Chronically Talking interview with The Chron • Premiered Nov 21 2023
[Note: Condensed and formatted for better readability. Some amount of A.I. was used to assist with the insane amount of raw text from the transcript. Apologies if we've missed some of the wonky reading lines]
WATCH HERE: https://youtu.be/rd-XuCwtDkw?si=nI-dqOpR6Wi_bujp
C.O.
How are you navigating the modern-day experience of being a solo musician and handling various roles like marketing and business?
Bunn
It's not a straightforward journey, as you can imagine. I delve into this extensively, discussing it in my email newsletter, YouTube videos, and various media. Many people inquire about the process, wondering how I manage it all. The truth is, it's tough, and not everything works. Wearing multiple hats is the reality, especially for those without significant funding. If you can afford it, hiring help, like an editor or a social media manager, is beneficial. However, for many, that's a luxury. There are options for those with limited resources, like tapping into student programs, but it's still a challenging path. Ultimately, it's not for everyone, and those suited for it usually already know.
C.O.
I've heard you discuss starting your channel with modest equipment, emphasizing the person behind the gear matters. Where do you draw the line between gear quality and the creator's skills?
Bunn
Absolutely. My approach is to do the best with what you have. I launched my channel in a tiny room with inexpensive gear, proving that quality doesn't always require a hefty investment. I lived in a modest apartment, worked in the same building, and made it work. You don't need the latest and greatest; you need the right tools to deliver what you want. Knowledge is crucial; having the latest gear won't help if you don't know how to use it. I recently documented an event with various cameras, including a phone, proving that understanding your equipment matters more than its cost.
C.O.
Do you think it's better to be a jack of all trades in smaller niches or to be in the most lucrative niche?
Bunn:
I think it's more a question of resources. Being a jack of all trades is strategically advantageous when resources are limited. It allows you to interact with every aspect of your organization or project. In my case, being a musician with a diverse skill set, acquired over the years, proved beneficial in various roles. However, it's not a one-size-fits-all scenario. Some people may find success focusing on a specific lucrative niche. It depends on personal circumstances, goals, and available resources.
C.O.
I'm still not really sure what Gary Vee does; uh, that might be a me problem.
Bunn
Gary Vee is, you know, his character is like, "Hey, I'm a Russian Jewish immigrant in the United States, and I came from the bottom up." The truth is, the guy is really smart and a workaholic. He preaches the gospel of hustle culture and all that. There's a division in the world about hustle culture, but I think it's valid. If you want something big, it's hard. It's really hard. You can talk about hustle culture all you want, but if you want something big or want to be a part of something big, bigger than yourself, it's going to be really, really hard. Even when it's good, you should never coast because that's usually when you should work harder; that's when your opportunity is to scale if your goal is to scale. Maybe your goal is not to scale, but, yeah, I get that whole hustle culture thing. Gary Vee is a very interesting personality. What does this guy do? He talks a lot, whatever, but he's very bullish on media trends, how the media industry is built, how it works—traditional media, social media, advertising, marketing—and the psychology of the market, the psychology of the buyer, what makes a customer, what makes a valuable offer. He's a master of all of that stuff for real. Anybody who kind of discounts him on that doesn't know what they're talking about. He's no joke, but he's a hard guy to keep up with because he's hungry.
C.O.
I wholeheartedly agree with your point about the importance of determination and the relentless pursuit of goals despite inevitable obstacles. Taking the plunge is commendable, but financial prudence is crucial to avoid dire consequences. If you have the means and have contemplated your venture, it's often best to act on it rather than overthink.
I'm also curious about maintaining an honest metric for what's interesting in a landscape that values a free-market approach. How do you balance the pursuit of authenticity with meeting the demands of a potentially broader audience?
Bunn
My perspective on the concept of "good" or "taste" differs. Rather than subscribing to universal standards, I believe it's about connecting with the right audience. For mainstream endeavors aiming at a broad consumer base, there's a need for qualifying metrics to satisfy a general audience. However, in niche markets like metal or punk, where deep passion for specific artists prevails, the dynamic is different. The "it factor" is about authenticity and resonance between the artist and their dedicated audience.
I recall an intriguing example: the band AIDS Wolf, an art project from Montreal, intentionally delved into music with no prior knowledge. Despite their unconventional and challenging approach, they built a substantial following within the niche. Their story reflects the power of genuine expression, even if it defies traditional notions of "good" or "tasteful."
C.O.
Moving beyond individual projects, do you ever worry that, in a landscape focused on building a personal brand, the music itself might become secondary?
Bunn
It's a fascinating thought experiment. As someone deeply immersed in the music scene, I've realized that individuals approach their creative pursuits from diverse perspectives. Whether as an entertainer, performer, singer, or producer, one's lens shapes their perception of success. The ease of entry into the music scene today doesn't diminish the challenge of reaching a level accepted by the audience. While occasional gimmicks may gain attention, they often fade quickly. There might be frustrations, like established artists opening for hyped newcomers, but staying focused on one's goals and not being swayed by external factors is crucial. The ability to pivot and adapt is a valuable asset.
C.O.
That's kind of what all those things end up being; they inform the future, I think.
Bunn
Absolutely. You realize that the thing that makes a business really work is change. It's about seeing what's happening and finding the product-market fit. It's not about manipulating the market; it's about making the product better. Maybe the band needs improvement, or the music needs to present better. I'm not saying this about my friends; it's a general observation. Sometimes, you need to present in a different way, or you have no presentation at all, and you've been stubborn about it.
One thing I've noticed in myself, especially, is that my biggest barrier to success has usually been myself—being stubborn or bullish about certain ideas or not knowing what I don't know. You don't know what you don't know, and that's a huge thing. As I get older, I wish I could go back to 20 and focus on learning as much as possible, being self-critical, and paying attention when others, who know more, are talking.
The fast-rising star, as a result of marketing hype or quick entry into a trend, could be in any category, music, video, or otherwise. The best thing is to focus on your own thing. It can be frustrating, but it's less so when you don't pay attention to it at all. Maybe ask, "What is interesting about it, and is there something I can understand that would be useful to me, philosophically?" It's a change in attitude that has evolved over the last 15 years. I've been doing the bun thing for a little over 10 years now. It was conceptualized in 2009, and in 2013, it was first actualized. It's been a long road, but there was a whole life of music before that. I did bands, the typical road, and had a much different attitude back then. There was a bit of jealousy, which I now see as more of a frustrated point of view. It might not be jealousy; it could just be frustration. You see someone in the other lane driving dangerously, and it's easy to get excited and start driving offensively yourself. Maybe it's best to chill out and get as far away from that person as possible or to pay attention and think, "I should never do that."
C.O.
There's also that. Some people also get the desire to educate that person, to say, "Hey, you need to realize it's wrong." That's one you must avoid at all costs. You should not be the proprietor of other people's lessons; that's life's responsibility. Nine times out of 10, you end up learning the lesson in the end.
Bunn
Yeah, I call it "dadding." Even if you're a woman, it's still “dadding.”.
C.O.
There's a lot there, though. I heard you on another podcast saying, and as soon as you said this, I was like, "Yeah," you said, "Who really cares about Dua Lipa?" And I also have to ask that question. I think it goes back to what we were saying earlier. Now we're really in this kind of rampant free market, and it's hard to watch people like that come through and get all this pedestalized praise as the new thing. But if you look at the average attention span of the people taking it in, and I'm not just saying her; I'm saying that level of entertainment.
Bunn
I think we should be clear and interject that Dua Lipa is the example. She's not the victim here. We're not picking on Dua Lipa; it's just an example of the archetype. Ten years ago, we could have said Katy Perry; it wouldn't have mattered. It's just that Harry Styles, who's the redhead guy, oh, Sheran, Ed Sheran, or any one of them— we're just talking about pop stars.
C.O.
Right, well, I'm glad we're at that point because I saw this the other day, and I just—I don't know, man. I know this isn't like a new practice, but I just want to bring this up: who is paying $3,000 for a Bruno Mars Fender Strat signature? Like, I don't think of that guitar when I think of Bruno Mars. I know he started as, wasn't he like a Michael Jackson impersonator?
Bunn
Yeah, he's a producer. He's a talented person. I don't know what his actual musicianship skills are. That world is actually very surprising. I've worked on the edges of the pop world, and I've seen certain things close enough. I've been surprised with some people's level of ability that was never publicized. Some of these people are monsters, like, they can do everything so good. I don't know Bruno Mars's full story. I do know he's a good producer. In terms of guitar playing and selling guitars, I don't know.
C.O.
I'm where you're at. I know what to do with it. It's not a dig at Bruno Mars; it's just, like, we were just talking about, it's the level of fandom. I don't know a Bruno Mars fan that—I mean, I'm sure there's somebody for everything, right? So there may be somebody, but I don't think the five people that are Fender Strat fans and also Bruno Mars fans to the extent that they're going to spend $3,000 on that guitar—which, by the way, when we get into this world of signature guitars, they really need to be something unique in order for them to do well. I mean, you look at the Jim Root Strat, and it's like, wow, a hard-tailed Strat that has EMGs and has 24 frets. I mean, this is a metal machine guitar, you know, and it's no wonder that that guitar is as popular as it is. I look at this, and I go, yeah, I mean, I could build that if that was my spec preference, but then, you know, we get to—I'm going to do my best to try and kind of explain this for the audience, someone who's not in our world and keep me honest if I start saying stuff that you're like, "Whoa, for sure, layman's terms."
Bunn
But, you know, there are little nitpicks that I, as an individual, could have, but the one thing that drives me nuts is when I see a $3,000 guitar and it's got vintage specs for a truss rod that I have to take the neck off of to adjust that thing. It's an instant no-buy.
C.O.
Yeah, that's like Fender's funny little branding for the fact that, "Oh yeah, it has a whammy bar." Okay, thanks. Is that on every Strat?
Bunn
I've never seen that before.
C.O.
There's nothing wrong with the way you answered that. I think that was great. Um, I just know that because, you know, your channel is of a particular size, I knew that you would have some experiences with something like that. Um, and I think every creator I've spoken to has a sort of different, um, a different answer to it. So I was curious about how that worked for you.
Um, I wanted to bring this up. I hope this will help the audience a little bit. I made this chart because I wanted everyone to kind of know when I accredited Bunn at the beginning of making most people aware of Baritone guitars. What we're talking about here. So I tried to, you know, do the same model so that visually it's not confusing for anyone. What we're looking at is a Gibson Les Paul. Yeah. We've got the regular traditional Les Paul at the top, and then you've got a bass guitar at the bottom. Um, the baritone sits between the regular guitar and a bass guitar, basically achieving lower tunings, lower frequencies. Um, and Bunn's kind of the guy that I think spearheaded everyone in the pandemic being, "Oh, I gotta buy a Warmoth neck for my Squire guitar." So you've obviously gone the opposite route again. It sounds like you've really gone back to your musical roots, and that's kind of what you've been doing.
Um, I mean, I know you're still doing streams on Bandlist. Um, but how has that been, taking that time away? Um, how are you feeling about that, and if I'm missing something, tell me.
Bunn
No, no, no. You're not, it's all good. Uh, I've definitely stepped away from... So I unintentionally stepped away from regular YouTube uploads besides the Bandless streams. Uh, as of, like, March last year, my last video was the video about micro labels, and it was sort of centered on I released a record, I released a 7-inch record, and, uh, it was sort of about that topic, kind of celebrating the record release, but more about that world of releasing records and, uh, everything leading up to that point. So I did a record release. I was making videos. I was finishing records. I was working on new records, um, and for many months previous, I was dealing with health things, unaddressed health things, health problems. Uh, I moved. I moved my mom. I moved my mom again. I had to do other family things, uh, and then I went to Vancouver to meet, uh, my partner's family, more of my partner's family. Nice. And, uh, she's from Vancouver, uh, British Columbia, which is very far from Toronto. And so a bunch of time away, a bunch of time doing other things, a bunch of things brewing up, uh, you know, due to just terrible habits, like just not sleeping enough, eating terribly, drinking a few too many beers on the regular, um, just, you know, regular life stuff catching up. And, uh, unaddressed anxiety, all that kind of stuff. So, uh, at some point, I was just like, I need to just focus on getting my life together and also focus on, like, why am I doing any of this?
So I don't know how long you've been grinding at, you know, the creative life, not just with the YouTube channel, just like on this path to try and do your own thing. Uh, for a lot of us, it's a lot longer than it seems. A lot longer than it looks publicly. Uh, the thing about it, about the path is you try a lot of stuff, and you end up with some things that kind of work better than others. And for me, like, YouTube was one of those things, and I and I really love... I never thought I'd ever be on a camera, like, previous to doing YouTube, I didn't like being on camera. I still don't like being on camera. But, uh, yeah, I never thought I would do anything like that with my life, ever. And then I did it, and I I saw something else in it that I never considered before artistically, like creatively.
Um, and the interesting thing about video is it touches... It's kind of like music in a way. It touches all these other mediums. Uh, the best thing about music is that it touches everything. It touches graphic design, video, audio production, photography, uh, copywriting, whatever, anything creative you can think of. Every creative medium possible, it touches all of them. And video is very similar. Um, but video, you express yourself from a different point of view, a different side, and there's a whole bunch of different ways you can do that. But I digress. On this path, you find these things. And for me, YouTube was one of those things that I'm like, "Oh, I like it. It's surprising. There's a lot to learn." But, um, you know, and it works really well in terms of connecting with people. The whole thing with a musician being a musician is you want to connect with people who are similar to you, who like similar things to you, which means, like, similar music, which is the music that you're making. And you want to meet other people who are making music kind of like you and all that kind of stuff. So YouTube was really great for connecting with all that. But you fall into this thing, and you just start doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it. And, and you get into this habit of doing it, and you think you're doing it for the cause. And to some extent, you are. Like, it is definitely serving. It serves to grow my connections and get my music out to more people and connect me with other people who are doing things in music that are interesting to me and all that. Very effective. But you get swept away with the whole thing, and you're like, "I don't really know why I'm doing this." Like, I know why. I know the core driver, but I don't know why I'm making the kinds of videos that I'm making exactly. I don't know who I'm actually trying to connect with. Like, what kind of meaningful relationships am I trying to build? Not to say that any of them are not meaningful, like a relationship is a relationship, but like, what are the kinds of relationships that really mean something to me and why am I trying to make them? Just questions I'm never really answered. And how does the... How do the videos and everything else fit together? So I ended up on this road of making all these videos, but it was just like picture like a train, but like none of the cars match, and even like some of the wheel sets don't match. So some of the train cars are just being dragged along the tracks and not even rolling.
C.O.
For sure. Yeah, it's part of what I was getting at without going too deep into that specifically. Feel free to share as much or as little as you want. I just wanted to put that out there so that people had the context going all the way back when we were talking about niches at the beginning. We were talking about niches off-camera before we even got started.
Bunn
One of the things that is really great, whether you're building a business, a music career, a YouTube channel, or something else entirely, is having a niche. Having a clear and distinct angle can be really helpful. Sometimes it's as simple as a person's demeanor or personality. We see that on YouTube a lot, where you might land on a channel, and it's just because this person has an interesting personality, and that's the niche. But there's still a niche. If it's quite successful, usually there's a niche. Occasionally, we'll see things that are successful that are not niched whatsoever—very general. But generally speaking, things fall into niches. One of the things about doing this YouTube thing, specifically YouTube because it's secondary for me, is that I'm a music person, a music artist. I know what I want to do there, and that's very niche. I can confidently anchor myself to that niche without any regard for regret. I can go full in happily with the YouTube thing. I adopted this mindset from having businesses, from having such a strong niche in my music life, from hearing other people talk about it, and also from seeing proof in the pudding. Like with the baritone content, it kind of took off. I hit a ceiling with it, but it was very niche. It was very about one thing. Even in the baritone category, it was niched down again. It was six-string baritone guitars specifically for heavy music over 27 inches in scale. It was very niche, a very narrow audience. But that's why an audience built around it. I saw it happen.
C.O.
Well, we needed you because I remember when the only videos on Warmoth baritone conversion were their own, and then yours came in, talking about the project.
Bunn
Right, things that you probably wouldn't think you would run into. I tried to include some of that perspective. It would be great if the project would be smooth sailing, but very few projects the first time around are smooth sailing. Sometimes people get lucky, but yeah, I digress. Niching down, there are a lot of benefits to it. The best way to get to a niche is to do so. How I got to the baritone niche is that I was using baritone guitars full-time myself. In the beginning of doing the YouTube thing, I made a couple of different videos. The video that popped off the biggest, my third or fourth video, was a demo of the Ibanez RGIB6 at the time. I had another video that did reasonably well before that about a bass amp. I did a few other videos about other things music-related but not so niche. When the baritone video caught on, I saw it and thought, "This is a thing." So I leaned into it. I was also learning how to make videos, so I wanted to run with it and go crazy. This was my opportunity to make videos about something that matters to me, is useful to somebody else, and I can practice making videos. I wanted to know more about making videos and had an interest in getting a cinematic image and all that kind of stuff. When I got to the end of that, I realized I haven't recorded much music or written much music since I've been on this baritone journey. The whole point of me being on YouTube is that I'm a musician, a music artist. Something's got to change. I don't have to worry about the baritone guitars. I always use baritone guitars. All of my projects are baritone guitars, so that's not going away. I'm just going to do it differently and talk about the whole thing of trying to make this music life thing work and what that is really about. Anytime I tried to find videos or resources about a lot of my questions, the things that were keeping me up at night, there's nothing. There's no roadmap. I thought, "I'll make videos about that because I don't even know what this path is, but I'll try and address things as they happen." That was my niche, but it's a difficult niche to define. It's also difficult to make produced content about it. Ideally, to make that content, it would be better if it was documented like documentary style. But to do that well, I would need somebody who could be a camera operator and follow me around some of the time. I could shoot some of it, but I would need somebody else to help me with stuff to do it right. So that's where I am. I haven't published since March, and I'm about to. It would be nice if I finish this video and got it out this month. But if it comes out in December, that's fine too.
C.O.
Well, I look forward to it, man. I hear everything you're saying. When I equate it to the opposite experience, often when I complete a produced video, I think in the back of my head, "This may be the last one." I feel like I'm out of ideas, but then something will hit, and I'm like, "Okay, thank God I have another one." I know what you mean about picking a market, operating in a niche, and continuing to deliver on that promise. But that's why I have to have the dichotomy on this channel of produced scripted videos, but I also have to do this podcast. If it was one or the other, eventually I would learn to hate that too. I'm in a pause with music because, like you, I've had to assess why I was even doing it in the first place. I found a lot of very honest things in that question. If you love something, let it go. That's where I'm at with music. I don't want to hate it. It was a place that I found so much belonging, knowledge, and for the first time in my life, I'm good at something. But right now, I'm letting it rest. That's not a sad thing. I just need a break.
C.O.
So if you weren't playing baritone guitars, I remember in a video, you were saying that ideally, you would not. What are some of the guitars that you play? What would you use instead?
Bunn
I need to come clean on that reference because there was definitely a video where I was expressing my frustration with baritone guitars. But I think the way that I did it wasn't very clear. My frustration is that nobody is producing baritone guitars that are optimum. Not one company, right? I don't dislike baritone guitars; I love them. I don't have options. Plenty of people are making baritone guitars, but none are addressing all of the issues. There's a bunch of issues with baritone guitars, and most companies just put a longer scale length on a guitar and sell it, done. Every company doesn't play the guitars. They just think, "We need a baritone model. Let's put a longer scale out the door. Great, we're in that market. We've expanded our market share." I was frustrated that way. I do like regular guitars as well. When it comes to guitars, I don't have a super strong preference for a guitar type. There are a lot of guitars that I really love. Telecasters tend to eke out, not because I'm in love with them, but because there's nothing to them. It's like a 2x4 with a slab of wood, and it works really well. They tune well, are really solid, and are moddable. They're a simple, great guitar. But I really love classic guitars—no fancy paint jobs or flame tops. Just wood, a wood body, a black body, a white body. Maybe vintage cream or vintage mint. I would never own one personally, but I think they look nice. Classic guitars, telecasters, and even stratocasters, but if I owned a strat, it would have to have a fixed bridge. I'm not a tremolo guy. So, Fender, when Bruno Mars's Telly flops, you just come talk to the Bun, and I'll hook you up with perfect specs.
C.O.
I'm right there with you, man. I grew up on Epiphone, so my first guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul. I upgraded to an SG, and I really didn't get around to guitars with whammy bars until I owned a PRS, but even that one, I blocked it. Yeah, I just don't like to mess with them.
Bunn
Yeah, I lock every guitar I've ever had with a tremolo. I lock it, other than the Gretsch; it has a Bigsby on it. The beautiful thing about a Bigsby is, if you don't touch it, it doesn't do anything.
C.O.
Right, you know? So do you do that trick where you put an eraser under the strings so that they don't fall out as you're changing them? You ever done that?
Bunn
I just put a, what do you call it, a capo. Oh, okay, nice. But changing strings on that thing is not my idea of a good day.
C.O.
Yeah, I remember, in, I think it was like a year or two after high school, my friend brought over his Sinister Gates Schecter, and he hadn't touched it in forever. You could just tell it was all grimy on the fretboard. I was like, I can't tell if that's gunk or if that's the Death Bat. But I was like, I'll set it up for you, and I gave it back to him with one string on it. I was like, I'm sorry, it won't cooperate. Like, they just kept flying out of that saddle, and it was driving me nuts. I was like, this isn't my guitar, so I can't smash it, but I really want to.
Bunn
For a minute of my life, I was like, oh, I think I want to do a setup shop; that would be a good job. But then I thought about tremolos. I thought about two things: tremolos and wiring configurations. Yeah, my favorite is, you know, a single coil in the neck, a humbucker in the bridge, done. I can get everything I need out of that. Maybe split the humbucker, but you don't even have to cause I got the neck single coil neck pickup and a fixed bridge. I'm like, that's it. I don't want to work on any guitars that are not that.
C.O.
Yeah, dude. I had the same thought. There was a time there where I thought I would maybe do a job as a tech or whatever, but then I started seeing some of the crazy ideas that these people—I'm like, are you guys hitting PCP before we get on the computer and, like, put this stuff together? Because I'm really, I don't want to take your Strat and carve it into some kind of X shape and then argue with you about why that's not going to sound good. I just, I don't know, man. My endurance and tolerance for people has really just kind of come to, like, a screeching halt. So I had to reassess that idea for sure.
Bunn
Well, I think there are people like you and I who considered for a moment maybe I want to be a tech, and then there's the thing that they like working on. Then they become, they actually jump through that fiery hoop, become the tech, and they have to work on day in, day out guitars they don't like working on. And so a lot of these folks, they want to do one of two things. They either want to, like, not deal with your guitar at all, so they just do the bare minimum and get through it, or they want to just, all it is now is a business transaction. They want to turn it around as fast as possible because they don't care. Their passion's gone. They got into it for one thing, and now they're working on stuff that they don't want to work on. And that happens a lot, I think, in the tech world. Another potential thing that might be going on with a lot of techs is people doing a business based on their beliefs of value. So one thing I run into a lot, I don't know, you tell me if you've ever experienced this, because I've never actually asked too many people, but I've run into so many times where I go to a tech, and I'm like, I want this and that and whatever done. And a lot of times, the first thing they'll come at me with is like, oh, well, that's going to be expensive or that's going to cost a lot. And I'm like, this is a business. I'm here to spend money. Yeah, you know? If the price is too high, like, maybe they're worried that the price is too high and that I'll leave. But maybe just give me the rundown and the options, and we can work it out together. Like, don't worry about what my reaction to the price is. Just tell me what the story is, and then we can figure out what we're going to do and how much it is. I can work on my guitars. I can do most things with my guitars. I can't do fretwork just because I don't have the tools. But like, if I wanted to, I could do the fretwork. I could buy the tools and do the fretwork. And I'm pretty handy. So like, you know, work doesn't nothing scare me about working on a guitar. And I've been doing my own setups for I don't know how long. So when I bring it to someone, it's because I just don't have the time, and it's way more valuable to me to just have it done.
C.O.
I'm trying to think when I was disparaged on something like that. Um, that has happened so many times at so many different places. Oh, it's going to be a lot. I'm like, I'm here to spend money. That's really strange, man. Yeah, for me, I would say more of my experiences have just been general incompetence. Right. So I'm and I'm hesitant to dive into the story only because I don't want someone who isn't in this world to be like, what the [ __ ] is he talking about? But right. Um, I too have, like, you know, brought in said guitar where I need parts changed. And I get it back, and maybe the new part's on there, but the new part didn't have the additional step that needed to be taken for it in order to be functional. And it's like, dude, are you kidding me? And they still charged me for the entire thing, but it was like, oh, I just forgot. I'm like, yeah, I don't know, man. And none of the none of the shops around me are close. So if mistakes get made, I'm having to drive another 40 minutes again, and I'm just like, nah. But my problem is, man, is that I like, I can't really set up my own guitars. Um, I can get close, but if some of the more exacting work like frets and string height in the nut aren't right, then I'm in trouble. And unfortunately...
Bunn
Don't be afraid of the nut. You can use like a nail file or, you know, just some emery cloth, like a pick with some emery cloth wrapped around it or just emery cloth folded. Like, you can kind of hack your way through it. And the key to the nut is go slow. Yeah. And one, just one thing at a time. Bam, pop the string in, rock the string. Be like, okay, a little bit lower. And yeah, you're always better off if you don't do too much with adjustments like that. Like, do a little bit, try, do a little bit, try, like, yeah. You can work on the nut for sure. And for folks who are wondering what the nut is, it's the thing that holds the strings on at the end of the neck.
C.O.
I have this problem, though, where I have like, I guess I could call it impatient psychosis where like I get in the process of doing stuff, and then I, like, you and I come too, and I'm like, oh, no, I got greedy. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, but that's good advice, man. Yeah. It is a process if go slow and take your time. And um, yeah, I think even I am getting to that point, though, where like I don't have any guitars in the house right now. Um, but the next one that does eventually make its way here, um, I'm gonna probably try and do as much as I can on my own because I'm just tired of trying of paying $95 for it to not be right. Yeah. So that's ridiculous, and most um, most setup procedure you can do yourself frets take a lot more uh, it's, it's just more work.
Bunn
It's not hard. It's just you have to be very patient. You have to go slow, and you have to do things in the right order. And if you do that, it's fine. But uh, if you're not set up to do it, and you just need it to be done, and you're going to do it for the first time, I don't know. Like, I think it's the kind of thing to ease into, to pick a beater guitar and bring a beater guitar back to life like a guitar to learn how to do frets. Yeah. But everything else, like you could buy a brand new $5,000 PRS, and you should be able to set the entire thing up yourself with confidence.