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hey guys welcome to Ask Zack I'm Zack
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child of course we're here to answer
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guitar related questions and just
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hopefully have fun let's be guitar nerds
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together so today we wanted to answer
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the question who is Stuart Smith some of
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you may know about Stuart through his
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work with the Eagles he's been with for
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last 20 years but his history goes so a
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lot further back than that so Stuart
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started you know kind of hitting the
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scene in Washington DC Maryland area and
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you really got you know where his career
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really started was playing on the Rodney
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Crowell album Street language now the
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album didn't really do a whole lot but
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Rodney ended up also using Stuart on the
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next album that he produced which was
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for his wife Rozanne cash so in that
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album was Kings record shop and that
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album had a number of number-one hits on
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it on the on the country charts and
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Stuart really started to get noticed and
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that's where I first heard him I was
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watching Austin City Limits which was
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kind of a religious thing especially in
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Texas in the 70s and 80s was every
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Saturday night
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you watched Austin City Limits and and
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then you you know of course when you're
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older than he went out and you know
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listen to some live music someplace but
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I saw Stewart playing on on Austin City
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Limits and his plane was very different
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than the other players I had seen on the
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show country or rock wise and but of
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course this is pre-internet so wasn't
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like you could just you know google him
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and
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find out more information so I wondered
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about him but then about a year later I
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saw him again on Austin City Limits and
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this time it was with Rodney Crowell and
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with Rodney he had played on his next
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album which was called diamonds at dirt
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diamonds and dirt was also another big
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record it had a couple of number-one
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hits on it and again Stewart played all
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the electric guitar on it and and seeing
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that performance was another kind of
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electrifying in a moment of seeing some
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great and unique guitar playing so a
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couple of things that Stewart did that
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were unique especially for the time was
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you know when most guitar players would
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play kind of a an Eve kind of shuffling
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kind of boogie with them kind of thing
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they might you know play something of
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that sort
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while Stewart because he's putting the
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thumb pick he would really pluck the
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strings aggressively
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that kind of kind of rockabilly country
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you know playing that he would do again
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that was not super common
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I don't think of maybe you know Reggie
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Young and Billy Joel Walker jr. had
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played you know something kind of plucky
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like that on Reba McEntire's Little Rock
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but that was a you know it was a neat
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and identifiable you know part for that
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song she's crazy for leaving by Rodney
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Crowell was written by God Clark another
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thing that he did that was unique and I
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hadn't seen before was instead of
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playing in an E chord like this like
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this he would play chord shapes so and
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then he would you know make small
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movements that would give you you know
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[Music]
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that kind of thing also Stewart did a
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lot of artificial harmonics along with
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open strings and use some other
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interesting you know chord shapes off of
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this sometimes
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really nice really nice clusters of
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notes so after after working with Rodney
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and rosanne Cash up until the early 90s
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he he started working with Shawn Colvin
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he played on the the fact CD record
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probably the the cutoff there to really
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hear his his best work is Round of Blues
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and that's an amazing guitar solo that
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he played on on that cut
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then he produced the cover girl album
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for Sean and then Sean started working
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with John Leventhal again and they made
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the a few small repairs album and of
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course Leventhal played all the guitars
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on there but then when it came time to
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tour you know stewart was called in and
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so there's all sorts of footage of
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stewart playing live with with shawn
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colvin in a trio format and it's great
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suggest you look on youtube for Sean
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Cole and a Lilith Fair and you'll find
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some really neat clips of them playing
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so through Colvin Stewart met Don Henley
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and he started playing in Don Henley's
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band and then of course when Don Felder
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and the Eagles had a parting of the ways
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Stewart was brought in and so Stewart's
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been you know with the Eagles for over
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20 years covering Don Felder and Bernie
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lettings parts
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he is the guy that's for our stage left
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he you see him play the music man double
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neck on Hotel California and you know
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great player how some some of his gear
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that he uses before the Eagles he's
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pretty pretty sparse you know gear wise
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he
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would he would mainly play two different
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strats he had a 1966 strap sunburst
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transition logo big headstock and a 1956
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Stratocaster that was kind of a white
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blonde look and he would play those
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through a couple of boss pedals old
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footage it looks like he's using a boss
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compressor and a boss overdrive like a
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cs2 compressor sd1 overdrive ce2 chorus
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and a DM 2 or DM 3 analog delay so
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that's not I was kind of his ad setup
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with the two strats and a twin reverb
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amplifier then by the time he was with
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Colvin he was using vos digital delay
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maybe a cs3 compressor and that added a
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volume pedal and a limiter trim you
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later but also this the 66 track got
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black EMG pickups he started using and
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that was kind of his rig that he used
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all through the the 90s
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another thing that occurred in the 90s
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was he started playing on a lot of
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sessions in Nashville and so he didn't
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live in Nashville but he was flown in a
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lot because he added a different flavor
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so Vince Gill had Stewart you know come
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in and play on his records and so there
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are things on Vince's records that you
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think are vents but are actually Stewart
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so now just so we don't get off on the
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wrong foot Vince always played his own
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guitar solos you never you know no one
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else ever played you know the guitar
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solos on his records because this is a
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great guitar player but if you take a
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song like what the cowgirls do well that
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low guitar thing that's on the intro let
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Stewart Smith he was playing a 56
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esquire tune down to C and played you
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know the intro and the rhythm part that
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you hear of course when it gets to the
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guitar solo that's Vince Gill on a strap
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another good example of Stewart playing
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on Vince's records is the intro and most
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of the guitar work on I still believe in
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you and I'm very you know beautiful
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sweet you know arpeggiated you know
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guitar parts so also Stewart worked with
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Winona Judd playing all the electric
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guitars on her hits you know through the
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90s now and kind of getting back on the
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the big gear thing you know when he did
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join the Eagles he had to started using
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a lot more gear to cover again the
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Bernie Leadon and Don Felder stuff so he
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still plays the 66 strat but also has
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the music man double neck for Hotel
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California then has a music man
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silhouette with humbuckers to cover the
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humbucker type tones
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he has another music man axis that has
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p90s or excuse me
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mm 90s that he uses to cover Telecaster
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type work and then he has a 335 to cover
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the I can't tell you why guitar solo
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which was actually played by Glenn Frey
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that was kind of a surprise I thought it
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was Don Felder that played that solo but
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it wasn't Glenn Frey that played that
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believe on yes 3:30 into his Intuit
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deluxe so I mean who you know Stuart
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covers covers that also has a couple SG
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juniors and specials that he uses some
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also effects wise cs3 compressor minute
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own red snapper rat distortion to dip in
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a boss DD 3 digital delays a super
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chorus and Ernie Ball volume pedal and a
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wah-wah and that's his setup he's pretty
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much used
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aníbal strings his entire career 10
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through 46 and of course uses a thumb
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pick and that's that's kind of his gear
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and setup I've created a Spotify
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playlist just to to kind of spotlight
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some of the sessions that he's that he's
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done so on there there are songs that
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Stewart asked that that
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you know that he had indicated were some
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of his favorite songs so there's a
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interview that I did with with Stuart in
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the February 20 2000 vintage guitar
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magazine and so in that he had indicated
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some of his favorite songs so I put
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those in a Spotify playlist favorite
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song that he had played on and then I
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kind of filled it out with a couple
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other tunes so you have everything from
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you know rosanne Cash and Rodney Crowell
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to Joni Mitchell and Vince Gill work and
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all that's great so please check out
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Stuart Smith read the article in the
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February 20 20 of vintage guitar
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magazine that I had the pleasure of
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getting to write and I hope you enjoyed
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this episode of ask Zack
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so please subscribe please hit the bell
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please comment and you can send me
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emails too is Zack that is EAC at ask
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Zack calm so thanks a lot and I'll see
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you next time bye bye