Epiphones are for playing and Gibsons are for collecting?

Subject Index
00:00 Intro
01:13 Thank you all for supporting this channel and show
02:50 Does the transformer in an amp matter?
08:58 Do I like the Line 6 Catalyst and why I owned 3 Katanas
17:50 How long did you play guitar before you became confident?

23:55 Epiphone's are for playing and Gibsons are for collecting?

30:38 The World Record Pedal board and my participation trophy
34:00 Grumpy Mike Guitar Shirt swap
35:50 If you could only have one acoustic what would it be?
41:12 Issue with push pull pot. check out this video
42:39 New rule. Gibsons should be sold at casinos.
45:58 Should we all buy straight from Cort and cut out the middle man?
48:55 Valiant guitars in the Ukraine and how you can help
53:40 Tonemaster by Fender or Hotrod deluxe?
56:00 Can you leave your pedal board on all the time?
58:40 If I could only have a Combo or a head and cab. Which one?
1:00:00 The three opinions on modeling amps
1:14:56 My favorite April fools joke.
1:20:38 Thoughts on the Gibson Theodore guitars. Flippers may not be to happy
1:23:20 The used guitar market is softening. Maybe Im right about the guitar boom
1:33:33 The 304 guitars
1:40:50 Why did PRS stop making amps in the US?
1:44:49 Company said they may make tubes in the USA
1:58:56 Most the people who built your guitar do not play
2:03:30 Why I said Fender doesn't make guitars
2:11:30 Leo Fender wanted us to swap necks and Stratosphere helps it come true

Another way to support the channel is by checking out Blackstock Pickups

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[Guitars]

Hey Phil, we're honored you gave us a shot and reviewed our guitar. Love your dedication and knowledge! Much respect!

[guitarz]

Another great podcast! Great point around the 1:30 mark about putting smaller builders on the channel. YOU have built years of trust with YOUR viewers. No BS it’s true and so is your channel and subscribers. Still have yet to see a coffee add or VPN adds with your content. Trust my friend you have it in spades.

[jmartinez]

Over the past 20 years, I’ve owned a lot of Gibsons, including a few R8 and R9s, and currently own an LP Standard, an SG Standard, and a Flying V. I also currently have several recent production model Epiphones (LP Modern; SG; Brent Hinds V; Firebird). I think both lines have great guitars. Interestingly, I’ve had several Gibson purchases in recent years with QC issues, whereas EVERY Epiphone I’ve bought in the past 2-3 years has been great out of the box. They all get playing time, but I find myself reaching for the Epiphones more than the Gibsons.

[KharmaBodiesGuitars]

Phil, you are 100% right about Fender not selling their parts. In 1975 I started a guitar parts company making Fender bodies and later necks out of exotic hardwoods and did very well for a time because Fender refused to sell their parts. And music stores, small repair shops, luthiers, and enthusiasts who wanted a natural wood finish, exotic wood body or just wanted to customize their guitar supported the manufacture of these parts. At the time only one other company made bodies and sold them through Charvel.

You say before Fender sold their bodies and necks they sold their hardware but that’s not entirely accurate. Because back then it was impossible to get Fender hardware unless you were a Fender authorized repairman. Not only were they hard to get, they needed to be pre-ordered which could take a while, and they were shipped in bulk packaging, meaning unpackaged and not for retail sale.

That’s what opened the door for a small company like mine to do limited batch production of replacement bodies and necks.

My dream at the time was to eventually be bought out by a large company but while my company stopped after a little over 5 years because of family issues, most of the other parts distributors like Charvel, Schecter, and Mighty Mite were bought out by the larger guys.

I don’t regret how things worked out and because Covid slowed down everybody including me in their day to day, I’m finding I’m still a guitar fanboy at heart.

Thanks for your channel, I wish I had the advantage of YouTube back then for the sheer volume of knowledge available from these channels.

[cullenjames]

What I like about the Katana, is that pretty much everyone has some experience with it now and it's a great basis for comparison for pedals and such.

[johnn]

I’ve got Gibson and Epiphone ES-335s and 339s. The Epiphones get played more, particularly the ES-339s. What gets played the most is a Harley Benton Aeolus. It stays in the living room where I’m not worried about it falling over and breaking its headstock. And when it did fall over recently, the headstock didn’t break…although one string needed to be retuned.

[srwaite]

My Epiphone ‘59 Inspired by Gibson Les Paul was better than my 2014 Gibson Les Paul Tribute. I was shocked, especially given the price differential. 👌🏻🎸🖖🏻

[WilliamHaisch]

1:00:00 The first run Peavey 5150 2x12 combo was closed back, a rarity in combo amps. The speakers were actually sealed off from the amp section entirely! So cool! My friend and mentor Mike owned one when we were playing in a band together. It sounded so good! The low end was so tight.

[briancoyne]

True about Fender quality issues. Played 4 Vintera Fenders this month at GC. Three of them had razor sharp fret ends that ripped up my hands. The other one was excellent. All were from 2020-2021.

[RandallHayter]

Interesting commentary on modeling amps. I used the podcasts for hiking over the winter and listened to all of the ones loaded to iTunes. It is great how Phil’s attitude to these amps evolved over time.

[bellachi]

This channel is a very special place. A true community. It’s like guitar church😊. And a testimony of your character that it holds together with kindness, humor, and mutual respect.

[mikebjorgo]

The loudest amp I've had was an Ampeg VL502. 50 watts blew away 100 watt Marshalls. It was also the heaviest head ever, because it had a massive output transformer, tons of iron!

[sweettoof]

That blue Revstar is a super cool looking guitar. Want.

[ebartley]

Any more since my band broke up in 19, I usually only play electric guitar at jams. I usually bring my Blues Jr. or Pro Jr. because I just love Tube amp's. The other day at my buddy's jam I didn't want to set up my amp and just ran my small pedal board In to his 100 watt first generation Katana on the crunch mode set at a very light crunch. I freaking couldn't believe how good of a drive sound I was getting with my Paisley drive stacked with a Boss Blues driver. That week I found a Katana first generation 100 watt Katana for $200 . Really great to practice with too. A lot easier to control the volume in my practice studio.

[judih.]

Hey Phil, great show and I ALWAYS hit the like button whether I'm watching live or afterwards. I know that helps with the analytics. Cheers.

[timreigstad]

The manufacturing process holds true in a lot of things…I built custom high end pool cues for a while…and they’re were cue builders and cue assemblers…a lot the same way as fender…my cues started as a block of wood in my hands, but I only produced 100 cues a year at best…but when the orders ramped up…I was making parts instead of building one offs from start to finish…

[timreigstad]

My Indonesian SE has been hands down the best value guitar I’ve ever purchased, I’ve owned plenty of Corts over the years also and know the capabilities of that factory…and in a side note…when it arrived the fretboard edges, fret ends, and overall finish was above an d beyond the the last high end purchase I made from another large manufacturer…PRS is my go to now being a broke working musician!!

[matthewdavis]

My first thought when I saw the Theodore was “oh lord some flippers are gonna get stuck with these”

[westmus]

In any kind of serial production you need to remove the "difficulty" in doing it. It's how you get both efficiency and a controlled quality. You break the production into small jobs and invent specialised tools. This also means it will be fairly easy to lean anyone to do these jobs at a satisfying level.

[rmzzz]

ROI on Epiphone's aren't bad. Keeping in mind the depreciated price has to realistically be off US street price, not MSRP and not even MAP... So that Epiphone Sweetwater has listed for $799 (everyday sale price) could be had for a 15% discount or ~$680-$699 new. If you can get $599 for it used, you're loosing about 16%, assuming you were savy enough to not pay full new price... Gibson Les Paul standard sells new for $2699. Same story on the discount... knock of about 15% and your NEW pric is down to about $2299. Comparing same model standard, I use 4-5 year old models going for $1999. So you're loosing about 15%, again if you just did a little negotiating. The headroom is there for the taking. You get some collectible models on the Gibson side that do shoot up, but they are the outliers to the standard series that really don't hold value much more than Epiphones. The one thing that helps Gibson's is that Gibson has a history of steep price increases and they increase more often with USA made Gibson product. When the new prices go up, the used prices tend to follow.