that wants to change their mind. But again, critique my favorite band. I gotta, I gotta start. We gotta start. I gotta start. I gotta start helping you see the light because in my brain, it's not about you loving the thing I love and it's not about me being right. It's about you missing out on the greatest thing ever, which is the band I love. How could you miss out? You'll go your whole life and not know how amazing this band is. So I think of those people, music lovers as being with money, someone who has spent $14.5 million. And keep in mind, this is, and this is not even known if it went to a museum or something like that. That's can, that can always be a thing. Right. So my point is, that's what I see when I, it's memorabilia. It's sold for a million, million, million memorabilia purposes. I know when a, a, everybody got up and up in arms over, was it stranger things when the Beeseritches came out and they're like, who's paying $2,000 for an Indonesian crackle Beeseritch? And I'm like, people who put on their wall who love stranger things. I go, I go, think about this. I mean, have you seen, look, I'm a, I'm a decent Star Wars fan, right? Like I don't want to obsess, but I mean, you know, I like it. I've seen all the movies at least 10 times at least. You know, I know the original Life Saver was made like from, like one was made from a French grenade and one's made from like a vacuum cleaner part and stuff. So you're like, let's argue that for a second. Like they're made from junk parts and, you know, put together for a movie and now it has a value because it was in the movie. It's a black strat. It was on some amazing albums. We know what the value is. The albums were the value. The movie was the value, you know. So think of this, one of my most prized possessions is a piece of movie memorabilia that a viewer gave to me and I've shared that guy with you guys and I framed it. I took it down and I framed it and I put it on the wall and it's right there. I stare at it every day and when people come over, it's one of the first things I show them. I go, oh, this, the viewer of the channel sent me this piece of a memorabilia from a movie that one of my favorite movies. So, and so yeah, it's, and it's, I think it's a piece of styrofoam. I don't know what it's made out of, but so, so that's my take on that. But Josh says, if I can't palm you to strat, it's useless to me. Let's uh, it's funny. A lot of you guys are doggies from the bands I like, but I don't think you really understand. I don't get upset. I get, uh, the, the, uh, if I took the bait, you would just have to finish out the rest of the show with me just telling you how great these bands are and why you're not getting it, which is not what anybody wants to see. So, uh, Jason says, Hey Phil, are there any mini humbuckers you recommend? What is the difference between Firebird humbuckers and mini humbuckers? What are your thoughts on the process of making each? Um, okay. So there are differences in the way that they're designed and that, and they're the components that they're done. When it comes to, I want to talk about mini humbuckers because Firebird humbuckers are just this thing that I, I don't really, I don't, I've never had the inkling or nor, nor met anyone that ever wanted to take a Firebird humbucker and stick in anything else. Of course, when I say that, somebody's going to put in the comments. I did. Great. I think that's a cool idea, but I'm just saying I've never had the inkling and no one has ever asked me to do it either. Uh, mini humbuckers, there are things that I absolutely love about them. I do have a mini humbucker, uh, that I use in a guitar. Um, and, uh, I like it. It's a, it's a, it's a Gibson one that I got used somewhere and I put it in a guitar and I like it. I really like them in the neck position of a telecaster. That's where I like them the most. I think they are a beautiful compromise to the neck pickup on a tele, which some people refer to as being kind of thin or weak, um, because of tons of reasons, one being that it's 43 gauge wire instead of 42. So they wrap, you know, it's, it's just a different sound and feel. And then also the metal cover changes the sound a lot. So sometimes that's why some players take the metal car covers off the neck pickup of a, of a telecaster. Um, and so some people then will put a P 90, which I think is great, but it's a little brutish, a little too much. You're right. The tele pickup net. So the tele bridge to me overpowers the neck pickup, but then when you put the P 90, the P 90 overpowers the bridge pickup. So, um, a good compromise. Some people like humbuckers in the neck and I think a mini humbucker is the best compromise. So I'll put a mini humbucker in there and I like it. So that's what I would use it for. Other than that, I've tried it in other places. For instance, I put it in the bridge of a, of a strat and trying the theory of like, well, maybe it'd be closer when I switched between the single coil pickups. And I guess I could say that was a good argument, but the reality is I've just kind of learned that you just pair the humbucker, a full-size humbucker correctly with the single coils and you always have a great sound. Uh, and you don't have to worry about the size of the pickups or stuff. You know, this is back to the, uh, you know, the Paul Reesman narrow field argument, you know, the, the, the narrowing the field changes the sound. It does, but, um, it's, it's fun to experiment with. If you want to do that, it's not necessarily anything I feel is special. One thing I keep telling myself one day, maybe I'd like to get a Les Paul with some mini humbuckers in it. Um, but I, I, I've played one once or twice, but never enough to put, you know, any kind of real sense of opinion on it. So, um, okay. See, um, oh, I did that one. That's funny. Okay. Oh, okay. Here's a good one. Uh, this is a question. They want to know what I think of the, I say Geiger, Geiger hardware. Uh, it's G like guy, G U I, no, G Y G Y K E R Geiger. If that's how you say it, great. If there's another phonetic wave to say it, I don't know it. Uh, Geiger hardware, it's everywhere now, especially on Amazon and, uh, the prices are fantastic. They've reached out a ton of times asking to, uh, sponsor a video. I'm not interested in doing the sponsorship of the video. So I, I said no, but I did buy some of their hardware. I bought some of their locking tuners. They were like 35 bucks and funny, funny, being interesting, not haha story was I did not buy them because they were $35. I bought them because I could not find the actual go-to ones I needed anywhere. They were just unavailable anywhere to get them. So I bought the Geiger ones and I was having trouble keeping them in tune and, uh, I, uh, I fixed it, but the fix sucks, which is I, um, I wrap the strings, three wraps per string on the high strings, uh, which sometimes, you know, okay. So what was happening with the locking mechanisms, they were slipping. The, they were just not holding tight correctly. I would play the guitar. I actually, I wouldn't play the guitar. I'd hang it up on the wall and pick it up. And every time it was the high E, the B and the G were out of tune because they had slipped, especially the high E. And at one point the high just pulls the right out of the mechanism. So I, uh, went ahead and did a, uh, a three wraps per on the high strings, restrung it. And I have not seen a huge issue since then, although I can tell you right now. Hold on a second. Okay. So here's the guitar. This is my Danelectro and I put these locking, uh, Geiger key. Yeah. See, watch. Now let's see what's in and out of tune. Okay. So I'm, I'm a full step down for some reason. I did on purpose, I'm sure. Yep. Okay. So B and E this time. Well, and G. Yeah. See, and it's loose. See it? It's loose. This one, not so much. This one, this one keeps going loose. So I'm going to say, I'm not excited about this stuff. Um, maybe the bridges are better. Maybe the other components are better. I don't know why, but I've been hat that issue has been consistent. And like I said, I got three wraps on it now. And it's still the, the locking unit just goes loose. And, and, and for those that are paying attention sometimes, if you have wall hangers, you'll know this. Sometimes when you put a guitar on a wall hanger, especially a locking tuner, the wall hanger rubs the, the wheel on the back and it goes loose and unlocks. I have my hanger set up so they won't do that. Uh, you have to go in and bend them a little bit differently. And I, that's how I did it. So I have a locking tuner. You have to have a deeper bend in it. So I went ahead and done that. And that's one thing again, why I like strings, because they actually use real steel. So when I put it on my vice on the bench and I bend them, they bend, you know, they don't snap. So, uh, hmm. So not loving that stuff yet, but, but one purchase, one thing is not all reviews. So if I can find, um, another reason to buy a couple more components, I will and test it. Um, and that's why I didn't take a sponsorship deal from them. So because, um, uh, I, I, I generally try if we are doing an actual sponsored content video to try to be a product that I'm super familiar with and I know it and I like it. And if there's any problems, it's going to be minor. And then therefore the, the sum of the video will be good, right? So some being the totality of it. So like, yeah, good, this, good, this, good, this, bad, that, bad, that, good, this, good, this. And then ultimately, you know, they don't, some of them don't like it. There's some negatives in the video, but at least the video is overall good and it works good. If I feel like this, I don't know what the positives would be other than the price. I go, you know what, let's not do a sponsored content. Let me get familiar with it. Um, so, uh, so that's how it works. So especially if it's something that I can actually, uh, you know, get relatively easy and not have to spend, you know, an insane amount of money on. Um, um, uh, seen queen, I guess his machine says, uh, too many people getting sponsored by Geiker everywhere. So it really haven't seen many honest reviews, you know, and I, and I want to say this, there's a, there's two or three steps to honesty when it comes to content creation and no one is, is no decent person is above this in my opinion. Um, honesty is a, is not always what you perceive it to be. For example, sometimes, you know, I could told you there's a bias or there's a game in play, right? Some channels, I'll see slam stuff and they go, see, I'm honest and I'll see the comment section. I said, well, I love you. You're honest. I'm like, yeah, they slammed it because that company's notoriously, and I'm not saying this for sure, but I'm saying my theory, uh, when I look at it, go, yeah, that company's, uh, ironically, that company's also known as notorious for never sponsoring any content. It doesn't work with YouTubers. So maybe that YouTuber doesn't like that, right? You don't know what the agenda is behind that YouTube video. Sometimes when a company, which is why sometimes I try to stay away from it, when a company's new and they send you a new product, when a company's send you a product, besides the monetary value, like, oh, I got free stuff or I got money or compensation, there is a feeling that I, and I just, I don't know how to get away from it, is you feel good that somebody cares about what you do. You know, there are companies that say no, there are companies that actively tell people they don't like you. There's companies who work with everyone, but you, there's all kinds of things that you go, okay, I guess, you know, and also when you're smaller, especially when you're smaller, no one's working with you. So the first companies to work with you, you're just like, oh, you know, like, hey, they, they really, they really care about what you do. And, um, and so our reason I say this is, look, I'm at this point, I'm kind of tenured at this point. It's not that my channel does well enough. I've just been through enough of this, like today. I didn't get upset, but I did laugh. Somebody sent me an email. It was funny. It said, hey, Phil, we love your channel dipped in tone. And it says, we love the way you do videos and we would like to have it be on your podcast. And I'm like, uh-huh. That's cool. So I looked at Shana and I said, oh, obviously they, Rhett was either right before me or he's the first one and they templated the email off of that. And so I don't take it offensively that way. I take it offensively, not offensively. I don't, I don't take it offensively like that. I just laugh going, they temple out the email. They're sending it probably to 50 people because they're probably trying to see who will take the, you know, the bite. But the point I'm trying to say is I'm experienced enough to know that companies really aren't looking to be your friends. They're not, they don't love your channel. Um, uh, uh, most of them don't even watch your content. Even after you make it for them, they don't watch it. I used to think that was strange. I totally get it now. Okay. I, I, I'm not even shocked anymore or anything when a company is like, I kind of even tell you, uh, I would like to say a, uh, a dozen times it's more like three, four dozen times a company's reached out to me saying, hey, I'd really like it if you'd make that video. And I'm like, I made it three months ago. It got 200,000 views. Go check it out. You know, thanks for, you're not even subscribed to my channel. Like how funny is that? Right? Um, so my point is, is that sometimes when that's why I try to stay away from stuff like that, it's not that I'm telling you that the, you know, if you're paid, you're lying. That's always a factor. And that's usually the go to everybody, but I want you to be more informed than that. You should know that there's more going on. Sometimes when I'm watching a creator and they're saying, hey, this company sent this guitar out and I really like it. And your first instinct, because I'm, and I'm, again, my bias is I do it for a living, but also that I've done it for a decade. And as someone who's done it for a decade, I'm telling you, I've been through all the things. I've been through all the ways you can get screwed. I've been through, well, maybe not all of them, but I've been through a lot of them. I've been all through the ways that I've made out ahead. I've been through all the emotional ups and downs. And I can tell you that when you do this and somebody appreciates you, you go, oh, wow, this company appreciates me. And I'm going to reciprocate. And it's hard. It's like somebody making, hey, I'm going to make you dinner tonight and you're eating their dinner and you're thinking, I mean, it's good. I wouldn't buy it. Right. But you can't say that. They just made you a dinner. You got to go like, no, it was really good. You know, I don't, I don't prepare it this way. So like I said, so sometimes you want to filter that way too is what I'm trying to say. So yeah, I can see why sometimes, yeah, when a company pops like that, that's why I try to stay, like I said, I try to, that's why I also try to sit on the equipment for as long as I can before the video comes out. So I can go through the emotional part without you guys. So because yeah, you know, like I said, when you unbox something, everything's exciting when you unbox it. Whoa, look at this thing. And then three weeks later, you're like, I don't know. I guess the thing I already have is just as good. And that's what I want to come out in the video is whatever that experience is. So a little too much YouTube talk. Let's go back to guitar talk. Let's finish up this show so we can all have a good weekend and play guitar. What do we have? We have happy good things says, Hey, plans on having Shawna as off camera, guest. Right. We had her do that twice as a patron thing. And then we put it on the second channel. You can watch. They're one of the most watched podcasts. It's funny. She's great. I asked her to do it again. She kind of said yes. So I'm sure we can do that again. That's how it will work by the way. Like last time it'll go on the the patron thing and the channel members will get it. And then after so much time goes by, it'll go on the second channel just to benefit. And then they also get the first dibs asking questions because usually it's they want some kind of inside baseball on me from her, like, you know, like, you know, whatever some backstory. So I will work on that. So you know, and she's probably, I don't know, she's watching right now, but she sometimes is, you know, and it's in the background of wherever she's at. So, so she's hearing it. So she knows you want it. Happy good thing also said my shredder buddy who keeps his guitars mint cleans his string after he plays each time. What do you suggest? I think that's an absolutely great idea. Like I said, I have very dry skin because I probably don't drink enough water. No, actually, so I don't want to lie to you guys. I do not drink enough water. I mentioned once that I have carats all over the place in the house. And somebody's like, Oh, they were worried about me. Like, you might have diabetes. I'm like, no, no, no, I don't think you understand. Like I'm seriously dehydrated at all times. I don't drink any water. I'm really bad at it. So, you know, horrible. I am notorious for drinking a cup of coffee or maybe two in the morning. And then then nothing all day after that in any way, shape or form. And it's really bad. And the fact that I haven't got kidney stones is a miracle. And I know that. So I forced myself to drink lots of water. I have like, this is a water bottle. I have a full water right now and I drink it. And so anyways, I'm always got dry skin. So the reason I'm saying that is I don't have that problem. But I can't tell you absolutely should wipe down your strings, especially if you're sweaty or if you're oily, any of those things, wipe down your strings every time is a great idea. It'll save you a ton of money in strings. Doesn't hurt anything. I use a microfiber cloth. You can use whatever microfiber cloth you want. You can use cotton or flannel. The reason it has nothing to do with the strings, it has to do with anything that those cloths come in contact with your finish. And so 100% cotton flannel, 100% flannel or microfiber should be safe for, you know, your guitar, you know, finish. So if you're rubbing your strings and it rubs the finish or anything, you'll be fine. So yeah, do that every time. Don't need to put anything on it. Don't lubricate it. Don't do anything. Make sure the cloth is dry and clean and has no, you know, chemicals on it. And you'll be fine. Wiping down your strings every time you play guitar is, is, well, you watch this thing with this, when you watch touring bands, you'll see roadies when they grab the guitars, they start wiping off the sweat right away. Because again, it's going to help not only is it going to help for those guys when they're sweating a lot on stage, not only the strings, that's how they're corroding the bridge out, they're corroding all the pickup, all the metal just because your skin salty, you know, salt and metal, not good friends. Ran Zier says, Hey Phil, any recommendations on how to care for a solid rosewood guitar neck? Thanks for years of shared wisdom and fun. I use, I use F1 oil that you get from Music Nomad. I highly recommend the Lizard Spit oil as well. And at this point, I mean, it's whatever you want to use, you use linseed oil if you want, you can use lemon oil. I tend to stick with the guitar polish brands. When I do that, sometimes people put in the comments, which is fine that they buy it, you know, from cheaper vendors and cheaper. And the only reason I do that is because like I said, I treat everything like an accountability issue. I just want to know. So like, give me example, it's not just guitars, it's just the way my brain works in entirety. 100% no exceptions of my oil changes are done at one place. No one's ever changed the oil in my vehicle. In any of my vehicles, other than one place. It's not fast, it's not good, it's not cheap. I don't even know. It just happened to be the place I picked. The reason I do that is if there's ever a problem, I know who I'm going to tell because they're the only ones that have ever done it. And, and I learned that lesson from, believe it or not, my dad, who I didn't have a great relationship with, what funny enough, my dad had a Ford F150 that he bought brand new and he put 200 thousand miles on it. And so 180,000, somebody got 180,000 miles. And he always got his oil change and all his services at one place. And he went fishing up in Northern Arizona. And he was driving. How, you know, it's funny. I don't even talk to my dad. And at this time, my mom and dad were talking again, which is kind of weird. So anyways, I one day I get a call. It's my mom. And she goes, Hey, I'm on the side of the road up. I think I was in Sedona, whatever she was up north. And she needed, they need a ride. She's like, I'm with your dad. I'm like, Oh, my dad. Okay. So I go, okay. So I tell, I tell Sean, I go, I gotta get, I gotta go get my mom, right. And my dad apparently, they're broke down on the side of the road. So it was like a two, three hour drive. So I went and got them. What happened was somebody said, what year Ford? I believe it was a 96. So 96. And it was probably 2003 when this happened. So no, maybe it was a 93. And it was 2003. That made more sense. I think the car, the truck was like 10 years old. So here's why the story is funny. So what happened was he got his oil changed. I think that day or the day before. And the reason his engine blew in this car is truck work done, then no one put the drain plug back in correctly. And the oil all leaked out and the truck ran without oil and it broke. And so anyways, I got them and we towed his truck back. I got put on the trailer and we took it back. And he went to the oil change place and said, you guys didn't do this. And they said, no, you must have done that. And then he's like, he showed them, not exaggerating, like 15 years of receipts going, I've only taken my cars to you always on the exact same time. And long story short, they bought them a new engine. They bought a new engine and replaced everything. And so it was kind of like, I was shocked, right? Because I'm like, aren't they just going to say you did that later? I mean, your car had a lot of oils. What's stopped you from doing that? And they didn't do it. So the lesson I learned from that story was, okay, so same thing. If I only use one. So now I use F1 oil, like I said, I used to use Lizard Spit for years, but I use F1 oil. It's not because it's like I said, it's not because it's the best. I like it because I can use it on Maple. I can use it on any Rosewood. And if anything, I've ever been to a fretboard that's kind of weird, I'd like to be able to go, okay, well, this is the only stuff I put on it. This is the only cloths I use. See, I like said, especially when I was doing customers guitars, because again, you know, you want to, that's the way I think. So I'm just giving you the insight of why I do that way. So, yeah, a funky boss says, keep your receipts, always keep your receipts, especially now. Now you just take pictures of them, take pictures of them and put them in a folder. So, let's see. I don't understand the question. He says, Philip Mitz, he's modified every string swing holder. I didn't say everyone. I'm just saying some of them, the ones they put the locking keys on. But yes, I understand. I've done more than modify them. I bend them. I've done horrible things to them. Horrible, horrible things. Like I said, no kindness to any of them. Remember, they were in the store for 13 years, but it recommends they out of box hanger unreservedly. Yeah, that's because I should have killed one by now. I've been prepared for 20-something years for one of them to break or crack or do something wrong, because I've bent them out. I've bent them in. I've bent them this way. I've done all the horrible things to them. I threw them in a box or put them back in a new wall. They just take abuse. So the rubber, never had to replace any of the rubber on them. Patron, his was shredding. I think it was because one of the thumb wheels on his locking key was shredding the thing. I have never had that problem, but that's because, like I said, I bend mine a little bit lower. And then Greg says, Hey, does F1 oil get out of date or too old? Yes. I've talked about this before. I'll talk about it now. I was buying the big bottles F1 oil, and that's what happened. It got tacky and thick, and it kind of felt weird. I never reached out to them, and I never tried to assess if it's bad. Like if it's gone bad, and I should throw it away. I just didn't like it physically anymore. So now I just buy the small F1 oil bottles because the, you know, like you guys, I'm just not going through a lot of stuff. You know, I don't, I don't have a lot of guitars, but I'm not like doing, you know, fret conditioning every day. I'm lucky if I do one or two guitars a month. So that's not a lot. So now I, but yes, I've had this, I've had the experience with F1 oil where it gets sticky and, and it gets thicker and I, maybe it's breaking down. I'm not sure what the issue is. Okay. Yeah. Plump Weasel says, oil will oxidize over time. Yeah, that makes sense, or go bad. Yeah, I've rancid. I've heard it referred to as being rancid. I'm not sure what the correct terminology is that causes it. But I heard, it's funny. I heard somebody say it. I want to say probably about five years ago on the show, hey, I got some F1 oil and it went bad. And I was like, Oh, I haven't, I haven't experienced that. And then it was, in fact, that's probably what helped me out because I think a few years later I grabbed the bottle and it was weird, right? And it was like same thing, thick and kind of weird. And I go, Oh, the viewer said it happened. I go, that's probably what happened. So that makes sense. You know, not a chemist. So don't understand, you know, what the issue is, particularly that's happening. So I think we got those. Let's do one last, what's one last thing? Okay, this question is hard. McShreddy says, Hey, Phil, what are your three favorite medium, smaller online guitar shops these days, like Chicago Music Exchange size or smaller huge fan of your show? So I tend to go to a lot of them, you know, I use Eddie's music. And I've had good luck with a lot of them. Chicago Music Exchange is fine. There, I would say Chicago, for me, Chicago Music Exchange, well, my only interaction ever with them was not good. That's when I bought a cabinet and I called them and the employee, I felt like he was lying to me, which is the worst feeling, right? Like he was, but it really what it was is, in my opinion, he was lazy and he didn't want to help me or answer my question. And so, you know, sometimes they do that, right? And retail like, Oh, yeah, it happens all the time, you're fine. I'm like, that's not fine. But other than that, I've never had a problem with them since. And so, you know, I've never had to, I've never talked to anybody there. I just click the online button and I buy it and then it comes. And that's mostly the experiences I have with most retailers. Palin Music was one of the first retailers that I bought online from and they emailed me and messaged me like how Sweetwater does and says, Hey, we saw the purchase. Thank you so much for the purchase. If you need anything, let me know. Hey, you know, right? We, you know, and it was just a nice email and it was a follow and a follow up like how to go. And that was really nice. You know, it's funny to me that when Sweetwater does it, I find it annoying. They're like, How was it? I'm like, leave me alone. I don't want to talk to anybody. But when a small dealer does it, I'm like, Oh, that's really cool. Like they acknowledged it. And Diablo guitars is on my want to buy from list. I have a weird, not only obsession with guitars, but I have a weird obsession with music stores, you know, there's, I like to buy from music stores. Like I like to buy from different music stores. And Diablo is like one of those like, Oh, they have so much cool guitars and maybe one day I'll get one from there. I did have a funny experience. I'll tell you a funny and I won't name the store because it's not the important part. But I will tell you why customer service and all this matters. And so you said three dealers. So I'll just say, I still like Eddie's guitars, which is a larger medium sized store. Chicago Musicians good. I like paling guitars. They're great casino guitars. I like their YouTube channel. I've not bought anything from them yet. So again, and so you know, not from lack of trying, I went on their website at least three times in the last year looking specifically for product and they didn't have in stock. And in fact, the product I bought from Pailin Music was I can tell you, I hit humbucker music. They didn't have it. And I, casino guitars didn't have it. So I was looking for, you know, the product, you know, in stock and, and that's why Pailin got the purchase. They had it. Wildwood and Wild West I bought guitars from. So, so yep, absolutely Wild, Wildwood. I like a lot. I've always had a great experience from them. Wild West, I bought from them was so long ago. I don't even remember. But Drum City Guitar Land, I bought from them and I like them a lot. I will tell you a funny, funny story. This dealer I just bought from and this is like a weird thing because sometimes I'm bagging on reverb a lot and then sometimes I tell you that one thing I like about reverb, there's one thing I like, look, I can bag on Guitar Center all day, but I'm going to always end every Guitar Center story with the best return policy on the planet earth for guitars, right? I mean, just the best. I have never had a problem with Guitar Center. You just take it in half the time. They don't even look. I've returned guitars or amps to them in the box and they didn't even look at the box to make sure that thing was even in there. And I noticed them here like, well, they did it to me. No, they did it to me too. Sometimes like I said, I've had it both ways. Like sometimes they scrutinize it and go, oh, sometimes they don't even look at it. But either way, I've never gotten guff. They've always took the return and it's great. And I tend to exchange. Like I said, I like, I like, because I was a small dealer. It's just ingrained in me that if I've given them money, I try to keep the money there. So I'll, if I can exchange for another product, I'll always do that first. It's got to because there's absolutely nothing I don't want. For instance, I got those Guitar Center gift cards when I, you know, I bought some stuff or they bought some stuff from me. I was like, give me some gift cards too. Because I was like, I just want to keep some of this money in your store instead of you just paying me all out for gear. So anyways, so that's what I got to say about them. That's great. However, the other thing I can say about reverb is no matter what all the problems reverb, all the fraud that's on there, the fake stuff that's being listed, the hell, the nightmares, the craziness, they always protect you as a customer. And that just feels really good. And so here's why the story is funny. I bought, I paired down, as you guys know, a lot of amps, because I was actually, I'm, we call it refining my collection of amps down to just a few amps, and they're just these dream amps that I have. At this point, I just want a few dream amps, and then I have my workload amps for my YouTube gig. So here's why this is maybe interesting you. I went, my normal thing is to look for the amp, which I did, and I found a store, and they had it in stock. It's in California, and because I'm in Arizona, there's no sales tax to me. So if you guys don't know how sales tax works online is, you have to sell a certain amount of product before you have to start charging sales tax. So even though you go to Sweetwater and they have to charge your sales tax, it's because they've sold millions and millions of dollars. So most music stores who have not sold millions and millions of dollars with a product online, as long as you're not in their state, you don't have, they don't have to collect sales tax. So it's nice, we'll save the sales tax. So I found this dealer, and they had the amp, and it said it was brand new, but the picture they showed was in their store, sitting in their store. The amp had been there, in my opinion, two years, because the amp hasn't, you know, it's a new amp, but they're not even making it anymore. But anyways, it looked like a two-year-old amp, and I saw the price, and I was just, I don't know, just weary of it. So I went to Reverb to see if they had any, and they had one, and it was that store. Now if I buy it from Reverb, I have to pay 8% tax, and they pay, you know, 5% to 10% fees. And I thought, you know, normally I'd go back to them directly and say, hey, let's save, you know, let me save my 8%, and they can say they're 5% to 10%, and maybe we're all better for it. But I just didn't trust it. I don't know why my spider senses were tingling, I just had that feeling like, I don't know, something wrong about these guys, I don't know what it is. Something in the description of the amp, the whole nine yards, just something didn't feel right. So I buy the amp on Reverb, I get a message, sorry for laughing already, because I'm thinking about this out loud, how bad and funny it was. So I get a message from Reverb, and it says, hey, your product has shipped. I'm like, oh cool. As you guys all know, that just means that they created a label. So it says you they created a label. So then, in fact, so you guys know, so I don't have to play the whole, I, you know, I can't remember, let me pull this up, it's in the show. It's the last thing we're going to talk about. Let me, I'll tell you how this went down. The, this is why the story is funny. They, let's look at the timeline. Okay, is it not? So I buy the guitar or buy the amp on the first of March. Okay, so that's when I buy it. The third of March, no, so I don't know when, it doesn't show me now, because it doesn't let me see the shipping, I'm trying to say when they, the shipping label was created within like a day or two. So maybe not that same day, but a day or two. Okay, then this is what's funny. What's funny is, I don't hear any, the, the shipping label doesn't update. You know how it's like label created, and then you go to look at it next day, and it says, we've not received the shipment from the shipper, but they've created a label. I go to the second, third day, we, you know, right, we've, we've, you know, we've created a label, but we have not received the shipment. And then, so what goes on? Let me go look in the history of this, and all, let me click all, and I message them after seven days. So the label has set dormant for seven days. Now keep in mind a weekend passed, and I try not to hold that against them. So it's like five days, but I'm thinking five days since the label created, something's up, right? Sometimes you guys might know this, if you buy a lot of stuff online, that when you buy pedals, sometimes they ship them USPS, and you don't, you know, before, by the time the label updates, you sat your door, but this is an amp. So here's why it's really funny. I messaged them through reverb, and I just say, and that's something nice, like, hey, I just want to check on this, and noticing it's not moving, if there's any issues. And they respond with, and that's why I'm laughing, oh, we didn't get the order till just now. And I'm like, I swear, guys, I held it back. I was like, I'm going to, I go, I go to type back, and I go, don't do it, because I was going to type back with, well, you created the label for this order seven days ago. Okay, you just got it. So I go, okay. And the, the amps, the amp shows up, by the way, they ship it like a day or two after that. Okay, so now it's been like nine, 10 days, they ship it. It's one stayed over. So it gets here in like a day or two. I think it was in the next day, because of when they shipped it. It shows up. And it's not in the original box. I open up and it's just foam shoved in there. The cable's just thrown in there. There's no manual. There's no nothing. And I'm like, okay, and I get out the amp and plug it in. It sounds amazing. And I love it. And I'm super happy with it. And, and what's the point of the story? It's funny to me, even though that is not, that's not a bad story. It's just, I think I would have had a much, much horrible experience if the entire time they were like that. And I didn't know reverb was going to take care of me. Because at any time I could have just, you know, I'm going to slide just to reverb, you know, if you have to, you can. So that's what I'm saying. That's one thing I can say great about reverb sometimes in dealers and, you know, in some of these dealers. It's, I think I don't mind the slow shipping that happens, right? I just love the whole, oh, we just got your order just now. And I'm like, I mean, all right, just say, hey, man, things, like, you know, one thing, I think I'm judging you like this, because I ran a store for 13 years and the, and I told you this once before, the best advice I can give every small business, because I had to learn it the hard way. So given it to you, it's one of the best gifts I can give to any small business. Be okay with asking for forgiveness. It's just, it's, you gotta have to ask. You, being a small business means you ask for forgiveness often. I'm really sorry. My wife was out sick. That's half of our staff. I'm really sorry. The attorney called and said, if I don't find my taxes by tomorrow morning, I'm going to prison. I didn't ship your amp. I'm sorry. The bat, this is, this actually happened to me. The toilet overflowed and we dealt with that all night. That's what we did instead of your stuff. That's, that's a small business, right? You know, you're, you, you mop the, you mop the bathroom floor and then you do the books. So when you have a small business, I don't care what kind it is, always be okay with telling a customer what happened and asking for the forgiveness. I have built the most loyal friends, not customers. They're my friends. I just had beers with a kid. He's 31, not a kid, but he came to my store when he was 11. He's getting married. So invited me to his wedding, came over and had a beer with me and, which was great because this is my first beer since August because I'm not allowed to have beers because I'm fat. And so, so anyways, because you know why? Because you make friends because they understand they're part of your community now when you tell them that. They realize that you're not Amazon. You're not sweet water and you'll never be like them. You'll never be as fast as them. You'll never have the, the massive arm behind them, you like they do. You know, sweet water has redundancy after redundancy after redundancy. Your engineer's out sick. There's a backup. He's out sick. There's a backup, right? So that's my, my, that's my tie rate on that. So that's why I act the way I do when somebody, when a dealer kind of sends me the shining, like they try to shine me a little bit. I'm like, you would have, I would have loved you more if you just told me you forgot. I wouldn't got mad. I get it. Dudes who don't understand, they're going to throw a fit and they're going to light you up. What do you mean you forgot? You know how much money this cost? I've been waiting for days. You know, great. But let's just say I'm a habitual buyer. I'm the guy you want to make happy because I'm coming back. So that's my tie rate for that. On that note, I want to thank you all for hanging out until the end of the show. As always, I hope you guys have a great time. If you guys want to consider becoming a patron, you can check that out. There's a link down below, $5 tier gets you ad free versions of this podcast, plus a bonus one, which the bonus one is. So you guys know, because you're in time for everything for this month, this month, let's do the schedule because I have it on my phone schedule right now on the schedule. It looks like the next thing I'm doing is on the Sunday, the 15th, I'm doing the coffee hang with the top tier patrons on the 18th. I am doing a what am I doing on the 18th? On the 18th? I have no idea. Why is this not on my schedule? I think it got changed. Anyways, you know what? I'll go in there. Now I have to, why is it not on my schedule, but it's going to be in the schedule. Let me pull this off. Let me go into the chats just because I want to give it to you guys. Coffee hang is this Sunday morning for the coffee hang for the top tier. The bonus podcast, which we do the extra podcast where you can just be part of this just like this, but it's just the patrons and the channel members, that is on the March 18th at 4pm California time. And the guitar clinic is on the March 21st at 10am, which I believe is a Saturday. That's also California time. So any of you guys want to sign up for any of those programs, they're still available for this month and you can join next month if you want. Or just like and subscribe, all the things that help the channel. I want to thank you guys for that. And look for some, I actually have a cool breakdown video coming. Teaser for you guys hanging out. I'm not going to tell you what guitar is, but it's kind of cool teaser. I had a really cool thing happen. I was able to buy a guitar that has never been played, was bought brand new, put in a case, it's like 30 years old, ish. And so we're going to do a deep dive breakdown of a guitar that's that old, even though it's technically it's brand new. So it'll be fun to see how it holds up to the new types of guitars like it. So and then on that note, I'm going to let you guys go till the next time. Know your gear. Then know your gear podcast.