Meet Chris Stapleton's Guitarist - Mike Eli LoPinto - Ask Zac 155

well hello friends and welcome to Ask
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Zac today we are going to meet a great
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player that is out on the road with
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Chris Stapleton playing guitar
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and I think you're going to enjoy it he
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was he was here just hanging out when we
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were talking telecasters and I just
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asked him if he would uh you know let me
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turn the camera on for a second just ask
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him a couple questions and then I made
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him play for a second for y'all just so
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you could hear him
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uh his name is Mike Eli lopinto and he's
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a he's a great great player
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also we're going to have our Book Nook
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segment so that's coming up but first
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if you haven't done it already then I
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really appreciate you subscribing and of
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course giving the thumbs up if you've
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already done that then I appreciate you
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supporting the show there's multiple
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ways the best is patreon and there's a
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link in the description for that also
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there's a link to ask zack.com where you
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can find merch like this amp schematic
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shirt or there's good old tip jar
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information down there also so thank you
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so much and now it's time for meet Mike
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Eli lopento Chris stapleton's guitarist
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so how'd you end up moving to Nashville
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I moved to Nashville let's see it's been
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a little over 10 years ago uh me and my
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buddy I went to Appalachian State in
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Boone North Carolina
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and it was
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um New Year's Eve and we were we had had
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a couple drinks
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and he turned to me and said we got to
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do something big next year and out of
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nowhere I don't know where it came from
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somewhere in my brain I said let's move
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to Nashville
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I had never been to Nashville
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and I don't know why I thought that was
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the spot we had to go but I said let's
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move to Nashville and he said okay
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and I said
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I'm not joking you said I'm not either
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and so we shook on it it was kind of a
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drunken handshake and we let our
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um
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our least laps in August and we packed
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up everything we could fit in a Honda
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Civic and moved here
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stayed in a weekly motel in Lebanon
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Tennessee I got bed bugs
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and then we found a spot in East
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Nashville but all of our stuff was in
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North Carolina so for a month we lived
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in a literally empty house uh sleeping
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on the floor
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and uh we got serving jobs and figured
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out what we were gonna do but yeah
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that's how I got to Nashville 10 years
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ago now can't believe it
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what was your first Big Gig
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my first big gig
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um
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I would probably say
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I I got LinkedIn with big machine
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working for an artist named Tara
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Thompson and they were pushing her
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single and so she had a bunch of big
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festival stuff and then Julian Raymond
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produced her and he kind of took me from
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her and put me with Alex Williams
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another guy big machine and he was doing
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dates opener for like Hank Jr and
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Skynyrd
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um so those are probably the first like
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oh man like we're playing with Skynyrd
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and Hank Jr and all that stuff like the
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big arena kind of stuff
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and how did you get the gig playing with
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Chris Stapleton
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the gig with Chris Stapleton
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um I was opening up shows with him with
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Nikki Lane
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um
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I love her she's incredibly talented
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I've worked with her I worked with her
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for probably three or four years we were
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doing opening shows I got to know JT and
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the guys and
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um started talking to JT and
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he was kind enough to let me know there
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was you know kind of maybe an opening
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slot with Dave and I luckily got to try
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out and
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yeah here I am very very grateful so
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Dave Dave Cobb the producer was was
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touring with them yeah David I was
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playing guitar with them he uh played
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guitar with him for several years and I
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was lucky enough and very grateful to
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kind of slide in after Dave the man
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that's a a pretty stellar band you're
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playing with tell me about some of the
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the you know
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the the veterans we will call them yeah
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um you know playing with JT and Derek
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and Chris and Morgan and all them like
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the core I'm just in awe you know every
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night with them and then being able to
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hang out with Paul Franklin and Nikki
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Rafael
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um I just pull stories out of them every
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night and they are
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the sweetest guys and they were all you
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know so welcoming and
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um
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I just talk about Pete Drake with Paul
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Franklin and I don't know if it gets any
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better than that you know and Emmylou
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with Mickey Rafael so you know not to
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mention Willie Nelson so a lot of a lot
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of incredible Heroes that I get to get
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to hang around so what's your uh what's
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your stage rig with uh Chris stage rig
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with Chris
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um I'm playing through Brown his brown
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princetons which are killer I love them
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and
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um I have a an old I actually have a
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Telly that my dad built that I play a
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lot and then I have a 63 SG Junior
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that I use a lot
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um a 69 Texan for a lot of the acoustic
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stuff
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um but a lot of the electric stuff is
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that 63 SG Junior it was uh someone
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painted it like Van Halen and I had a
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buddy carefully get it down the original
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finish and just sounds like a scalded
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rat it's great
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how much do you play Electric versus
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acoustic with Chris
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um I would say it's about it's mainly
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acoustic probably 80 percent acoustic
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and then
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um I'll probably have five or six
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electric but it's it's a lot of acoustic
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Rhythm yeah which is great because I
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just get the lock in with Derek and JT
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and and uh it's just a freight train I
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get to ride
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what acoustic do you use
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the text it a lot and then I have
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um there's a couple really good j45s and
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j50s that I use
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um that that sound good with
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um
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Chris uses it a big Epiphone Frontier
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for a lot of stuff so it it they sound
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real good together
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ah
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tell us about the Telly you're holding
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right now
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uh the tally I'm holding right now it's
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a kind of a a piece together thing this
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is all like 68 and then this is a 67
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neck I had Dave Johnson kind of put it
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together for me and
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it's just my fun kind of
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put together Bang from the 60s and I
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like it okay
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and then this one this is a 67. I found
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this with some buddies in Jacksonville
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Florida
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uh it's real special to me because it
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was an old guy he had had it since I
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think 73
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and it kind of was uh it's kind of like
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he was handed it off to me to be the
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next
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you know
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Steward I guess you'd say
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um 67 he'd ride it for humbuckers it's
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all messed with
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um I got a sticker and shout out to
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Raton Pass
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Lodge and Raton New Mexico
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a great little spot they gave me that
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sticker I'm not a sticker guy but I had
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to do the one
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um I was out there with my wife so this
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is this is the number one this one's not
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going anywhere
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so yeah
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tell us about how you got into PV Alps
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man how did I get into PV amps
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um
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I had a couple friends around town
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that I think it was actually Chuck Ward
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who played for Craig Morgan for a while
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when we were and he uh
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he told me about PB special 30s and he
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said he said if you see one just buy it
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and I'll buy it off of you and I found
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one at a pawn shop for him and I bought
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it and I took it home and played through
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it and I was like
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really impressed and and so I
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reluctantly sold it to him because I
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said I would but ever since then I just
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hunted him and
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now I'm just uh uh I'm a PV I'm a big PV
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fan they always work you can push them
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down a hill and they'll still work
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um special 130s Bandits they're they're
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A-Okay with me
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and they're loud you're always going to
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be heard
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and I like Jerry Reed and if you watch
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any old jewelry videos you can count
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about 30 PV logos so I'm just competing
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with him
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list some of your favorite players and
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and favorite Cuts featuring them
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oh favorite players and favorite cuts
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um Clarence white I mean everything he
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did but the whole Nashville West record
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I think is just a clinic
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um
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James burden two more bottles of wine
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also there's a really cool at the end of
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the live Hawaii Elvis he does a tiger
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man solo that'll rip your head off
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um
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I really like Danny Gatton
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but his live stuff
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um any of his you know any of the old
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stuff in DC
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um
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and then man Jerry Donahue
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uh I love all of all the 90s brand Mason
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stuff I can't do that stuff too good but
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I really admire it choices to me
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speaking of Paul Franklin choices is
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like perfect
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Brett Mason Paul Franklin to me that's
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like
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I think that doesn't get any better than
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that
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um personally so yeah
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hahahaha
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[Music]
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yeah
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all right I hope you enjoyed that that
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was uh that was fun for me to get to
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hang with Mike so now it's time for
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Zach's Book Nook so today's book is soul
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mining a musical Life by Daniel Lenoir
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I'm a huge fan of Daniel lenoir's
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production and also his solo records too
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I love his uh singing songwriting
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production guitar work pedal steel work
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and so this is a kind of a good not too
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heavy of a read and uh really really
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great getting to learn about his early
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life growing up in Canada and then of
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course all the exotic places that he put
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Studios together and of course working
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with U2 and Emmylou Harris and Willie
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Nelson and on and on and on it's a
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really really good enjoyable book and
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again it's not too uh not too long got
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some good photos and uh you know and
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especially if you're a fan of any of the
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work that Daniel's done you need to you
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need to pick it up one thing I learned
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from this is uh the importance of uh
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in in his recordings of acoustic guitar
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where you're both recording the acoustic
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guitar and using a sound hole pickup
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going to a guitar amp which of course
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also John Leventhal does something
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similar but he does it live but Daniel
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does that in the in the studio a lot and
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I think that's a great trick and so
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because of this book I picked up one of
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those old 80s uh Bill Lawrence Sound
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Hole pickups and started using that and
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it's a it's a it's a fun trick it's a
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fun gag
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all right guys I hope you enjoyed
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today's episode and I'll see you next
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time bye-bye