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hey guys welcome to another Ask Zack
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episode I'm Zack childs so I had another
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episode that was all queued up and ready
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to go talking about a Dana caster guitar
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of mine and then I realized that January
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17th is the one-year anniversary of
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Reggie Young's passing so Reggie was a
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huge guitar hero of mine and to many
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others and I found that out in the true
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tone lounge and interviewing guys you'd
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hear Brent Mason or Steve Warner or John
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Leventhal all sorts of cats you know
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talking about the importance of Reggie
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young and his playing they just didn't
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enjoyed his playing in it and was a huge
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influence on them Reggie had such a
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prolific career and you know a lot of
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times you can wonder why and a lot of
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times you can think well it was just cuz
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he's a great guitar player well he was
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he was a stellar guitar player but also
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he was the kind of guy you wanted to
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spend time with so if your goal is just
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to hire a great guitar player there's a
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lot of great guitar players especially
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here in Nashville or LA in New York but
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if you wanted a guy that was not only a
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great guitar player who played great
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parts but he was also very humble and
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sweet and wonderful to be around
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Reggie Young was at the you know pretty
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much the top of the list
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and he had such a vocabulary on the
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guitar and you know he had this
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background of playing you know R&B music
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and playing country music and playing
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pop music you think about a guy that
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played you know when I was doing that
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little intro piece you
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you had son of a preacher man you had
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Memphis soul stew you had suspicious
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minds and then drift away which is kind
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of if you had to pick one tune which
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would be a miserable thing to do but if
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you had to pick one tune with Reggie's
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playing on it that would be the one to
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pick so that's why we're doing this - to
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celebrate Reggie and his great memory
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and all the great things that he played
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on yeah I think about you know the first
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time I heard about about Reggie of
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course I had heard his playing before
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but I didn't know his name until there
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was this country musicians book that
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came out and so this was done by Guitar
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Player magazine back in the 80s and this
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of course seeing a pre-internet they
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would recycle older content that was
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important
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in these books and so the guitar player
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magazine would periodically do these
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books and this was great it had a
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segment on on Reggie I saw it and I saw
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some of the people that he had played
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with and I was I was impressed and then
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I found some other you know articles the
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the thing that really started to make me
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even more interested was in this issue
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of country guitar of course with a here
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you have Travis Tritt with a beautiful
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mullet that's that's beautiful hair any
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woman would be happy to have that hair
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sorry I'm given if Travis Tritt is
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watching I apologize so but there was a
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article on on Reggie and and the writer
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of the article was John Jorgensen so
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haters of the little little spread old
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Reggie with his 69 Telecaster are kind
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of lounging across one of his Road cases
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and great great article by by John John
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had a career doing interviews in Guitar
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magazines in the kind of the late 80s
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early 90s and he did course did great
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work because he's such a phenomenal
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player so in this I found out about of
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course
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Reggie playing on things like oh the
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Merle Haggard stuff like think I'll just
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stay here and drink and that's the way
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love goes and I found out about about
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him not using the point of the pic but
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using kind of the the other end of the
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rounded into the pic to play with and I
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found out you know what does make a
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difference it does give a smoother sound
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and so I started doing that in the in
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the early 90s from listening to him and
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of course you hear things like Reggie's
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volume pedal work which Reggie was using
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a volume pedal back in the early 60s
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which was way ahead of his time you know
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hardly any guitar players especially
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session guys they didn't use volume
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pedals but his you know by the early 60s
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he was using one and at the time he was
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playing a gibson es-335 and he had
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disconnected the varitone switch which
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of course is that big honkin switch that
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has all this circuitry to it to make the
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guitar sound very different out of phase
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and other sounds and he had had that
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removed or at least decoupled
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electronically and he used a volume
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pedal in a stand l amplifier and that's
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what he used when he was opening for the
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Beatles with the bill black combo and
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the Beatles saw him playing and they
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loved his playing and you know George
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Harrison was asking him about his sound
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because he loved the sound of that stand
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a lamp with a 15-inch you know JBL
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speaker and he loved the string bending
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and such and the volume swells and
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things that Reggie was doing even back
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in the early 60s and was using an
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unwound third string which the Beatles
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were not they were still using a wound
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third string instead of a plain one
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so yeah and I love you know he's his
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volume pedal work in a very influential
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you know just we do harmonics with of
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course and that was something also that
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Larry Carlton was doing out in LA but
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Larry started using falling pedal after
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well after Reggie was not saying one was
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an influence on the other I think both
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of them were influenced by steel players
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I think Reggie was playing with a steel
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player that used divine pedal and Larry
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Carlton played a session with buddy
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Emmons and started using a volume pedal
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so you know Reggie always had a great
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sound
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he always you know he always fit in
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always played great little parts you
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know I've kind of replicated his sound
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somewhat today as best as I as I can
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with the gear that I have and so I have
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I have a script logo MX our Dyna comp
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from the 70s and I have a sparkle Drive
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and I've also got a volume pedal I've
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got a boss DD too and I have a TC
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Electronics chorus pedal because you
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know Reggie used the the TC chorus a lot
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especially in the 80s when I was during
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the era of chorus and yeah so now people
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hired Reggie because he was a great guy
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and he was a great guy to work with I
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first contacted Reggie in the early 90s
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I was a Belmont student and I had made a
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demo of my playing on one of those short
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cassettes that had just enough space on
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each side for one song and on one side I
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had up tempo in the other one I had a
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ballad and I contacted Reggie and he
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took my call and he told me I asked him
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if I could send him a demo of
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plying and he said absolutely and he
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gave me his address and he said sent it
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to me and then give me you know
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about a week or two so I have enough
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time to listen to it and then call back
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and so that's what I did and he gave me
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great feedback he was very honest I
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asked him about how did you get how did
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you get your start in the session career
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and he said I don't know it just
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happened and then I asked him what kind
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of guitar and amp should I play and he
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said we should play what you're
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comfortable with such honest answers
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never saying do what I did or play what
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I played and yeah and and through the
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years he helped me with some vintage
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guitar ask Zach questions that were in
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print where I was having trouble
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identifying somebody from the Muscle
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Shoals from a video and ended up being
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at an early shot of Eddie Hinton and he
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helped me with that and then I got to do
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a feature on his Forever Young album for
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vintage guitar magazine and then we did
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the true tone lounge episode with him
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that was three parts and I'm gonna be
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real real honest here it was it was a
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little bit of a struggle for me to to to
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show my hero as an old man and he was he
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was an old man and he was his health was
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deteriorating and but I knew it was the
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I knew we were supposed to do it but
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it's still you know because he's you
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know your guitar hero and you you know
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you I wanted to see him like he was when
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I met him you know in the nineties and
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such but I was really glad we did it I
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was and of course a lot of it or it had
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everything to do with his wife Jenny who
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who made it happen
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and who was very kind and yeah
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so I wanted to take you know just a look
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at it at like drift away and and talk
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about
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like the the different things that he
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did on that song well first off I asked
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him I said Reggie you know was that
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something that you came up with right on
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the spot and he said no he said the
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intro to drift away was something that
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he had been working on as a as an
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instrumental and so it was only on the
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session you know in Nashville in the
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early 70s that he realized that that
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what he had made up for his own song
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would work as the intro for the tune by
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mentor Williams and yeah and it worked
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but then everything else was you know
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was ad-libbed
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so so you have the first part of the
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song which was played on the Les Paul
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deluxe which had many humbucking pickups
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which of course I'm playing a Telecaster
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today and he doubled it and it made it
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sound like chorus because there were no
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chorus pedals per se at this point so
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I'm using the TC electronic chorus pedal
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to kind of play the play the intro so
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you get them so you have that kind of
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thing then you have you know the the
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fills that he plays on the on the verse
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[Music]
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which are all kind of classic R&B you
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know fills I mean it's a textbook on you
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know great R&B guitar playing and then
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you have what he plays in the chorus
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which was not done on the Les Paul
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deluxe it was done with his 69 black
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Telecaster black Tilly custom with the
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binding and that's where you get the
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great things like that
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[Music]
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[Music]
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great part and then you have the the
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ending which I'm not sure if that was
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the Les Paul of the tele but it was
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through a garnet Herzog and because I
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was asking him when we were looking at
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the garnet which was this tube preamp
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thing that was to to create overdrive
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and it was developed for Randy Bachman
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because he was trying to replicate the
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sound he got at the at the beginning of
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the guess who's American woman so he had
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had this garnet create this herzog
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device and Reggie got one and he started
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using one by the late 60s and he was he
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was definitely using it on the the
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tail-end a drift away so all the stuff
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during you know in the the final chorus
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and the outro of the tune is the the
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herzog so another interesting thing
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about Reggie was Reggie was a bit of a
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minimalist and this will make fans of
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Keith Williams five-watt world happy he
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basically played two guitars from for a
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lot of his career now early on he played
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a 345 and then he started playing a
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Telecaster about 1966 he had a maple cap
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tele kind of like this guitar this is a
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67 his was a 66 so it would be similar
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finish obviously maple cap Nick but his
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head the transition gold logo not this
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black CBS logo and what had clusen
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machine head's but otherwise it would be
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basically the same as this 1967 tele of
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mine so he also had some some of chips
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chips Moman had a couple guitars that he
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used and of course he was famous for
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using the Scottie more Super 400 on the
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Elvis stuff that was cut in 69 like
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suspicious minds and in the ghetto and
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and and that stuff and then he traded in
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his 66 Telecaster like this for that 69
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tele that he played from then until his
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passing
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after his period of time in in Memphis
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and then a very short period of time in
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Atlanta he moved to Nashville and soon
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after moving to Nashville he got a
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fifty-seven strap so and those were kind
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of his main tools from then on I mean he
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used some other guitars over once in a
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while but that 1957 Stratocaster and
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that 1969 tele those were his main
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guitars and he also he was a huge fan of
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the deluxe reverb and so today I've got
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one and and he used Celestion vintage
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30s which I liked because of JD Syme oh
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and so then of course it was a boon you
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know to find out that Reggie liked him
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too so yeah so he was a bit of a
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minimalist of course during the 80s he
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had to use more rack stuff and things
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like that but he was basically a strat a
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Tele a deluxe reverb in a couple of stop
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boxes that was his sound and what a
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great player what a great guy his
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funeral was really interesting
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of course not many funerals do you have
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BJ Thomas and Steve Warner and Jessi
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Colter you know singing at them and
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we'll McFarland and of course the
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congregation was full of a who's who of
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the the great guitar players in
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Nashville and Muscle Shoals
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and it was interesting to hear the
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people talk about him it was very
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interesting to hear his family talk
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about him and his family talk about how
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they wanted to preserve Reggie the man
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because they were proud of Reggie the
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musician but they they really wanted
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people to know what a great guy he was
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and those that knew him know that he was
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a great guy so there it is
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thank you for watching I've created a
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Spotify playlist on you know what I
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think are Reggie's you know best tunes
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it's a little bit heavy on Merle Haggard
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stuff because I just really like that
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and a lot of the Merle Haggard stuff is
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that
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Leigha strat and not a tele you have you
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listen to it with an open ear you can
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hear things like Leonard and other songs
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and you can tell it's a it's that
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Stratocaster sometimes it's the out of
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phase thing and sometimes it's the
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middle pickup or neck pickup you know
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through a Dinah comp and into a Fender
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amp with the volume pedal so take a
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gander please subscribe
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we're gonna start taking questions so we
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can really make it asked Zach so my
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email address we're gonna put up on the
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screen at the tail-end and so please
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start sending me in questions that we
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comment below please share it with
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others and I just want to thank you so
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much and I hope you have a great week
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god bless you