The Evolution of my Danocaster, Kubicki, Glaser Franken-Tele - Ask Zac 123

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac today we are going to
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talk about
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how
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well how i have continued to modify my
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Frankenstein telly it's
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gotten a different another neck on it
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it's gotten different pickups added a
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third pick up in the middle got new
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wiring
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and removed the old b bender and put in
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the new style glazer bender so this is
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yeah so this guitar got
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got it and redone again so i don't know
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how many times I've
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totally changed this guitar up but uh so
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that's we're going to talk about today
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we're going to
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talk about all the different mods I've
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done to it all right so before we go
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into that just a pause for the cause so
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all right
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let's jump in
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so
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let's see i think the last time we saw
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this guitar it had a dano caster neck
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but
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what happened was is that after i got
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that 57 esquire
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i
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i really got used to its
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nut width and the neck shape and also
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the radius
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and so i begged dan i said dan i know
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you you know you did me a favor by
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making a neck for a guitar i said would
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you swap it out
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for one with these specks and he uh he
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agreed no thank you dan so this guitar
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has it's one and five eighths at the nut
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so that's the vintage width of you know
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fenders
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so you know of course there were other
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widths available at an up charge like
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you had the that was what was called the
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b width which was on just about
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everything so if you want to narrow or
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the a width
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you paid extra or you paid extra for the
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the thicker ones like c and d so
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not many of any of those other ones
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around most most
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fender you know strats and telly's have
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the b width
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uh
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however most modern makers go for a
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little bit wider at the nut uh some as
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far as like 1 and 11 16. and so again
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after playing the esquire so much i kind
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of got used to the narrower width there
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and so i really wanted that
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more important than that was i wanted
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the vintage radius i like the 7.25
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uh radius a lot i like it better than
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the flatter ones to me it's just more
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comfortable to play i just like it
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so he did that
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then this has the the big frets that he
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uses which i do like those i don't like
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vintage frets i think they're too small
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but this is the normal frets he uses on
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all his guitars
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then the
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the the shape of the neck it was a soft
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v at point eight eight now it's a soft v
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at point nine one or nine two and that's
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again that's going after the the specs
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on my 57 esquire
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so yeah i was i was spoiled and he was
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kind enough to do it and so so that was
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the first big mod is a new neck for the
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guitar
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secondly
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i'd been asking joe glazer to remove
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the big heavy goto bridge that i had on
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here because i had one of his benders
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but at the time he was only using the
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six saddle big you know chrome plated
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goto bridge that weighs like a
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quarter pound or a third of a pound
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and i didn't really like it because i
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like the old style ashtray bridge like
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this one has now
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and he wouldn't modify it well then he
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came out with this new you know new
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style of bender that he's doing now
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and i said can you yank out the old
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style bender and put the new style in
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and then in the process
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go to this well
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he did
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you know paid for it but i you know
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finally got that heavy bridge off which
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i'd been wanting to get rid of for a
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while and got an ashtray bridge
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and the other thing i really liked about
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the new style bridge which is what i
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have on my crook paisley
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is that it's just so much smoother than
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the old one
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and that's and i asked joe why it was
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and he he said it's the new version of
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smoother because it has ball bearings in
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the uh in the arm actuator over here
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so that was a second big mod
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then
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while it was in having the
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the
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bender uh changed out to the upgraded
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version the new version i had the wiring
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change so of course in a past episode i
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talked about you know his this new
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wiring thing that he does and so so
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that's what this has now so it has a
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five-way switch
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a volume control and this is a blend
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control for the middle pickup but only
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when it's in
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the bridge position this acts as a blend
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for the for the middle pickup and then
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otherwise it's deactivated and then of
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course you can pull on the tone pot and
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it gives you the two outside sounds
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which you wouldn't have otherwise but
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i'll go through that
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uh
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then
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you know of course this is a
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seymour duncan hop strat stack pickup
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from the 1980s that i've been holding
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onto for a long time
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and it's wired up top coil only so it's
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not in humbucking mode and that's to
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make it a little thinner sounding and
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make it um you know stratier along with
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the the you know bridge pickup
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the two outside pickups have been
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changed also they were
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i think they were ron ellis
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uh 60s and maybe a
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standard plus or something like that but
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now
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this is a
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ellis standard plus but it's his 50 60
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version which means it has three
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different types of magnets who says el
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has al nico two on the top two strings
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al nico three on the middle and al nico
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5
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on the low two strings and that's to
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soften these strings and then slightly
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brighten these and brighten these even
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more the same thing was done on the
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bridge pickup so it has that same al
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nico 2 al nico 3 el nico 5. mix of
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magnets this has a slight stagger where
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the d and g are slightly raised like on
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the pickup on my 57
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and
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yeah so that's
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that's all that was was done
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so uh
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the only other thing of course i've got
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a uh
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dan was kind enough to uh you know i was
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i was able to get one of dan's aged ace
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straps so he's taking these old uh
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well these are actually new he's taking
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new ace straps
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and he's uh he's aging them and signs
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them
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and so you can get those off his website
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these are really cool because they uh
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yeah they just they just look nicer and
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they're more fun than one that's brand
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spanking new so
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for those of you that want to have an
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aged strap to go with your aged guitar
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all right well let's uh let's kind of
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hear it so uh
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so this is just the the neck pickup by
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itself
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[Music]
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then here is the neck and middle pickup
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so and again that's the top coil only on
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this
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then here's the middle pickup by itself
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[Music]
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here's the back two and kind of the uh
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strategy you know what people call out
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of phase it's not really it's just got
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some phasing going on i guess uh where
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the pickups there's a little face
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cancellation not phasing going on
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uh yeah
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very very straight
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why is it so tempting to play that
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whenever uh you know you get into that
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position
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[Music]
8:54
[Music]
8:57
yeah i also think of that
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all right so then you have the the back
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pickup
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[Music]
9:09
um
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[Music]
9:30
[Music]
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all right or you can get of course the
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the front and back together
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[Music]
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or
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this is where it you know kind of gets
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more unique is the the blend so what i'm
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going to do is i'm just going to play
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the high strings
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i'm going to let you hear as i as i
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blend it in
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[Music]
10:17
[Music]
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okay so at the extreme position it's
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just as if you had they're both equal in
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volume
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[Music]
10:30
and it's more strategy sounding
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but if you kind of do it in the middle
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what it does
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[Music]
10:45
[Music]
10:54
what it does is it just kind of smoothed
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the highs just a little bit it just it
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kind of has a little phase cancellation
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it kind of kills off some of the uh
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extreme high end and just smooths
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smooths things out without getting
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strapped sounding and so that's what's
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really neat about this and the other
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great thing is that
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the blend control only works when you're
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in the number five position like i am
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right now as soon as you go into the
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next position it defeats it
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so now some people might want that be
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able to blend it all the time but really
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this is where it's it's most useful and
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so then you're able to get you know when
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you go to this number four position you
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get the true both pickups at full volume
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and then you can go back and still get
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this blended sound so
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that's the that's the advantage of this
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so
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yeah
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and again the the bender i just i love
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it it's really smooth
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[Music]
11:58
[Applause]
12:10
[Music]
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it's just a a lot of fun
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and then it's just got you know now this
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guitar has so many sounds you know on
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tap so you can go you know you can do
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like a popcorn part like on you know
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neon moon
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[Music]
12:43
you know normal you know back two
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pickups together or you can go to the
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you know
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neck pickup and
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[Music]
13:01
you know or you can get you know all
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those great you know tele sounds you
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know you can not use the blend and you
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can go old james burton
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[Music]
13:20
of course that was roy nichols on that
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well burton played the uh the banjo role
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for the dobro roll part
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that's for another video
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all right guys i hope you've enjoyed uh
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you know the
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the look at my uh updated upgraded uh
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telly and
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you know this is
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this is all because i really wanted to
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have a glazer telly
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when i was uh you know in the 1980s
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looking at uh you know ricky skaggs and
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steve warner records and seeing you know
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brett mason on television so that's what
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that's what i did that's why i got this
13:54
body in the first place this phil
13:56
kubicki body because it was single bound
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like the glazer tellies were that i was
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seeing on television and so
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i kind of you know
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as much as those guys had the big goto
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bridge i wanted to go ashtray and then
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to have the three pickup with the blend
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and the five-way switch
14:13
and the b bender
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and a really good feeling v-neck
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yeah so now this is a really great hot
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rod of a guitar and i've
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really enjoyed having it of course enjoy
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knowing all the people that have
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put their love into it you know joe
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glazer doing the the bender and the
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wiring actual uh aaron parker also
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working on this
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um
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you know dan strain doing the neck and
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ron ellis doing the the pickups and of
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course uh an ancient uh 80s duncan hot
14:44
strat stack pickup so all right guys i
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hope you've enjoyed today's episode and
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i'll see you next time