Chasing Tone - Guitar Podcast About Gear, Effects, Amps and Tone
Welcome to the Chasing Tone Podcast! Join Brian Wampler, Blake Wyland, Richard Oliver, and a variety of special guests as they dive into the world of guitars, pedals, amps, and other guitar gear. From answering your burning questions to discussing bands, gigs, and the latest trends in the guitar world, we cover it all. Expect plenty of off-topic banter and a behind-the-scenes look at our work at Wampler Pedals. If you enjoy guitar podcasts that feel like hanging out with your musician friends, you'll love Chasing Tone.
Chasing Tone - Guitar Podcast About Gear, Effects, Amps and Tone
633 - Nashville Bound: Boot Scootin' Boogie, Musical Deepfakes, and Eternal Glitter
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Brian, Blake, and Richard are back for Episode 633 of the Chasing Tone Podcast - Nashville Bound: Brooks and Dunn, Musical Deepfakes and Eternal Glitter
Brian is Nashville-bound to record his debut album, hang out at a Brooks and Dunn rehearsal, but the big question is whether he can get through it without kicking over another microphone (like he did with Brad Paisley). Before he sets off, the guys get into AI deepfakes, after a friend cloned Brian into saying unspeakable things about country music.
That leads into discussion of a new guitar innovation - a guitar with an integrated fold-out kickstand - clever engineering, or a solution in search of a problem? Richard then confesses that he let Gemini set up ten presets on his floor modeler and came away a little shaken by how good the results were, which reopens the big question of whether outsourcing your tone quietly kills the fun of chasing it.
The guys look at accessible guitars with Braille-friendly controls, Brian shows off a fake Marshall he insists on calling a "farshall," and Richard makes the case for the seatbelt guitar strap that 100% needs to exist. Also Brian is plagued by eternal glitter that still haunts his garage six years on.
Pedal Coin, the Tupac case, GTA 6, cowboy boots on Broadway, Married with Children reruns, the windiest gig ever played...it's all in this week's Chasing Tone!
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Hey fellas. Greetings. Greetings from Nashville. Are you there already? I'm there already. Mentally he's there already. Sort of. I'm I'm one foot out the door. One foot in the door.
RichardMentally, he's been there for at least a week.
BrianI can assure you of that. Oh, it's only like four hours-ish from here, so I'll just drive.
BlakeThat's that weird, that's that weird level. It's a weird, yeah.
BrianIt's like it's about the same time to fly all in.
BlakeAnd then you need a car. And then yes, uh, yeah. Seattle's like that for me. It's like, ah, is it yeah, it's like three and a half, four hours, depending on traffic. And yeah, the flight itself is super short. It's like around it, though.
RichardAll the checking in and sitting down and listening to people say things.
BrianI probably should just take all this pedal money that I make and just buy a private jet. Make it easier.
BlakeAnother one whoa whoa, Bob Taylor. Easy. Easy.
BrianBob Taylor's got a private jet. Oh, yeah. Richard, write this down. We are now in the acoustic guitar market.
BlakeTaylor Guitars, I believe, has a private jet.
BrianShit, dude. What did I get on that gig? I have a I have a private bicycle.
RichardUm I have a private pair of rollerblades. That's right. Private bicycle wasn't a successful comedy film of the 1980s. I didn't even know that was one, but alright. Oh no, that's Private Benjamin. Um Private Bicycle. So you're going to Nashville. What yes. Uh people have said I look like him. Um when I have my hair shut. Shut.
BrianYes, Nashville. Nashville. I'm uh recording my debut album there today.
RichardOr tomorrow. Why are there so many goats in my bedroom by Brian Waltman?
BrianIt's all Suno music. Every bit of it.
RichardOh.
BrianYou're not told Nashville to do that. Oh, well, you gotta go to Nashville to at least make the appearance for your for your Facebook posts. You know, oh I mean, you gotta be in the studio to do that, you know.
BlakeIn the studio. I'm working on my new record. Hey, y'all, why there's so many goats in a bedroom?
BrianWhy do I sound like Blake Shelton right now?
RichardI mean, that is how you sound to me and my wife, just to let you know, Brian.
BrianI mean, seriously, we were talking about that the other day. Like, you do a Suno thing, like, all right, that's Eddie Vedder, and that's Blake Shelton. And uh, you know, you're like, Well, how about how about make a voice that sounds like none of those? No, can't do it. Nope. What would what would we do with all that training?
BlakeYou know, this reminds me all this training already.
RichardOur good friend and renowned internet trollster Nick uh Scott posted a little meme about you uh talking about this is what I think.
BrianI need to stop doing podcasts, apparently, because now I can be cloned easily and say all kinds of bad things. Like, you know, country music is bad and Pink Floyd is better. Like that's what he made me say. And it was not true.
RichardWell, you just said it, so it is true. Uh, but he also did one of me, which he sent me privately. Uh, I can't remember what it says, but it's almost certainly libelous. And uh it is just scary, it's really scary. And deep fakes and all of that stuff is going to just be a part of our security future. Like watching out for being hacked on the internet is now a full-time job, right, Bri.
BrianThat's right. You know what's funny? We've talked about this before about my wife and her glitter problems and our garage floor being covered in glitter. I literally just found a piece of that glitter on my shirt. That's a big I can see it. Yeah, that's a big is a big piece. It's like six years ago that we did this, and I'm still carrying glitter from one place to the other. So don't put glitter on your garage floor.
BlakeYou will be doing that the rest of your life. Yes. Even after if you if you move out of that house, you'll still be carrying glitter.
RichardYeah. Yeah. I wonder what the half-life of glitter is. Must be pretty long. I think it's 12 billion Jillian years.
BrianIt's right next to plastics, I think.
RichardUh yeah. I wonder what they're gonna think. Like, imagine if there was an apocalypse and it was like Pompeii, and then they discovered your barn, and they were like, this man liked guitars and glitter. You might form like a new kind of strand of humanity that they study.
BrianThat's true. History would show apparently. Back in the 2020s, uh, people loved guitars and glitter. Yes.
RichardThe glittery tribe of Martinsville, Indiana. That's right. I mean, stranger things have been written in history and currently are. Uh so are you allowed to tell us why you're going to Nashville? Oh, yeah. Are you depping for a for a band? And also, you missed my swipe at you about internet security. You were too busy picking off glitter.
BrianOh, I didn't miss that. Yeah. Yeah, I made a critical mistake this this week regarding that. But uh so Nashville. Um I'm pretty good friends with a lot of the guys in Brooks and Dunn. And so they invited me out for uh, you know, hang out while they're while they're rehearsing. And since I've only done that one other time with Brad Paisley, then I figure you gotta take advantage of it. Like I don't have I really don't have the time, but like this doesn't happen often. No, this is like a holiday for Brian. So yeah, so I'm so I'm doing that and hanging out. And uh hopefully this time I won't mess up their mic setup like I did with Brad. What? Yeah. Well, so the first time, yeah, because it if you think about it, you probably don't know this listening to it, but rehearsal for the for this type of band, for a big band, it's just like it is in concert. It's huge stage, all the production, everything is set up. You're just in a big rehearsal hall, and there's no one else there. And so, like, you know, I'm sitting on a drum riser or whatever while they're rehearsing, and I accidentally kick Brad's uh mic in front of his aunt, one of his mics. And of course, they're nice about it, but they let me know that that was not a desirable thing for me to do. And I was like, Why didn't you pull your tone card?
BlakeYou gotta be like, listen, I am a tonal expert. I do this for a living. That mic wasn't in the right place.
BrianBrad, I was looking at that mic, and you need to change it. I'm just saying I'm kind of a pro. And uh you you need to change that.
BlakeListen, I gave it a calibrated nudge. It wasn't a kick. Three foot off axis is normal, trust me. That's right.
BrianRight next to the corner of the cabinet.
BlakePerfect place. You want to get that baffle tone.
BrianSo, yeah, we'll not we'll we'll try not to kick Lou Toomey's uh guitar cabinet.
RichardYou're gonna take your dainty shoes with you, not dainty shoes.
BrianWhat is it? What are my dainty shoes?
RichardI don't know, probably some new balance uh sliders or something like that. Something that doesn't let you kick things around, really.
BrianOh. But when you go to Nashville, I thought the thing to do is you always wear your cowboy boots and your cowboy hat. Don't you have to dress like a cowboy, even if you're the furthest thing from a cowboy? Isn't that what you do in Nashville?
RichardWe have discussed this. I would like nothing more than to be able to legitimately walk down a street dressed like a cowboy, all right? I want a real hat.
BlakeUniform as as I've I've studied it closely, and it looks like these days most people wearing boots, usually white boots and booty shorts. Wait, guys, guys are wearing guys are wearing booty shorts. I don't think he specified what sex. Okay, I guess, but I'm just saying the people that I've studied, that's what they've been wearing.
BrianNo, no. I'm wearing booty shorts.
BlakeYeah, that's good. Yeah, yeah.
BrianGood idea. Hold on, let me just text Amanda to get my bandana.
BlakeA glittery.
RichardGuys, I feel sick. I actually feel physically sick. I'm fulfilled. Oh no.
BlakeThis is the uniform of Broadway.
BrianI just need to make sure Amanda gets my bandanas ready. That's right.
BlakeOne, just one. Just for just oh, just one? Just one. Yeah, yeah.
BrianWhat if I need color coordinating ones? Oh, okay.
BlakeWell, that's fair. Fair. Yeah, yeah.
BrianShe goes with my white boots.
BlakeThat's right. Your white boots. I'm just saying, this is what I've seen.
RichardI think this has taken a very dark turn, and we need to reverse out of this alleyway before we get into any trouble. I look good in it.
BrianI mean, there's there's some inside jokes here that people don't probably don't get. See, Nashville is like the bridesmaid capital of the world. That's where all the bridesmaids go whenever they're having their parties. And so, like, when you go to Nashville Broadway, it's full of like bridesmaids and dudes. It's full of what I just described. Yeah. Right. So so like that's what he's said. That's what Blake is saying. He's I need to dress up as if I'm a particular tourist there in Nashville visiting the Broadway scene. Yes. I will not be staying anywhere near Broadway, will not be going to Broadway, if I can possibly help it.
BlakeSo that that's uh people who live in Nashville, unless they're working, try not to go to Broadway.
BrianThey try not to go there, yeah. Unless there's there's a damn good reason.
BlakeThat's and and but if you've never been, you do need to see once. Just go see it. And then probably most people don't go back.
RichardVery much like the East End of London. Everyone should go there once and get out before sundown, but that's another story.
BlakeUh is that when the white cowboy boots come out? Is after sundown?
RichardThere will be no white cowboy boots in East End. Uh more like track. So you must wear cowboy boots though, Bri. They are dainty, they have a pointy bit, that's fine. Um, are you taking any pedals to give them?
BrianNo, they've got so many of my pedals, I don't know what I'd give them now. I think they have more than I have.
RichardAre you taking some empty boxes to reclaim some pedals so we've got some stock? That seems like a good idea.
BrianAre you guys using that, Bub? Can I get that back for me? You ain't I've been watching you haven't been using that at all. Give me that back.
BlakeYeah, yeah, yeah. You went and stumped on that one time. Brian, because it's always on. Too bad. That's what I put the switch on it for.
RichardAnd like for for uh a noob. Now, again, because of the tragic passing of Dolly Parton, country and western music has been all over British TV. And I've actually discovered quite a few friends of mine are secretly, like massively into country and western music. Secretly, yeah. My nephew is like fully into one of the Luke's or one of the Zacs, I forget which, but I'm like, that's kind of like the music of Americans. What's wrong with you? Uh, but tell me about Brooks and Dunn.
BrianUm they had a big hit in the 90s called Boot Scoot and a Boogie. Just one, they just had one big hit. Just the one big hit. They had a ton of stuff. No, they have tons of toppers. Yeah. It's uh it's kind of like Alan Jackson. Like, which which uh which hit are you referring to?
RichardSo that was kind of my point. They they've been going a long time, right? Yes.
BrianOh yeah.
RichardOkay, yeah. All right.
BrianYeah, Brent Mason played famously many of those parts. Yeah.
BlakeOh wow. Neon Moon is one of my favorite songs of all time.
BrianBecause if you lose your one and only.
BlakeIt'll be all right as long as there's light from a neon moon.
RichardI feel you're playing that lyrics game with me again that I have no chance of participating in.
BrianWell, that's because I'm a hardworking man. I wear a steel heart hat.
BlakeThat's right. Okay, there is a comedian, I can't remember his name, that did a a breakdown of that song. It's so good. It was. Everything you own by the sweat of your brow. And he's like, Oh, you don't have any money. Well, it's because you sp spent it all on drinking on the weekends. I think I've found your problem. Yeah, that's true. I did a terrible job, but I'm sure if you Google you gotta Google that. That is the best. I don't know. Brad's gonna find it right now for us. It's Brad? Rich Brian. Oh, I thought you said Brad. I was like, is he here too? Brad Paisley's gonna look this up for us. Brad, pull that up.
BrianAnd kick him up. Dusty Slay. Dusty Slay. Oh, yeah. Dusty Slay.
RichardYeah. That doesn't sound like a real name. That's just two words put together. Dusty Slay.
BrianNotes how serious the guy in the song is about safety and how he actually wears a steel heart hat for things like riding, roping, hammering, and painting. Gotta have that steel heart hat. Yeah.
RichardYeah, yeah. I may have to check it out later. Oh, it's fantastic. So you're not taking them any pedals. Are you taking them any freeze-dried candy?
BrianI hadn't even thought about that.
RichardYeah, maybe you should. Special freeze-dried candy.
BrianIt is an option. It is an option. I may have to consider that.
RichardYeah, you know, you want to look you want to look magnanimous and generous when you turn up. You don't want to just go there and kick their microphone over.
BrianSo might be an idea. Um I've I've found it's it's bad practice if you say, hey, that's not how you play that. Let me show you guitar real quick. That ain't how you do it. They don't like that.
RichardUh it is amazing though, because I was lucky to get to see Gilmore rehearse his last uh concert. So it was, you know, a kind of 2,000-person. Oh, that was a big place then. Yeah. Yeah, but well, it was it was an even bigger place, but they kept the entire floor open. They only allowed the the seats at the kind of back and sides to be filled, and they left a massive open spot in front. So it was a real like big venue rehearsal. But it's really interesting to watch just how close and how far away from both aspects it was to a real gig. Because you're right, there's there's something different about setting up in that massive room essentially and and doing the rehearsal that way. So uh yeah, it was um was eye-opening. Speaking of massive rooms, as I said, our good friend uh Paul Cudderford has just played, I think, at Croak Park. I saw that, yeah. Big gig massive gig uh opening up for the Jovi of Bond. So uh amazing. I can't wait to see some footage of that. Yeah, nice, nice. Uh yeah. Uh what else has been going on, guys? Hmm. That's a good question. It's feels like it's been a slow gear week for me.
BlakeYeah, I feel like it kind of has. Oh, I did send you guys something last night. The leaner guitar. The leaner guitar. Yeah, I thought. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
BrianYeah. How many times have we seen this done now?
BlakeI've seen I this is only the second time that I'm aware of, but I feel like it probably has happened before. Uh Richard, I I would love a British explanation of what you're seeing here.
RichardUh it's a guitar with a kickstand, is what it is. Yeah. I mean, it's just there's no real simple way of putting it. It's got like a uh folding kickstand. Now they kind of marked it as if they've come up with the idea. I I don't think they they have.
BlakeUh yeah, this one might be like uh it's a little hard to tell. It almost looks like maybe it's a more of a spring-loaded type of situation that like automatically deploys when you kind of push down on it. I it's a little gonna go wrong in a gig and smack you square in the test of clays, is it? I I don't know that for a fact. I'm not exactly sure. Maybe it's not spring-loaded, maybe it's just mechanical. But um if you want to kind of if you guys want to take a look at it, it's uh the leaner guitar. It's called uh it's called guitarleaner.com. Yes, yes, yes. And it's kind of a strat style uh guitar, which actually is is a fairly handsome uh strat style guitar from the front of it, I will say. I kind of dig the cease and desist. Oh, oh yeah, I didn't think of that. I kind of like the headstock too, actually.
RichardYeah, it is nice, it's really nicely designed. And look, technically, this looks really neat. I wonder if it's a problem that no one's having, though.
BlakeThis this industry loves to do this. We've talked about it before. Like, like a lot of the stuff you walk around and see at NAM is not a lot. I'd say, you know, five percent of it, but it's the stuff that sometimes draws your attention. It's a solution looking for a problem.
RichardYeah, right. See, I go the other way around here. Instead of making a guitar with an integrated stand, why not make a stand with wheels and and robotic arms that comes to you? Like when you want to put the guitar down, it scoots across the floor and its hands come up to hold the guitar every time. How does it know?
BrianAI it has an LLM interface. You're like, yeah, hey, hey Bob, that's what you should call your LLM. Hey Bob, bring it, bring a guitar over to me. Nope, not that one. The telecaster.
BlakeNope, nope, not that telecaster.
BrianThat's that's not a telecaster. That's a Paul Reed Smith.
RichardLooks like a telecaster. I mean, I'm not being funny, but this is the AI future I want. I don't want it to make music for me. I want it to fetch guitars to me while I sit in my chair and never move. That's the future.
BrianWell, you would be like, and scratch my back right in the middle, right further down.
BlakeKeep that going. Apply, that's what's really 17 pounds of pressure. Yes. Oh, too much.
RichardReminds me of the time I had therapy on my ankles. So look, I I don't want to make like light of this. Looks really well engineered. It's not cheap. This is not a budget option, this is a premium option. The the pre-order is $2,000, which I assume is US. Uh, so it's definitely, you know, for someone who gets very annoyed by this, I can see people liking it. Like you know, those you know, when you see those like programs where their offices are all tidy and all colour coordinated, and they have like one pot plant and like a beautiful light, and that's it. That's where this would sit in a beautiful office that was probably not real. Because uh, like in my world, this would just be leaned up against the amp, and I'd have forgotten that it had a stand integrated into it.
BlakeAnd and it's worth noting, like, as soon as I saw it, I was like, oh, this is like the guilds from back in the day. Yes. And the guild had a built-in kickstand, though definitely not as elegantly designed as this one. Uh but they they definitely did. Um and you know, I like those guilds in spite of the kickstand, not because of it. Like I I think they're cool, funky, interesting guitars like the Polera and whatever, but I I I don't like them because of the kickstand. That's not that's not a feature I would use. I just I think they're cool looking guitars, and I it didn't see mass adoption. Granted, I like I said, I think this guitar leaner is a better design. This is a really nicely engineered design.
RichardHe's gone to a lot of trouble to to come up with a a different way of doing this. So that this is good. There isn't a lot on the website, it appears to be the same photo multiple times.
BrianThe picture's not even coming out for me.
RichardOh, really? You you have to find the one page where it does.
BrianNo, I've I've clicked through all of them, and there I see the spot where the image would go, but it's there's nothing there.
RichardOh god, he's such a nerd now that he's a developer in AI. Listen to him. I spotted the image reference tag.
BrianI was looking at the CSS and I um Yeah, there's one picture in.
BlakeI I do find this this part a little bit funny. This is like at the bottom of one of the uh the innovation section where they kind of talk about, they go through things. Just says, set it down, walk away. Like, oh, all right. That yeah kind of reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite. Break the wrist, walk away. But I think that's what he was saying.
BrianI think you're right, like no shade towards this person, but whenever I think about products from a business perspective, I think about how painful of a you know, how painful how much of a solution is this solving a pain? Like how big is the pain, right? Yeah, and like the pain here is basically um ever get tired of carrying a stand with you? No, not really, because I'm carrying cables and pedals and everything else. Well, you don't have to forget it. I don't forget it. I just leave it in the same box as all my cables.
RichardYeah, you know, so I mean or don't use one.
BlakeLike well, and I think the bigger thing for guitarists, so anytime there is something that locks you into, like I'm talking about like nerds like us primarily. Something that locks you into, okay, this is the only guitar you can take now. Yeah, that that then is not really a solution. Because we're like, uh, but what if I want to if I'm doing a different kind of gig where a strat ain't the thing? And then I'm sure they will design other styles, and this is a good place to start, but I don't know.
BrianMaybe it needs like a snap on interface that like hooks to it, you know, so you can just take it off and put it on a different guitar. Some magnets or something. Yeah. There you go. No, I mean I so they actually bring up one of these. Pain points. It basically says, um, you know, you don't have to worry about tripping over an empty stand if you're on a small stage. That's true. I can get that. Yeah, that's fair.
RichardThere are there are theoretical advantages, but you bring something up that I think is important to this, Bri, which is, you know, and this comes from someone who is British and we are a nation of inventors. I think there is such an urge to invent something unique that sometimes it's very easy to look past the reasons why commercially that may not be the best idea. And the biggest example I can give from our industry is them, their jigsaw pedals. You know, that's a cool idea, but suddenly I'm in a world where I need to have only jigsaw pedals and they're a bit weird looking. And as a result, they didn't take off.
BrianAnd I think that's why modular pedal stuff doesn't work very well because you're stuck in an ecosystem. Right.
RichardAnd like I can think of a number of different like pedal things where you attach it to the pedal, and now you don't have to use Velcro to put your pedal on the board, but Velcro is just easier and good enough. And and like sometimes it it's like that um amp clamp thing that goes on your amp and lets you lean a guitar against it, and it's got a little holder, like a little claw holder, like a guitar stand. Great idea, but actually, I'll just risk leaning it against the amp and moving the head slightly so that it nestles in there. So I I again I'm not sure some people will love this, and I don't want to downplay him. I will say his timeline marketing is a bit weird. All right, 2000s, wireless tech, digital amps, modelling, but the stand still the same. I'm like, yeah, that's not really making the point I think you think it's making, but fine. Um I and look, I I do appreciate an innovator, so fair play to doing it.
BrianYou're the I mean this this person isn't gonna have some serious issues after listening to this podcast. No, I think you're tearing him to or him or her to shreds.
RichardI'm trying not to. I'm saying I'm not the right person, and I'm saying there are inventions that get invented and are commercial.
BlakeI'm definitely I'm wondering, I'm wondering this because what we're talking about is it's gonna stick you to this one guitar, and we're not really into that. I wonder if there's a way to take this stand concept and have a new type of stand that's like super portable and easy to like if it folded flat, you could slide it into a gig bag. Maybe maybe something like that already exists. I don't know, but but that's a really good point. The flat folding.
RichardI mean, I've had a flat folding wooden stand and it was rubbish, it was absolutely like you had to balance the guitar at the exact right angle, otherwise, it fell over really badly. I'm not trying to downplay this. Like I say, I am definitely no judge of what is commercially successful when it comes to guitar products, and that reminds me, I still have some purple on fuzzes in stock.
BrianRight there, quite a few.
RichardLack of fuzz by fuzz.
BrianSo I mean, something I thought is with this type of technology, maybe they incorporate it some other way. Like maybe I've got it. Maybe they incorporate AI into it. Now you could be like, hey, I'm playing Sweet Child of My Next. Which car guitar do I need? What pedals do I need? And then like does all the calculations and says, you must pull out your Les Paul and uh your plexi torture or whatever.
RichardLike you you're you're segueing onto another subject really nicely uh and and cleverly and skillfully, which is quite odd for you, Brian.
BrianHave you been this is what they call dumb luck because I'm not even looking at the documents.
RichardI knew that. I like I literally but I just want to finish off. I I do think what you said, and and we almost skipped over, is a really good point. Maybe the point of this product is getting this guy to build a better guitar stand that is more portable. That I think is a good thing. Because I think a few people have made like bags with stands built in, they've never really taken off properly either, right? So I don't know if I've seen that the gig bags with stands, gig bags with kickstands. But I I like the idea of a kind of fold flat stand. Maybe this this dude can perfect that and have something that you can put in a gig bag, and you've got that is solving a real problem because then it's universal, you don't have to buy you know a guitar. Many people can't will never be able to buy a new $2,000 guitar. So you've you've wiped that market out completely. If you make just the stand on its own, maybe that is something. So anyway, segueing on, Bright. I've set my Black Star IDX floor modeler up for a new band project I'm working on, and it needed about 10 different presets. And it was Sunday, and I was feeling lazy. So I thought, what happens if I just ask AI what to set every preset up? So I was like, learn to fly, foo fighters, tone for IDX floor three, and Gemini, because it's basically part of Google, right? Did it really well, like surprisingly, when it would be like for that tone, you want, and it would list out all of the settings and say, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BrianUsually Gemini is confidently wrong.
RichardIt was surprisingly good. And like there were a couple where I had to qualify what the song was.
BlakeIf you want to do that, you're gonna need to plug in uh the guitar in reverse.
BrianIt's like, you know what? There wasn't even guitar on that song. Uh, what you need is a fiddle. And whenever you push back, it's like, oh, you're right, that's on me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's on you. Yes, yes, it is.
RichardYou're right. It's on me. It was it was surprisingly good, and it was one of those situations where I was like, Am I destroying the fun of chasing the tone? Not really, because all I want from my modeller is tones that are going to be good enough to go and rehearse with. When I'm playing live, I will match them using good old-fashioned analog pedals and tubes. But when I'm just practicing, I just want my cheap model to sound roughly right. It's very good. It was really accurate at analysing the tones, and I don't know how it does it. I don't know whether it just trawls through the known internet of what people have discussed about how to do that. It's not generating new data, it can't be listening, it can't be going to the song, playing it, and going, ah, yeah. So it's got to be true. Right.
BrianIt just has a huge memory.
RichardBut what that's done is utterly justified every guitar forum that's ever existed that's gone nerdy on tones. And whilst I am stealing from the combined knowledge of a thousand people in you know, various bedrooms typing angry comments about which purple fuzz is better. We there's only one. Rosaline. There's only one. Uh it it's brilliant for the lazy um band playing guitarist like me. Sorry, lazy hack band playing guitarist like me.
BrianI don't know if I I see what you mean. Like it should a person instead of using something automated like that, should you just figure it out yourself and have fun trying to do it? Or do you just use whatever knowledge base is already there and try those settings? I don't think there's a wrong answer.
RichardI I don't think there is. And from the knowledge base that was there, clearly I started to tweak the settings. I use them as like a bass line, and I was like, I'm gonna dial this a bit baseline. I thought we were talking about guitars. Oh, steady. Uh and then and and and there were some that were wildly out, but it's interesting because we all have our own biases. I nearly always have a bit of delay on every tone I create, and like there were some where it's like, do not use delay on this. I was like, what is this voodoo you speak of? And guess what? It was right. And I would have always just gone a little bit of slap back, but uh listening to it with and without, I was like, hmm, no, and it picked out modulation really well. It was like they use a subtle bit of flange here. I was like, Oh, flange it is, so yeah, I I I was really shocked by how good it was, and then I mentioned this to Brian off air, and he's like, now you need to write an agent that just lets you type in the song name that you want, and it automatically configures your modeler. And I'm like, that's too much work, Brian. That sounds too much. Now you're really taking the fun out of it.
BrianYeah, but this is the fun part. No, let's let's automate the entire thing where you can just sit back and just speak verbal commands.
RichardMake me sound like me my Les Paul quickly and show me what scales to play on your fold out stand attachment.
BlakeOh boy, boy. Oh, you know what? I I forgot, guys. I did there was a guitar um uh innovation um I guess that I actually did want to send you guys.
RichardI just I've got it, I've got it, a strap that's integrated into the body that you just pull out like a seatbelt. Oh my god, I just invented a killer guitar, the old new guitar strapper.
BlakeThe killer guitar, literally, because it might get an AI mind of its own and strangle you to death with the retractable seatbelt.
BrianI could see that. Like you have like the seatbelt female part that's actually embedded in the guitar. Yeah. And the strap just has a spring mechanism, so you let go of it, it goes back in.
RichardI'm gonna I'm gonna write this stuff down.
BrianHang on.
RichardWe're gonna it's uh guitar pedal strapsseatbelt.com. I take back everything I said about the inventor of the guitar leaner. He's a genius. These are the sort of problems we need to address.
BrianI I should re- I should I should restate them. We're not making fun of this person. We're just having fun with them.
BlakeWe're making fun of our silly, silly industry, is what we're doing. Yeah, yeah.
BrianYeah, I mean we yeah, we're not making fun of the product at all.
BlakeBut sorry, I just yeah, I just sent you guys this. This is uh uh I just interviewed these people from Envision guitars, and it this kind of hits close to home for me as a half-blind guy. Um, they make these guitars with a system that is for people who are vision impaired. Yes, um, so I mean you could make an argument that it's like not fully necessary, um, because like you don't have to be looking at the guitar to uh to play it. But I think especially for a beginner, um, this kind of system they came up with of like using a tactile feel on the neck to tell you where you're at is pretty clever. I think they they're they're doing something pretty, pretty interesting here.
BrianThat's cool.
RichardYeah, yeah. Yeah, and this is something that I I and I forget the name of the influencer, but there's a uh kind of sight-impaired influencer who uh Thorpey at Thorpey FX made a pedal cover for with Braille on. That same guy is how I found these guys, right?
BlakeAnd I think also I can't remember his name off the top of my head.
RichardI'm terrible with names, it they're all called henning in my world. Uh so I I love the this idea, and in fact, it is something that bothered me a bit about when we went to our beautiful anodized metal knobs. The the knobs we had before were a little bit more lack of sight friendly because they're almost like a chicken head and they have a bar in the middle.
BlakeAnthony Ferraro, I believe, is how you pronounce his last name.
RichardThere you go. Yeah, that's uh but I I love the idea of like more accessible guitars for for people with any kind of like um impairment, I guess. Like you see some of these people play guitars with like you know vision impairment, and you think I will never even be close to them and I've got working eyes. I mean a bit like Blake, really. Just like me. These Envision guitars are beautiful, by the way.
BlakeYeah, they're really cool, they're interesting designs, and um and I yeah, I just think it's a really clever this is one of those things I'm like I can't believe this wasn't thought of before.
RichardYeah, this is good.
BrianI like these a lot. Yeah. Actually, really nice looking too.
RichardThat's what I'm saying, they're really nice instruments, but I think making music more accessible can only be a good thing, and you know, more powerful.
BlakeWait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Not everybody, not all ideas are good ideas. Not if I come up with them. See this entire podcast's history of uh various ideas for evidence to be thinking.
BrianThere was a time we were like, you know what you should do? You should just buy a bunch of crypto. That's what y'all do every time.
BlakeAnd look how well that worked. That worked great.
BrianI mean, actually. Glad we said don't listen to us, we're idiots.
RichardIf you hadn't bought it at the time, you might have done all right because it took a you know a swing up and a swing down and a swing around. But and a swing down, down, down, down yeah. Um I mean again, if you did spend real money on pixels of a bored-looking ape, then you always deserve to have that money taken from you.
BrianThere was a time I this may have been before you, Richard, where Blake and I were tossing around the idea of pedal coin.
RichardPedal coin.
BrianA new crypto.
RichardNo, I think I helped you invent that one. I can remember that was before that.
BlakeWas he?
RichardOkay, I can remember.
BlakeYeah, yeah.
RichardYeah, maybe we should revisit it.
BlakeYeah, now's the time. Now's the time. Get it on that the crypto. You know what is interest, interesting about all that is that and I still think it could happen. The blockchain still doesn't feel like it's been like it hasn't delivered on what people thought it could.
RichardI'm not talking about just reached its full, you know, it's its full peak.
BrianThe utility that they for were kind of spinning it as has isn't this what Pied Piper tried to get uh tried to get through, though. Uh Pied Piper.
BlakeThe guy who killed all the children?
BrianThe Pied Piper of Pied Piper the Software Company.
BlakeOh, I don't know what that is. Oh, the uh wasn't that Robin Hood? Pied Piper is a is a fairy tale to warn people not to go with rich random strangers into the woods, I think.
BrianThis is this is a show called Silicon Valley. Oh, yes, yes, and the company tried to make a decentralized internet using their algorithm. I'm saying this is just you know it's a good show.
RichardAnd by the way, while we're talking about good shows, I'm very happy that today I discovered like do you guys have Amazon Prime? Yes, so Amazon Prime obviously has videos, but do you know it also has like channels that just stream one or two different shows constantly? And I was really happy when I discovered this because there's a channel that just plays the incredible Hulk all day long, the uh 1970s stroke eighties Bill Bixby TV show. Uh, but I also have discovered there's one that does Married with Children 24-7. So that is now I'm sat at a computer, I don't know what to watch, married with children, it will be. So uh yeah, I'm happy that.
BlakeAnd it's just like old-fashioned TV where you can't rewind or fast forward. No, it's just there. You just watch.
BrianDo you still watch that in black and white or maybe?
RichardDon't don't you judge me with your colourist ways?
BlakeOr run to the bathroom during the commercial breaks?
RichardUh, with what I've done to my ankle, I'm not running anywhere at the moment. That's another story altogether. Uh, did you guys see the preview for Grand Theft Auto 6?
BrianMan, I am I've cleared my schedule for after Christmas.
RichardYeah. Brian is quote unquote in meetings for the entirety of 2026.
BrianThat's right. There will be no podcast the week of Christmas, after Christmas.
RichardYou know it's single player to start off with, right? Say again? You know it's single player only to start off with.
BrianI actually prefer I I prefer the story mode. I don't like online.
RichardDo you? Oh no, online, this is going to be amazing.
BrianI never I I like watching the online stuff that people do, but I have a prediction. I just don't have the time. I don't have the time to mess with it.
RichardGo, what is your prediction?
BrianDo you predict the wrong?
BlakeWhen the online becomes available, the servers will crash and it won't work for like a week. That's what I that's my prediction. And also And all these people who are taking time off of work to play the online version are gonna be mad that they can't, and they're gonna hear Twitter's gonna be full or whatever X is gonna be. Twitter's really yeah, it's gonna be full of people being like, Oh, I'm so mad I took three days off of work to play GTA 6 and the servers don't work. That's gonna that's my prediction. That's what's gonna happen.
BrianThat may actually be true. If only there was a great compression algorithm, it was decentralized, like pipe.
RichardLike you've known me for eight maybe years now, and I've completely converted you into an utter computer nerd. I love it. That is cool when I first met him. He's now no longer cool. Now I'm like, actually, Richard.
BlakeUh you'll never take me alive, Richard.
RichardUh and he's very good with it all. Um, yeah, now that looks amazing though. Uh also two pack chakures, murder appears to have been solved this week.
SPEAKER_02What?
RichardYeah, no way. Dwayne Keffy D. Davis found guilty of his murder because he admitted it in court. No way. Yeah.
BlakeWell, he admitted it in podcasts. He also he also admitted it in podcasts.
BrianWait a minute. He he was on a podcast and said, I did it, and then suddenly found himself in jail?
BlakeThe story I was told via another podcast, obviously, uh, because that's how I get some of this information, is that he there's a clause, and I can't remember what it's called, what the official title is, but the nickname for it is the Queen for a Day clause, where basically in an investigation, when they're trying to get information, if there's somebody they really want information from, they will allow I'm oversimplifying it, and some legal expert's gonna chime in, but like they will allow somebody to essentially make a confession, but it's not a confession that's admissible in court.
BrianUm just sounds like a stupid rule. Apparently, this wasn't one because he was convicted of murder.
BlakeWell, it only applies for the time period that you say it applies for. But if you falsely assume that that continues beyond that time and continue to confess and confess and confess in various places, uh it no longer applies.
RichardI mean, if I was like your regular CIO or FBI or whoever prosecutes these people, I'd just be like, oh bro, we forgot to tell you PST, not EST. We're arresting you now.
BlakeBut yeah, apparently you don't need to when you're dealing with uh Keefy D. Uh, he'll just go ahead and keep keep admitting to it.
BrianI mean, he just felt so much guilt that he decided to come clean.
RichardBut you make a really good point, Bri, because I think that is the thing with any crime, is eventually the truth comes out. So, you know, one day those fashion crimes you made in the late 70s and early 80s, they will come out, Bri. We will find out. Have you seen what I'm wearing? I've seen some pictures of you sporting a lot of muscle tone and also scuba gear on the moon, it seems. Muscle tone?
BrianThis was after our buddy Nick Scott had me saying that uh, you know, Pink Floyd was better than country music. How I had to I had to prove how accurate the internet is by posting a picture of me in 300 pounds of muscle. And on the moon with a scuba outfit on.
RichardBecause you mentioned country music, my mind turns back to uh Dolly Parton. You know, she wrote like three 3,000 songs, I think. Yeah, yeah.
BrianYeah, she was a prolific songwriter.
RichardBut that's just insane. Yeah, well, it means a lot.
BlakeIt means a lot, but in her case, it does generally mean good. Um she just happened to be good.
RichardSome people are very prolific.
BlakeLike we're prolific podcasters, but that don't know how good we are. That is up to for debate.
BrianWell, I mean, that's subjective, right? Yeah. I mean compared to I don't know. Name a bad podcast. We're probably pretty good.
RichardYeah. I agree. The rest is history, the rest is football, the rest is entertainment.
BlakeI I uh sent Richard a text late at night because I found a podcast I thought I was really gonna like uh based on the description, and I listened to it uh about halfway through and I turned it off and I said, Richard, I didn't realize how good we were. Because this is awful.
RichardOh, there are some good podcasts. I did read an interesting headline for an article earlier, which was I turned the podcasts off and then I started having thoughts again. And the premise of the article was essentially if you spend all your time listening to other people talk. You never really give your brain a chance to have its own internal monologue and come up with ideas.
BrianBut I find same thing with using chat stuff.
RichardYeah, but I I actually find I just end up tuning it out. Like if I'm walking along listening to a podcast, but I've got a problem, I'll start chewing over the problem and the podcast will drown out. But maybe some people can't drown out. I can't do that.
BrianYeah, I have to listen. I usually listen to I don't know, something that uh has no guitar in it. Usually just have a guitar.
RichardI I like piano music if I'm writing. It's it's it's helpful.
BlakeBut you know, uh the people at the gym when they catch me doing this, they think I'm crazy. But when I'm alone and there's nobody else in the gym, sometimes I turn the music off. I just work out by my in rolling. I'm with you.
BrianIf I go to a gym and the music's loud, I put my noise canceling on. Like, ugh, I don't want to hear it.
BlakeI sometimes do. I sometimes crank it and get the tunes going. Do not crank it in the gym. You will get arrested.
BrianThat is illegal, sir.
BlakeTurn up the heavy metal extremely loud, is what I mean. Uh I do that also, but once in a while, I just I just go quiet. And then people come in, they're like, are you okay?
RichardWho's the crazy weird beard in the corner lifting 400 pounds with one hand?
BrianWith one hand.
RichardWhip. Oh, anyways, what else we got, fellas? Uh uh well, Friedman launched the uh Jose 20 head and combo amp. That was what I was hinting at last week. I shouldn't have bothered with all the disclaimers because you were right, Bri. By the time we released the episode, the product had been released. But it sounds really good. Uh, like I I'm if if I had extra money to spend on amplifiers anytime soon, I'd I'd be checking it out for sure.
BrianSo the the regular Jose was at 100 watt?
Richard100 watt, yeah. This has got like a weird volume blend though, Bri. So it's got like yeah, like two volumes and a volume blend essentially. So you can kind of mix for both channels that you have two different inputs coming in.
BrianSo I d uh that's what I did on that's what's going on with my fake Marshall up there. Well, if you're listening, you can't see it. I have an amp behind me that says Marshall. That's not a Marshall, it's just a kit, but that's what we did. It's got uh both the volumes tied together with what they call a dual gang pot. Dual gang means that uh you know it's it's both in the bloods and the crips. Bloods and crips. Yeah, yeah.
RichardI want a fashion. I'm not gonna lie, that's the best brand name I've ever heard. A far shall a fake marshal?
BrianYeah.
RichardI want a farshall.
BlakeI'm gonna start making sounds like a British currency. Oh, I'll pay. 17 falls and a crowd. 12 farshals for that.
Richard12 farshals for that. Uh what else we got? Oh, there is this brilliant new um Gretsch baritone that will be right up your street here. Uh Blake. Under 600 bucks, the electromagn no electromatic CVT baritone. Let me look at this. Let me take a gander.
BlakeOh, yeah. Yeah, that's a that's a Blake thing. That's yeah. No appealing to me.
RichardReally?
BlakeThat's for me. Oh, it's uh not a bad price, 600 bucks.
BrianYeah, pretty affordable. Gretch makes some good stuff. So the other thing is. They do make some good stuff.
BlakeOn the end by the fendamus, scale length on this bad boy. What do we got here?
BrianIt is 27 inches uh in millimeters. That's 685.8, in case you're wondering. I see that.
BlakeBecause their other one was longer, I think it was almost 30, if I remember correctly. Their um their electromatic jet, I believe that one was. Um, it's right here. Ha ha! Yes, it was. My brain was correct. 29.75 was that one. I like uh like a 28. Uh 27's good too. I I've kind of found that and maybe it's because I've spent all this time playing the Grez. I like a 28. 28.
BrianNo, I haven't played enough of them to really have a preference.
BlakeIt makes more of a difference than you would think. It's uh it's just uh I don't know, it's just you get out to like 30 and it starts feeling a little bit like a bass more than a guitar.
BrianYeah, that's true. I could see that. Yeah.
BlakeSo like 28 for me. 27's great. I and that's when my my first baritone I got, I had them make it at 27. I also thought it balanced a little better aesthetically with that guitar. But uh the Grez is a little longer, and I like I I kind of like that more. But there there's there's room for all lengths of baritones in my world.
RichardRichard Byet. Richard Byet are the words I want to hear right now for sure. Uh it was recently the um Victorious Festival in Portsmouth, and um old What's His Face? Oh, why has his name just gone out of my head? The guy from Chick, Niall Rogers, was playing guitar there. Oh, there you go. Obviously, Portsmouth, uh, for those of you who aren't intimately familiar with British geography, is like one of the southernmost tips on the coast, so it's very windy. He said it was the windiest gig he had ever played. What's the windiest gig you've ever played, Bri?
BrianI haven't really played outside that much, so I really don't have anything like that.
BlakeI'm sure you told me you played one gig in like I know the windiest gig you've ever played.
BrianYou do?
BlakeYeah. What am I forgetting? The hair story video. By far the windiest gig you've ever played.
BrianAh, that is true. That is true. We do have a massive industrial failure.
RichardI wonder if there is like a perfect balance you can reach between like having giant amps blowing air at you in one direction and wind blowing you the other direction, where you're just held upright at an angle by amplifiers and wind. Are you talking like a Michael Jackson lean situation? Exactly like you read my mind. That's exactly what I was thinking. Yeah.
BlakeDidn't he like have his shoes nailed to the floor or something for that?
RichardWell, we did something like that with a dancer in uh The Glass Spider Tour, just gonna say.
BrianYou still have to have some pretty strong calves or oh, the hamstring strengths are somewhere in there.
BlakeImpressive. Yeah. No, he said cabs, not calves.
BrianNo calves.
RichardYeah.
BrianNo, I was I was talking about, you know, muscles in your legs.
RichardOh, were you? I thought you were talking about wind displacement of speakers.
BrianNo, no, to to do the Michael Jackson trick where you like lean forward and your nails are. Okay, I'll take it back.
RichardI thought you were saying you had to have some pretty strong calves to make that.
BlakeNo, calves, calves, posterior chain musculature. Yes. Oh, okay.
RichardAll right. Uh good. Well, uh, I I feel we have probably reached the time when we all stop understanding each other. And it must be time to say thank you to all of our wonderful, wondiferous executive producers. Whose turn is it this week? Uh I don't remember. Uh, I'll just say it. All right. I'm just gonna run through it real quick, like an American.
BrianYeah, do that, because heck with those guys.
RichardJust say it at your usual British pace.
BrianYou just go, you know.
RichardMy usual British pace. Okay, Bill Bays, Andrew Atkins, David Tyndall, Dave Trombetti, Eric Wilson, V Dar Frostad, Michael Freer. Oh, I saw a video of V Dar playing uh the other day. He was doing a bit of uh Fleetwood Mac. It was really good. Nice. Uh Michael Freer, Sean Arbo of Gunnar Street Wiring, Rick Calhoun's of Honey Picks, who's also got some really nice new picks. Uh Patrice Fournay's Dylan Talkstone, Missouri Electrical Box Company. Uh, dude, Bri, Missouri Electrical Box Company sent me a picture of a guy who makes pedals out of reclaimed skateboards. Like actual bits of wood for the cave. Yes. So that's a subject we should have discussed, but completely failed to. Uh, Kevin Harrington, Barry from the aforementioned Grez guitars, Tom Kelly, Jake Young of the Man the Helm podcast, Pig Z, John O'Neill, Robert Carr, Hunter Hudson, Rob Stokes, Nick Spaino, Sasha Sir. I'm glad all of these are very quick to read through. Jay Stratonari post, Grumpy Mike, Harvey Pedals, Alison Carroll, Bum Laser. Anthony Stevens. Atta plays guitar. Philip Carter of the 40 Watt Podcast, Christopher Logan, Jason Engelhart, Dylan Lewis of Leeward Sound, Josh, James, Thompson, Colin Little, John Machete of Odin, Derek Lyons, Dark Spagel, Dustin Romero, Wizard of Waz, Krabby Tom, Bud Coles, Sentient, Ponytail, DJ Farns, Carl Viana, Robert Hahn, John Hill, Nick Cole, Kyle, Ray, Your Face, Dave Evan, um, oh, sorry, put my teeth in. Dave Evangelista. This is where it gets hard. Of the Guitar Dads podcast. Uh, Roxy Gwynne, Derek Howe, Church Hill from Cam Girls Plus, Ross Edwards and uh William Price. You are all wonderful people. Thank you so much.
BrianFantastic. Thanks for joining us this week, guys. And enjoy Nashville, Bri. Enjoy the Ville of Nash. I will uh yeah, it'll be fun. Send us picks. Like guitar. What thickness anything? Like one million, one meg? Two mil. One meg. One meg? One make home? One meg home picks. 1.5. I like a 1.5.
RichardBri hit me up about my seatbelt guitar strap idea.
BrianAll right. We'll see you later and make sure you check out guitar pedal strap made out of seatbelts.com. See ya. Bye. Thanks for listening to the Chasing Tone Podcast. If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, shoot me an email at podcast at womperpedals.com and I'll personally get your email. You can reach Blake at infotonemob.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 wamputpedals.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.