Q & A - Princetons, Tele Body Thickness, and Guthrie Trapp's influence - Ask Zac 91

well hello friends and welcome to
0:54
another Ask Zac today we are going to
0:57
do a a q a and it's you know way way way
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way long overdue um you know the show is
1:04
called Ask Zac
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you guys send in questions and uh you
1:08
know you comment with questions and
1:10
stuff and I've uh you know of course a
1:12
lot of those lead to episodes but uh
1:14
sometimes a lot of these questions just
1:15
don't get you know they get answered
1:17
maybe in the comments section or maybe
1:19
in an email and so
1:21
I'm gonna start being better about doing
1:23
these periodically maybe even monthly to
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really address these questions you know
1:27
kind of head on so we're going to talk
1:29
about everything from Princeton's
1:31
to the Ask Zac theme and the
1:33
inspiration of Guthrie trap
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and uh all sorts of stuff between uh
1:38
telecaster body thickness which i got
1:40
tons of comments on that on the
1:42
comparison between the 57 and the 67.
1:46
so we're gonna do all that
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so
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of course if you've been watching the
1:50
show and you've been enjoying it you
1:52
haven't subscribed yet well please go
1:53
down in the corner hit subscribe
1:56
uh if you've been watching for a while i
1:58
appreciate you supporting the show
1:59
because that's what keeps the channel
2:01
going so there's tip jar information in
2:03
the description
2:04
and then at askzak.com you can find
2:07
merch like this
2:08
amp schematic that's fun or you can
2:11
learn about friends of Ask Zac for
2:13
those that have already bought a t-shirt
2:15
or what have you and want to continue to
2:18
support the show so i appreciate that
2:20
all right
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let's just dive headlong into this with
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question number one
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so Russ c asks
2:28
thoughts on deluxe reverb versus
2:30
Princeton
2:32
okay
2:33
so now some of this i hit upon in
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the video
2:37
uh and you know where i talk about the
2:40
deluxe reverb and
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i know it's funny today i'm using my vox
2:43
ac 10 but you know it's nice to you know
2:46
kind of break it up some
2:47
uh
2:48
so
2:49
my deal with the Princeton is i love the
2:52
sound of a Princeton however
2:54
it just starts to cave in
2:57
when i play on the low end when i play
2:59
on the low strings you start twanging
3:01
and stuff and pl start playing
3:03
uh low string licks and for some guys
3:06
like Jim Campalongo and others
3:08
they love that sound and they use it to
3:11
their advantage
3:12
I've always had a hard time with it so
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yes i do like a Princeton better that
3:16
has a 12 in it or it has a
3:19
a more efficient speaker
3:21
my favorite 10
3:23
besides like the original
3:25
brown and gold Jensen c10 ns or c10p or
3:29
whatever it is
3:31
is uh celestion makes a 10 inch
3:33
greenback speaker and i think that's a
3:35
really
3:36
great speaker in that
3:38
and then of course if you run up to a 12
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you know of course you got to change the
3:41
baffle out but you can do a lot of great
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things there too
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however i just think the bigger cab size
3:47
of the deluxe a little bit more power
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bigger iron
3:51
uh more advanced phase inverter you know
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design i think it just
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you know
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it it's much more you know gig friendly
4:00
for sure unless you just want to be
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overdriven
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now
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and again this also has to do with the
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telly and me being a telecaster guy i
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mean you may be like the Princeton's the
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best thing ever and it's great and
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that's fantastic so just enjoy so that's
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that's my deal with the Princeton reverb
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versus the deluxe
4:18
nick f
4:20
says do round core strings
4:23
bend easier than hex
4:26
well they can
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it all depends on because of course
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we're only talking about wound strings
4:32
here because when you when you're
4:33
talking about
4:35
round core versus hex core you're only
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talking about the wound strings
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because these are no matter what you
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know whether it's
4:43
pure nickel or not or round core
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whatever the plain strings are the same
4:48
it's the the wound strings that are
4:50
different
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so
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where the big difference comes in is
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actually the thickness of the core
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so
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yes there's some difference between hex
5:00
and round core but the bigger difference
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is how big
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the inner core string is
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so the bigger the inner core string the
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more difficult it is to bend and the
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stiffer it feels so some guys will make
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pure nickel round core strings where the
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round core in the middle is smaller and
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that will be easier to bend
5:23
okay
5:25
oh let's see
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so
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please review the mustang micro
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uh
5:32
you know
5:34
the mustang micro is a really cool
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headphone amp it sounds great i'm not
5:38
going to do a full-blown episode on it
5:40
i've recommended it twice
5:42
it's
5:43
it sounds good
5:45
it you know really sounds good with
5:47
headphones on it sounds good when you're
5:48
playing along with tracks your guitar
5:50
kind of sounds like it's belongs on the
5:52
on the recording i mean it's
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uh i think they they did a really great
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job on that but i'm not going to do a
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full
5:58
video on that
6:01
okay
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uh does the blonde tone master sound
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closer or further from your blackface
6:07
deluxe
6:10
i think i think what he's referring to
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is
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comparing it to the blackface tonemaster
6:17
and the blonde tone master which sounds
6:19
closer to my original deluxe reverb and
6:21
i would say the blonde tone master by
6:24
far
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i think the fact that they've modeled it
6:28
without the bright cap
6:30
and they put a celestion neo speaker in
6:33
it it sounds a lot closer and to me the
6:35
blonde tone master is a great amp and
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i kept it so i still have it and i i use
6:42
it out and about and actually a friend
6:45
is gigging with it right now that i i
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let i let you know a friend borrow it so
6:50
that he could decide whether he wanted
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to to buy one or not i think he's going
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to pick one up so
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there you have it on the on the tone
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master okay here's a big one i got so
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many questions about telecaster body
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thickness because in the comparison
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video between this
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and this
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guys saw the video and they thought that
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this guitar looked thicker than this one
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well they're the same thickness i mean i
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took all sorts of measurements
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and there's very little difference the
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bodies are basically one and
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three-quarter inches you know thick
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they have all sorts of the same
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measurements where they really differ is
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headstock thickness and that's something
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i referred to in
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the video
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uh
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yeah so
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yeah i think it must be a optical
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illusion the fact that you know this
7:43
kind of yellowed you know finish with
7:45
the uh where it's kind of looking white
7:47
on the edges or something and this with
7:50
the
7:50
you know
7:51
it just
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made it look like this one was thicker
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and it's not
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all right
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so that was a big one uh i got into some
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trouble with some guys when i said the
8:03
backwards f
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um
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let me grab this again
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so
8:09
i call this the backwards f on on the
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neck plate it's not it's a cursive f
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but people started using that term and i
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just kind of clued into it and started
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using the same terminology now it is it
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is a stylized cursive f that
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doesn't come around again at the bottom
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so
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there you have it uh
8:31
please do an episode on
8:33
blank
8:34
uh so i get lots and lots of requests to
8:38
do an episode on you know a certain
8:40
guitar player or a certain piece of gear
8:43
and and such
8:45
and know that
8:46
you know i can't you know i can't do an
8:48
episode on everything
8:50
there are some guys that i just haven't
8:52
gotten to yet and also you have to
8:53
realize that there's a certain amount of
8:56
research and work that goes into
8:59
doing an episode like on a player so if
9:02
I'm doing an episode on player well i
9:04
need to work up some of their licks i
9:06
need to make sure i have the facts
9:08
straight on their history i need to do
9:10
real research and i need to take good
9:11
notes
9:12
and even though i don't script episodes
9:14
it's like still i need to make sure that
9:16
i'm not putting out false information
9:19
so um you know continue to send in those
9:22
ideas and those requests
9:24
and uh and know that you know i plan on
9:27
continuing to do this show you know for
9:29
you know for a while and i will you know
9:31
continue
9:33
to uh mark off those those players and
9:36
and some pieces of gear and things like
9:37
that
9:38
know that uh you know every once in a
9:40
while I'll I'll spotlight a piece of
9:41
gear but
9:43
that is not
9:44
um
9:45
a huge uh priority for me you know i do
9:49
like to look at gear i love gear just as
9:51
much as anyone else does but also
9:53
i want to keep it
9:54
about
9:56
uh you know the guitar and and and
9:58
playing and about the history of players
10:01
and such and hopefully
10:03
the gear is something that we love but
10:05
it's still seen as a tool not just the
10:08
the end the end goal gear
10:11
all right
10:12
then
10:13
let's see
10:14
i get a lot of questions about buying
10:17
a telly
10:18
and about advice on that and especially
10:20
buying a tele under a thousand dollars
10:23
and
10:25
frankly
10:26
you know the best way to get a good
10:27
telecaster is play as many as you can
10:29
get your hands on
10:31
and so i know that can be difficult
10:33
depending on where you are and the
10:34
circumstances that you're in and
10:36
depending on the condition of the world
10:40
but you know really
10:42
you know
10:43
and hopefully you know if you if you get
10:45
something at a decent price and if you
10:46
end up not liking it well hopefully you
10:48
can flip it but
10:50
i like
10:51
you know even if it's not you know
10:54
a vintage tele uh you know i would tell
10:56
anyone out there well go find a road
11:00
worn you know telly especially one
11:02
that's like under eight pounds i think
11:03
those are great uh under a thousand
11:06
dollar guitars tokai's made in japan
11:09
teles um
11:11
you know there's all sorts of things you
11:12
know when you start getting up into more
11:14
expensive you know guitars
11:16
you know there's just so much more um
11:21
uh you know opportunity
11:23
for uh
11:25
i don't want to say being taken
11:27
advantage of but you just have to be so
11:29
much more careful when you're talking
11:30
about vintage stuff and knowing uh being
11:32
able to identify stuff that's original
11:34
and it's not and things like that so uh
11:37
but yeah as far as you know buying a
11:40
tele
11:41
you know play as many as you can and
11:43
take notes on the things that you like
11:45
because you're going to find out
11:47
oh i like certain neck shapes
11:49
or
11:50
i like vintage little tiny vintage frets
11:52
or i hate vintage frets
11:55
i kind of tend to like guitars that have
11:57
ash bodies or alder but just you know
12:00
you know just kind of try to take notes
12:02
of things that you like and you know try
12:04
to find a guitar that you can't live
12:06
without and and hopefully it's because
12:08
it uh it plays great
12:12
um
12:13
and and really inspires you to play not
12:15
just because it looks cool because i i
12:17
have a lot of guys email me and they've
12:19
bought a guitar that they thought looked
12:21
really cool and then it arrives and they
12:23
hate the way it plays and and then they
12:25
they start trying to modify it and
12:27
things like that so uh yeah that's
12:30
problematic
12:31
all right i also want to hit on
12:34
a Guthrie trap and the reason i want to
12:36
talk about him
12:38
is that with the Ask Zac theme
12:41
the more and more that I've heard
12:44
um
12:46
Guthrie do some different lessons and
12:48
things that he's done in his videos i
12:51
realized that like the Ask Zac theme
12:54
uh
12:55
yes it was a an exercise to
12:59
help myself with having a hand pain and
13:01
it was something that would make me use
13:02
my pinky and it make me you know stretch
13:04
a little bit more and
13:06
the tab for that is actually on ask
13:09
zach.com you can find it in the article
13:11
section there's tab on on that there's a
13:13
clip of me you know playing it and such
13:17
but i came to realize that i was
13:19
inspired by a clip of Guthrie trap
13:23
and also i just want to give kind of a
13:25
tip of the hat to Guthrie because he's
13:27
inspired me
13:29
to
13:30
be more intentional about my soloing so
13:34
that when when i solo you can really
13:37
tell what
13:38
chord is going on in the background
13:40
and i knew i was on the right track when
13:44
you know a couple months ago i was at
13:46
danocasters at Dan strain's house and i
13:48
was playing guitar and and Dan said
13:52
i can hear
13:53
i can tell what chords you're playing
13:55
over the way you're playing and it's
13:57
because i was playing chord tones I'm
13:59
playing all sorts of passing notes
14:01
but so and that came from
14:04
you know i did the artist works program
14:06
with with Guthrie and uh it was uh you
14:09
know i did that a couple of years ago
14:11
and you know then i watch his videos and
14:13
really enjoy them but it was that it
14:16
really started to rub off and i started
14:18
realizing that that's what i like and
14:20
all sorts of other players
14:22
playing
14:23
is that
14:24
even if they don't have anything
14:26
a backing track or anything going on
14:30
it's like you can hear
14:31
you know where the song is going there's
14:34
voice leading involved there's you know
14:35
he's playing chord tones
14:38
and so like the intro
14:40
that i played today
14:42
i was you know
14:44
i was playing in a way where hopefully
14:47
you would hear
14:48
oh he's playing over the one chord he's
14:50
playing over the four chord he's playing
14:51
over the five and hopefully you would
14:53
hear that and that's what i strive for
14:55
in my playing all the time now and so i
14:58
always want people to be able to tell
15:00
because they can hear that this is
15:02
intentional it's not just me
15:05
playing a bunch of notes and uh and when
15:07
you do it enough it starts to become
15:09
kind of second nature and it starts
15:11
coming naturally
15:13
and you're not having to think about it
15:14
as much and that's what you want in
15:16
music to where you just
15:18
you know
15:19
yeah where it just happens you're not
15:20
thinking about it
15:22
so uh
15:23
yeah
15:25
you know I've learned a lot from his uh
15:28
videos and uh he's he's a great player
15:30
and uh
15:32
you know so
15:33
thanks to Guthrie thanks for the the
15:34
inspiration and uh yeah
15:38
uh
15:39
another thing of course uh
15:41
you know i had on a recent video i had a
15:43
black pickguard on this guitar
15:46
and i switched it back to the white i
15:48
really i liked the black
15:50
and it was good contrast but it's just
15:51
that you know this is a 57 telly it's
15:53
supposed to have a white guard and so
15:55
you know so I'm back to the white guard
15:57
for now
15:58
um
15:59
part of it has to do with the fact that
16:02
there's this thing about black guards
16:04
and the guys that collect black guards
16:06
and it's they kind of uh not all of them
16:08
but kind of they have
16:10
they have this feeling like you know
16:12
telecasters begin and end with the black
16:14
guard
16:15
and
16:17
it gets a little wacky
16:19
and i love black guards but frankly i
16:22
think
16:23
i prefer this era of guitar you know of
16:26
course if someone gave me a black guard
16:28
i'd be happy to play it but uh
16:30
yeah so yeah so so for now it's got the
16:34
the white guard on there
16:37
uh
16:38
this is kind of time sensitive and in
16:40
that I'm I'm gonna I'm supposed to be
16:43
playing a couple of shows in Tulsa
16:46
so uh September 24th and 25th of 2021
16:51
I'm
16:51
scheduled to go play some shows with my
16:53
friend Paul bogart that he's a guy that
16:56
i played gigs with
16:58
before my kids were born I've known him
16:59
for a long time and I'm going to be
17:01
filling in for his regular guitar player
17:03
nick palmer that teaches at Belmont
17:05
university
17:07
so I'm having to relearn a bunch of
17:09
material and learn a bunch of new
17:11
material too
17:12
and that's been a lot of fun it's it's
17:14
really good to have to learn new
17:16
material and and
17:18
exercise this muscle call your brain
17:21
so if anyone is living in the Tulsa area
17:24
and would want to come out to the show
17:26
and maybe uh you know maybe talk hang
17:29
out some you know
17:30
send me an email so yeah I'm gonna be
17:32
playing at some casinos i think the hard
17:34
rock and maybe another one so
17:37
anyway i hope you've enjoyed today's
17:39
episode hope uh
17:41
you know hope you've had uh fun and uh
17:43
and we can start having some regular
17:46
uh question and answer episodes where i
17:48
uh you know address a bunch of this
17:50
stuff that kind of falls through the
17:52
cracks in the comments section or in
17:54
emails to individuals all right guys
17:56
well thank you so much bye