PETE THORN SUNDAY LIVE #361

Hey. Well, sorry. I know I'm late. Fifteen minutes later than I thought I'd be, but it's for a good cause. Well, at least I was attending a good cause. The kitten rescue event. It was fantastic. I didn't want to go. It was very difficult to leave, to be honest, but you guys are that important to me. Uh, I had to, uh, we were meeting some people actually to watch cats while we're traveling and stuff like that.

So, look at these dudes. These dudes had a sign by them that was like, "Do not touch. They're not comfortable with humans." But look at those guys. They were a gang. Those dudes were tough. Look at those guys. They didn't want to have anything to do with people, but they were so cool. Um, but there were a lot of amazing cats there. The not that they're not amazing, but there were a lot of super friendly ones. This one was super sweet. Really, really cute.

Anyway, they rescue cats and, you know, keep them out of kill shelters and stuff like that and get them to fosters and stuff like that. It was it was really cool to get a chance to check out the work they're doing and stuff. These guys here are about six days old. Their eyes aren't even open yet. Oh man, they were so freaking cute. Really cute.

So, anyways, that's what I was doing. That's why I'm late. And uh, anyways, uh, all right, what are we talking about here? Let's see. Those cats have seen some [__] Yeah, the the three and the Yeah, they were they were just like the one in the front too. He was like a badass that was like the two in the back were kind of like behind him and one in the front was like, "I got this" old cat gang. Yeah, a little bit. They were a total gang. That was the That was the vibe. It was pretty cool to see. Interesting. Uh, all right. Um, sorry I'm late once again, but here we go. Here we go. Sunday live. Let's go. Let's go.

Uh, what happened this week? Making a video for I don't have it here actually. That's right. Um, because I'm using it at a gig. Making a video for the Reload 2 from um, Two Notes. That thing is great, man. I I'm using it. I got to go to Vegas to do a one-off. Uh, and I'm using it with a quad Cortex for the one-off to just power the quad into a a rented 412. And man, the power amp in it, I got to say, is really, really good sounding. It's a class D power amp, but they've done something with the voicing of it that makes it sound really, really it's it's not like uh like it's enhancing. It just sounds like it's supposed to. Like I don't know if you guys find this, but I find a lot of class D style power amps or there's not very even very many of them out there for guitar. While they work and they can be very powerful and small, a lot of them have this kind of hard sound like a a um just like a hardness to the tone that you know that you don't get out of a a a guitar amp necessarily. So that but anyways the the one that's in the Two Notes Reload 2 which is this great load box with a stereo effect loop and stereo uh power amp so you can reamp something you know great if you got something like an old Marshall or whatever and you want to control the volume but also maybe get it in stereo and add some effects. You can use it mono too um or just load it down and take the line out of the box and for recording and stuff. So so anyways I'm working on a video for that right now. It's a a fairly in-depth product in that you can use it in a number of different ways. So, it's taking me a minute, but I should have it out early next week.

Uh, that's going on. What else? What else? [Music] Um, let's see. There's Jen. What's up, Jen? How are you? You're on the phone, so I won't bother you. And, uh, meanwhile, I'm going to take a bite of a chia pudding with granola. H. cuz it's time for coffee and breakfast. I didn't get my breakfast in cuz I was at a catavan. Are you running the VP4 direct in front of the amp or using send return? You know what? I've only used it and I used it in the Reload 2 video um for some stuff for some stereo effects, but I've only used it for post stuff. I haven't even tried the drives in it yet, but as it stands right now, really quite impressed with it. I think it's really good. Here it is. For those that haven't seen one, it's very small, but not too small. You know, foot buttons are far enough apart. Probably like a quad Cortex spacing. Um, and um, man, pretty sold on it. I mean, I think it's great. I got to try it more. But even just for post effects, it's pretty great. Like does kind of everything. Um, especially when you incorporate the editor really quite easy to use, I find. So, you know, I like computer editors for stuff like that. It just makes everything that much easier to kind of operate and whatnot. Uh, but um running stereo mono, I've only used it in stereo. Um, disadvantages, you're asking about advantages and disadvantages. It the disadvantages to using it for cable, running it in front as well as for post are that um you're going to lose stereo. It'll it'll do um pre and post four cable style stuff but uh but not um in stereo. So you you get one send and return then for the front sorry send and return in front send and return in the in the post path as well would be what it is. So I want to use it in stereo. I mean, I've got, you know, drives and stuff, so don't really need I mean, I hear the drives are great in it, though. That's one thing that people say is that that that that have used it like that a lot, that the drives are really quite good. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh, did Toby and Little Cat end up with a brother or sister? Not Not today. I can't handle three. I can handle two, but two's the limit, I think. Yeah, that's enough for one, you know, we don't live in big places and it's like um you know, three I think that that would require two litter boxes at least. And with two uh you can do you can do one litter box and it's and it's cool. But uh Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If your cat could text you, they wouldn't. Actually, they probably would to be like, "Where are you? It's time to feed me." Yeah. Can't you see that my bowl is only three-quarters full? What is your problem? Why don't you come home and fill it?

Uh, saw you on Tone Talk. You appeared for a second in Dave's room. Yeah, I'm I'm always up there in Dave's Dave's uhh shop and stuff like that, so I pop in and out all the time. Uh-huh. Let's see here. I've been on a Jensen speaker kick for a bit. Have you checked out any of the modern Jet speakers? I haven't actually. They've asked me to, but I just haven't yet. So, I would like to.

Uh, anyway, for those just joining, thanks for uh joining me late as well. I was at this uh kitten rescue thing earlier, which was awesome. People doing great work. Uh, the place has been there for twenty plus years. And um anyway, I had to attend that this morning for various reasons. So, uh, I was over there and stuff and I appreciate you showing up, uh, a little bit later for for the show. I know it's late for you guys in Europe and stuff. What pedal would use for jazz blues, the Unoptanium or the Jam Double Double Dreamer? I haven't tried the Double Dreamer. I don't think uh maybe correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think I have. Um, the Unoptanium would be terrific though. Um, because it's basically like a Dumble on one side and then a Klon on the other side. So it works just great as a just an overall overdrive situation for all kinds of styles. I'll grab the super chats there in a second. Thanks for those guys. I'll get to those.

Um, just watching the Billy Corgan interview with the DeLeo brothers before coming here. Cool interview. I haven't seen that yet. Robert DeLeo is a very underrated songwriter. Absolutely under the radar key piece of STP. Yeah, he's amazing man. amazing, you know, uh, songwriter, musician in general, and a super nice guy to boot. I've told the story a bunch of times, but I've known him since '90. He used to work at Macy's Boogie Store on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood before I mean when they were called Mighty Joe Young, I think. Uh, that was the precursor to the Stone Temple Pilots name. And I knew him back then. And then one day he disappeared and he wasn't around the shop anymore. And I didn't think to ask like, "Where's Robert?" And then like probably '92 or so, I saw a uh '92 '93, I opened up a magazine and was flipping through and Stone Temple Pilots big two-page spread thing, you know, and there was Robert and I went like, oh, Robert's the bass player in Stone Temple Pilots now. I see that. Oh, okay. And then I put two and two together, Mighty Joe Young STP. Uh, and he'd become famous and didn't work in the music shop anymore. But anyway, he was a great guy back then and still is a great guy. I see him all the time. Not all the time, but at least a couple times a year, I see him around and stuff. And he's always he's the same dude he always was. He's just a nice person. And his brother's really cool, too. Dean. He's really nice. He came in here not that long ago and kind of what was I was showing him something in here. He was rehearsing at a rehearsal place that's close to here and I just saw him outside and then I said, "You could come in and check this out." And he came in and can't remember what it was though. Loadbox or something maybe. I don't know. Anyway, he was interested and we had a good chat and he's a nice cat. Dean DeLeo. What else? What else? What else? Let's see here.

Does it sound as good as the Power Station? Should I get the Fractal VP4 to replace all the post effects? I think the Fractal would be great for um you know, I would I I can pretty much say yeah, like you could do just about anything that most people would need to do post effect wise with with the VP4. I think it's that good. And uh the Power Station, yeah, it's it's pretty great. I mean, I've used the Power Station. It's a great piece of gear. I've used it for years and has recommended it as my favorite load reamp solution. I think the Two Notes is right there with it. That's what I think, you know, and it's stereo, so if you want that option, you've got it. If you're more of a tube purist and stuff, the Power Station's going to, you know, it feels great. It's it's got a thing. I am kind of I guess and it's like I but I so I was sort of like almost not expecting it to hang right there with the Power Station but I have to say like in in an A/B I think it's really terrific. I think they're both good pieces of gear. Really really good pieces of gear. Um you know and they they've done it in a in a sort of solid state reamp which is always nice for reliability and stuff. So uh yeah. Yeah. Very very good.

Um I'm going to just run down in the chat here. Grab these uh uh super chats. Joe, getting a new bass just torn between a G&L L200. I like those. In a Music Man Stingray. Similar, aren't they? Sort of in some ways. Um both I used to own. Any thoughts? Uh any insight on Cornell's warm-ups? Well, let's start with that. He really just used to sing songs kind of in his room. He didn't do like any exercises or anything, but he would sort of you would hear him sing songs that he was going to do in his acoustic set that night. H. So maybe uh I have a highway or um um acoustic like a stone or uh what's that other song? I can't remember the name of it, but you get the idea. He would he would sit and just kind of acoustic guitar and sing songs, you know, to warm up his voice. And he he generally did that just about every gig. He would he would warm up. It's pretty rare that he didn't get out there warm up or in his room and warm up first. So, but the basses I don't know the G&L that well. I think they're nice though. I think G&L is an interesting guitar brand that I I feel like they make and like still make and did make really good guitars, but they're a little under the radar. And yeah, kind of like Ernie Ball Music Man stuff, like sort of quality California made guitars based on Fender stuff, uh, but with their own sort of, you know, modern accuchimants. Um, but I have less of a, uh, I've played less, you know, uh, G&L, so I have a little bit more. If I wanted the Sure thing, I'd probably go with the Music Man. I know I know what they feel like. I know what they play like. I feel like the frets are great and they're they're just really good guitars, you know, and basses, but it it's kind of down to the pickups, too. I mean, the Music Man, their electronics are sort of very, you know, it's a thing. The active system and stuff that's generally in the Music Man's and the big pickup. Uh, so, you know, it's it's I would sort of say like you got to play them and decide like what tone you want, you know? There's a specific thing with probably with both of them.

Uh, the Reload 2 is on my list along with Fat Power Station 2 Boss's thing. What would you choose for using a Friedman IR series preamp? Uh, I would have to say the uh probably the the the um Reload because the the the Friedman IR preamps already have the built-in kind of tube, you know, impedance curve thing going on and then you'd have a stereo effect loop where you could easily just patch in some stereo effect stereo power amp and you could do some that that actually be quite a powerful rig like a Reload 2 and a Friedman preamp with with something like you know a few pedals in front and a VP4 post. So you could have like a small pedal board like really quite compact pedal board uh with something like a VP4 or other stereo effect thing. Friedman preamp, few pedals in front, maybe add a compressor and fuzz and uh you know yeah stuff that you can't do just with the Friedman preamp, you know, maybe a Klon or something like that. Wah, you know, and then uh go run out of that into a uh a Reload 2 with the, you know, long nice snake made for the your the uh the effect loop or whatever. So you can run your your post stuff, you know, and then back into the Reload for the stereo into a nice stereo 212 or something. Killer rig. That would be do a lot of stuff with that.

Uh Vincent, what's up, man? I'm building a wet dry wet board with EVH3000 Friedman Plex running after parallelizer and a power amp. Can't seem to connect the direct out to the Plex. So, what are you doing? Let's see. Wet dry wet board with EVH3000 running it after parallelizer into a power amp. Okay. So, well, I would just run the I would use the uh EVH3000 in the parallelizer in obviously in kill dry. Uh that's kind of what I do by the way. It's exactly what I do and just use it in a traditional kind of um stereo fashion just left right. So, you know, the you know, uh, send out of the parallelizer into the input of the of the 3000, take the left right out, not the dry out. Don't even use that and you'll be you'll be good then. That's the way I would use it. Um, you know, unless there's something I'm missing about your rig, but uh, and then you can just you want to do this. I would do the send out of the um there's a there's a number of different ways you could do this. You you could do this using the um Yeah, I see what you're saying. You don't need the the parallelizer necessarily. Uh if you have the EVH delay, you can actually do kind of a proper wet dry wet with just the delay. Um, but since you're incorporating the parallelizer, there's no reason to actually use the like if you already have it and you want to use it, there's no reason to use the kind of parallel or or wet dry wet feature that's in the EVH 3000. I I would just use it in stereo and then use the parallelizer for the stereo thing. Um, so there's there's a number of different ways you could do this. You could ask D, ask Friedman, you know, exactly how he would patch it. But if I was you, I would be taking a line out of the Plex using some sort of line out box that passes then through to the speaker, uh, your dry cab, take that line out, tap you, there's a number of different devices, sur one and stuff, line out box, um, that that just takes a tap off that uh, speaker cable going from the Plex to the main dry cabinet. Take that tap, run that to the parallelizer, uh, and, uh, and then you've got your, you can mix in however much dry signal and however much effect you want on the parallelizer and run that into a stereo power amp and stereo left, right cabinets for your effect signal. Yeah, that's the way to if you got a parallelizer, do it that way. Don't don't even worry about the direct out on the uh on the EVH3000. You don't need to use it. Um, that's, you know, just Yeah. Okay, that's enough of that. What else we got here? Let's see.

Lee says he's got full uh three cats. Full-time job. They rule our lives, but they're fantastic, right? Wouldn't have it any other way. Uh, first PV Van Halen 120 amp had Marshall 1964 bottom guitar caps through effect loop. Amazing sound. Nothing beats real tube old school tone sound. I had one an original 5150 really early on. And I got it right when it came out. Sorry, I'm taking another bite of this. Combine was so early. It was still when they were using US-made tubes. Came with Philips 606s. It was great. It was a killer amp. I used it like early days in LA and gigging at clubs and stuff like that. I used that amp a lot. Um, weird. I don't remember what happened to it. I always say this, but I had a lot of gear that like I'd love to have that block logo 5150 now. It's just cool. What did I do with it? Like I don't remember. I ended up with a Mesa Mark III at some point. Maybe maybe I got it trading it. Didn't like the Mark III at all. Um, maybe the Mark III sounded great and I was just expecting it to do too much, but I was trying to use it like a three channel head, which no. Uh, but I've learned I've learned now that they are I've got that 2C up there, which I'm, you know, experimenting with and just having fun with for that sound that they do. And it's a great sound. The one thing that they It's It's It's not a one-trick pony, but it's a one trick at a time pony for sure, I would say. uh you know, it's highly tweakable with that crazy EQ and stuff like that. Um, and they do a thing that there's a sound and a feel to those amps that is that big note thing that they do. And it's it's a cool sound. It's not a Marshall, but it's a that's not everything has to be, right? It's a it's its own thing. It's cool. Oh, I want to show this cuz I have it here. I think that's supposed to be me on there. Looks a little like me. Uh, Dirty Boy preamp. I haven't plugged it in yet. I have it here ready to go on my desk. Been meaning to. And thanks for that, Dirty Boy folks. Can't wait to check it out. Sounds great in all the videos I've heard. I'm sure I'm going to love it. Yeah.

Uh, yo, Pete, you recommended the parallelizer. I found one. Put an EQ and dig EQ into dig V2 into a loop. Post amp the EQ so I can darken the first repeat. Sounds killer for ambient wash. That's awesome. That sounds cool. Very good. Very good. Yeah, the dig is kind of bright. So, yeah, that's neat. You've got an EQ in there, too. That's that's unique, you know, to uh so you can really fine-tune the tone of the delay. Very cool. Very cool. Oh [__] you're right. I made a mistake. Not Mighty Joe Young. It was Mighty Joe Young. Ah, see that's what happens when you get older. Kids, the old guys will relate. Not Ugly Kid Joe, Mighty Joe Young. That was Stone Temple Pilots before Stone Temple Pilots. Ugly Kid Joe was that other band that had that song that was a hit. I mix them up. But three three-word titled bands that have Joe in the Ugly Kid Joe. Mighty Joe Young. Come on. Honest mistake. Anyway, that was Robert DeLeo's band. Same band before they just changed the name to STP. You're right. Thank you, Peter. Appreciate that. Mighty Joe Young. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

Uh, somebody here talking about Jensen speakers again. Jensen uh Jet Falcon or Falcon speaker with the Hemp sounds amazing in my '66 Fender Deluxe. Cool. I I got to give them a try. They've been asking me to do that for a long time. I'll see them at trade shows and stuff and they'll be like, "Please try our speakers. We want you to hear them." And I'm like always like, "I'm totally down." And then I never do. Sorry, Jensen people. Happy to do it at some point. Yeah. Oh, there's another super chat. I got to hit this one from Linger 1234. Watching the classic rock show clips. I noticed you did the first solo for Comfortably Numb, then the other guitarist did the other solo. Oh. Um, well, James, the other guitar player, he plays the last solo beautifully. He's got it memorized note-for-note. Um, the band Brit Floyd started as the Aussie Floyd, right? Australian Pink Floyd. The the the folks that do classic rock show, it's called CMP. Uh, and they Brit Floyd, which has since separated, but they they started as Aussie Floyd, then became Brit Floyd. Uh, and that was a CMP thing. Classic Rock Show started years later. Uh, and and so there's a connection with all that Pink Floyd music with CMP where they're like the, you know, uh, this is I don't know if it's a Brit Floyd's like an officially sanctioned, but they sort of are. there's a connection with with Pink Floyd where they're like they have, you know, anything legal and all that was always uh cleared with Pink Floyd and it was like very like you know they they they always wanted to stay above board with and not ruffle any feathers in the Pink Floyd camp and and all that. Um, but anyway, it was a kind of if if anybody out there seen Brit Floyd, they do uh, you know, a great job at the Pink Floyd material and the Pink Floyd show really honoring the music and all that. And James kind of grew up in that. He's, like I say, the musical director and all uh, my buddy and also the other guitar player in the Classic Rock Show. So, he knows a lot of that material like really, really, really well. So, he just he knew that solo for Comfortably Numb. And if you watch him play it, he plays it just perfect. So, he was just kind of like, "Okay, let's I want to do this in the set this year. I'll I'll take the, you know, the big solo, but you Why don't you take the first one? I mean, he could he could just play the first one, too, but he's like, "You you take the first one." So, you have a solo in the song. I was like, "Okay." So, I learned it. And uh but he um he plays it very very well. And that's kind of how that that uh we always when whenever we're doing a set any every year for Classic Rock Show there's a you know a lot of conferring and back and forth about what we're going to play and what uh James ultimately ends up making the set list but we have a lot lot of discussion about what goes goes into it and um

When it comes to solos and things, you know, he likes to solo, and he's he's great at it, and he's a slightly different guitar player than me. Uh, sometimes it's very apparent, like, "What, well, you take that one and I'll take this one," but other times we talk about it, and but it's always a mutual respect thing where it's like we we'll kind of look like it's it's about equal in this two sets that we play in the show, the amount of soloing between each guy, and there's even times where I don't play, like uh, and times where he doesn't play, like we do a Van Halen song, he just sits it out, and let's see, I think there's times in the last year. Uh, did he sit out any, or did I sit out anything in the last? I don't think I think I played the whole last year. We did get back the year before, and and it was kind of like there was nothing really for me to do on that because Jesse was playing guitar on it. So, I sat that out.

I'm trying to think of an example of a trio song where James just plays. I know there is one, but I can't think of one right now. Um, I'm always offering like, "Hey, you want to do a Cream song? Like, you just take it," because that's kind of his bag a little more. And he's really good at the Jimmy Page stuff, too, which I find very difficult. I find it really hard to solo like Jimmy Page. Like, really, it's the number one thing I have issues with with classic rock, trying to learn something like Jimmy Page. I can play, you know, all the parts and the riffs and everything. Of course, I can play Led Zeppelin songs, but it's like when it comes to improv, like, you know, you're not going to learn the uh, "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" solo note for note, probably. Like, at least I'm not, because it's like how do you? It's just he never played it the same way twice. So, how do you learn a record version of it? Something like "Stairway to Heaven." Okay, there's an arc to it, and the individual licks are a little more defined, but there's a lot of Jimmy Page where it's just like that style that he does. You know what I'm talking about. I know you do. And I I find that very difficult to kind of like I just don't sound like him at all, you know? I I can kind of do a lot of different stuff and sound right, like sound like the, you know, the like, "Oh yeah, that's what that solo sounds like," and Jimmy Page, like not so much. I just never I don't know. There's a sound and a looseness to it that is it's it's magic and stuff, but I just don't have that in my playing so much. I've found it's not it's just not one thing, that one of those things that I'm just not very good at.

Uh, what are your thoughts on Solen Vintage 3412 or 212 closeback? Better mix with greenbacks? Uh, well, the nice thing is, of course, they're a 60-watt speaker. Just to confuse things, you know, they're not a 30-watt speaker. They're a 60-watt speaker. So, that gives you 120 watts of power handling. And a 212 that's nice. Um, 212 with greenbacks is a is a 50-watt cabinet at best, kind of thing. And I greenbacks belong in a 412, I think. I mean, I've got 212s with them. I've got a 112 with a greenback. Um, yeah, the V30 is the better choice. Certainly, if you're running, you know, anything from 50 to 100 watts, it's it's a better choice. Uh, and nothing sounds quite like a greenback, though, if that's what you want, you know. So, it's like that was why they came out with something like a Creamback uh 65 and then the Creamback 75. Now, the Creamback 75 is what I use in the PT uh 100 212, horizontal 212, and we listen to Vintage 30s, and Vintage 30s sound good with a PT100, but I'm not really like a super duper Vintage 30 fan. Sometimes they sound great. They sound great with Sultanos. I think they sound great with just certain modern, you know, sort of more like modern gain amp. Certainly with anything like a Bogner or like anything darker that's a little, you know, they the they benefit from that sort of 2K or 2.5, whatever the spike in a green or in a V30 is. They've got that thing in the upper mids that that some amps really benefit from. But I I like I really don't like the sound of a Vintage 30 with a plexi for whatever reason. Might sound good with a superb bass or something, but like a lead circuit plexi, it seems like it's already got that gnarly upper thing and it benefits from a greenback. So, there's two considerations: There's power handling, and then there's tone. And then the third consider, what what amp are you using it with? You know, so for the PT100, we listen to Vintage 30s and it'd be okay. It sounds pretty cool, but I liked them with uh H75s better. Creamback H75s I thought was a it just sounds great in the 212 for the PT100, you know, at least, you know, back when we were bringing it out, it's 10 years ago now, that's what I liked. Um, now V30s mixed with greenbacks is a really cool sound, I think, so that's why we chose that in uh couple of my, you know, one of my the 212 for the PD-15 has that, and also my 412s have V30s on the bottom and greenbacks in the top. And that's a great sound. I find the blend. Uh, yep. Okay. Uh, so it it depends on a lot of factors. I can't come up with anyone, you know? Yeah, this is the right thing. Unless if if you're like, it's with this amp, I'd be like, "Oh, this would be my preference."

Love my PS100, but in my opinion, the Reload 2 is more transparent. Even at Dave Freeman's mod to the PS100 to make it more transparent. I know what you mean. I mean, it's there there is a like thing with the Reload 2 where it's like I couldn't really hear any difference between I'm going to show that in my video that I'm working on right after I get off this live stream. Actually, I should go in about 45 minutes and tackle getting the video for the Reload 2 done. But I've I've got a clip in there where I'm comparing two sounds. One's the amp direct into the cabinet. One's the amp loaded down in the Reload 2 and then into the cabinet. Exact same volume. I can't hear a difference really. Like I'm not talking like, "Oh, there's a little," you know, or it's like I can't actually really hear the difference. It sounds that close. And so transparent. Yeah, it's true. You know, anytime you have a tube amp, I think it's it's a very difficult thing to achieve total transparency, you know, and especially when we're talking about an impedance curve because it depends on the cabinet you're used to running, you know, that always changes. The curve always changes depending on what you're plugged into. But whatever they've chosen for the load and tuning it and the impedance curve they chose and everything going into their power amp into, you know, a cabinet, it's just it's very very very very very transparent with the Reload, which is kind of what you want. They achieved it. So it's uh it's impressive. Yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah.

Ian says, "Whereas I need to warm up to sing like a stone or I am the highway." Uh, yeah. Well, when you think about uh, you know, like "Like a Stone," it starts pretty low in the verse, you know, so especially for somebody like Chris that had the range. It's not a particularly high song for him, maybe in the maybe that one note going into the solo is, you know, but other than that it's, you know, so yeah, I would hear him playing that, you know, just the, you know, starting in a minor kind of, you know, [Music] strumming, you know, in that range, and he would just sing it kind of sitting there on the couch and, you know, [Music] uh, anyway, um, let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see. Chris is nothing compared to you. "Nothing Compares 2 U" is incredible. Yeah, he did great covers, man. He did some really cool stuff. I remember when he he got me to go get him some loopers. Uh, cuz he's like wanted to start experimenting with loopers. So, I I went and tried a bunch for him at Guitar Center, and I tried the Boss and tried some different ones, and the Digitech Jam Man was what we ended up with at the time. It was, you know, the original kind of like two-button one, kind of the bigger one. And I got him two. He wanted two for some reason. I don't remember why, just what he was doing. And he really liked those. And he learned how to use it really well. And then I I I went to see him play the on the Songbook tour, which was 2011, and he had the Jam Mans up there. And he did a version of "Ticket to Ride" where he was looping something at the end. That was amazing, man. That's how he closed the show was with "Ticket to Ride." It was so cool. You know, his approach to covers was always really "Billie Jean." Um, you know, you just do neat things. And for those that haven't checked out the the the the album that came out after he passed away, the the uh covers album, uh that's a really great record of, you know, he he he was basically like wanting to put out a record of kind of songs that he thought were sort of, you know, unsung great songs that literally unsung that, you know, that he was like, "This song deserves more credit, more exposure, more whatever." And so he it's a it's a uh it's really cool and did some neat versions on that too. You know, he he really he just enjoyed music, I think. You know, he loved writing and obviously being creative and stuff, but he also loved he was he was a fan. So, you know, um it's cool stuff. If you haven't checked out that record, really really great. Yep. Mhm. All right.

Sorry. So, rude eating 57 reissue, less ball. You heard the best were made around 87 or 89. That'd be prehistoric, to be honest. My favorite are kind of recent. Um, like I had a 57 reissue. It was a 2003 or four Historic. Good guitar. Mine had a Brazilian board, which was pretty cool. Um, but I feel like they didn't look right, and I feel like the the hella chunky neck was a bit much on a lot of those. You guys know what I'm talking about if you had a 57 or 58, cuz the real ones always had I can think of it in my head right now. The way they feel like a bit more of a V, little bit of a soft V going on, less shoulder. And then when Gibson did the historics, I never understood why they they left the neck so chunky because I've never played an old one that had a neck like those chunky historic ones. So, I feel like I don't I don't know exactly the neck specs and stuff in the shape, but I feel like anyway, post 2013 or so when they kind of advertised that they started using hide glue or whatever, you know, and um no trust rod condom, and and then the finishes got really good, like then that's the one the the the uh the the way the finish, that sort of patina or whatever. I don't know, like the the you know, especially when they wear and start to go green on the edge and stuff. I feel like they just got more of that look kind of post 2012 or 13 or so. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Like the the especially with the gold top, you know, sunburst, it's harder to tell, but the gold tops looked looked better to me. Like oh 2013 2014's like they got the color there. It looks like more it's like less yellow in it and a bit more brown or something uh in the Do you know what I mean? And then the the and also the the greeny thing that they do sometimes. I don't know. Just seemed like they were more on on that later. Um, just going to look like here on Reverb or something and see if I can see [Music] reverb.com. I'm just going to see if I can find like a 20. Let's look for 2014 R7 gold top and see if there's Let's see what comes up. There's a pretty cool-looking one right [Music] there. Yeah, like the color just looks good on this one. I mean, I can't it's not going to come across if I show it to you in a but maybe kind of VOS 20. Like even on the VOS one, the color, like I say, it's not going to translate, but where the heck's my phone? What did I do with it? What did I do with my phone? Did you guys take my phone? Oh, it's right in front of me. There it is. Uh, I don't know. It's like the even in this picture of this one here, it's a little more there's a little less like bright thing going on and it's a they got just kind of the brown element that that those guitars I don't know they they just had this it's it's a little bit of an intangible and certainly on the aged ones when I would see the uh the the kind of the aging just looking now I'm on Reverb, looking at some nice ones on Reverb. It looks like they're all around. Is it 2011 for like [Music] 3500? 20 or here's a 95 for 4500. It looks nice actually. It's 95. That is the one thing about getting a an older one. It's a 2002 for $34.95. You get an older one, you might um find that it maybe has a Brazilian board. They did that on some of them, you know, maybe in the '90s, too. This one looks quite nice, actually. There's a there's a 95 on there, so it's going against what I'm saying, but it's got a little It's got a little aging on it, actually. Like looks like natural kind of wear. That's pretty cool. It needs It's got a little goo around the frets. I would say it needs some needs a good cleaning, this guitar. But um nice-looking guitar though, I must say. Check it out. There's a $4,500 95. That's a pretty good-looking guitar, you know, basically vintage at this point. Uh, I'll see if I'll see if there's like a 2013. I just I don't remember what it was, but I remember seeing around 2013 the color just got better to me on them. So 2017 for 5900 seems like they get a maybe it's just a Reverb, you know, but seems like they get a little more expensive. The recent VOS's and stuff all seem to be priced up around 5,900 bucks, and then the the early 2000s ones are more around [Music] 354 kind of like that. So yeah, I don't I don't necessarily think older is better though when it comes to these, you know. I you know I I think maybe that's reflected in the prices that that they got even more accurate a little bit more recently in the last 10 years or so.

Is the VP4 better than the HX effects? Um, I mean, better is such a relative term. You know, HX HX is a HX effect is a really good piece of gear. I think I've used it to to great effect. Um, yeah, Line 6, some of the effects are sort of an acquired taste. I find the reverbs are are sort of always the kind of weakest link. Like, I'm not They sound a little grainy to me and just not expensive, what, you know, and certainly Fractal ones are a little more luxurious sounding. Um, I it's it's I don't know. I mean, it's it's a much newer device. HX effects probably been out for 10 years. The VP4 is new, right? So, I' I'd probably I mean I I think they're both really good. There's nothing wrong with an HX effects. I think Line 6 delays are great. You know, it just depends what you're into, you know. I if I had to go with one or the other at this point, I guess I'd probably give the edge to the VP4, you know. Um, it's a newer device. It's, you know, Fractals definitely that's, you know, this is they're really good at what they do. So, um yeah. What else we got here? Uh, picked up the newly launched Cheek 21 Rich Cotton signature. We really like what they did with the design. I haven't checked that out. That's cool. I got to see it. I got to hear it.

If you were to choose only one amp to play all styles of music, what would you say? Well, the PT-100, honestly, that's what I've used for the last, you know, on the road as my main touring amp for I've I've dabbled using other things, of course, my own PT-15 amp, SL68, and other amps, but so been basically sir amps for the last 15 years. And the PT100 is my choice for being super versatile. You could definitely do a country gig with it. You know, that channel one is like a big Fender. Sounds great. Channel two is your killer British sound. So, uh, you know, it'll do just about anything. I think, you know, I always say the one thing you can't do with it is legit AC30 because it's just such a different amp that it's you kind of need that, you know, you need something like an AC30 or Top Hat or Matchless or something in that vein of design and stuff to really get there. So, yeah. Uh, yeah.

Figuring out how I can run the Reload 2 box with my KHE amp switcher and still have it stereo. Um, well, you would just come out of your KH amp switcher into the load of Yeah, you just take one output out of your amp switcher and go right into the load box and then have all the effect stereo, right? KHE probably has, you know, ins and outs for all the various amps, send to the front of the amp and then the speaker output of the amp back into the KHE, etc. And then it's probably got one output, right? And you'd want run that one output to the to the load box. It serves as your cabinet, and then you've, you know, patch in your effects, uh, stereo effects into the loop, stereo out into speaker cab. [Music] Yeah.

Do I have any suggestions for a compressor that has presets in MIDI? Well, that's going to be something like a VP4 or, you know, like a or a HX amp or something that, you know, HX effects, some some device like that. You'll be able to, you know, do a lot more than just compression. But generally, it's going to be a multi-effect. There's nobody makes a compressor that that's all it does that has MIDI and uh, you know, but you can you can definitely use something. You could use the uh what the heck it called? Where is it? The um the little Neural for that. I can never find anything when I need it. Story of my life. It's around here somewhere. The There it is. This guy. I mean, it's tiny. And it does now, especially with the new firmware update, it does a ton of different effects as you know, compression being one of them. Um, yeah, and MIDI on the quarter-inch end there. So, you can switch your presets and stuff. So, you could you could use this for just, you know, but you know why? Like like you might as well use it for some drives and use it for some compression, use it for some other stuff, too. Delay, reverb, whatever else you need. Look at your multi-effects for that. Mhm. Mhm.

I run my JTM45, says Chris, into a PS2 for a dirty clean sound with PF style PF style humbuckers, paths as they call them in England. I've tried pedals to get a more driven sound, but I always lose dimension with the pedal on. What to do? Well, a pedal compresses um, you know, an overdrive pedal or a fuzz or a distortion. They're they're they're limiting your dynamic range. You know, you're clipping the signal, which literally if you look at it on a scope, you know, if the signal looks like this on a scope, you know, literally it starts to square off and then go and then it to the point where when it's fuzz or distortion, it just like that, you know, as opposed to. So, you know, uh maybe that's the effect you're hearing. Dirty clean sound with PFs. I've tried pedals to get a more driven sound. I mean, you could try something that has a dry mix like uh Voodoo Lab. There's the Voodoo Lab Overdrive. I mean, there's other ones, too, but Voodoo Lab tube screamer style. I'll look on Reverb while I'm here. Voodoo Lab overdrive. Sparkle Drive it was called. I remember now. The Sparkle Drive. Um, that had Does this other pedal have it too? The Mastering Prune. No, maybe not. Um, yeah, look at a Sparkle Drive. I mean, it's it's basically you've got a a Where is it on there? The clean clean knob on a Sparkle Drive. So, it's like a tube screamer, but you blend in the clean. And so if you're already running into a dirty clean, like it's got a little bit of grit on it, now you're adding overdrive, but you're keeping you're you basically you can keep your dynamic range by mixing in your dry signal. That might be what you want. So then it's got just as much punch and stuff, but with a, you know, some haze in there to a layer of drive. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Who do you like tonight in game four? [Laughter] Nerd Halen, we went to the hockey game the other night uh in LA. He was nice enough to to take me there, Caleb. And I I got to say it was a brutal experience. My team got beat, which is the Oilers. Even though I've lived in LA longer, still an Oilers fan. Go Oilers. So, Oilers have had a hard go so far with LA. And the Caleb said it the other night. He said, "I just feel like they they're not as good of a team as they were last year." And I was like, I got to kind of agree, like they doesn't feel like quite the team that they were last year when they almost won against Florida. But that last game was crazy. Edmonton won 7-4. Is that right? I think so, and it was awesome. So, I I'm going to say that they've got the momentum going into into game four, and it's they're of course on their hometown ice tonight in Edmonton. I'm going to be watching, but anything could happen. I got to say LA's like seems like a great team this year, so feels like it. We'll see what happens. Edmonton's got a lot of heart, you know, it's a hockey town. It's like that the heart and the the you know when they kick into gear, man, and they're really going for it and they're cranking it up. It's pretty pretty impressive. Consistency maybe not so much. Goaltending lacking, you know. Anyway, but when they turn it up, when they crank it up, it's pretty cool. Uh, Arthur says he had a 5150 and PV Butcher. Good stuff. Butcher was basically like an 800, I think. Good amplifiers, the uh the American Marshalls.

After all these years, I'm thinking about ditching my pedals for a VP4, four-cable method, an amp switch, the Astro. Mhm. Yeah. I mean, if you've got any, you know, like key pedals that you just love, if you love the sound of, it's like, don't expect it to replace things that you're some pedals, man, they just do a thing. It's like, why mess with that? Just let that thing be that thing. But for a lot of stuff, you can get away with the the VP4, you know, and certainly or, you know, Axefx 4-cable method, Quad Cortex 4-cable method. I've I've had, you know, used to great effect, I think, with great success. You know, they're they're good. You can get almost anything you want out of these boxes these days, at least to get the job done. Is it the absolute best version of that sound? No, maybe not. Like is the clone in the in the Quad as good as a $5,000 clone? You know, I mean, maybe not. You know, depends what you're That's what it where it gets into like if you're used to that thing and you love that particular sound, it just does like nothing else, then I mean like, okay, well, just keep that one pedal for that one thing. But for the most part across the board, out of the out of something like a VP4 or whatever, if if we're just talking about the practicality of getting the job done, you can do anything with these things these days, you know, these multi-effects units. I almost forgot. Give me just two seconds here. Uh, I need to look at a text and almost too tiny like the low setting.

Don't lose it. Uh, is there a full-size pedal that does the opposite of the Ronson? I got way too mid-range vocal for the song play. What's your guys' favorite wah pedals? I've got a legendary guitar player right now asking me about, um, opinions on wahs. Wah with good low end, not too mid-rangey like the Ronson Wah. Uh, trying to keep the low end in it. I say the Petrucci kind of badass sounding. Have you guys tried that? The the Petrucci from from Dunlop or Jerry Cantrell maybe. Man, the iPhone now corrects things in such annoying ways. Jerry Control. Oh, Jerry Cantrell. Petrucci is fat as hell, really sounds good. You did you guys see my video for that? I did a video for the Patricia Wah years ago. It's probably 2017. Man, that wah is like one of the times I'm not a wah, uh, connoisseur, you know, like some people really know wahs. I'm like I don't know. Wah is kind of a wah is kind of a wah to me a lot of times, but there's a few I've tried. One of them being the original, the one that got, uh, uh, uh, Vertex into so much trouble, that Axis Wah, which was actually just the BBE. But that thing, man, it's a it's a really really good sounding wah, that thing. Uh, and then the Petrucci was like, oo, this is this is mean sounding, like really. And and I don't mean just in an in, you know, uppercut kind of way. I mean it was like just this like vicious sounding, like very full sounding sweep. I don't know. I really liked it. Thought it was very good sounding.

Yeah. Okay. What else? Do I prefer 606s or EL34s? Well, it depends what you're doing. You know, I use EL34s mainly because I'm mainly a sort of Marshall aficionado, but it ain't the right sound for a Super Reverb or something, you know, if you really want all the magic of what an amp like that is supposed to sound like. There's there's times for 606s, you know, and in modern gain amps. I mean, I think this, you know, Solano sounds great with 5881s or 606s. That's part of the the sound of that, you know, cleaner, bigger power amp, most most of the uh the boldness. You know, you know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about. Uh, Blue Cerino preamp pedal. God, I'm far back in the chat, aren't I? Because I showed this a while ago. Yeah, that's what this is. The uh the Dirty Boy. I got to give it a go. Haven't plugged it in yet. Haven't plugged it in yet.

All right. Uh, Chris Buck, your thoughts? He's a good friend of mine. Seeing his band, Cardinal Black, selling out venues in the US is so amazing. Chris is a uh first of all, lovely person. Like what a nice nice guy. From the time I've met him, I I I met him and we made a video 10 minutes later uh at Toman. First time I met him, I was like, "You want to do a video really quick with me?" And we we made a video called um amps under $100 or under $200 or something. You can see it if you Google Pete Thorne Amp demo practice amp Chris Buck. It'll pop up. You can see it. And that was literally 15 minutes after we met. We were doing that. And I think you can see even our just our camaraderie or whatever. He's he's felt like an old friend right away. He's just a cool cool cat. So great guy. Guitar playing unbelievable. I mean vocal and uh sings on the guitar. He's a singer on the guitar. And when Chris plays guitar, it sort of makes me go, "Oh, well, that's all you ever want to do right there." Like, when he plays and he plays the way he plays, it's like, well, that's that's all anybody should want to do is is be that good of a communicator, you know? No, there's no sweeping going on. There's no, you know, not that he doesn't have technique. He's got chops for days, but it's all about emoting and singing on the guitar. And I went to see him play with Cardinal Black here. I've seen him a couple times in Europe, mostly few times, but I saw him here in LA at the Troubadour and they had the place sold out. It was jam-packed. And the way he played and when he stepped up and played a solo, you know, the whole room would cheer, you know, after he played a solo. I mean, the band, you know, great. I mean, the band's great, you know, terrific musicians and everything, but Chris is really the star of the show, you know, in that band. I think but I think everybody had kind of you know that's they're a little like like Van Halen in a way or something but with a completely different style, you know, it's it's the guitar player is the and when he plays a solo or something and he's done everybody just do some big old cheers because they get moved, you know, he's like he's he's so great at phrasing and emoting on the guitar so can't say enough good things I guess, you know, really really terrific.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. STP live back in the day. Absolutely killed, says Richard. I never saw them, you know that. I don't think I ever got to see them live. I knew the guys. I know the guys and stuff like that. I'm actually doing I'm doing a one-off gig with um it's it's kind of a it's a private thing, but it's uh for uh with Royal Machines, which is really fun. I get to jam with Josh Fest and his brother Jason uh on on drums and keys, of course. Um, and Sebastian Bach and Tone Lok and like it's awesome. Mark McGrath. Uh, but Jeff from STP is the new singer in STP is doing three songs with us. So that'll be actually tomorrow. Um, I'm doing that. Uh, so but I've never seen STP live. So I'm playing an STP song tomorrow which is really fun. Uh, yeah. Anyway. Okay. Okay. Okay.

But uh what else we got? Let's see. What I respect about Pete, says Ry. Never saw him slurring at the Cat House arguing with Tammy DS. I had a dream about Tammy DS last night. It's like and I'm like, why am I, you know, uh that poor guy suffered, you know, tragedy recently and stuff like that, but I it's not like I I don't know him. I remember him from back in the day. Um, you know, long time ago, but it's just it's odd you brought him up. It's like, you know, weird. uh serendipity thing that you mentioned him because I just I literally had a dream about him last night. Anyway, arguing with Tammy down, losing pool game after pool game to the dude from Bang Tango. I wasn't I was too young, man, to be a part of the scene really. I just I got to LA in 90. I would have had to arrive in 85 or something at the latest or 86 or seven and to to to be in the in the circle of of I always say there was the Hollywood musicians and the North Hollywood musicians. It was a different thing. You know, if you lived in the valley or valley village, you know, those were the folks that were like those are the folks I met early on that that really had a big influence on me as opposed to following in following in nothing. I I'm friend I mean I love Tracy Guns and all the you know the Hollywood guys absolutely 100%. But I just happened to fall in with the folks in the valley. Those were the ones that I met and they were the folks that were playing with, you know, my buddy Frank SS who played with, you know, everybody under the sun from Stevie Nicks to Don Henley to MC Jagger and that camp. Uh, Mark Goldenberg, you know, working with Jackson Brown and and, um, Jen Condos who played with everybody under his son, Don Henley and everybody. And it was all those sort of working like really badass um 30 something at the time, late 30s uh kind of players that were real career professional kind like they weren't so much in bands. They were more like sidemen or they were producers, songwriters and people like I those are just the people that I somehow met. It could have gone a different way, you know, because I used to hang out with the Rainbow and stuff, you know, I could have gotten in a band, I guess, and but that's kind of what steered me down that path, I guess, of uh, you know, uh, yeah. Anyway, never I didn't ever really go to the Cat House. I don't think I was ever there. I was at a lot of those places, but um, I remember the Cat House, but I don't think I ever actually went. I remember, you know, I used to go to the Rainbow and to, of course, you know, Roxy and Whiskey and all that, but I remember Club Lingerie and I remember Rajie's in East Hollywood. I went there, saw shows and stuff that was more of that like Jane's Addiction scene and stuff like that in those days.

Um, anyways, thanks for the demo of the Tone King Pre. Think I may have to get one as the core of my blues rig. Yeah, it'd be great for that if you're doing a, you know, hook up a little 112 with a power amp or something and use that and Fender clean channel hotter tweed sounds. Definitely does that. Does Tweed to Proto Marshall, you know, JTM45 stuff really really nicely. I think Brett Floyd are still touring. Yeah, absolutely. They My my friend Ry's playing drums with him actually. They um yeah, they just they they had a uh uh you know, split from CMP years ago and stuff like that and so they were doing their own thing and I'm not as connected with them anymore, I guess. But um used to be the gig that I do a lot of the same crew people would do both, you know, uh that kind of thing. It was like there was a lot of interaction between the camps. Not so much now.

First solo uncomfortably numb might be the most iconic solo of all time says Nuralen. It's an amazing solo for sure. Um, you know, the end one being a little bit more where minor key goes off and does his thing. The first one's almost like a melody. It's almost like it's like a bridge of the song or something. You know, you can't really change a single note or phrase about it. It has to be just so I think whereas the second solo you could improvise a little bit here and there and stuff and Gilmore did. I think at times I don't think he always played it exactly the same. Did he? I've never really listened to the various live versions to know. But that first one, you know, it's it's a little like the Another Brick solo. It should be just so you know. Uh, I guess Gilmore was great at that at doing just enough modal you know where it it had melody and it was a like very very you know important part of the song. Um, and maybe you don't want to change it, you know, in much the way the Eagle solo sort of are, they were sort of structured but sounded bluesy at the same time, you know, it's interesting. A lot of sort of bluesy solos was like you don't I don't know. A lot of them I don't remember, you know, like or I can't I find them hard to remember. Like a lot of bluesy solos. I find a lot of Hendrix's solos sort of hard to remember, you know, just um some of them have an arc to them and stuff, but a lot of it was just great, but more improby, you know, whereas Gilmore's were more defined, I found, you know, more defined. Maybe like Brian May, too. More defined uh melodic flourish stuff that where you know, it's a it's a do I improvise or do I play the solo on the record? that whole thing. And it's interesting, you know, um some of them you you just feel like you should honor the the original and then it's always a fine line like do I play the first half and then do I just go off at the end or will I be will that be disrespectful to the music? I don't know.

Okay. [Music] Uh, you boys need to get more Thin Lizzy in the set along with Skynyrd and Eagles and Allman Brothers to get the twin lead thing going. Um, you know, we're primarily a band that plays in Europe. So, everybody you mentioned except for Lizzy are those quintessentially American bands. Skynyrd. I mean, we used to do um you know, Free Bird was in the set forever. Last year, we tried to mix it up a little bit for various reasons. It's like it's it's something that the band has always done. It gets a little like this gets a little like if we always do this at the, you know, for years and years and years. It just can we mix it up and try something else? That was the main reason why we didn't do it. And uh but I was nonetheless always surprised at how well it went over over in Europe because it it's like such an American song. So uh Free Bird I'm talking about, you know, to the point where it became a character of itself almost, right? Uh you know, where people shouted out as a joke. But no, we actually did it and we did it well and with the entire guitar solo, you know, replicated. Um, it just gets to a point where it's like we've done this 800 times. Shouldn't we switch it up? But and and then I sort of like Eagles we've done, but and it's great. I love, you know, Eagles is I love the Eagles, but I just I'd love to do Fast Lane actually with that band with Classic Rock Show. That'd be really fun. I'd love to do Victim of Love or something like that. That's a little more like it's not even a deep cut. It was a hit in its own right, you know, but it's more a deep cut than Hotel California or whatever, you know, but the people want to hear what the people want to hear. It's always this like what's going to work and what's not, you know, you never know. One one thing we did a few years ago that was really nice, I thought, was the Linda Ronstadt version of Desperado. Jess would just sing it with piano and some, you know, background singers would sing, but it was basically piano vocal arrangement. Rock, not really at all. Great. Absolutely. She sang the hell out of it, you know, and it would go over great. It was a nice moment in the set where you get a little less guitar and drums and everything coming at you and you get a little break, you know, for a second and but yet with this epic song that she would do so beautifully. So, that really worked. Yeah. Cover band stuff, right? Anybody doing a cover band knows knows these conversations, I think. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. What else? What else?

Uh I know his Paige holds his pick not tucked in, but way out away from his grip and loose. That's interesting. I I've never really looked that. I'll have to check that out. You've reached a good hair tie length. Hair tie. No, I got too much I got too many layers in this cut for that. And half of it will be hanging out. Won't work. How much time do you spend on tweaking a sound for a song? Depends on the sound, depends on the song, you know? Honestly, I'm trying to get a little looser with that stuff lately, man. I mean, like, I'm trying to get a little more like I can use this one. Like, for instance, I'm doing this gig tomorrow, this oneoff. I'm using basically one preset in the Quad Cortex where I've got a couple different versions of clean sounds, three actually, because I need an overdrive on one for one song. Um, I need need a chorus for one, but I'm not actually even playing that part now. So, yeah, I'm using basically like two clean sounds. Basically, a clean clean with a little compression, a driven, and then I've got a dirty rhythm, and then I've got a lead sound with pretty good delay on it. That's kind of it. I'm using that for like a 75 minute show. Love that. Like love that for me. Normally I would go through and spend a lot more, you know, time on every single sound and, you know, or at least with certain songs. Oh, let's get this one really, you know, and I do that with Classic Rock Show. But the reality is you start to question like does anybody care like that I do this or is it just about my playing and the parts and the and my intention that I put into it and stuff. Obviously if you've got a song that's like you're playing Spirit of Radio and you don't have the flanger or something at the beginning that wouldn't be right. I don't think you got to you got to do it. You know you got to do it. Certain sounds you know the like a Stone solo. You're not going to have a whammy. Like you can't do it. You have to have it. So that selects stuff you got to do. But but there's other things where I'm like, do I really need to go through and this is it is it re you're playing a Thin Lizzy song and then you're playing a Kiss song and then you're playing an AC/DC song. Do you really need to make those different sounds? Not really. You know, not so much. It's it's straight up kind of dirty thing. Maybe you hit a little more gain and echo or whatever for the solos and tap tempo it in or whatever and that's just fine, right? So, I guess my answer is it just depends.

Yeah. Uh-huh. Pretty far back in the chat. I guess I better move down quick up here. Um, yeah. Yeah. Uh, Joe is talking about basses. We were talking about basses a little bit earlier. G&L and, uh, Music Man G&L's pickups have such unique voicing and tonal range with a growl just pretty heavy, but the neck on the Stingray is better and overall lighter. Yeah. I mean, I guess I didn't know that about the G&L. If the mid-range growl thing is a one particular sound that I get that, you know, if that's what you want, that's a a rock bass thing. That's cool. You know, the the Music Man, I always felt like I'm not a bass expert, but I feel like a Stingray had bottom and top because of they've even got bass and treble controls for the EQ, right? So, which is a certain thing. So, I guess you got to ask yourself, do you favor the the neck that you prefer on the Stingray, or do you want that certain tonal thing that you're willing to make a feel sacrifice for? You know, what's more important? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh, moving down in the chat, the sur reactive load has a higher unbalanced output impedance than the reactive load IR. Okay. Uh, does that mean the reactive load IR is louder or more suited to line level? I I wouldn't say I mean you have an output level control on the reactive load IR just as you do like a DI level. So, I don't think it's going to matter. Both of them will work just fine. you know, if what you're looking for is basically sort of line level, both of them will get you where where you want to go using the uh the DI level control. It's kind of a non-issue because you've got an adjustable output level. I think that's what I think. That's what I think.

Naive Steve says, "Pete Thorne can sing pretty good, too, as seen on the CRS recently." Well, thanks. Yeah, I did a little Pink Floyd on the last show. Jesse lost his voice. He completely lost his voice. I actually sang the the verses and Comfortably Numb. It's an easy one, you know. "Hello, is there anybody in there? Just not if you can hear me." So, okay. Uh, not not really that difficult, right? Oh, no. I didn't do that part. I sang the chorus, didn't I? "There is no pain. You are receding a distant ship. Smoke on the horizon." I can handle that. All right. Uh, what else we got here? Let's see. Em499 super chat. Thank you. Have you ever messed with Sustaniac or Fernandez Sustainer? Satch and especially Vai have used them a lot in recent years. They, you know what, they're great at it, man. Um, I can tell you cuz I've seen them in intimate setting now using it. Um, they're so good at the sustainer that you're almost like, is it on? Oh, I think they're using it now. You know, and the way that they use it is really, really, really cool and makes me kind of want one. I I wasn't anti them, but I I remember when they came out, people would sort of overuse them, you know? But with them, the way they use it, it's so they really really good at it. And it makes me kind of want to try one now because it's like, well, if you're careful about it, it's if you just use it in, you know, you you almost can't tell when it's on and then you go, oh, they must be using it because it's such epic sustain in this one part, you know. So, it's one of those things as long as you don't overuse, you know, pretty great. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so I haven't messed with one, but I would I would like to and thank you for the super chat. Appreciate that. Okay.

Happy birthday to Ace Frehley, says Lauren. Happy birthday, Ace. Hope you're having a good one wherever you are. Uh, I'm seeing larger discounts on used gear from Guitar Center. Are sales going down because people have less to spend? I mean, that could just be a a Guitar Center thing. I mean, certainly prices for nothing have come down. So, you know what I mean, on anything recently. And people are probably, you know, at some at some point, I guess, you know, people have less money to spend on things like gear, right? So yeah, maybe maybe prices are, you know, fluctuating in the downward trend a little bit. AC/DC playing on Kiss Alive influenced so many guitar players. Absolutely. It was great because you could kind of do it. You know, it's a little like AC/DC solos or the Stairway to Heaven solo. I mean, there were great solos if you're a year or two into playing to kind of tackle and see, can I get there? or can I do, you know, for bending and the that kind of blues pentatonic stuff, you know, that that that formed the, you know, the basis of many a rock guitar players, you know, uh, at least initial knowledge on the instrument was was, you know, copying folks like that and stuff. So, 100%. He was very influential.

Just watching Chris Cornell live from Buenos Aires. That I remember that show so well. It was great. It was really cool. I remember that uh you want to like I remember the weirdest stuff about uh you know certain things about gigs, but one of the things about Chris was that I remember a lot of the funny things he would do. He was a funny guy and I remember that we had done one or two shows on that tour and uh that was the end of 2007. We'd really played a like I started in April 2007 and I pretty much toured the whole year like until the end of the year. So that would have been around November 2007 I think when we were in Buenos Aires and you know end of this great year of touring and we were really having fun and had really become a band by then and but I remember we were off for a couple weeks and then we went out and did our first show or two and for some reason I stand kind of funny on stage sometimes. I don't know if you guys find this but like I just have kind of a funny you know like where you put more pressure on one leg or the other kind of and then after the gig you'll be like a damn like my calf hurts or something. So, I remember like uh telling him backstage and be like, "God, after that first show, man, like my leg is like fried. Like my I don't know what the heck's going on, you know?" And so I remember playing the gig. This is that Buenos Aires show. And I remember playing the gig and he's singing and he comes up to me and he like grabs me right here really hard on my calf. He's like singing and he runs by me and he just grabs my leg mid, you know, and then runs off, you know? I just started laughing like he would just make me crack up all the time with the funny [ __ ] that he did. It's silly. It's not even funny, but it was funny, you know, just like the, you know, he would he would just like funny little things.

On the mic, that only like our band would get. He would say he would just remember in the set to like throw in little—it was just his sense of humor. Really dry, super funny. So, I remember that about that gig.

I remember a lot of things about that gig, but uh, you know, especially I get to revisit it because it's that ProShot uh, you know, thing and a lot of it ended up on the internet. So, it's great. So, it was a nice show. It was about 25,000 people or something, I think, at that one. Kind of it was a festival. Can't remember what the festival was called, but uh, anyways.

Uh, have you used Dirty Shirley combo? Says Phillip, very excited your thoughts on this Friedman. It's great, man. Uh, you know, kind of 70s tones into the 80s. It's not real. They don't sound super aggressive, although you could make them, you know, it'd be easy mods to turn it more into a, you know, but um, for the the way that they come, they've got a slightly darker voice than other Friedmans and a little more 70s tones. If you're doing Zeppelin and AC/DC and you know anything 70s, it's like right for um, it's kind of a JCM800ish JTM45 mixture cuz they've got the 6L6 power amp with the—I think they've got tube rectifier, right? I think. Mhm. But they don't have a JTM45 front end. It's a little more 800ish, but Friedman tuned, you know. Yeah. Okay.

Terry says, "Hit that like button." Yes, please. PT50 updates. I was just talking to John about it yesterday. Um, he's working on it there. He was having a little trouble sourcing some part, like a switch that we want to use for it. So, he's trying to sort that out. Um, I don't have any time updates. I don't really bug him about electronics anymore at all. I just, you know, I let it happen when it happens. So, it's best to ask him. Um, you know, I felt like, you know, it's he they they take a while to get electronic stuff done. They just they just do. And it's just kind of how it is with anything in in that kind of amps world. It's a long process, you know, no no doubt about it. Guitars is faster and stuff and a while ago I just sort of came to realize, well, let's just let this happen whenever it happens and uh, that's just, you know, the nature of the—they don't have a whole staff on hand that are making just amps and stuff like that; it's just a limited, you know, um, and John is basically the designer and he's got a lot on his plate, he's got a lot of stuff to do, other things to do and stuff like that, so I just have to be patient, you know, with it and then guitars is easier, it's like, you know, that's why you've seen me with the PT custom and the P traditional 90 and stuff. Um, you know, we do those faster, you know, they tend to tends to be from the the idea to when the when it's done in this kind of maybe maybe it's 9 months or something, you know.

Um, hey, what about this? Like if we did a pickup configuration like this and then, you know, maybe this and you can kind of spec it out, even even having to make the new pickup for this is the traditional, right? even having to do the new P90 style for this. That didn't take that long. Um, I love this guitar. Lacquer smells good. Um, yeah, these are lacquer, actually. So, this one got severely checked, too. Like, it's it's really cracked. I don't know if you can see it or not, but but um—Oh, I was going to mention something about this guitar. This is the first one that I've actually gotten. This will be the way the production ones are with the lumen inlays. You can see the inlays on the side are those white dots, but they glow. They glow on a dark stage, which is just awesome. Even these, you know, I can see these perfectly like here under light and everything, but when when it gets dark, man, you can tell. I mean, imagine these being black, right? Just black dots kind of like the fingerboard, you know, on a dark stage or something, they start to disappear a little bit, you know? So, what we've decided to do is do the lumen inlays for the side. And it is killer. It's a game changer. I mean, they light up like—I'll show you. I actually took a picture, put them on my phone. If you've never seen these, they're they're glow-in-the-dark for those that don't know. We'll show you what they look like. Uh, one sec, one sec, one sec. Get get off all the kitten kitten pictures on my phone. There we go. So, there's like kind of what they look like. The iPhone brightened the picture a little bit, but you can see how bright they are. You know, that was with the lights off in the room here. You see, they just like they just glow like so. You'll never not know where you are on the neck. Cool. Lumenlay. Love it. Okay. Okay. Okay. What else? What else? What else?

Uh, just looking through the chat here. Uh, I'm going to move down in it. Flew up from Kansas to the Rose Bowl AC/DC concert. I was 15, 20 rows in front of you. Oh, man. You should have said hi. Uh, they put on a great show, didn't they? I thought it was great. I hope you had a good time and enjoyed your your trip to the LA area, the greater LA area. Uh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Blaine says, "Oilers have goalie issues." Yeah, a little bit, right? A little bit of goalie issues going on. It's a little, you know, it's tough. That's a tough one. It's such so important. It's like your your short game in golf. It all happens like if you can't putt, it doesn't matter how far you can drive the ball, right? Bad analogy. One's going in, one's not supposed to go in, but you know what I mean. All comes down to that in a way, like you know, it's like I think that's why we're seeing these high-scoring games, you know, it's like it's gnarly if you're just like, well, every game like they're definitely going to get four or five goals in that so we got to get seven—it's like a little—it puts a lot of pressure on your uh, you know, your your your offense, your frontline guys, whatever. Right? Anyways. Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alex says, "Love your show. Admire you. Wish I could hang out with you and jam." Oh, thanks, man. Is this the Alex Lifeson? Let's do it. 2112. I just saw Alex talking about jamming with Kirk Hammett. That was cool. So they got together and had a nice jam and and like a video on Instagram that came up with an interview where Alex was going, "Yeah, it was so much fun. We're going to do it again." It's nice to see uh uh Alex seems like he's like in a really good place right now. That's nice. Yeah. All the interviews I've seen with them. Yep.

Uh, okay. What else we got here? Wah talk. They don't make them anymore, but the Snarling Dogs wig flagship red one has an incredible low-end centric wah tone. That's cool. I never tried one of those. I remember remember when they were out. Uh, Johnny, the TonX and VP4 are a great two-pedal rig. Somebody must have been asking named Johnny. Uh, TonX VP4. These two with expression pedals are amazing together. Simple rig. Maximum tone possibilities. I could see that as being a great way to go. Yep. Anderson video comparing Klon and Behringer version. Similarly, I guess that new Behringer Neve compressor is great. See them talking about that a lot. Them, those people on the internet talking about that a lot.

Oh, let's see here. T-Wizard or RMCWA are great. You ever tried the Dunlop braa? I haven't. I have numerous. Um, the Patrrui Dunlop was Patrushi. Uh, Eddie Van Halen. I have a few of those. Um, the 535 mini I have on my pedal board because it's tiny and sounds great to me. But, um, what else have I got? 535Q. And I've got like I had like a uh, exotic. Oh, the Friedman wah. The Gold 72 or something it's called. That's a really nice wah, too. But the Axis, you know, one of my favorites. That thing sounded killer. BBE Wah. I think you can still just get it from from BBE uh as the best 80 bucks you'll ever spend for a wah, BB. I think it was modeled after the old uh the Benois. Yeah, I see I see them on on the internet here. BBE Benoa. I'm not sure if that's it or not. I thought you just get them new still though, right? I don't need to be looking on Reverb. Let's see here. BBE Wah pedal. Use BBE wah. God, you consider $49 at Guitar Center. The Benois based on a 1986 class A circuit built with coveted halo inductor. That's the one, man. Um, yeah, I've seen lots of them used here for 50 bucks. Kind of all the wah you ever need, I think. I don't know. It's its own thing, but yeah, it does that. Uh uh Clyde McCoy, I think, was the—I don't know. I'm not a I'm not an expert in wahs. I I love playing wah. When I do, though, you know, like when I actually do it, I'm like, "Oh, this is fun." You can kind of play anything through this. And you don't you be sloppy and it still sounds great. Wah is fun like that.

But it's 2:13. Uh, how long have I been on for? Hour and a half. Okay, I'm going to go another—I'll go till 2:30 and then I'll get out of here because I started late today. Uh, I was going to say you got to give you your money's worth. Then I remember this is free. Well, except for you super chatters, but that's your choice and I do appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Uh, let's see here. Pete, what's up, man? I'm sure you've answered this dozen times. What's your choice in noise gate suppressors? Um, the good old Dunlops uh MXR Smart Gate is fine for me for a lot of things. Um, I know the Decimators and stuff, those have got a lot of fans. Uh, there's this one called the Sentry. Yeah, Sentry from uh TC. I generally keep—I've got the drawers over here are full of kind of utility stuff. For example, I was talking about a line out box earlier to send a signal for wet, dry, wet. There's my sir line out box right there if I needed to tap the speaker sand on an amp or like TC ditto looper. There's something I use all the time. Starlight fuzz, something I use all the time. So, I keep this drawer full of my old phase 90, some echoplexus. There it is. The Sentry. So, that that is a a really nice sounding gate. TC Sentry. I find this works really good. Just basic, you know, no fuss, no muss. I've got this one, too. Jury's out. I don't know. I' I used it for a while. The guitar silencer from uh Rocktron. It's got built-in hush as well as it's basically like a gate and then an expansion circuit uh that is kind of like it kills hum in two different ways by gating as well as when you play it opens up and then when you stop playing it kind of cuts down the top end as things are fading and it that's sort of the the key to the hush is the expansion thing kind of works and sounds pretty good but it can sort of—I find—darken your cleans is the only thing sometimes. Yeah. Fulltone Clyde Deluxe. That's the old Fulltone Clyde McCoy. I had a Fulltone wah as well. That that might be—that was white and had, you know, switchable range on the side and all that.

Yeah. When is distortion on an amp better than a pedal? I mean, if you want amp distortion, it's always better. That's what I would say. A good amp, you know, doing what it does, that thing, that crunchy amp thing. No pedal that I've tried can do that because you're talking about a high voltage 12AX7 generated thing that you know or or the entire amp doing the distortion as inbase as linear style in something like a plexi where there's distortion in the preamp, there's distortion in the power amp, there's voltage sag going on and that sound—there's so many components to it, it's kind of sophisticated the way that—I mean, it's not—It's primitive, but it's primitive but sophisticated. It's like there's almost no way to replicate that with a 9 or 18 volt pedal doing its thing in front of a, you know, some great boxes out there, but you'll always find they're never as dynamic—is the thing. Like, okay, yeah, full-on guitar power cords playing into it. They can be very similar. A distorted good distorted pedal into a clean amp or the an amp doing its thing. But it's when you start switching to other guitars, it's like, oh, I don't hear as much difference between my guitars now. The pedal kind of homogenizes. Certain amps won't really do that as much. Not even heavily distorted amps. You plug a Strat into a, you know, a Soldano SLO 100 with the gain on half on the drive channel. It's still got that Strat quality and stuff, you know, and and then certainly when you switch the pickups, you really hear the variety and stuff, but if you do a kind of SLO style pedal or a heavily distorted pedal and then you go from a Les Paul to a Strat, there's like maybe less difference, you know, where you hear it's kind of the more distorted the pedal gets, it kind of homogenizes things more. Happens with dirty amps too, but there's still more—there's just more dynamic in like an amp circuit than there is in pedals and stuff I find, so that's what I hear anyway. Um, yeah, now, want a Big Muff, you know, can't really do that with an amp if you or an AC30, you know, like or—oh, sorry, we were talking about—I was going to say an AC30's particular distortion is another thing that you kind of can't get out of a pedal, but I'm conflating two things. Uh, I was trying to think of a distortion that is unique in a pedal. I guess like maybe um a muff is, you know, this too. Did a video for this this week. It's an octave fuzz, but it sounds cool for rhythm stuff for a certain thing, you know, like you can't get that sound out of an amp. So, is it better? Well, if if you want the sound that this does that you hear in my video while I'm pairing rhythm through it, not even just leads, but or you want an octave fuzz for solos, you can't make your amp do that really, you know? So, so that's when it's better, I find, is when it's a specific thing, certain sound that you're looking for and it would be better for that sound, right?

What are the best FRFR speakers? Um, the new Tonex cab is awesome if you haven't tried it or haven't seen it. First time I've tried a thing that's supposed to be like look like a guitar cab and kind of, you know, respond like a guitar cab where I actually heard it and I was like, "Oh man, that actually really—like if you just plugged me into this and I didn't see it, I'd be like, "Yeah, you plugged me into a guitar amp"—very, very good. So, I recommend the Tonex highly. Before that, uh, you know, FRFR kind of style cabinet that's not even looks like a traditional amp or whatever, but the Atomic—I don't even—I'm not even sure they make them anymore—but was the Atomic Reactor wedge, they were like the version two, not the first ones, but the the the one that looked like a wedge like a like a traditional PA wedge, flat as hell and like sound really really good, like almost like studio monitor good with this great big dispersion, you could stand way off from them and you would hear the same sound as when you're like right on top of it. Very interesting. I have a pair of them and I think they're excellent, but I don't know if they make them anymore and they weren't cheap. So, if what you're looking for is to, you know, get kind of the sound and feel of a guitar cab, but out of a modeler on stage, just have a little bit of that guitar cab thing, check out the Tonex. It's very, very good. Yeah.

If I bought a used Tonex one pedal, could I still get the Tonex software? Oh, yeah. I think so. No, I think I think as long as you have the pedal, you can just download the software to do, you know, editing and control and stuff like that. No problem.

With tubes becoming so expensive, what 12AX7s are you finding to be the best bang for the buck? Well, Shuguang is back now. I mean, who knows what's going to happen with, you know, you know what, uh, you know, stuff coming from China. But for the time being, I think if you go to Doug's Tubes or let's say the Tube Store, the Tube Store and let's look at uh 12AX7 Shuguang. Uh, cuz those are kind of my—and the new ones are, you know, there's there's new ones because they're—I think they had a fire at a factory, the rebuild factory, relocate stuff. We never knew if they were going to come back, but indeed they have. And you can now get uh the new ones for—I want to say they're going to be 15 bucks. Let me see here. Uh, I'm looking—Yeah. God, I'm pretty good, aren't I? 15.95. Look at that. Boom. 15.95. Uh, 12AX7B. There they are. No problem. No fuss, no muss. By 5 to 99, you can get them for $13.95 in quantity. That's pretty cheap. Just get those, man. They're good tubes, you know. They're—And you can get them tested and stuff like that, too, for low noise and stuff if you—I think from these places. Chinese 12AX7s were always my favorite for modern. Oh, also good is the uh the JJ E83CC. Not ECC83, E83CC. That's a really really nice sounding tube, I think. And uh kind of it's a the short plate one that kind of built like the old uh like the old Tesla jobies. Yeah.

Uh, love the new Lex Lurx Alex Lifeson signature blah blah blah by Morley and the Vi Morley Mini with his custom artwork. It's like a mini bad horsey. Cool. Also, Morley never really messed with a lot. You know, those are some ones that I've never—I've had, like I say, like the the BBE one, the uh Fulltone and the Exotic and all varieties of Dunlop and stuff, but yeah, I never got into the—just didn't really get into Morleys. Yep. Uh-huh. Okay.

Uh, going to go soon. Time is 2:23. I'll go another 8 minutes or so here. Hang out and uh, then I'm going to going to get out of here. So, why don't I move down to the—Oh, I got super chats to grab. There's one from Scott that I've gone to. In Monrovia this week on business, any live music venues or must-see guitar shops in the area? Uh, Monrovia. Monrovia is a nice little town that's east of Pasadena, a few miles. Uh, great little community, very nice place. Um, but I can't think of any music stores out there. It used to be a cool store. I almost bought a '65 Jazzmaster, under-the-bed condition for 1,500 bucks in Monrovia at a store in the mid-90s, but it wasn't there. I couldn't—Yeah, I couldn't afford it at the time and it was gone. Anyways, stuff now, music [Music] stores, nothing I can think of, man, for guitar stores right around that area. Um, you probably want to go, you know, see if you can get to the the kind of the the classics like Norm's or or, you know, True Tone. I haven't been to yet. They relocated and and have a new shop. It's supposed to be really nice. I haven't seen it yet. So, one of these days I'll get out there. Angel City Guitars. Great um boutique guitar store out in uh kind of uh uh the uh by Malibu Canyon kind of what what's the road? I don't know. It's out that like uh Canoga Park kind of area and um just getting off the Ventura Freeway just south of the freeway. Uh, Angel City Guitars, nice store. So if you got time to get to those, check those out. Uh, yep. Yep. Yep. Let's see what else we doing. I got another super chat to grab here before I go uh soon.

Uh, Patrick says, "I got to serve reactive load. IR excited but hoping it's compatible with my gear. My cable to speaker jack is buried in the chassis. Is that like your like you have a combo amp where it's a little tough?" Well, I'm sure that's sortable. You know, might just be a pain in the butt, but you can do it. Uh-huh. Do you have a Friedman No More Tears? Is that a—Is that like a—What is that? Is that like a wall? I don't know what that is, actually. How do I not know that? Never heard of it. Uh, Friedman No More [Music] Tears. Never heard of it. I've never even seen this thing before. Oh, Gold 72. Yeah, that's the Gold 72. I didn't—I don't know he called it a No More Tears wah. I just knew it was called the Gold 72. I do have one though. Good sounding wah. Really good.

Is there any advantage to changing a Nashville bridge to ARP1 or two pneumatic? I don't know. That's a great question. I don't—I always wondered about that. Like why do people prefer one over the other? Nashville always seemed like a bit of a heavier affair to me. Um, and some tunamatic with the wire like the old school ones would buzz. That drove me crazy. So I was always like, why would you ever switch one of these? But I think there's some people that don't like the Nashville bridge for some reason. I don't know. I would just go with whatever Tone Pros has uh to be honest if you want to upgrade a Tune-o-matic style bridge because they lock to the post. You're going to change strings; you can take them off without the bridge falling off the guitar if you want to flip it over and stuff, you know. I like Tone Pros stuff. Seems like they've sort of solved some of the problems with the the original styles. Uh, yeah. Uh, anyway, determine if it runs in parallel. Not sure what the question is there. Maybe maybe you guys are talking amongst yourselves there, Patrick. I'm not sure. But uh, feel like I missed out on the first part of the question. RMC2 wah. That's a wah, right? Says Mill. Rebuilt by Miss Shy. Must die. Friedman has been his replacement for years. Always missed the Clyde. Oh, I see. You're getting an RMC rebuilt. And yeah, the Friedman one's great, man.

Boss noise gate works fine. I like the Boss. I had a little bit of a thing with it just setting the threshold low enough. I found like I I still found like a way however I was using the latest version of their noise suppressor. The only thing I could say was that I just couldn't seem like I could still—I'm really picky about being able to roll the volume way down and still have every note come through. So that's hard with gates and gain because it's like the more you know what I mean? It's like tough to get that balance. Gates are always a bit of a band-aid to me. Um, so yeah, long story short, you know, I I just found the MXR Smart Gate always worked pretty well for me in one certain setting, which was the most subtle setting running. The the main thing that I use a gate for is not to gate out like any hiss or anything like that. It's it's when you're playing in a venue where there's tons of RF or whatever coming through the pickups, single coils, or whatever, just whatever's in the air getting into the guitar going into the amp drives you crazy. So, I'll gate there, like out of the guitar into the front end of my pedal board, you know, that's where I put the gate generally. That's where an MXR Smart Gate always worked really well for me if I was having excessive pickup BS.

Yeah. Big Ben Blues with the Super Chat. If you could only pick one decade to listen to that period's music for the rest of time, what would that decade be? 77 to 86. That's a pretty good time in music. I agree. Like it wouldn't be 80 to 90. I don't think it would be something like 77 or 76 or five through 85, something like that probably. The great thing about music from that era was 70s into the 80s. So, you're getting into the dawn of, you know, punk and new wave and stuff. So, there was all those elements that are kind of fun for a bit of variety, not…

Just rock, you know. Um, but also the rock was great. And then also the recording got to a point where, like, I think kind of by the late 70s, we were really at a pinnacle of like analog recording, where mixing, recording—it sounded so good, like, you know, in those—that's when you've got a lot of classic stuff. I mean, the way that Heart's records sounded, or the way that Steely Dan records sounded, or um, you know, pretty much anything, you know, from that period, Jackson Browne, or um, or you know, Zeppelin. I mean, the early Zeppelin's awesome, but the later Zeppelin too, like when you listen to um, stuff like "Nobody's Fault But Mine," you know, that kind of—it sounds so good. Like, the—I don't know. I like some of that element of getting into the late—getting out of the early 70s into the later 70s was like towards the end of the 70s, things were just sounding really cool. Like, so I think you've picked a pretty good decade without thinking about it too much. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to side with you there. I think 77 to 86. Can't we go 77 to 87? Ah. All right. Let's see. Uh, reading, reading, reading here. Comments, questions, the last few. Oh, couple more super chats. Going to grab those.

Speaking of exotic, have you ever compared their California classic to your Sers? A little bit. Um, don't know too much about the guitars because they do basically, you know, compete in the same range as Ser, and I'm a Ser guy. So, uh, but you see them, especially when you go to Japan, I'll see them over there and stuff. And I always think the finishes look pretty cool and stuff, but they're uh, you know, but yeah, don't know too much about them. They're nice people. I've I've been out for dinner with them in Japan and stuff and seen them because they're good friends with my uh my friends at at Wam effects over there. So, it's a nice fellow from Exotic that always comes out and eats with us and uh and uh he he seems like a great guy and I've used the pedals, you know, over the years and I I like a lot of the, you know, the RC booster stuff. Great stuff. Coffee for Mr. Peter says, "Andy racks the cams." Thank you to you. Thanks again, Cole, there for the super chats. You guys are too kind. Too kind.

I should split because I really want to get the video done for uh the Reload Two, and I've got about three or four hours to try and knock it out. Now, if I can get it done, I don't know if I can actually get it done in that time because it's kind of complex, but if I can get it done, I'll put it out by Tuesday or so. If I can't get it done today, it's going to take me till Wednesday or so to get out because I got to go to Vegas to do a one-off tomorrow. So, anyways, there you go. Uh, in Japan, Todd says there's a guitar company called Beyond. They're very Ser-looking. That's cool. Last couple comments, questions here. Oh, Vimam got their Booty Booty G. I always wonder how to say that right. It's a good pedal. That kind of boost. I did a video for that. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, and also, yeah. Uh, tribute to the great uh Roy Thomas Baker. He passed away. Uh, made some great records of course with Queen and yeah, absolutely legend. Yeah, some of those records of course fall into that category. Fantastic sounding stuff from that era.

Yeah, you got to watch Becoming Led Zeppelin. I did. I went to see it in Liverpool—the Beatles, of course, but I watched a Led Zeppelin movie there and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great theater in Liverpool down by the uh what's it called? The rope works, or I don't know what the heck it's called, but anyways. The rope walks? Is that what it's called? Might even have the neighborhood wrong. But anyways, nice theater in Liverpool where I went to see it. Was able to have a nice snack and drink a great big beer while I watched the movie. I quite quite enjoyed that. It is a really good movie if you guys haven't seen it. And it was it's good when it's caught in the theater if it's playing somewhere close to you still. I don't even know if it's in theaters anymore. Uh, really good. Yeah. All right. Uh, thanks you guys. Thanks for being here. Nice to nice to hang with you. Thanks for dealing with me being late. I think next week will be the same time, same place, same usual time, usual place, all that good stuff. There won't be anything crazy next week. Should be here on time, 11:45 a.m. or so. Double check my calendar here to make sure I'm not lying to you. Don't want to steer you the wrong way. Uh, it'll be the 4th of April next week. Ah, I mean the 4th of May, excuse me. Fourth of May. Uh, yeah, no foreseeable issues. One, two. Yeah. Yeah. Should be all good. All right, you guys. Thanks for the super chats. Thanks for being here. Thanks for your great questions. Thanks for the camaraderie and the friendship. Be nice to one another. Have a terrific week. I wish you well, lots of success going forward into the new week. All right, take care.