All About The Nobels ODR-1 - ASK ZAC EP 8

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Hey you guys and welcome to another Ask
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Zack
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so today I wanted to talk about one of
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the most popular overdrive pedals and
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the guy that made it popular
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so the pedal is the nobles OD r1 and the
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guy that made it popular is Tom 
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Bukovac so I'd never heard of it the OD r1
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before until I was working for Brad
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Paisley we had just recorded the rhythm
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tracks for the mud on the tires album
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and a studio called the castle which was
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a stone building built by Al Capone's
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guys as a place for him to stop off
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between Chicago and Miami so there's
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also some other stopping off points and
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so this stone building looks like a
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castle and it was a place for him to
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party and rest before they got back on
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the road and went you know to Miami and
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back so that's where we did the the
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rhythm tracks and then of course that
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studio because it's bigger is more
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expensive so then we went to a smaller
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studio to do overdubs because of course
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you don't have as many musicians you're
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kind of doing like one guy at a time so
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that way we could do lots of guitar
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overdubs with Brad so because that's
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what he'd like to do so
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the studio was called Thelma's and that
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was owned by one person and then the
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house that was attached to it was owned
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by another guy named Tom  Bukovac so
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I'm at Tom of course through that and
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Tom started talking about this green
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pedal and he called it the secret weapon
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so there it is there's an original green
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Nobel's
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OD r1 so I asked Tom I said well where
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do I get one and he said we'll go to
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guitar heaven so I went to guitar heaven
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which is a story that's not round
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anymore
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here in Nashville but at the time they
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were the first one to have like a lot of
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pedals they had a great guy named Corey
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Daniels that would pull out a bunch of
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pedals and plug them all in and say play
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through all of them and see which one
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you like the best which was brilliant on
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his part because you were comparing
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stuff and most the time when you're
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comparing five or six pedals or whatever
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you'd end up saying that you liked one
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and he'd buy it most of the time so I
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tried out the nobles I liked it and I
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said you know yeah I want to take it it
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was fifty dollars still have the box too
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and so he was taking the pedal and he's
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putting back in the glass case I said
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wait I want to buy and he said oh I'm
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gonna get you one from the back we've
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got a bunch of them this is just the
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demo one and some something in me said
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you want that one so I said no no Cory I
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want that one and so he said well okay
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but I mean it's the demo one I said I
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don't care I want it so I bought it and
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of course later on I found out that
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Nobles are pretty inconsistent they all
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sound like uh Nobles but they hold you
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know it's kind of all in the same family
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but they're all different so I got it
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and enjoyed it and you know
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you used it quite a bit then you know
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things started kind of moving along for
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for Tom and I really felt like well to
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back up just a little bit I had started
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writing for vintage guitar magazine and
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I had my ass Zach column and I was
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really enjoying doing that and and I
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hear I saw this guy Tom and he was very
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different because he was playing Gibson
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guitars a lot he was using this Nobel's
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Cody r1 he was you know he had his own
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thing
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he was not and he was nothing like brick
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mason or Reggie young or all these other
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cats he was his own guy he was the first
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you know kind of session guy with kind
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of a rock swagger and he was more of a
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rock player so I pitched the idea of
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doing my first interview with with a
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vintage guitar with you know with Tom
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and they agreed and so in the September
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2005 issue of vintage guitar magazine
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with Brian Setzer and my good buddy red
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Volk art up here this has the interview
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with Tom  Bukovac so I was thrilled to
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get to sit down with him and you know we
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had a good time and this is the article
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in all of its glory again my first
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interview ever
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Tom Bukovac  I took the photos also
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because there was no budget for a
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photographer so there it is and I'm
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proud of it proud that it Tom was my
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first interview so thank you Tom I had
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friends mention the interview and say
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that they ended up picking up Nobles
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because of that
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some of the other famous users Guthrie
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trap Jed Hughes and others a lot of the
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guys and they learned about it from Tom
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Tom was evangelizing the nobles ODR one
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he was telling me he was telling
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everyone he met
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in fact I found out from a reliable
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source that during his tenure on the
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road with Wynonna Judd in the 90s that
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he he would even sell them from the
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stage that he would buy cartons of him
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and when guitar players would come up to
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him asking about what he you know what
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gear he was using he said what you need
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to get is this and he would sell him the
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one that he had and so he would you know
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go through you know cartons of nobles
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and selling them all over the US so you
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got to give credit where credit is due
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Tom Bukovac made this pedal what it is
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and you know there's lighter versions
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like this silver one I picked this up as
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a backup and it's it sounds similar they
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don't that that's the thing I mean
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people talk about oh the old one old
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green wouldn't sound the best that's
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like well they all sound different you
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could get ten of the old green ones an
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exact tone actually did this they got a
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bunch of the old green ones and plugged
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them all in they all sounded different
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they all sounded within the nobles
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family but there's so much variance
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between one of the other and they they
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would change the construction techniques
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you could take two old green ones and
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open it up and even as someone that's
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not not technical you could look and go
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wow the circuit boards look very
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different they have different colored
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wires on them the components are in
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different places so so that's kind of
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the story about the the nobles you know
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it has a neat sound so this is my Daniel
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Castro blackguard with Ron Ellis pickups
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on the bridge pickup deluxe reverb with
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a vintage thirty in it this is dry
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[Music]
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really a really sweet sounding overdrive
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pedal it sounded very different than
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anything else it was on the market at
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the time it wasn't didn't sound like a
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tube screamer or a full drived and or a
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full or a rat or blues driver from boss
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had a unique sound had this neat low-end
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thing and I don't think it sounds I know
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a lot of people think it sounds really
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natural I don't know if it sounds
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natural but it sounds like a really good
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it sounds like a noble's channel on your
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amp sounds like you just added a no
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panda and I think it's a great channel
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and that's why so many people have made
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copies of it I mean if you were to list
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the number of ODR one copies I mean
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you'd be 12 deep in no time but it just
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has a really nice fatness and but
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doesn't have as much of the mid-range
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thing like the tube screamer goes
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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Jorgensen didn't use that but anywho
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that's a that's a freebie so so you've
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got to give credit to Tom Bukovac  he
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popularized this pedal he evangelized it
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he went all over the world preaching the
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gospel of the nobles OD r1 he still uses
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the pedal to this day there's a Premier
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Guitar Rig run down and still using them
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so god bless him so hope you've enjoyed
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today's episode talking about the nobles
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and Tom Bukovac and kind of a trip down
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memory lane for me so I hope you will
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subscribe I hope you will share this and
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let's keep this show going I'll talk to
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you later bye bye