Episode 8 - FENDER Backlash, Cops Called, Rude Customers, Dulling the Finish on a Gibson 330+ MORE!

Join me for EPI 8 where I chat about - UNIVOX, whats on my bench, why I called the cops, rude customers, why folks suddenly dislike FENDER, spending rent money, customers writing you notes, & MORE!

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allguitarsbuzz@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Mighty fine, mighty fine. Welcome to All Guitars Buzz, the weekly guitar-centric podcast that dives into a variety of topics, including guitar repair, building, what's on my bench, guitar news worth mentioning, customer stories, buying, selling, trading, along with existential philosophical breakthroughs. If this sounds like something you'd be into, please stick around. If you want to weigh in on anything I've talked about on this episode, please email me at allguitarsbuzz at gmail.com. I got a couple shows coming up. I got Sunday, June 28th at Nate's Garden Grill from noon to two. Brunch, I'll be playing all my favorite songs. And then Wednesday, July 1st, my band the Black Jackets is direct support for the meteors at the Tower Bar, so that should be a killer show. What in the world have I been up to? Why has it been like a month since the last episode? Well, weddings, weddings, weddings. And man, it's just been a heck of a couple weeks, I'll tell you. I actually had to call the police on somebody that was in our shop yesterday. And so if you want to hear about that, wait till a little later in the episode. But basically, it's wedding season or wedding year. I went to my friend's wedding in Idaho, Twin Falls specifically, and that is a really beautiful place. Uh their downtown kind of old district has a lot of boutique shops and record shops and thrift stores, and there was even like a vintage old electronic shop that had TVs like Filco and cool things. I uh I went there with a blazer because I was going to a wedding, of course, so I have this vintage blazer that I like to wear. But my fiance and I like to thrift, and so we are at this thrift store and I was thumbing through the records and I saw a Julie London record. She's like a contemporary jazz singer, and I have a collection of her records, so I didn't have the one that I pulled, and so you know I stuck that underneath my arm and I kept looking. Then my fiance held up this houndstooth blazer, and like I said, I brought clothes to wear to the wedding, but you should never do this. Well, if you do it, you know what's gonna happen. I tried it on, it fit like a glove, it looked like it had been in someone's closet and worn once. Excuse me. So uh of course I had to get it, right? So I go up to the counter and she sold she uh told me the total, and I said, what? And she said seven dollars. I thought she had said seventy, because if that blazer was anywhere else at any other thrift store, it it would have been, you know, 20 bucks, 25 bucks, maybe at your standard Goodwill or Amvet's or DAV. But if it was at like a boutique, it it would have been more, and I was shocked. So the Julie London record turned out to be worth like I think it was like 40 to 100 bucks, you know, depends on condition, but that was a score. And then the blazer, I googled the tag on the inside, and it said it was made in Idaho, it was like an Idaho company anywhere from the 50s to the 70s, so that that was a killer score, but this story has a guitar-related um angle, so uh I was set out to play a couple songs at the reception, and I didn't have to bring a guitar because the guitar that I would be playing, I actually made it was one of the first parts casters that I ever put together. I made it for my friend who was getting married, and she said it was just strung up and it was all tuned and ready to go, and so I was stoked to see it because I haven't seen it in probably 10 years, 10 plus years. So it's like gold sparkle, it's a double cut, uh, really unique looking, and then I put a Tysco pickup in the bridge, and I think a Wilkinson uh top loader telly style bridge. Um yes, it had a like a Stratocaster neck, a super cool guitar, so I was all set up to play that. The wedding was beautiful, the food was good, there was tears shed, uh, good dancing, you know, everything you would expect from a killer wedding, not to mention uh Twin Falls was beautiful. And then so after the wedding, there was like a speakeasy down in the basement, and so that's where the music was gonna happen. So I'm sitting there with my family, and um I hear somebody tuning a guitar, and I look over, and there's some people who was at the wedding there, and they have the guitar I built in their hands, and they're tuning it, and I can tell that uh they're tuning the string way too high. And I turned to my fiance and I said, uh they're gonna pop a string. Then I heard it pop, and they popped the string, and I was like, Oh man, you know, it's not about me, you know. Obviously, it's about my friend getting married, but they did have a backup guitar. They had a a couple backup guitars, actually. So I wound up playing those. Everything went fine, but uh yeah, it was cool to see that guitar that I had built all that time ago. And then after that, I went to Hilton Head with my fiance. It was like a family gathering that her side of the family does, like once a year. And I had never been to Hilton Head. I have family in North Carolina, so this was in South Carolina, and it's close to Georgia, and it's about three hours to Florida, so that gives you a little idea of where it is. And uh my fiance's uncle brought some guitars for us to jam on. One was a Martin, and I f I forget the the make of it. It it wasn't a D18, a 25 or a 35, it was something else, but uh sounded really good, and then um he also brought his wife's great-grandfather's Gibson, and I think it was a J45, I'm pretty sure, and uh it was a beautiful guitar, and um the the wife, my fiance's aunt, uh pointed out that there was a crack along the back, and it went from like the end pin all the way up to the middle of the back, and she said that she had taken it to a shop to see if they could uh repair it, and they said to just leave it, and so I explained to her that that was probably a good outcome because the shop really wasn't probably set up to do a repair like that, but she wanted my professional opinion, and I told her definitely that it needs to be glued up because it stopped right at the brace and it's gonna keep going, and the back eventually is gonna split in half, so it's no big deal to uh put some glue in there and uh glue that back up. So when she comes down for our wedding, she's gonna actually bring that guitar and have me do that repair. That's awesome. So if you all aren't familiar with Hilton Head, it is like a gated community in South Carolina, and it's like a resort community, and there's like hundreds of condos, and you rent them by the week. So you get there on Saturday and then you leave on Saturday, and there's a bunch of shops and restaurants, and um, you can rent bikes and bike around, and um there's golfing, there's all kinds of stuff to do there, but the big thing to do there is the beach. All the condos are in like walking distance to the beach, but to give you an idea of how big the place is from our condo, if you were to drive out of this gated community, it is uh about 10 minutes by car to drive out. So that's a pretty big, and we weren't even in the farthest side of it. So this is a big area, and um, it's very cool. And there was a guy there named Greg Russell, who's been playing there uh since forever. If I had to guess, I'd say like 35 plus years, and he has a condo there, and his big thing is he plays for kids, he does a lot of kid songs, and it's like an interactive kid show, and so we uh we watched him and he he was playing a 12-string Taylor, uh, which is a good choice if you're into 12-string because Taylors have a that fast neck. It sure did sound good, uh, plugged into the PA. So uh yeah, did so went from Twin Falls to Hilton Head, and then I had another one of my friends' weddings that they got married at the courthouse, and then they had a reception in Little Italy, and then dinner at the Great Maple and uh in Hillcrest, San Diego, and it's like a Michelin star place, and uh that was amazing, and then there's all the planning for my wedding. So my wedding's coming up, and we basically have everything uh except for the officiant, but this week we nailed down the band. Uh, the band that's gonna play at my wedding is the Belfree Bats, and they're uh Psychabilly, like my background is Psychabilly, but they also host a Rockabilly jam at Chopper John's in Phoenix about once a month, and they can play all the rockabilly songs, so I am extremely excited to have them play at my wedding. And then also uh I played a show with Project Skeleton at the Tower Bar, and that went really good. It was on a Sunday, so whenever you play a show on a Sunday, you're always wondering how it's gonna turn out, but it turned out real really good, and uh, you know, that's part of what I've been up to and why it's been taking so long for me to get an episode out. So moving to the news worth mentioning, so Fender wins that lawsuit in Europe. So I was talking about this kind of casually at work right after I posted uh the last episode of this podcast, and um my regulars were weighing in, and other people that were in the shop, they got worked up and they start weighing in on it, and wow, just everybody seems so upset at Fender. And I think, you know, for one, I hear the reasons why, and I understand the reasons why. I still stand by what I said, and I'm happy that Fender won the you know copyright to the Stratocaster shape in Europe. Uh, you know, it's theirs, they they won it, that's fine for me. Um, but you know, all the typical reasons why people are upset is because uh Fender hasn't innovated in a long time and they just keep pumping out the same kind of a models, and you know, that's boring, and then the second other companies start to do that, you know, they start getting all worked up and suing people and sending cease and desists and and all that stuff, and there's many other reasons why people mention, well, yeah, that was Leo Fender's design, he's not a part of the company anymore, you know, etc. etc. So I get it. And I've made a point of not watching all the latest news on what's been happening, and I know that there's been a lot. I see Rick Beato released a video, and Phil McKnight has released it, has released other videos, so um, but I kind of did an AI catch-up on what's been going on, and uh everybody was afraid that they were gonna go after all these small builders, and a few small builders did get nasty cease and desist let letters, and I say nasty because they're from lawyers, so you know they're worded harshly. Um that's you know to be expected. But you know, it's for me, it's the enforcing of the cease and desist, and Fender's reputation is gonna depend on how they proceed. So, you know, the big news is they sent PRS, a cease and desist over the silver sky, and you know, John Mayer used to be a fender, I I believe he was a fender artist, and then you know, do whatever reason Fender wasn't innovating or didn't want to do what he wanted, or who knows the reason. Maybe PRS made them a better deal. For whatever reason, he went over there, and at least in my mind, the some of the um the way the Silver Sky is certainly are improvements that John Mayer wanted, but also they had to make it different enough, right? Well, apparently they didn't make it different enough, so um, you know. So there, you know, we'll see how that pans out. But from what I understand and from what customers have told me, um, Fender has sued PRS in the past and lost. So apparently it's a lot harder harder to get anywhere in the United States than it is, you know, in Europe. But um, yeah, I don't know. From what I understand, you know, back in the day, uh people weren't really thinking much, at least when the Stratocaster was invented, about uh copywriting it or patenting it or what whatever, you know, protecting their property, their intellectual property. They they didn't care much with a guitar body, they sure did with the headstock because their name was on it, but shortly thereafter, Gibson did with guitars that weren't exactly ergonomic, they were more like works of art, like the Firebird and the V. And so, um, you know, but as a result, because Fender didn't protect themselves, and the Stratocaster has really, you know, made an impression on culture. You know, once art is created and set free, it kind of takes a life of its own and it has different meanings for different people, and it, you know, it's embedded in our culture. And so now that they want to try to get that, you know, property back or their design back, it's hard because the amount of time that's passed and the impact that it's made. So um I I definitely get that part. So who is getting upset? Who is getting people upset and why? Um I think this is just my own theory, and I'm not sure if people have talked about it. But uh, I told a customer this today, and he said, follow the money after he heard my theory, which I thought was interesting. But yes, the influencers are getting everybody all riled up and upset. And it's because uh, you know, a lot of these influencers have YouTube channels and maybe even their whole career based on, you know, cheap Stratocasters like Fireflies and others that you know they say are a great bang for the buck or are better than the made in Mexico, you know, Stratocasters. Why pay, you know, six to seven hundred bucks when you could buy this thing with stainless steel frets for 200? And you know, they made their whole career off of that. So now that they won't, you know, have that, um they're upset and they're getting people riled up. Um yeah, that's that's just my my take on it. And uh, but like I said, I'm I'm not gonna go on talking about this much more in unless things get super interesting. But you know, how Fender proceeds uh is important to their reputation. That's all I'll say. It's one thing, you know, if you're in the music business and you get a cease and desist, um, sometimes it forces innovation because, you know, let's say, you know, something is similar and you get a cease and desist. Well, now you can take that opportunity instead of you know why would you tweak it backwards? You're gonna tweak it up and you're gonna make it better, right? So, you know, sometimes uh a cease and desist can force you to rethink your designs in a positive way, but um, you know, we'll we'll just see if they're gonna be go going after a bunch of small builders like Gibson does that make a few one-offs or whatever, then you know, I I really don't think that's cool. But if they're go going after PRS for being very similar to the Stratocaster, you know, we'll s we'll we'll see how that pans out. So a lot of stuff has come in for consignment at my shop, like a lot of stuff. And so I'm just gonna go over a few of them, and a few of them I mean like 18 or so. One is a BB King 345, and it's the model with F-holes. So most of the time when you see the BB King signature, it doesn't have F holes, much like the Gretsch uh Ched Atkins double cut. But this one does, and it has the veritone, and it sounds amazing. It looks black, but if you look at it in the light, it's actually very dark brown. So that's a killer guitar. Uh we got in a magnetone bass, and uh it's just a really funky, like mid-century modern, almost Russian-looking 60s uh bass. So we got one of those in. We got a Univox badass, and badass is spelled B-A-D-A-Z-Z, and uh that looks like an SG, but it has almost like a burn style um tremolo, like a wiggle stick, uh, so that's super cool. And we got a couple corals in, and when I say coral, just think Dan Electro. So, but one, um I don't, you know, has Dan Electro ever made a semi-hollow? You know, I could be wrong. I haven't really seen one, but this is a coral by Dan Electro, semi-hollow, and it's a signature model by someone named Vincent Bell. I don't know much about him, but just think of a 335 shape with a tail piece, and on the end of the tail piece is your standard Dan Electro bridge with the piece of rosewood on it with two lipstick pickups. So that's a killer guitar, and we got another coral hornet. Uh that looks just like a Dan Electro, but again, it's a uh it's a Vincent Bell signature model. We got an Orpheus SG, it's an orange guitar, and it looks uh Russian. It looks mid-century modern, it's like you know, 60s orange, cool knobs. Uh that's a really cool one. And um we also have an Orpheus bass along the same lines. Um a Victor SG, and the model is SG-18, and that is a made in Japan. It doesn't look SG shaped though. And Victor, like the Victor audio company, it even has uh their kind of logo on the headstock. So that's I've never seen that before. And we have a couple Univox UCs. We both have a guitar and a bass in, and those are killer, those are right up my alley. We got in a Yamaha SG2, not an SG. Uh this is the coolest Yamaha you'll ever see. So go ahead and look that up. Uh Yamaha SG2. We have a Univox Meteor uh amp, and a lot of Univox amps that I've seen and that I've owned have been solid state. This is a tube amp. It's 112. It sounds freaking amazing. We got two Marshalls in with uh something that I'm calling the hot mod, but I realize now that that's not exactly what the mod is. But what the mod does is you remove a tube and then you plug plug in like an apparatus or device inside the tube socket and it makes the amp have more gain. So we had a combo and then we have a JCM 800 uh that have that mod and the combo already sold. We have a vintage Vox solid state amp, so there's the cab and the head, and it's on that very cool rolling chassis. It almost looks like some type of the the the bars that hold um the the cab and the head, it's like on wheels. It looks like something you'd see in a vintage hospital that's roll that's has equipment on it. It's it's a very cool idea uh to move the amp around. So we have one of those that's solid state and we have a silver tone amp, it's a 1480 something, and I've owned the 1484 and I sold it, and I currently have the bigger version, I think it's 1486, and that is the one that came with the cab. That has six eight-inch speakers, but I don't have the cabinet. And in fact, on mine, because it's made out of masonite, uh, it's all the the head is almost just the chassis. There's no more masonite, it's all rotted off. So I might make a video sometime about making a nice wooden cabinet for that. But we have the smaller version, 1480. I don't know. It's a piggyback, and uh it just doesn't have the reverb and vibrato. And the reverb sounds like an oil can reverb, it sounds terrible. Actually, I had my head modded by Top Gear uh in San Diego with spring reverb, so mine sounds really killer. Um we got a polytone amp in. I talked about the polytone that I had in episode one of this podcast. Those are killer jazz amps, solid state, the best transistor tone I've ever heard out of a solid state amp. Um and then we have a jazz guitar. So imagine a guitar that looks like uh a violin, not in the shape, but it's constructed like a violin. The uh top and back and sides, um, but it's in the shape of a telecaster, and it has a floating, probably Benedetto or s or something, jazz pickup on the neck, and uh it's like a jazz guitar. And new, they're like 10,000 bucks. I think the owner wants 54. Um, and the market's kind of soft right now, so and it's a very unique buy. But uh I did I really didn't want to like it because it looks kind of ridiculous. You know, it looks like some guy who's retired that just that spent like half a year like building this guitar. Every little detail is just, you know, it looks all hand built, but it's like immaculate, like nothing against retired guys building guitars, but uh it just looks like a woodworker's like uh instrument. But it you know, a lot of times when people um who are woodworkers make instruments, they don't play and they're terrible. That's not what I'm saying. This plays amazing, sounds amazing. It's just not my cup of tea, but in in the end, I was blown away by the way it sounded. So how do you like them, apples? All that stuff came in for consignment and more. Just yesterday, uh a gothic, a Gibson Gothic Les Paul came in. Um, I think a couple Les Pauls came in. Uh yeah, stuff just keeps rolling in every single day. So, what is on my bench? What's been on my bench all this time has passed, and there's been a lot of repairs. So I apologize in advance if I don't remember uh exactly what I did to these, but I'm gonna mention the ones worth mentioning. So a customer of mine, Sam, what's up, dude? If you're listening, he brought in an Epiphone hummingbird, and it's the hummingbird with the diamond uh logo on the case and the back of the headstock. It's like the better Epiphone. So I forget what it's called, but he brought that in. And then his 70s strat, which I'm constantly modding. So the Epiphone Hummingbird was just a setup, but the 70s strat, he didn't like that there wasn't a tone control for the bridge. And for me, that is freaking huge on a strat. Actually, I don't use tone knobs at all. But if I did, uh I would have one on the bridge. Why would you need to make the neck darker? But traditionally, on a Stratocaster, the neck has a tone control and the middle has a tone control, none for the bridge. So um a standard mod to do is instead of the neck, make the bridge have a tone control. So that's what I did on his 70 strat. I did that Martin D18 with the double pick guard. I figured out what that other signature was. It didn't look like it said this at all. I asked the guy, the nicest guy ever. Um, just a cool cat. Um, he said it's Willie Nelson. It's a BB King, Willie Nelson, and in the middle is the guitar player for Smoky Robinson. And I'm blanking on his name. I took a screenshot, it's in my camera role, but um crazy that Willie Nelson held that 70s D18, signed it. That's super cool. And I asked him again, I just wanted to clarify. I said, Were you playing with these people like in their band? Or like how did this come to be? And he said, No, I originally thought he was backing them up or some plain rhythm guitar, I don't know. But he wasn't, but his band was on the same bill, and so uh yeah, he um he's toured all over the place and has had an awesome career, and that was a cool guitar to work on. I glued uh it had a double pick guard, uh, one on the top, one on the bottom. The bottom one was potato chipping, so um, we put the old one in the case, I glued a new one on and did a bunch of uh miscellaneous fretwork, and I took his action down a little bit. And I thought the guitar might have been left-handed at one point because of the double guard, and I flipped over the neck to see if there was dots on the other side, and there wasn't. So it confused me. Then when I when he picked up the guitar, he strummed it, and he plays it left-handed, but it's upside down. So instead of the low E, he's strumming or the high E is you know closest to your face. It isn't that weird, but he strums it like backwards, like what a unique player and uh coolest guy. And then, so here's a repeater for you. We have a 60s strat with a neck that my shop made for the guitar a long time ago, and the strat has a veritone, it has two um input jacks and one pickup on the bridge, and it is a very unique guitar, and the guy that owns it, he's pretty unique too. He is constantly changing out the pickups because he feels that the volume isn't even between each string, and that's not the language he uses, but his ear is extremely sensitive to sharps and flats, and you know, from what I understand the guitar scale or the scale length, I think they call it even temperament, you know, it's imperfect. And inside his case is a handwritten pages, and he's corrected it and made it perfect uh with math and numbers like this is really uh it's it's something to see, but he had me install what I believe was a PRS pickup, a humbucker in the bridge, and the Veritone, I kept spraying it out, and it the contacts were tired and it just needed to be changed. And so I changed out the Veritone and he called me and uh after he picked it up and he said, amazing that it sounds way better, and he's blown away. And out of all the years I've known him and worked at that shop, that's never been uh the case. So that's pretty cool. And then I went ahead and probably made my life more difficult, and I threw this at him. I said, Well, maybe it was the veritone that I replaced, maybe that has something to do with it. And he paused like he hadn't thought about thought about that. So, um, anyways, I'm sure I'll I'll see it again because that's kind of like a lifetime project of his. And then my buddy Dustin, what's up, Dustin? I set up his P bass, and all that was pretty standard. My buddy Joe, I installed a Lawler Charlie Christian in the neck of his telecaster, and I have to say it sounded freaking amazing, and totally coincidental. Another one of my regulars, uh, he brought me a telebody with a Lawler Charlie Christian that he wants in the neck, same day, or maybe they were days apart. How crazy is that? And Joe doesn't know that guy on like a personal, like they didn't plan to bring it in, it just happened, so that's crazy. Um I did uh Univox Les Paul, tuners and a setup. I don't really remember that per se. I I do a lot recently within the past year or so, a lot of made in Japan bolt-on neck Les Pauls. Um in fact I just finished one up today. I did a bone nut uh setup, did the fret ends and a bunch of stuff. So in the past, a lot of those have been fretless wonders with the necks, just crap. And recently, I think maybe the customers that are bringing them to me really do the research and ask the reverb sellers questions. It has to be the case, because um the ones I've been working on recently, the frets have been good and the necks have been, you know, not all twisted. So yeah, that's an interesting development. Um I did a Gibson SG where I removed the FRX Floyd Rose. And if you don't know what an FRX Floyd Rose is, it's uh just think it's like the Vibramate of the Floyd Rose world, except it's not a plate where you mount a Floyd Rose, like the Vibramate. But basically it's a Floyd Rose type system that mounts on the tailpiece studs, and then uh where the truss rod um would be screwed into, you have lockers that go on at the end of the headstock. I think you do have to drill two screws um for the locks. Uh so if you want to remove it, there's gonna be a snake bite up there on your headstock. But when he brought it in like a year ago, I told him he shouldn't do it, and my coworker told him that he shouldn't do it. This was before he bought it, so I think we were more free to give our opinion like that. Um, but he said his favorite band that he loves, has one, plays one, wants that sound. So a little while later he brought it in for us to install. My coworker installed it, and then uh that brings us to now. A year later he wanted it removed. He said his guitar won't stay in tune and it's just a nightmare, and if he breaks a string, you know, everything that we thought it would be problematic, and so we removed it. That lakeside parlor that I've been working on. I finally finished, and so it was a neck reset, and it was more than that because the bottom of the heel where it meets the body was just chewed up, completely chewed up, and I had to work a miracle with that one. I glued a lot of loose braces. At first it looked like um the braces were okay, and there was actually a few top cracks, and I thought that they were sealed. It looked like they had been glued before. And when I really got in there after I glued the neck back on, because that was the main thing that I had really been focusing on, um I realized that the inside was just toasted. So I I don't know, there must be 10 cleats uh on that top, and so I glued that back up, and it had a tailpiece and a floating bridge, and it turns out so the lakeside parlor that my customer bought from a street lady, it was in a shopping cart, turns out to be a lion and healy. Crazy, right? Those are known, you know, old guitar makers, uh old guitar company, and it's they're known to be killer sleepers. And uh yeah, I finally cracked the case. I just did a little bit of research, you know, in good condition, they're probably worth, I don't know, a grand to 14. This was in really beat condition, but uh it was a player after I fixed it, and a regular customer, he's also a killer guitar builder, um, checked it out after I was done with it, and he was blown away by it. And then my coworkers tried it, they were blown away by it. So I was really happy with the outcome of that, and I wasn't there when my customer Dave picked it up, but he texted me and said he loved it, and I know he's gonna do the finish work and um and finish it off, and then he's gonna give it to his granddaughter, so the gift of music. Uh love that I worked on a Washburn 335 style, and I did my favorite thing I like to do to those guitars. I put on a Bigsby, new tuners, it had electronics issues, so I got that one all up and rocking. A regular of mine uh wanted me to do something crazy to his Gibson 330. Now I say it's crazy, but uh really after I did it, it turned out so well that I'm thinking about incorporating that into some of my builds. Basically, he bought a brand new Gibson 330. He got it said he got a smoking deal on it, it might have been B stock or whatever, and he wanted me to dull the finish. He didn't like how glossy it was. And you know, I can see that. Yeah, I don't like when it's super glossy either, but like easier said than done. How do you go about it? Do you use steel wool? Um, you know, you know, what do you a light, you know, 1200 sandpaper? What do you do? So I did research and I wound up using pumice powder. Now, if you haven't heard of this stuff before, uh you certainly encounter it when you get your teeth polished. That's that gritty uh paste. It's like a pumice, it's probably like toothpaste and pumice powder. Think about when you're polishing your teeth also with baking soda when you do that kind of a thing. So I know I said that I was gonna dull the finish. Why am I using pumice powder? Well, there's multiple grits, and this is also used in French polishing. So I got three or I got two different grits. I got like fine and extra fine, and what you do is you put this powder, I put it in like felt, and then I twisted it so it looked like a little twisted bag, and then you put min mineral spirits on where you're gonna rub it out, and you tap the the pouch, and the pumice powder works its way through the felt and it starts coming out when you tap it. So I was tapping it and then working it into the finish, and sure enough, it doled it, but in a very good way. In like it looked like a custom shop guitar. And so I proceeded to drop the hardware, the tuners, all that stuff, because I wanted it to look right. And uh it sucks to drop the harness. I dropped the harness, the pickups, everything, and I did it, and he was very patient with me about it. And I even sent him a picture of, you know, everything that I had, you know, I had one section with steel wool, one with some sandpaper, one with the pumice powder, and he chose which method he wanted, and he was very supportive with me about it and gave me some uh wiggle room, and when we were done, he picked it up, he was freaking super stoked. And this guy loves um older Gibsons and silver tones and harmonies, super cool guy. Uh, and he liked the work, and I picked up a technique at that, so that's pretty awesome. I also worked on an epiphone acoustic from the 70s with a bolt-on neck. I don't know if y'all have seen that, um, but I see them every now and then, and a lot of times uh the block that the neck is bolted into uh they split, they're known to split and crack. And so this guitar in general looked immaculate, and it had one of those bridges with the thumb screws. It wasn't a two-nomadic, but it was like a plastic saddle that uh was in like a metal slot that you can raise and lower by thumb screws, and those typically don't work. This one actually did work a little bit. The problem with the guitar is the action was sky high. So I told him, just like we do with baby tailors and and others, that I would shim the neck, and uh he kept telling me how pristine it was, and before he left it in my hands, he took a picture of it, and I thought, that's fine, you know, but it you know, I I just don't want to be accused of like a hairline scratch that I didn't do that he didn't see, you know. And so, anyways, I uh I did that job, I I shimmed it and um I did some miscellaneous work to the saddle, and when he picked it up, he said it turned out better than he thought. He absolutely loved it, and then we just got to talking, and he said, Um, have you ever heard of grammar guitars? I said, No. And he said they had cool pick guards, and he started describing it, so I just said, Well, let me get some eyes on it. There's a laptop on the counter, so I pulled it up, and there was Porter Wagner playing a grammar guitar, and I told him, I said, Okay, so I made a pick guard for this guy one time, and he wanted me to put it on his 60s Martin, um, and it was a 12-string Martin, and it was the pick guard covered like, you know, all the way to the bridge of the of the guitar, this huge, funky, you know, Western style pick guard. And I always called it like the Porter Wagner guard. And it turns out that pick guards like that were stock on grammar guitars. So he was playing a grammar guitar. And I was looking at other Porter Wagner pictures, and he has Martin's with the same pick guard, and I was showing the guy, and he said, Well, it makes sense that grammar back in the day probably made those pick guards to put on the Martin, right? And I was like, Yeah, that totally makes sense. So that's crazy. So if you've never heard of grammar guitars and you like country music, maybe like Porter Wagner, check them out because they got some cool pick guards. I don't know how they sound, but good enough for Porter Wagner, good enough for me. Um, I did a Gretsch Archtop. Uh it came in with round wounds. I put on flats, a Steinberg headless guitar. We'll skip that one. Um so a friend of mine, Gabe, I used to teach him guitar and drum lessons back in the day when he was a kid. Um he's in this punk rock band that is really taking off called No Deal, and he brings me his guitars to work on. They play, you know, sold-out shows at Soma and they tour, and um yeah, it's it's really awesome seeing uh, you know, the crowds that are at his shows and the pictures he posts. It's super rad, but he brought in a guitar. He's usually like a Tom DeLong strat guy or a junior guy, and he said a fan of his made him this guitar, and he just wanted it. He said the pickup was low output, it was a Duncan, and um he just wanted me to do my thing. So uh yeah, the pickup was wired wrong. In fact, the wires were just more or less like twisted together once I got in there, and it was obviously a squire with a fender decal that they put on it, but it, you know, it it was pretty good. So by the time I got done tweaking it, um the action was super low and it sounded the pickup sounded really hot, and he hasn't picked it up yet. But Gabe, if you're listening, it's your guitar is ready for pickup. All right, uh, another regular of mine, um he bought from us a made in Japan Yamaha Les Paul. And if you're not hip to those, a lot of people that um grew up in that air era regard those better than Gibson's. So this was just, you know, your standard killer uh 70s Les Paul that he wanted me to do my thing on. Again, he's a regular regular customer, so I like to know my customers. And uh the same with Gabe Strat. Um he likes low action, and uh this guy too, he has a really light touch, so I can get it a little lower than I would have it. So I did that, and he loved it. There was a 30s Dobro that came in, and a lot of these guitars I'm talking about, I actually posted on my YouTube shorts, so you can go see them. This one is one of them. It's a 30s Dobro, but it's embossed with this wild, ornate design. And um I was thinking to myself, like, how did they do that back then? You know, now you would use a C and C or whatever to do that, but somebody, uh, my coworker was like, dude, I think they put a template on the top and sandblasted it. And I thought, well, that makes a lot of sense. So it it needed a lot of work. It was dirty, it was like totally uh I I hate to use the word abused, because maybe not abused, but uh definitely not like cared for. And so I took um The the top off um that revealed the spider, and there was all kinds of dust and gross stuff in there. I did work to the um saddle, the thing that's on the biscuit, and just everything, and it turned out really good. There was no binding, and so I happened to have some uh it was a very thin slot, but I had some acoustic guitar, it was like wood binding, but it was black, dyed black. So before I put installed the binding, I rubbed um super glue on it to harden it, so and it gave it a shine and to seal it, and then I glued binding on and that one turned out really good. They picked it up the other day, they seemed to like it, so mission accomplished. I installed a um I hardwired a sound hole pickup to an old 70s dreadnought, and this guy's had me do it to other guitars of his. It wasn't a nice like LR Bags M1, it was like a Dean Merkley or something, not so nice, but those kind of sound hole pickups have the cable attached sticking out of the hole that you plug into the PA or the amp. It's like a 20-foot cable. How annoying is that? So I snipped it and I hardwired it and I installed an NPI jack, and so uh he picked that up. Okay, this one is interesting. So a customer of mine had me install a hi-fi in his blue ridge, and this guy's a busker, and he's a very nice guy. He told me he used to be an English teacher, and I could tell that um he was a good teacher just by the way he talked to me, the attention to detail, how he let me finish my sentences, and he remembered things that we had talked about a year ago, and uh yeah, just just a super cool guy. So I um he brought in his Blue Ridge to put on consignment, but he wanted the hi-fi I installed out, and so I took it out, and then he said the reason why is because he has a tailor that he wants me to put it in. And I said, Okay, cool. He said, I'll bring the tailor later. So a couple weeks later he brings it, and it is a Taylor Gold label, and he wanted me to he said, Kenny, before you do any work, just um play it. And it he said it's it doesn't sound like a tailor, and it's it's the best sounding tailor, you know. Uh I think that's that's funny, but you know, tailors are known to have a real kind of tint tinny bright sound. This one didn't, it had a lot of bass, it sounded great. So um apparently he had left a note for me that till I didn't see till after he had picked it up, actually. Well, I it got lost on my bench. And so um I wanted to read it to you because it is an example of somebody that uh kind of wants me to do certain things, kind of like giving me numbers, but like in the best kind of way. So I'd like to give a positive example of what that is. And I did everything on his list without even seeing it, uh, except for one thing. And so here's I'm I'm I got this note here, I'll read it for you. It says, Hello Kenny. I would like the bags VTC removed from my Taylor 514 gold label and my hi-fi pickup installed. New mounting tape from bags is included. I like the tone control location where it is now. You can use the same battery location where the Velcro is already installed if there was enough cable length with the Hi-Fi. New battery is included. I am including a new micarta saddle to compensate for the under saddle difference without the braided pickup. I really like the setup on this guitar and I don't want to lose it. New strings included also. This should be an easy installation, easy for me to say. Play play this before you remove the strings. Andy Powers hit a home run with this guitar, lots more bass than the usual tailor sound, and it plays loud all the way up a neck. Thanks much. You did a great job installing and removing the pickup on my Blue Ridge BR-160. Now sell that sucker too. The coolest freaking note from the coolest guy. So the one thing that I didn't do is uh I did see in his bag of parts that Mark Micarta saddle floating around, but I just ignored it. And the funny part is he said he liked the setup, but when it came in, the action was high. And so I knew that the braid was about 40 to 50 thousandths, and also the neck look backbowed. So what happened is I removed the braid, I put the saddle it came in with back in the slot, and then I gave the neck some relief, and I just wanted to see where it was at, and it it measured out uh pretty low, not too low, but low. And in fact, when he came in, he had me tighten the neck just a little bit because he wanted it a little lower, so so there there you go. But um, it was a very uh great sounding tailor, and it had a lot of bass, and you know, he said play it up the neck, and um you know, the mark of a good acoustic guitar, if you're wondering, how does it sound when it's finger picked, and then how does it sound when you lay into it with a pick? That's kind of the difference because a lot of acoustic guitars will sound good with your fingers, but as soon as you lay into them with the pick, the tone compresses and chokes out and disappears. So um I I I think this this guy knew that and uh he wanted me to check it out, and yeah, it was an amazing guitar. So if you don't know already, Taylor Gold Label, check one out. Um I uh worked on a Gibson with P90s, it was a 70s Gibson, it was heavy, and it was 11 pounds, so yeah, that was a heavy Les Paul. And um the guy wanted me to uh just completely go through it. He said that he was going out of tune as he was playing, and I noticed that the tail piece was hiked up, but I also noticed that the string break, the strings were almost resting, if if not uh the lowy was resting on the back of the bridge. So sometimes that creates a buzz. So that's one reason why people might hike up the tail piece, and it also makes the action a little slinkier. But he wanted um I think it was he wanted like uh a heavy top strings on him. So I did that, but before I even got to work on the guitar, I wanted to see it going out of tune. So I played it, and it was indeed going out of tune, and so I stretched the strings. Um, I got a special way that I do that, and when I did that, the whole guitar was out like a half step, so the strings weren't stretched. So in my mind, I was thinking like uh maybe the tuners are loose. Um actually I had told him, you know, the cliche, but 80% of the time it's in the nut, and I would look at that and et cetera, et cetera. But um I think the reality is that the strings weren't stretched, and I know some people don't stretch strings, and I think if techs have the opinion like you shouldn't stretch them, it's because they're playing them and they're tuning them, they keep tuning it up until it stays in tune. But I don't see anything wrong with stretching them a particular way, uh, especially because sometimes I'll stretch a string and it'll break, and then I'll change it uh with a single that I have, and then I'll stretch that one and uh and it won't break. And so I just think it's better breaking on my bench than at your show, right? And so, anyways, I did a lot of work on that guitar, and in the end, it was kind of a fretless wonder, but um, you know, back in the day, it's amazing that that guitar survived without anybody putting humbuckers in it, you know, modding and routing for humbuckers. That's what happened to a lot of those 70s Les Paul. So it was cool to see one survive with P90s, a la Mike Ness. So another customer of mine, he actually apologized to me because um a couple months ago he asked me how much it would be to make his base fretless, and I told him, and then he brought the neck in to me and it was fretless, and he said he went somewhere else and he was apologizing to me. And I said, I don't care, man. I said it's it's it's all good, you know, spread out the work, it doesn't matter. But he didn't like the work. Uh, one thing that he had requested that they do was dye the rosewood black, so that happened, and they removed the frets, and instead of using like this um these really thin pla pieces of plastic strips that I would use to fill in the fret slots, they used what looked like a wood veneer. So it didn't really look all that clean, but his big complaint, uh, because this guy's a player, he's a uh hired gun in San Diego and a jazz guy, and he's a super good player, uh, was that he could feel the where the frets were a little bit. So they had dyed the neck black, the uh fingerboard black, but they had just used spray on poly. So he was wondering how I would do it and what I would do to it, and I said, Well, I could try to fill what uh I can feel with super glue and sand it back, but I might just have to sand it all off, and that's what I wound up doing. And I told him that the black dye would probably go with it, and he wasn't too stoked about that, but in the end, he, you know, he just wanted to feel like a hard surface without without feeling where the frets were, you know. And so I was contemplating, you know, my big thing was super glue, and when I say super glue, I mean the thick stuff, or epoxy. And I was talking about it with my coworkers. I've I use super glue for everything, and I've experimented with it a lot, and I use the thick stuff pretty much like I don't know, 80% of the time, and I've done, you know, some finishing with it, and uh, you know, sometimes I'll make a handle for my tool for my file, and I'll I'll rub on the super glue. You gotta do it quick in a certain kind of way, and then it'll set the paper towel on fire, and that whole thing. So I'm familiar with super glue, and you get quick results. So I wanted to try that. And my coworker said, you know, the old school way is just epoxy, and uh if I was you I would try that. And so I have the total boat uh resin uh that I've used a a bunch. Um, and I thought, okay, let's do it. So it was a vintage radius, and so I used a radius block and I sanded all that poly off, and the black dye came with it, and then I did my first epoxy pour. I kinda what I did is the first time I did it, I left the masking tape, you know, I taped off the whole neck, but I left it peaking up about a couple 30 seconds, like a dam, so the epoxy wouldn't run down. And so uh after that dried and I was sanding it with my radius block, you know, there was a lot of buildup around the edges. So the second and I did burn through, that's why I kept doing extra coats. So the second time I I did it, I taped off the neck, uh, but I was just more careful with how I brushed on the epoxy resin and it it didn't run, but I I I actually used electrical tape and I burnished it, and then I put masking tape over the electrical tape, and then I I waxed the uh masking tape so if the epoxy did pour over, it wouldn't uh seep through the masking tape and onto the neck, you know. So I was really trying to be cautious about how I did this, but I I learned a lot, and in in the end, I uh wound up using my flat um blocks that I would use for a fret leveling job or w what whatever. I'd use the radius block at first, and then I would just use a flat block to finish it off, work your way up through the grits, polished it, and it turned out super good. The finish was hard, and my biggest fear because I work on upright bases, and so I I know that if the fingerboard isn't level, you'll buzz. And the G string was buzzing, but I realized I felt some kinks in it that these might be the same strings from when the bass neck had frets on it. So I changed the G string, buzz gone. So that's something to look out for. Um, and you come across it every now and then, and this is why we always put new strings on, but it new strings, you want to set the intonation when you have new strings on. And if you're buzzing and you've been around the world with the guitar and you can't figure out why, try changing the string or strings. And if the buzz goes away, Bob's your uncle. So there you go. So that that those were the highlights repairs about what's been on my bench this past month since we've last spoke. Um some stuff has been happening in my shop. The ESP that I'm painting for my friend, the black is finally on, and I went through my struggles with that, with bubbles and you know, stuff, but uh it's I'm prepping it now to do the clear coat. So I I got a new spray gun I'm stoked about, and um I'm gonna dial it in, spray, you know, a body I don't care about before I do that one, but I'm gonna put on lots of layers of clear. Um I made progress on my CNC. My dad came over the other day and helped me out, and I'm about 80% done. So I am beyond stoked about that. We're gonna work on it more this weekend. And umce that's done, it's not only gonna be a huge helping hand for me, it's gonna allow me to build the guitars that I want to build, but it's gonna be safer for me. And you know, in the trades, it's always safety last. But, you know, it's it's one thing if you know someone working on an oil rig loses their pinky. For me, it would be detrimental as a guitar player, active gigging musician to lose my fingers. And, you know, I always try to be as cautious as I can, but you know, whenever you talk about C and C's, uh the conversation C and C versus handmade, and some people still call their guitars handmade even if they have a C and C, all that stuff. The thing that really doesn't get brought up much is safety. You know, it's safe and it's an extra helper that you have in your shop. And if you're a small, you know, operation, a one-guy operation, uh that's huge to have one. So it's gonna be a learning curve for me, learn learning CAD, but uh I've got confidence in myself. I've taught myself all kinds of programs, not knowing a thing. So I'm excited about that. Um, a customer of mine, Will, what's up, Will? I know you're listening. He has commissioned me to build him a telly, and that's exciting. It's probably gonna be the first thing that comes off my CNC. And um, we were just talking about options. He's gonna do an all-parts neck with a modern C. Sorry, Will, I don't have your specs right in front of me, but um, I'm probably gonna make the body, I want to make it on the lighter side, so probably alder. And um, he wants to make it an Esquire, so um that's cool. And he wants to keep it traditional Esquire wiring, and then you know, later if we want to change it, uh that's you know easy to change, but uh he he wants it butterscotch, and so yeah, man, that's that's exciting, that's on the books. Um I'm also uh restoring a Delta bandsaw and a Delta drill press. So how I came to own these things is the owner of my shop just gave them to me years ago. They uh were the main thing that he used to build his acoustic guitars back in the day, and they were left outside with a tarp over them, they're completely rusted. So for years I've had them just kind of sitting around my shop, and now that I'm finally getting done assembling my C and C and trying to upgrade my tools, and you know, space is valuable in my small shop, so anything that's not working or in use has to go. So I looked at those things and just said, it's time now, because though those are gonna be key pieces. You know, I've got a bandsaw and a drill press, but they're they're not you know as good as these deltas, or at least as good as they will be. The 14-inch delta bandsaw, that's a staple for guitar building. So this one completely rusted the bandsaw. I ordered a new motor for it, and um I'm probably gonna do the riser block because it doesn't have one, and I would love, just love to paint both the bandsaw and the drill press fiesta red. And I don't know if they make a hard wearing finish um for tools like that, but if they don't, I'm wondering if I could just spray lacquer and then finish it off with like a hard poly or or something. Um, but that would be so cool if those were matching fiesta red. But for now, just because time is of the essence and I got so much going on, I'm just gonna get them mechanically working, and then, you know, later on I'll probably do those full restorations you see on YouTube where they take off every nuts and bolt and they use a Simply Green and the WD40 and wire brushes, and they completely, you know, they'll pop out the bearings, replace those, rewire the motor, just the whole freaking thing. So that that'll happen in the future, but right now I'm just looking to get them going. It's time for customer stories. So I'll start out on the positive side. So last episode I talked about a double anniversary that I was restoring for this guy, older gentleman, has a really cool eclectic collection of guitars. And when he dropped off the double anniversary, he said he had another Gretsch that he was going to bring in that he wanted to sell. And so I finished up the double anniversary for him, and then he said, Great, now let's let's sell that one. And I was shocked because I I thought he wanted to uh play it or at least check out the work that I had done, but he wanted me to restore it so our shop could sell it. And then he said, Look over there on the counter, I have another one. I was like, oh crap. So I walked over there and it was the old Gretsch case, you know, the silver 60s case, and I opened it up, and lo and behold, there was a noble another Gretsch double anniversary, but it was painted Gretsch orange. Now that's not typical for those. They're they're usually that kind of off-green color or whatever, two-tone. This one somebody had stained Gretsch orange and they did a pretty good job a long time ago. You could tell it was old lacquer. And you know how in shop goodwill auctions to measure the action, they'll put a quarter on the fingerboard, and you could see the action was all the way to the top of a quarter, if you could imagine that. And then I looked at the heel, not only was it cracked, but it was leaning forward. The frets are gone. It's gonna need fret work, the pickups probably or toast, the Hilotrons. Um, but anyway, it was right up my alley. I loved it. I was excited. I said, How much are you trying to get for this? He said, 400 bucks. I stuck out my hand, I shook, I shook his hand faster than I've never done anything like that. I didn't even have the money. It was my rent money in my wallet, and I I handed him cash. And um I was just beside myself. I remember I woke up the next day and was still like excited about that. And uh I asked him, I said, Why would you sell this to me for 400 bucks? And he said, Well, I'm just selling it to you for what I got it for 20 years ago, and I just know that you'll restore it, you'll fix it, and uh that's who I want it to go to. And I I was blown away. Actually, he bought that at my shop from the owner, uh, when one of the old timers, and uh, it was just kicking around in the back of the in the back of the shop for years. So he bought it broken. Um yeah, so that's a really interesting story. So I'm gonna restore that and I'm super excited. Um I'm not planning on selling it. I'm gonna keep it, I'm gonna play it. Um and then we had another customer uh come into our shop. I hadn't seen him before. I think actually it was his first time in. I think maybe he mentioned he had been in years ago, and he had on the counter a Mustang that he had made. Actually, it was a music master. And imagine a butcher block. That's what it looked like, or a hippie sandwich, a bunch of different pieces of wood. And unlike um a cutting board, it wasn't the end grain, it was. strips of different wood, probably like an inch long, the whole thing. And it it was pancake b body, so there there was a piece of wood in the middle and then different on the back. And he said he had put because that um the wood is gonna move and shift. And he said down the center he had a carbon fiber strip and it was just incredible work. And the bridge was stainless steel and he said he made that too out of a piece of stainless steel was like an angle that he had bought an angled piece and he had cut it and it it looked professional. Looked really awesome. So he brought it um to us I don't think he's a player he brought it to us to finish off. And I just got to talking to him uh because I love those guitars. I got my first Mustang when I was like probably 15 or 16. It was a 66 and I was a big fan of Nirvana so the univox guitars and the Tysco's and all those weird offsets from an early age I just loved that stuff. I had an Epiphone 270 an ET 270. I didn't even know when I got it and I actually got that guitar from the guitar shop that I work at now but I was a young kid and then I saw a picture of Kurt Cobain playing one uh you know in the back of a book jacket from a CD or s or something and so anyways just from a young age I've been into all that made in Japan stuff and long story short he is too and he said look he said I'm moving I'm trying to get rid of a bunch of stuff he actually put a couple of guitars on consignment the um the magnetone is it called mag magnetone uh yeah I wanted to call it magnavox but anyways he put a bunch of stuff on consignment and he said he had a bunch of other stuff he said he had projects he's overwhelmed because he's moving and I said well just bring the stuff over and you could just keep it in your truck and we'll see what stuff you want to get rid of and he said why don't you come over to my place that wouldn't be easier so a co-worker and I went to his place and he had a bunch of other stuff that he wanted to consign some of it I mentioned earlier but he also had a bunch of projects and uh tools that he was getting rid of and he didn't want money for these things he gave me a good handful of projects that he knew that I would like uh to restore and um a lot of Univox stuff and um some tools for my shop and he couldn't have been like the he was just the nicest guy and uh that's kind of rare to you know you usually people want stuff or there's there's a catch this guy um he's moving and he's a lifelong collector of Univox if there's anything you need to know about Univox um or crown or any of those related things this guy knows like down to the screw like he knows is crazy um so he gave me a lot of cool projects that um that I might show in in the future and he uh put a lot of stuff on consignment at our shop so that that was very cool um yeah just kind of some uplifting stories about two two cool guys there um now we're gonna get into the nitty gritty so uh there was a guy uh I I picked up the phone I said guitar shop and he said yeah I I got uh a bass that the nut needs to be cut down can I borrow your files and yeah 90% of the time I'd say no you know but this time from what he said he said I do all my own setup work and I I just need you know a couple quick swipes of your file to fix this and I don't have the files so in my head I'm thinking you do setup work but you don't have files anyways I I didn't say anything uh and and he he brought it to me and he laid it on the counter and I was looking down the neck and he said uh don't change the neck I I like the action exactly the way it he instantly started kind of criticizing even how I was looking at the instrument and I realized that I had to that he even though he does his own setups he must not know why I would be looking at the neck so I told him I said listen if I cut the nut down and you have a bunch of relief in the neck like you do now if you straighten the neck later or if the weather changes you're gonna start buzzing. So I don't want that to happen. That's what and he said oh but just leave it and you know just so just to get him along his way I just uh I did a couple swipes of my the files on the nut and lowered it a little and he was really really happy and then he left and guess what it's been about a month and I haven't seen him since so that's that guy um another funny tidbit that happens a lot from uh they're not my regulars but they're regulars to the guitar shop like sometimes the guitar shop is like a barber shop in the sense that you got people just coming in to hang out which is real really cool. So those those are the regulars and I hear this a lot from them. They'll look at a guitar on my bench and go is that your guitar and in a sense it's a compliment because they know me and they know my taste and usually when they say that it's a cool guitar or it's a guitar I'd really be interested in like a silver tone or whatever. And um but yeah that's just kind of I haven't told them that it's a running joke because then they'll just say it more you know how that works. But in my head is that your guitar that's just a funny thing that I like constantly hear. Really it's once in a blue moon that I will work on my guitar at work because I have my own shop. But also you know like every four months may may maybe it's something that I just want to put a neck on or kind of get started on a personal project. So that happened recently with uh the Coronado that I was trying to sell on marketplace I've talked about that in previous episodes but um it didn't have a neck now the Univox guy had a Coronado 2 neck just lying around he said it was made in China it's like a brand new neck but I was like I I don't care I've got a body for that so he um he gave it to me and I I put it on the body and now mind you this is a guitar that I was being lowballed about all over marketplace. Uh you know the body's been stripped the paint has been stripped off it so I I believe it was like sunburst at one point but now it was stripped so badly it actually resembles a wild wood. And if you don't know what that is Fender was making guitars that look like the Coronado but they were calling them wild wood and the the wood of the trees were injected with dye and it's like it and it grew that way and when you make a guitar or whatever I guess from that wood it's dyed in a particular kind of way and it looks really interesting. So initially I thought it was a wild wood but I think it's a coronado but either way you have the body which people are calling a husk these days I'll call it a husk and then I have the case and the proprietary bridge which looks like a Mustang bridge but on risers and it has the cool tail piece with the F logo and the original harness no no pickups but you know I was trying to get 500 for it and you know there was a guy that no showed on on me who's actually bought stuff from me before so I thought that was funny. But anyways so now it's just gonna be my guitar and sometimes things are um just faded that way. I I couldn't sell it I didn't have a neck and now I'm gonna finish it off and uh it's gonna be a cool player or something to record with so um okay now I'm gonna take it back to that guy that has the 60 strat with the Veritone and the PRS humbucker I put in there and he's always talking about temperament and intonation and the volume spread between each string that guy. So when uh he was so pleased by my job that he said quote you have graduated from a plumber to a luthier so there's another example of somebody calling me a luthier but also plumber to a luthier plumbers are very skilled. I don't know it was just I didn't get offended. He was trying to compliment me but uh yeah that's just something kind of fun funny to say and something else uh not really it wasn't all that funny to me but the guy sure seemed like he was having a good time so this big older gentleman walks in and I say big because he plays Santa Claus on in the Christmas season, I guess. And he plopped um a guitar body with uh it was like a strap body and he needed a saddle screw and so I was helping him out finding a saddle screw and uh he was just being difficult the whole way like uh tell telling me not to strip it and don't force it and it has to be the right screw and blah blah blah and of course I know all this stuff I'm I'm sitting there trying to help him out. There was a couple other things too that he wanted me to help him with and um you know I'm more than qualified to help this guy with these things are really simple. So I'm doing it and he asked me are you the FNG and I said what and he said are you the effing new guy and I said why would I be the effing new guy is what I told him and he's like how long have you been w working here you know and uh and I I told him and it it really didn't seem to faze him he he thought that was funny but that's a little you know why would I be the new guy? I'm I'm one one of the main guitar you know techs there, Luthier if you will uh quote unquote. And uh yeah it's weird when people ask for your help but then they make it difficult every step of the way and they question you which is very strange. And so I'd classify this guy as probably in the boomer generation and um these next two examples are along those same lines. So sometimes it gets really busy in the shop and one of the owners will tell me to help someone out up front so that's what happened. So I go up there and I I said uh what what can I do for you? And the guy looked at me and said oh I'm I'm waiting for that guy and he pointed to the owner and so I said out loud I said hey he he does he's waiting for you not me and I start to walk away and so the owner walks up to that guy and goes well I'm I'm not a tech. I don't know what to and he said you know can't can can he come back and I said oh no I'm I'm I'm busy finishing up this project so um you know now I just want to clarify it's not my ego here uh it's just I've got things to do. I was in I was taken from something that I was doing and sometimes when you're doing a difficult repair and then you just stop to answer the phone or whatever like that can be dangerous trying to just hop back into something depending on what you're doing. So um yeah I don't know it's it's not my ego because I don't care what what he thinks of me. I'm just there to work on guitars man. That's all I'm there. But along those lines so that guy was boomer generation and so was this next one. So again I was called to the front to help this guy I said hey hey what's going on man go ahead and put your guitar on the counter let's take a look at it let's see you know what he got go going on with this thing and he just stared off towards the direction of another owner who's also a luthier like the main guy doesn't say anything to me just stares his head turns and just stares towards his bench and doesn't say a thing and I I was wearing glasses and I even tipped my glasses down and I I looked at him eyeball to eyeball and just nothing. And then the owner uh said don't worry Ken I'll I'll take care of it. I guess he was listening to the conversation or he was noticing what was happening and so then he walks up there and starts to help him and they're talking and even laughing and I'm I'm just like how rude you like to act like somebody is just invisible like not even there I don't think I've ever done that to anybody in unless I don't like them and it's intentional, which maybe I don't maybe I just answered my own question. But he's got no reason not to like me but it dawned on me he's done that to me a number of other times as well. And so um yeah so then um the owner uh calls me back up to the register because he needs me to help him with something because he's an older guy and he doesn't know how to do something. So I did it in just a just a second and then he says something really nice to me to put a feather in my cap. He goes yeah Ken Kenny always has the answers or knows what's up or something. And then the customer said he's a kid or he he's you know I I don't remember exactly I probably blocked it out out of my brain. But he called me a kid in a very negative derogatory way. And my coworker who was standing right next to me um well I actually I said not that loud I said I'm almost 40 and then my coworker standing next to me said louder so that guy could hear he's 40. Now mind you I'm hanging on to every year here. I'm 38. I just rounded up but I'm not a kid and you know I I don't know what it is with um a small percentage of boomers and if you're a boomer please email me and and maybe maybe shed some light on what this is if if I had to think about you know my dad is the coolest guy um and I believe a lot of boomers out there are cool guys they raise their their families with good morals and ethics and they're good people and then uh those kids have families and and do the same thing. But then just in general I know that there's bitter and mean people out there and maybe I'm just like encountering like a small percentage of them at at the shop but for the most part uh they've been a part of the the boomer generation and so especially when I first started working there and I and I think it has to do because I'm the same age as their kid would be you know probably but also you know I I have a a mohawk and I look a certain way um maybe he just didn't like something about the way I looked too you know I don't know but um you know whatever so that's you know I I tried not to let it uh affect me too much because you know at the end of the day they're just guitars you can't you know um dwell on when someone cuts you off and honks at you or flips you off or whatever but you know that that kind of that kind of was was a strange yeah thing. Anyways so uh drumroll please the part of the podcast that you've all been waiting for I called the cops on a guy yesterday and so here's what happened a week prior this guy came in um I had taken the day off um he had came in and mind you this is a small shop he played a Marshall JCM 800 the one I mentioned that was on consignment that had the hot mod he played it at full blast at our shop like dimed it and uh we had to tell him I guess I wasn't there to turn it down or to stop and he got all upset and uh you know was acting all like he was a tough guy and just you know completely inappropriate right and so this guy came in yesterday and he wanted to try that head again but he brought a tube that he wanted to take the hot mod out and put the stock tube back in and then he said he had a 412 cab in his car that he wanted to try the head with but he needed help wheeling in that 412 cab. So um anyway so that's what wound up happening I didn't help him with the cab. I guess somebody did and at the time there wasn't a lot of people in the shop um just maybe like a a regular or two and the staff so um you know they let him and he did he played really loud for a long time but also this guy he was lit like a Christmas tree and he was talking like somebody on drugs would talk in circles he wanted to trade this parlor guitar that was all messed up for the head we told him that we couldn't do it and then he he was saying if I bought this could I buy it for six hundred dollars and then if we said yes and there was a problem could he bring it back he he wasn't saying it like nice like that like he was being completely hostile about this whole thing. And so I was pretty much just ignoring it. I was at my bench do doing my work um I actually had my ear muffs on because yeah it was so loud the muffs I use when I would work cut use the bandsaw whatever so um so inner how I got involved so um I heard him kind of raising his voice he wasn't playing guitar and I turned to one of the regulars and I said what's happening and he said oh he's talking to your coworker back there and and I looked and he was all the way in the back of the shop towards my coworker's bench and he it it looked like he you know I didn't know what he was saying. It turns out I think he was just complaining about everything like he had been but it sounded from a distance like he was being hostile towards towards my coworker. So um I started walking oh over there because I um I was afraid of what he would do and one of the owners uh followed me and I let the own owner take the lead and we walked up to the guy and the owner was trying to reason with him but you know you can't reason with a drunk person or somebody on drugs. So he he pointed out to me and said that I wouldn't even look at him and what he was referring to is when he was looking to sell his classical guitar telling everyone the shop how great it was and playing it for everyone that I wasn't looking at him. I was looking at my bench doing my work and so that I guess offended him so that was the first thing out of his mouth and then he continued to put every young person in the shop down um and then he not only young people I just everybody he was just put putting everybody down and um after that went on a while because the owner of the shop was trying to reason with him I said look I said dude I said you you just need to leave and uh that really set him off and he called me um a bunch of words that I don't care to repeat and uh he said he wanted to fight me in the parking lot and just all kinds of you know that really set him off. That's how unstable this guy was and so you know I said listen I'm I'm gonna call the cops if if you don't leave just leave uh and he didn't leave and so I called the cops and he was continuing to talk smack and walk around the shop and just act it radically and so the cop came took him out of the shop and uh that's it that's crazy right uh this is just kind of like guitar shop stuff. Um yeah not only that but remember how I told you that he needed help unloading his cab? Well he needed help loading it back up. Right before the cops got there was a bunch of like a gang of teenage kids that had had come in and um he was in the middle of asking the teenage kids for help. They they could have been like anywhere from 13 to 15 I don't know and um you know the last thing you want to do is follow someone like that out out to their car. These kids couldn't help him load that thing and I certainly wasn't going to let that happen and the cop came right in the nick of time uh fortunately so just crazy right this is crazy stuff and my guitar shop isn't in a bad part of town. It's in a nice part of town. We've only had a few incidents in the past with homeless people uh just just a couple like there's not a lot in this area it's it's a nice sleepy town and so um yeah that's just some some crazy stuff um and then today he called on the phone and asked if I guess he left his tube here and he wanted to pick it up and I did not want him to come back but I guess somebody told him that he could come back to get his tube and he never did wind up showing up. So let's hope we never have to hear from him again. So that's that. Time for some water cooler talk. So these uh maybe they pertain with some of the things I've been talking about. Maybe maybe they don't and if you work in the trades maybe you could weigh in on this but um I feel like if you work in the trades having tough skin is a requirement but what I want to know is like where is the line? You know you can't just be all tough skin because eventually you know things blow up and people do get upset. But then when they're upset they're you know really upset. And so is sensitivity or social awareness uh seen as a weakness I think a lot of the time in the trades it is but I don't think it should be um and here's why I I think those traits are good because uh they can come in handy for for a number of things just using your words if something is bothering you amongst coworkers or or elsewhere uh your ability to use your words and vocalize it to that person is important so it never gets to like a blow up stage but um and it also comes in handy with reading your customers you know their body language and their uh words I'm not sure if you've been around these people but there are some types of people that will correct you on vote the way you're using a word, your vocabulary, but they're not hearing what you're saying. So what I like to do when people talk to me is I like to really understand. Like if they said a word that's not exactly right but I understand what they're saying, I'll reiterate that and make sure that I'm understanding what what they're saying. I'm not going to correct them I'm trying to get down to it. So I think that's really important if I pick up on the fact that a customer is uh might be nervous about a guitar and someone else that's listening to our conversation goes, no, he he he was fine he was fine. Uh I think it's good that I picked up on something um like that because you're gonna proceed accordingly um so that's that's my little uh food for thought there some water cooler talk I got some more stuff written down but we're already at an hour 30. Nothing to report on the marketplace front um except I'm taking that Coronado that I'm selling and I'm making it my own. I've been lagging on that uh YouTube video about the Gretsch Corvette that I fixed up but I'm definitely gonna finish that in the coming weeks. If you want to check out my Instagram it's Kenneth underscore Hillington. If you want to check out my YouTube channel and if you're listening to this I definitely think you should and you should check out my shorts because I show a lot of guitars I'm talking about it's at Hillington guitars and if you want to weigh in on anything that I've said in this episode you can email me at allguitarsbuzz at gmail.com and um I'm hesitant to do this because I don't want to forget anybody but I want to thank listeners um that have reposted my podcast and have said that they're enjoying it that really means a lot so Frosty Dustin Will Riley Lori Jim Sydney Monty Chris Sal and I'm sure there are a couple others that I'm forgetting but thank you guys for listening it's keeping me going it's keeping me want to keep putting these episodes out and until next time stay out of the deep end see ya later