The Riffs, Beards & Gear Podcast
Join Ryan "Fluff" Bruce and Mike Squires for an unfiltered, deep-dive look into the world of professional music, content creation, and the gear that powers it all. Building on the legacy of the Riffs, Beards & Gear YouTube channel, Ryan and Mike skip the marketing fluff to bring you honest conversations about gear, guitars, the Music Industry and more!
The Riffs, Beards & Gear Podcast
Episode 9: Touring, Steve Vai, Fender & Headstock Snobs
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This week Mike and I dive into what touring is really like—the good, the bad, and the parts nobody tells you about. We also talk about some of our favorite new guitars, share our stories of meeting Steve Vai, swap a few memorable NAMM stories, discuss Fender’s recent cease-and-desist controversy, and answer the age-old question: does the name on the headstock actually matter?
As always, expect plenty of guitar talk, industry stories, questionable opinions, and a few laughs along the way.
We start our shows like that. The alien the alien crime scene. The uh ugly kid Joe starts shows where we come out and there's like an instrumental intro thing. It's actually called intro. And then at the end is a long ring out before the first song starts, and I always clap. And Witt had never seen me do that, even though I do it at every show.
SPEAKER_01Because he's in front of you. He's not looking back at you, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but sometimes, yeah, I mean, you know, he's a different part. Yeah, but yeah, of course. And um he thought that I was making fun of the show somehow. And so then he came over and was clapping to everyone on stage at some point. I was it was a pretty funny. It was pretty funny.
SPEAKER_01You weren't making fun.
SPEAKER_00I clap on stage all the time in between songs.
SPEAKER_01You have to let the people know what to do.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, like when you're like this. And then people I do that.
SPEAKER_01That that was my thing. Or also I'll do the real demanding you clap now too. Clap to the beat because it's just drums, drums, and bass.
SPEAKER_00You hear the kick drum, it's going like this.
SPEAKER_01That's right. That's right. Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Riffs Beards in Gear podcast. I am your host, Fluff. I'm your pal Mike. And we're hanging out, we're shooting another podcast, and hopefully this doesn't come out in two months like the last one did. Let's talk about that for just a second. Well, I mean So sometimes, sometimes, so we we will shoot an episode or two of the podcast with the intent of it coming out in the next week or two. Yeah. And then someone cool or one of our friends will be in town on tour.
SPEAKER_00Some of our friends aren't cool. Well, that's another episode.
SPEAKER_01Uncool friends. Now, um, sometimes, you know, we get a phone call and like, hey, I'm gonna be in town. What do you what are you doing? Like, well, I would love to get you on the podcast. And so then that bumps it back. That bumps it back. And we had a real good run there for a hot minute. And then the last episode that came out as of this filming was filmed months ago. You have a big old burly beard.
SPEAKER_00Do I still have the beard? You had the beard. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you had the beard. Also, this angle is awful on me. I always hate seeing the clips because I'm inevitably it's a side shot, and I'm slouched down like this. I'm always like, come on, just sit up, man. So I'm doing my best this time, and that's why I have my my I have my fat pillow here as well. It's just not a good angle.
SPEAKER_00It's like a security blanket.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, almost also. Um, in the previous episodes that we've shot, after we get done, my right shoulder is sore from from kind of just hanging. Because I have this on my left side. I don't have any support, so also this is functional.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know why concert photographers have to take photos from the pit because it's the worst angle. The worst. Hey, get a good picture of me, okay? I'm rocking out.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, or when you're inhaling, you're mid-inhale, and so you're like hanging over your belt or whatever.
SPEAKER_00It's like go back in the back row and use a telephoto lens like a bird watcher or something. Like, come on. Like that, I think that would be a better shot anyway. It probably would be.
SPEAKER_01It'd look more epic, certainly.
SPEAKER_00It's certainly, but I feel like it doesn't, it probably doesn't feel as privileged.
SPEAKER_01Probably not. I mean, there is a cool thing. God bless rock photographers, by the way. We love them all.
SPEAKER_00And they're also the, you know, in the music industry, aside from probably bassists, the least credited people in the entire industry.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I never thought about that. You're right. Who cares?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh, they're happy to be taking our picture.
SPEAKER_01Um I once, I was at, I can tell this story publicly, I think now. I've never told this publicly. Um, I was a guest instructor at um Tomorello's guitar camp, January of 2020. I remember this. And it was right before Nam, and it worked out perfect. I would fly down to California early, and um it was really early January. It was right after, I think it was January 2nd or something like that. It was me, it was Vernon Reed, it was Nuno Beton Court, it was Billy from Perfect Circle, Billy Howardell. Um, it was the gal that played guitar for Beyoncé. I cannot remember her name. I'm so sorry. She was the nicest, most humblest, and also whooped the shit out of everyone else playing wise.
SPEAKER_00She's she had it like a a like a spotlight moment for a while.
SPEAKER_01She out shredded everybody on that damn on that damn show. Um, but we were all part, like it was like a guitar camp, and Tom Morrell ran it. And it was kind of a good experience. I'm glad I did it. Shout out to Dreamweaver Productions, all this stuff. They were fantastic. Tom's manager was really, really nice and amazing. Um, but anyway, at the end of the show, Tom gets a photo of all the photograph, or all the uh all of his friends, Nuno and all of his friends on stage, right? John Five, and then everyone splits, and then the photographer, I'm not gonna say who he was, um, you'd know him. You guys listening to this would know him. And the photographer takes the photo and he's looking down at the camera, and I can see he's like, Oh no, oh no, oh, and like you see like a beat of sweat. And I'm like, Oh, what's up, dude? And he's like, I biffed the I biffed the photo, I biffed it. It was not even remotely in focus. So so he tells Tom's manager, manager tells Tom, Tom says, Everyone, stop! He's trying to get back, everyone's trying to run after these guys because these guys are going home, right? They've literally left. And like well, not left the the premises, but have left the the room and the big banquet hall that we're in. And I go, if you guys want me to take the photo, I can run upstairs and get my my camera and I can take the photo. And then we're like, Can you, creator guy? We don't I don't know who you are still, but you can you do it? And I was like, Yeah, I got it, right? Can you do it? The whole time Tom is asking why I'm there, like who I who am I, which is fine. Um, so I go and get my camera, I successfully take the photo, and it's awesome. And then they post it on Facebook and credit the other photographer that bif the shot. I never got credit for it at all. Not that I'm looking for credit all these years later, but I was just like in the moment, I was like, God damn it.
SPEAKER_00You know what? It's fine. Heroes don't do it for the recognition.
SPEAKER_01That's true. I just wanted to get out of there myself. So Billy was the nicest dude on the planet. You've told me some of the stories. Yeah. It's uh yeah, it was good, it was it was an okay time. You're glad you did it. I am so glad I did it. It was very humbling, and it's you know, don't don't ever meet your heroes.
SPEAKER_00What I found from 30 years of doing this is that there's little money and much experience.
SPEAKER_01And little glory.
SPEAKER_00Very little glory. Almost none. Like really when in on the touring side, the greatest experiences are not on stage.
SPEAKER_01That's interesting. I would agree with that.
SPEAKER_00You know. The I mean the best and worst times are off stage. Yeah. That is uh the vehicle for having a life of a p you know sea captain, a pirate or whatever. Literally. For real. Yeah. It's like that.
SPEAKER_01That's interesting. Yeah, because when when you think of past tours, do you even remember? I mean, like, of course, we're gonna remember the banner. Like, I remember Download. I remember playing download.
SPEAKER_00I remember playing mainstage. It was 15 years ago yesterday that I played main stage at Download.
SPEAKER_01Right. I never played mainstage. But other than that, when you think of tours, you're not thinking of playing in Fort Worth, Texas on a Wednesday night. You're thinking of like, oh, remember that time we had that really long drive and dude fell asleep and wore whatever it was.
SPEAKER_00Or when you think about download, you're thinking about, oh my god, I was at catering with Jim Root or whatever. Like I was, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Do you have any uh do you have any uh funny uh backstage stories? G-rated preferably.
SPEAKER_00I mean the during that run that that where we played main stage and the run two years before. This is when loaded was touring a lot of a lot of. Yeah, loaded was was touring a lot. We put out a couple records and we're going for it. We became pretty good pals with some of the guys in Mastodon. Love that. And um Yeah, that was that was pretty great. That's cool, you know. Um they're a they're a a fun they those guys like to have fun.
SPEAKER_01Probably less so now.
SPEAKER_00That's what I'm hoping.
SPEAKER_01I it is I can confirm.
SPEAKER_00Um I really but I really like those guys. Yeah. So that was that was a lot of fun meeting uh, although I know not the original lineup of Misfits, but meeting um meeting those guys, watching them play. Yeah, dude, I've got a killer photo of me with Jerry. Jerry gave Jeff Rouse the shirt off his back that he wore. That's so cool. And that show. Jerry was walking around backstage like, everybody stay hydrated. Hey, hey, he was like your uncle or whatever. Like, hey, it's hot out here. You got you drinking water, you drink some water. It was amazing.
SPEAKER_01Why haven't we had Jeff on here?
SPEAKER_00Rouse?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, there's We should have Jeff on. We have I would love to talk to him. There's the future.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there is the future. Um so we so over when when when people we were all locked down on COVID or whatever, I did a so it was Halloween time, and Ernie Ball had an idea of to get a bunch of their artists together for a cover of Halloween by the Misfits. Speaking of Misfits, and um they asked me if I could put it together and if I could mix it, and if I could mix the audio that they were getting. And I was like, sure, but I want to be in it. So Drag Dender had just signed a record deal, and then the world shut down, and we'd just been on one tour with the youth, and then that was it. Um, so I was still really hungry and trying to get the band out there and stuff, and they were like, Yeah, sure, that sounds good to us. So it was Adam Willard on drums, it was uh Frank from My Chem on guitar, and it was who was the bassist? Oh, it was Mike Carrera MXPX on bass, and then it was Tim from Rise Against singing. And so I get footage, I get the tracks, and I put together the vertical video and I put it out, and everyone's tagged, everyone's sharing it, and it goes really well. So, fast forward, it it was probably a year later. Uh, we're playing download, and we were on immediately before Rise Against on whatever stage it was in the tent or whatever. Um, or no, this would have been Hellfest in France or whatever. Anyway, I'm in catering, and right next to me is Tim from Rise Against. And I was like, hey man, we're in a band together. I was like, we did uh the Misfits cover together. Um, I was the other guitar player that wasn't Frank from my chem. And he goes, hmm, not ringing a bell. And I was like, you know, with Ernie Ball, like we did the vertical, it was the you know, Halloween Misfits cover over over lockdown. He goes, I'm really sorry, man. I I don't really remember that. And I was like, shit. Uh okay, well, um, do you remember doing the cover? Like, and he was like, Real talk, I don't, I don't, when was this again? And like he's trying, he's being super cool and nice about it. Right. I've told this story with uh to to Zach uh before and he laughed his ass off. Um, and I saw I was like, okay, do you know Ernie Ball? He goes, Yeah, I love Ernie Ball. I goes, you know, Tim Dove? He goes, Yeah, yeah, of course. I'm like, Yeah, we have the same rep. He's like, Cool. Um, yeah, yeah, sorry, I don't remember doing any covers, and I don't I don't remember that at all. And I was like, Okay, well, we're my band is playing right before you, and he goes, Oh, cool, what band? I'm like, Drake Dunder. And he goes, Yeah, I don't know, I don't know. And then he just grabs a cracker and then walks off. I was like, All right, well, that's that's that's one way to end a conversation. Apparently has a terrible memory and just doesn't yeah. Apparently that's totally normal for Tim. Shout out to Tim. I he was the nicest dude ever.
SPEAKER_00I made maybe 60 videos during the COVID era.
SPEAKER_02At least.
SPEAKER_00I made so many of those fucking cover songs, and I had there were so many people in though in those videos. It's kind of incredible. Like I wish But do they all blur together though? Well, now I mean I don't some people I knew already, some people I knew of already, and some people I didn't know at all. So there was all different kinds of communication. Um true. Most of the people ended up being on the podcast eventually, but um I wish I could find a way to release some of those outside of YouTube.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I get people asking me about videos every once in a while, run into someone or get stopped, you know, like NAM or something like that. And I'll be like, Hey man, I had a question. Do you remember the settings you used on that mark on that Mark IV video from 2012? I'm like, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, I really don't. Whatever was in the video, because I was always pretty good about that. Like whatever was in the videos is is what it was. It wasn't like a fake I was for that very reason. So you have to stop the video. I don't know, frame by frame, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Ink, ink, ink, ink, ink.
SPEAKER_01You know, innocent questions, but like, you know, I will not that I'm William Shatner or anything, but like, you know, you see William Shatner get asked in episode five in season three of Star Trek, did you you know he's like, I don't know. Wasn't that a Saturday night live skit? Shut up, nerd. I don't know. Who cares? It was a show, it was just a stupid sci-fi show.
SPEAKER_00Move on, get a life. There's a restaurant in Portland, Oregon uh that did exist. I don't know if it still exists, but um the staff there, I swear this is true. This or maybe it's a restaurant that hosts an evening of people who only speak like Klingon. What? Yeah. Like some I'm sure someone will comment on this. There's some sort of Klingon Like you order in Klingon. There's some sort of Klingon related restaurant.
unknownWhat?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, of course it's in Portland. Super weird. That's super weird. I mean, Portland's pretty weird.
SPEAKER_00Those guys are keeping Portland weird.
SPEAKER_01They are, they sure are. Portland is weird. Uh speaking of weird, you want to talk about uh cool guitars?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, where do I begin?
SPEAKER_01Alright, so there's been a lot of cool stuff coming out pretty recently. Yes. We were talking about the new guild reissues that are pretty sick. Um, I want to talk about those. I also would love to shout out uh our friend John Jordan from Mammoth. His single pickup PRS, Custom 22, is maybe the sexiest PRS I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely one of the most killer PRS releases of all time.
SPEAKER_01And well deserved. I think it's you know, he had that first one that he toured with a lot, and then he got a couple of more, and then it kind of started building Steam online. I had picks, and he was showing me pics of those when they're still being built, and he's like, Oh, you can't tell anybody, and like, but now that it's finally out, I can finally talk about like how excited John was for them for people to be able to have them. So cool to see.
SPEAKER_00I want that.
SPEAKER_01I want it, I want that. Yo, let me get that. That was that was uh let me hold that. Yeah, our our singer of my band, Tony, is always every time I demo something, he goes, Hey yo, let me get that. Yo, can I get that? Yo, what's up, dude? Um he John, uh, shout out to John. Congratulations, John.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, congrats. That is this a super sick guitar.
SPEAKER_01Oh the silver one reminds me of Daniel Johns' guitar in the Abuse Me video, Silver Chair. It's a 90s kid. You probably have never heard of Silver Chair or have been.
SPEAKER_00Did they have the water thing about the water song? What? Were they like 12 15-year-old kids?
SPEAKER_01You were 16, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. They sound like that first song that they put out was a super yarly. Was it super yarly and it sounded like a you know, like Pearl Jam sort of uh I guess maybe it was Riffy, or sounded kind of like STP.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh huh. Okay, fair. Yeah. I know that song.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00And I know people talk fondly.
SPEAKER_01Love. I mean, the songwriting became pretty brilliant when he got a little older and really kind of came into his own. I'm a huge Daniel Johns fan. Shout out to Daniel Johns, but uh and Summer Chair. Yeah. Um, but they made guys like me, because me and Daniel are the same age, and it was at the time seeing a sixteen a band of 16-year-olds, you really got the feeling of like, okay, I can do that too. Right, of course. And that was very powerful, especially in you know, 1995, um, when that that stuff came out. But um, yeah, anyway, shout out to John Jordan's PRS. And then the Guild Guild just released two reissues of what what are those things called?
SPEAKER_00S300. S300D. The original were called S300D, I think, because they had a DeMarzio pickup in them. And they they are they're those things that look like a wizard's guitar for people who are not familiar with the body shape. It looks like when I see that guitar, I think about the old Morley ad with the wizard playing the wa and the waws in the foreground. And I'm like, that wizard should have been playing this guitar. Cool guitars.
SPEAKER_01I always liked that shape.
SPEAKER_00It's like the the like second cousin, unpointy uh BC Rich almost kind of, you know. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. It's a it's that era of body shape.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel like there was uh a lot of experimentation going on because I mean, those guitars were originally out in what, late 70s? Yeah. You know, you had that, and then you think about walking into a guitar store in the 70s, in the late 70s, and you see guild S300 Ds on one, on one wall, and then you could potentially theoretically, this happened somewhere, look over in the other wall and see Gibson RDs. Right. You know what I mean? Like or or ovation breadwinners or something like wild time. There was some wild cocaine-fueled times in the design department of most guitar companies.
SPEAKER_00And then for the most part, people got pretty tame. Yes.
SPEAKER_01You know, went all the way back, and then it just became like if you didn't have a super strat, who were you?
SPEAKER_00The 90s kind of saw away with that though.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but that was always driven by, I mean, in my mind, at least up here in the 90s, as you remember, a lot of it was just um driven by old fenders that you could find in pawn shops that weren't yet vintage, and like you know, you could find use Fender Jazz Masters for 500 bucks. And or as I like to say, a hundred bucks a bolt.
SPEAKER_00Yes. Like nobody cared about a 70s fender 300 bucks all day. All day long. Okay, this now that concludes the section of get off my lawn. No, just tell me you're a grandpa without telling me you're a grandpa.
SPEAKER_01Those were the times, dude. My grandpa once told me he was like in the military, or when he was overseas in the 50s, um, a pack of cigarettes was nine cents, and you would put in a dime, and in the packaging of this of the pack of cigarettes, you would be a penny for your change on one side and a pack of matches on the other. How cool is that? That's pretty sweet. That's pretty that was that would have been 1956-ish.
SPEAKER_00Oh, a newspaper used to cost uh 50 cents on Sunday. Yeah. Sunday was 50 cents, the big addition. Now it's I think three dollars.
SPEAKER_01That's less than I would expect it to be. No, it has to be more than three dollars. Really? Wait, when is the last time you saw a print newspaper?
SPEAKER_00When I was in the Sunday Times last year. Really? Hey Siri, how much does a Sunday Times cost today? Hey Siri, how much does a Seattle Times Sunday?
SPEAKER_01I didn't know they were still printing.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_01Isn't it like $10? Uh I have no idea.
SPEAKER_00All they want to do is sell me a subscription right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, you know, they've been digital for a long time. Anyway, newspapers. Yeah, they make print. Huh. I used to deliver newspapers in eighth grade. That's how I found out uh Kirk O'Bain died.
SPEAKER_00I also delivered papers.
SPEAKER_01I liked that gig. Blast some tunes. You had enough money to buy yourself tapes. Did were you did you do it on your BMX? In fact, I did. I had a 10 speed. I later got a 10-speed because I was like, man, I had in my neighborhood, it was all hills. That just was awful, fully loaded down.
SPEAKER_00I was in California for most of my paper delivering career, but that wouldn't be so bad. Pretty level, generally speaking. I delivered the Contra Costa Times.
SPEAKER_01Ooh, I delivered the Seattle Times.
SPEAKER_00I think that I made that year, my seventh grade year, I made more money than my mom did.
SPEAKER_01Wow. There used to be actual I mean, I remember making I had three jobs. Whoa. I remember the newspaper gig in eighth grade. I was 14 years old and I was making I was making a couple of hundred bucks a week.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, which was a lot of dough back then.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I had money to buy myself a new starter jacket, all the CDs I could want. Remember starter jackets? Probably not. But they were still cool. Buying yourself stuff.
SPEAKER_00What other new oh uh our friend James Schultz has a limited edition 2H Tremolo uh semi-hollow Vela from PRS, and that's an exclusive. So shout out to you. Quimber sound.
SPEAKER_01Um check the show notes. Link down below in the description if you're watching this on video.
SPEAKER_00He has had a long relationship with that company.
SPEAKER_01I mean, for a long time he was their top-selling dealer for custom stuff.
SPEAKER_00At the guitar store, yeah. Before that, he I he managed a guitar center, and they were one of the best performing PRS dealers in the country.
SPEAKER_01I forgot he was at Guitar Center.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Oh man.
SPEAKER_01I knew him. I didn't know him then. I knew him right when Guitar Store opened. So I've only I've only known him I don't know how long ago was that. 13 years ago or 15 years ago?
SPEAKER_002011?
SPEAKER_01About that, yeah, yeah. So about 15 years I've known him.
SPEAKER_0012, 11, 12.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You knew him way before that, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00We worked in the Pike Place Market in the 90s. That's right. Well, you threw fish? I didn't. I worked at a produce stand. Okay. Yeah. That was near there though, right?
SPEAKER_01Kitty Corner. Yeah. That's what I thought. Yeah. Oh, that's pretty cool.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Well yeah, where did that been? 93. James told me a story about not to tell, not to tell people James's stories, but James told me he remembers Nirvana and realized Nirvana was going to be huge by Houston. He saw this group of um college exchange students that could barely speak English, and they were blasting teen spirit and the look of joy and like how much fun they were having. Right. Screaming along to Nirvana. He was like, Whoa, our little band is our little local band is uh not so local no more. No, not so much. Yeah. I'm like, whoa, what a wild moment. What a wild place to have been in the early 90s. I only started going to shows in the late 90s or late 93, I think.
SPEAKER_00I saw a lot of people come through the market because I worked right near the entrance on the corner.
SPEAKER_01So you would see people like essentially presumably would soundcheck and then go walk around.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Probably. Or before soundcheck. Yeah. I met Steve. That's where I met Steve Vai. Whoa. It was amazing. So it's um, I don't know how interesting the story is, but it was it was exciting for me. Um Frank Zappa had just died. Okay. And there was a bunch of Zappa band alumni coming to town to play. If I remember correctly, they were playing like with the Seattle Symphony or something. It was like a it was kind of a thing, right? And I knew that Steve Vai was going to be there. I'd seen it in the ads or whatever. I couldn't afford a ticket, you know. Sure. But I was like, well, I work in the I work in the place where you see everyone. And I had been, I had been set up and I was waiting and waiting and waiting, and I was just like, man, what? Am I he's not gonna show up? Like he's I think they were playing in the Seattle Center somewhere, maybe in this uh opera house.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that would make sense.
SPEAKER_00And so I was just I had written it off, and at some point in the afternoon, um, someone was over by the dried fruits, which was behind this like kind of pillar. I was always catching people trying to steal shit, and I would have to run over there and shoe them off. And so I came around that pillar getting ready to yell at someone, like you know, a someone stealing dried fruit rolls, and there's Steve Vai, and I was like, and he's looking at me like, My God, why you know, because he's a really nice guy, he's a really nice guy. And I'm like, what took you so long? And he goes, Excuse me? And I was like, I've been waiting all day to meet you, and I thought you were never gonna show up. And he was like, Oh, well, I'm glad I didn't disappoint you.
SPEAKER_01That's such a Steve answer.
SPEAKER_00Uh, he bought some dried fruit roll things, and he was like, Hey, do you suppose uh you could recommend a vegetarian restaurant for me? And at the time I was veg. And I was like, Well, you know what? I just so happened to know the greatest place on you know in the state, and it's walking distance. There's two locations, and one of them is walking distance from here. It's called the Gravity Bar. I recommend the RV one, and he goes, amazing. And so I think he became a regular customer there when he came when he would come through Seattle. That's a great story.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wow. Um, I didn't get to meet him till January of 2020, right before Nam. I was at an event after the Tomarella thing. I gone uh I had to go to this Freedman, they were debuting the um, they were debuting his Synergy module in 2020. Or maybe it was the Synergy series. It might have been the Synergy series. I can't remember. Anyway, uh and the new Soldano reissue stuff, the Mark II Soldanos, those were coming out. And so they um a bunch of like content creators and other guitarists show up um to boutique amp distribution, and we were told if you happen to be in the middle of your turn and Steve I shows up, you stop playing and you basically you get the fuck out of the room because we need to show Steve totally cool. People are going, like, oh I'll go next, and you basically got 15 minutes to play with the amps, whatever. And so I'm in there, and I know later I'm gonna see him to shoot the content, which ended up being my worst, the my worst gig video that went super viral. Uh he tells a story about uh shitting himself on stage with with Zappa, Zappa making him play really, really sick. Um, and it has like 700,000 views now. It's crazy. Anyway, it was that day that this happened, and I'm in there and I'm playing along and I'm playing my song, my uh, my band song, hypochondria, where it has that real staccata riff or whatever. And I see Steve walk in, and we were told to stop playing if he walked in to get the fuck out. So I stopped. He goes, No, no, no, no. You keep doing that. You have you're just fine. And the guys were like, No, you need to check out. He goes, he's doing just fine. Let's let's let this guy uh let's let's let him play a little bit. And he sits down on the couch and does this and then starts watching me. And I'm like, I hate this so much. And I'm just doing and he was like, You have quite the right hand. And I was like, Thanks, Steve. This is on camera. Someone has video of this because our the video guy there was filming this whole thing. I was like, This is unbelievable. Okay, well, I'm gonna put my guitar down and I'm gonna go now. And he's like, You can stay. And that's when I filmed the worst cake video. Wow. Coolest guy ever. I cannot say enough good things about Steve Vai. Steve Vai was one of the classiest, most humble dudes I ever met.
SPEAKER_00That's like trying to can ravioli in front of Chef Boy RD. Like, you don't do it.
SPEAKER_01Bro, no, I just I like it was uncomfortable. I just don't want to do it, and so I just stopped and I was like, eh, good.
SPEAKER_00The best thing you could have done is played Smoke on the Water wrong at that point.
SPEAKER_01Start trying to play Stairway to Heaven or something like that. Yeah, that's my Steve Vice story, very, very humble guy.
SPEAKER_00I think he, you know, I've gone through phases of listening to him a lot and not, but flexible is still one of my favorite recordings. I feel like it's like super emotive and raw and gnarly. Yeah. Uh I know that everyone likes Passion and Warfare.
SPEAKER_01I like Passion and Warfare.
SPEAKER_00And it's great, it sounds amazing. I like, you know.
SPEAKER_01What was the nine? So being a 90s kid, I started, you know, became aware. I could became self-aware in like summer of 93 or whatever, when he caught heavy with the seven string stuff, Bad Horsey. Yeah. The heavy Vi stuff. Uh, what was that album? Alien Love Secrets.
SPEAKER_00May I think that was one after. I don't know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01After it was, you know, 90s, 90s Vi when he was covering himself in silver paint. Sure. Like that was that was pretty cool. Passion and Warfare was sick, though. Also gave us Devon Townsend.
SPEAKER_00It would be maybe it would be awesome to have him on the podcast. We could get him on the podcast, I'm sure. He got his stories are insane.
SPEAKER_01His stories what a maniac. His stories are actually insane. Yeah. The things that that guy has done is really quite incredible. Shout out to C Bye.
SPEAKER_00He seems like quite a character. Devin.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Devin.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I could get I know Devin. He seems like a maybe maybe life has shifted a bit for him.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think he's in a really good place. I haven't talked to him in several years. We used to hang out at Nam every year. I once sorry to started sorry to uh keep telling stories, um, but there was a tune track, you know, Superior Dharma stuff. They were coming out with Superior Dharma 3. I got invited to this Hollywood Hills party after Nam. And it was the swanky, like the craziest Malibu mansion that you've ever seen. And I I Uber up there, and um, I knew Devon guy I'd seen Devin at the show, and he's like, Yeah, I'm gonna be at the party, you know, come hang out. So I show up to this party and I get out, and this guy with the hood is on the steps of this house, and it's Devin. And I was like, Oh, dude, what's up? The party's just starting. He goes, Yeah, that's why I'm leaving. Like, I wanted to come say hey to everyone at Toon Track and then leave. Um, but Mashuga's down at the down at the pool. Um, if you want to go say hi, and I'm like, Oh, wow, okay. Well, you know, see you later, man. And um, so he leaves, he gets in the same Uber that I got there with. I show up to the party, I get in, and it's like an uncle buck, like it's pretty wild, people are drinking or whatever. All the members of Masuga are around the infinity pool, passed out. Drinks, uh like they are tanked, they're absolutely tatered. And that was the uh that was all I will divulge of the uh the NAM party at the two-track in 2018 or whatever it was, 19.
SPEAKER_00What is um what is your fondest memory of any NAM that you've been to?
SPEAKER_01Uh the first one is probably always gonna be the most fondest. Uh, myself and uh my dear friend Jason Burns, who created the bobble, the fluff bobble. Um, we had a show called Gear Addicts at the time. This is before the channel really kind of did anything yet. And we had a show called Gear Addicts, and we would basically go around and just kind of try to be um, you know, we would interview people, and we're kind of like not quite a news outlet, but kind of like an all-encompassing multimedia kind of thing related to the gear industry. Right. There was a lot going on in 2011, 2012. So we show up, so we couldn't get into NAM for a couple of years. I finally beg, borrow, and steal. We get passes through Personas. We have to fly ourselves down there. Um, we had to buy ourselves a hotel, the worst, shittiest hotel you've ever seen in your entire life. I'm not even kidding.
SPEAKER_00I've stayed in every single variety of hotel.
SPEAKER_01Which now, if you go, if you go to this hotel now, it has been completely refurbished into the bougiest, nicest thing you've ever seen. However, in 2013, I guess this would have been, I can promise you, this thing, you we show up into our room, and the shower head is a hole where a hammer was hammered through the wall and a head was kind of happenstancely, like kind of plugged into it. Right. Right? The bed had been fucked into oblivion. Like it was nothing. It was flattened springs, and the floor had a giant sinkhole in it. Right. In the second story, it was awful. And so we go and we start filming all these interviews, and we don't know any better. So we're in Chuck Taylor's and vans and we're hauling 30 pounds of gear each of us with these giant. You had no idea how much walking you were in. No idea. So by the time we get done with the first day, our shin splints. We I mean, we can't even walk to the curb to the Uber to get to our hotel because there's no way we're walking to our hotel. We were in so much pain. Um, but that was the first time I'd ever been to an AMS was still not open to the public. So we walk past, Jerry Cantrell walks past us, Ozzy was Zak Wilde walks past us. Um, all these people, you're just like, wait, what? Of course you see Stevie Wonder because you see Stevie Wonder every year. I saw Stevie Wonder. I saw him even last year, and he had maybe 20 security guards surrounding him, moving as a hive into the shore booth. And I was just thinking out loud, I went, why is he here? He can't even see the mics, and then literally his security details like like and looked at me like you prick. I was like, honest question, like, why is he here? Are they gonna feel the mics or something? I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. But anyway, um, it was uh it was a super cool experience to see all these people that you've seen in magazines for years and years and years, like that is a very cool part of NAM.
SPEAKER_00It's like you there are and there are characters from the years that you see there. I remember I saw I would see Craig Goldie, who played for Dio. You know, you whatever. You see all kinds of people, and you run into people that you know either actually or peripherally or through online, you know, online interactions, and it's a fun time to connect with folks.
SPEAKER_01Um actually, you just said that, just jogged to memory. Uh, I I did not know who he was at the time. Uh same there was Nam.
SPEAKER_00I met Warren De Martini at NAM. Whoa. And I was, and you know who introduced me to him? Mike Soldano.
SPEAKER_01Whoa.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It was the greatest.
SPEAKER_01Love to get Mike on here.
SPEAKER_00And I had met him once before in Seattle.
SPEAKER_01That's so cool. Yeah. Uh I was waiting for my Digitech rep. This was, it would have been Nam 2015, 14, 2014. And we were waiting for outside of the little office thing, and um, the sky walks up, and he's like, Um Was it Tom Cram? Oh, I was waiting for Tom Cram. Shout out to Tom. And this guy uh he's like, Oh, are you here to see uh Tom? And I went, Yeah, he goes, Cool, I'll just you know, wait, wait my turn or whatever. And so we're just waiting. Tom was taking forever, Tom, and we start talking. He goes, Oh, so what do you do? And I and I told him, like, well, I have this YouTube thing, and you know, I think it could be I don't know, maybe this I might be able to quit my job one day. And um, it's pretty cool. And he goes, Yeah, man, like the YouTube thing is really, really cool. And like, you know, uh, so you like asked start asking me about like what I did on YouTube and the guitar playing and all that kind of stuff, and and he said he played keyboard and he toured a little bit, and but he was so humble and so nice, and um he had a card, and so then Tom comes out and I was like, Oh, you should definitely like talk to this guy first because he said he had somewhere to be, and I'm just you know, I have nowhere to be. So talked to him, and she was like, dude, if I'm ever in Seattle, I'll hit you up. Here's my card. And yeah, he had a gal's name, and his name was Chick Korea, right? At the time, one of the nicest people I have ever, ever had the pleasure of meeting. Right, he's no longer with us, I don't think. Um, but he passed the answer to that. He passed a few years ago, I believe. Okay. Um, he was the nicest, most humble student. He was really interested in how the YouTube thing worked. I had no idea he had played on all of the Miles Davis records. Um, I think he played on um uh uh all of the fusion stuff. He played Jocko, Pastorius. Yeah. Uh he he was he was the dude. He was the keyboardist in the 70s. The guy. Right. Weather Report. Um, yeah. Had no idea who he was at the time. I just thought he was a genuinely really, really cool dude, and we had a lot in common um as far as our kind of like what we liked in music and how we saw music and why we played music, and it was really cool because Tom literally took like 45 minutes to get to us. So we had a lot of time to just sit there and be us. Right. It was pretty cool. Chick Korea. Shout out. Wow, yeah, cool guy.
SPEAKER_00I I don't know if I've met any assholes there. I mean, some people, you know, I don't I typically don't bother people at NAM. Yeah. You know, especially if they're walking and especially if they're walking briskly. Because I know like you're going from one appointment to the next, you're going to visit people, like, don't stop people in the aisle to talk.
SPEAKER_01My move is uh I act I have to act like I'm on my phone.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, no, you just gave it away. I'm gonna bleep that out. No, no, edit this out, edit that bleep that out. Uh let's see. I saw I've seen some amazing shows at NAM. Oh one year I saw When was your first NAM, if I may ask real quick? I think 2008.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Continue shows. I saw um Mike Campbell and Mike Campbell's Dirty Knobs band.
SPEAKER_01I would kill to see Mike Campbell. It was one of my absolute heroes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was very, very, very cool.
SPEAKER_01It was a gr very Was it out by the fountain area or was it at like a venue?
SPEAKER_00No, no, no, no, no. It was in Fullerton. So it was a little little little bit of a driveway.
SPEAKER_01The rebar rebar or something?
SPEAKER_00Or uh there's like this little theater. It was a cool spot. So that was a very cool show that I saw. I saw a couple roasts.
SPEAKER_01What?
SPEAKER_00I saw a couple roasts at the you know. Oh, I'd love to go to a roast. Um, one of them was I think uh not Gene Simmons, it was a Zack Wilde roast.
SPEAKER_01You were there?
SPEAKER_00I was at the Zack Wilde roast.
SPEAKER_01That's so cool.
SPEAKER_00And then the year after that was a D Snyder roast. I think it was D. Snyder. So I was at those. I've been to a couple of the Gibson parties, and I've been.
SPEAKER_01Remember when the Gibson parties used to be bonkers?
SPEAKER_00Dude, the last Gibson party, Peter Frampton played. Yeah, and it was sick.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It was amazing. Yeah, I've seen some great shows. I saw Robert Randolph, Blue Oyster Colt, and what? At the PV show. At the PV party.
SPEAKER_01Remember when when brands used to put budget behind those things like that?
SPEAKER_00Well, it just the world ain't what it used to could.
SPEAKER_01I know. Pretty good. Yeah. The Nam shows are pretty pretty special. Because that's the only time you're ever gonna get those those people together. Um the PRS part going back to PRS, it's just a sponsored by PRS uh episode. Just kidding. Um, I took my dad to NAM last year and uh for 2024 and he hadn't been to a show since seeing Blue Oyster Colt and oh no, he saw Aerosmith and he sa I think he said AC DC open up with Ted Nugent. Or something. That would have been like 77. Toys in the Attic era. Oh. Wow. Toys, Toys, Toys, Toys. Bond Scott A C D C. Wow. It was uh the high voltage era. Right. And um, he was like, Yeah, I think that was the last show. I was like, what? He's like, that was the last concert I've been to, right? So we go get our drinks, and my my my dad is super jazzed to be there. He's so supportive of what I do, and he's just happy to be there. Hopes everyone else has a good time as well. So we start getting our drinks, and we've had, you know, two or three. We've had some Jack Daniels, because it was free. Um, and we're with Josh. Shout out Josh Rivera from Dead Pioneers, and uh John Mayer shows up and starts starts playing, right? So my dad doesn't have any any context of who anyone who's playing, but he knows the tunes that they're playing. So like John Jordan was uh in the first mix of the of the group playing a Black Sabbath song. He's like, Oh, I know this song. So John starts playing Gravity Right, and my dad's like, I don't know who this is, but this guy is really, really killer. I think he's gonna go places like this, and he was like really genuine about it. Like, right, he just thinks he's some up-and-coming and people are freaking out like that. This guy's gonna do pretty good, I think.
SPEAKER_00Look at the way people are reacting to him play.
SPEAKER_01He's maybe the biggest guitar player on the planet right now, so he's like, he's really good, and he was just so genuine about it. But yeah, that was uh that was probably my favorite Nam memory of all time.
SPEAKER_00I got to spend a little bit of time with your old man at Nam last year, and I gotta say, it was a pleasure.
SPEAKER_01Everyone likes my dad. My dad's a good time. My dad is just so stoked to wherever to be wherever he is. No, he's um he's a golden retriever that way. He's just so stoked and wants everyone to have a good time.
SPEAKER_00Shout out to Dad. What else? Um, what else has been happening? What else has happened recently in the world of music?
SPEAKER_01Um, I mean, as far as gear goes, yeah, and the gear world. Fender is uh the hold the buck. I mean, that's old news now, I guess. Yeah, it is. But but since we last um you know had a podcast, we I mean we we should touch on it for a second. You know, Fender serving they're not suing everybody. They are in some litigation with a couple of people, but they basically sent out cease and desists.
SPEAKER_00Which means anything, nothing. It means nothing. I can cease and desist you uh from anything.
SPEAKER_01I cease and Mike literally sends me a C and D every day. Every day. Yeah. Every day over something. Did you touch my amp? Did you move my PV? Right.
SPEAKER_00Did you talk into a microphone? Right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And uh our legal fees are through the roof. Um yeah, defender basically got a new CEO, and they're like, err, don't copy us, err. Um, despite having lost the American trademark many, many, many years ago. But they they won a court case in Germany because the defendant didn't show up. Right.
SPEAKER_00And let me ask you this question. First of all, this behavior gets the gas face from me. Second of all, in the in the reality where no publicity is bad publicity, is there any reality where the C E O, the C E E E E E E C E O C E O O O is like, you know, Gibson got a lot of heat when they were serving their papers, but everyone was talking about Gibson. Is there any part of this that you think is that? I'm not saying it's a publicity stunt, but is it a an attention grab? Is it a grasp for a light switch?
SPEAKER_01No, in my mind.
SPEAKER_00So the difference is this. Because you are not going to everyone makes a strat-shaped guitar. You cannot fucking everyone.
SPEAKER_01Well, you you can't put the toothpaste back in the in the tube.
SPEAKER_00Watch me. Simply. I don't know. For a couple for a billion dollars, I could.
SPEAKER_01The difference is Gibson had new ownership, and the first thing they did was start trying to protect some of their trademarks, and they did it in a somewhat strategic way. They went after just a couple of they didn't they didn't issue a hundred cease and desists that we know of, anyway. That they didn't do that.
SPEAKER_00They saw my friend Adam cease and desistelled.
SPEAKER_01They did make a threatening video, you better play authentic, and you know, blah blah blah was the first thing they had Mark Ignesi do. Um, which you can literally tell on the video, he's just like, why? Why you make me do this? This is a bad idea. Right. He doesn't like that sucks. No, everyone universally thought that was a bad idea, just like this is. But the difference is, is they were over in Europe, they won the case on a basically what is a technicality, but it's not even a trademark, it's a copyright. So now they're arguing it's a work of art by Leo Fender, and it has malicious intent in everyone's mind because keep in mind, they they bought the rights to Leo Fender's likeness and name back after GNL went under. Right. This was a long play. This stuff was happening long before this the CEO was even in place. He's kind of the fall guy in all this. Not that I'm defending him in any way. But my understanding is this was all in motion way before he got that gig, is what I was told. But they've are they have no ground here in the States, and now they're using that somewhere else to come over here and go, ha ha ha. See.
SPEAKER_00But what is the end game? They are the only strat-shaped guitar builder, the only television.
SPEAKER_01Did you say that's not the end game?
SPEAKER_00Well, it's impossible.
SPEAKER_01If you want to sell more guitars, build a better strat. That's what I think. Period. Build one with the volume knob in the right place. There's no reason why they can't Fender can't build what they're building, old school stuff, and then have us an uh not even an alternate reality line because they've done weird pawn shop configs and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_00I actually love those paranormal and it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, why can't they have a modern version? Call it a modern, call it a strap modern. Gibson does that with their Les Pulse. Cool. We're gonna carve out the heel, we're gonna put some active switching stuff in it and make it super modern.
SPEAKER_00I think they've done some of that.
SPEAKER_01They've done some of that, but I mean as a regular line, not like it's a limited thing. Right. Make it the same price or less, you know, be competitive, build a better strat or whatever it is. The only way out of this is they get rid of the CEO and start saying sorry. They'll never do that though. They are damaging long term. I know a lot of guys that are like, I don't even want to use my fenders right now for my big gig or my videos. I don't want to use, you know, I don't I don't want to use my my P base in a video. I don't want to use my P base. I'm gonna use my Stingray. I don't I don't even want to go near that thing. So the resulting impact of that, the collateral damage of the fender thing is, I think, going to last decades. They are doing so much damage to their brand and image that took that they've been building since the 80s.
SPEAKER_00God, imagine if it worked like this in world politics. Right?
SPEAKER_01Imagine the world would be a better place. It's just a strange, it's such a strange move. And they're not even a publicly traded company, which is also makes it weird. Like they don't have stock. There's no fender stock. Yes, they have a a board and they have all these kinds of things, you know, vested interested people. But you know, they're not a publicly traded, they're not on Wall Street or anything, but they act like they are. I don't know. It's pretty weird.
SPEAKER_00I will say one thing about Fender. They whatever those Class D vintage style amps that they do. The they do a deluxe and a twin, maybe a Salt State ones. Yeah. The Class D, they're yeah. Salt State. Their killer. What are they? Super, super yeah, so so I don't know what the hell they're called. Yeah. Their killer. They are super killer.
SPEAKER_01Yes, they are. They sound really, really good.
SPEAKER_00But uh that's one of those things where, you know, like the saying the way you do one something is the way you do everything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This is a case where I feel like it's that's not happening.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's interesting too, because you know, Gibson is forever stuck in, you know, I'm sure they would love to do way more modern stuff and they can't. Their user base will not accept, they will not let them do anything that wasn't done in 1959.
SPEAKER_00When was the last new Gibson shape? I don't know. Wasn't that isn't there some like weird tulip-shaped guitar right now? That wasn't that's not new though. Is that a 70s shape?
SPEAKER_01That's based on a drawing that never made it past the blueprint stage in the 50s when they were doing the explorers.
SPEAKER_00So when when is the last new guitar shape from them or from Fender?
SPEAKER_01The Victory series, maybe, or the um, I don't know, it the R D, I don't know. You know, you look at the 70s and you look at all these wild shapes, they were trying stuff, and I respect that. I love the the RD is maybe my favorite guitar shape.
SPEAKER_00Reverse V.
SPEAKER_01Right. But it's interesting that Fender, they do very much do stuff outside of the vintage norm stuff, solid state power section amplifiers that are successful, yeah. They're showing Gibson's never done that, right? They would never do that. Instead, they just bought Mesa Bookie.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, that's not the worst.
SPEAKER_01No, but I'm just saying, like, Fender does some innovative, more modern-minded things. So why couldn't they do that with the strat more so than they have in the past?
SPEAKER_00Parallel universe. Those that line, killer, but limited.
SPEAKER_01Limited. Talking about a non-limited regular series. Yeah. Here's the modern flavor, here's the vintage flavor, choose one. Why can't they do that?
SPEAKER_00And also why don't they just hire us? You know what? They should. You know what? We would split the CEO's salary, I'll bet you and be perfectly happy. I'd even move to fucking Arizona.
SPEAKER_01Right. No, just you know, they could make their own versions of Sir Moderns. Right. Or you know, whatever it is. They could they could do that. They're Fender. They're so Fender is the baby Huey of the guitar world. They go, I'm gonna go sit on. You know what I mean? Like that's that's what Fender is.
SPEAKER_00Well, they've I mean they've weathered the storm, have they? And I feel like they deserve it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I don't know. I I hope I hope they see their their sales crash, which from what my understanding it's only affected them a little bit. Right. Well, of course. It doesn't matter. Because most people don't care.
SPEAKER_00Well, most people that information never reached their fucking.
SPEAKER_01Well, and also the old duffers that are buying the expensive fenders aren't were never in the market for anything else in the first place.
SPEAKER_00That's the irony. Right. Well, that okay, so at the foundation of all of these arguments that Gibson and Fender have with people who are making these other shapes, they're like, Well, people will confuse. They want they want a fender, but they're confused They're so stupid.
SPEAKER_01Right. That's that's the difference. So, you know, in my opinion, again, it's just my opinion, Gibson's tactic of play authentic was you should choose the real one. They weren't calling you stupid. Whereas Fender is like, everyone's such morons, they have no idea what they're like. Fuck you, dude. Well, guitar players in general that are shopping and looking to spend their hard-earned money are gonna be the most versed, well-educated people about what they want.
SPEAKER_00Well, the information is just out there in the world in a way that it never has been before. But also, I am starting to get to, even though I just got a vintage less ball, I'm kind of also getting to a point in my life where if I want to spend $600 on an instrument, hand me three or four like instruments in that price range, and I will pick the one that I like the best. I don't care who makes it. Let me play it. I'm I'm kind of the opposite.
SPEAKER_01If I want to Les Paul, I'm gonna go buy a Gibson Les Paul.
SPEAKER_00What if you show up and there is a callings that is the nicest guitar you've ever played? Sounds I can't do it, looks, and feels like it's a good thing. No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01I'll do you one better. Heritage. Some of the best guitars I've ever played. I cannot do that headstock shape. I can't do it. Oh God, you're a wiener. I can't do it. Why? You're too much of a fashion lady? No, no, I just don't like the headstock shape. I'm allowed to just not like the headstock shape of the tapered. I don't like it. I don't think it looks right with the the rest of the aesthetic. But that's my opinion and choice as a player.
SPEAKER_00When you're playing, so I'm not saying I don't like it because of the name on the headstock.
SPEAKER_01I'm saying they've changed enough of it where in my mind that's not something that appeals to me.
SPEAKER_00This is kind of like one of those situations of uh like your car. We care about the car, the body style, because you have to walk up and look at it. You care that it looks alright. Do you care what color the bumper is? Generally no. Right, because you don't see it while you're driving it, just like you don't see the headstock while you're playing a guitar.
SPEAKER_01I do. Liar. My guitar is down at my damn knees, and that's the only thing I see is the headstock. I just look to my left and there's a headstock. Because I play so low and cool because I'm so cool, Mike. Because you're such a fat little misfassian. Oh God. No, if I want a Gibson Les Paul, or if I want a Les Paul, I will go and find a cool Gibson Les Paul. Whether that's an old or new one, I don't care. But I'm gonna go and get what I want. I'm too old to settle. What whatever it is that I want. I'm not saying, you know, Les Paul versus whatever. I'm just saying with anything, I feel like I'm to the point now where if I want a hi-wat, I'm gonna go get a hi watt. I don't want a clone. Sure. I don't want a Marshall clone. I'm gonna go I'm gonna go get an old Marshall. I guess. You're kind of the same way, though.
SPEAKER_00I'm kind of the same way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You're different with amps, though, I feel like. You are, but not guitars. Like you're like, well, whatever's most functional feels good, I'll play it.
SPEAKER_00With amps, you're kind of like, you are well, I have I have this nostalgic thing about the SLO still. You do.
SPEAKER_01Um we were I'm gonna tell this story. We were at Quimper Sound when I got my Les Paul. When you got your Les Paul, an amazing Les Paul, which I am secretly so fucking jealous of.
SPEAKER_00It's really I mean, it's currently my favorite guitar.
SPEAKER_01It's so good. And James had an SLO 100 in the shop. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's what I showed up there wanting to leave with.
SPEAKER_01Yes. You don't need a an SLO. I have an SLO. I'll it can live here for all I care. I don't really use it these days. Right. But you have no use for a Soldano SLO100.
SPEAKER_00One show booked where it would be perfectly acceptable.
SPEAKER_01But but I understand you're nostalgically horny for that amplifier forever. Yeah. And I I I completely get that. But even James is like, you don't need it. What are you gonna do with that? Like put your feet up on it? Like the fact of the matter is, I you know it doesn't mean it's not cool because the Soldano SL 100 is the coolest of the cool.
SPEAKER_00My Friedman PT20 does what I need to do. Great amp. Yeah. I'd love a head version of that. Sure. Does he make a head version of that?
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah. Yeah, okay, I thought so. The Pink Taco. And then there's the Oh, I was thinking of the uh the sign the sister, the I I can't remember uh twin sister, Dirty Shirley.
SPEAKER_00Dirty Shirley.
SPEAKER_01That's that's it. I was thinking the the Dirty Shirley. Um yes, you're kind of how I am with guitars, you are about amps. But how you are with guitars, I'm kind of that way with amps. Like, I've had a lot of Marshall clones, really cool ones. I've had a lot of boogie clones, I've had a lot of Pv50s oh there's the 5150 thing. Like, yeah, cool. Like, I don't really care because that I don't see. It's behind me, or it's in the studio in the back rack. Like, I don't care. Whatever sounds sickest, sick, but I'm not physically touching it and playing the amplifier. Right.
SPEAKER_00I mean, a lot of the instruments that I have gigged in the last few years are Indonesian made. Yeah. Like the Yamaha BB basses. Oh yeah, where the guitar was made, I don't really care. Indonesian. And now I'm playing that Spectre, and it's Indonesian. And this I mean, it's the Spectre is so good.
SPEAKER_01And it's like uh My God. What a bass.
SPEAKER_00I just want I want more. Yeah. I want a Euro base. I want a custom shop base. But you know, that's a lot of dollars. It's a lot of dollars and living indoors is uh God, it's so great.
SPEAKER_01It's great.
SPEAKER_00Man.
SPEAKER_01Alright, you guys at home, if you're watching the video of this podcast.
SPEAKER_00I'm sorry, first of all.
SPEAKER_01What do you like as far as brand, not brand loyalty, but like where do you sit in, do you care what the name of your guitar is? I mean, I know we would love I mean I've made videos about this very subject. We all love to say, no, I don't care, it's whatever sounds best. I don't think that's true for most of us in some degree. Some of us grow up and have that nostalgic time, I think nostalgia plays a huge role. You don't have that nostalgic thing about guitars, but you certainly do about amps.
SPEAKER_00Well, I grew up looking at guitars, not online, and sure during a time when accessibility was not really a thing. True.
SPEAKER_01And almost at the tail end of that.
SPEAKER_00A guitar that cost $500 wasn't a great guitar back then.
SPEAKER_01Right, but it is now.
SPEAKER_00But now it is, and so I'm and also $500 isn't what it used to be. It's like half. Yeah. So when I do the math, I'm like, I'm I'm stoked when the NS icon feels great right out of the box. I'm stoked when the BB734, which is $900, sounds and looks killer right out of the box. And both of those bases show up set up perfectly. Like they they set them up when they ship them. Like they're great.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00And so I don't know, sure, the headstock and the brand and all that. But if it was a court. Would you play court? If the if I had an amazing court in my hand Who are making those, to be fair.
SPEAKER_01Probably, probably.
SPEAKER_00Right, probably so. Um, absolutely. See, I wouldn't I've played some amazing courts. I would play, I would play a vintage. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I do. I, you know, like, I don't know. What about a vantage? That maybe that's what I'm talking about. A bolt on Les Paul. I don't I can't do a bolt on Les Paul.
SPEAKER_01Um I'll do a bolt-on MG. Buddy might have a Memphis when we were kids. Memphis is great. No, he's to set it up. No, no, no. It was it it was it was messed up.
SPEAKER_00There are a bunch of those Japanese-made.
SPEAKER_01It was like a hundred dollar bolt on Les Paul. It was it was bad. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00There are a lot of those guitars that are great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. I had a Bernie, a white Les Paul custom Bernie.
SPEAKER_00That is a baller guitar.
SPEAKER_01Amazing guitar. I paid $300 for it in Japan. Right. That belongs to uh Joey Bradford.
SPEAKER_00That's how much that was $300.
SPEAKER_01I walked in and the guy was like, you should buy an actual Les Paul. They're really good deals here. And I was like, I want a Bernie. And he was like, get that thing out of my store and I'll even throw in a case. It was three 30,000 yen at the time. Did you carry it back or ship it back? No, I carried it right on the plane.
SPEAKER_00Oh, good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. All the pawn was like, no.
SPEAKER_00I don't think I would love to go back to Japan and do a guitar safari.
SPEAKER_01Let's do a guitar safari in Japan. I don't know who's gonna pay for it, but we'll get we'll get a sponsor.
SPEAKER_00I wonder if we could get Reverb to give us some money to go and buy some good. From their competitors. Well, and then we would bring it back here and we would have them and then some. We could do some water gear exchange. And then we would sell them on gear. Like, I want to keep these things. No. Like, we gotta figure out some. Maybe we can get Alaska Airlines to do it.
SPEAKER_01Do they go to Japan?
SPEAKER_00Well, there's a new direct from CTAC to Tokyo, and maybe we could get them to sponsor it.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I like what you I like what you're saying right now.
SPEAKER_00Hey James, are you watching?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Let's get okay. Wait, Fender, we take everything we said back. Made in Japan Fender stuff. Let's go cover it.
SPEAKER_00Well, for sure, that stuff is killer. I have a made in Japan Squire shooting in the rack over there. I love it.
SPEAKER_01It's great. Alright. You got anything else? Is that the is that? I mean, I think we're creepy. Are we winding down? I think we're winding. It feels like we're winding down.
SPEAKER_00Are you guys seepy?
SPEAKER_01I think we're winding down. Um, leave a comment down below if you would like to argue with us at all. Or if who are we kidding? Yeah, they're gonna they're gonna do that. People love Darng you. Yeah, yeah, they do. Um, anyways, if you're still here, thank you so much for watching andor listening. Um, I've been Fluff. I'm still your pal Mike. We'll see you next time. Take care, everyone.
