Dipped In Tone

This time on Dipped In Tone, Rhett and Zach chat with Los Angeles-based trio troubadour Molly Miller, known for her work with her own Moller Miller Trio and pop star Jason Mraz. Miller’s virtuosic playing, chameleon-like genre flexibility, and uncommonly deep knowledge of the guitar and music theory—courtesy of her nine years spent at USC attaining her doctorate—have made her a sought-after of jack of all trades in the guitar community.

As you might guess from the name of her band, Miller’s home turf is trio playing, and her latest record, The Ballad of Hotspur, is a tumbleweed Western rendition of the power and imagination of the sparse band configuration. Miller explains how she configures her guitar tones with her arrangements, why recording live off the floor works best for her threesome, and how to write instrumentals that don’t drag.

Unlike many musicians who like to live on a dangerously flexible schedule, Miller loves structure, usually rising early to fit a regimented schedule. But do things like routine and an academic’s knowledge of theory take some of the magic out of music? Miller has good insight for how to strike a balance between intuition and musical book-smarts. Later in the episode, stay tuned to learn how the algorithm might be changing how we learn guitar, and the eternal importance of jamming with strangers.

Go check out Molly's website: https://www.mollymillermusic.com/

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Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/

First off, let’s be thankful for this episode of Dipped In Tone. Rhett survived a close brush with a tornado while on the road in Arkansas, and returns to the pod to analyze all things signature guitars with Zach, who continues his dogged campaign to own a ridiculous number of Tube Screamers. (They didn’t plan their near-matching shirts.)

The conversation-starter is the new Jason Isbell “Red Eye,” a $21,999 collector’s version of the 1959 Gibson Les Paul that famously belonged to Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd. When King passed away in 2018, the story goes that Isbell wanted the guitar, but couldn’t afford it. Zach and Rhett explain how he accrued the capital to snag the axe, and the details behind the new artist edition.

But who gets signature guitars, anyway? Some iconic players, like John Frusciante—so easily identified with his Strats—still don’t have their own model. Is he being snubbed, or choosing to keep his name off a mass-produced guitar? Maybe some guitarists feel signatures are too corporate—which could also explain why Jack White has, so far, not lent his name to a model. (Though pedals are a different story.) And what about massively popular YouTube guitar stars and influencers—have they earned the right to be in the running for a signature 6-string?

Later, Zach and Rhett dig into the economics of siggys—how much do their namesakes actually earn from the sale of their personal brand?—and debate Slash’s bombshell move from Marshall to Magnatone.

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Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull  https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals  https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/

Rhett and Zach are back with special guest Bridget Kearney, who plays upright bass in the experimental Brooklyn-based indie-folk-soul band Lake Street Dive. The band, formed 20 years ago in Boston, was looking for ways to keep their songwriting fresh when their mutual love of Dungeons and Dragons presented a unique challenge: Could they write a song using a D20 die, with different elements of the tune assigned to the sides? You have to hear Kearney explain it to believe it. The exercise was a helpful kickstart: “My creative self is lazy, and so I need to sort of get them out of bed,” laughs Kearney.

Kearney shares her thoughts on the intersections of theory and melody in a bassist’s skillset, with an affectionate plug for Paul McCartney’s simple, effective melodic constructions. But playing upright bass is no walk in the park. Kearney details her top tour horror stories brought on by the sizeable instrument, including a time in Shanghai that ended with a shattered windshield, and a brutal stairway fall that ended with stitches in her head. Does the new era of fold-up uprights solve the danger? Somewhat, as Kearney explains.

It wasn’t til later that Kearney gave the electric bass its fair shake, and she preaches the importance of having a “playground” of sorts on which to learn and hone your skills on a new instrument, while keeping things fun. Tune in to learn how, for Kearney, that meant listening to and learning Irish fiddle tunes on the bass.

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Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull  https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals  https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/

This week’s episode is a state of the union on brick-and-mortar guitar retail stores. With news of the family-owned chain Sam Ash shutting down its operations and filing for bankruptcy, and Guitar Center CEO Gabe Dalporto’s recent comments indicating a giant shift for the company, it’s a touchy time for IRL guitar sales.

Rhett and Zach agree that all physical retailers aren’t going to disappear any time soon, but guitar sellers are going to have to get competitive if they want to outlive the likes of Sam Ash. Maybe some need to build up their social media marketing and create innovative branding, while others could go all in on a top-tier customer experience. Rhett borrows from his love of outdoor co-op retailer REI and wonders: Could Guitar Center have a house brand of guitars?

Plus, tune in to hear about the best and worst Guitar Center locations in the U.S. After listening, hop in the comments to share your thoughts on how your favorite guitar store can avoid the Sam Ash death knell.

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Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull  https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals  https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/

Rhett and Zach end almost every episode of Dipped In Tone with a rig dip—where they discuss and rate a guitar, amp, and pedal setup submitted by a listener—but this time, they’re assembling and critiquing dream rigs of their own, on a budget.

They each get to brainstorm a $1000 rig followed by a $10,000 rig, using toys and prices found on Reverb. When you’ve only got 10 Benjamins to spend, what pieces of kit should you prioritize? Rhett throws most of his budget behind his guitar and amp head, with just a few bucks left for a bargain-bin cab and a couple cheap pedals, but Zach spreads his grand out fairly evenly, opting for affordable offerings from Epiphone and Vox for his base tone.

Things get spicy in the upper range. Rhett takes Zach to task over prioritizing a $1300 vintage TS-style pedal, but they both opt for high-dollar amps from the same manufacturer for their ten-grand stage setup.Who created the better rig at each price point? Which components did they fumble? And what would you do with each budget? Let us know in the comments.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zdRN06SPxVQ

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Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/dippedintone

Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull  https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals  https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/

On this episode of Dipped in Tone, Rhett and Zack are joined by Wales-born guitarist Chris Buck. Buck is gearing up for a string of US tour dates with his fast-rising rock band Cardinal Black, including a date at Nashville’s Basement East after the original venue sold-out within a few hours.

Buck starts off digging into the details of his custom Yamaha Revstar and why he chose the versatile guitar over better-known offerings from legacy brands. Buck’s rise has been nearly meteoric: He started off posting videos on Facebook and Instagram before his wife suggested he give YouTube a try. His channel now counts 226,000 subscribers, thanks to his popular Friday Fretworks videos. But as Buck explains, his content is a tool to help fund his original music—a very successful tool.

Still, it’s not all sunshine. Buck details how he and his band navigate the brutal economics of touring, including some horror stories of how they ended up losing money on merch sales. Later, we learn how Buck built his signature playing style—mostly by ear and by accident. “I don’t think anyone has ever ended up sounding like themselves through sitting down and going ‘Right, im gonna try to sound unique,’” he says. “It just happens over time.”

He’s gone from YouTube to the Royal Albert Hall, but Buck reveals a quiet concern that he’s peaked too early. What do Rhett and Zach make of that fear? Tune in.

Get 10% off with promo code DIPPED at http://chasebliss.com

Go see Chris on tour: http://thecardinalblack.com

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Support us on Patreon for access to our discord server and other perks! https://www.patreon.com/dippedintone

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Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/

This time on Dipped In Tone, Rhett and Zach are digging into today’s best nitty-gritty gear news. Tired of trawling Reddit and forums to figure out what’s going on? Tune in for some authoritative takes from your two favorite tone fiends.

First up are the new Line 6 modeling offerings, including the compact, affordable stompbox that’s making waves across the industry. How does it compare to its big brother, the Helix? Is there any hope for a bean-shaped POD revival? Time will tell…

Our hosts touch on the craze around vintage PAF pickups (which was fetching $2500 for a pair), and compare the Gibson and Fender economy lines: Who makes the better entry-level instrument, and are the budget models starting to lap their more expensive counterparts?

Later, the duo runs down the best-in-class Ed Sheeran signature looper before moving on to the landscape of legacy brands. Is Marshall still relevant outside of their barbershop-ready Bluetooth speakers? How is Hiwatt beating them in the race to digital? And what will happen to our favorite gear companies when they’re bought up by investment portfolios?

Stick around for all this and more, plus an update on Zach’s “Gotta Catch ’Em All” Tubescreamer hunt.

Get 10% off with promo code DIPPED at http://chasebliss.com

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MERCH: https://teespring.com/stores/dipped-in-tone

Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/dippedintone

Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull  https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals  https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/

Rhett and Zach are joined on this episode of Dipped In Tone by soft-spoken jazz guitar master Julian Lage. After Zach shares some last-minute production headaches with Mythos’ new Herculean Deluxe, Lage sits in for fascinating, spirited dive into how he thinks about tone, composition, and his new record, Speak To Me.

The gang unpacks just about every aspect of Lage’s playing and sound. They touch on Lage’s relationships with his amps and dynamics (“I have to get overstimulated by an amplifier,” says Lage) and get the details on his Collings signature model—plus, of course, what ‘good’ or ‘bad’ guitar sounds mean. “No sound is empirically good or bad,” says Lage. “It’s just how it fits into the narrative.”

Did you know that Lage gets to know his guitars by doing direct into his DAW, and that effects pedals kinda terrify him? He doesn’t like transcribing, either—he’s got a unique take on studying Robben Ford solos. Listen in to find out why, and hear about the best guitar lesson his father ever taught him.

Head to http://stewmac.com/dippedintone for 10% off your order!

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MERCH: https://teespring.com/stores/dipped-in-tone

Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/dippedintone

Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull  https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals  https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/

Our battle-weary hosts have returned from the scorched trenches and badge-strewn wastelands in Anaheim, California, and they’re ready to recount what they saw. Welcome to the NAMM 2024 airing of the grievances.

Zach and Rhett are coming at this from two different angles: Zach as a vendor with Mythos Pedals, and Rhett as an attendee and noted YouTuber-about-town. This year marked Zach’s first on the vendor side, an experience he calls “trial by fire on the show floor.” It ain’t cheap to showcase at NAMM, and Zack has some ideas for how to give participants more bang for their buck. The worst feeling in the world, after all, is dropping a mountain of cash to travel to the show, only to stand alone at your booth for four days. (By the way, three days might be a better fit.)

Rhett and Zach share their horror stories—from pushy salesmen in suits to awkward physical confrontations—and forecast some possible solutions before they turn to the auction of a Mark Knopfler guitar for an insane sum. Why are vintage guitar prices shooting up, and how are scalpers screwing up the gear market? Tune in for the juice.

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MERCH: https://teespring.com/stores/dipped-in-tone

Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/dippedintone

Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull  https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals  https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/

Rhett and Zach kick off the new year with renewed commitment to an old habit: making a daily to-do list, or as Rhett calls it, “the shit list.” The guys debate the finer points of which stationary makes the best to-do list backdrop before they’re joined by Tom Murphy, the preeminent craftsman of guitar-aging and namesake of Gibson’s high-end Murphy Lab.

Murphy, who has been with Gibson for 25 years, takes Rhett and Zach back to the starting line, when he and his friends would buy, trade, mod, poke, and prod any guitars they could get their hands on—Murphy quips that his entire career is in part penance for an early botched attempt at refinishing a ’68 Les Paul. Murphy eventually found his niche in aging: “Who else is gonna take a razor blade and make a bunch of lines on a guitar they just refinished?”

Along the way, Murphy digs into the labor and pricing considerations with heavily aged instruments, including when a third-party guitar sale made him realize he had to raise his rates. His aging and restoration work involves balancing considerations of aesthetic, tone, and playability all at once, which he likens to “the spinning plates guy at the circus.” “Which one can you afford to let fall?” Murphy says. The magic of his work, he explains, is in accentuating the natural properties of the guitars: “Our finish doesn’t make them sound better, it lets them sound better.”

Murphy’s story involves soaring highs, like catching ZZ Top in a tiny club in Houston in the early ’70s, watching Billy Gibbons thrash the very guitar model he would later spend his days working on. But stick around to hear about the dramatic lows, too, like when he witnessed a guitar’s finish shatter before his eyes after a freezing, snowed-in night in Boulder, Colorado.

Murphy doesn’t have plans to retire at the moment, but he has one caveat: “I just don’t wanna be found slumped over a guitar,” he chuckles.

Big thanks to StewMac for sponsoring this episode. Head to http://stewmac.com/dippedintone to get 10% off!

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Support us on Patreon for access to our discord server and other perks! https://www.patreon.com/dippedintone

MERCH: https://teespring.com/stores/dipped-in-tone

Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/dippedintone

Dipped in Tone is:

Rhett Shull  https://www.rhettshull.com/

Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals  https://mythospedals.com

Premier Guitar https://www.premierguitar.com/