Your Heroes Gear Might Not Be Right For You - ASK ZAC EP 30

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac I hope you are doing
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well today we're gonna talk about Guitar
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Hero's and gear and how that kind of
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influences us and how to use that in a
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good way and how that can get unhealthy
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and how to try to try to you know kind
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of be careful of that also I'm going to
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dissect a few of the licks from the
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little intro piece that I played that I
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think are fun and and a little pause for
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the cause if you're enjoying the show
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enough of that let's let's talk about
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the little intro piece that I was
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playing kind of has a touch of that you
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know working man blues thing so it's an
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e and kind of basing it off this you
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know kind of 9th chord shape except
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you're just playing the you know a d and
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g strings and you're kind of climbing up
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minor third major third fourth to fifth
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so it sounds like this
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you take it up to a witch I guess you
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could just slide it up here but I
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[Music]
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and you know of course you know go back
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to the e then you have this B suspension
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to b7 and then you have a G major 7 to
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an A
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[Music]
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and then he goes back to the other thing
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that that G major seven to a I picked up
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from Danny Gatton he did this amazing
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video called rhythm guitar for hot licks
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it was the one the last things he did
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before he passed away and of course I'm
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a huge Danny Gatton fan and but of his
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instructional videos a three that he did
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to me that one's the most useful for
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anybody I think anyone can watch that
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and get a lot from it some of the other
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ones are a bit more advanced and and I
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like the tips and tricks one also I
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don't really like the other hot licks
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one that he did tell a master it's just
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the recording quality is really bad on
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it and also the stuff he's playing is
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harder to pick up but the rhythm guitar
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wanted to me is just pure gold and I'll
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put a link to this description in the
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description to it you can get it on
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Amazon Prime I think it's like 10 to 15
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bucks something like that but it's it's
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very worth it so anyway yes he did this
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kind of thing in the video he did
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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and that's going between an e7 and a D
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major 7 and so I really liked that and
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so I kind of put this in here as a
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transition in between the the B
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[Music]
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then as far as when I went kind of into
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you know playing some a little bit of
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soloing the the bins over the forecourt
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over the a I really liked it I'm not
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sure if I got this from Roy Buchanan or
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Jim Campolongo or or who but but it's
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just going and the great thing about the
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lick is you don't have to do the bins
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perfectly because you're sliding up so
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it's just you need to kind of get it
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going and then you you slide up to the
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to the actual notes that are in a chord
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[Music]
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I'll shake sounds good
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another thing and I I know I stole this
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from Reggie young he played it on used
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on a couple different things but the
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first time I heard it was on the
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Hagrid's think I'll just stay here and
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drink and I think everyone's familiar
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with this kind of you're like an E you
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familiar with this kind of thing that
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kind of you know blues lick and this is
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kind of a variation of that because
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instead of going and so you're you're
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taking your pinky and you're you're
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playing this you know c-sharp note and
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then you're pulling off and hitting this
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B note and know that's a really fun one
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all right so I think that's uh yeah
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that's that's good on now on some of the
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things I played in that intro piece so
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today I wanted to talk about guitar
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heroes and gear purchases and such and
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just how that can be good and also how
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it can be negative and trying to kind of
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get that in a proper perspective
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so having guitar heroes of course is
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great having influences is great even
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trying the gear that they use is fine
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you know so you find out you know what
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kind of strings or picks or amps pedals
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guitar or whatever that your hero uses
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there's nothing wrong with that and
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nothing you know wrong with trying it
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out I think when it becomes unhealthy in
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my opinion is when you start hammering
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away at being just like a guitar player
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and expecting everything that they have
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to work for you now you might find that
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you know certain aspects of your hero's
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gear does work well for you and you know
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and you can continue to play with that
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but to get all the stuff that your hero
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uses and just keep hammering
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way it's just kind of a dead-end road
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and gear is a trap you know to begin
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with I mean we all are obsessed with
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gear to a degree but you really need to
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be playing and gear needs to be in the
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aspect and in the context of playing so
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I'll give an example for myself you know
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in the early 90s the first good
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Telecaster I ever had was a James Burton
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signature model and of course I was
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completely obsessed with James Burton
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still living down in South Texas and I
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was so proud of the fact that I had
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gotten my gear money you know gig money
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together and I was able to pay for a
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guitar that was about it was like
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fifteen or sixteen hundred bucks and so
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I got the signature model James Burton
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tele and it was black with gold
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Paisley's and had three lace sensor
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pickups of course it was kind of like a
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nun tremolo strat but with a Tele body
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and neck on it
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this is good guitar but it wasn't really
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a pure Telecaster and you know it's a
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variation it's a cool guitar but I got
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one and then I got I found out what
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strings he used which are really light
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he's is a tin for a B string and he uses
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a 12 for a g string and I started trying
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to do that I started trying to use a
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metal you know finger pick like he does
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and it just it it didn't work it didn't
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work well for me the strings were just
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too light for me just and it just didn't
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work and so you know luckily I kind of
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moved on and then of course started
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getting obsessed with Albert Lee and
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started using you know what strings and
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pick that he used I did you know read an
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article on Reggie Jung and started
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playing a Fender medium pick and I
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started using their the rounded end and
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that ended up being a good fit you know
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for a long time I still use that some
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though I have switched over to using a
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a blue chip pic and been enjoying that a
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lot but though this is the thinnest pic
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they make it's a 35 which is like a
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fender heavy and I've really really
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liked that but an example another
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example besides jeans Burton's a string
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gauge that you know didn't work for me
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is I love Eric Johnson and and so of
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course I got one of his guitar picks and
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Noah didn't make me play like Eric
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Johnson in fact I really hated this pick
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I mean it works well for him but it
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didn't work well for me at all to me it
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was so bright and funnily enough the
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other day I was having a discussion on
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the interweb on picks and Guthrie Trapp
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chimed in and he said that this is his
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least favorite pick he said he hates him
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so we loved her Johnson so another thing
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you know when working for Brad Paisley
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you know sometimes I would let you know
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local guitar players play through Brad's
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rig and so there they were playing a 68
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Paisley into the big dr. Z you know rig
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and yeah even when they play Brad slick
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they licks they didn't sound like him
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you know there's so much to do with your
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heart and your hands and everything and
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you know but there's nothing wrong with
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trying those things you know you you
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know you try those things you find out
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well I do like dr. Z amps or Telecasters
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or that gage of string or that type of
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pick so try what your heroes use but
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don't start just you know hammering
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yourself against the wall like you know
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if only I used the right strings and
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pick and get the right coyly chord you
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know I'm going to sound like you know
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Jimi Hendrix or wherever well whoever
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else so yeah try to keep a healthy kind
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of view on on gear think about playing
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first and then think about gear a little
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less and and you know feel free to try
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things and if they don't work you know
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sell it move it on but don't just keep
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hammering on you know so-and-so used a
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light gauge pick you know it's like
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saying you want to be like Glenn
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Campbell and use a light pick you know
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with with tins and and well guess what
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that might not work for you
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so anyway so yeah I think that just kind
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of resonated with me recently you know
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thinking about because I've had a bunch
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of times where I got obsessive about my
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guitar heroes and you know just played
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there you know bought their gear and
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whatever else and it you know it just
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didn't didn't work out so tried to kind
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of you know do my own thing I've had a
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lot of fun with strings lately been
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going on a string journey kind of with
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y'all right now I'm using an interesting
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gauge run going 10 13 15 24 32 42 and
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these these are just these are standard
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ernie ball strings that I had around and
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you know I enjoyed the pure nickel
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strings from pyramid but I have a bunch
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of strings here at the house and so I'm
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just trying different combinations and I
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really like this so this is basically a
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mix of a 9 set you know the low end and
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to me that's really balanced so to have
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that 42:32 you know 24 and then have a
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little heavier east ring because to me
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that's what I do battle with is getting
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a good sound on the high E string and
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the B string and then the the g string I
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can use a fairly light string of 15
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which is really easy to bend and so I've
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been having a lot of fun with that and I
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don't think I can't think of anyone else
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per se that uses that string gauge I
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mean if there is I don't know about it
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I'm just kind of trying my own thing and
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then the blue-chip pick thing you know
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of course kind of tried it because of a
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Red Bull car because Keith Williams sent
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me one but you know this pick isn't like
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you know used by somebody famous or
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anything in fact it's one of their
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thinnest
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so you know so you know there I have
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some elements that you know kind of just
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trying to do my own thing and find out
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what works for me instead of just being
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glued in on all that's not what you know
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Reggie young or James Burton or whoever
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used so that's enough for today I hope
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you enjoyed it you know of course I was
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using my Dino caster with Ron Ellis
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pickups using my little pedal board I
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just had the compressor and the echo
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part going usual deluxe reverb yeah hope
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you all have a great day we'll see you
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next time bye bye