Episode Transcript
Cuyler 0:20
Mock, the podcast. All right. Welcome back, everybody, Episode 64. I am joined by Mr. C- Cuyler. Welcome.
Thank you.
Rob Broadfoot 0:31
This is our first podcast that we’ve done together.
Cuyler 0:33
Nah, we did we did one on, um-.
Rob Broadfoot 0:35
Did we do another one?
Cuyler 0:36
Here? We did. Now I’m trying to remember what it was.
Rob Broadfoot 0:38
It was clearly a memorable one for us both.
Cuyler 0:41
It was a design one, I believe.
Rob Broadfoot 0:43
Well, here we are again. We thought it might be interesting to talk about a hobby that Mr. C and I both share. That is, a love of music and, specifically, playing the guitar.
Cuyler 0:56
Yes.
Rob Broadfoot 0:56
Maybe a guitar-focused conversation today. We had recently, I’m going to start by just a quick anecdote. For me, this kind of got me back into playing guitar, I think a little bit more, because I kind of go through…
Cuyler 1:13
I do, too.
Rob Broadfoot 1:13
I drop in and drop out. You know what I mean, depending on what’s going on.
Cuyler 1:17
It’s because we’re not touring musicians.
Rob Broadfoot 1:20
That’s right. We spend all our time here designing for wonderful clients.
Cuyler 1:24
That’s right.
Rob Broadfoot 1:27
I’ve played guitar for… I think I picked it up in probably eighth grade, I think, What about you?
Cuyler 1:34
My dad got me a guitar when I was eight.
Rob Broadfoot 1:39
Okay.
Cuyler 1:39
I started taking lessons.
Rob Broadfoot 1:40
You started taking lessons pretty early.
Cuyler 1:41
Yeah. Pretty early.
Rob Broadfoot 1:42
Okay. We’ll get back to that in a minute. But a quick, fun anecdote. So we have a client, that we work with, and we’ve worked with for years, who shall remain nameless for purposes of the story. But I guess, was it about a year ago?
Cuyler 1:59
I want to say it was last summer.
Rob Broadfoot 2:02
Yeah, that feels right. It feels right.
Cuyler 2:05
The weather was warm.
Rob Broadfoot 2:05
Because the weather was warm. I remember being warm. So a client reached out to me and said, “Hey, I know that you play guitar. You have an interest in guitars. My father passed away.” I think, six months prior. She let me know that “he left me this guitar collection.”
Cuyler 2:29
Right.
Rob Broadfoot 2:30
“I don’t really know anything about guitars. I don’t really know what to do with it. I’m wondering if you’d be interested in taking a look and maybe helping me out?” Figuring out what to do with it. Said sure. Great. Sounds great. Take a look. So the first thing that came over was a dropbox link that I got. I think there were probably images- I think there were probably 20 in that in that first…
Cuyler 2:56
Yeah, something like that.
Rob Broadfoot 2:57
I think it was like 20. I got the link and I was like, Whoa, there’s some really good stuff in here.
Cuyler 3:02
Yeah, she took pictures of some of the more name…
Rob Broadfoot 3:05
Yeah, the Gibson and the Fenders. There was some really nice stuff there. It was a nice range of like, Oh, here’s a nice 60s… Strat was in there.
Cuyler 3:18
There were some Strats and Teles.
Rob Broadfoot 3:20
Les Pauls.
Cuyler 3:21
I think there was a Les Paul and a couple SG’s. A couple of the SGS were the old ones.
Rob Broadfoot 3:25
Yeah, a couple of the Real SGs. So a lot of Gibson’s and Fendors. Some really cool stuff. I was like, wow, This is amazing. Cuyler used to work at Guitar Center.
Cuyler 3:36
Yeah, for a couple of years.
Rob Broadfoot 3:39
For a couple of years there. So I was like, Dude, you got to see this, This is kind of amazing. So we immediately started to look through that and got back in touch with her. She was like, Oh, well, that’s kind of only the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more. Do you want to come out and take a look? We said, yeah, sure.
Cuyler 3:55
We started taking field trips.
Rob Broadfoot 3:58
Yeah. Then we started a series of field trips out to her father’s house. Lo and behold, you walked downstairs, and it was- I’ve never seen anything like it.
Cuyler 4:11
Nor have I.
Rob Broadfoot 4:11
I think at the end of the day, I think once we catalogued everything and helped her catalog everything. I think there were 108 guitars.
Cuyler 4:21
I want to say it was like 115.
Rob Broadfoot 4:24
It was over 100, over 100 guitars. And not only guitars, but there was a full drum kit in there. There were bongos in there, there were keyboards in there. There were amps everywhere. Pedals everywhere.
Cuyler 4:42
In multiple rooms.
Rob Broadfoot 4:43
In multiple rooms, and then in the very back room… I remember we walked into the front room and it was like, Oh my gosh!
Cuyler 4:51
Yeah, that was the jam room.
Rob Broadfoot 4:53
That was the jam room. Walls lined with guitars, racks full of guitars and she was like, come back in the back room. Then you walked in the backroom. That’s where the good stuff was.
Cuyler 5:02
Most of that was all in cases, which was good.
Rob Broadfoot 5:04
Which is nice. Yeah.
Cuyler 5:05
Because the ones that weren’t, weren’t in as good of condition.
Rob Broadfoot 5:09
It kind of ran the gamut. This collection of $200-$300 guitars, all the way up to some of those older Gibson’s there. So, it was pretty amazing. I mean, it was like walking into Disney World or something, for me.
Cuyler 5:26
A dusty Dinseyworld.
Rob Broadfoot 5:27
A dusty Disneyworld. It was pretty incredible. So, long story short, fast forward, we helped her, we brokered an intro to a guitar shop here in town. Not Guitar Center, but a locally owned shop that’s been around forever. I think she sold a bunch on consignment and we ended up buying a bunch of guitars. We’ve got a bunch of them in our office now. I think there’s five on the wall.
Cuyler 5:51
Including a double neck that will never be tuned.
Rob Broadfoot 5:53
A Bc Rich. Is it a warlock? Or is it a bich?
Cuyler 5:57
It’s a bitch.
Rob Broadfoot 5:58
It’s a BC Rich Bitch.
Cuyler 6:00
Double neck.
Rob Broadfoot 6:01
Double neck.
Cuyler 6:02
12 string and-
Rob Broadfoot 6:03
Twelve string and six string. Yeah, for those of you who know, then you know. If you don’t, go look it up. It is the most metal looking, 80s metal weird guitar, ever. But anyway, so we all ended up and Don ended up with a cool bass out of the deal. And the drum kit.
Cuyler 6:20
And the drum kit for Kirby.
Rob Broadfoot 6:21
That’s right. And you ended up with?
Cuyler 6:24
a Fender Strat, fiesta red.
Rob Broadfoot 6:26
You got a nice strat out of the deal.
Cuyler 6:28
Yeah, that was in really good condition. I got a case for it.
Rob Broadfoot 6:30
I got a great Les Paul out of the deal. I got a Flying V out of the deal.
Cuyler 6:31
The Les Paul standard, though. That’s really a beaut.
Rob Broadfoot 6:37
Yeah. It’s super, super nice. So anyway, that sparked, for me, I’ll call it a renaissance.
Cuyler 6:44
Yes.
Rob Broadfoot 6:45
A renaissance. But I kind of got back into playing and then I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole and bought some new amps and some things like that. It’s been super fun to pick that up again. Alright, so back to your guitar experience. Do you remember your first guitars? What were you into?
Cuyler 7:02
So the first guitar I ever got, it was a Christmas present. My dad got me. Or maybe it was Santa, I’m not sure. It was a three-quarter sized, so a junior-sized Applause which is the lower tier, kind of the Epiphone version of Innovation. So it had the Lydecker, lidoc-. I can’t remember what the name of the material is. It’s basically truck bed on the back of those guitars.
Rob Broadfoot 7:33
Did have the rounded back like the Innovations do?
Cuyler 7:35
Yeah, it was a little cutaway. Very playable.
Rob Broadfoot 7:40
Not electric though. Not acoustic-electric.
Cuyler 7:41
No, he wanted me to learn on acoustic first.
Rob Broadfoot 7:44
Yeah, because Innovation’s always had the acoustic electrics.
Cuyler 7:47
This was ’98. So it wasn’t as common to see the acoustic electrics at that point.
Rob Broadfoot 7:52
Okay, Okay.
Cuyler 7:54
Then my first electric was an Epiphone. They called it at the time the LP 100 They still make it, it’s a less quality, it’s just black.
Rob Broadfoot 8:04
Okay. Do you still have it?
Cuyler 8:05
No. I have almost none of the guitars that I used to. They’ve all been sold for one thing or another either to trade up, or like in college just for-
Rob Broadfoot 8:14
You pawned them off? (both laughing) Well, my first guitar was a- I was into the rock music and the metals. So my first guitar was a cherry red Ivanis EX 360.
Cuyler 8:32
Okay, yeah, the EX double cut.
Rob Broadfoot 8:34
Yep. Yeah, super pointy.
Cuyler 8:36
Not a Strat body but a pointy version.
Rob Broadfoot 8:39
A pointy version of an evolved Strat body. Right. That’s exactly right.
Cuyler 8:43
Did have the humbucker single-coil humbucker?
Rob Broadfoot 8:45
It had a Floyd Rose tremolo on it. I think that’s right.
Cuyler 8:50
An HSH I guess is what they’re called it.
Rob Broadfoot 8:52
Yeah, I think that’s right.
Cuyler 8:53
That’s pretty common for the EXs.
Rob Broadfoot 8:56
I don’t have it anymore. I don’t know what happened to it. I think I smashed it.
Cuyler 9:01
Was it transparent cherry red or was it like a metallic shiny?
Rob Broadfoot 9:06
It was like a shiny. It was like a shiny. That was my first guitar. Then when I was in high school, my father- I can’t remember if it was my birthday or if it was Christmas present- but my parents bought me a Fender Stratocaster plus.
Cuyler 9:22
Is that the one you still have?
Rob Broadfoot 9:24
It’s the one that I still have. Just had it tuned up recently. I’ve still got that thing and still play that.
Cuyler 9:32
Nice. I didn’t realize you’ve had it that long.
Rob Broadfoot 9:34
Well, I bought it new.
Cuyler 9:35
Wow.
Rob Broadfoot 9:36
Bought it brand new. And I actually have, in my office, the print ad. The original print ad, that’s an ’89 for that Plus model. It’s a blue to black sunburst kinda.
Cuyler 9:49
Yeah, they tried out a couple of new tricks on that guitar. And the pickups are really nice.
Rob Broadfoot 9:57
Lace sensor pickups on it. Locking tuners. It’s a pretty sweet ride.
Cuyler 10:03
Yeah, it’s pretty nice.
Rob Broadfoot 10:04
All right, so what do you have now? What’s in your collection now?
Cuyler 10:07
So now I’ve got that strat.
Rob Broadfoot 10:11
Okay.
Cuyler 10:12
I’ve got a Gibson Les Paul, traditional 2013. Now they’re calling that the Gibson, Les Paul, standard 50s. Okay, so they switch from the traditional and standard to there being two types of standards. I think the traditional start in 2010. So it’s one of the earlier models. Let’s see, what else do I have? I have a bunch of parts for Strats. I have a Strat that I have yet to complete.
Rob Broadfoot 10:40
You’ve been building them over the years.
Cuyler 10:43
Yeah. Because, you know, Strats are super easy to put together yourself.
Rob Broadfoot 10:47
Yeah, I’ve never built a guitar.
Cuyler 10:50
For any of you out there that want to there’s a great website called warmoth.com. W A R M O T H.
Rob Broadfoot 10:57
What’s that? Like? Just a how to-?
Just parts. Y
Oh, parts.
Cuyler 10:59
Yeah, you can get really nice custom stuff. You can fill out exactly what you want. They’ll build it for you. Or they have a lot of stuff in stock. They have more for Strat bodies, but they have everything from Strat to crazy like Randy Rhoads bodies.
Rob Broadfoot 11:16
Speaking of Randy Rhoads… so part of what I got out of that collection that we were talking about, was that Flying V, that Gibson Flying V. I always think of Randy Rhoads when I think of Flying Vs. It is a an interesting guitar to play.
Cuyler 11:32
It’s not one you sit down with.
Rob Broadfoot 11:33
It’s not a sit down. Yeah. If you sit down, you got almost got to hold it up right. It’s the only way.
Cuyler 11:38
You kind of straddle it or you let it straddle you.
Rob Broadfoot 11:41
It sits on your lap, and it straddles your lap. An interesting guitar to play.
Cuyler 11:47
Don got a Flying V as well. Also a Gibson.
Rob Broadfoot 11:50
Did he get a Flying V as well?
Cuyler 11:50
Yeah, remember, he got that like warm cherry. It’s like a flat finish or matte finish.
Rob Broadfoot 11:55
Right. Yeah, we all made out like bandits on that one.
Cuyler 11:57
Yeah, we did.
Rob Broadfoot 11:58
And then you turned me on to Orange amplifiers.
Cuyler 12:01
Yeah, yeah. Well, then you’ve picked up that Rocker Verb 15.
Rob Broadfoot 12:05
Right. It is awesome.
Cuyler 12:06
Yeah. Great amp.
Rob Broadfoot 12:07
You talk about, just from, forget the sound, forget the quality and all that stuff, which is top notch of that. But just the brand in and of itself, from a design aesthetic, if we want to round the corner a little bit, is amazing.
Cuyler 12:20
Yeah, they have one of the great, iconic look, easily identifiable. The only amp company that looks like that, and they back it up with you know, great vintage tone. I would argue, it’s probably the best amp company in terms of if, you’re a purist. You know, a lot of other companies, with their solid state amps have gone to digital effects and all kinds of different things. Orange has always kept it really simple. I think that, if you’re someone who doesn’t really like loading up tons of digital effects within the amp, and really want to use all that outboard, Orange is the way to go for sure.
Rob Broadfoot 13:02
I tend to agree and I’ve got both I’ve got a Mustang Fender, Mustang amp, that’s got preset you could ever… I mean, I think it came loaded with 100 and something presets.
Cuyler 13:12
Those can be really convenient and fun to play around with.
Rob Broadfoot 13:17
Yeah, sure. If you want to Just jump back and forth to random sounds and whatever else, it’s fun to jam with. But I agree with you. Purists. Because then you get into like, “all right now we’re going to build off the board.”
Cuyler 13:24
Yeah. Then you can always add what you want. Yeah. You know, if it’s going through good speakers with good tubes, you can get that true sound.
Rob Broadfoot 13:33
Alright. Give me an anecdote about working at Guitar Center. It doesn’t even have to be a specific story. But the good, the bad, the ugly.
Cuyler 13:43
I’ll give you a story.
Rob Broadfoot 13:44
Alright, give me one.
Cuyler 13:45
Alright, so oddly enough, another guy who was like the person whose basement we were talking about. He started to kind of come in and buy a bunch of different cheaper things. If it was on the discount rack, he would be interested in it. He was building out a garage, studios/jam room jam room for his son and everything. It was Javy Lopez of the Atlanta Braves.
Rob Broadfoot 14:12
What? Of the Braves!
Cuyler 14:12
He used to come in all the time. We had the hardest time talking him into a Gibson, Les Paul. He kept wanting the Epiphones and we were like, it’s really nothing against Epiphone, but compared to the Gibson it’s more of a toy.
And you know he’s making money. Yeah, but you know he has money.
Baseball players didn’t make what they make now but he’s doing fine, right?
Rob Broadfoot 14:37
He can buy the Les Paul.
Cuyler 14:39
We finally talked him into getting a Gibson Les Paul Studio, which if you know is like the cheapest-
Rob Broadfoot 14:44
It’s the low, it’s the entry level.
Cuyler 14:47
It’s the body spinner. There’s way less decorative elements to it. But it was weird. He was turned out to be a really nice guy and we could get some Brave talks in there every now and again.
Rob Broadfoot 15:00
Nice.
Cuyler 15:00
Big dude.
Rob Broadfoot 15:01
Big Dude.
Cuyler 15:01
Big deal. But yeah, he was all about finding guitar deals. If there was a guitar that had like a little nick in it, and we had taken like 200 bucks off, he would buy it.
Rob Broadfoot 15:10
That’s so interesting.
Cuyler 15:10
He would walk out like three guitars, him and his sons all the time.
Rob Broadfoot 15:13
That’s great. Well, it’s a super fun hobby. What I love about it, too, I love the- I mean, everybody loves high end guitars, that plays guitars- but I love owning a Les Paul. Having a Les Paul, because you know it’s going to sustain for days. You’re going to hold on to it for decades, for forever.
Cuyler 15:34
I never want to get rid of my Les Paul now. I’ve sold enough guitars ,in my time. Now, at a different point in my life. I’m not going to… because at pawn shops, I mean-
Rob Broadfoot 15:44
Alright, I’m going to ask you a question.
Cuyler 15:45
What?
Rob Broadfoot 15:46
For the rest of your life, you can own one guitar, one of two guitars. It’s either going to be a Fender Strat or a Gibson Les Paul. What are you picking?
Cuyler 15:58
It’s tough.
Rob Broadfoot 15:59
I need an answer.
Cuyler 15:59
I I guess I would go with the Les Paul. I prefer playing my Les Paul.
Rob Broadfoot 16:08
I would tend to agree with you.
Cuyler 16:10
But it’s tough.
Rob Broadfoot 16:11
Nothing against Fender.
Cuyler 16:12
It’s a Sophie’s Choice for guitars.
Rob Broadfoot 16:15
Nothing against Fender. It’s an amazing guitar. But if I had to pick one, I think I would go with the Les Paul. I don’t know if that’s because it’s newer to me. So it’s like a new girlfriend, or something like that?
Cuyler 16:25
I find that a little bit smoother to play.
Rob Broadfoot 16:27
Yeah.
Cuyler 16:29
The scale is a little bit shorter. It’s Just a little bit easier to play, I guess.
Rob Broadfoot 16:35
It’s more solid, too. It’s heavier. So to me, it sits a little bit heavier.
Cuyler 16:40
It’s a little bit heavier. It’s got a fuller tone, obviously, with the humbuckers. That said, if you’re having one guitar for the rest of your life and the neck on that, Gibson breaks, you gotta replace versus switching out parts or switching out pickups.
Rob Broadfoot 16:55
Yeah. All right. Well, cool. I think that does it for today. Interesting talk. I know that we could probably sit here for another three hours, bore the audience with our guitar talk. All right, very good. Thanks, everybody for tuning in. Of course, check us out online at mocktheagency.com Or on the socials @mocktheagency. Maybe on the socials, we’ll post a few pictures of our guitars and stuff.
Cuyler 17:18
Yeah, we can do that.
Rob Broadfoot 17:19
In case you want to check them out. So anyway, reach out and we’ll talk to you next time.
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