632 - Brian gets attacked by a country legend, bats in the belfry, and a sad farewell

Brian, Blake, and Richard are back for Episode 632 of the Chasing Tone Podcast - Brian gets attacked by a country legend, bats in the belfry, and a sad farewell

Blake returns from the Fretboard Summit in Chicago which may have become his favorite city. He has a suprise but very welcome Chris Martin history lesson and a Mexican-Japanese omakase he can't stop thinking about, which somehow leads to skateboard-wheel pedal toppers and the world's longest string. Then Brian takes one on the forehead when a Garth Brooks water bottle finds its mark from twenty feet.

The guys also pause as news breaks about the passing of Dolly Parton which genuinely shocks the guys and they struggle for words. Richard shares a couple of goosebump moments including an out-of-the-blue call from a guitarist who played on the first Bowie single he ever bought, and a lovely tale of David Gilmour personally helping hunt for lost gear at an eclipse-watching party.

There's plenty more to get through, too. Richard reckons he has bats living in his chimney, JHS have shrunk the Andy Timmons into a curious new mini enclosure, and King Gizzard have turned up with an amp destroyer of a pedal. The guys also tease a Friedman release.

Brian's Yoghurt Factory, The World's shortest string, Weeks versus days, RIP Frank Beard, Mini pedals...it's all in this week's Chasing Tone!

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Transcript

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Blake 0:07

Hello everybody. Good evening.

Brian 0:11

Blake, how was your morning? How was your vacation?

Blake 0:14

Oh, kind of a vacation. I had one like one straight up vacation day. I was I was engaged in workplace activities for the majority of the time. Uh Chicago is like one of my new favorite places. Have you guys ever been to Chicago? Either of you? I have. It is.

Brian 0:33

It's actually fairly close to me.

Blake 0:34

It's right. It is. Yeah. I have not. It was awesome. The people were awesome. The city is uh in, you know, I didn't go. I've heard when you get to the outer reaches of Chicago, it changes a lot.

Brian 0:48

But like on the city, we were in the suburbs are like different cities, basically. Like you just never know what you're gonna get. Sometimes it's cool, cool, sometimes it's not so cool. Yeah, yeah.

Blake 0:58

That's what I that's what I gather. But in the city, like in the heart of the city, it's really, really pretty.

Brian 1:04

And uh I like Chicago, yeah.

Blake 1:06

Yeah, and the people were really, really awesome. And it what's n interesting about Chicago versus New York City, there's a couple things, but like I love New York City, I could never live there. I could actually see myself living in Chicago. I'm not going to move out of the Pacific Northwest, but I could actually envision living in Chicago because there's not this like pressure. Like when you get to New York City, it's like all of a sudden there's pressure on top of you somehow. And I I asked uh I asked one of my Uber drivers about that, and he's like, Oh man, look the look how much further the buildings are spaced apart. I'm like, oh, that makes some sense.

Richard 1:42

New York City is the city I've spent the third amount of longest amount of time in, and I think I probably could live there. I think I could dig it. I kind of get off on just New York, basically, the whole chaos and confusion and everything being on top. But I think I could dig pretty much most major American cities, so I think that's just me.

Blake 2:07

Also, I think most major American cities could learn a thing or two from Chicago's sanitation department because it was so clean downtown. I'd it's probably the cleanest downtown I've ever seen. Um, I don't know what they're doing. I don't know if they're just they're trucking it all in the river. I don't know what they're doing with it.

Brian 2:26

But uh we got this, we got this basically, it's just a river that we just throw everything in. Yeah, it's right in the middle of the city. Why not? Right. Why not sit in there? It's yeah, transports out to this big lake that we never go in. It's all that's right.

Blake 2:38

Yeah, it didn't act, it didn't look like that. The river looked quite quite clean, actually. But uh I was just like, wow, this is whatever they're doing, some other cities need to try to replicate it.

Brian 2:48

If I was if I was young, uh Chicago would definitely be a can a contender for where to move.

Blake 2:53

Yeah, those winners, though.

Brian 2:54

The winners are brutal coming off the lake, though.

Blake 2:57

Yep. Yep. But the summer, can confirm, is awesome. Had excellent food, one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. I was telling Richard we went to this uh omakase place that was a Mexican Japanese fusion. Absolutely brilliant. Uh, I should probably shout it out. What's the name of that place again? I always forget it. Uh, it is called Wampus Yomad Factory. Oh, sorry. Casa Madai is what it's called. Uh I'm kind of on the south side a little bit. Really, really top-notch, top-notch experience there. And the fretboard summit was really cool. Shout out to Jason Verlindi of the Fretboard Journal. Uh, that is quite an event. The Old Town School of Folk Music is not what it sounds like. It sounds like it's gonna be this very low-key, you know, bunch of hippies sitting around type in one room, type of thing. No, this is like two separate buildings. One of them's four stories, I think the other one's three. I can't remember exactly. And it's like a really, really nice facility. They've got multiple theaters um that are not huge, but feel huge because they're really tall and really, really nice. And they've got 200 teachers there teaching various, mostly stringed instruments. Um, it's a it's a huge school. It's like two legit like college campuses. It I was really impressed with the facilities. And uh, and the event was was incredible. There was all kinds of cool stuff there. I attended some Chris uh talks with Corey Conjuglio. He was uh giving a talk. That was cool. Um I missed Josh Scotts, unfortunately, though I wanted to go to that one, but did miss that one. Uh, but Chris Martin uh from Martin gave like a history of Martin Guitars chat that was really, really interesting.

Richard 4:41

That's very cool.

Blake 4:42

Yeah. That's that's like worth the entrance fee alone, I would say. It was awesome. And got talked to him a little bit after after the thing. And yeah, he he was he's always been very nice to us, despite knowing that uh we compete directly with one of their main segments. So he's been very, very kind in that regard. So shout out to Martin. Um, but yeah, really great event. I would suggest anybody who's listening to this podcast should check it out. You're gonna see guitars there that you're not gonna see anywhere else, even at NAM. There's some really, really interesting stuff being done by some of these builders. A lot of really high-end acoustics, a lot of, I mean, I was playing some pre-war Martin's and Banner Gibson's and all kinds of stuff, just like really, really, really special stuff that you're you're not gonna see at a typical guitar show. I I highly recommend checking out the fretboard summit next year. This is not sponsored.

Brian 5:37

Uh so were you set up as a vendor or were you visiting?

Blake 5:40

We we were not. We were uh we have a difficult product to like have a booth that people can come see. Right. We try to do that at NAM, and it just you're displaying your strings under like the worst possible conditions.

Brian 5:56

It's a difficult thing to do, yeah.

Blake 5:57

Yeah, so we find that we get a lot more mileage. That's why at NAM our booth is just a big sign. Like, hey, come talk to us. That's what that's gonna be do more than than trying the product in these circumstances.

Richard 6:10

Something kind of like from the BMW playbook where they bring out diesel engine that's done a quarter of a million miles and they just stick it on a booth and it's running. You need to have like a string that you're continually pulling against weight while the whole booth is active and get sponsorship for how long you do it.

Brian 6:29

Or maybe the world's longest string. All the world continuously winding it. All the world's shortest never stops. Well, the world's shortest string. Yeah, there you go. Give little one-inch strings to people. Here you go.

Blake 6:42

But you actually did think about doing at one time, and I don't think we'll ever actually do this is because the logistics are a nightmare of like bringing a winder and setting it there and having someone just making strings. Like, hey, you up, here you go, here's an E-string. Problem is like you're you're gonna get a string that like that you can't really do anything with it. Yeah, it's kind of pointless. You just can't do it. We can't bring the materials to make every string, right? It would be too much. So we just have to bring like two two different spools of wire.

Richard 7:10

You need to think outside the box here. I'm I I'm actually with Brian, the world's longest string's a good start. Uh, I think you know, there's a lot of mileage in that, literally.

Blake 7:19

You know what you need to do that with is uh the world's longest string winder, and that's might be a little bit challenging. Never never say impossible, Blake. No, it's not impossible, it's definitely not impossible. It's actually very possible, just very difficult.

Richard 7:37

Yeah, okay.

Blake 7:38

Yeah, all right. Sounded like you had a ball. Yeah, I I I really did. I really enjoyed it. Chicago left a lasting impression on me. I'm gonna be thinking about it all the time. The way I think about New York City all the time. Like, oh man, I want to get back there. I won't take my kids.

Richard 7:52

I I gotta tell you, because I've been reminded by saying the word ball and looking at Blake about this. I had an idea, Bri. Um, but Blake, you were the inspiration for it in a roundabout way. Someone sent me a uh and he's a mutual friend, and I won't give him away. Uh, but he sent me a picture of a pedal, I think it was called the Cyclops, and the controller, the knob in the middle was an eyeball. But then you know what I thought, Bri? I thought what you need for like a stomp topper is like miniature skateboard wheels with the graphics round the edges, like on any skateboard post-1987 onwards. And that would be one hell of a cool like pedal topper type device.

Brian 8:40

What pedal so when you say pedal topper, you're talking about like a plate that goes on underneath the pot?

Richard 8:46

Yeah, you know, I I forget who it is who sells that number one one, but they sell like a little aluminium shoe hickey that screws on to uh your knob or whatever, uh, and gives you a little bit more purchase with your foot. I'm not a huge fan of them, but people really dig. They're the ones.

Brian 9:08

Oh, you're talking about the switch topper. Yeah. Oh, I thought you meant okay, so I thought you meant like a faceplate on a pedal. Like a like a faceplate or something. You had me all confused. Yes. Okay, so now how does this look like a skateboard now? It's a skateboard wheel.

Richard 9:23

I've actually seen this done before. Yeah, so you know what? Like, if you look at the side of the skateboard wheels on your skateboard, you'll see it has like Powell Parole for branding and little little skeleton hands. Yeah. If you turn that so that's facing you, and imagine that, but miniaturized on a pedal as a pedal topper, I think that would be a pretty cool thing to have. Somebody would have it spinning, Bri.

Brian 9:50

You think we could talk Caballero into doing that?

Richard 9:52

I think I think if we if we came up with a working prototype, we could talk them all into it, Bri.

Blake 9:59

You would an entire Bones Brigade team? Yeah, no, somebody did this already. I've seen this before. I just can't remember who made it.

Richard 10:07

Yeah. I mean, it's funny you say that because I was also sent a link to a company who make frets that you can raise up and down using screws at the side, using like a hexagonal screw. But um I I don't care. This is my idea, Bri, and we can patent it. We can even cut Blake in for his Cyclops.

Brian 10:29

Uh I'm trying to find um an example of someone that did it. I did not see anything, Blake.

Blake 10:35

I know, I know I've seen this before. I know I've seen it.

Brian 10:38

This could be done with a 3D printer and a UV printer, Bri. Now I do see where someone converted a skateboard into a pedal board.

Richard 10:45

Yeah, that's so cool.

Brian 10:47

Yeah.

Blake 10:47

That would actually not be a bad business. Salvation Audio Tone Wheel Boost. Oh, actually, uh Henning reviewed it in 2017. Really? Let's let's not bother with it then. No, I'm joking. There's another one though. Oh, yeah, the skate fuzz. That's the one I was thinking of. The skate fuzz by Dr. Acid. That's the one I was thinking of.

Richard 11:09

Is Dr. Acid the one that makes the uh all the no, that's Dr. No pedals, isn't it? Uh Dr. No does the like crazy cases with eyeballs. Yeah, there it is, Bri. There it is. That's a really good example, but that looks like a full size 90 wheel. And I'm thinking if it was miniaturized a bit.

Brian 11:31

Well that is pretty cool, man. If you like skateboard stuff, that's pretty cool. I think it's pretty cool.

Richard 11:38

I mean, if you could make it out of the same material that they make skateboard wheels out of, it's also a nice feel on the foot because it's this is a rubber but very hard.

Blake 11:48

This original uh the stuff the skate fuzz picture that popped up on Google, it says I think it says support your local roid dealer on the wheel. I think that's what that says. No, acid dealer. It's acid dealer. That makes sense. Yeah.

Richard 12:08

I was like, is that a I? No. Yeah, it's not a great typeface.

Blake 12:13

Uh yeah, the the A and the C, the C almost looks like an O.

Richard 12:17

Very familiar looking typeface, but yeah, it does. Uh but it's interesting because I read it as acid and you read it as Royd. That says more about us than it does about the typeface.

Blake 12:28

I think you're right. Maybe we run in some other circles.

Richard 12:32

Yeah, maybe maybe we do. Actually, I've got to talk about that on the on the patron, the old uh weightlifting. There's been a result. Uh oh. Now, who here this week has been hit by a water bottle from a music legend? I was I was wondering if anybody had by chance. Mine was yellow. I'm just gonna say the bottle he threw me was yellow, but he said that was normal sun yellowing. That's literally.

Brian 13:01

I think that's uh what happens whenever you're on stage long and you need to take a break, you know, find a water bottle somewhere and go on that stage. Let me go behind this full stack here. I'll be that's that's a good use for a full stack, to be fair. Uh Bri, tell us what happened. Well, I mean, so Garth Brooks was in town this weekend.

Blake 13:21

So he's hanging out at your house in Martinsville.

Brian 13:23

No, I never met Garth, but I know I was I know the guitar players in this band very well. Um I think did we have Chris on here? Losing her? I don't think we have to. We should get Chris.

Richard 13:38

Yeah, and he contributed to your birthday uh video.

Brian 13:41

Yeah, he's just uh heck of a nice guy. Um anyway, so so they invited me out and we had pretty good seats actually. We pretty much next to the stage, like not next to the stage, but I don't know, 15 feet away from the stage, maybe 20 feet in the seats. And um if anyone has ever been to a Garth concert, you know he one of the things he likes to do is drink a couple bottles, you know, like pick up two bottles of water, drink a little bit, then he pours it on like the people and the on the floor, and then he throws them. So we were on the side of the stage where he decided he was gonna throw. And my wife is has her, she has her phone, so she's filming it all. Amazing. I'm like looking at him and halfway looking at Chris and looking at her phone, and I see him throw it, and then I think, oh crap, that's gonna like it's going over my head. But nope, it didn't. Instead, it hit me right on the freaking forehead. Belced off my forehead and into the seats in front of us. But um, yeah, that was the first time I've ever been hit by a water bottle that someone threw from the stage.

Blake 15:01

All the all the times of throwing pedals on the stage, it's your turn, buddy. But it's the most comic revenge.

Brian 15:08

Right, because Amanda's filming it, and you see her film it, and then like as soon as it hits my head, like it's like someone threw the phone down, you know, because she's like, Do you crack your head? No, it just looks like someone dropped the phone or something.

Blake 15:20

I was like, geez, you gotta post that, but it's funny.

Brian 15:25

I wish I was hoping that she would have got that, but no, she actually it was just such um yeah, you didn't really expect to get hit in the head by a water bottle from Karth Brooks. No, but you know you know what, and I'm thinking I got a lawsuit in my hands. That's what I'm thinking, boys. I'm kidding.

Blake 15:39

I'm thinking you gotta find that water bottle. That's in a valuable water bottle. It's been touched by your forehead and there's only one of those in the world.

Brian 15:47

Honestly, I actually honestly felt bad because there's a there's a kid behind us, and um, like I would have just gave it to him or something, but you know, it's kind of a bummer because Amanda smacked in his. My wife literally said, Why didn't you grab it? And I said, 'cause I I wasn't expecting to get hit in the damn head.

Blake 16:06

The first thing, if you would have been expecting it, you probably would have caught it right or headed it into somebody else.

Richard 16:13

But that's the whole thing about being hit by surprise, is you don't know how you're gonna react.

Blake 16:18

Right. Um, exactly. It's like Mike Tyson says everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth. This is kind of like that, right?

Brian 16:24

Oh yeah, exactly. Except wetter and more embarrassing. Yeah, that I don't know.

Blake 16:31

I don't think it's more embarrassing. If Mike Tyson knocks me out, I'm gonna be more embarrassed than if Garth Brooks hits me with a water bottle.

Richard 16:38

You'd be you'd be embarrassed by Mike Tyson knocking you out.

Brian 16:42

Yeah. Why knocked out by anybody as embarrassing? I think people have tried to do this just for the notoriety of it. Like when he's on a plane and some. Remember that guy was like antagonizing him? I'm like knocked out by Mike.

Richard 16:56

I'm gonna have to run off the script here a little bit. Oh. Um, there is great. Where's this script at? Huge bit of music, uh, very sad music news. Um, Dolly Parton has just died.

Brian 17:10

No way.

Richard 17:11

No. Probably the largest country and Western artist of all time. Oh wow the point of her passing, I would say.

Blake 17:24

Well, this must be some breaking oh nope, there it is. Variety New York Times.

Richard 17:29

Yeah. Yeah. Uh that's that's really a bummer. Um, it's insane to like see that news come up. I can't think of a more influential artist from that genre than her for this country. Because we kind of yeah, we kind of really took her on board over here, I guess. Uh I know she's massive out there, clearly.

Blake 17:58

She's one of those people that's just kind of like universally everybody likes Dolly. You know? Yeah. Uh she just always seemed like a a a sweet person, and she did a lot for the community she was in. She there's uh the some people have reported that she would have been a billionaire, but she gave away too much money, so she never made it. Like, well, that sounds the other billionaires should uh take a note out of them.

Brian 18:28

I mean, yeah, like okay. That's that's hard to it when it's frameless as in you know, she would have been a billionaire if she didn't give so much away. Well, it was more of a compliment.

Blake 18:38

Like she's given away so much money that that like she would have been that's fantastic.

Brian 18:44

That's the that's the way to do it, I think.

Blake 18:46

Her book program is kind of legendary. She has a she's given away like millions of books to underprivileged households and stuff. It's a she amongst other things. She was just like a really seemed like a kind lady.

Richard 18:58

Yeah. An absolute like I I hate to say, you know, an icon on the level of Elvis, but I don't think I'm too far off the mark if I say that. You know, literally throughout the my life, 70s, 80s, 90s, and beyond, like an ever-present, like someone like Tom Jones is over here, I guess.

Blake 19:20

We've got a string winder named after Dolly. You do. Okay. Yeah, we name our our machines after country artists, and one of them's Dolly.

Richard 19:30

Okay. Well, black armband on Dolly tomorrow. Um that sucks. And I hate I I I had no choice but to tell you because it was like huge news flashing up, but it sucks that I had to kind of do that.

Brian 19:45

That's um that's a bummer. Thanks for thanks for bringing the whole thing down, Richard.

Blake 19:52

Sorry. Next you're gonna tell me that the drummer for Z Z Tops no longer.

Richard 19:56

I mean, that was the other sad news that came out this week. Frank Beard, and and from what I understand, he literally gave instructions to another drummer about how to play his parts, and then was like, that's it, I'm I'm done, and passed away within 24 hours of that. Wow, wow. Yeah, I'm I may have got that timing wrong, but it was that kind of quantum of uh event. So yeah, very sad. Uh Z Z Top uh are now really just down to Billy Gibbons. Billy Gibbons. So um, but nothing lasts forever, unfortunately.

Blake 20:31

Right. But also, like, yeah, what a what a run they've had. And uh Frank's Frank's just had this unique yeah, yeah. He's one of those drummers you could identify for me anyway. I listened to a lot of Z Top growing up, and it's not like it was the most complicated thing in the world, and it didn't have to be, and you wouldn't have even wanted it to be. But you like you can you can hear his feel and the way he would groove and lock into things. Like he was in a very important part of that band's sound.

Richard 21:00

The thing about some drummers who play very solid drum beats, but aren't necessarily always the most fanciful, is that they have a side that you don't know that they bring out every now and then, and because you're used to them being that kind of solid staple drummer, when they do bring it out, you're like, Yeah, this is this is the shit. And he did that. That was that was kind of his thing, you know.

Blake 21:24

So just think about Le Grange, think it like hear it in your head. It's one of my favorite songs, and then like it's obviously it's that's like I that iconic guitar part everybody's thinking of, but the the drums, the drums in that song really man, and and again, you're crucial.

Richard 21:39

You're you're going from kind of like soft cymbal timing to kind of rolling across the kit type fills, that is actually quite quite impossible to get right to a click on record, and that wouldn't have been done to a a click as we know it. So the fact that that comes together the way it does, yeah, magnificent. So

Brian 22:00

Yeah. Have you ever heard songs like that whenever they actually map it out to the grid and it just completely messes up the feel of the song? Yeah.

Blake 22:08

I have no. Yeah. It takes all the feel out of it.

Brian 22:11

Yeah, you can find a lot of stuff like that on YouTube where they'll basically just take the tracks and map them to a grid, and it completely loses the feel and the vibe of it completely. It's just stare away.

Richard 22:22

It's so interesting, isn't it? You know, the human aspect of it is so big. You know, yeah, we we love humans on this podcast. We're known for talking about nothing other than humans and human talent and human cleverness.

Brian 22:35

That's why our guest next week is AI Richard.

Blake 22:39

Wait, did you have an AI Blake on when I was gone? Do I do you have an AI Blake on when I was gone?

Brian 22:44

We talked about it. We talked about it, but we we I mean, we I made one and all it kept talking about was beef and meat and cooking, and it just didn't work.

Blake 22:53

That was exactly right. Put him on here. I want to talk to this guy.

Brian 22:59

I'd like to hang out with that guy. Yeah, that seems like a cool dude. Well, thanks for bringing us down. So we've we've lost Dolly, we've lost Frank, and I got hit by a damn water bottle.

Richard 23:12

You've got hit by a damn water bottle. I'm texting Amanda straight after the show to demand the footage so I can upload it next to your guitar swing. Dude, that will go viral. Ah, pedal legend gets knocked out by a country music legend. Come on. That's viral material right there, my friend. Viral.

Brian 23:32

What would have been funny is it like hit me in the head and I fell over the rail or something. Yes, and your pants fell down. Yeah, my pants fell down.

Blake 23:41

And you'd launched a pedal on stage through somehow through all of this.

Richard 23:45

Yeah, that that's what we need.

Blake 23:47

Here's a phaser. Work harder.

Richard 23:50

Work harder on your stagecraft. Uh I had a really surprising uh thing happen to me the other day. I had uh a guitarist who played with David Bowie on the first David Bowie single I ever bought ring me up out of the blue and chat to me about business. And uh yeah, it was like when the call came through, I was like, is he butt dialing me? Because we'd never actually spoken. I've sent him some wompler pedals for clarity, so we have a relationship, but he rung me out of the blue to chat about something, and uh like I was like, you know, chatty and talking about the business, and then right at the end, I'm like, so let's talk Bowie. I couldn't resist. Right, right. I was like, Well, I mean, dude, he's he's uh he's he's a legend, what can I say? So yeah, that that was quite a nice feeling, I'm not gonna lie. And then I had another guitarist friend of mine who has been on the show, Lee Harris, ring me up, and he was telling me uh stories about David Gilmour's eclipse watching party in Ibiza, I think it was, uh, which involved a musician losing some of his equipment, and the only person there who would help him look for it would be David himself, which I just thought was so lovely that you know, out of an assorted mass of various aged people, it's David that's going to search for the rare piece of equipment that you've misplaced. But one imagines the gig that they had privately whilst watching an eclipse from the writer of a song off an album called Dark Side of the Moon called Eclipse would have been flipping marvelous.

Blake 25:41

You think David was like somebody he was like, I've lost my Echoplex, and David's like, I'll find one, I know where to find those.

Richard 25:48

I'd like to think so. Uh now this is uh another slight um departure. I've got strange noises in my chimney, Bri. Now, my father Those are birds. They like to make nests. You think? Probably. Yeah. I'm thinking there might be bats. Oh bats in the belfry. I think I've got bats in the belfry. The reason I say this is we only hear them during the day, and there's no like if it was pigeons, you'd hear them cooing. And like the the chimney is only maybe a foot wide to get down, so I'm not sure birds could fly up that very easily. Where does the chimney lead to? Do you have a fireplace? We have a fireplace, but it's boarded up, it's never been used, so it's a completely sealed, like you cannot open it. Correct. It's plaster board, drywall in front of you. Oh, okay. It's probably a bird in there.

Brian 26:42

I think you have a business opportunity there. Well, hold on. Put a pl put it put uh some sort of bowl or collector at the bottom and start selling guano.

Blake 26:52

It's worth a lot of money.

Richard 26:54

You're making you're making a joke, but that stuff's worth a lot of money. That stuff is worth a lot. A friend sent me a bucket of it once because who doesn't send their best friend a bucket of actual bat shit?

Blake 27:05

Jeez. No, uh, I've had birds in my chimney a few times. Uh fortunately, one one was I didn't find until it was too late.

Brian 27:14

But the other two, I was able to be like, I smell kind of chicken smell. Something like that. It was actually before we uh moved in.

Blake 27:22

We were we were just checking the house out. I was like, let's look in this fireplace. Oh, that's a dead bird. Um, so I don't know how long that was in there. But they've been in a couple times, and I don't know how. Like the gap is so small between the cap and the top of the chimney. Um, but I had one last year, and the way we we were told to get it out, and you're not gonna like this, Richard, because you're throw a stick of dynamite down there, boy. They said I called like the Bird Society of Oregon to try to figure this out because I'm like, I don't know how to get this thing out of there because every time I open it up, it clunk goes back up into the chimney where I can't see it. But I know it's in there. And they said you make a hallway from your fireplace in this instance, yeah, to the front door using uh like sheets that you tape to the ceiling, and then you open the front door all the way, and you open the fireplace all the way, and you just stand back and wait. And eventually the bird will see the light and fly towards the light. And if you but if you don't make a hallway, it'll just fly somewhere in your house. Yeah. So that's not a hallway for it to go.

Richard 28:35

It is covered in drywall and wallpaper, and that cannot be fixed. So I've got to be.

Blake 29:13

Okay.

unknown 29:13

Yeah.

Blake 29:14

You hear it like in where the fireplace would be. Yes.

Richard 29:17

Yeah.

Blake 29:18

Oh, I think you got some you got a critter in there.

Richard 29:21

Oh, we we've definitely got a critter, but hold on. This is England. So the amount of critters is limited. We have hedgehogs, badger, deer, rats, it's a mice. I mean, deer are what lived nearest me. I think because I see two bats flying around my garden at night. I think it's bats. I could I think it's the perfect place for bats, because I'm thinking bats use sonar, so they could which which is how I tie this to the Chasing Tone podcast. Um, so I think that's how they can get out of that tiny opening. I think your average pigeon would be so stupid it would be dead by now. You're suggesting that they go in and out. I'm suggesting that this is a bat's nest, not a trapped bat. How do they hang in there? They've been well, uh you you've seen what bats look like. They hang from vampires' castles and such like. Well, is it like you got is it like a brick chimney? Mine's like a metal tape. It's a brick chimney, but it will taper. It will taper to a narrow passage. This makes sense. I think they're hanging from the bit that tapers, and that's why I can hear them scratching the wall, and that's why my dog barks 400 times a day.

Blake 30:33

Yes, because there's a bat in there.

Brian 30:34

No, your dog barks because you have a yappy dog like I do. It just barks.

Richard 30:39

It's it's now gone to level 11. It really like now that it knows there is something in the house that it can't eat, it's gone crazy. So, yeah, sleep will happen. Yeah, sleep is an interesting thing right now. I'm joking. Well, this concludes the bats section of the podcast. Sonar, but Brian, it's related to chasing tone because that's exactly how bats work, kind of. Kind of. Did you guys see that JHS released a new version of the Andy Timmins?

Brian 31:11

I did not.

Richard 31:12

Yeah. It's uh it's a miniaturized version, but what's interesting is it's not your standard mini enclosure. Okay. It's it's more like I don't know, like uh I forget what the name of the enclosure is.

Brian 31:28

Yeah, I see, it's a little bit wider.

Richard 31:30

Yeah, it's an interesting idea.

Blake 31:34

Oh, I see. It's uh it's like, yeah, what's what number of Hammond case would that be, Brian? That's like I don't have seen.

Brian 31:42

That's that's an odd one. I'm not sure.

Blake 31:44

I'm not saying it is a Hammond case.

Brian 31:45

Maybe they had this custom made for themselves, but I mean I know there's all different kinds of case sizes now, but so I'm not exactly sure what that one is.

Blake 31:52

It's like in between what we would call a normal pedal and uh and a mini. It's interesting.

Richard 31:58

It's in between a 125B and uh mini pedal, whatever that is, I think. 15 no what 1590? 1590?

Blake 32:08

No, that's the bigger one, isn't it?

Richard 32:10

Uh no, not the Husk Varner 125B island.

Brian 32:15

Anyways, it's a it's a little bit bigger than a mini pedal.

Blake 32:18

Yeah, so pedal nerds want to know. Right. They want to know.

Richard 32:22

But I think if they're gonna do some uh more pedals in that format, whether you know it would be a lot of investment if they did custom build it just for one pedal. So and a lot of their drives would probably work quite nicely in this format. Yeah, you think a morning glory will end up in there? I'm thinking a morning glory. It's interesting. It's not something that I would have thought of doing for us, Bri. Like, at no point have I thought let's create an all new format.

Brian 32:58

I think were you working with us when we toyed with the idea of making different size mini enclosures?

Richard 33:04

Yes.

Brian 33:04

Okay, so yeah, we actually went that route a while back and decided against it for a variety of reasons. Yeah, but um you know, I mean, I don't know, it's fun. Uh what I'm trying to see what the control set was on it.

Richard 33:20

Uh EQ Drive, uh EQ and air.

Brian 33:25

So EQ, I wonder what that is that a what is it what is the air and what is the EQ? Does anyone know?

Blake 33:32

Well, I'm gonna click on this here listing. So EQ is a high pass filter.

Brian 33:36

Okay, so it's a the EQ is a tone control.

Richard 33:38

Yeah, and the air was on the original, which I guess is a presence control.

Brian 33:42

Gotcha. So Gotcha. So probably if I had to guess. Without getting too nerdy, if you think of like the king of tone, it has a tone control and a presence. In fact, we did that with the oh shoot, Pantheon.

Richard 34:04

Yes.

Brian 34:04

We have a presence and a trouble, right? I bet it's kind of the same-ish thing. Low, you know, low filter and another low pass filter. I bet. Cool. I mean, I actually really like that circuit. Those that style of uh clipping circuit actually sounds really good. And the AT is pretty good sounding too.

Richard 34:25

Yeah, so it is a high pass present style filter that shapes the top end response of the overdrive.

Brian 34:32

But that's the marketing text. That's uh that's not a circuit descriptor.

Richard 34:36

No, AI has told me that. That's that's oh, I said the words. I didn't mean to say the words.

Brian 34:41

Uh yeah, I mean that's uh I mean obviously I have to get one.

Richard 34:46

Yeah, I I I I think it looks cute. That little uh that little enclosure. I think that's kind of a cute enclosure.

Brian 34:54

I wouldn't mind trying one. So their fumble is the same size enclosure. Oh, it is. I didn't realize that. I didn't either.

Richard 35:02

I clearly didn't.

Brian 35:04

I didn't know that, yeah. Their fumble is the same size enclosure.

Richard 35:08

Okay, yeah, fair enough. So yeah, make makes sense to use it for more products then.

Brian 35:13

Why not use it for more? Absolutely.

Richard 35:16

Yes, nice. I mean again, they'll get the same criticism that mini pedals do, which is uh, why don't you mount the jacks at the top? Because it would make it impossible to put together. And therefore the space saving is only achieved if you use like EBS style flat cables.

Brian 35:36

Yeah, that's the downside with mini pedals, is it ends up taking about the same space, unless you just have a weird use case where it's turned sideways and a little niche or something.

Richard 35:44

Oh, you can't do that, Brian. You can't other than the OnePlus syntax, which was designed to go both sideways and vertically, it it does my head in.

Blake 35:53

I've seen a lot of people do it though. You gotta do it sometimes. Yeah, sometimes you have to. I ran an EP booster like that for a long time.

Richard 36:00

Pedal board Tetris, yeah. Yeah, I've done it before, we've all done it, but we're not probably but you're like, I'm not gonna admit it to it publicly. No, I'm admitting to it publicly.

Blake 36:10

Okay, good.

Richard 36:11

I'm fine with that. Yeah, it's a cute format though. And I'm I am a big fan of MIDI pedals. I think, you know, pedal board real estate is always the deciding factor on what stays on and what stays off. So if I can get a pedal, especially if it's like uh, you know, uh always on style overdrive or boost, then yeah, I will um I will always buy a mini pedal if I can.

Blake 36:40

Then there's a different side of the equation, going in a total opposite direction. A pedal that's three times as large. Exactly. The tiny amp destroyer, which is not tiny, but might be an amp destroyer.

Brian 36:55

The tiny amp destroyer. Wait, what are you talking about?

Blake 36:58

This is a new chase bliss thing, right?

Richard 37:00

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hold on. It's it's jammed and king liz king lizard. Oh, is that the sorry, yeah, that's the the the king gizzard and the lizard wizard. Wizard lizard. Lizard wizard?

Blake 37:11

Yeah, there we go.

Richard 37:12

Yeah, uh okay, yeah, yeah. So I love the look of this pedal. I I the graphics really speak to me because it's done in a kind of very fluorescent, um etched fashion that I'm a big fan of. So I think it looks amazing, and they've clearly chosen to like center bias those controls on it so that it kind of has a look of a temple, I guess you could say. Uh so a lot I dig the aesthetics of it quite a lot. Um King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard use quite a few of our pedals, by the way. Oh nice. Yeah. Um you know maybe they they want to talk to us one day, I don't know. Uh but I think this is a lovely looking pedal.

Blake 37:59

I think it looks really cool. It's uh it's it's you know, it's it's trying to it's it's that classic thing, trying to put an artist's, you know, fully thought-out drive tone into one enclosure. So um that makes sense, right? And yeah, they're an interesting band because you can't it's hard to point at them and be like, they sound like this, because they're every album's different.

Richard 38:24

Yeah, and they have uh about 530 different albums, they they release one every three minutes, it's insane.

Blake 38:31

And they're all different genres and styles and stuff. So I imagine this thing's probably pretty versatile as well.

Richard 38:37

But I I kind of dig the new wave of like um fantasy-driven psychedelic bettle, is the best way I could put it. I'd put King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard up there because it's very prog rock, and then some, you know what I mean? It kind of takes that genre and it explodes it into a hundred other genres. There's that other band, Castle Rat. Have you seen them? Yeah, and Castle Rat. They're they're doing the kind of like fantasy imagery thing and all of that. And I I kind of dig that. I I just think more bands should have an image.

Blake 39:16

I feel like the sword is like they're they're a little less on the nose with it, but they're totally embracing that Conan, the barbarian energy, you know, and the riffs are strong with that band. Oof, so good.

Richard 39:30

It's part of selling a band to me. Have a fantasy image, or just have an image. That's why some of the 80s music, even though it sucked, you at least watch the videos because they were interesting.

Brian 39:41

That's a good point.

Richard 39:43

You know, there were the the people kind of at least dressed interestingly until we got to 1989.

Brian 39:48

There was always something dramatic going on. There's some sort of beef, there was always something going on. Somebody was somebody was doing coke and wrecking a car somewhere.

Blake 39:58

Right. And in my mind, they still are. Different times, Bri, different times. I mean, if you want to really uh watch a music video that's uh it's really will take you on a journey from the 80s, you just watch Total Eclipse of the Heart and just wonder what is going on during this entire video, and it will never be explained to you, but it it is an acid trip.

Richard 40:19

Now, wasn't that directed by I think it was a fairly famous Oh, it's hard to find. Yeah, I'll come back to that one. Uh, what else we've got going on, boys?

Brian 40:32

Uh, Freedman is releasing something new, I think, right? What? They are an upcoming Freedman release, I hear. What is an upcoming Freedman release? I don't work for Freedman, but I know someone who does on this podcast.

Blake 40:46

So it's not me, so who could it be?

Brian 40:49

I think it would be oh Dickie Alley over there.

Richard 40:52

Uh-huh. They are releasing something. I clearly cannot say what it is. That's it.

Brian 40:58

Thanks for putting it on the dock. Yeah, I'm really excited to be on the list here.

Richard 41:01

Yeah, yeah. It's more than my job's worth. Let's just say if you took one of their best-selling things and made it even better uh for a certain type of user, that that's what they're doing.

Blake 41:12

This is like having Tom DeLong on a podcast, and you're like, hey buddy, tell me about the aliens. He's like, Can't do it. Yeah. But it's really cool.

Brian 41:21

Great. Thanks for having me.

Blake 41:22

Uh-huh. I can't talk about anything, but aliens exist, and I know for a fact that they do.

Richard 41:28

Well, if if you're in the uh market for spending a moderate amount of money on something fantastic, Thursday is your day. That's all I can say.

Brian 41:37

Oh, is it this Thursday the releases?

Richard 41:38

This Thursday, yeah.

Brian 41:39

So is it a pedal or an amp? Can you say?

Richard 41:44

Yes. Oh, you can't even say that. Uh look, I I I don't want to say anything because wolves have ears and this goes out on the internet, so it doesn't need ears. So actually, wolves have bats. Walls have bats, yeah. I was gonna say you're not.

Brian 42:01

We could hold the podcast until Thursday. And then you could say whatever you want, you know.

Richard 42:07

I mean, that's actually true, Bri. Uh we could.

Brian 42:11

Um unless the release gets pushed back, then we're screwed.

Blake 42:14

Yeah. Did you know that Friedman edited in post?

Richard 42:21

Red that did anyway. Uh Chasing Toad will be brought to you by Brian and Blake because Richard's been fired again. Uh yeah, but it's it's very, very, very nice.

Brian 42:36

Oh, well, that's um, I'm glad we talked about that. That clarifies, Brian. So to sum it up, Friedman's releasing something should be good.

Richard 42:45

It should be good.

Brian 42:46

That's um that's what that's what we got out of this conversation.

Richard 42:50

That's what I got out of it. Well, what do you what do you want? A medal? I don't know. Uh I'm in big tr I'm in big trouble with my girls, by the way. Because uh girls, yeah, Leela and Wife? My wife and my daughter, because the we obviously we had a professional photographer take photos for their wedding, and uh he happened to also be someone I knew who had in the past shot various rock bands, which I probably told you. So he was brilliant. Now at the end of the wedding, I thought he said to me, It'll be about eight days until I give you all the edited photos because there's gonna be hundreds of edited photos, and so I told the girls eight days. I misheard it, it was eight weeks, and uh when when he was like, I was hassling him for some previews yesterday, I was like, Yeah, the rest will come in three to four weeks. I'm like, I thought it was eight days. I was like, no, no, eight weeks. So I had to eat a large slice of humble. I was gonna say eight days is actually pretty fast for an event like that. So no, no, no, it's gonna be eight weeks. Um, so uh yeah, I'm in trouble. Uh I'm just gonna let you know that.

Blake 44:02

I mean it's not like it's not like they're gonna be not married because of the photos, you know. They're gonna get married. Exactly. And she's got some social media now.

Brian 44:11

You need to spin it. You need you need to s say something along the lines of um you're you're trying to help them become more patient people.

Blake 44:18

That's right. Delayed gratification is the best kind of gratification.

Richard 44:22

You'll thank me later. Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Wampler is the Jedi master of parenting. Here lies true wisdom.

Blake 44:34

Um it'll be here before you know it, and then it'll be a nice surprise because you've kind of forgotten about it a little bit. You'll be like, oh, the wedding photos are here.

Richard 44:44

Nice. That's kind of how I'm playing it. Uh we like I said, we got like 22 low res previews last night, which is fine for Facebook, and that's made her happy. So she's okay. There you go.

Brian 44:54

Did you uh I mean I I know you have a camera as well. Did you take any pictures?

Richard 44:59

I did not. I thought originally I was gonna do all the photography bra, but we expanded our budget and it was deemed necessary that I step down. And to be honest, I'm really glad I did because I was too busy doing far too many other things.

Blake 45:15

You don't want to be doing that as the father of the bride. That's uh there's yeah, you want to be able to enjoy some of the moments.

Brian 45:21

Well, it's kind of like being in the band, you know, at a wedding. Yeah. Where you're like uh you kind of miss out on being part of the wedding when you do that.

Richard 45:30

Exactly. And no, I I'm really glad that we did that. But I did think about it, but I took my camera. My wife said to me for exactly three months, don't bother taking your camera. Don't bother. I no, no, I'm gonna take it. I've got a new lens, I'm gonna try it out. I took it, it just sat in my bag for the entire wedding.

Blake 45:49

So once again, she was right, and I was but sometimes better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Yes. What if the photographer would have tripped and broke his camera and that you're like, I gotta backup, buddy. Exactly.

Richard 46:02

Oh, I'm so glad you're back. You you big me up rather than old meanie over there in Martinsville. The Martinsville Meanie is as he's known. Um, there was something else. Meanie usually hangs out with Coyote, actually. And just a quick note to our Patreon listeners: the episode that went out last week was an older episode that Blake put up by mistake, and I'm not releasing a special edition of my fuzz pedal.

Blake 46:29

Although, if enough of you ask for it, I will. Uh and that has been fixed. Uh I, you know, it was the same date. These things happen. It was the same date in the file, but it was off by a year, and so if we got one from a year ago.

Richard 46:43

Was I talking about my fuzz pedal a year ago? Uh-huh. We know what this means. Uh, time to make a new pedal. Yeah, there you go. What it means is we need to say thank you to our wonderful executive producers, some of whom have bought a pedal and some of whom have not. And that will go to you, sir. Blake of all right.

Blake 47:05

Big shout out to Bill Bays, Andrew Adkins, David Tyndall, Dave Trombetti, Eric Wilson, Vidar, Frostad, Michael Freer, Sean Arbo of Gunstreet Wiring, Rick Calhoun of Honey Picks, Patrice Fournays, Dylan Toxtone, who I just recorded an episode with for Tone Mob. It's quite good. Go check it out. Missouri Electrical Box Company, Kevin Harrington, Barry from Gress Guitars, who I hung out with at the fretboard summit, Tom Kelly, Jake Young of Man the Helm Podcast, Pigsy, John O'Neill, Robert Carr, Hunter Hudson, Rob Stokes, Nick Spano, Sasha Sir, Jay Stratton, Harry Post, Grumpy Mike, Harvey, Pedles, Allison Carroll, Bum Laser, Anthony Stevens, Atta Plays Guitar, Philip Carter of the 40W podcast, who I also hung out with uh at the fretboard summit, Christopher Logan, Jason Inglehart, Dylan Lewis of Leeward Sound, Josh, James Thompson, Colin Little, John Machete of Odin, Derek Lyons, Darth Bagel, Dustin Romero, Wizard of Waz, Crappy Tom, Bud Cole, Sentient Ponytail, DJ Farnes, Kyle Viana, Robert Hahn, John Hill, Nick Call, Kyle Ray, Your Face, Dave Evangelista of the Guitar Dads Podcast, Roxy Gwynn, Derek Howe, Churchill from Chemgirls, plus Ross Edwards and William Price.

Brian 48:16

All right. We'll talk to you next week with a new episode.

Blake 48:19

Yes.

Brian 48:20

Ciao. Thanks for listening to the Chasing Tone Podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, shoot me an email at podcast at wamperpedals.com and I'll personally get your email. You can reach Blake at infotone mob.com. Richard is Richard at Wamper Pedals.com. If you want to support the show, the easiest and free way is just to share this episode with a friend, leave a rating and review wherever you listen. Helps more than you know. Be sure to check out Blake's other podcast called the Tone Mob for even more guitar talk. If you love pedals, of course, check out WamperPedals.com. If you're curious about designing and building your own guitar pedals, head over to guitarpedalcourse.com for step by step courses. And for bonus content, behind the scene discussions, and extra fun, join us on patreon.com slash chastingtone podcast. Thanks again. We'll talk to you next week.