Gig Stories From Las Vegas - Ask Zac 150 @austinskinner

well hello friends and welcome to Ask
0:16
Zac
0:18
today I'm going to tell the tale of my
0:21
uh trip to Vegas of course I'm in Vegas
0:23
right now
0:25
and playing some run of five fly dates
0:29
at a casino here and just
0:33
the prep for it the gear that I took
0:35
some unusual gear
0:39
and uh
0:40
having some crazy stories
0:43
that uh I I visited a a dealer for True
0:47
tone
0:48
and it ended up going
0:51
and nothing like I thought it was going
0:53
to end up being a crazy
0:55
situation
0:57
and uh yeah and I ended up using some
1:00
different
1:01
other different gear like usually on a
1:03
fly data I use a strum and iridium and I
1:06
used a boss katana
1:08
and uh yeah and I also ended up getting
1:12
an old Wawa pedal from the 70s that I
1:15
ended up using quite a bit and I'm going
1:18
to talk about why and how I got that and
1:21
that yeah
1:22
I'm gonna tell about my uh my trip to
1:26
Vegas
1:27
and the prep work beforehand and such
1:29
and just you know playing with a
1:32
Nashville band that's going to play in
1:34
uh you know one of the bars here in here
1:36
in Las Vegas in Mexico
1:39
so of course while you're thinking about
1:41
it uh if you haven't done already if
1:43
you've been enjoying the show well
1:44
please go down in the corner hit
1:45
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1:47
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1:49
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1:50
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1:53
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1:55
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1:59
course you can go to ask zach.com and
2:01
you can check out the merch like this
2:02
amp schematic shirt and I really
2:05
appreciate all the people that have
2:07
supported the show
2:09
one thing that's been really fun about
2:12
coming out here was actually got to meet
2:14
some of you I uh some of you were kind
2:16
enough to come out to uh and and see me
2:20
play and I got to hang out and they got
2:22
to you know mess with the guitars and
2:24
stuff like that so all right well let's
2:27
Dive In
2:29
so Austin Skinner has been a good friend
2:33
of mine
2:34
for uh 20 plus years I mean I guess I've
2:38
known him for 30 years he's uh the son
2:41
of one of my best friends chip Thomas
2:44
and
2:47
Austin plays downtown of course I've
2:49
done some live streams you know with him
2:52
he has his own wonderful uh YouTube
2:54
channel and
2:56
he plays downtown Nashville a lot
2:58
Broadway also tours he uh he in fact is
3:02
the reason that I was on a recent
3:04
episode of uh of Rhett Shoals show the
3:08
uh you know legendary guitar amps
3:10
episode that he did uh the reason I
3:12
guessed it on that was because Austin
3:14
ran into red chill out on the road they
3:16
were playing on the same bill
3:19
and Austin gave Rhett my phone number
3:21
and so red Shaw and I started you know
3:24
talking on the phone and uh
3:27
you know he ended up asking me to film a
3:29
little segment for his uh for that
3:31
episode and so I was honored so thank
3:34
you to Austin of course thank you to ret
3:35
Shull all right I'm uh I'm going down
3:39
all sorts of rabbit holes today so
3:41
Austin and I've been good friends for a
3:43
long time he's been you know important I
3:45
mean he's one of the reasons why I do
3:47
this show
3:48
and Austin asked me to place these shows
3:53
with him in Las Vegas it was five shows
3:55
at the dog house
3:57
at the uh Resorts World Casino here in
4:00
Las Vegas
4:02
and I was a little bit trepidatious at
4:04
first but I you know I always try to you
4:06
know kind of take chances and do things
4:09
sometimes they're out of my comfort zone
4:11
and uh and I said yes because sometimes
4:14
you know I've I've had problems with my
4:16
my left hand every once in a while with
4:19
hand pain and such and I was a little
4:21
concerned about normally I don't do more
4:23
than three shows in a row and usually
4:26
those shows are like two hours and so
4:28
this was going to be five days straight
4:30
of playing four hours a night and I'm
4:33
very thankful that my hand has been in
4:36
good shape and we've done you know four
4:37
nights and tonight is the fifth but uh
4:40
Austin asked me to uh to play these
4:43
shows and I thought about it of course
4:45
asked you know talked to my wife and uh
4:48
you know decided to do it
4:49
and then Austin popped up with a uh a
4:53
gig in Nashville to kind of act as a
4:56
paid rehearsal so we played at Blake
4:58
Shelton's place it's called Old Red
5:00
that's on Broadway and so we played on a
5:04
on a Tuesday night and we played eight
5:06
to midnight
5:07
and it was a lot of fun and I got to
5:09
meet the other guys in the band and I
5:12
got to know what material they were
5:13
doing because again there was no
5:15
rehearsal for this it was just kind of
5:16
you know show up and of course also
5:19
these bands
5:21
specialize in taking requests and so you
5:25
can't make a set list or anything it's
5:27
just you start calling tunes and you
5:29
also start you know your goal
5:31
your job is to entertain people and keep
5:34
them there and
5:36
let's let's just be frank you're you're
5:38
there to entertain them so that they
5:40
keep drinking alcohol and they keep
5:42
having a good time
5:44
so
5:45
um but we we played and I I use my
5:49
iridium for that and so I took my uh my
5:52
57 Esquire here which is always you know
5:55
almost always with me
5:57
and I used a little pedal board with the
6:00
Iridium on the end and just went direct
6:02
and used in-ears sounds kind of the
6:05
warm-up gig then it came down to trying
6:08
to decide what I was going to take to
6:10
actually go to Vegas
6:12
now here here comes a little twist is
6:16
that uh I was talking with one of my
6:18
friends who's a a bad gear influence on
6:21
me that you all know him
6:23
and he's very much into fuzzes and waws
6:27
and
6:29
and I started asking him about Wawa
6:31
petals and I said I want to like Wawa
6:35
but I just never can you know find one
6:38
that I like it's always just too much
6:40
when it goes you know Heel To Toe
6:42
there's just too much tonal variation
6:45
and it just goes from Bassy nothing to
6:48
to screechy high end and and he said
6:51
well
6:52
what you want is you want an older wall
6:55
where it has less travel so instead of
6:57
being able to go from here to here it
6:59
just kind of goes from here to here
7:01
and those walls are the ones from the
7:05
60s and 70s and some of them into the
7:08
80s and so I just you know picked up a
7:11
70s you know Cry Baby Wawa
7:14
off off Reverb for a hundred and twenty
7:17
dollars
7:18
and it showed up and immediately I was
7:21
so much happier with it than any of the
7:24
more any of the laws that I've bought
7:25
over the last you know 20 plus years and
7:28
it wasn't true bypass and it really had
7:32
horrible tongue suck and so I knew I was
7:34
going to need to uh you know run it
7:37
through a true bypass Loop that's what I
7:40
did I have a little box that Dana down
7:42
at true tone built for me and so it's
7:44
just a single switch and it's got you
7:46
know Ascend and return and an in and out
7:48
and so you're just able to run you know
7:51
a problematic pedal through that so you
7:53
don't have horrible tone suck will win
7:57
the Wawa showed up
7:59
uh my other guitars were already packed
8:03
up and this R9 Les Paul was out and I
8:07
had my 59 Harvard out and so I pulled
8:09
this guitar out and I started playing
8:11
through the wand I was really enjoying
8:13
myself and then I got out this uh
8:18
original Coricidin slide that one of you
8:21
guys was was kind enough to to send me
8:23
and again thank you and I started
8:26
playing the Les Paul with the slide and
8:31
the uh and the 70s Wawa and really
8:33
enjoyed that combination it was very
8:35
kind of a a vocal sounding you know kind
8:38
of wall slide sound that first time I
8:42
heard it was on a JJ Cale record called
8:44
crazy mama I believe it was Mac Gayden
8:46
playing wall slide on it
8:50
so that made the decision so I was going
8:53
to take two telecasters here but I ended
8:55
up changing my mind and so I took of
8:58
course the good old 57 Esquire and this
9:02
2008 R9 now if you haven't seen my Les
9:06
Paul episode from a couple years ago uh
9:09
this is a guitar that I hand-picked from
9:11
the custom shop I did a bunch of arm
9:14
twisting with a a retired Gibson
9:17
employee named Mike volts Mike volts is
9:19
a wonderful wonderful person he's let me
9:22
stay in one of his when he had a place
9:26
in Memphis he let me stay there with my
9:28
family one night he's just a wonderful
9:30
person and very influential and did many
9:33
great things for Gibson
9:34
but he was the one that did arm twisting
9:37
on my behalf so that I could go down
9:39
there and pick one out because normally
9:40
you have to be a big name artist or be a
9:44
a high-end uh you know custom shop
9:46
Gibson dealer to actually go down to the
9:48
factory and be able to pick one out
9:51
so I took this guitar and yes it has
9:53
been modified it's got a set of similar
9:56
delicate Antiquities that are underwound
9:58
but basically it's the same thing as
10:00
pretty much as having two neck pickups
10:02
instead of having just a you know that
10:04
because in a normal Antiquity set
10:06
there's the the bridge pickup is is
10:09
overwhelmed compared to the neck pickup
10:11
and I didn't want that I wanted him to
10:13
be more similar output wise and I wanted
10:16
them to be low output so
10:18
yeah so I took the last poll I borrowed
10:22
a double gig bag because I didn't own
10:24
one
10:25
uh because I knew you know didn't want
10:28
to have to I don't have a Colton or a uh
10:30
a heavy duty Road case that I could
10:32
check and plus it's too expensive to uh
10:35
you know most uh road cases at this
10:37
point though there are some life TSA
10:39
cases now but uh so I borrowed a a
10:43
double gig bag and put the two you know
10:46
guitars in there
10:48
and then next came you know what I used
10:51
for amplification so
10:55
I you know normally on a fly date I
10:58
would use the stroma and iridium on the
11:00
deluxe Reverb setting or maybe the Vox
11:02
setting one or the other
11:04
and I uh
11:07
I Austin told me that they had a set of
11:11
a boss Katana amplifiers and one thing
11:15
that's great about this show is that I
11:18
learned stuff from you guys and on the
11:21
PV episode a lot of you guys responded
11:24
that the modern equivalent of a PV
11:27
amplifier in this day and age is the
11:29
boss Katana series
11:31
and so I just decided to take a chance
11:34
on that so I didn't take the strymon
11:36
Iridium at all I took a small pedal
11:38
board that all show it later and uh and
11:43
ran into that and I was very pleased
11:46
with the with the results uh it ended up
11:49
being a a nice sound is it as good as a
11:52
tube amp no but it uh it got the job
11:57
done and I did have to you know of
11:59
course it was miked up and I did have to
12:02
put some I normally never put guitar
12:06
amplifier in a wedge but I decided not
12:09
to use in-ears and the katana was kind
12:12
of on the weak side it didn't have a lot
12:14
of muscle it had a decent sound to it
12:16
but I reinforced it by putting some of
12:18
it in the monitor so that it would cut
12:21
through better because there's just
12:23
something about transistorized amps
12:25
where
12:26
I don't know what it is but it just
12:28
seems like they don't have a whole lot
12:30
of muscle and and they start to
12:32
disappear and you know especially on a
12:35
not super loud stage but not a quiet
12:38
stage so so that's what I chose to use
12:40
and I just used the clean amp setting
12:42
with the touch Reverb and then used my
12:44
pedals that I will show later
12:48
um yeah and I put my pedal board was
12:52
just a small board that I actually put
12:54
in a little bag and I put that inside of
12:56
my luggage because I I wanted to travel
12:58
with just the double gig bag one large
13:02
piece of luggage I was traveling on
13:03
Southwest so I could have checked two
13:05
bags but I just didn't want to deal with
13:07
it because I also had my uh my kind of
13:10
work setup for True tone I had my my
13:13
laptop and things so that I could
13:15
continue to take care of my true tone
13:18
work remotely you know here in the hotel
13:20
room
13:21
so we had a uneventful flight which was
13:24
miraculous because as many of you are
13:27
aware there have been horrible issues
13:31
with delayed flights and uh you know
13:34
different airlines have had major issues
13:36
and so it was very nice we had a direct
13:39
flight from Nashville to uh to Las Vegas
13:42
and we got off the plane got our stuff
13:46
got to the casino set up changed clothes
13:50
and plate and we played from seven to
13:53
eleven
13:54
and uh yeah it was it was really it was
13:57
really good and I was glad we kind of
13:58
had the warm-up date back at uh old red
14:01
in uh in Nashville and uh you know we
14:04
played a variety of tunes and a variety
14:06
of eras and it would just depend on who
14:08
was there and what they wanted to hear
14:10
so we might do a Luke Combs tune or we
14:13
might play you know some 90s country
14:16
which of course is straight up my alley
14:17
because that's when I was really playing
14:19
in bars a lot
14:21
and uh I uh Austin makes me sing and so
14:26
I sang a couple of tunes I sang some uh
14:28
you know Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard
14:31
and Vince Gill and some some things like
14:33
that things that that are fun and also I
14:35
can do some Telecaster stuff on with the
14:38
with the old Esquire
14:40
and uh yeah just a lot of fun and it's
14:44
just the the interaction with people and
14:47
entertaining people and yeah having
14:49
having fun with them is just uh a really
14:53
nice time also it's just nice to be in a
14:56
different location uh I have to say this
14:59
casino uh Resorts World they uh they
15:02
have a wonderful staff here they've been
15:03
very kind and this is the first time
15:05
I've played at a casino where they let
15:07
us eat at the employee dining hall and
15:11
so to do so you had to go down in the
15:13
belly of the casino even had to go down
15:17
uh you know these uh escalators
15:21
and you go down into there and then it's
15:23
kind of like the the nicest University
15:27
cafeteria you've ever seen and the food
15:29
was really good they had really good
15:32
pork tinfeline and I had some Thai
15:35
shrimp that was excellent and uh they
15:38
they uh the the the casino has very much
15:41
an Asian influence and they have a lot
15:44
of really good Asian food here and so I
15:48
very much enjoyed that I've uh I have a
15:51
an addiction to duck I love to eat duck
15:55
and so I've had duck a number of times
15:58
I've had it at the casino and then also
16:01
I I went to to dinner with uh one of you
16:05
guys uh named Bill Bill
16:08
I'll just say this you know his last
16:10
name rhymes with Anderson
16:13
and he uh he was kind enough to take
16:16
Austin and I to a a great Thai place
16:18
here in town and I had some duck Curry
16:20
and it was amazing
16:22
that was a another thing that was really
16:24
great about being here was some some of
16:26
you guys came out to shows and came up
16:28
to these shows and I was able to get to
16:30
hang with them in the in the green room
16:32
and you know they got to check out the
16:34
the guitars and all that jazz and it was
16:37
just a lot of fun now for the um
16:41
music store story that is kind of crazy
16:46
so of course during the day I'm doing my
16:50
true tone work remotely so I'm taking
16:52
care of international orders getting
16:55
people to pick up you know their their
16:57
stuff from our our warehouse in Hong
16:59
Kong or the or the US taking care of all
17:01
these orders and such
17:03
and I had told my compatriot that
17:06
handles the U.S direct sales that if he
17:11
had any shops here they wanted me to
17:12
visit I'd be happy to do so while I was
17:14
here
17:15
and he said well you know of course
17:18
Guitar Center and Sam Ash are you know
17:21
carry our stuff here in in Las Vegas but
17:24
we don't really have a you know a
17:26
locally owned Mom and Pop shop that
17:29
carries our stuff and he said he'd
17:31
really wanted to have one and so he went
17:33
through all all the dealers and his
17:36
number one choice was a place called J
17:38
and E guitars and so he sent me the
17:42
information I looked at it the pictures
17:44
looked amazing they had the there was a
17:46
lot in one of the photos there was a
17:48
wall of of cool looking telecasters so I
17:50
was completely bought in
17:53
and uh you know they had recent social
17:56
media posts and such so I just looked at
17:58
the hours and I immediately got an Uber
18:03
I get down there
18:05
and
18:06
I look in the window and there are no
18:09
guitars and they're pulling the guitar
18:12
hangers off the wall and as I come up to
18:16
the door
18:18
somebody opens it he said you might as
18:20
well get back in that car we're closed
18:22
and he wasn't rude about it or anything
18:24
but he was just firm in that you know
18:26
they were permanently closed
18:29
and I was just you know shocked because
18:32
of course there was no notice on any of
18:34
their social media that they were they
18:36
were closing and I was very much looking
18:39
forward to going to the shop and I'm
18:40
I've never had that happen to me where
18:42
I've uh come up to a location and they
18:44
were in the process of closing
18:47
now here's where things get really more
18:50
interesting
18:51
because then I found out what as far as
18:55
I know is the reason and I'm gonna work
18:57
let's not put this in stone because uh
19:00
you know this is uh you know we don't
19:03
have all the facts here but I went and
19:06
visited the same Ash store and one of
19:09
the employees there told me that uh that
19:13
J and E guitars that they had been
19:16
assaulted while the store was open that
19:19
they were assaulted with pepper spray
19:21
and that someone stole a bunch of
19:24
guitars after pepper spraying the
19:25
employees
19:27
and I was in shock and they said they
19:30
didn't know whether they were closing
19:32
for good whether they were going online
19:34
or whether they were moving and that you
19:38
know really made me sad and uh and just
19:42
kind of in in shock so uh yeah so and
19:46
that was one of the uh one of the few
19:49
you know decent sized you know Mom and
19:52
Pop owned you know music shops here in
19:54
Las Vegas so that was kind of a
19:57
a bit of a uh a sad thing so I uh I hope
20:02
the best for J and E guitars and I hope
20:04
that uh that they uh recover from that
20:07
experience and that they're able to make
20:11
things work whether it is in another
20:13
location or online or such
20:16
so yeah I've really enjoyed uh playing
20:20
here uh it's been just a great
20:22
experience and I hope to to come back
20:24
with Austin hopefully he will have have
20:26
me out again and it's fun to stretch out
20:29
and play you know four hours a night on
20:33
a on a good Telly and a good Les Paul
20:35
and use the old uh core seed and slide
20:39
my 70s well-off pedal and I'll again and
20:43
and next will be the uh you know the the
20:46
footage of of me you know uh showing
20:49
showing the gear showing the pedal board
20:51
off and such all right guys as promised
20:54
here's my little uh mini rig run down so
20:57
here is the uh the crybaby wad
21:01
from the 70s that I really have enjoyed
21:05
here's my usual grab-and-go board uh the
21:11
one thing I've changed on it is it has
21:13
this uh turbo tuner from Sonic research
21:15
the mini one I've used the bigger one
21:17
for probably the last 10 years and it
21:20
was my favorite and then this one is
21:22
even better because it's smaller and it
21:24
has a soft true bypass switch so there's
21:26
no click to it my old one has a loud
21:29
click like this so uh yeah love this The
21:34
Mirage of course is my favorite two knob
21:36
compressor
21:38
um
21:39
you know I just sometimes on the gig you
21:42
don't like to have a compressor with a
21:43
bunch of knobs on it and this just
21:45
sounds really good and it's easy to use
21:47
this is of course an analog man tr2
21:50
tremolo uh yeah here's an old mustortion
21:54
here's an old dm3 analog delay I use
21:58
this either for slapback for the Country
22:00
Chicken picking thing or I will turn the
22:03
repeats or yeah the repeats all the way
22:05
up and the delay time as long as
22:07
possible and it doesn't oscillate what
22:10
it does it just gives me a bunch of
22:11
really cool repeats and helps to fill
22:14
things out and it's a lot of fun so yeah
22:16
let's go back to the slap back and then
22:19
of course the line six Echo Park that I
22:22
use on the tape delay setting and I have
22:24
the trails turned off and uh it's really
22:28
like this for a long delay times now I
22:31
have to give credit for this board this
22:33
is heavily influenced by one of my faves
22:36
that John Leventhal so he brought a
22:37
board eerily similar alert to this to
22:41
our interview for the true tone Lounge
22:44
years ago and so I had most of these
22:47
pedals except for the Mirage compressor
22:49
and I put together a board like his no
22:52
it doesn't make me play like John
22:53
Leventhal but I've just found it really
22:56
handy for using uh and grab-and-go
22:59
settings rental amps and and things of
23:01
that sort then I have to give props of
23:05
course to my employer
23:08
true tone so this is one of the first
23:11
cs6s that was released in 2016 and uh
23:15
and it's still going strong and I've
23:18
used it on countless gigs and of course
23:21
I'm grateful to uh true tone and quiet
23:26
power and inconsistency and proud to
23:30
work for them so there you have it enjoy
23:35
all right guys well thank you so much
23:37
for watching and I hope you have a great
23:39
week bye