Huge Pop Star Gets PRS SE Signature guitar

Know Your Gear podcast. Hello everyone, how's it going? This is what happens when your audio interface just turns off. It just turned off. That's what happened. I reset the computer right before we started the show so there'd be no issues. And of course, the computer decided to forget its audio interface. So I hope everybody had a fantastic week. We have some stuff to talk about, some cool stuff, guitar stuff, maybe some stuff that's going on. I'll stop to see what you guys want to talk about. First let me just tell you a funny thing that happened. And I've never, you know, at this point being around guitars, new experiences are few and far between for me and I had a new experience last weekend. So last Saturday, my wife wanted to go to the home and garden show. If you guys don't know what that is, that's where you pay somebody to park and then you pay somebody to get in so people can bark at you to buy crap and to sign up for contests. I've been to many of them. This one was the most aggressive. This one was in Phoenix and it was at the fairgrounds. It was pretty aggressive. In fact, we were almost startled by the people like, hey, come over here. I got a question for you. My wife has really thick red hair and some lady was almost chasing her like, I want to do your hair. And they were like, I thought it was like, is that really happening? That really happened. But anyways, so we invited Ralph and his girlfriend. So him and his girlfriend met us there and the four of us went to the garden, home and garden show. And there was a couple nice things. We saw a couple cool displays and stuff of things. But we didn't say anything to each other. Nobody was really talking about the specific thing, the elephant in the room. But we were all like really tense from the just not used to having people bark at you, trying to sell you stuff, jump on you. I was like, you know what it was like? I actually said this to Ralph. It was like, imagine you just walked into a place with 600 timeshare people and they're all going to try to sell you a timeshare at the same time. And in fact, they're so close. One person's like, as one person is barking at you, like the other person starts, it was really intense. Now why that is interesting, because that's not, but it led to something super interesting. At some point, Sean says, hey, do you guys want to go? Now we were expecting to spend the entire day at the garden show. Instead, we barely made it like an hour and a half. Okay, so Ralph and his girlfriend's like, yeah, actually we want to go too. And then we all kind of, we couldn't even, we didn't want to run through the gauntlet again. We couldn't do it. So we collectively as a team almost broke out. So you know, physically Ralph was looking for places to like break the fence line and get out, sneak out. But we actually found an escape pattern out through a secondary exit, because we kept thinking like they got to have a fire exit. So we were able to leave the show and not have to go back through the maze of death. So what happens is we're in the parking lot and Ralph says, I said, what are you going to do next? And he says, I think I'm going to go to guitar center. I go, really? And then his girlfriend said, what's guitar center? And I said, you've never been to a guitar center? She's like, no. And I go, you want to go? And she's like, yeah. I'm like, okay, she had no idea guys. No idea. So, Sean, of course, being a good sport, the shirt is like, okay, I'll go too. So we drove the four of us to guitar center and we went into the guitar center. And it was a normal guitar center for a Saturday. A lot of people playing 6,000 different songs, a lot of activities. Store was quite busy doing well. It's a well stocked store. So lots of stuff. I walked in and me and Ralph saw immediately this British made JCM 2011 12 combo for like 500 bucks. And I go, $500 for a British made one combo that was right next to one of the new combos that was like $700. And I grabbed a cable. I plugged into it and I grabbed a guitar and me and Ralph are testing it. And his girlfriend is like, she's really nervous, right? And I'm not sensing anything weird, but I'm like, wait a minute. She's just like, is that okay to do that? And I'm like, yeah, you just do whatever you want. You just try stuff out. And she goes, she's like looking around and she's like, this is like a circus. And I go, yeah, it's kind of like a circus. And I go, it's circus of gear. And we're all checking out gear and doing stuff. And what happens next is she goes, they just let you all free for all and just do whatever you want. You can just touch. And so, you know, this guy's grabbing like this $3,000 guitar and she's like, you can just touch that guitar. And I'm like, yeah, you just do whatever you want. Ralph's like, yeah, you just do whatever you want. And so it was weird because I was like, okay, at first I'm not thinking about it. You know, like, okay, she obviously she just never been in a guitar store. She never been in a guitar store, period. So let's start there. Never been in a guitar store, never been a guitar center. So think of this, her guitar center was our first guitar store. And she said, I said, it's not that weird, is it? And she says, I don't know. There's no other store I've ever walked into where everybody's just having a free for all for all the products and just doing whatever they want. And then it hit me. I'm like, yeah, where do you walk into a store? Like, you don't walk in the target and just grab a blender, open the box, pull the blender out, start making margaritas, right? Like, I'm like, yeah, this is. And I was like, well, maybe like some of those warehouse shoe stores we walk in, even the shoe store, you know, people get the shoes and bring back and come back, right? And, and, and, and, hold on a second. So anyways, she's like, I've never experienced this before. You know, she'd never seen this before. And it was interesting to see it from her perspective. Now, of course, we're friends with a bunch of the employees and the manager of the store. So we introduced her and it was a very nice, pleasant experience. I ended up buying a cabinet playing it right now. I got myself a 212 cabinet that I absolutely did not need. Absolutely did not need. But I just thought the story was not so much funny in the whole chaos of it, because I think we've all experienced guitar center chaos. There's just nothing interesting there. I just had never thought about the fact that the music store is kind of the last place where you go. And you just kind of do with, you know, help yourself and do stuff, you know. So he says, what about a clothing store? Yeah, I guess actually, no, sorry. I mean, you're not shopping at nice clothing stores. If you go to clothing stores, you got to get somebody to let you into to try the clothes. You can't just start. I mean, you could put clothes, I guess, on top of your clothes in the store, but I don't think you should do that. I mean, not like from a technically from a legal standpoint, but just from a like, you know, come on, a little more class than that. But but yeah, no, you have to get somebody. They get you a little, you know, they get you a little room and you go in there and change, you know. I mean, yeah, you can physically touch all the clothes and stuff, but you can't physically just go around trying stuff out. Now, sometimes if you're, you know, I understand if you're buying your clothes at the target, I've done that too. Yeah, I think well, even at my target, they make you they have somebody to let you into one of the dressing rooms. But somebody says bookstores, you know, I will tell you this, maybe a Barnes and Noble. But I don't know about you guys. See, you guys must live in much nicer places than we live. If you go into a bookstore and start reading all the books and you sit there on a chair and open up a book and start reading, somebody's gonna come talk to you. You're not there to sit and read the books. You can look at books, you can sit, you know, you can, some of them sell coffee like the Barnes and Noble, but I mean, I understand you guys this point, but I'm talking about, first of all, let's just back up a second. Even if you guys, even if I accept the answers of bookstore or shoe store or clothing store, where else do you go and pick up $3,000 things and just walk around and do whatever you want with them? Yeah, bins of Legos. Now Legos are pretty expensive, but I still don't think it's that level. I can see why she was a little like, this is alarming. Now, by the way, I'd like to also point out, she didn't think the $3,000, she didn't know they were $3,000. And by the way, I don't think it mattered. I think she was just as shocked with two or $300 things. So I do think it is very unique to have an environment where you can walk in and touch very expensive items and literally help yourself and do, you know, kind of, I mean, look at this. At one point, and I'm not exaggerating, I picked up a $4,100 sir. It was, it was a green and I plugged it into a $3,000 Friedman, Jakey Lee, and he had to head into a $1,500 cabinet. And you like sitting there, think about this going and no one's helping me, of course. But I'm like, I mean, that's, I mean, do the math on that. I'm playing like $8,000 worth of gear and I'm just allowed to handle it and do whatever I want with it and check it out. And it is an interesting, I can see from an outsider, a sider why it would be shocking. Somebody said Tiffany and company, I bought stuff at Tiffany's and company. And again, I don't know. I really wear you guys. I want to start when you guys say these things, say the state you live in. I'm going to tell you right now, because I've been to Tiffany's and company more than a couple of times buying stuff. And there's a security guard outside the one at the Scottsdale Mall. Like you go there and then there's a there's a guard. They have guards there. When I went to Dolce and Gabbana, same thing, there was a guard there. So, yeah, I can tell you right now, you're not walking in the Tiffany and company or the Dolce and Gabbana stores that I was in and just walking around. Well, first of all, you can't make it more than a foot without somebody trying to help you, so because or try to weed you out of that place. They're either trying to get rid of you or try to help you. So, but I would love to know what places you guys are at where you can do that in stores like that. So somebody says the gun store. Again, I've been to the gun store, not really a free for all in the gun store either. So interesting. Um, what else? Uh, yeah, somebody says Paul Blart. No, you guys, if you ever been to the Scottsdale Mall in Arizona, it's they're like in suits. They're like they look like, you know, secret service security. They're they're standing there. It's very aware. They're not like hiding, but they're very in front of you and they're right. Usually by the door to let you in. And then sometimes so you guys know some of the stores, you cannot get in them unless you tell them like you're you're there to shop. You can't go like, oh, we're just curious. Like sometimes you walk up in there and you got to tell them something like, hey, we want to come in and check things out. And then they let you in. And then sometimes there's, you know, I guess, uh, well, I don't know. Maybe I fell for it. I think that one time there was too many people inside. We had to wait until there was less people because there was like a person to employee ratio that they were going off of, or at least they sized me up and figured I wasn't spending. So the funny thing I'll tell you my quick, uh, since I'll tell you, I went to Dolce and Gabbana. I'll tell you my Dolce and Gabbana experience is, uh, is, uh, oh, it was Louis Vuitton. I can't remember. So I could probably look it up, but I'm not going to. So just remember it was one of those two for sure. I was Dolce and Gabbana Louis Vuitton. Anyways, I went in there and I was specifically looking for a gift for a friend. And they were out of stock online. I was trying to find it and I walked in and I said, I said, I'm looking for this gift for my friend. I walked in very nice, pleasant. I think I told this story before. Anyways, uh, and, uh, they said, yeah, we don't care it. And then the other employee goes, oh, no, it's in the back because it's the least expensive thing we carry. And I was like, oh, I bought the least expensive thing they carry. Um, cause that's, that's the kind of money I can spend at the Dolce and Gabbana or the Louis Vuitton store. So, uh, which is funny because I say that and then I just literally, you know, you can buy an amp in a store, I guess. So anyways, I just thought that was interesting to, to, to see her experience. Um, I had never thought about it the way she came at it. She was like, this is really crazy. Um, and then, so you know, it's just on a side note. Uh, and then because she's a friends, you know, with us and we're friends with the people at the store, the management, system manager, employees, they, not knowing she had this experience, then proceeded through casual conversation to talk about the hundreds of thousands of dollars of theft that occurs in the store per year to the epic amount of theft. Uh, and then she was like, yeah, you could sell it in her face. Like, yeah, I can see why there's a lot of theft here. Everybody's just doing whatever they want. So, uh, somebody says, I think malls are finished. Could be, you know, I don't know. Um, it depends. I, I, uh, I've been thinking that for years. It's kind of like a lot of things. I just don't know if it's a, it ever goes to absolute zero. It just keeps running the course for the next 20 years. Okay. So I just wanted to share my guitar center fun story. And then, uh, Brian says, how dare you buy something cheap here? No, they weren't mean to me at all. I can't remember if I told you guys this story, um, but they actually backed it up and made it really, really pretty and did everything. I mean, there was amazing service. It was, and it wasn't even a snidey comment, like, you know, like, oh, that's the least expensive thing we carry. They were just explaining why it's not a display. It's just not something that they normally carry because it's like an inexpensive thing. I think they were saying it was a really popular in a holidays gift. So they maybe have it for the holidays. So, uh, okay. Let's see. Uh, next thing, uh, Nella says, Hey, Norman's rare guitars sold lock, stock and barrel to a company that owns Carter of energy guitars. I hope Nor and enjoys retirement. My understanding is that Norm's going to stay work in the store. Probably maybe he dictated his hours a little bit more, but I don't know if he was really not dictating his hours before, but yeah, I saw that. Um, you know, what I learned from that is, um, you know, I'm not a huge vintage guy, so there's not a whole lot of, I've never been to Norm's guitars. You know, I like you. I've seen tons of videos of people, YouTubers, artists, just people there at the store. Um, never had a real drive to go there because the fact that, you know, I, I've been to Groon's and the same thing with Groon's. I went to Groon's once and that's all it really took as I walked in there and I went, yeah, this isn't really for me. I'm not really going to buy a vintage guitars and I'm not going to. And then what they have that's not vintage, you know, I can, I can get that somewhere else. It's, uh, it's just not, it's not what gets me excited. Um, and I've been to a lot of vintage guitars, even around the world, and there's some that are really nice, but I'm just not into super vintage guitars. Um, but interesting enough, uh, I had a revelation. Uh, somebody had was talking about this and they were talking about the owners that bought Norm's rare guitars had, I guess, recently bought Carter vintage guitars and I don't know if that's entirely true. I don't know. I, like I said, I've always liked Carter vintage guitars, but, um, does anyone know when the new, if, if Carter's was sold first, when that sale happened? The reason I say that is I know Carter's grew into a bigger store and, um, and I know I've always been a huge fan of Carter's, but one of the things I liked about Carter's was I thought the prices were super reasonable. You know, sometimes a little crazy cause it's a consignment stuff. And, um, I bought a guitar from them a couple of years ago, maybe two years ago. And, um, I remember seeing it thinking, I don't know, I thought it was priced a little high and I was like, ah, you know, Carter's has always had great prices. And I didn't really do my due diligence and research it. And then I bought it from Carter's vintage guitars. And then when I got it, I'm happy with it. Still have it, but I'm also, I still have it because I'm pretty sure I paid about $700 more, $600 more than anyone is trying to sell a guitar. And this is even a few years back. Uh, so it was on the high end for sure. And, um, I thought, oh, well, maybe they, you know, cause it's a really nice piece of art, you know, guitar, maybe it was just special and they put a higher price on it. And, uh, and then, uh, I've tried to buy stuff online at Carter's guitars. And to be honest with you, the last like two dozen times that I've been on their website, I always thought, same thing. I find stuff on, so I was thinking about, so somebody mentioned casually, and again, I'm just talking about this. So to get you guys' feedback, somebody mentioned casually that since the new ownership came in, Carter's price has been high. And I was like, well, I didn't know there was a new ownership, but I did notice that the prices were all of a sudden higher. So I don't know, but keep in mind when I'm scanning through there, I'm looking for like, you know, a cool piece of gear, used piece of gear that I may be interested in. But I'm, again, I'm not going to buy like a 63 thing or something like that. It's, first of all, uh, I'm not a vintage collector. So that's one and two. Um, uh, I'm not, uh, that's not the errors I care about. So I barely care about eighties era guitars. So it's like, so you can imagine the seventies, sixties era guitars don't, don't, uh, don't do anything for me. So, um, let's see. Uh, yeah. David says old retail is going corporate. I would imagine what you're going to see is, uh, you know, for things to survive, people will come in with bigger pockets to diversify them. You know, I'm sure this, uh, uh, this owning a bunch of, uh, vintage stores is to basically, uh, you know, be able to shop when they're looking, because remember, they got to constantly looking for vintage inventory. I told you guys that when I had a store, there was always a list of people that when a vintage piece came in, cause we didn't do vintage gear, but every, every shop in the country, no matter how big or small has, has a, a Rolodex. So to speak, I know it's in your cell phone now, but you have a list of names of people that are more than happy to come and buy any vintage gear you take in. So when somebody comes into your store, this is what usually happens. They become a filtering process. And the pawn shops work that way too. Sometimes that's why a lot of people are like, you know, like, oh, you can find a really good vintage guitar for a nickel and a pawn shop. I'm like, well, first of all, they can look them up online, but more importantly, um, they also have a lot of these, um, a lot of the, the guitar buyers out there, the vintage guitar buyers, they, uh, hold on. Just looking in my stream for a second. Okay. Oh, so figure out why that is. Let's see if we switch to this and see if this helps. Hold on a second. Okay. Let's try that. See if that helps at all. Um, yeah, cause it's telling me there's not enough. Okay. Boy, the show's just off on a, on a great start today. Um, anyways, what I'm trying to tell you is there's all kinds of vintage buyers that will give finder's fees. So if you're working a pawn shop, you know, they're like, Hey, if you call me and you have an old guitar and you buy it, um, you can, uh, you know, I'll give you 200 bucks for finding it. Uh, so, uh, somebody says, when did Norm's guitar sell? I heard the notification this week. So that's the news that broke this week. So if it happened earlier, they just, it could have obviously, but I'm sure it didn't happen like in a day. I'm sure they've been working on it for a while, but the official announcement was this week. So, but, uh, yeah, when was Norm's sold this week? Yeah. Pawn shop says, uh, okay. So miss, Mr. P buddy says pawn shop stopped being good in the 1980s. I never had a great experience at a pawn shop like people. When I was starting out playing guitar, um, my guitar teacher, uh, one day I went to a lesson and, and he said, Oh, I bought a Marshall 412 and I go, Oh, yeah, you did. And he's like, yeah, for like a hundred bucks. And I'm like a hundred bucks. And he's like, yeah, the pawn shop, they didn't know what they had. I was like, what? And then I, of course, you know, when I could get to pawn shops, I was like, that's where you go. That's where you go. And every time I went to a pawn shop, it was always just piles of garbage gear at way marked up pricing. Like it was crazy. Like I'd be like, Oh yeah, here's an amp that it should be 60 bucks and they have it for one, everything was like double. So I just never had a, a feel for it, you know, that way. So if there was that, but I, I did it probably up until about 20 years ago, I'd pop in a pawn shop here and there, you know, just give it a last try. But, you know, some people probably have better luck. Uh, Jim says, Hey, are you going to the NAMM show? I will not be at the NAMM show because I'm doing the Kiesel connect event. So you guys know, uh, if you guys want to, uh, I think you can sign up or maybe it's closed out to, Oh no, you know what it is. You can't get it a lanyard, uh, like with your name on it or whatever, but you can still get into the show. It's $10. If you want to go, um, I'll be there, uh, all day. So you can come and check out and talk, you know, check out guitars and talk to me if you want to talk to me or, um, I'll be doing some clinics, I think, or some podcast there, uh, with, uh, with all kinds of other artists and people. And, uh, it's a good time. I had a great time a year as two years ago in 2024. And I'm hoping to have another great time this year too. Now it'll be the Saturday of the, um, uh, the Saturday of the NAMM show. So, um, I don't, uh, I just don't have any, I don't have a reason to go to the NAMM show. So the NAMM show is just not, it doesn't, it's not set up for me to do anything that is, uh, useful in any way. So I just can't, I can't do it. So you guys know. Um, and then on top of that, not only is it, so basically it'll be going for fun. And if you're going for fun, uh, you know, the one thing I like about the Kiesel connect is, uh, it's outside. So it's a lot nicer to be outside with a lot of people than trapped inside the, uh, NAMM show and maybe you're getting sick. So I'd rather not get sick if I can help it. So plus, like I said, I'd rather hang out with viewers or people who support the channel than just the companies because, uh, you know, I, I just, I just, I get, I, you know what it is. I enjoy your guys's conversations more. This is the conversation I enjoy more. We're talking about guitars or we're talking about the industry or something fun when I talk to companies, it's always, it usually works itself into some kind of work arrangement deal. Yeah. So, uh, Brian says, NAMM is getting bypassed by the early releases. Well, I'm pretty sure COVID killed the whole NAMM release thing. I mean, it's just everybody got used to how they got a put out product. Speaking of which, uh, let me share this with you guys. So I saw, let me go here. Let me open this up. And, oh yeah, I'm getting trouble for that. Okay. Give me a second. I want to share something for you. So, uh, on one of the late night talk shows, I guess it was this week. It looked like it happened in the last day. Um, let's see. Okay. Hold on a second. Give me one second. I'm pulling it all up for you guys right now. Okay. So, uh, Ed Sheeran performed a song and, uh, let me share that with you guys. So he performed a song. Let's go right here, uh, with John Maron, Dave Grohl. So Dave Grohl's on drums and they had Pino Paladino on bass. And of course, John Maron, John Maron's playing a Charvel. And I think John's playing through the Saldano and the other guitar player was playing through the Mason Boogie. The reason why I'm sharing this with you is if you're paying attention, uh, Ed Sheeran is playing a Paul Reed Smith hollow body with a custom paint job on it. And it says S E. And, uh, if you guys want, I'll show you the closer up picture. But, uh, before I show you the closer up picture, I don't want to, uh, go here. Look at that. And you can go here and there we go. You can see here and you can see the S E right there. So it says Paul Reed Smith S E. So, uh, for those that are paying attention, so Ed Sheeran just did a major appearance playing a Paul Reed Smith S E that, uh, if you guys know, cause I know you guys all seem like, uh, you know, just, if I knew my audience, I'm just going to tell you, I can guarantee that half of you guys are Taylor Swift fan and the other half are Ed Sheeran fan. I just know that about you guys. Um, so anyways, uh, Ed Sheeran. So if you know any of my Ed Sheeran, you know that he does this art and it's like, uh, you know, it's like a Jackson Pollock style, you know, a splattered paint kind of art. In fact, we can probably just pull it up, right? Ed Sheeran art, um, art. And I'm just going to, yeah, look at that. This is it. Um, so we go here. This is the Ed Sheeran art. Oh, view art works. And so, uh, if you're paying attention, uh, like I was, he's holding a PRS, SE hollow body and it definitely has this splattered art that he does on it. So, uh, somebody was saying, Hey, Ed Sheeran model. Okay. So, uh, who's Ed Sheeran? Uh, he's, uh, he probably nobody you care about, but I would say one of the largest pop singers in the world that plays guitar. Uh, he has a signature, I think a Martin acoustic. Um, he has his own signature, uh, looping pedal, um, because of that. So again, the interesting thing about this is, is that, um, you know, for those, it's kind of like the Taylor Swift thing, you know, it's a, it's a huge pop artists. A lot of you guys are not going to appeal, be appeal pop artists are made for people. That are older, they're made for young people and, uh, you know, they want to have fun and go to the clubs and listen to music. And so, but it's always interesting when a pop artist is playing a guitar or doing something like this, because again, it's, it's going to land the next generation. That's where it comes from. Right. Um, usually you're going to hook the people that just never thought about it. But anyways, my point is, is that, um, I cannot confirm or deny that I have seen a guitar that looked very similar to that. It's what I'm trying to say is that, uh, I'm sure there'll be a lot of, uh, chatter about whether or not he's got a signature guitar and this is it. Um, but, uh, but, uh, I can tell you, I've seen that guitar before. I know it. I just feel it in my bones. And I thought it would be fun to share. It's a cool, cool looking guitar. If you want a splatter paint, hollow body, SC. And so yeah, I would say, uh, I want to say that, uh, I would be shocked if Ed Sheeran doesn't have a signature guitar. Or two or three. Who knows? No, no. We'll see if it's a, uh, it's if it's put out in the NAMM show. And again, this is one of those things where you could go, a lot of you are going to go, well, you know, I don't care about a pop singer, but I've always kind of pointed this out many times when it comes to the pop singers, like when Taylor Swift was getting, you know, people into playing acoustic, just like all musicians who play guitars. I think what I pay attention to is the artists that don't have any instrumentation on stage. You know, um, I like, you know, I like all forms of art. So I mean, if I see a singer on stage with, uh, you know, 10 dancers or 20 dancers behind them and they're all doing a dance routine, I can enjoy it just as much. But it's when you go and you realize like all the top 10 pop stars don't have any real musicians on stage or musicians at all. And so it's really cool to see, you know, uh, see any real musicians on stage. Plus, I mean, you know, it was kind of cool. I liked seeing Dave Role play the drums and John Muir play the guitar and then Ed Sheeran thought it sounded good. It was really a lot of fun. And, um, and ultimately, uh, this is where everybody's going to have a different opinion. But let me just tell you why I think this way, if it wasn't for pop music, I would have never gotten the guitar. I did not listen to the deep cuts first. I did not discover the blues. I did not discover, you know, jazz. I did not discover those music at first. I literally was like, what's a, you know, I think I mentioned this. I, I, um, you know, I, my first experience with a musician really was Nikki Sixer, Mothra Crew, and I thought he played guitar. I didn't know he played bass. I thought he was playing a guitar and they just had a catchy song on MTV. So to me, without pop music, I would have never got into guitar. What had never happened for me. It wasn't something that I, uh, you know, like said, I didn't, I didn't get into the right crowd of, you know, and they're, they happen to be guitar players. I didn't get the bug that way. I just saw essentially, you know, pop star playing guitar and thought, oh, okay, that sounds fun. Let's get a guitar. And so I, I, uh, I just say that because I think a lot of people can come that way from guitar. So, so, but, and, uh, and, uh, you know, it's funny is, um, when we talk about this, also when I started playing guitar, the rock music was still considered popular music. So it was pop music or now I would, uh, very few rock bands are actually in the, in pop music. Hell, no rock, no rap in pop music. I don't know if you saw that. I guess they said rap hasn't had a number charting top 10 pop song in a while either. So, uh, let's see. Jimmy Fortham says, Hey, are you going to do a second episode of the Amazon tele-build you started in July? No, what happened was we, I thought that was, so when we started doing the clinics, I started thinking of things that I thought was interesting in the clinics and that was a build idea. I was like, oh, let's do a clinic thing. But whether you're on the, you're on the patron side for the clinics or you're on YouTube, I can look at analytics very easily and see that no one was engaging with it. And so it becomes a thing like I understand just like Jimmy, I understand that there's a few people are like, man, I really like that. That's the same thing on YouTube. You have a few people that like something, but you got to understand, uh, the way I, I look at it is everything is the same work level for me. It takes the same amount of time, effort, energy, and it's not, and trust me, I don't, I don't, I don't make, uh, this channel isn't big enough to where it's like, oh man, and this is the million dollar hits. You know, uh, it's not about that. The difference in money sometimes could be $30 or $300. I mean, we're not talking about windfalls here when I make a decision on YouTube and whether or not it's like on the patron too, it's just at the end of it, if you look at the analytics and you go, okay, well, people weren't engaged. And again, that's what I'm looking at. Not how many people view it, but how many people that viewed it and were intent watching it, intently watching it, you adjust because I'm not going to make stuff that no one wants to watch. Uh, because like I said, I don't make the videos for me. I already know the stuff I'm talking about in the videos. So, uh, so Jimmy, that's the, will I approach it back again? Maybe, maybe. So, uh, but, uh, there's something else coming too with the clinics. So again, this was the, how do we, uh, how do I approach the clinics? I didn't even know at first what it was I was trying to do at first. So, okay. What do we got? Another subject. Let's go over here and let's grab this. Uh, this one came from Amanda. This is Rad Fury says, Hey, I bought a Stranberg seven this week. And I'm wondering if I should have gotten the tremolo version instead. What are your thoughts on the Stranberg trims? I'm not a fan of, uh, headless, uh, tremolos as a whole. They're fine, but every, I don't own a tremolo based headless guitar. And it's because it's not like I don't like that. Like I'm not saying it doesn't stay in tune or I just, if I'm playing headless guitar, it's, it's, it's a function. I want the guitar to be easy to play, in tune, low thought, low energy effort. Grab the guitar, know it's going to be comfortable. Headless guitars are super comfortable. You know, um, I think they're ugly. Everybody's like, headless guitars are ugly. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. I don't think a lot of people think they're great looking guitars. It's a function thing. It's a, they're very comfortable, very, um, they sound big. They're not toy-like, you know, like playing a smaller guitar or a travel guitar. You, you're, you're holding a full size instrument that is ergonomically cut to hold it. And because it's not even always about the distance this way. That's how that helps for when you're traveling. For me, it's the distance up and down. You know, I don't want to bend down into the guitar. I don't want to feel like I'm hunched over. Funny thing that happened to me a couple of years ago, I got this pain on my side. And, uh, I was in a really bad car accident, like a really, really bad one. And we thought maybe it was from that when we went to a surgeon and it was possible. They said it was some cartilage in my ribs were damaged. And, um, and then my trainer, uh, and I were talking about one time and I said, yeah, just weird. I get a weird cramp sometimes on my side and he said, oh, that's from poor posture. And I was like, poor posture. I'm like, yeah, I'm sure I'm, I'm sure I'm just as dopey, you know, sink down as everybody else. So I went and did some research. And what I found was that it says that this, uh, this thing that's happening, this, this cramp that I get on the side is not only from poor posture, but one of the biggest causes playing guitar because you're bent, you're hunt, you're hunting over and you put your, that you're, you're, I guess this part of your body right here. I'm sorry. It's part of your body right here. It's just hunched in a position. So I've been, uh, I restructured how I'm playing, but I was always conscious of the fact that I always kind of felt the more hunched over I was, the more uncomfortable I was for a period of time. So that's another thing I focus on when it comes to the headless guitars. But anyways, no, I don't think you're missing out with the tremolo. I mean, it just depends. I have both as you see, I have tremolos and non-tremolo guitars. And when people go, what do you prefer? I prefer a tremolo to have it. But however, I think it's because I think like more like a bass player with a five string, four string kind of logic. Sometimes it's time to play a five string, sometimes four, sometimes it's time for a tremolo, sometimes not, sometimes the seven, sometimes the six. It's really just about what it is at that moment. I don't really feel like I'm missing anything. I just have that. I just think that this is what I, you know, this is just what I'm using right now in the moment. I like being in the moment with the instrument. Yeah. Uh, uh, Uli says, I'm hoping I'm saying it right. Uli says, Temp here has recommended some tool to help with guitar playing ergonomics before. I can't remember what it's called. It's not cheap, a tiny made. I'm pretty sure Dr. Andre Flood uses it as well. Yeah, I've seen it and it's a little cradle looking thing and it holds the guitar and puts that in position. I'm not going to play in that position. You know, I want to, but I'm, I'm a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little I've created by habits. My habits are what they are. So the way I hold guitar, which is cowboy style is going to be, it's, it's, it's essentially just how I play, you know, right. I wanted, I wanted to, uh, I want to have all the better habits, like position of guitar and all that stuff. I just don't. And when I try, uh, I'll default back to the old way I do it. Oh, okay. Yeah, you're not gonna like my answer. David says, hey, Phil, I've you tried the AM4 yet. So that's the fractal. I'm just not there guys. I've tried all the fractals. I've tried, I told you guys this, I've been down this road. What comes to line six stuff, the fractal stuff, the quad cortex, every time I go down these roads, it's just like, I told you, I got a camper. It's, I've said this before, it's not that I think the camper is the best by any means. I just put my effort into learning it and using it. But, but they all work. Like I said, I'm a huge fan, as you know, I know they're the future. And, but I can functionally just use this kind of equipment way faster for me, for recording purposes. And I just like it. I get a sound that I really like. So, so there's just things like, you know, that's just where I landed on that. But, you know, like I said, I like it. I just love the real stuff more. So, and I like to tell you the synergy modules are not the thing I think are really great. I think it's the Cyn20 head. It's really cool just to have a 20 watt head that, you know, I can play it low volumes, I can play it loud. And it's got impulse responses out. And you can, you know, and us, and I, and I use the, so you guys know, I use the big Harry guitars, the Michael Nielsen one. Yeah, he's my friend. So yeah, it's a plug for him. But I was just looking for some impulse responses one day and I thought, oh yeah, he makes them. And so I went on his website and there were 20 bucks and I just bought them. So, and I like his cabinet. Let's see. Mr. Zombie1974 says, hey, do you think, do you think they'll ever incorporate AI and digital amps? You know, I don't know. It's one of those things. You know, I don't know. The way I would see it is if they can make money, yeah, like that's all it's really about. If they can, you know, figure out how to sell us something and make money, yeah, but if they can't, they can't. I don't think it needs it. Like I said, I don't think the problem with modeling is that they are absent of technology. And maybe if the argument is it's the AI will make it easier for the end user, but I think you guys sometimes confuse, and I've said this before, it's like, when I complain about apps, right? And I say it all the time, it's because of the guy who talks about the in-shitification thing, right? The apps, my problem is not apps. Like I said, I live on apps every day. I make, you know, I pay my mortgage, I pay all my bills with the ability that I've used apps. I started a YouTube channel solely on apps. And I do so much of my day-to-day work with an app. There's one app in particular I use for almost, I use it for almost everything. And I love it. However, that's because a good example, like I decided I have a funny argument. So here's my funny argument. An app like DoorDash, okay? And again, I'm not gonna go down the politics of DoorDash, but just the app is I go on the app and I push, you know, hey, give me this food and the food shows up, right? And that's the end of the process. So I understand the concept of that, and I don't have a problem. I'm not complaining that there's an app for that. I think that's totally a good use of an app. What I don't like about apps, and this is gonna tie into modelers too, is I don't like it when you, what do you call it? Insert something that doesn't need to be there. If I'm going to a speaker at like a fast food restaurant to order and they're like, do you have the app? I'm like, no, and they go, well, you need the app. And I go, well, no, I don't because you're talking. You told me I need the app. Therefore, I don't need the app. See, if we're talking, then the process is it doesn't need this other thing. That's a perfect example. My barbecue has an app. I don't need the app on my barbecue, so I don't use it. It's not that I'm upset that my barbecue has an app, and anybody who wants to know what the app is, apparently it tells you how, tells you when the, so you can, tells you when the barbecue's hot. And I'm like, okay, so I don't really need that. So same thing with modelers and stuff. I like technology makes things easy, but I'm not necessarily like I don't look at modelers going, oh, it's complicated to get their screens. My issue is workflow and speed. Think of it like when you watch Tim Pearson, he talks about his, you know, his space station that he makes. To me, everything is about workload and speed for me. That is just because that's how I learned to work as a guitar tech is I don't make money or I can't function. If I'm spending all my time doing something that's not the actual thing that's what I'm supposed to do. Does it make sense? So, but anyways, but that's just my thoughts on that. So same with modelers, I think with the modelers, if they make it easier, great, but it's not necessarily, I think modelers are complicated. I've had a demo all of them at some point. So you just learn them. My problem though is, is like, again, I don't need to go into a menu to do something when I can turn a knob real fast. And that's what I'm usually doing. It's not cause I'm always tweaking my sound. It's cause I'm always in a situation like, for instance, just now I plug in and let's say there's just a little bit too much low end. I don't wanna go, hold on guys, let me go in the menu and change the low end. I wanna be able to tweak that on the fly. So that's what I've really convenient. So to me, it's kinda like, and then there's my last tie right. It's kinda like, when they talk about now, they're taking all the physical buttons out of the car and they're putting a screen and that's fine, except for me, it's not cause I'm old and I'm used to knobs. I'm just, they're efficient. I'm driving and I can reach and do something tactile, just reach and touch. And so to me, it's efficient. I don't need you to make something that's already working more modern for the sake of being modern is what I'm getting at. I don't really care. It's not cause I don't wanna learn new stuff. It's just because it works. Fix the things that don't work. How about that? Okay, so let's jump to another subject. And hold on. I just gotta go into the, that was weird. That won't display. Here it is. This one's from G-Money. G-Money. Online PR support auto responds with, do circumstances behind our control, please allow seven to 10 days to respond. Sounds like not taking responsibility. Your take, well, they just laid off some people. Maybe they laid off customer service. No, seriously. That's the future, man. See, that's what the technology gets you. You know, it's putting itself between you and the person. It's not helping you. So, but I'll tell you G-Money, I don't know what your question is. So let me just tell you first how this works. PRS does not sell direct to consumer unless you bought something off their store, like you're buying a shirt or stuff like that. And if you did that, you're gonna understand you're gonna get very little to no support on that. They just kind of do that. That's not a money making mechanism for them. They just have it on their website. So PRS is a company, unlike some other companies like Fender, who has decided 100%, they wanna be with dealers. So they expect you to go to the dealer. They're gonna say things so complicated and long and nice to you. I'm gonna tell you right now, if you bought it from a dealer, go to the dealer. That's the dealer's job. If you go to the dealer and you're not getting something done, rip the dealer a new one, or then go to PRS, but as an escalation. In other words, don't go to PRS customer service. You need to throw a fit, get a manager and say, look, I've tried to get resolved, something resolved with your dealer, it's not getting resolved. And if you can't get a hold of PRS for that, which I can't imagine, I can't help, and go to another dealer and say, look, I went and bought a PRS and another dealer, I need you to take care of this. I need you to service this, because it's not just one dealer. And so the reason I tell you that is because, the importance is that that is what PRS has decided. They have decided that they are 100% in lock stock barrel with dealers right now. So they don't wanna sell direct. I had some unofficial discussions with them as I've discussed about on this channel a couple years ago about them selling direct in, when they were overloaded with SES. And I'll never, I told the patrons probably a little bit more than I ever should tell anybody, but even then they didn't get the whole story, because it's just, again, it's privileged conversation. I gave them my insight and why I agree and disagree with that kind of idea. And I thought it was more of a desperation move. The important part is that they decided not to do that. They decided not to go to direct. What they decided was to give the 30% off and then they will rebate the dealers, the dealers will then sell them to you. So if you're having a problem with PRS, try the dealer. So, because they're not really, I couldn't tell you now, but I could tell you when I was a PRS dealer, they had like two customer, I'm not making this up. They had two, this is like, you gotta understand, I'm not talking about PRS was a small company. I'm talking about PRS was still making as many guitars as they now. They had two customer service people. And I think one of them, like if I recall, and I'm not making this up, I think his name was Sean. Sean, he was on like a wireless phone and you would call him and he'd be like taking out the trash, like not really, but you get the idea. He had, he has other responsibilities. Like I think he had a set up SES. So I think you would call and he'd have like a PRS customer service and he'd be like setting up by SES. So they don't really put a whole lot of, it's like Kiesel guitars, which Kiesel guitars doesn't make sense. So when people complain about Kiesel customer service, I agree, cause they are direct consumer and they should have. And I've said this before, I'd say I'm probably gonna say it to him next week. I think they need more customer service. I think they need a redundancy of customer service at Kiesel. One more person, whatever they think they need, they need one more. So if they tell me they need two, they need three. And if they tell me they need three, they need four. You get the idea. But for some reason, like I said, some companies that, I don't know what I'm saying, for some reason with PRS, I would say go to the dealer. That would be my advice. And then like I said, and I can tell you that for a fact I've had, well, I hope no one ever had to go to another dealer about me, but I know somebody's came to a, you know, me about another dealer. Hey, I bought this PRS and yeah, it was a big pain in the ass. Nothing's more fun than like, especially like a phone call, a stay kind of dealer on my great, somebody who's never gonna buy anything from me and I gotta help them out. But hey, it's the job. I took the dealership, so to speak as a dealer. So I did it. That's my suggestion to you, G-Money. And yeah. Devin Dubs says, Hi Phil, I am finally discovering feeler gauges. Oh wait, you know what? And so I'm a little tricked. It may not work. It's always worth a shot, G-Money. When you call into any kind of call center, or in this case, PRS the office because they don't have a call center, if you can't get any of my phone, hit the Spanish button. I'm not telling you this is a half-ass theory. I used to run a dialer system for a large call center. I used to, I told you I used to do reporting and dialer and stuff. And very rarely, in fact, I've never seen it, but it's possible. There isn't Spanish speakers. There are bilingual speakers. So in other words, everybody who speaks Spanish also speaks English. So when you call into a company, a lot of companies, especially small ones like PRS, won't usually automate everything for Spanish. So they'll automate English, but not Spanish. It's just a little trick. So when you hit Spanish, it goes right to a person. And then when they start speaking Spanish, just tell them right in front, like, I don't speak Spanish, but I really need to talk to somebody really bad. I've had people hang up on you when you do that, because they don't care. But in some cases, they'll actually start talking to you. And then you can get that's a good little trick to get somebody on the phone if you're having that kind of experience. So a little tip for you, if it helps. Okay, Devin says, hey, Phil, I'm finally discovering Fielder Gages and it has enabled me to totally, totally as, wait, has enabled me as a totally blind person to do setups. Thanks for all your measurements. You're welcome. You know, what's funny is this came up on the last clinic and is a good time. So Devin, thank you for the compliment, but also thank you for the opportunity to share this with somebody. You know, not everything gets disclosed in a video. So what's nice is, is sometimes when conversations come up like at the clinic or like here, we can have a little behind the scenes. I measure in millimeters and some people get upset with that, you know, especially Americans. Let's just face it, they're the ones saying anything. And I had asked, somebody asked me a question that was funny and they said, hey, is that because you were in the military? And a lot of times in the military as a mechanic, you know, we measured in millimeters, you know, right? We measured in metric and not standard, but that's not where it comes from. And I was like, oh, it's funny. The reason why I measure and I say everything now in millimeters when it comes to action is because in the store, I would, I worked very hard, which is probably what made the YouTube channel do okay. I worked really hard to be able to communicate with people. And one of the problems you have is, is that most people, especially anyone under 40, has never had like wood shop, metal shop. A lot of those programs are gone. Some, maybe they're back now because they were kind of back when my kids were in school, but there's a gap. In other words, there's a big gauge group of people in their 40s and 50s and that definitely just didn't get a lot of those kind of, those classes. And so they don't understand a lot of measurements anyways. So I was trying to figure out a best way to explain to the customer why, when I made an adjustment to guitar, what I did because of kind of like my tirade last week about frets and how little material comes off. When we adjust the neck, sometimes we go from one and a half to 1.75 millimeters. You can't detect that physically. It's just, I need to know it because it's physically the numbers that matter to me, but somebody's like, oh, you raised it. I'm like, well, I raised it almost an amount you can't detect. So you had buzz at one and a half millimeters. You have no buzz at 1.75 and you can't detect the difference. Let's be all happy. And so what happened was I needed a way to communicate to him. So what I did was I figured out one day, it hit me that picks are in millimeters. And so like picks are, you know, 0.75 millimeters or one millimeter or 0.05 millimeters or 0.66 millimeters, but they were always in millimeters. So what I did was I found this company that made both crappy cheap picks and I had, I ordered in buckets all the increments like half a millimeter, you know, like a paper thin 1.25 millimeter, I 0.75 millimeter, I 1 millimeter, I didn't do 1.25. I think I did, but I don't remember 1 and a half and two millimeters. And so what I did was I'd order the picks and then I could hand them out to people. Like, oh, I took your guitar and I was able to show them physically like here, I took your guitar from this two millimeter pick to this one millimeter pick. So now when you're at home and you're thinking something moved, use your pick as a gap gauge between the top of the front and the bottom of the string. And that was just again, because I wanted to be able to have this conversation with somebody to show what I did. So because so many times what I saw was and experienced as a customer was these people, these people, these guitar techs that were like, I know and you don't, you know, I don't listen to you, you listen to me. And although I can appreciate anyone who has a skill set, you know, that has, you know, I'm sure your doctor loves to hear how you Google stuff, right? But that's, but the point I was trying to make is instead of arguing with them or debating, I wanted to be able to say, yeah, this is what I did. This is how you can detect it. So just that's a fun fact. I never thought about it until it came up last week, our last month's, or this month's clinic, it was this month's clinic. So I thought it was fun. Maybe we'll be able to clip that out and put it somewhere or as a short, it'll be all fun. Our hab says, hey Phil, what do you think about the Nuno guitars? I haven't really seen them, you know, other than the pictures of what you guys see. So obviously if you guys don't know, Nuno has left Washburn and has started his own brand and it's because of me. No, I'm just kidding. I was unhappy with the Nuno guitar and Nuno was like, that's it, Phil McKnight's the happy I'm going, I'm leaving Washburn. No, that's not true at all. So you guys know, not connected and even in a funny little way. So Nuno has left Washburn. My guess is cause the support of Washburn is just dried up. Washburn's been slowly not giving a crap for years and more and more giving a crap. Remember, I'm still Patrick to have those counting the Washburn scenario. But so he's starting his own brand. He's gonna have imports. He's gonna have acoustics. He'll have electrics, you know, and then the question I got was, couple of people said, are you gonna see yourself buying one? No, not really. You know, unfortunately, I said this, I'll say this just to be very clear. It's like my gym, Steve by gym. I don't have the Pia. I don't want the Pia. I have the gym. I have the guitar that represents the moment of time in which I, you know, like I was a huge pornographic fan. So that album, like 92, I think, that's why I like the guitar. I like him from that album. I like the guitar. I don't really need the newest thing from him. There's nothing. I'm not emotionally connected to it anyway. I have a nice guitar I can play. So I've said this before, when it comes to the, like I have a stew-him urge base behind me, I have the urge one, not the urge two, not his newest model, not his model with Warwick who he's with now. It's because again, it's just, these are nostalgic purchases for me that, you know, just obviously I love guitars. I love music. And so these are the moments, you know, it's like when people buy vintage guitars and they go, I want a guitar from the year I was in high school or, you know, my, you know, my birth year guitar, whatever. I can see the same logic. It's just, you know, stuff. And I can tell you right now, there's no artist guitars that I have or none of that stuff that I will keep. Does it make sense? All of this will go. All this nostalgic stuff. Well, you know, first of all, if I die, yeah, it goes. But I'm just saying it. One day I'll just be like, okay, it's out of my system. I've had enough of it and or it's worth more than I paid for it. I'd rather have the money and move on, you know, because again, it's not a guitar that I play. It's literally wall art. Like I said, I think two things can be true. Some people are like guitars are, you know, they're for playing, not for wall art. I'm like, nah, both. Some guitars I have just to stare at. Some guitars I have to play. So, but I'm only loyal to the guitars I play. The guitars I stare at, I can just get bored with them really easy. Josh Rod, this came from a man that says, "'Hey, did you ever break an expensive guitar at your store?' I have not. However, I have watched a lot of expensive guitars get broken at my store." Ralph broke an expensive guitar. I don't think Sean ever did. I broke his, Nathan, I think, did, if I recall, did Nathan damage my personal guitar? I think it was on the bench and something happened to it. I kind of remember that. I have to ask him. I kind of remember that. Cause I think I remember him drop something on or something happened and he had a face like, oh no, and I was like, it's fine. I'm not really a big freak for dents. So you guys know, like, you know, I don't, like a guitar in here got damaged, a dent or something. As long as I don't have to feel it when I play, I really don't overly freak out about it. Just, you know, that's just which kind of, I just, you know, I just, I can tell you, it's not something to, you know, overly freak out about. I used to long, long time ago. And what I actually, you know, that's not true. I used to freak out like, if I had a guitar for it, like I had a $500 made mix with Stratton, I got a dent and I got upset and it was like, really upset me. And the reason is, is cause $500 was like $5 million. So yeah, I would get upset now if the guitar was super expensive to the point. But I don't buy guitars that I'm not comfortable owning anymore. So if I buy a guitar and I'm just not feeling comfortable owning it, I just sell it. Cause sometimes that's how it works. Some guitars are so expensive. I just can't, even though I love the guitar, I just can't find myself to get in the, yeah, what's the saying, right? You know, own your stuff or your stuff owns you. I don't want stuff that owns me. So, but expensive guitars, like a customer's guitar or a store guitar. No, the only thing I ever did in the very first store, we were probably in business a week, maybe two weeks. I mean, it was very, we had these guitar cables and they were like cloth braided guitar cables. And I had plugged into an amp for a customer. And I left it on the ground and I went to step away and it wrapped like a, like a bull whip. It wrapped around my ankle, like it caught me and it caught and then like it wrapped around. And then when it caught, cause the, the, the, whatever the braiding was made of, it wouldn't slide. Okay. So it looped me like a lasso. And that's what I want to say, a lasso. And I fell into the wall and hit a bunch of guitars. And so at the time, as I said, the store was, we just opened the store. We were a shecter dealer. So it was probably like three shectors is what I damaged. And I damaged them all. It was like clank, clank, clank, clank, clank. The, that, that wasn't bad. It was the embarrassment. Like Shawna jumped up. Everybody's like, oh my God, are you okay? I mean, I, dude, it was like, they think this is way before, you know, we had cameras in the store. Way before everybody had a cell phone pointing at you all the time. It would have been a really horrible thing to watch if I had to watch the video, but it was, it was, that's, it, it happened fast. I like plugged in the thing. I went to step away. It, like I said, I, I, it caught me. And just when I went forward, it stopped. I just went right into the wall. So that one happened. That one's pretty bad. So funny. I laughed now because I'm like, oh, and it was just, you know, I was embarrassed. I jumped right up. I was like, I'm fine, but I wasn't fine. I was like, I had sucked. And, but yeah, but like I said, I've had tons of guitars damaged. That's just the, you know, part of the business. And, and you, it takes you a while before you get used to it. Some people never get used to it. I have friends that own businesses and they just never get used to it. Every one of them upset you like the first one, but me at some point I got to the point where it just didn't, it didn't, when I say upsets me, everything sucks, but I'm talking about like, you don't sleep for days. You can't stop thinking about it. You know, you just kind of, what happens is, is, at this point in my life, and it happened a long time ago. So it's been a while now, at least a decade or longer. You get to a point where you survive so many different things that every time something happens, although it sucks, you don't immediately go into your head that it's all over because you're like, oh, I've survived much worse. That's what helps when you survive stuff. Mr. Zombie says, sell on checkers. Yeah, yeah. The, yep. It, it sucked. So, so, okay. Fast for it says, would you buy a guitar that had, that has had a neck repair? I personally don't, but that's because I, I don't really think anybody ever prices stuff accordingly. So, you know, I don't agree with the world on this. This is by far the majority has spoken and they're spoke, they, they're saying the opposite of me. To me, like, if I see it, let's just take a guitar that's pretty easy. Let's say Gibson Les Paul Studio, right? What are they like, you know, used, right? Let's just for fun, can we just pick numbers? I don't have to do the research on this. Let's say they're $2,000 new, I know, just throw numbers and they sell for like $1,400 you used. To me, if I saw a Gibson Les Paul Studio with a neck repair from somebody I trust or at least a place like, oh, this store did it or somewhere you know, somebody knows what they're doing, did it. The highest I'm paying is seven. I'm half a used, it's half. That's the only reason I'm gonna buy it, to work or sit, to play it. I, I learned this from so many gigging musicians. So many gigging musicians have really just destroyed guitars that they bought dirt cheap. You know, they would buy guitars that have been fixed and refurbished and all that stuff. To work them, you work them in the ground. It's like buying a used car and going, hey, I'm gonna run this car until it stops running and then I'm gonna buy another one. And, and, but I find every time I see a neck repair guitar, you know, it's always like $200 off for neck repair. I'm like, not even close. Nope, not doing it. So to me, your resells is shot, is in my opinion. First of all, you almost can't guarantee a neck repair doesn't happen again, just like you can't guarantee any kind of breakage like that. But more importantly, it's not that it might ever break again. It's, it's, it's not that so much. It's just, again, it's just never gonna hold value. So, Zach says, says I'm considering getting one, either a Firefly or Firefly makes great guitars. I'm gonna go back to the money. Yes, I do. Do you see Herman Lee did a review of a Firefly guitar and everybody sent me an email saying, hey, did a shout out. I thought that was really nice. I had already seen the shout out because I told you guys, YouTube tells you when you're mentioning a video now. So I was like, I got 18 videos. I don't know what I did recently, but 18 videos mentioned me or tagged me in them. And I watched most of them. And I know some of you guys are like, well, you probably said it and now people are doing it. But no, like a lot of times it had nothing to do with me or it didn't matter. Okay, let's do another. Okay, hold on a second. Drinks and snacks. That's a great sign on. Says, hey, are Warwick Knicks worth taking the plunge? Are they much different assuming your stock neck is going fine? I don't know if they're different in the idea of quality. I think War Moth makes fantastic necks. But yeah, if you want to change out a neck, I own three guitars with War Moth Necks. I love them. They're fine. I highly recommend War Moth Necks. So, yeah, I highly suggest War Moth. Rexomatic says, hey Phil, which of your pickups or others would you suggest for a Squire 60s classic vibe thin line upgrade? Well, we don't do any of that stuff anymore. So we'll have an announcement soon of our pickup change and what those mean to everybody. But in that thin line, we don't make anything because like I said, we don't do anything other than what we're about to release. Suggestion wise, I mean, I like the Seymour Duncan ones. They're pretty good. Go with those. It's tough because I don't have a whole lot of reference. Pickups are really hard to reference. So, Lemon Lust says, hey, would you ever consider Aristides guitars? Yeah, I reached out to Aristides last year or over a year ago, like I did. I told you guys, I solicit very few companies but Aristides guitars are very expensive. And just to be honest, we're on the same page. I reached out to them in the hopes to borrow one of their guitars. They told me it was not a good time because they're backlogged on guitars and that when they catch up, they will get back to me. And so I'm assuming they still haven't catch up. So at some point I'm gonna have to just go, okay, there's no way they're gonna be able to send a guitar for a loaner. So I just have to buy one. You know, it'll happen. I mean, that's what the patron funds are for. We use them to basically fund all the expenses. So thank you guys for patronning the channel because it literally goes to all the expenses. Last year I had a, I couldn't even tell you, but let's just say a 99% fail rate on the guitars I bought that made videos on breaking even. So keep in mind, like I said, I'm using you guys's patron funds and I'm buying gear and I'm making videos. And then the idea is that I, you know, if I break even, so to speak, because I didn't have to use my own personal funds, well, they are because they're turned into my funds once they become patron. But what I'm basically getting at is, I'll put it this way. If I were to double the amount of videos I did last year where I bought and did videos of guitars, which we, which was, if you watch my review, was over half the guitars. Well, if I double, there'd been all the guitars, right? So I guess not. I'm just saying, if we would increase it any more than that, I'd stop making YouTube altogether. There'd be no reason to even make any videos anymore. And unless of course I'm just gonna work full time and just make videos for fun as a hobby. But then I wouldn't make this many. There's just no reason to make this many. So, so, Aerosidies, it's on my radar. It's, I'm trying to do it. What we try to do, what I try to do now is I try to get any guitars like that as a loner or something like that. And before we just, you know, before I just outright buy it and do the video, just because again, it just helps subsidize the channel a little bit. Just a lot of money. But we'll, we're entertaining some new ideas this year. So, so we'll see. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. I'm sorry, some of you guys are making me laugh. I'm not making videos anymore either. Yeah. Let's see. Okay. So, BV Bev says, Amanda said this, Amanda Tellfill. Okay, she is. That a company that owned a UK vintage door took over Carter's a few years ago, perhaps four years ago. Oh, okay. That helps. Like I said, I didn't think anything of it. Still like Carter's, it just, I wouldn't heard that just like this. I'm like, oh yeah, you know, kind of feel like the new Carter's isn't the same Carter's when it comes to like the way, you know, the prices were and stuff like that. But I'll still shop with them. I just noticed it wasn't as amazing as I remember. And that's just the way things go, I'm sure. This is from Pauly who says, Hey, I just got an Amazon Telly plan to sharpen it. What would be your favorite budget Telly pickups? Oh, back to Telly pickups. I'm leaning towards Wilkinson El Niko Fives. Oh, Wilkinson's pickups are good. Trev Wilkinson once told me a funny story. He said, remember this, this is what he said. I wish I could do it. I don't know if you guys ever seen Trev Wilkinson. He reminds me of the guy from Jurassic Park. He's like, we spent no expense, that guy. And I want to give him just credit for this quote he gave me. It was great. He said, quote him correctly. He said, remember, okay, I'm gonna do it. Remember, a single coil costs $5 to make and a humbucker costs $10 to make and this industry will kill you if you tell anyone that. And I remember thinking like, I thought I was exaggerating and he was not exaggerating. So Wilkinson pickups, great for the price. He makes great pickups. So, oh, Brian says you have to pay to park at Carter's now. Yeah, yeah, I haven't, I don't know. Let's see, okay. This one is from none of your business. I gotta put the spaces in the correct words. Okay, is a player having too many choices of guitars, pedals and amps, et cetera, hurting the industry like Lee Anderton says? Well, there's a saying, that's a sales thing. So it's interesting that Lee went that way. There's an old saying, you know, right? Confuse them before you close them or close them before you confuse them. And in other words, too many choices makes it hard for the consumer to make a choice. Look, the reality is, if you're into this, if you're hanging out on a Friday afternoon and listening to me and talking here, it's because you enjoy this, A being things, learning about this. Like I said, a hobbyist is an educated consumer. It's someone who just loves to learn everything about the thing they love and they become very educated on it, right? Like a connoisseur, if you will, right? So you're gonna understand, I have friends, I have friends that can outplay, they can play as good as anyone out there. Have they probably have a Grammy and they couldn't tell you El Niko 5 from El Niko 2. When I say they couldn't tell you the difference, like listening to it, I mean, they couldn't tell you, like if I said El Niko, oh, it's El Niko 2, not El Niko 5, they'd be like, what the hell are you talking about? They don't care, right? We decided, we care. Hold on a second, just pour myself some more. So yes, to a basic customer, I can see where this could go overwhelming, except for here's where it's not. This is where I would disagree with Lee, in this case. Gone are the days of crap, good and better. That is not the world we're in. We haven't been in that world in a long time. You can absolutely buy great stuff for super cheap. There is no, if I only had enough money, I could have good gear. Now it's about a brand. You still have to pay if you want to be able to brag. If you want a Gibson or a Gretch, like a, you know, a really high, right? Or a, you know, a Fender, you know, or whatever brand, or a Sir, let's go Sir, Tom Anderson, you know, a Nags, if you want, you know, a Novo, if you wanna have a Nation or a Two Rock, if you want a Freedman, yeah, you're gonna have to put out some money. And those are great products, as they should be. No one should look at a Fourth, I like, when I do these deep times, you think when I have a Fourth, I'll have a guitar, I'm like, oh, it's really good guys. I'm like, well, no, of course it's good. That's given. The question is why would you want it? That's the way we wanna answer that. So the reality though is those products are good, of course, but they are also for the bragging rights, you know? You can buy a Toyota Camry or run forever. It's a great car for those that still think they're good. That's not the point. The point is it's a great car. When I say that is, you know, you don't get in a Toyota Camry and go, yeah, I wish I had roll up windows in AC. Everybody has AC. I live in Arizona. I was talking, my wife and I were trying to explain to our kids that my wife's first car in high school was a Buick with a steel steering wheel and no AC. Like, they're like, what? That car can't even exist legally. Like my kids, like they believe that there's probably a law that on this is that you can't have a car when they'll AC in the desert, that's illegal. You're like, no, literally you would go and you would just buy a car. If you didn't have money for AC, you didn't get AC. Right? It's just how it worked. And so my point is is that now you get a Camry and the base model has safety features and it has AC and it has a nice stereo system. And now you gotta buy silly things like, you know, heated or cooled seats or all the other stuff or leather, right? And that stuff, there was always what they're really high in cars have. So my point is that the gear industry follows suit without to, if you want to have a sir guitar plugged into a two rock, then you have to pay for it. You have to pay lots of money for it. But what you're getting is not far removed from essentially a lot of the $500 guitar, $600 guitars. Everybody's gonna have differing opinions, but here's where I focus my opinion. I'm not telling you like this instinctually, I'm telling you from, this isn't from owning a music store. This isn't from repairing guitars. This isn't, this is from all the deep dives. I've took away, I've took apart everybody's guitar. I have made a nice little side income consulting for companies on what I've learned over the years to the point where sometimes we are actually, we're having discussions like maybe, you know, maybe less live shows, maybe more consulting gigs. You know, the reason is, is because it's not, it's because like I said, you take stuff apart, you look at it, you start learning. This is what makes a guitar different and not different. And so I'm telling you that when I take apart a guitar, I can find a flaw with every single guitar. When I say every single, yeah, the Emerald Carbon Fiber guitar came flawless, no flaws. Good for them, carbon fiber, right? But my point is, is that there's a no-vo I have here. There's flaws in that. There's a flaw in every guitar. It will be small or large. So back to the consumers being confused. The reality is, you can buy a really good guitar and a really good amp and a really good setup for whatever price you wanna pay, not what price they wanna sell it to you at. There's every tier pricing. I mean, you know, there's, maybe that's a good video, right? Give me a budget. We did a wood guitar award, I bought $500. Could I buy a rig for $250 that I would play? Yeah, an amp and guitar, I believe 100%. Now it's gonna be used, and I'm gonna have to peck for it and find it, but I can find it. I believe I can find it. And I know you guys know too, you can find a decent guitar and an amp for $250 now, and it's decent. I'd get a Line 6 Spider amp that has all the sounds, a little practice amp. That thing I could probably pick one up for $35 if I search around a little bit. And that gives me $115 or whatever left over, or $215 to find a guitar. And I can think, well, I'd just get a Firefly. And then I'd be set. So consumers being confused, well, they're confused, but they shouldn't be because it's almost impossible to walk in a store or a legitimate online retailer and not get something that's gonna be more than adequate to learn and play guitar on. I mean, it's just, it's really fine. When we find an issue, Herman Lee, when he was talking about the Firefly, he found some bad fret marks on it. He was talking about that. And here's the deal. I was watching it and, cause you know, cause you're gonna find issues on Fireflies. But the reality is none of that would stop somebody from learning to play. They, that is something they'll discover is a problem later after they're not only a player, but they've learned a little about about guitar so they know how to make the best next choice. So my point being with that comment about too many choices. Yeah, I guess in the idea that if you click a thing, except for here's the sad thing, you could go to chat GBT right now and say, hey, I'm a, you know what? We could probably do it. I just asked chat GBT, go, hey, I'm a beginner. I wanna learn electric guitar. I wanna spend $300 for an electric guitar and amp. What's a good suggestion for amp and guitar? And I'm sure it's gonna get you in the ballpark or you can even tell it to go, hey, I wanna buy it from Sweetwater and tell me what is Sweetwater is a good choice. So I think there is lots of good products out there. And I think that when we talk about how confusing and over crazy it is, it's just us nerding out. I don't think the consumers are that perplexed by it. When I used to have to sell guitars in the store, I've had a few moments and I have no problem talking about them. Just like I've at this point, all at 400 and some episodes, I've told you guys all something. I've shown my ass enough times literally, enough times on the show saying something that, that's gonna lose the audience, that's gonna lose the audience. I've snapped a few times in my store that happens, 13 years a year, not all customers are great. And one of my favorite things to think about, and not at a time I snapped, I did say something to a lady and I don't necessarily regret it, but it stuck with me for a long time. Like I kept thinking about it and thinking about it. Like I wish I wouldn't have done it. And to this day, I'll say I wish I wouldn't have done it. And one of the things that happens was people would come in your store, it was always parents, parents would come in your store uneducated and they'd wanna buy their kid a guitar. And they came to the store in the hopes that, in my hopes, they're like, here, I'm here to help you make the right decision for this kid. And you found that exactly what I said, the price is dictated by the consumer and not the other way around. So I would say, like I told you, I could find you a $300 and get you a good guitar. This particular woman came in and said, she goes, I'm looking for acoustic for my son. I said, okay. And she said, can you show me one? And I said, yeah, here's my favorite acoustic guitar for beginners. It's called the CD60. By the way, they still make this guitar. It's Fender. Fender CD60 at the time came in natural black and sunburst without electronics and a hard shell case, which we would trade for a high-end gig bag. Okay, and I know that sounds, the case was thin. So you guys know, no deception there. We would sell the case for 50 bucks just like we'd sell the gig bag. But sometimes it's easier for kids to throw it over their shoulder than carry it. We give them their choice. They just pick. Case or gig bag included. The guitar was $249. Okay, we did not give discount on it. So I'm just telling you, that's the map on it. With the case, and we would include a little starter pack, which I think was like a tuner, some picks, and something else, like a chord chart or something. So essentially it's everything they needed. They're set in. And she's like, I don't wanna spend that. Now look, I had been around enough times to know broke. I know when somebody's broke. I'm like, okay, I get it, man. If you guys want me to tell you, I'll tell you the time I sold a homeless guy a guitar. So that's broke. And I learned a lot about homeless people on that day too. But anyways, she said, do you have anything cheaper? And I said, yes. And so I showed her another guitar. This guitar was $199. She's like cheaper. I'm like, okay. And again, I'm like, okay, look lady. And so what happened was we had the SA-100, which at the time used to be made by Squire, and it now has been rebranded to Fender, since then too, by the way. So Fender, so it was a Fender acoustic that they sold at Costco SA. Sometimes they call it the FA. In fact, oh yeah, the SA is the Squire, and then it changed the name to the FA, Fender acoustic, FA, Fender acoustic 100. It was $99. It was playable, right? You know, it had, it was playable. You know, we had it in case, like I said, we didn't want a customer to leave the store, you know, and go to Amazon. And this is what happened. She's like, oh, what about that guitar? And I go, yeah, that's the FA-100. It's $100. And I said, and she's like, and she goes, could you play it for me? I gotta remember the story in order. And I said, sure. So I had to demo it to her. She's listening to it. And I'm thinking to myself, you gotta understand, as a business owner, I'm just thinking of my head going. Like it's $20. That's what I make on this guitar. It's $20 a thing. And I'm helping her with all these guitars. I'm already into this 30 minutes with her. And here's where it gets funny. I have all these canned responses, as you would, if you sold anything, you know, hey, Fender's good quality. They have a good reputation. They have lifetime warranty on this guitar, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You can sign up for lessons. We support you. I have all these canned answers, but she just out of nowhere says, is that a good guitar? Now, keep in mind, I just kind of, I've just explained the spill of all the guitars, all the brands and all the prices. And we've come to the, there, by the way, there's nothing cheaper in the store. There's no other, this is it. You get this or you have to leave now because I don't have anything else. And she says, is that a good guitar? And I said, if they could find a way to make this cheaper, they would. Right? I know that doesn't sound so bad, but I said it kind of jerky. And I said, and she was not upset because it wasn't that mean, but it was enough to where she was like, what's this guy's problem? And I'm like, I was just like, that's it, lady. That's the, that's the closer. That's the sales. I'm not kidding. This is what I'm saying. I go, they could sell, if Fender could make this guitar for $98, they would. They just can't figure out how to make it any cheaper. So that's what it is. It's the cheapest thing in the store. And so she bought it. She never came back again. I wouldn't blame her. So my point is, is that there's great choices out there the customer should not be confused. And the fact that we have option paralysis for gear is because we're obsessing over silly details. It don't matter. Arguing with ourselves at night, looking at the same three types of versions of tube screamers or clown pedals is the silliness that we enjoy. We enjoy it. You do it because you enjoy it, not because you're stressed. So I don't think a lot of consumers are stressed because they can't find a good product. I think we obsess over it and therefore people say it's confusing, but it's not. So that's just my thing, plus. So yeah, someone says, Evan says, you've reached the bottom. That's kind of where I was at with it. I was like, there's just no way cheaper. Let's do one more. Hold on, I'm just refreshing. Okay, let's do one more. Oh, interesting. Okay, this is from David. Ties in some of this funny too. David says, hey, I have a small amp and I found out it's a base amp. I've been using it with my own. I've been using it with my electric guitar. What is the difference in a base amp and electric guitar amp? So there could be a ton of difference. Keep in mind, like the Fender Bassman 59 is a base amp that guitar players use because that's what happens. Guitar players figured out because the bases were overloading it and the guitar players could really play it. The difference between a base amp essentially is gonna be in two major differences. Three, three major differences. Let's just give it to that. One, the speaker is probably the biggest difference because it's using a different type of speaker. Guitar speakers, and the best way I always put this is, guitar speakers are the unique thing, not the other way around. So there's not like a base speaker is unique. A keyboard amp, a base amp, a PA speaker, a car speaker, essentially they're all speakers that can take a frequency response across a spectrum, in other words, from highs to lows and in between, where a guitar speaker is more specialized in what it does. And they generally not very good for using for a PA, a bass or a car series of stuff because they'll blow, because they're really, guitar speakers are thinner by nature. And again, they don't have the frequency response. Not all of them, some do, because members now there, you have guitar players playing eight strings and chugging and stuff. The next design difference in a base amp would be the construction of the cabinet. In other words, the sizing, you might make it deeper, bigger to create more low end frequency or be ported. So again, it's just gonna create more bass response. Sometimes that's good, some guitar players want that. It's not necessarily a bad thing for the guitar. The last thing is usually in the amp, there's the EQ, the EQ is gonna have more, again, range. It's gonna have more highs and more lows frequencies to adjust to the bass sound. Running your guitar through a base amp has not bad at all, does nothing bad to the base amp. There's nothing wrong with that. The only concern people would have is that it's gonna be very clean and sometimes referred to as sterile because again, it doesn't have that type of speaker and it doesn't have that kind of, you know, tonality in the tone stack to give you the tones that guitar players tend to like. But running a guitar through a base amp is not a bad thing or in fact, you can do both. You can sometimes run your guitar through a base amp or your base through a guitar amp depends on how loud you crank the guitar amp, but you're fine. Funny story was last week, I mentioned that I have the Phil Jones amp and we were talking about amps and I mentioned that the Fender Rumble 40 bass amp is a great bass amp. And then when I mentioned earlier on the show that I went to Guitar Center and checked out things, while I was there, they had a bunch of bass amps. They had Mark bass and Dark Glass and a bunch of bass amps there. And so me and Ralph sat and played through all his bass amps and I did not like any of them. And then I went and I go, you know, I just said, I said, Ralph, I said, I just recommended last night because this is Saturday after the last Friday. I just recommended this Fender amp again. I used to have a Rumble 40, they're 230 bucks, 240 bucks, plugged into it. Absolutely love it. Still highly recommend it. Best 240, at 20, you could buy a Fender bass amp that you could take to a small gig. At that point it'd be a very small gig. Definitely at home use and it costs the same or less than a decent boutique pedal. It's pretty impressive. And, and I thought it was funny, I showed Ralph, so I'll tell you guys too. The Fender Rumble 40, I did not go through all the Rumbles. When I say that on both sides, a little fun fact, the Fender Rumble 40, not only $240, not only a great sounding amp with great options like Direct Out, it's also made by Cortech in the Indonesia's factory. So it's made in the Indonesian factory. So a little fun, you know, cause that's not, you know, that's just different. I know somebody's gonna like, everything's made at the Cortech factory. Yes, that's why I went there. I wanted to see everything being made. So, but a little fun. So if you're looking for a good bass amp is what I'm trying to say, that's the one I would check out. Okay, so on that note, we did it. We solved all the world's problems, which is important. We talked about some guitar subjects and we did everything. If you guys just let you know, if you wanna try to check out the Tempierce course before the deal expires, like I said, you can save 30% off. There's a link down below. You save 30% off and you get to try it for 30 days and they kick up a nice piece of that to us, which helps fund this channel. So it's a win-win for all of us, I hope. And I appreciate you guys, at least check it out. At least go check it out, right? And so I recommend that. And then also I put a link for the Hills guitar that I showed you right there. So there's a link there. If you don't wanna use a link, just understand that if you're buying a Hills guitar in the US, you need to use Hills America is their website. So some people have trouble finding it because they're the US distribution of the guitar. So think about that if you're checking that out. And then was there one other thing to share with you guys? Let you know that if you wanna sign up to become a patron, the $5 tier this Sunday is the bonus podcast for patrons, where it's just like this, except for a lot less people. So I get to answer everybody's question. So if there's ever a question you really, really wanna ask me, you can pay $5 becoming patron and ask me on Sunday. And so you know when I say that, you don't even have to be there live. If you go in there, you'll see that there's a chat for, we have a chat for each event. And you just go into that chat. Once we cross the event, we delete the chat out. So you put the thing in the chat chat and I'll just go back and read it. So there you go. And then also if you wanna sign up the $10 level, you get clinics where we do guitar clinics. And then you get obviously everything below, which is the ad free version of the show plus the bonus. And then if you wanna do the top tier, you can check out that option if you want to. And also coming soon, we're gonna give the $10 up to here a $10 discount on merch. Cause we're gonna try to work out a merch deal with like that. So try and always give a little bit more, especially since each year I try a little harder to do a little bit more if you notice on the channel, because you know, life sucks. I don't know why. You know what I'm trying to say. It's like when everybody's trying to make things harder and worse and more expensive, I'm trying to make things a little better for you guys. So that we can at least have some fun here. All right, on that note, I wanna thank you guys all for hanging out till the end of the show. And until next Friday, know your gear. If you're learning something or having a good time, don't forget you can subscribe for free and help this channel. Or for $10 a month, you can join me on Patreon.