Garza Podcast - 4 - FENDER CUSTOMSHOP | Carlos Lopez, Javier Cuba, & Rob Knowles

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

They make them, Garza breaks them. The men behind the iconic guitar company Fender discuss how they made Garza's first Fender 7 string guitar happen. The connection and history they have to this brand has come full circle. SPONSORS: Click this link to purchase from Sweetwater & help support the podcast: imp.i114863.net/rnrmVB  

Action. There we go. Action. All right. And we're, and we're live a F. And we're live. I got my good friends.

A good friend told me that he listened to my recent episodes and I need to start doing intros. So Carlos, thank you. So this is going to be my non-slick. All right. We all need an intro. So. Do we intro music with the intro? Sure.

All right, Rob, you want to go first, man? What, with the, introduce yourself. to the world. Like that? Who is Rob? What does he do? Who are you really, Rob? Why should we care about you?

Rob Knowles. Build guitars for FMIC. I've been all around the block, though. Like, I've built all of the brands. Currently, I'm building the Gretsch guitars, the Gresh Custom Shop guitars. Awesome build. Almost like building a battleship in a Coke bottle sometimes. Yeah.

I could see that, especially with the wiring. Totally. Yeah, yeah. When you get in there. it's fun and what and what's your favorite beer the drunken beer kind okay perfect the one with alcohol hobby my name is

habier cuba I work at Fender I walk around with a clipboard to pretend I know what I'm doing production supervisor I build sometimes but mostly just try to you know make sure I stay out of the way of the people

make sure they do what they're supposed to do they do and I just stay out of the way. That's what a good leader does. You pretend to lead a pretty good team. I pretend a lot of things. That's what we're all doing. I was just thinking about that yesterday. I'm just pretending to play guitar, dude.

And hopefully people don't find out that I'm just pretending. Dude, that's like every time I play guitar. I'm like... I was talking with Carl's about it, how it's like this imposterous syndrome. You know, it's just like a very common thing that creatives have, but no, that's, it's, it's not, it's not really a bad thing as long as you're, you know, conscious of it. Yeah. You know, but do a hobby, I've seen you, like, really treat

the people in, in that room and really make it flow. It's fucking badass, man. It's cool. Thanks. I've seen it. I seen it at, at 5.30 a.m. So, so, so, so, so, yeah, with ban dulce. Yeah, dude. That's good. Do we have champorello that day? Or we got coffee. We got coffee. We had that like special good, good, like coffee that was in Ramon's office. Yeah, that was good. Shout out Ramon, special coffee in your office. Thank you for the coffee. You showed up a five, three, you're half hour late.

Oh, perfect. Yeah. You would have got ridden up, but it's all right, dude. Oh, thank you. I was there at 515, so fuck off. There's no fashion. He did show up with, like, you brought. At least he showed up, right?

Yeah. He didn't even show up. He didn't even show up. He's a matcha builder. He shows up halfway through the day. All right. So you're, I woke up to seven. I was like.

No, not today I'll be there on Monday All right So Carlos Carlos Carlos Lopez I build guitars at Fender I'm gonna put this away

I'll be right back y'all I don't know what else to say I was playing this No it's okay I'll be back The thing about everyone that That works at Fender Everyone is overly humble And that's what

That's what really draws me To that building man It's cool So Carlos is the master's builder at Fender and he made that seven string with with your bare hands. It did.

Bare hands. Bare hands. You make... My son helped me too. He did, yeah. Dorian put in the front markers with the hammer.

I believe I seen him using his teeth to chisel the headstock out though. I saw him gnawing on it one time. I don't know. I don't know if it was at the same. That might have been a different. No, I just heard about this today.

how Fender like still They used like Still someone like the old school Ways of building Yeah we have old tooling especially for all the metal shop stuff Yeah That's crazy Yeah a lot of those stamping machines have been there

Since Leo's day Yep really A lot of the drill presses as well Whoa Yeah that like that probably adds to like the It's what it's what keeps like the Mojo Mojo and that and that thing

The thing that you can't explain, right? Yeah. It's crazy. It's dope, dude, because those things look ancient. Like, when you see them, like, maybe you can provide pictures for the folk later, but they look ancient. They move anciently. They come down, they go, chukla-ch-lac-law.

And they scare the crap out of everybody. Dangerous. Yeah. Is that scary to work with? Like, man, it's this thing going to, like, kill me? like this big machine you know yeah things could go wrong let's just say that yeah yeah which probably asks you like you guys being even more so superware being being in that building right you have to you have to be right everything could either main you or kill you if you don't

have respect for the machines you know machines will not respect for you for you for sure yeah yeah yeah and being being around even like even as something as simple as like you know might sound boring but like a buffer. I get like whenever I'm in like the building I'm very aware where I'm at I'm literally scared like to like get close to like a buffer.

You know it's like because I don't know what the fuck that thing does man you know it can freaking take take off your hand. And we do have to add this too normally in the building because of COVID everything's going on. Oh sorry sorry about that. Full face mask at all times

full social distancing. But to be on the podcast today we all All got tested. We were all tested negative, and so we could actually be here face to face. I can see all your pre-faces. Yeah. Yeah, we showed up as non-detected, not detected, so that's a good sign, right?

I spit the specimen collector. Yeah, I spit on a thing, and then it told me I wasn't detected. I was like, I was there. I'm fucking sure I was there. I saw myself spitting, and I know I was detected. I missed my spit. I was spitting in it, and I missed. You dribbled on your pants.

I fucking dribbled on it. It was all bad Wow But that's why That's why we have Lisa there Yeah No no no

She's a badass Yeah If Lisa wasn't there We would have totally Like messed up Everything about that test Well I thought you had to Fucking like drop it in

I didn't realize Well you were aiming for it Yeah You've seen Big Daddy With the kids spits Yeah I was trying to What about it

Sorry this is the worst podcast up all the time but right anyway we're gonna move on but apparently those and I'm sweating like a friggin' mania because these lights you could probably grow marijuana with these lights well don't look behind the couches I was apparently I learned it's from from Lisa but apparently

those saliva tests are more accurate yeah they are right those are the real ones the PCR right that's the one that we took I don't know. So I didn't need to get stabbed in the face of the Q-tip for 90 times or whatever was. Wow. Could have been spitting and drooling in tubes this whole time? Yeah?

Yeah, well, it's good. I know. No. You would have missed, though. You would, you know. You already missed. Oh, you're trying to allow the experience. No, you would have missed the tube.

Like you did this last time. The first time. Like, if I had to. Give me a tube now. I'm an expert. An expert tube spitter. Spitting in the tube. Druler, whatever, inner.

You know what I mean? I'm an expert now. I got it down. Yeah, dude, you guys take, like, tests every week. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah. You get used to it.

I mean, I've never gotten no, like, moment. It's more like, who-hoo, you know, like tickles. But, yeah. That was my first spit tube test. I've been getting stabbed in the face of the foot tube. Yeah. Trying to, like, it feels like sometimes. they're poking at my eyeball with a Q-tip

from the inside. It does. I can totally sense that. How do you like it, Carlos? Will you either spit or stab? Does it make a difference to me? As long as it comes down negative, I'm fine. Or not detected.

Or not detected. They never found me, dude. It's cool. It gives you, like, this peace of mind, you know? It's cool. It does, really, because then, like, I feel like I could hug you and not, you know, kill you. you. Seriously. Yeah, and I know that. I'm a very like, you know, touchy-feely person.

Totally, yeah. We got, it's in, it's in our blood to hug, man, you know, and especially knowing that I'm around you guys, I, you know, hang around you guys pretty often. So, so me and C's, you're pretty, like, hardcore about, we get tested as often as, as we can, you know. Yeah. Luckily, and this is happening in real time, like, literally, I think it got announced this week. They're offering, like, free, uh, rapid testing to, you know, to, you know, yeah, don't know that's available to some cities and states. So they're doing free same day result testing. And that's pretty badass.

That is pretty bad ass. So I'm so used to just driving up and getting like like like like the Q-tip waiting, you know, two, three days. But now it's like I could go same day if I'm planning to go, you know, hang out, hang out with you guys or hang out or anywhere that I might be a little bit slightly worried. It's cool, cool to know that. And it's pretty crazy how it's all happening within a year. you know we have we have advanced testing and uh it's crazy it's cool but now now we could all well it was a necessity we had to figure this out you had to yeah this was unprecedented you had to do something like as a you know as a world we had to do something and that's why we had all

these advancements in short period of time yeah and and fender was very ahead of the game like getting on top of like the testing quick i remember it being quick all you guys are already testing like your own test wow that's like that's next level. It shows that they they just care and thankfully you know

for Fender being on top of that you know that's I keep forgetting but like but me and you Carl we're talking during like the pandemic

about really honing in on a semester string we keep forgetting that but it was made during like the pandemic it's true huh it's weird yeah we have

metal kind of yeah just the the whole idea of as the pandemic is happening and, you know, just working with Fender, like, you realize we have, you know, such a good team, you know, and good leaders that, you know, know, know, to, you know, to lead us in the right direction during, you know, a time of crisis and, you know, people are dying

everywhere and, you know, but I genuinely just feel safe and I feel like Fender, you know, Ed and all the guys there, like, have our back, you know what I mean? And so that's just another reason why I love working for Fender. You know, it's just, it's more than just a brand. It's a family, you know. And it's, and even more now because of the pandemic, you know, we've become closer, you know. And this is these guys, you know, and I feel like we gave a weak introduction to ourselves. But, you know, these guys, you know, we've all kind of grew up together.

in Fender and college basically yeah when so I started in 2006 and I think Rob and Javier were probably already working there and we worked on the production line and I was 05 05 06 or 4 I was 20 years old I remember coming into the you know to the the PL 10 the production line and you know you can't miss this guy man this guy's a giant and just uh all the guys there man and just we worked our way up you know Rob is working on the Gretch custom shop and you know this guy has been Jackson and Fender and that's another great thing about Fender has so many I'm going back to Jackson there you go and that's that's the word around the campfire

so and this so everybody has has come up together you know and Javier has worked on on a bunch of stuff that that people you know don't know that he's a part of and this guy is the the main guy that that that has brought up a custom custom shop and made it to what it is now it's just a it's just a great time for Fender and you know working with these guys so these guys they didn't you know I think we're all we don't like to talk about ourselves but you know these are some some of the best builders in this room right now and you know we're all friends you know we don't look at these at ourselves like that we're just we're friends and these guys are talented super

talented you know i really feel like with us it's like like i it was like our college like this is this is our fraternity yeah like we fucking grew up through that shit like three years that people are normally in college we're offended and like we now we're graduated in a way but we still remember the college years was just just the line years for one of us we're on the line so it's cool that way And I don't even, I don't know for you or you, I didn't, I really didn't have a clear direction where I wanted to go, but Fender gave us the, you know, the opportunity to grow wherever you want it to, if you wanted to, but. That's like my MO, apparently, whatever, because I did this and I did that. I did the other, you know, I'm like, took a long time, but I'm honing in on, like, what, like, I'm really passionate for.

It looks like I'm, but I really like the pointy guitars. Yeah, I know you do. I like straight lines. I like straight lines and high output, you know. Yeah. You know, fast-feeling guitars and all that good jazz, you know. I'm working on the big ones currently is awesome. And it was like something that I felt like it needed to be done anyway, you know,

just to expand the learning process, you know. There's a lot of guys that, like, like, Carlos just, he had, like, fucking laser focus. I'm going to be a custom shop master builder. I'm going to build fenders. I got a vision. I know what I want to like I he probably had the marauder in his head in PL 10 you know what I mean way back when you know what I mean he had Fender he had Fender ideas from the get-go you know what I mean and I was just like yeah I don't really have a vision of the kind of guitar that I'd want to like

you know put together just yet so I had to go and and learn what Jackson did and then I had to go and learn what Gretchen did and I also spent time and custom shots with Javier and we were doing, what were we doing? We were doing, we were electronics, yeah, yeah, yeah. And at the time, at the time, there was, like, the electronics department and custom shop was just kind of like almost a hodgepodge, you know, different things or whatever. We got it a little bit more organized, you know.

Whenever they would put us together, all of a sudden, like, everything was fucking done. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like, everybody else, well, not to chew their own horn, but we're about to it. So, like, everything took a long time, but we had this thing when we would compete. He's like, how many do you do today?

I'll do more on you. So we just go, and then every day we do more and more. And before we know, we would run out of work. Oh, yeah. Like, there's like a month worth of pick guard wired. Dund. We don't even need these. It's all right.

Can I do another one? I'll be robbed today. That was fun. Healthy competition, man. Not anything wrong with that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Healthy competition is huge. For the people listening and watching, what exactly is PL10? Product Line 10. So that is the larger. side of Fender USA. Okay.

So Custom Shop is more of a boutique version of PL10, but the USA line is still the gem of the Fender world, right? The Corona factory, the Corona factory is the only USA factory. So those guitars are dope too. Yeah. That heavy, heavy shit, good stuff. Yeah, it's crazy, Gideon, like, a Fender from. from the USA shop, which is, again, if you're watching or listening, that's right down the street.

Yeah. I was born and raised in the same area as the warehouse. But to get a guitar, whether it's a strat or a telly and to see Corona, California on there, it's so like, whoa, that's like here. It's home. It's home, man. It's crazy. Yeah, and on the scene on all the vendors. And now even like at the amps, like I got EVHs right here and seeing like, you know, Corona California.

I was like, what the heck? What is going on over there? All the neckplates used to say Carolina for a long time, did that? I remember. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think the stride I have away there I got a few years ago says Corona California on the back plate. With that pick guard.

I don't know if anybody saw it when I got it with that. They keep pushing it. Like, I swear. Like, what was that last one that came out really good? like, oh, the, the troublemaker. Oh, yeah, that's cool. Fucking badass guitar. Oh, yeah.

Like, you know, we missed it because, like, we're not over there. You know what I mean? We're on the other side of the factory doing our thing. But, like, they got the, what are they called the MPI team? Yeah. You know, they put together, yeah, new products. They put together a lot of new stuff. Dude, the ultra, I was really blown away.

Because me being a shredder and, like, a metal player. Yeah. The Ultra is very like, we're doing a plug. Are we plug in? So, Fender Ultra. That was actually a couple years ago. But what I liked about it is the way that was contoured

and the way they built it. They built it. It was very sleek. And I was like, damn, I want to make that. You know, that's a dope guitar. So, I mean, product line 10, bless out some stuff. Yeah.

Yeah, I like the access of the ultras. I was actually telling Carlos about it, how either on this one or on the next. one like just carving out like like it is on ultras yeah i want i want to do it to this one because i want to do the uh the bill carlson which he was like he had like a telly and then he carved he carved himself the uh yeah yeah the contours himself and it looked it was like crap but then he took that defender hey i you should guys do this for uh and then and the leo leo offender saw it then that's that's how yeah what's yel kicking out some knowledge over here it's crazy it doesn't

stop there. People don't know. They're like, he put in work in the factory. That's true. Yeah. We put him the second he got there. Inner sand. He was like... Oh, that's right. He was in there, man.

Way back when you like, when first started coming around and hanging out, he was in there and, uh... Hold on. Did you do the block sander? I don't know. I just had... Straight to the table. Oh, this is on the table. It's sanding away, dude.

The day Jimmy Pange came through. Yeah, Jimmy Page. Thank you for that. Geez. Yeah, that's called the, you know, like the special experience. If you guys are interested, let us throw you an inner sand, have you sand, maybe the artists walk by, maybe they don't. What are the odds? I know, seriously.

Of all the people. Yeah, of all the people in the world. I miss him because I was at a safety meeting. Oh, man. Did you see him? You see Jimmy Page? Yeah. He was right fucking behind me.

I was standing away. Then Joe's like, Jimmy Page is right behind you. I'm like, just standing a, I was a draft. I'm like, what did you do? You stop and like, you say hi? What? No, dude? Come in sight.

Jimmy, shout out, Bill, Joe. Big Joe. No, he was star-struck from what I hear, because I didn't see him. But from what I hear, that was his first time at a guitar factory, right? Wasn't that the going star? And that he had never seen that. For him, he was like, whoa. It was like, after all those years of playing guitar, never been to the factory.

That was his first factory. He's always on the go, man. Yeah. Rock star, baby. Rock star, baby. Yeah, even and, uh... Yeah. That was a weird experience.

Yeah. Were you there? I was in a meeting. I missed it, but all my guys saw it. I'm like, I got back and all the guys were all like shaking. Did you? Yeah. Oh.

That was... K.C. who else was there? That's weird. Was it? Yeah, because it's like, you know, you don't know him, but you feel like you do know him because, you know, it's music and you see him all over the place. It's a, he's a, he's a icon, you know?

And then you look at him's like, hey, dude, like, isn't it weird, right? It's like, hey Jimmy. Yeah, you go up to somebody like you know them and you call them by their first name. Oh, yeah. As long as you know, but you're like, hey, Jim, James, Jim. Jimby.

Mr. Page. Mr. Page. Dude, it is weird. Like, when you call them by their first name. But yeah, you've listened to their songs for like decades, literally. You're Robert Plant, aren't you? No.

Shut down. Oh, dad, you don't fuck it up. That's crazy. And it's also. And it's also kind of crazy that like, you know, I'll be at like, shout out to Land Post Pizza. I'll be at, I'll be at Lampost. It's like, again, thinking like, man, a lot of people come through this town and go and go to that building. For that building.

Yeah, literally. Yeah, this town gets a lot of crazy traffic. Like, you know, like, I keep hearing stories about the edge from you, you two. Just name them, name them, or they pretty much probably, like, like. You know, I did see him. What was the biggest freak out that you, like, you know what I mean? Like disturbance. In the force?

Like, somebody showed up. It was Jimmy Page, for sure. Nah, hands down, Mana. I thought you said it was Selena's a guitar player. Well, no. Yeah, Chris Perez. Chris Perez came through. And it was like, they, like, once they figured out who that was, it's like they had to.

Oh, no, you say for the entire factory? Oh, yeah. The entire factory is Minna. Everybody. No, yeah, they couldn't go into a single department without. Yeah, that was crazy. Fred was full-blown security mode. Yeah, yeah.

Oof. Yeah, yeah. The dog father, shout out. Yeah, for sure. Does this great job, whatever, because they were swarming, man. And then the same, yeah, and then he went Chris Perez and he was just the one guy. I think how many, there's like three of them at least that came through, two to three of them? I didn't get to see them.

I don't know because they were surrounded by people. They're surrounded by people. They're surrounded by people, literally. It was worse than Namscha. It was intense. Wow. Chris Perez came through as the same thing. We were like, he digs the Charvels, and we had a Warren D.

Martini model, the new Frenchie that year. And he was like, he was rocking out on it and this and this and that. And, you know, and once he turned his head and it was just, you know, one lady saw who it was. It was over from there. It's like no more playing around, you know. Wow. Yeah, escort them out. Yeah, who's the

Who's the craziest person that you've ever met there? Crazy, like crazy, crazy? No, no, I'm like, like, whoa. It sounds like start. Starstress. Yeah, sure. Starstruck. Yeah, there you go.

I found boy out pretty good on Chris Perez because I'm like, I'm a mean Selena fan, like, you know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I had to think about that. I've got to really think about that. This is a lot. Yeah, Chris was a shredder, dude. I like I like literally met all my heroes dude like seriously like when I was working

to Jackson fucking Jeff Loomis you know great guy Jay Hook came through and and uh Rob Cajiano Volby mad voblebee fuck fuck kicks fucking ass dude uh I believe they're uh wink wink do maybe like talking to Mark or something like that yeah like you know and and you got to come through and Mark Morton oh dude Lama God was a huge thing in my up-in-coming metal playing years or whatever and I wasn't working in Jackson at the time but this guy Scott Gannard was shout out Scotty the Ginnard and he got to do the Morton project or whatever and we delivered it to Mark Morton at the Grove we yeah back backstage and like and he had to hop off the bus we cracked the case open he just like like a a kid, you know what I mean? When you saw the seven string for the first time, you know what I mean? Same thing, and I got to see some of the guys that I was just like, oh man, you know what I mean?

Some of the guys that like, you know, way back when we even were aspiring to and seeing guitars put in their hands and stuff like that, it's a fucking blessing. Do you guys ever hear the John Mayer's story when he used to play for us before he defected? when him and Jessica Simpson came through or whatever and so he came through she had like a cuddling her bag and shit this ties back into the Manaa story so the Manaa shows up and every

there's a lot of Latina there's a lot of Mexicans that work there and they're like you know the biggest thing right so John Mayer shows up and he walks into Fender Custom Shop Final and one of our ladies is Angie he walks over to her and she's oh how's it going he's all

hey you know like what are you doing she's kind of like ignoring him and he goes do you know who I am she's all no And he goes, I'm John Mayer. She's all, I don't know who you are. So he was all fine, but he was nice about it. But I thought that was hilarious because it's like, though, who are you? Jessica Simpson with a little dog?

I did that to Steve Miller, man. Oh, you didn't? Yeah. Remember he told him? I told you. I think I heard of that. I did that to Steve Miller. I'm like, oh, my God, I'm a big fan, dude.

Dude, fucking space cowboy. You kidding me right now? So, like, and I was, I don't know how long I had just. started in Jackson and I'm over there from PL10 to Jackson. Okay. So I was like, you know, we got to prove yourself just hustling. You know,

I mean, crying in a way. So I'm laser focus and a whole bunch of suit and ties come up behind me. And, you know, like, hey, Robert. I want to introduce you to Steve Miller. I'm thinking this Steve Miller introducing me to another suit and tie, another, you know, another executive or something. I'm just like, nice to meet you, man. And he's like, and he's like in my shit, dude.

And he's like, what you, working on there, but I'm like, you know, this is a green soloist, you know, it's got to be built, so do you mind you mind? Oh, damn. A little space ace, you know? And there's, he's just like, walks off and like,

I don't know, he gets like, at the time we're over by the window, so he's walking through. And I swear to God, dude, it's like 30 feet. And I'm just like, oh, no. Steve Miller's a fucking space cowboy. Fuck me. Oh, that's great.

Yeah, that shit happened. That was real. That's true story. What you learned? Pay attention. Hey, but he was getting a job done. I was getting my job done. He's in the zone.

Yeah, in his own for sure. Yeah, and I've... Rob delivers. Yeah, he does. I watched you many times his work on Jackson's, man. You're quick. He's like, man, you just put that shit together, dude. And plays perfect.

Thank you, sir. Man. And Jackson, too, with everything, has to be, like, pristine. Yeah. Yeah. They'll take your part. They ask a lot, you know.

They ask a lot. The criteria, you know, it's almost like the guys that Jackson, like in the world have nothing better to do but go on the internet and pick apart, like, what, you know, how, you know, they're fans. They love it.

It's a different beast all together. It's a different brand. And they're, like, you know, compared to, like, the, you know, all the other like quick plane brands and everything like that or whatever you know so it's just like it's fender's a hard one to compare it because there is no comparison fender stands alone in its own universe you know what i mean so when it comes to like some of the the brands you know uh like jackson there's well there's competition out there because there's a lot

of people that are trying to put put a guitar and the next up and coming in uh rock star's hands and you know etc etc and you know not necessarily chone tape tone chasers but like uh you know playability you know and you know all that fast stuff i don't know yeah you're a fender guy i don't i don't want to offend you that's fine no it's all it's all good oh yeah that's that's that's so smart man it's too smart for me you should tell the audience about how you came to fender and how you know rob and all that yeah so uh quickly a few years ago um i finally had an opportunity to actually go to the Fender warehouse. Shout out to Fred Connor.

He answered my phone call, Day of. Let me come in, day of. During January, which January, as I come to realize, it's an extremely busy time and month to get ready for the convention that follows a couple weeks later. But when in that day I called him, let me in, and then I walk in the door, and then I turn around, there's Jackson, and I run in the rub. and me and Rob have been in a band together and played shows to get their back back in a day in high school I was like oh shit was so prop it was like it's just like so like I haven't seen you like so long yeah

and it's just crazy and then did Rob look any different at all fatter more just just more uh experienced that's good I'm gonna take that at my fat is experienced I'm like I'm like no you just look more experienced More life. We have more... That's what I'm not to tell chicks. Oh, yeah. There's so much experience. So much experience.

That's what all this is... That's something that you can't abuse her, right? Yeah, I earned it. This is a lot of money here. I earned that. They're all a little experience, though. Yeah. Make sure that's a Jimmy Hendrix quote.

Where did it like... Yeah. I forgot my question. What? Oh. This guy was talking about how he met you. I asked, if you look at... What band were you guys in?

In a band called Strip. Strip. Yeah. I don't know where it fit in. Like, when was Thrush compared to, like, stripped? I never knew that. I went Thrush right after. Thrus right after.

Yeah, like, right after. Because I was the entire period where I was playing really heavily in the new middle bands. Oh, wow. Playing bass. Do you remember any of the songs? If I had a bass on my hand, I don't know.

Are we going to play bass? Yeah. And drums? No, no, no, I was playing guitar. Oh. Yeah, and then I think a guy named Brandon Treyhan was playing drums. No, that was what, I think Justin was still playing drums. Justin was playing drums.

And then I said Tanner was one of the founders of suicide silence. He's the guy that, he's the guy that, he's the guy that found Chris on AOL. And then Tanner, me and Tanner were in high school together, you know, actually, and Mitch, Mitch was in high school with us as well. Yeah. You know what I mean? It was all, like, a very small inner circle. I knew Mitch before he had a single tattoo on his body.

Oh, really? Crazy. I don't even know that, Mitch. Yeah. Well, he might have had one that I didn't see. I don't know. In all fairness. You know?

And, like, it was his older brother that was like, when I was in high school, he was like, I was one of the guitar guys. And then Cliff Lucker was the other guitar guy. You know? Yeah. And then, I don't remember, like, if we were junior, seniors, and then Mitch came, and he's probably, like, a freshman. And he was totally into the whole thing with everything like that. And Tanner, and we were all jamming. It was all part of, like, the whole thing. And then it was AOL.com. Yeah, that's when you get asked a friend. It's like, I guess back then it's like asking a friend, oh, so what's his phone number or his or her phone number? It's like, oh, so what's their, what's their aim? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. You're just getting all like these random, like, aim messages. Pre-Myspace. Pre-Myspace. But, like, MySpace is just getting ready to, like, do its thing, you know. I'm like, I don't know. We played a couple shows and... Yeah, it was fun.

It moved on to do, like, do some other stuff. Like, I thought work was more important. Working for the man. Oh, man, you're at Fender, man. I forgot. No, that was... That was way before even that. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. That was like, yeah. That was like, because I had moved away to Portland, Oregon for a whole year. And I remember Tanner sending me, uh, uh, different music, you know, different, different, different bites of some really, really, really asset, early SS stuff, you know. Yeah. Yeah. That's like, that's crazy. Yeah.

That was, that's, that's awesome. I'm like, I'm, I'm blessed. Yeah. It was a crazy time, man It was a crazy time And then, you know, fast forward You know, I I know you

And then walking around the shock With these guys I went to like High school with Elementary with Like people that I've known For like my whole life You know, Manny You know, I went to a junior high with him

Oh, that's right Yeah, manning Yeah, manning him dude Geremo Great great guy Gary Caramo Kyle Kyle

Kyle went to With he works with Gretch Mitchillin? Kyle McMillan? No, no, no. Kyle, he used to be. Keith Stewart.

Yeah. Oh, Keith. Oh, he used to be there or whatever. But a small world, that's the whole thing about Corona and the factory being Corona and everything like that, you know. Yeah, I'm a transplants. Yeah, we've dropped in from L.A. Sorry, we don't got history like you guys.

And, dude, just the history. Because remember, like, the first day I walked in the building, I was still kind of iffy, like kind of nervous, like, am I going to make this leap? But then once I was in there, I'm like, just a family vibe, I was like, I cannot deny. What were you playing before? Like,

what were your other brands that you've been around with? I've been in it for a while. And then, and then there's a point where I was just buying Fenders. I was buying Fenders and playing, just playing six things. This is what I want to play. Fuck it. And then making a move and being in that fucking building.

And then as you're buying them to break. him huh I heard I saw the documentary man yeah that never happened and and then bringer both stuff those were built to be broken those it was Hollywood yeah what what guitar did you break when you're hitting the drum set dude it's uh my my go-to is always the offender strat man see it is also fuel tested and this is not a fender plug and I feel tested at that there's a period where I had all the guitars I was buying everything I could off of like Craigs list or like offer up for like a hundred bucks

the guitars I'll hold up the most are the cheap Fender Stratz. Damn right it's so weird. Don't you forget it. Yeah excuse me yeah cheap no I was I mean I was getting like obviously I was like I was getting like you know use guitars made Mexico, which are also great, but these are like known to be you know, I'm buying like... Right, no, we're fucking, let's be honest. Yeah, we know what is a beginner guitar.

And these things would not fucking break. And I got like this super expensive thing and then like it'll just fucking blow up. This is like built and not only that, it was also what also drew me to it was

consistency. If I, no matter what, how much money I spent, it was like a top model, low model with the consistency of the sound, it's like, oh, this is some serious shit. You know, it's cool. That's the genius behind the design, huh? Yeah.

If you break it, if you break it and you just mess up the body, all right, throw it. It was the model T of the body. It was. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Leo was a very, like, from what I understand the guy, you know, he was a very, like,

like, what are, like, the fundamentals to make this happen? What is, what are the, like, the logical ways to make this happen okay you know take a neck bolt bolston on so so so for that at reason like oh someone breaks the body yeah they just like getting a new body they break the neck you know by it's fucking genius and it made it more affordable for like the layman so like crazy because back then guitars weren't fucking cheap you know i mean so like that was like meant to bring guitars into the average household just dope us out that's crazy and it's still going we're still going

we have some good starter models yeah there you go up on fender dot com I was uh this has been a question I begin to ask a lot lately and then I realize how to answer it

because it's true you get like a you know oh what guitar should like should I buy it first I'm like you know what this one brand that

if you're just beginning or you're in an arena stadium band the Fender Strat or Telly Just is the only one that I could really Get that whole Because you know Because my first guitar was

You know Fender Strat And now here I am you know Over 20 years later I've been there Fender Strat You know It's the See for me

It's funny because I've been working at Fender Most of my life It's my entire career It's my passion But I started playing Fucking metal guitars Like quote unquote Like I was playing BC Ritches

I was playing a lot of B.C. Riches A lot of Sharp stuff and I thought this was, you know, what a good guitar is. And when I started working at Fender, I was not a fan. I was not a fan of Jackson. I was a fan of Jackson. I wasn't working at Jackson. Eventually I worked at Jackson, right?

But playing Fenders, day in, day out, completely changed my taste and guitars. Like, I can't fucking stand playing anything that's not a Strat. To me, a Strat feels perfect, like it's built perfectly, like it's balanced perfectly. Like, the way the horn sits with the strap buttons, it's, the most balanced guitar in the world, that neck feels great, I don't want to play anything else. And that's because I've had,

it was just, it's like a taste that I didn't think I had, especially being a metal guitar player, starting with like B.C. Rich's low action. Like, I can't go back. I'm like stuck on it. And it's weird, because I went to Fender not liking Fenders.

Wow. True shit. My favorite part is like the, like once a Fender is set up, like, well, whatever, it's solid. And it's solid for a long time. I'm not going to drop any other brands or whatever,

but I've owned a couple of whatever, and it's like they fell off through the years. This and that, like, even the, like, the, like,

the, like, feel would fall off. They would go towards an uncomfortable feel and certain things, like, along the neck and, and things would, and shape and yada,

yada, yeah, and I'm not going to get specific, but, like, you know, the thing is, it's like,

it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, it's like, we were, were we were trained to like dial that thing in pretty and pretty solid you know and it's like a custom shop even more like they're more thorough intonating and and stretching the strings and working the wood

before you you know etc but like the the fenders like that they they gained a lot of respect for me when i was like able to go and i like you know you start with the company you try to go field test i'm going to go samash guitar center i'm going to see what you know you look for the I would look for like tags with my name on it. You know what I remember hunting for tags? Yeah, yeah. Like I look for like tag with you and like,

oh yeah, I set that motherfucker up. Let me see. Ooh, what's wrong with me that day? Somebody change the strings on this? Not on mine. I don't know about you.

Oh, wow. Healthy competition. Come on. Hot dog. But you know, I'd be like hunting tags and like trying to like feel it out

or whatever. And it's like, you know, And it would be no comparison, honestly. Yeah. Like by the time that that thing hits the wall and it's dancing within the sales atmosphere with all the other brands. Like Carlos said, it starts with a great design. You can't, you can't mess up a great design. Well, you can't.

But it's more difficult to mess up a great starting point. Like the neck shape and the body shape, it's like, it's there. I don't know what it is. It's something about it. So Carlos, when you're going to build a V? That's what I really want to know. A V? A katana?

Like a, like a, like. like I want to see a Fender V bro whenever I get approached Yeah There we go So money talks baby Woo

Yeah Carlis you kind of without even trying Which is the best way to do it You kind of took on like Any oddball Job roles You know Like you kind of

Especially with like Kind of that like Fender name you're kind of like Maybe like less likely to do it But you really put yourself out there And just did it Yeah You know

That's all the time About weird looking Tar's like Carlis, this is the next one? The Marauders a bad mofo. Oh, dude.

Yeah, the murder is yeah. Fuck, you killed that one. Yeah. Killed it. Thank you. Yeah. You're welcome for that idea, by the way.

And he's humble too, gentlemen. That's a sick one. Like, totally hats off. So, like, what's the next big project, Carlos? Everybody wants to know.

I think he's going to make another seven. I don't know. Another seven? Yeah, I got a lot of sevens lined up now. sick man good catch up i think Jackson's doing eights so i mean

i got a request for an eight too oh wow I don't know if that will slide like a strat headstock what do you do seven string is kind of like a john five headstock you get away with it

yeah there you go just like just pile up the teeny keys that's sick though it's cool it's seeing like like the progression towards a year's like first hearing like a no

then like yes do it and like a maybe and like then now it's like now you're getting orders tell that story that's that's a good segue into the seven that was weird and self considering my background and when you got to know for the seven yeah being part of the original seven

which is weird in itself let's go full circle here all right go ahead tell them your part and yeah there you go okay without naming artist names yeah we won't we won't name them we uh had a request for a seven and we made a seven I'm and I was part of two of four prototypes that went to a certain artist.

Let's just say the lid was closed. Seven string strap, right? Seven string strap, right? First one's in existence. So I made two of four, right? And then the lid was closed, not allowed because of issues, right? And, you know, I always thought I was one of the funnest projects I've ever built. That was when I was in R&D.

I was building prototypes, right? And fast forward, I meet this guy. and the reason I met you is because you were at me he was wearing more of an angel fucking love board so then you guys were I think Lampo was talking about the seven I was like oh you're making a seven oh yeah but I'm not oh now you have to tell your side of story he's like I'm not allowed to and then yeah and this whole like uh so this is like it took literally like from the time I was in that building to like over two and a half years later now now it's here full circle is like there were some legal issues

where there is a patent on the Fender's seven string so legally Fender could not do it so it took someone I guess it was me that really really truly wanted one not for like any kind of weird thing but I wanted a Fender like a semestring my first guitar was a Fender Strat

I'm a Cemetery player since I was born like this is me and so I pursued it every day on it and I didn't care of like if it came next month the 10 years or I mean I did this is this is what I want um so I did I did I did the research and then found out there were like legal issues I met with a uh a lawyer that dealt with patents and that kind of issue and you really went for it yeah I mean I met I met with someone in person and I was like

I was trying to push it like a charvel to have seven string yeah you know Jackson's got seven straight you know exactly because like when he came in that's the there's the whole thing I'm like you know yeah we can hook you up here whatever and so like oh like Oh, to fill the gap. I was like, you know, how did we find out Carlos? I don't know. He was, you was talking to somebody or whatever, and he's like, I think Carlos is going to end up getting the seven string project or he's, or he jumped for it. Oh, I was approached by Jason, Jason Klein.

Jason Klein. There it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we found I was going to be Carlos and I was like, Carlos is my homeboy. Yeah. Carlos go back, P.L. 10 days. Yeah. Yeah.

Pop, pop, pop, there it is. To fill that gap. And on top of that, we were already all hanging out. We've hung out for a while. And then we started hanging out. And you guys were talking about the seven.

We're like, oh, yeah, because the last one was made. I was like, oh, you mean the one I made? Yeah. So I was like, weird. So, like, I made the one that you're now not allowed to have, but now my homie's making you one. So like, whoa.

Yeah. Yeah. And I remember when I got, I was working on the guitar. And then I got the job. drawings of I think who was it it was Bollinger yeah it was Bollinger the design the ones that I yeah Bollinger has had the file just full of you know stuff that we forgot about yeah and so he had showmaster seven and then he had you know the the standard uh the seven string that you made

and so I saw all of them and I saw all the drawings and so I based the one that I made off of yours I picked a little bit of So the shape that I made is my own shape But a lot of the geometry I used from Bollinger Because he had it laid out Yeah he had it laid out

And so probably just coming off the center lines But man you dialed it in Because like at certain angles You can't even tell that it's a 70s stream Which is hard to do with an instrument That's the thing man That looks like a strat All day long

Exactly. You know? Exactly. That was the hard part. I like this one better than the one I made. I'll tell you that right now. It's just different. And you're,

I like the one you made. But, yeah, so I remember I was messing with the drawing. And then I called you over and we hung out and I showed you it. And it was just on the computer. Yeah,

that's crazy. The two-dimensional drawing of it. Yeah. I was like, well, what do you think about this? And I don't know, you got,

it looked like you got pumped about it. It was like, oh, let's do it. Yeah. It looked good. Yeah. And so just seeing it from, you know, the drawing stages and then having it opening up the case.

It was a lot at Lampos. Even when we had that conversation, it was at Lampos about the 7th. Because pizza is important. Pizza is important. I heard that. It goes straight to the triceps. It goes straight. It goes straight to your muscles.

Pizza muscles, man. Yeah. A wise man tells me the hell of the time. Thank you. Appreciate that. Who do I talk to? That's not pizza. If that didn't work out.

This is experienced. Don't forget. I got a lot of pizza and beer experience. Boy, see, as I was saying earlier, you don't abuse experience. Chris Garza, and you're just, Chris Garza told me that I was going to get buff. He lied to me.

You can't abuse experience, man. Yeah, you experienced too much. You think we should go to Lampos after this? If it's still open, maybe. I'm down for some experience. Yeah. Oh, man. Some Bishop Triples and some, like, pepperoni, poppers.

Is it kind of? crazy that like great things are kind of fueled by beer and pizza I've noticed that in my life do you mean great things hold I said again is that the stuff that like Stephen Hawking's into what did you say like it seems like a lot of at least like in my life a lot of great things were kind of fueled by like this drinking beer and eating pizza with like your friends well I've always heard now I'm here you know it's just it's fucking crazy I've always heard like the alcohol is the inspiration right like you're talking you get inspired but then tick

execute it, it's coffee. The next morning when you... Ad-a-boy. Oh, yeah. Fucking drink a coffee, and then all of a sudden, all those things you wrote down that you fucking make them happen.

No, no, no. This is what happened. It's drugs to create the idea. Cigarettes to stay up long enough to put it together. Ady boy. And then, what is it? Alcohol for the bravery to deliver it

in the entertainment atmosphere. Oh, my God. I saw this somewhere. This is a real thing. Exclamation, kids, do not follow Big Rock. That's the... He has a lot of experience. That's just at 8 o'clock in the morning.

I know. The cameras are on. I know we're just talking. Yeah, yeah. No, the cameras are out. 12 o'clock is when the real party happens, right? Hunter Thompson, that audio that Joe Rogan was reading his thing,

you guys all heard it. Yeah. That thing is the funniest and scariest shit I've ever heard. When Joe Rogan's reading Hunter Thompson's daily schedule, it's like, he goes to bed like at 3 in the morning, and then wakes up and like first thing he starts doing cocaine cocaine and it's like this this long thing and then somewhere in there he says now starting doing cocaine seriously what what how did it go all of a sudden you got serious like what were you to keep things in perspective that sounds like a man

that knows who he wants and that's when he gets his best writing that yeah it's like three in the morning three in the morning started riding like what he's building up to it was such a weird ass molly there wasn't there dude that like pitched a no hitter on LSD Doc Ellis was that his name? Who was telling us this? Huh? Me. Pow! Blue you?

Damn, pool circle. There you go. It came from me. I hope his name was Doc Ellis. Don't quote me on that, but there was a motherfucker. Oh, everybody's going to Google that. Google him. Put in the comments.

There you go. I don't know what it was. Doc Brown. But yet, no, Doc. What the thing? That's not what I said. Doc Brown. Sh!

It was Rick. Rick did it. I'm gonna imagine like you're just extremely focused or just on like another dimension where it's so like just falling in energy and like pitching you're just like you just like you just part of the see the ball going perfect stripe before even through it and his mind he wasn't playing baseball he was doing something completely yeah but he's doing it great I can't even imagine but I don't like yeah like I don't want like I don't want to I've never done acid but I mean like when I like okay like when I hear about the Beatles doing acid just like they didn't

get up and fucking play football. volleyball, you know what I mean? Bullshit. You know what I? They sit around a trip. Like, who wants to, like, take acid and then go exert themselves? I'm going to go pitch a no-hitter. Yeah.

I'm going to throw my shoulder out. But it worked. Also, and... Yeah, well, totally. Do you be in a fucking stadium? It's like, you're around people. Oh, yeah, yeah. You're on people?

That could have gone so bad. So quickly. It's like, man, I get a high. I can't even be around fucking five people, man. What the hell? Like, if you're, like, tripping? and you're in a stadium? Everybody's cheering and just like,

that's a very good point. Yeah, fuck the whole situation. I don't know how do you, that dude should get like some kind of an award for that. Yeah. For executing what he did. That's a fucking, that's a historical thing.

Hall of Fame fucking move right there, man. What's what do you, I mean, unfortunately, like if you're talking like, towards the masses, like people will party say, oh wait,

like you don't deserve it being like the Hall of Fame because of this and that. Man, I think the opposite, man. I believe. Throw him in there. was injecting straight LSD when he built that that seven I heard he was doing his eyeballs Yeah

Each eyeball the most extreme It was like a and then he started doing it seriously It was like a Pioti Seriously around like 10 About 10 p.m. seriously Yeah Wow man and that's how we got the seventh string Yeah it was actually in his mind he actually built a six string

Yeah All truth be told I thought I was making a six stream but I was put another one Oh how to do that Oh man Out of body experience Telling my secrets Dude it's

Dude it's so crazy Like full circle how it's like Now we're all Casually is hanging out now You know I got we got we got the seven Thanks to Carlos Thanks man

No problem man Before I met Carlos You know I would And when you were When you were working at Jackson I was like I was just bugging in Texas Hey, can I come by, hang out?

And his watch you work, work on Jackson's. It's like, because I just love being in that building. Because you could, it's his... You're going to watch you work. No, it's not. They didn't like that. I put his house to work. I do you know?

Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. Well, yeah. Well, yeah. All this standing around watching me. Yeah, hell no. That's, KKK, one more... You're some sandpaper?

More accurately, yeah. I mean, to make my visit, justify, I'll go, like, you know, sand some shit and like, okay, you know. Man, dude, you're really part of the Fender family. yeah yeah i was working man serious he was in there he was dude the whole thing if i could steal away from suicide silence i would thanks man this guy would be a great oh he is a great builder a lot of people don't he he builds his own stuff like no yeah yeah yeah and um then you know there was like that day where i i had i want because this this is all

doing at the panties so i didn't i was used to go in there i was very i'll i'll middly say i was spoiled like i was so used to going in there like many other things in my life you know our lives like we were so used to going to our favorite pizza spot or hanging with friends then not all that shit stopped and then it was like oh shit like I'm not allowed to go in that building anymore then one day I was allowed to go back if I if I if I got testing I did like the same day uh testing and then going there like 5 15 a.m you know it was it was fun man like still like walking in the room like yeah this is fucking sick dude Fender really did a massive effort like I I'm I want to say

we were either the first or one of the first factories to implement the whole like scanning system where it would scan your your temperature coming in so we did so much. Very thorough. Super thorough. And it was like I said, we were actually ahead of most of the factories if not four runners and most of the stuff

that we were doing. Wow. It's crazy. And then I show up and then I get a text from Carlis saying, hey, I'm not going to come there. Oh, cool, all right. Then first time during the whole Pandy and you're like, I'm going to show up.

Okay. Oh, well, that was like when it started. Man, am I really that much of a flake, man? Yeah, you flaking flake.

Yeah. Yeah, and the last show that you had before everything got shut down. And I said, what did I say? Yeah, I'll be there, man. Don't worry about it. I'm not going to go.

So you, wait a minute, wait a slide bar. Okay, well, so you still haven't seen suicide. Yeah. Oh. Remember the virtual. That's going to be a treat. I had.

We were going to go Remember, we were going to go The L.A. show. Well, no, but yeah, but I was at this fucking slide I was there, of course, whatever. Valentine's Day. Yeah, we should probably put a picture on the fucking camera that's like Chris was on my shoulders.

A kid. That was a great night. Dude, no, no, no, no. But like, this is the thing about suicide. You grew up in the hardcore scene or the metal scene and everything like that. The audience

and a suicide live show is unlike any other fucking experience seriously and I've seen all the guys I haven't seen you guys just cover your ears we're gonna talk about you first

yeah I can't dude it's so good though it's so it's you know and I mean if you oh Carlos you're in for fucking treat homie

dude what are we going to do when it shows again shootish oh yeah yeah there you go this guy's where I'm going to go to a show with yeah

We're all going to start our own pit, dude. It's going to get in there? Yeah. Get in there. Get the wireless, right? Yeah. You can start it. You can start it.

Swing it around. Every once in a while, I'll, after a few beers, I'll fucking pit through. Use one of the cards. If it's corn or slip line, I'll fucking go on a pit. We'll be a good. Being you. I'll look forward to that. Hell yeah.

Hold her off, whatever. Dude, that's kind of one thing. It has to be a thing. Like when the shows start opening up and, You know, and you have the first show, maybe a hometown show, whatever. Like, everybody's, you know, everybody's going to go. You have, like, a bigger family now. It's crazy.

I'm looking forward to that. I think about that at least once a week. My man, what's it going to be like when we have in the L.A. show? I'm going to have, like, 30 people on my personal guest list. The whole try. It's like, sorry, dudes. We're fucking, we're fucking getting all these people in. That's it.

We have to, man. I wonder what it's going to be like, man. It's going to be. fun. Dude, it's gonna be dope. It's gonna be a weird thing because like, like, I don't know, like think about like being denied, you know, your favorite thing in the world is fucking cheeseburgers.

You get denied cheeseburgers for X amount of time. Somebody says, all right, you're allowed to have cheeseburgers. You're gonna go ape shit. You know what I'm gonna be like when they open everything back up, you know? It's going to be a wave of awesomeness. I've seen a corn is doing something with system of a day. Oh, yeah. I don't know if that's fake or real, but I mean, I'm flipping there.

Yeah, I mean, it shows are open, obviously. I mean, are you going to go? Are you going to be there? Of course. Unless you got to work. Come on, I fucking hate corn. What? Man, I knew it.

I knew it. We have vets going. You probably have corn underwear. We're not. Oh, my God. Yeah, that's an outside show. So I'm, he goes to bed to blind every night. Yeah.

Pretty much. I would. Like, he can't, like, he's an insomniac unless he's do, do, do, do, do, do. It's like, oh, my God, dude. And then it's fucking Mimi's as soon as they drop it. You know it's corn underwear. I know it. I need some corn underwear, actually.

That'd be sick. Don't bullshit me. You have a pair. No, I would get in. They hasn't. Dude, corn should do like a collab with, like, Calvin Kleiner or something crazy. I will buy him, man. It's a market.

I'll buy that. I'll buy the whole fucking line. There you go. Yeah. It's embarrassing, man. They need to make a plus size for me in all wow. Fuck yeah, dude. He's got a visual.

You're welcome. You're welcome. I love me. Oh, my God. This is what you call a niche market. This is going to be a niche market. Super niche. But niche markets have a track breaker of selling.

Is niche different than niche? Is niche different than niche? Neish is the way you pronounce it. Yeah. What? yeah what are you going to go fucking boogey on me

you're a fucking embarrassment you should fucking be ashamed of yourself what do you fucking because I say niche market and you say niche it's niche it's niche all right potato

that's fucking potato dude yeah come on do you shit it's niche right it's a niche fight fight It's niche, right?

Yeah. And we're my, my side on the podcast. Nitch market. Niche market. Niche. Who's this fucking niche? What is that?

I don't even spell it. All right. We're going to see it in the comments. Nish market. Huh? Does there comments? Yeah. Yeah, it's live.

It's already going to. Nitch market. Nitch. Nitch. Hey, but it's Friday. We all got jobs. We all got jobs. We're on a podcast.

That's on a beautiful set, by the way. Hey, somebody drink all my beer. I just want to let that be known. Yeah. I think we need more. I think I saw who drink all your beer. Somebody drank all my beer. How do it?

We got round two on the way. I got some, I won't say it because. Okay, there you go. So after the show, do you grow marijuana with these for sure, right? Can you? Because, honestly, I know nothing. about cannabis. Other than that, I smoke it a few times.

So, because these are, uh, LED's post, so, so they're not, there's no heat from them. Really? I'm pretty hot, man. Yeah, I'm like, like, hot. All right, it's just, it's just the studio. What's me? Yeah, I wonder if, uh, yeah, you guys would know more than me. Or Rob, or Rob, Rob, no.

Yeah. I'll ask him. But. Yeah, but you got to have the lights. Yeah. No, I'm sure it looks great. I'm melting in front of the camera. Hell yeah.

I'm glad you guys made it, man. Dude. It's cool. Dude. Dude. We've been talking about this day for a while. Yeah. Yeah.

It's been a while. Like, hey, we should, guys like, have you guys on the podcast. I'm going to start a podcast. I think we were talking about, talking about aliens a lot during that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Nick and you, shout out to Nick. You guys are the alien guys.

Oh, yeah. One day. We need to do an alien. podcast. We're just full-blown. Aliens, like Bigfoot. Yeah. Cryptids.

What do you believe in, Carlos? Do you believe in aliens or Bigfoot? Bigfoot aliens. Yeah. I believe in all of it. All of it. Yeah. I don't know.

Fuck, yeah. That's sick. There's something out there. I think there's stuff out that we don't understand, man. Yeah. You never know him, man. X-Files. Truth is out there, brother.

it is like do we like you guys have really like just kind of chill outside especially at nighttime yeah I know I get that song man now you're welcome it's kind of hard where we live because there's there's a lot of lights but when it's nice and clear outside and it's dark it's a clear sky clear day we man I look up a lot to see the stars like the mood I'm like man what we cannot be the only people here man there's a lot of beings I think there's no way there's no well maybe there is a way I don't know. I mean, man,

seeing like the stars in the moon, I'm just like, we're just here, you know? I'm like, fuck, no way. It has to be something.

There's probably multiple universes, you know. The multiverse. Yeah, the multiverse. It probably just goes and goes. I'm just thinking about Corey

right now in the existential trollo. Oh, boy. Shout out to Corey. That's so good. You should put them on here just to do that and just send them home get out of here

Corey Corey's great man yeah I'm definitely I'm definitely in the future plans try to get everyone in here like literally Ron Nick George

Manny have like multiple like group ones this fucking hang out chill talk that'd be cool I wonder if we could do something where we're doing it from multiple like places like via set like you

know like we have a couple people here a couple people at another studio you know like oh what are we talking about over there oh yeah i guess we're going to do a handoff i see uh what is that alcohol i didn't say we can talk about but i thought about that when i was well thank you just saying no i'm saying if we wanted to do like a big podcast we could have multiple areas where we set up like in different households we don't have everybody crowned in here and just have a group conversation kind of like via Zoom podcast. That'd be a pretty futuristic way to do it.

And then we put blue screens and this will be behind everybody. Yeah. Yeah, because unfortunately, and I learned this from the goat, Joe Rogan, where like you can't really have like more than three people at once.

You know, that's like the perfect number. If we get more than three. I can see that. I would have like 20 people from the factory, but it just wouldn't like, it wouldn't translate. It wouldn't translate.

sounds cool but so three is like the perfect so i'm trying to try to figure out a way to do it that's like doable and cool you know and then then you do like speed dating yeah every five minutes we switch somebody out and then so it sits down my god they have to jump into the conversation where we're gonna ask you question yeah what are we talking about Calvin Klein and then like no you're out next boom yeah that's right that's right no no no no no no Does everybody have a beer? Everybody has a beer? Yeah.

I didn't forget, but I just, you know. Let's do like a... Thank you. Cheers? Cheers. Let's do a cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

I want to finish my first one first. But cheers. Cool. Churs. Well, thank you guys for being here. Thank you, everyone watching. Thank you for listening. Very cool.

Oof. Over here, it's, this is being recorded on a Friday. That will air in about two days. So it's a beautiful Friday here. And so. locale pretty cool anybody notice how carlos lopez almost looks like ac slater what's the what's the guy's name um mario lopez maria lopez yeah yeah he's a handsome guy very handsome i mean like if you tanned shaved like worked out and like

you take that carlos take that from rob so if you completely change that carlos is a handsome man. He knows what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Thanks a lot. Dick. Man, I thought we were a family. He said that with love.

He said that with love. Yeah. Javier, you look like, you know. A larger Mario Lopez, I guess. I don't know, man. What the hell is you going on here? I look like if Mario Lopez. Let me tell you what you look like.

I don't know. I felt like obligated to throw compliments around after that. Thanks. Like, I thought you guys put me on the spot. It's like a back. I appreciate it. Love you guys, Hobby. Oh, you look like a pile of something.

Beauty. I don't know. A pile of beauty, but, you know. You look like a pile of experienced handsomeness. Yeah. There we go. So do you, Rob. You have so much experience.

I can see it from here. I know. I know. Like, I have experienced a thousand cheeseburgers this last month. Another one? You can't beat a good cheeseburger, you know? You can't. I'm looking for a spot.

There's a spot around here called Grylamal, about an hour north of Corona, California. That's an amazing hamburger. I need to try that. Where is that at? You got so excited about it. Your eyes glimmered. Well, fuck, dude, as soon as you get out here,

we're doing something. Experience. We're going to go experience some meat and beers. It's a good combination, right? There's a place that I know of that I've never been to in my life. You know, it rhymes with Undock, and it's awesome. For the viewers and the people who don't know, that's a local bar around here. Bar, water and hole.

Library with refreshments, I like to think of it as. Of course, but do pubs have closet great food? They do. They have great food there. They're at, oh, what we have there? We got cassidias, onion rings. What is that those... What do they call them?

The Irish nachos? It was just like French fries with like everything on them. Oh yeah, so good. I don't know why it just popped in my head, but you guys ever ever been to anchos? No. You haven't been to anchos on.

I know. Somebody put that on my IG story the other night. They were like they've like unfolded the thing of the handmade tortillas. And I was just like, oh yeah. I want to go eat a pile of the tortillas by themselves. It's a beautiful place. That's a place.

in Riverside, California, which is neighboring town from here. And that was my first job. I was a dishwasher at Antro, Southwest Bar and Grill, and a bus boy, then a prep, then a cook. And ate there a lot. But it's like if, from, I'm on me five. And he didn't bring me free, nothing ever. But yeah, it's a very, I'm not sure the word,

like a very respected and a go-to restaurant and pretty much all of the island empire and also SoCal. It's fantastic. Fantastic. restaurant. It's a great spot, man. I haven't been there in a minute, but when they put that on the IG, those tortillas, I couldn't, I...

Yeah. Yeah, so good. I just want to roll them in animal... Pour it from me, thank you. Try them in spices. Yeah, salas. And especially being involved with

that restaurant for three years, obviously, you know, a business is will struggle, you know, we know now this more than ever, but, you know, seeing them struggle as a business, and never cut corners was fascinating to see now I'm

you know in my 30s and look back I'm like that was some gangster shit like they never cut corners so that that's why their steak is always sick that's why their food

is always consistent because they never they get the same firewood because it's a woodify grill same steak and that that steak is fucking expensive the same brand the same everything

and to see that I kind of held that on for uh for uh for uh for Suta sounds like you know no matter what Like you like you you you don't cut corners man I see you know I see these guys you know

Have a good month, bad month But no matter what they fucking always bought the top quality shit And that's what kept the customers coming in Well hell yeah Did you see that they're like manufacturing meat And fucking peach dishes and science labs now Mm hmm mm hmm I saw that on them I'm good though

Yeah huh you know what you know some like Science meat? Yeah No science meat for me Would you rather have here's a question, would you rather have science meat or tofu? I'd like tofu. Like, I would just have tofu.

What? Yeah. Really? It's good. Yeah, you saute with some mushrooms? No, but it's like, and it comes in squares. It's not... That's not...

Fucking good, dude. You threw me way off with that shit. That's not what I was expecting. You fucking right. It's to me. Fucking flat earth, motherfucker. Hey, if you like tofu, it's all good, man. What?

I like, I like, these guys are seriously offended right now. I'm just, tofu is not, it's just kidding. I don't like tofu, guys. Can I still be friends? Yeah, but you can, like, the tofu's good. It, like, absorbs whatever the fuck you're cooking it with. You would rather have that than science meat?

Yeah, fuck that. Science meat, bro? No, I don't even know, no. Tofu's basically science meat. Tofu's not even meat. It's fucking grass. It's, grass. fucking yard trimmings

condensed into jelly soybeans man whatever it's fucking oh that's really that threw me way off I didn't expect that answer I knew you of here I got it into tofu because I thought we knew it yeah it's not like I'm gonna prefer it

over a steak but over science meat I'd probably like a science steak like they make the fucking in its fucking science and it's badass and it looks all like we don't know what cells It could have been like human cells. You know, oh, yeah, until then we taste it. I saw an HBO special, or it might have been fictional.

Maybe they're eating people. That look gross. It looked like pork. As I wear a shirt says cattle pork. The person looked like pork. It really did. Well, dude, all right. Science meat freaks me out for multiple reasons.

Tofu is just not as good as, like, steak. It's science meat. But science meat is, like, steak. for kind of science meat, but the science meat is like at least... Man. At least it comes from like, like genetically comes from like... What if it keeps growing in you? Whoa.

And then also you got, yeah, you've never seen, you know, like, what was that movie? People in the Arctic was that a... That's a really good point. The thing. Oh, the thing, yeah. That's a fucking really good point. We know, it's science. Yeah, you're right.

No, I'm fucking slit that chicken's throat. Fuck that. Have some tofu, man. You'll survive that. Tofu, I'm past. No. That's a hard pass. Right, Carlos?

Yeah. I think science means, just like, they're all secret, like, cannibal corpse lovers. And he's like, look at all the teachers and uncover. It's mean to do that, but, like, in, like, a meat, people can eat. And then now it's science can form. It's a human that could be, yeah, that's legally edible. Yeah. Ooh.

I don't know. That's a more. That's a horrible. I don't like the idea of it keep it growing in you. That's just, that's foul. All these, everybody, except for me. All you guys are, like, the metal dudes, right? And so the more appropriate metal answer would be like, yeah, I go hunting for my meat and I skin it.

Yeah, but he gave me two choices. Science meat or tofu. I'll take tofu all day. Yeah, that was the bottom line of it. You know how I look at tofu? It's like the same way I look at like bologna and hot dogs. And I don't eat that shit either. How do we get on science meat and tofu?

Oh, Rob. I didn't bring it up. He did. This definitely getting edited. Did I? I do. Like large gaps of like conversation. What were they talking about?

I heard Calvin Klein and then now they're saying goodbye everybody. That's what that's what Korn does. Corn will always spawn like these off conversations. I love it. For some reason it's like it's like a thing. Oh like it'll spawn into like another thing. I like tangents. My life is a tangent.

Oh, whoa. Well, that's fucking deep, man. That was pretty good. It was a good one. I surprised myself in time. Yeah. Yeah, no, say no to science meat. Watch the thing.

It's a thing. Antarctica. Yeah, I don't eat bologna either, so I'm like, I'm not, you know. You ever had a bologna sandwich when you were like a kid? No, I had a bologna sandwich in another situation that we don't have to talk about. I guess we're going to move on from that question. Ed told me that don't answer uncomfortable questions. Damn.

That makes me feel like that. comfortable. Oh, wow. Oh, my goodness. I had to have a baloney sandwich in an Audi, please. There you go. Okay, you said we're not talking about it. Yeah, see?

He wants to talk about it. He wants to talk about it. We want to pressure it. Go, let's talk about it. Let's hear it. Come on. I got a story. Javier just got promoted to toilet cleaner.

Oh, God. I did. I'm really good at it, dude. That's sick. I can get all the spots. That's sick, dude. congratulations it's weird because I'm big so like you wouldn't think I could get behind the toilet but I find ways dude that's a fucking that's a that's a damn genuine promotion yeah that's a that's

that's what a good leader does it's no scoff just knows what's doing that's an absolutely important role in any situation any manufacturing situation when Lee john you know I mean yeah yeah did you were you alive in the Civil War you don't just like to poop in a fucking brown box? I was not, sir, was born in 84. 85. Yeah,

we're all at the same age. Rob, you're the oldest, right? Huh? What'd you say? You're the oldest, right? The one's experienced. No, yeah, I don't think so. I believe Carlos is the oldest.

No. It literally goes, Rob, me, than Carlos, but like, not by much. 35, 35. Is it that age, or he's ashamed of his age now? 36. Who's that?

Right? Yeah. Harvey? 36. Rob is 38. What? That boy. I think it's still Crip Walk, so.

Dude, it's crazy. Do you want to Crip Walk? And I have all my hair. It's in and I have all of it. Dude, congratulations about that. That's awesome. It's still a forehead. It's not even a four and a half head.

It's a forehead. I got a five head. It's a lot going on in here. We're not talking about you. We're talking about me. We're always talking about you, Rod. Yeah. What's Rob doing?

What the fuck you doing, Rob? Usually nothing, nothing, nothing gets done when I'm around. No, it's not true. Everything gets done. I've seen it happen. Everything? Pretty much, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Take it. Take it. I didn't eat all those poppers by myself. That's true. And it's good to see that. You learn to let him sip for a while.

You know how many times I've burnt my tongue on a jalapeno poppers? the hell. You're gonna get it done on Monday. No, no. Well, shit, I mean... What? You can say something? No.

Huh, it was maybe something of profound intelligence, and I forgot. It wasn't that profound or intelligent. It wasn't that profound or intelligent. Okay. It was deep. It was fucking deep. It was going to be poetic and... Lost it. It took your tongue. Uh-huh.

And it was about Carlos. and something, I don't know. There's probably a punchline in there somewhere. He's had something to do with Carlos in the jungle with like tigers. He came out on top with a fucking guitar and his chest was chiseled out of his fucking stone. And he had long flowing hair or some shit. That's all right. That's cool, man.

That was the thing. Sounds like, I don't know, man. It sounds like a fantasy to me. Sounds like a cool t-shirt. Yeah. That's what it is. A t-shirt. isn't it crazy how long it takes for

for things to settle especially in your in your chosen career path everything's kind of happened in like in like your 30s you know yeah isn't like how long it takes to get there I'm 27 feels natural 38 37 he's talking to you I'm 27 oh okay

so Robb is in denial but he's old just like the rest of us it's crazy how long it's just like the rest of us It's crazy how long it takes you to even get there. I think, like we were saying, it's experience. Yeah, I mean, like, because you get, there's a growing phase. You're only as old as you feel. And then you start getting good at what you're doing.

And then you find a niche. Nitch. Nitch or niche? Yeah. It is. And you jive. And it's just like a jelling period. And I like that jelling period.

And every now in that you do need some growth. You get just shaken up and you have to make a seven stream. Hey. Yeah. Hey. You know, but. Or a 12 string. Or a double neck.

Or a double neck with like crazy electronics that do funky things. You see that bass of Vince did? That's fucking dope. I want to do one of those. That's really cool. Yeah. Yeah, Vince is next level. Shout out to Vince.

Shout out to Vince. Boots. Great, great bass player from Holland. It's badass. Badass builder, too. Love the Dutch. Yeah. shit well is he dutch is that the right way to say that yeah he's he's from holland yeah fuck

great builder man at it and he does most of the custom shot bases huh well now like hoarders get spread around i think uh he he does him the bassiest that makes sense it's the best way to say that yeah yeah yeah there's a lot of like There's a couple guys in there who are actually really good with bases, I would say. Yeah, no, well, the thing is, is like, how many Master Builders other? It's like a dozen or so? Carlos, this is your question. Ish.

How many Master Builders are they told her? A Fender Custom Shop Master Builders. I believe it's 12. 12, a dozen, yeah, as much as a clock or whatever. Every single dude has their own thing. Has a signature niche. waiting for it. I was looking. I was like, I'm waiting for it. That they

that they have like, like, and you know, there's dudes that have come in and been game changers. Ron Thorne's a huge game changer coming in. Precites as fuck. I love it. Yeah, he love it. He came in and he made an awareness in that shop

that it was just like, you got to, you got to. Here's a level guys. Level up. Ron Thorne came in and it's like, it's like, level up. He got nitty gritty with some details, especially when it came to dated and vintage things and this and this and that with Mike Lewis. I'm sure him and Mike Lewis probably have these meetings where they speak for hours on end about just the smallest of detailed scratches on actual vintage things.

I can imagine. I can't even fathom the things that they fucking talk about. Wow. But it gets spread out and you got those 12 guys. everybody has their own fucking niche and everything like that. They are at the top, the top of the top. To get to be a mashabilder.

Dale Wilson's thin skin. Experience and a lot of talent. I mean, any one of those guys, you could pull any one of those guys and start their own product line. I mean, they're that good. Because of the niche. Because of the niche.

The niche. And Carlis has its own, Niche. Well, Carlos's niche is fucking huge, though, because it's like, it's not like... Whoa, dude. It's not real specific. Carlos has a big niche, you know what I mean? Oh, you're right?

No, we got... He's got a big, fucking, like, thriving, girthy niche. You know? It's... It's true. No, seriously. Like, how many of those things went to... But Chicago?

They love your fucking stuff, dude. Like, what was the one that you did with all the... the onboard effects and shit. That was the Marauder. Was it the Marauder? Was it the first Marauder? Oh, then you know which one I've been thinking of and talking about this whole time and mistaking it with Marauder?

It was the brawler. Oh, that was one of my personal favorites because it's, well, you should probably talk about the spec. Explain what it is. It's a baritone. It's a baritone that I design. Boom, chick, boom. Super metal, dude.

It plays so, like, just, growly dude like you gave it to me and i was just like shun i turned up in my app like shing ching chung i could feel everybody getting a noise yeah yeah like everybody's like yeah so it makes noise yeah thanks for that that shit it was so dude yeah and that's tune to standard B right B to B to B you man so sick right there real close yeah yeah chach chich chiching hair tone it makes sense man what's the scale length on the seven string 26 and a half what's the baritone 27 27 wow

oh what if what a oh my god that be a cool guitar for you oh my goodness 27 yeah should break it it's just longer it's you're 27 it's longer that means deeper it gets can you handle that i think so oh we'll see i should know more about like uh it's It took me a long time to learn what a bariton was, and I guess the thing I keep hearing about, oh, it has to hit, the scale of length has to hit 27 inches. I'm like, fuck.

Yeah. Do you look at the 26, but definitely willing to experiment? Maybe give them a fan fret. You get both. There you go. That's a good idea. Look at that. I like that.

What's that? Hello? What was that? That was me hitting the mic. Is your earth shaking? Yeah, all my joints are starting to ache from being old. Are the fan fret, like the ones that, the frets are slightly angles

so there's two scale links in it yeah crazy compensated scale you've seen those bridges that caler does you get like a whole like caler trim says like 9 8 8 9 string trim says it's fuck it's like the thing is just gargantuan you know what I mean

yeah like what was that dude that I forget his name he's on Instagram but he has that giant like 20 some odd string gent master that thing was completely useless but it looks Cool. It looks super cool.

Why would you even take the time to do something like that? Because why not? I don't know. Ew. Hell yeah. It was kind of a joke, too. Like the way he had it made was on purpose, and he does parodies and stuff like that. So it's satire, but you've seen it, right? No.

What's his name? I think it's Jared something. That sounds right. Something rich. Would you ever use an Everton? At the top of my head right now in my life, no. God. Yeah, I bend too much, dude. And I know you can adjust it, but I just like it.

Because I grew up with dime bag. And so everything I play is like, dude, digger, do. Digga, do. Diggoo. Diggoo. What's it? What's that suicide song?

Yolo? Yep. Yeah. Can't play that with an ever too well. You could, I mean, but I mean, like. Can't play walk. Yeah. I mean, not cool.

Yeah. That's what I meant by that. Nothing. I'm going to predict the next 20 years of music right now. They're going to make it ever-tune that purposely goes out of tune in the perfect way. They do. You could just set them out like that right now. Really?

What I hear. Yeah. I haven't messed with them that much being that they don't. Yeah, because Jackson, yeah. Oh, yeah. We started going through them or whatever. And it's like, oh, yeah, Gojira, North Lane. Yeah, yeah.

I play them and it just throws my mind off. It's like counterintuitive because I know that I'm bending. and it's not bending and I'm just like... It's a crazy bridge. Wow. It's great how they made it real. It fucks with your head. It does.

Like especially if you're trying to like noodle around. Yeah. You're used to doing a lot of vibrato and stuff like that. Yeah. If it's set up perfectly, you won't... None of that comes through. Well, if you set it up to not go out of tune, then yeah, you could...

Because you can actually set each string up individually to bend a certain amount. So technically, if you spent the time on setting that thing up and it worked around, a specific style that you had like a bee bender style so you had a bender style whatever you know you could set that bee up to be the only one that does anything as you're noodling along you're doing your chord flips or whatever the fuck you know or you could set the every you know you know draw your science i don't see that's why i like about guitar though it's like it's a you know it is a tempered

instrument like piano but you could bend you have whammy bars you can oh you haven't seen that guy IG with the fucking whammy bar. Yeah. That thing's cool. But it just feels right. And so for me, what that does takes away that whole feel. But that's just my style of playing.

Shout out Nick Saccone. You need to get a key piano with a fucking whammy bar for your collection, bro. Shout out to Nick. Shout to Nick. Fucking most awesome musical collection. That's where you got. That's great.

Two. Four. You know what? That's where we should go. We should call Nick a fucking bring him a bottle of whiskey and go jam out. There's some weird instruments. It's good idea. You know the sitar, you in the ukulele, Calbell.

Caldbell, thanks, dude. It is a crucial... I'm going to play my armpit on the microphone. That boy. Well, on that high note, we're going to... We're going to wrap this one up. Right on. Well, dude, thank you for taking time

out of your Fridays and being here. Appreciate it. Always, dude. I had a great time. This will probably be the first of many. So, uh, Until then, thank you. All right, everyone.

That's fucking it. Oh, actually, where can people find you? Wait, what? You want people to have your IG handles or what? Oh. I don't know. Now on top of my head. Big Rob.

At Big Rob. Is that it? I think it's Big Rob for sure. Is it Big Rob? Yeah. I know. I'll be relics. You could probably find me under Chris's people.

Is there a number behind mine? 83? Big Rob, 83. I think you're, yeah. It's your birthday. That's my birthday. date, year. Mm-hmm.

I got a big Rob, 83, at Instagram, hobby. Hobby Relics. My relics, Instagram.

C.A. Lopez underscore Fender. Nice. Call me Sino. And that's all on Instagram. We're all pretty much

on Instagram. That's our main on main social media. All right, everyone, that's it. Until next time. Later. Peace.

I forgot we were doing that shit. I almost forgot to give you guys an outro. Sorry. You were fucking worried me for a second there, buddy. You were... God.

What? I didn't do nothing. Dude.