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on today's ask Zack we're going to look
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at one of the coolest beat up old 52
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Tellies an honest Road
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[Music]
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War Hello friends and welcome to ask
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Zack today I have the great honor of uh
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of having one of the coolest beat up
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heavily tanned 52 Tellies I've ever had
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the pleasure of getting to uh hold and
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play and uh this 52 Telly is owned by
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Andy talamantes great blues guitarist
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and guitar repair man living here in
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Nashville and today we're going to tell
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the story of this guitar and how it got
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to look in this beautiful beat up way
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before we dive in I just have to say
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thank you to my patreon members who are
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the engine that keep this show going I'm
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grateful for them and uh yeah if you
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want to find out more there's a link in
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the
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description also there's you know tip
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jar information you can do super thanks
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uh there's ask Zack merch I just
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appreciate you uh supporting the show
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because that is what keeps this show
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going and I appreciate it all right so
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first off uh one of the the great things
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that I've enjoyed about doing this show
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is just the amount of people that I've
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been able to connect with uh all over
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the world but you know even just here in
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Nashville that I've been able to connect
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with that I wouldn't have otherwise and
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that have these really cool instruments
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and stories to tell and I love telling
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stories so when Andy talamantes reached
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out to me and said that he had uh a to
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Telly that he wanted to show me and that
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he uh his first wife had been uh been
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Jimmy Bryant's one of Jimmy Bryant's
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daughter and he had some Jimmy Bryant
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stories I said yeah let's let's meet for
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lunch and so we met at this little place
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called Maniacs in Franklin Tennessee
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which is one of those you know kind of
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uh you know less processed um you know
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chicken strip kind of place and so we
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had some chicken strips and I think Andy
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had a chicken sandwich
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and he started telling me stories about
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Jimmy Bryant and uh and you know which
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was great and then he pulled out this
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guitar and it just you know kind of blew
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my mind because I just love the you know
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when the Finish does interesting things
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with UV and when you get some really
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interesting colors and this is a
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wonderful color and the headstock is so
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Brown and yet you have you know this
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area where the decal is where you know
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it hasn't done that and one of the
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reasons I love this look right here is
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from I remember buying Roy Buchanan's
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second album you know as a as a
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teenager and just loving the back cover
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because it showed him holding his you
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know his Telly and it had you know a
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similar look Pro though not this dark
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and I always thought that was a really
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really cool look on an old
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Telly so um you know we're having all
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these you know conversations about the
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guitar he tells me the backstory on it
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tells me about you know crazy stories
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about Jimmy Bryant who of course had uh
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you know had a traumatic childhood had
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an alcohol problem and you know just had
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kind of a a hard life and uh you know of
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course was an amazingly talented guitar
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player and then uh you know
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unfortunately he was not really playing
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Tellies when Andy knew him he was
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playing you know he had that red Gibson
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I don't know if it was a 335 or 355 that
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he was was playing at that time and then
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he had like some Magneton and a murf
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guitar and some other things that he
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played but uh you know his playing was
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still uh you know pretty undiminished at
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that point you know especially in the
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earlier
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70s but uh yeah but you know we started
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talking about this Telly he told me
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about it and then he said if you want to
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borrow it you can and uh I said
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absolutely can I do an episode on it he
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said absolutely so thank you to Andy so
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here's a little bit about Andy uh of
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course he was he was born out in
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California in Santa
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Monica uh he uh you know gigged and
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worked in Aerospace some and of course
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was married to Jimmy Bryant one of Jimmy
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Bryant's daughters for a while
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um and he uh you know is a he was a was
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and is a gigging you know blues
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guitarist and by 1997 he started playing
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with a cat named Smokey Wilson that was
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on the rounder record label I think he
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was actually on Bullseye which was kind
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of like a you know a division of rounder
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or was being distributed by rounder
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whatever the case may
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be and so when he started playing with
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Smokey uh Smokey said I have a guitar I
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need you to do some work on and so he
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pulled out this guitar that was
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completely covered in black soot in fact
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it looked black
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and so Andy took the guitar he got a
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warm washcloth and he started wiping it
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down and he soon found a spaghetti
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logo and you know when he took the neck
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off it ended up you know being June of
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52 and signed by taddio you know
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Gomez so yeah a real deal Black Guard
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underneath the soot unfortunately the
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guitar you know had a fair amount of
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damage uh the uh the tuners were either
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bent or a lot of them were missing their
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buttons and uh the bridge pickup was
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dead uh the electronics were were
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covered in
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corrosion and uh the neck pickup was
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gone because the pit guard had been
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routed and had this big Japanese you
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know like' 60s era pickup that was just
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hanging in there and it wasn't even done
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right and so here's a shot of the uh
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ugly routing that was done underneath
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the pit guard and plus you can see some
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of the less AED finish from under the
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guard um so you're probably asking the
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question how did the guitar get so dark
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well the guitar was given to Smokey by a
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guy named
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Spider-Man so I'm guessing this wasn't
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you know the real Spider-Man with which
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I you know is there a real Spider-Man
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and it's like which which actor are we
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talking about no Spider-Man apparently
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was a guy who worked on cars in the
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Watts area and he had a garage and
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hanging in the garage was this guitar
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and so it was hanging by like a coat
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hanger and it was in a window and so
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that's where it got all of the wear and
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that's also where you get this
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interesting part because apparently it
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was not hanging you know just straight
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in the sunlight but there was just
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enough Shadow from the lip of the
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bridge that uh this area did not get uh
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the full sunlight and so that's you know
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really really cool of course you still
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have you know a bit of the outline of
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the uh the bridge cover that's some
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people call it the
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ashtray and yeah it's just a really cool
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guitar of course you've got some
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replaced Saddles here these are
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titanium um you know this is a uh
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Seymour Duncan Antiquity from the the 9s
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that uh that Andy put in there and this
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is a pickup that Andy wound himself
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because of course the original neck
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pickup was gone he did take the original
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dead Bridge pickup and the
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wiring and uh and the
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uh yeah and he uh he put them in a bag
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and uh so when he gave the guitar back
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to Smokey he uh he had a bag of you know
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parts and and said you know don't ever
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throw this
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away uh yeah we we know that's going to
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end badly so yeah so Andy played with uh
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with Smokey for a couple of years and
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then unfortunately Smokey had a stroke
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and retired from
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performing uh a couple years later in
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2006 uh Andy was was visiting with
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Smokey and asked him if he would be
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willing to to sell this guitar to
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him and they agreed on a price and Andy
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bought it and took it
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home
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and just a a couple of days
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later Smokey's wife called back and she
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said I'm sorry but uh Smokey wants the
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guitar back and of course Andy's a good
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guy he didn't you know say it's a Deal's
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a deal or anything like that so he took
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the guitar back and uh and but there was
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a promise that if he ever did you know
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decide to sell the guitar that he would
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sell it to Andy so apparently you know
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you know Smokey had some sentimental
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value attached to the guitar because of
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Spider-Man or who who knows what but he
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just couldn't even though he might not
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have been able to really play it he just
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couldn't you know not have the guitar
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with him so fast forward a bit more we
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get to
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2015 and smoke Wilson passes away and
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after that uh Andy contacts the Widow
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and the Widow remembers and she says
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that you know that she will sell him the
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guitar so he goes down there to get it
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and uh she hands him the guitar and says
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where's the the bag with the parts in it
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and she said oh they were covered in
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Rust I threw them
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away so there went the original Bridge
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pickup and the the wiring so that was
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gone but he uh you know still got a
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really really great Telly that uh you
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know again after he got it he had it
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refereed by uh by Glazer's shop
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uh yeah and it's
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just a really great Black Guard I've
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played a lot of black guards and I have
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to say this is one of the better
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sounding ones and this is not even
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original pickup I mean this is a uh a uh
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you know Seymour Duncan Antiquity it
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just this guitar just has a really nice
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compression to it and it's fat has a
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really good beefy neck but it's not
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crazy big you know yeah it just yeah it
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just has a really great feeling neck it
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you know it's had a good
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refret sounds plays good
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[Music]
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a
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[Music]
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modern wiring on it so
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both here's the
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[Music]
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neck and and he has a lot of people like
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to have the neck pickup lower in volume
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because you kind of get a better two
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pickup sound you know by by doing that
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but uh yeah it's a really really great
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sound and guitar with a really great
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story um yeah just you know a good mix
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of uh of Flathead and uh and philli
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screws so you can see that like the the
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bridge is mounted with philli screws but
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then it's got flath screws holding the
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bridge in and you know Phillips here
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straight head here flat heads holding
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the pit guard on yeah lots of uh you
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know Flathead on the uh the string tree
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so flatheads holding the tuners in yeah
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and Phillips on the neck plate so yeah
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really really cool guitar so now for uh
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comparison's sake let's let's pull out a
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uh clean 1953 so another friend let me
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borrow this clean 1953 Telly so then you
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can really get a look at the difference
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in the uh uh the coloring on the
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headstock and the coloring on the body
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so uh yeah and let's let's hear this 53
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while we got it now this
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53 is pretty
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much all original uh obviously the
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switch tip has been replaced and you
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have the addition of the uh the less you
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know the little letters there but
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otherwise you know it's even got the
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original tiny Frets on it which frankly
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I really don't like but uh we're going
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to I'm I'm going to do my best to play
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this thing because I just really don't
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like the little Frets but here we go
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let's see
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[Music]
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uh then you've got the uh of course this
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is required just like it was you know
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originally where you have Bridge pickup
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neck pickup you know and then you have
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the mud sound which you know of course
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the muds
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[Music]
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in okay enough of that uh here's the
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neck pickup by itself in the middle
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position
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[Music]
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nice out and neck uh then one of the fun
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tricks is to do like the strap thing
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where you balance the selector switch
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and if you do it just right you can get
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the two pickups together uh let's see
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um there you go
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[Music]
16:07
[Music]
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great signing guitar I you know if I
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were going to play this thing which is
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not mine to begin with so it's kind of a
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moot point but yeah I'd want bigger
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Frets on the thing but uh yeah really
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really cool guitar so yeah fun to be
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able toh to do a
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comparison you know of uh all original
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53 with a uh very roadworn 52 also with
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some replaced Parts also I forgot to
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mention on this one of one of the really
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cool spots on this is right around the
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uh the strap button here where I don't
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know if that was something on a strap or
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some kind of strap lock or what happened
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here but it's got a cool cool Mark there
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also this guitar has a split in it so uh
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it's right
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here and uh so here's where and it's and
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it's along the seam of where the the
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wood was you know the pieces of wood
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were glued together so along this seam
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it's cracked and it's split and so uh
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you know it goes you know all the way to
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the other side however it is not moved
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in many many years and it's kind of a
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hard fix cuz the wood has swelled and
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such so it's not you know you can't
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really just clamp the body back together
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and put some glue in there at this point
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so it have to get worse as it were so
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yeah so I have to thank Andy for uh for
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letting me borrow this guitar oh
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titanium uh Saddles which sound really
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good again uh one of the better signing
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black guards I've played really nice
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instrument and uh yeah thank you to Andy
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and uh also thanks to one of my buddies
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for letting me borrow uh less this 53
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that's really nice to be able to have an
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example that's pretty clean does have
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some uh fretboard wear there and there's
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some wear on the back of the neck but uh
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this one's pretty darn clean even has
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the original case to it that's been uh
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covered with some uh tape and like wood
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paneling or something but uh anyo all
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right guys well I hope you've enjoyed
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this episode this look at a real
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hardcore roadworn 52 Telly and we'll see
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you next time bye-bye