Do you want to get a hotel room together or should I try and see if I'm?

We're talking about Nam.

Oh my gosh, that sounded bad.

Do you want to get a hotel room together?

Yeah, we should.

Man, we're talking about the NAMM show, OK?

You guys going to NAMM?

Who's going to be?

There, we'll definitely be at the NAMM show.

I don't know what this podcast will become dude.

What does it become?

Already?

It's only been.

Yeah, 20,000 subscribers in the first month.

Millions of views all over.

Like you guys dig it, We appreciate.

That thank you.

Oh my goodness.

The No Cover Charge podcast.

Who knew?

Dude, I never thought I would have such a cool dude to hang out with and talk about guitars and that people would actually love it.

Thanks man, I likewise once we sat in the room together that fateful day many moons ago.

We're just hanging on my channel.

We we just kind of knew there was a vibe.

Every time we get to do a podcast I get like, excited.

I know man, it's such a fun way to be ourselves and be nerds, which is apparently what all of you are so.

And I love the fact that everyone in the comments, man, we just get deep in it.

And I look at all the comments and I, I read that I try and keep up and it's so cool to see how many people are into it as much as we are.

So let's keep it going, yeah?

Thank you guys so very much for watching.

And this is called the No Cover Charge podcast and we came up with that name because you never know what you're going to get when you don't pay.

It could be something incredible like a Tommy Emanuel or Steve Morris or Joe Bonamassa or Andy Wood or Greg Cock.

I have to name all the guests now.

So we could, you know, have a great interview for you or we could have some sort of nerd fest gear centric thing or it could be some life lesson.

You never know.

Today we have the weirdest gear that I own.

So Tyler hits me up and he's like, dude, I think we should do something about weird gear and weird tones.

The weird gear episode.

This is the Weird gear Weird gear episode.

Say that five times.

What am I even looking at?

A lot of weird gear you can accumulate across your life as a guitar player.

What you hold on to really speaks volumes, pun intended, for what you choose to keep in your life.

I honestly am not 100% sure what everything here does, but I have a general idea that each one of these pedals is decidedly weird.

Without further ado, I say we just click on this first pedal here.

I'm not going to tell you how it works or what what.

Is this?

Guitar.

It's a dark planet.

Nashville guy here.

It's kind of cool.

What's this?

It's like a necessary 7.

It's a set on the back of it.

You see the little lady on the back?

Do what?

Oh hello, how you doing?

You guys seen that?

Yeah.

What is this thing now?

What do you think based on the name?

It says CC for synth OK.

Have you dealt with synth pedals before?

What's your experience with just in general synth and modulation?

Because you're kind of like a clon into the air.

Dude, look at me, dude, some guy called me a hillbilly on the pod the other day.

I'm from the hills.

OK, No, I don't really have a lot of experience with like any sort of synth or like that kind of modulation effects.

I know they're sick, but usually what scares me and it might scare other people are the sheer amount of like either knobs or just like like some of the pedals that we're going to get to, some of the knob and the layout.

It's like, Oh my goodness, it's like, it's almost like it's going to take me a long time to figure that out.

Yeah, and that's the barrier to entry.

Any sort of modding your gear, it's like I'm going to keep it stock or exploring plug in.

Joe Bonamassa just said that in our last episode about modelers.

It's just like, I'd rather just plug right into the amp and figure it out with my fingers then, you know, mess something up that I'm not familiar with.

So with these kind of pedals you can get a glorious tone and you can also get 1000 other terrible tones which would like turn you off to the pedal completely.

You know, it's funny, a lot of people would think, right?

Like, you know, people would say, oh, well, whether it's the Bono Moss episode or me or whoever, it's like, oh, you just play so simple.

You play that one thing into that one thing.

It's like, yeah, you, you kind of know where you're going for the tone.

And you know what you're trying to achieve with this stuff.

It's like that's kind of the beauty of it is, like you said, you could uncover like the sickest tone ever.

But it's how far are you willing to go in?

And you know what I mean.

And normally with pedals I've do have an unlimited array of possibilities, but I find the one setting and I'm like.

There it is just.

Keep it there.

That's why people tape their pedals and you know.

So anyway, let's go into the C4 synth from Source Audio.

Nice.

Let's hear this.

Yeah, OK.

See that's.

Why did that kill me?

Don't.

Don't edit that.

That was perfect dude.

Oh, it's a good laugh.

OK, so hold up though.

So we're talking about yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh, that's Sig dude going up the next one.

Oh, what?

Is that OK, What?

Are you doing?

That's some speed.

Right, that's speed.

That's sick, dude.

When you go to the next octave, see, this is so cool.

Like if you were just riding riffs and stuff like a.

People think I'm like a caveman with pedals and stuff.

Dude, I love this pedal.

Yeah, you want to borrow it?

Maybe.

Yeah, that thing's sick.

I feel like you could come up with so much cool.

Stuff.

I think I definitely like this, the middle one.

Super basic things.

When you turn off the pedal real quick, this is what I'm playing like, handles that octave.

It's so cool all.

Right.

Well, the No Cover Charge podcast will put an affiliate link to the C4 synth and all these other pedals.

I'm telling you though, for real.

You're going to want to buy that one.

OK, if anything, just the first note.

You know, have you seen this pedal?

No, it's kind of scary.

I'm kind of scared.

Right now, you never heard of this.

No dude, what is?

It I mean, we already died laughing from the C4 synth, so the bar is pretty high.

But yeah, this pedal came out and I don't even want to give you any sort of spoilers, but it's based on the anime character, I'll say that.

I have a feeling it's going to sound like a voice.

It's just going to sound like a really high pitched anime voice.

Everybody wanted to get their hands on this pedal in 2018.

I was able to.

I'm actually scared, I don't even know what I'm doing.

She's.

Speaking.

great pedal for you because you're playing is so vocal that it's.

ah, she's screaming.

Could you imagine that going for a blue solo?

And I'm like, all right, everybody, let me get into this.

Censored on YouTube dude.

We're going to get censored for these sounds.

So she says random phrases.

Keep going, let's see some other things.

It's a collector's item man.

That's worth like $900.

Dude just put it on the shelf bro.

OK, this is my tongue.

Now, not a lot of people know what this pedal does.

Is this this enhancer?

Yeah, you know what an enhancer does?

Dude, I don't know what.

It does.

You know what an enhancer does, right?

Yeah.

It enhances.

Certain.

You guys know what an enhancer does, right?

Yeah.

Just click it.

Just start playing and I'll show you, OK?

Not sure if anything's happening.

How?

Weird is that?

Oh, hello, that's like a little.

Ow.

Better ear.

That's really weird.

It almost like cut all the lows.

It enhances, you mean it enhances?

The highs, all the highs.

I meant sick.

And also, you guys know, I never play with a pic because I just can't keep things in my hand.

So it's kind of cool because crazy, yeah.

That's kind of a lame tone now with the enhancer.

You guys remember all those like Arlen Roth?

We've talked about Arlen Roth and all those videos.

But like this is like when you plug in like all of a sudden it would be like one of those clips and also going to be like, yeah, I mean, it's kind of sick, dude.

In its own way, it's it's really cool enhancer.

Good luck finding one.

Is that thing old?

Isn't it?

I don't know, they're probably like 80 bucks.

Good luck, what do we got?

This pedal is cool.

It's not quite as weird admittedly as the other ones, but you can get weird sounds out of it.

So we have to have something like that in this video where I discovered this pedal in the studio and I was recording in college with my band and I just found one setting and it just sounds like Evil sea creature.

Oh, show me dude.

I figured that this would.

Fit.

I love evil sea creatures.

You start to do the dumb and Dumber when he's like, I'll say though, dude, there's nothing better than someone being like, oh, check out my tone.

And then you walk in and you go.

Like, is that a guitar?

What is that?

Is the garbage truck broken?

So it also has an octave where you can just have the octave.

pedal could be really cool if you were like multi tracking and you wanted to do one with the tone all the way off, add one with like the tone up because it's there's so many sounds in it.

cool man.

And also click it off really quick because this is our clean.

This is this is what sounds like.

We don't have Jerry James Nichols thoughts on the Metal Zone.

And you know, a reason I love this podcast is I kind of get to rehash a lot of my old ideas because it's updated for our own.

First of all, my new perspective and also just who doesn't want to know what a metal zone can do in 2025?

Well, dude, I saw this video one time and someone was saying how bad the metal zones like misunderstood.

And then you can do so much with it, like when you turn the game down.

And I think that's really cool.

But at the heart of me is like a 15 year old kid who like is like, turn it up dude.

Now remember guys, we're playing through this Princeton.

Yeah, we'll, we'll stick with the the brass Fender sound.

We'll stick with this guitar.

It'll be, it'll be fine.

We're going to show you the the best Metal Zone tone you've never heard.

Let's see what you got, baby.

All right, let's just see where the knobs are at.

I think, I think.

When when I hit this low E like this, literally this, it actually I forgot who I was for a moment.

My identity was like a deer in headlights, dude.

There was like a, you know, those frequency things that people pitch to make you feel better.

If you listen to 440 Hertz for 10 minutes a day, if you listen to this, we'll assuredly go insane.

Dude, it's gross.

So let's put the EQ to zero and we'll just hear what the metal zone sounds like.

I don't mind a like new metal sound like that if the riff is right.

I think that's the point of weird guitar tones.

You know that's.

Is the riff served by the gear?

If yes, then the pedal sounds great.

Well, yeah.

And case in point, man, think about all these classic riffs that if we were to isolate them, you would go, OK, cool, it's a great riff and like, I love the way it's played.

But if you were to just sit down and listen to the tone, probably chances are you would go, oh, it's not isolated.

It's not the best tone I've ever heard.

But that's kind of the beauty of it, is that uniqueness, the way it's playing with the riff, the way it sits in with the band and the mix, that's when stuff starts to sound cool.

I'll put just in a post production move.

I'll put Dimebag Daryl's sound isolated.

But it's so true.

It's like, I think a lot of people, like even me, I'll sit there and we'll think about, oh, what's our, what's the greatest tone we want or like our dream tone.

I don't think that exists.

I think what it is, is every single piece of music, every riff, every you know, every lick.

It's like it's going to sound different with whatever you plug it into.

And you'll play different because of what, 100%?

And you'll never be able to play how you would through a Metal Zone as you would through a Tube Screamer.

100% it just, it's your reaction that's the best.

That's what's most fun about playing guitar is every single thing we plugged into today.

I wanted to play a certain way because I was influenced by the sound of that pedal.

Yeah, you probably haven't played a lot of these riffs, or you played them in a way you're like, oh, this is maybe what this riff is.

Supposed to like with the metal zone.

Like I can't remember the last time I played.

Click it on once.

really play that way, but when I hear that pedal, I go.

I want to play like, I want to be like James Hetfield.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

And that's so cool.

People go metal zones suck or this pedal sucks.

It's like, no, you're just not using it.

In the right, you suck, you suck.

I honestly associated Metal Zone with Metallica because metal.

I was like, oh, that must be Metallica's pedal.

When I was a kid though, dude.

Metal Zone.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

And it still is, obviously, we just proved.

It's silk.

It ripped.

And this is the OG.

It's not even that walls of craft.

It's not even that walls of stuff that y'all.

Have these days.

My face right now is like, I'm so scared, but I'm not trying to show it because I don't know what it's going to sound like it's.

This one right here and I'm not going to click anything.

You can just.

What do you do?

You touch it.

Let me let me give you some gain First off.

Dude, gain me up baby.

Oh, hello, hello, there I am.

This is called a triple graph, I'll tell you that much.

OK, So what do you do?

Just touch it.

I don't OK.

But hold on, there's three, there's three tab.

That's pretty cool, right?

What is this middle one?

Oh, hey, Oh my gosh.

OK, that's weird because I'm not used to doing like a very like, that's hard, man.

It's like kind of hard who's who's got an ankle that can manipulate this pedal curl?

My ankle hurts.

OK, hold on.

These boots.

I didn't know I was going to be tap dancing today.

Hold on.

This guitar don't like me bro.

OK you're scaring me.

I already I've been looking at this pedal since I walked in.

You've been wondering what it is.

Telling you this thing's freaky looking dude, don't.

Let it out of your sight.

What is this thing?

Bro excuse me, this is Fern.

Where?

Fern where?

I don't know if it's supposed to be like hell, like because it's an echo pedal.

It's not a reverse pedal.

So it's, it's a German pedal, I believe.

OK.

You know, sometimes you accumulate gear doing this YouTube thing for a while.

I'm not 100% where or when I got this, but a very nice person surely sent it to me.

That's awesome and I appreciate it.

So it's a delay pedal.

OK, what do you what do you want me to do right now?

I.

Don't know.

I don't know how to do this one.

This is we're going off in the deep end together.

That's just the that's the break your amp button.

Stop, dude.

OK, this thing's got to mind.

Hey, it's like you play this really beautiful like and then you hit that middle thing and it's.

Just like you just blow up.

That's your artistic expression.

Listen, this pedal might be the one that you've been searching for your whole life.

I don't think it's the one I have.

No, there's a reason that one has a lot of dust on it.

Oof, there's a lot going on there dude.

There's so much happening.

I don't want to make it seem like I'm unappreciative of this pedal because I do appreciate gear that's sent to me.

Well, it's like anything, dude.

There's a sound inside there, There's a tone, there's a.

Now we know what it does.

So now if we ever have to dial in that exact Milky landscape.

Or if I ever want to sabotage someone's set.

And say you could just plug that into their back slip.

Swap it there.

You go.

Oh.

Wow, just my size dude.

What is this sorcery?

What's your eyeballs?

Going on Oh no are you trying to Oh my God, bro, that thing is sharp.

That's.

Oh, my bad.

Oh.

Thank goodness.

Does anyone else have a pet peeve?

Sometimes you'll see someone playing and they have like 3 you.

Can't do that, Stranglers.

Who's the you know you're?

Scaring me.

Look at this tree loop dude.

I did not.

I just restrung this bad boy.

I know she's going to be in tune.

I was working on her before.

You know what I noticed every time I pick up one of these little guitars, one of these little babies, they don't like to be in tune.

You really got to just twist on them a little bit.

This is an important part of weird gear is spending the time to get it right and get it.

You can't just take it out-of-the-box and it's all perfect.

Can't just take it off the rack and it's in tune, no.

There's always like a quirk.

You've got to earn this.

It's kind of like if someone says, well, what would you define weird gear?

I'd say it's got a quirk, man.

It's not something you just plug in like you know your Les Paul into the Marshall and go, Yep, there's the sound.

When we were talking to Tommy Emmanuel and I was like, you have a guitar that you like is never in tune.

You got to fight.

He's like, Oh yeah, instantly he was.

Oh yeah, he loves.

It.

Yeah, I don't hate it.

How did it feel in your hand dude?

Look, it's like it's the size of my eye.

It's cool.

I mean, this is the thing.

The hard part, like I was saying to you, is this, there's this little situation of like when a guitar is such a small scale, I guess when you approach it like I'd approach like a normal scale electric guitar, I feel like I'm like always a little bit out of tune or it's like it's like I'm bending too much or I'm like, you know what I mean?

I feel like with a guitar like this, if you had a smaller guitar, it'd make you play in a different way and you would just kind of feel things.

maybe the intonation's off a little bit.

Just a tiny bit.

But it's kind of fun, man.

I could see the bridge saddles just like.

Can we get a close up?

Sweet, sweet, sweet.

Baby needs a little work.

She needs some work.

She's a little, she's a little busty, but cool nonetheless.

I think like anything dude, there's a sound in them, but when your hand's the size of the body it is just a little different.

I can mess with you.

We go.

OK, get this thing out.

Of way, let's put it back in the guest room we're.

Going to put this back in the guest bathroom, all right?

I think that I think that concludes our weird gear episode.

We have more weird gear.

Maybe if you liked this episode, we'll do a part.

Two, we do have more stuff.

But like we mentioned at the top of the episode, not every episode is an interview, but every episode is filled with joy and love of guitar.

Also comment like, let us know what are some of your weirdest pieces of gear that you love because I'd actually be interested to know more about it because like I said, that synth pedal, maybe to some of you that's not that weird, but to me that was so sick.

That's true.

Jared is actually being exposed to new gear on every time he comes over here because I he's just like, look at this weird thing, man.

And I appreciate to, you know, fill that void in your life.

I would love to enable you in any way I can with a gear addiction.

Yeah, dude, it's, it's funny how like all of these things you could seriously justify.

Like, I don't need that.

But then I'm thinking about it right now and I'm like, oh, that law machine was really.

Actually, it wouldn't sound really good.

All it takes dude is 1 little infiltration in your set and then you're like, I got to bring it now.

I got to bring it.

It's got to go on the board.

Cool, we'll see if it ever ends up there, but we appreciate you guys watching, listening, supporting the show, No Cover Charge podcast.

Yeah.

Thank you guys.

And we hope whenever you're listening to this, you have a joyous, glorious day, and we'll see you next week.

Bye.

Bye.