All Episodes

October 5, 2025 35 mins

Great tone shouldn’t be a luxury purchase, and Tom Miles is here to prove it. We invited the creator behind Tom’s Pedal Demos to talk about the sounds, strategies, and small choices that help players build inspiring rigs for a fraction of boutique prices. Tom lays out his clear budget tiers, explains why “less talk, more pedal” is his guiding motto, and shows how context—pickups, guitars, and amps—matters more than brand hype when you’re choosing a stompbox.

We get specific about signal chains and tone stacks, from the muscular synergy of a Boss OS‑2 pushing a Marshall JCM800 to the sleeper wins that happen when you put certain guitar pedals on bass. Tom walks us through his rotating test rigs, the reason he’ll re-demo the same pedal through different amps, and the practical Boss board he’d gig with tomorrow. If you’ve wondered whether a multi‑FX unit like the Boss ME series can hang next to a spread of individual stomps, you’ll hear why durability, speed, and simplicity often beat menu-diving and massive price tags.

Beyond gear, Tom opens up about rebuilding his chops, finding the right online teacher to unlearn bad habits, and booking gigs with a deadline to create momentum. We trade “oh no” gig stories, build a punch‑list for a trustworthy gig bag, and talk honestly about band dynamics—why singers can be both your edge and your headache, and how preparation saves shows. Expect shout‑outs to Joyo, Donner, Boss, and Peavey, plus a fast tour of influences that runs from Elvis and Kiss to Metallica and Slayer. If you want practical pedal advice, budget‑friendly tone tips, and a boost of confidence to keep playing, this one’s for you.

If this conversation helped you, follow the show, share it with a bandmate, and leave a quick review—tell us your favorite budget pedal and why it stays on your board.

Please text us and please supply us with your email so we can keep you updated with additional information

Support the show

Thank you and please visit our social medial sites to leave feedback and or support our project.


https://franklinsgaragetostage.buzzsprout.com

https://franklinsgaragetostage.com


Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob (00:02):
Hi, welcome to Franklin's Garage to Stage podcast.
My name is Rob WardrumsFranklin, and my co-host is Dana
Thunderbase Franklin.
How you doing, man?

Dana (00:13):
I'm doing good.
Yourself?
Really good.
Thank you.

Rob (00:15):
Hey, we're gonna start this episode with a little quote,
which I'm gonna start doing atthe beginning of these episodes.
And the reason I do it is Iconsider a band kind of like a
sports team.
And me and Dana grew up doingsports.
And what you always hear is uhnot only do you have to be
physically prepared, but yougotta be mentally prepared.
And so these quotes are kind ofan inspiration for me, and

(00:36):
hopefully they'll be aninspiration for you as well, uh,
when you're jamming.
And this one's by FrederickNietzsche, and it basically
says, without music, life wouldbe a mistake.
How true, huh?

Dana (00:49):
Oh yeah, I love that.

Rob (00:50):
All right, Danny, you want to introduce uh the guests we
have today?

Dana (00:53):
All right, yeah.
So today we have with us Mr.
Tom Miles, who is a uh you knowa musician and also a fellow
podcaster.
How you doing, Tom?

Tom (01:02):
Not bad, man.
Glad to be here.

Dana (01:04):
Good, glad to have you on.
So um let's get this startedwith you know, it's uh kind of
like an introduction to uh youryour podcast, which is called
Tom's Pedal Demos.
Tell us what that's all aboutand how you got going with that.

Tom (01:16):
Well, um a little while back, I just uh got into the
collecting pedals.
I don't know why I've alwayscollected stuff, and uh I got
back into guitar, as you guysknow, uh a little while back,
and um started collecting up allthese pedals and amps and
guitars and got to lookingaround, was like, I need to do
something with these things.
And I watch a lot of YouTube,uh let me tell you, and that's I

(01:39):
watch y'all's show or listen toit.
So I saw a lot of people doingthese YouTube shows, but the
thing that bothered me was theynever talked to the guy that
needed that was on a budget,everything was the most
expensive gear, you know what Imean?
I mean they're trying to sellyou the top-of-the-line stuff,
and their questions were neverwhat what would answer my stuff.

(02:00):
It was always, you know,megahertz and ohms and this and
that.
And I was like, I don't knowall that stuff, I don't care.
What's the pedal sound like?
So I started putting togetherall these cheap pedals and
thought, you know what, let's doa show where I can talk to
people that are new or oldergentlemen like me that are
getting into guitar or back intoguitar, and uh, you know, got

(02:20):
families in that, and don'tspend three four hundred dollars
on a on a streaming pedal oruh, you know, a uh uh Evan Tide
stuff like that.
You know, let's let's see whatwe got out here.
So I started doing it and uhit's done really well.
A lot of people have told methey appreciate the fact that
I'm not trying to sell $300pedals and I don't talk a lot in
my videos, so this is gonna befun.

(02:41):
I get to actually talk now.
I kind of just let it run andlet them, you know, my motto is
less talk, more pedal.

Dana (02:49):
No, I like that.

Tom (02:50):
So, you know, that's kind of the way we run, and uh, I've
gotten all over social media,kind of like what you guys have
done, and uh it's starting totake off a little bit, and I'm
very happy with it.
And it just makes me feel goodwhen people tell you that you
know you've helped them, you'vehelped them find pedals that
they didn't know existed.
So that's kind of how it alltook off.

Dana (03:09):
Cool.
Well, yeah, I mean, we we'vewatched quite a quite a bit of
your demos there, and you know,some of those pedals do sound
awesome.
Now, do you have a parameter asfar as you say they're budget
pedals?
Is there like a certain pricepoint that you won't go over?

Tom (03:21):
I mean, yeah, absolutely.
You know, it's funny you saythat because I just had to
reiterate this on my ex channelwith some guys, you know, kept
asking me to do all theseStryman pedals that are like 450
bucks, and I had to tell them Idemo cheap and affordable
pedals.
Cheap, one dollar to $29.99.
More than cheap, a little morethan cheap, $30 to $69.99.

(03:44):
Affordable, $70 to $100, alittle bit more up to about
$120.
And then after that, you got toloan it to me if you want me to
demo.

Rob (03:55):
Well, that was actually one of my questions.
I was gonna ask you if uh anycompanies supply pedals to you,
but apparently not, huh?

Tom (04:02):
No, the uh none of the companies yet, but I have had
some people send me some pedals,which has been really cool.
One that they trust me enoughto send them, knowing I'll send
them back.
And you know, two, that youknow, that they just I don't
know, maybe I'm justtrustworthy.
I don't know.
When you look here me talk, butyou know, I have gotten three
or four pedals.
I've had some people just giveme pedals, which has been really

(04:22):
cool.
You know, hey, I got a pedal Idon't use.
I thought you might could useit for your show.
They send them to me, and uh sothat's been really cool too to
find people that trust you likethat.

Rob (04:32):
Yeah, it is.
Now, do you use the same guitarand amp setup when you're
demoing the pedals, or do youuse different variations of
setups?

Tom (04:40):
No, I have um I have a crate excaliper, I have a
Marshall JCM 800, I have a BosKatana Gen 3 100 watt, and I
have a Bos Catana 50 watt comboMark I, and I have a Marshall MG
100 HDX FX, and I have a Line 6Spider 4, I think it is.

(05:04):
And then I have about 23guitars, and I what I try to do
is match pedals to differentpickup configurations and
different guitars and amps, andthen later on, it also allows me
the freedom to do the samepedal again later, even though I
do have a good bit of pedalsthat I can do the same pedal
again later, different setting,different amp, different guitar,
different pickup configuration.

Dana (05:24):
Oh, cool.
Cool.
So you mentioned a lot of a lotof equipment you got back
there.
Um, so what's what's youraddress and when are you not
home?
Exactly.

Tom (05:35):
Uh I hope there's nothing behind me you guys can see.

Dana (05:41):
So what what inspired you to do this podcast?
I mean, what was the number onereason you're like, you know
what?
Shit, I'm gonna go on YouTubeand and show this shit off.
How did what exactly how didthat come about?

Tom (05:54):
That's twofold.
One of them is kind of kind ofgreedy, is that I'm getting
towards retirement age and Iwanted to do something that I
enjoyed doing that maybe I couldhave some sort of small income
to continue to to you know dwellin the music stuff.
And number two, like I saidearlier, I just wanted to help
people that not every guy can goout and drop $300 on a pedal.

(06:16):
Yeah, you know, not every guycan just go out and spend
$15,000 on his setup.
I mean, we're not all youngguys anymore without families,
without grandkids, without, youknow, the the whole the whole
thing.
You know life.

Rob (06:29):
We sure do.

Tom (06:30):
And uh I just I wanted to help those guys.
Plus, I run into so many peoplethat also thank me that I don't
throw big words at them.
I don't throw all these thingsabout the electronics in them
and that.
All I do is turn the knobs, letthem see where they go, tell
them what the pedals hooked toso that they know what pickups
and that are being used, andthen they can go out there and
hook it up themselves.

Rob (06:52):
Okay.
Now, for the people uh thatdon't visit our website, we're
gonna put links and everythingon our website to your uh
different social medias, but canyou uh basically say where you
can be found at?

Tom (07:04):
Yeah, a couple places.
Um I'm definitely on YouTube atTom's at Tom's Demo pedals.
Pedal Demos, sorry.
Um you can also find me X.
I have a huge following on Xall of a sudden.
In the past two months, I'veput up about almost 1,300
followers.
And I just made it clear thatwe only talk guitars, pedals,

(07:24):
amps, drums, bass, that is it.
You talk about anything else,I'll have you, you know, I'll
block you.
And uh it has gone very well.
I I I have a huge followingthere, and we discuss a lot of
things, and that's where a lotof my loaners and that have come
from, people getting in touchwith me.
So I have that, and that's it.
Also, everything is Tom's pedaldemos, whether it be my

(07:45):
Instagram, my uh buy me acoffee, my ex my YouTube
threads.
You guys know the deal.
You gotta get on all of them ifyou want to.
And they're all the same.

Dana (08:02):
Cool.
Like so, um, how how long haveyou been playing guitar and tell
us a little bit about like bandsituations that you might have
been involved in, you know,earlier on in your career?

Tom (08:12):
Well, again, I'm one of those guys that spent more time
in the bedroom playing than Idid out in real life, but
because of just you know mybackground of working and that,
but I started when I was about13, 12 or 13, and had a lot of
fun.
Of course, as a kid, you'retrying to meet girls and you
figure guitar is the quickestway to it.
So, you know, I learned to playguitar then.

(08:33):
My first band was uh seventhgrade, 13 years old, uh, which
I'll have a story for you aboutthat later.
But uh you know, and um off andon through the years, I joined
the army, quit playing, youknow, left my equipment with my
mother and father, and then Ihit the road working on aircraft
as a contractor and just got toplay off and on.
Then I got here to where I livenow, and uh everything kind of

(08:56):
fell into place.
And I had a friend that wantedme to teach him guitar, and I
was like, dude, I'm not ateacher, I can't teach you
nothing.
But I said, I tell you what, Iwill do if you'll learn to play
bass, I will put you in a bandand get you on stage within six
months.
And this is a guy you have tounderstand that if he puts his
mind to do something, there'snothing in the world that he
can't be good at.
And he came back four weekslater with all 30 songs that I

(09:19):
had given him and was ready toplay.
Very cool.
And so I went and booked a gigwith no band.
I gave us three months.
I went and found a guitarplayer, a lead guitar player, a
drummer, and a singer.
We put it all together and wentout and played.
And I got him into three gigs.
He played three gigs live, andthen he was done.
He was like, That's it.

(09:40):
So then I was done.
So from 2002 to just before2004, we played there in that
time, and that was about it.
And then I put it all up, soldmy PA, sold a bunch of gear, was
done with it.
I didn't want to deal withsingers no more.
And then about a year ago, twoyears ago, I picked it up.

(10:00):
I I forgot all my bad habits, Ilet them all go.
I got online, I found a guitarteacher.
You know, you you got thesehundreds of guitar teachers
online, oh yeah and on YouTube,and I found one that I liked the
way he talked, the way hetaught, and tried to learn
relearn everything, all the badhabits that I had, and then uh
just started playing again, andnow I'm enjoying it again, and

(10:20):
that's the main thing.
I'm having fun with it.
So I'm considering maybegetting back into something.
I thought about it about a yearago, six months, eight months
ago, and the time just wasn'tright with the new job and
everything, which we finally gotthat straight, got a new
schedule.
So now I'm back, but now thisYouTube thing's got me so busy.
Oh my god, well, I ain't gottatell you guys trying to run a

(10:43):
podcast and a channel is uh it'sa it's a it's a job in itself,
but I hope to actually putsomething together and go play
live at least one more time inthe next year or two.

Rob (10:53):
There you go, cool.
Well, getting back to yourshows, uh, do you have an
average length of time you tryto keep your shows to, or is it
kind of very no, no, that's agood question because that was
another thing.

Tom (11:04):
You try to watch somebody and they talk for the first 20
minutes before you ever get toit.
I try to keep them at first.
The first few, if you go backand look, will be between six
and seven and a half, eightminutes.
And I thought that was too longbecause people's attention
spans just not that long when itcomes to watching somebody just
turn knobs.
So I've got it down now.
The the last seven or eightI've done, I've tried to keep

(11:26):
under five minutes.
I've kept them in thefour-minute area, but some
pedals just have so much onthem, man.

Dana (11:32):
Oh yeah.
Okay, so with all your pedals,uh now how what's the quantity?
How many pedals you gotexactly?

Tom (11:41):
Right now I'm at 103.
I just counted them the otherday because I took a big group
picture.
I laid them all out and took apicture and put it on my X for
some for some people that wereasking, and it was 103.

Dana (11:51):
Oh, impressive.
I like it.
Okay, so out of those 103, uh,which is your favorite?

Tom (11:57):
Uh you know what?
I knew you were gonna ask this.
I knew you were gonna ask this.
I went in there just to makesure I had my stuff straight.

Dana (12:03):
Yeah, I mean that that's a tough question, of course.
It's like asking what yourfavorite guitar is.
I get it.
So you know, if you had if youhad to narrow it down, you know,
somebody's putting a gun toyour head and it's like, you
know, you take one of thesemotherfuckers, you're dead.
Which which one is it?

Tom (12:16):
You know what?
I think that if I was using myJCM 800, which is my my main
ant, the ant that I love, if youtouch my JCM 800, there would
be problems around the house.
It would have to be my OS2,which is my um boss overdrive or
distortion pedal, and thatpedal fits my JCM 800 to a T.

(12:36):
So distortion-wise, it wouldjust have to be that because it
pushes me right over the edgethat I'm getting the perfect
distortion sound that I wantright now.

Rob (12:44):
Cool.

Tom (12:46):
Uh, what kind of thing just so you know, whichever one you
got?
I've the bass player here.
Oh, yeah.
You know, they can't see you inthat.
Yeah, I just want you to knowthat I found some guitar pedals
because people asked me to dothis stuff on bass, and I only
have three bass pedals, so I hadto start using some of my
guitar modulation pedals.
And man, let me tell you, I'vegot some pedals that are way

(13:08):
better on bass than they are onguitar.

Dana (13:10):
Oh, well, we're gonna have to talk about that.

Tom (13:13):
Yeah, that Joyo Vision, if you haven't tried it yet, man,
you might want to throw thatthing on, and it's less than 80
bucks.

Rob (13:20):
Sweet.
Cool.
So, Tom, what kind of feedbackhave you had from your viewers?

Tom (13:25):
Uh, you know what's it it's it's been really great because
you know, when you go into this,and I'm sure you all have heard
the good and the bad and theugly, and people try to put you
down because people don't wantto know that want you to know
that you're doing a good job orthat you know that they like
you.
That I would have to say out ofthe three months, four months
that I've been running this, youknow, really, really hard, you

(13:46):
know, like it means something,I've only had two people out of
probably a few thousand thathave given me any problems that
have, you know, been smart assesor tried to put me down.
And I've actually had a guythat tried to do that on my ex,
and I didn't even have to sayanything.
My entire ex family jumped him,and I've never seen him again
since.
Oh, that's cool.
That's very cool.

Dana (14:06):
Yeah, that's cool.
And you get the people that arebacking you up.
It's like, hey, you leave thisshit alone.

Tom (14:10):
Yeah, so I've had really good feedback, you know, for the
most part.
I'd say about 98% of it hasbeen really, really good.

Dana (14:17):
Cool.
And are you getting any umgetting any response like
internationally from overseas?

Tom (14:23):
Um I have gotten a few people.
I got a guy from Bulgariaactually is sending me a pedal,
but from Bulgaria, it's a slowboat from China.
Yeah, and uh I'd like to givehim a shout out because if
nobody's ever seen his pedalstuff, he's a little bit more
expensive.
I mean, he's got a few in theaffordable range, but a little
bit of his stuff because that'she's a boutique uh builder, but
SBI Sounds builds some of thewildest looking stuff you'll

(14:46):
ever see in your life.
It's almost steamboat lookingor steampunk looking.
I'm sorry.
Yeah, and uh I'd like to givehim a shout-out.
And there's been a few from uhoh, I have a bunch of people
from England that talk to meregularly.

Rob (14:58):
Nice.

Tom (14:58):
So that's that's going really well.
And then, of course, I have acouple from Italy, and I can't
understand what they're tryingto write to me, but it's nice
because it they got smiley facesafter it, so I'm guessing it's
good.

Dana (15:09):
Cool, cool.
Yeah, we've we've noticed that,especially you know, from the
UK, that you know, those peoplethey know their music out there.
That's all it's too.
They've got their shit down.

Tom (15:18):
Oh man, you're not kidding.
You're not gonna put you're notgonna trick them either.
You're not gonna put somethingout thinking that you're you
know getting over because theywill call you out in a minute.
Oh, hell yeah.

Dana (15:27):
Yep.
Okay, so we talked about yourfavorite pedal.
What is there a pedal that youwould say is you know, any
negative negativity about?
Would you just be like, youknow, people don't waste your
money on this shit, it's notworth it.
I mean, uh what's the extremethere?

Tom (15:41):
I try not to say that because maybe it is a pedal
that's so cheap that that's theonly thing that they could
afford, you know, and I don'twant to I don't want to put them
in a position to where theydon't, you know, where they feel
like they can't buy a pedalbecause it's only you know 20
bucks or something.
But I tell you, I got a pedalthat I was really high on.
A guy sent me from Californiacalled um, I guess I'll throw it

(16:01):
out there, the K-line ghost uhoh god, ghost rain.
Sounds cool, beautiful pedal,all white with a little ghost on
it and everything.
And I swear to God, I can'tthrow that thing at a wall and
make it do anything.
But you know what?
That's another pedal though.
I hooked the bass up to it, andit did get a great reverb on

(16:23):
the bass.
The delays was sorry, but thereverb was great.

Rob (16:28):
Cool.
All right, well, Tom, we'vealways got a uh a little segment
we call Oh shit.
Where it's basically you'vedone something either in your
show or when you during a liveperformance or maybe even a
practice where something's justgone terribly wrong where it's
uh oh shit moment.

Tom (16:47):
Oh man, I'm gonna go way back.
This is a story I was gonna Iwas telling you.
This is this is so far back,this is the very first time I
ever played in front of people.
And this is how bad it was.
We were a four-piece band.
I played guitar and sang.
We were playing at school,junior high.
They had allowed us, I don'tknow why, but they allowed us to

(17:08):
come play in front of everybodyat the at a uh pep rally, and
we were doing cat scratch fever.
And we got there and startedunpacking all of our gear and
found out they only had twoplugs where we were playing at.
So I didn't even get to yes, soI didn't even get to play
guitar.
All I did, I had and wecouldn't hook up our little

(17:30):
bitty PA.
I had to plug into the otherguitar player.
You know how the older amps hadtwo plug-ins that were that you
could run.
And uh our bass player took oneplug, the other guitar player
took the other plug, and I hadto run the microphone into his
extra, his low game and singthrough his amps while he was
playing.
And I mean that I tell youwhat, that taught me a lot, and

(17:52):
that's another thing aspect I'veadded to my show is Gear Talk,
where I do as a brand new, andthis fits right into what you
guys do here and what you'retalking about.
The 10 biggest things as a newgigging musician must have in
your gig bag.

Rob (18:08):
Cool.
Good idea.

Tom (18:12):
Because you're gonna you're gonna find out you need it
sooner or later, like duct tape.

Rob (18:17):
Hey, that's a great idea.

Tom (18:19):
So I'm I'm working on that one right now.
I gotta put the bag together soyou know I have everything
right there.
But uh yeah, that's I Iremember that, and I remember
after it was over with all Icould think is I didn't even get
to play guitar in front of allthese people.

Dana (18:34):
Yeah, a lot of our oh shit moments or just talk to other
musicians and band members havebeen, you know, our our number
one rule is you gotta beprepared because you know, if
you haven't thought about it,you know, look it up or be
prepared for every instance orcircumstance because the shit
won't happen at the worstpossible spot, and you know, you

(18:56):
won't be prepared for it, andpeople are gonna look at you
like you're just an idiot.

Tom (19:01):
You know what, you know, and this ain't a shot at nobody
because I know you guys are Ithink a drummer and a bass
player.

Rob (19:07):
Yes, right.

Tom (19:08):
And I found as the guitar player that half the stuff in my
bag gets taken by my drummerand my bass player because they
don't have it.
Hey man, can I get your ducttape?
Hey man, can you can you takemy symbol up up here?
Hey man, can I get that rightthere for my amp?
Hey man, my cores are here.
Hey, you got an extra pick?
All the time.
You got a battery?

(19:28):
My my back my power pack wentout, man.
Can I get a battery?

Dana (19:34):
Yeah, we've we've said we've said many times on our our
shows, it's like you know, bandmembers are they're family, and
you just gotta deal with itbecause they're gonna they're
gonna act like a family and belike, dude, give me that shit.
I I need it.
You know, what do you mean youdon't have that?
I need that.

Tom (19:49):
And you know, that's why I just threw it in my bag because
I figured if if if I have it, atleast we have it.

Dana (19:54):
Yeah.

Tom (19:55):
If I don't have it, and then you don't have it, well now
we got bigger problems.
We're tripping on shit, we'refalling over stuff.

Dana (20:01):
Well, you know, this you know the singer, and this is no
no no shit against singers, butthe singer ain't bringing shit.
Oh, he's bringing oh, he'sbringing his attitude and his
stage presence.

Tom (20:11):
That's all his attitude, and and if you're lucky, he
brought his own microphone.
You know, because half the timeyou got to buy the mic for him
to use too.

Rob (20:21):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
TA sometimes.
Yeah, we've been through allwith singers.
Yes.

Dana (20:28):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've had an audition where the
singer just came with withouteven a mic.
We're like, dude, what thefuck?
Are you serious?

Tom (20:34):
Man, you know, I that's don't even get me started on
singers.

Dana (20:40):
But you know, you gotta have them, and the good ones are
worth their weight in gold.
Oh, yeah.

Tom (20:44):
Yes, they are.
When you get a good one, you'reyour band will take no matter
how the rest of the bandperforms, just about if your
singer is good and can keeppeople interested, you're good,
you're gold.

Rob (20:53):
Yeah.

Tom (20:53):
I mean, that's after the show, you just want to take him
in the back and strangle.
Because he ain't helping youload, he ain't helping you put
stuff in the truck.

Dana (21:05):
So with the new music stuff, what are your uh what are
your big influences?
I mean, how did you get startedin music to start with?
That you know, at what age?
I mean, I know everybody's Ithink I was like eight or nine,
and listening my brother hereplay the drumps got me going,
but he started playing someearly like Blue Oyster Colt and
Ted Newtons.
Like, oh, I love this shit.
So what was it for you?

Tom (21:24):
You know, it's funny because my actual very first
musical influence, and you guysmay laugh at me, but I was a
huge Elvis fan when I was aboutfive to eight.

Rob (21:35):
Hey, nothing wrong with that at all.

Tom (21:37):
I I owned every Elvis, every Christmas birthday.
I was like, I want this album,Mom, and she'd buy me, you know,
because she loved Elvis too, soshe had no problem buying it.
And then about fourth gradehit, fifth grade, we came back
from Germany, and I saved up tendollars and I got Kiss of Life
too, and I was done.
And uh dressed up like KISS,had to be Kiss, you know, did

(22:00):
the little shows out frontpretending to be Kiss.
And then all of a sudden, itwas like a guy hit with the with
the Southern Rock thing movingto Georgia, and I got into Molly
Hatchet and Leonard Skinner.
A lot of Skinner, like a lot ofSkinner growing up.
Uh the Outlaws, man, I lovedall, and I still don't think any
of those guitar players get thecredit they deserve.

(22:21):
No, Dwayne Holland and all ofthem from Molly Hatchet, none of
them they don't get any creditfor what they accomplished.
And then, of course, you know,you get into the 80s and uh Hair
Rock hit, and uh I was adocking fanatic, and then I
heard Metallica's ride thelightning, and it was done.

Rob (22:38):
There you go, cool.

Tom (22:38):
So now you know it's it's even today.
I'm still Metallica.
Slayer is probably my favoriteband besides Kiss ever.
Kiss will always be my band,but Slayer, old Metallica from
Elvis Presley to Slayer.

Dana (22:52):
I like it.
Yeah, huh?

Tom (22:54):
Well, dude, you have to see my iPod.
You say that, but I've goteverything from Prince to Elvis
to Slayer to Metal Church toMichael Jackson.
All right, that's a stress.
That's all right.
You know, if if if they playsomething, I want to hear the
beat, I want to hear what thewhat the bass player is doing, I
want to hear what the drummer'sdoing, I want to know what the
guitar player is doing to carryit, you know.

(23:15):
So I I listen to it all now,but yeah, kiss, then into
southern rock, and thenMetallica.

Rob (23:21):
Cool.
Okay, well, we always ask uhfellow musicians like, what
would you say to new musicianscoming up?
What would be yourinspirational words to them?
And and uh also like let's sellsome more on your show.

Tom (23:38):
Oh, okay.
Um, I didn't know you were donethere.
No.
Uh my the one thing I wouldtell all the young guys that I
meet and young kids is um don'tlet nobody tell you that you
can't do it.
No matter what you're playing,even if you're not good yet, it
you're not gonna get good unlessyou're back.
I'm not I'm 58 years old andI'm still not good.

(23:59):
I mean, I can get by, I canplay with people, I can I can
make it happen.
If you give me the song, giveme long enough, I can learn
anything just about.
I'm not a lead guitarist, I'm arhythm guitarist.
I know that, I've lived withthat.
I've played with some of thebest lead guitar players I've
ever met, so I'm I'm good withthat back seat.
But don't let nobody tell you,hey, you can't do this, or
you're not good enough, oryou're never gonna be good

(24:20):
enough, because that's allbullshit.
It just takes practice.
Take the time to play, even ifit's only 20 minutes a day.
If you have a job or somethingas a young guy, and you know,
your parents expect you to doother stuff around the house.
Just take that 20 minutes andrun your scales, run some
chords, you know, run yourfinger exercises.

Rob (24:37):
Good advice.

Tom (24:38):
But uh, that would be the main thing, and and and also
don't think you have to own themost expensive equipment in the
frickin' yard, you know,building.
You don't have to own the mostexpensive equipment.
Let me tell you something.
The best amps I still say tothis day ever built were PD
amps.

Dana (24:53):
Yes, thank you, brother.
Oh hell yeah.

Tom (24:56):
Anybody can tell me, try to tell me different, but there's
nothing that beats the old, youknow, chorus amp and the renown
and and the deuce.
Man, them, yeah, you could killsomebody if you dropped it on
them, but them, they werebulletproof and they did
everything you needed, and theytake pedals as well, if not
better than almost any ant builtto this day.

Dana (25:17):
See, now you're you're you're a man right in my world.
I I still play through a PBMark Mark IV base head, and I've
had that thing for 40 years.
And it's like I said, yeah, Ican kill somebody with it
because it weighs about 80pounds.
But the thing isindestructible.
I mean, I've it's playedthrough hundreds of live shows,
been beat up, thrown in U-Haulsand back of cars, and probably

(25:39):
been pissed on a few times.
But I mean, that thing is isit's like you said, oh hell
yeah.

Tom (25:44):
Yeah, you can't do nothing to a PV and destroy it just
about it.
I mean, you really have to tryto destroy one.
And to this day, right now, I'mstill trying to buy an old PV
amp, but people are starting torealize it, let me tell you,
because I tried to buy abackstage 30 a few weeks ago,
and that guy wanted 250 bucksfor that thing.

Rob (26:02):
Yeah, I've got to do that.

Tom (26:02):
And I was like, No, I'm good with that.
Hey, and and speaking of youramp and that, I forgot to tell
you at the beginning of this, Ihave a base amp and base now,
and I have an Ivanz SDGR fourstring, and I have a Hartkey
model 2000 head on top of aHartkey 115 cap.
That's my base setup for that.

Dana (26:22):
Hey, you know, it's got the 15 inch, it's dumping, I
hear you.

Tom (26:27):
But uh yeah, that's all that's the main thing I would
tell even, and I say youngpeople, but even the older
people like me that are just nowgetting into this, just do your
thing.
Don't worry about whateverybody else thinks.
And if it's and if you got ahundred dollar amp, play a
hundred dollar amp.
That's all you need until youget to the point if you're gonna
play live.
And that's the other thing.
Unless your gear is paying yourbills, you don't have to have

(26:51):
top of the line.
Yeah, you don't have to havethe best stuff.
I can I can play in my bedroomand use any one of those hundred
pedals I have in there and finda sound that I can sit in there
and jam to and enjoy.
Well, except for that ghostring.

Dana (27:06):
There's always one in the trout, right?

Tom (27:08):
I can't find nothing for that thing, but the rest of
them, but uh, there's a lot ofbrands out there people need to
keep their eye on.
They had Joyo.
Joyo is making great stuff now.
Their 1030 series, man, thatthat stuff is hardcore, and then
their new Revolution series isgreat.
Donner for the mini pedals,man.
You can put 15 of those on aregular size board, you know,

(27:30):
because they're small, greatsound.
And and none of that stuffcosts more than 60-70 bucks a
shot, and a lot of those donorsare 30 bucks, you know.
Get them.
And the Joyo 1030 series arerunning 20 to 30 dollars.

Dana (27:43):
Yeah.
So what do you think about someof the um some of the pedal
boards that have all thesedifferent presets and individual
you know channels where you canmake your own sounds, you know,
I have Oh, you know what thefractional, the fractional
sticks and the line pod and allthose things?
Yeah, I've got, you know, Imean, I, for example, you know,
my my setup is I play through aboss eme 60, and it's got you

(28:06):
know like 64 presets and 32 moresounds that I can make.
And of course, it's got thechorus distortion, flanger, the
wah, you know, all that builtinto one.
Um, I mean, there are times Iwish I had individual pedals
because you gotta, you know,mess around with a couple
different things to get theright sound, and then you gotta
remember how many times yougotta push that button to get to
that sound.
So it's a little bit a littlebit more technical, but how do

(28:30):
you feel about those all-in-onesystems?

Tom (28:32):
Well, you know, that ME60, I have the ME50 for my guitar.
Okay.
And I swear by that board.
If you told me tomorrow, Tom,we need you to come, we got
about five songs here, we needyou to know, and we need you to
come out and play tomorrow.
I take that ME50 and not lose aminute's sleep over using it.

Dana (28:47):
Nice.

Tom (28:48):
I think those boards I I use my I don't know how your
board's set up because it's abass board, but mine has over 22
distortion sounds.
I've got a compressor built in,I've got a built-in noise gate,
I have chorus modulation,flanger, and octave up and down.
Everything's in mine.

Dana (29:05):
Yeah, yeah.

Tom (29:06):
And I'm sure yours is the same way.

Dana (29:08):
Same deal, yeah.

Tom (29:08):
Then you so I would and I, you know what, and I tell people
to get that thing when whenpeople on X and S say, hey, how
do you because they ask the samequestion, how do you feel about
these boards?
Because I don't care for thefractals and all that.
Yeah, they're top of the line,but they're fifteen hundred
dollars, they better doeverything you want them to do,
they better do more.
But uh these uh these boss anddigitech boards and that, if you

(29:30):
can figure out how to use someof them, because some of them
digitech boards, you got to havea college degree to get them.
Oh yeah, I mean, they are butuh I would put that boss board,
I would tell anybody get thatboss FX uh all in one FX and and
take it out and use it, take iton the road.
I could I could kill you withmine, buddy.
I hit you in the head with itand knock you out.

(29:51):
It's so heavy and so big.
Yeah, but I also know I've hadit since 2003 and have never had
a problem with it.

Dana (29:58):
Cool, yeah.
Same with.
Me, I I love the boss stuff.
I mean, I always have, evenwhen I had individual pedals,
they were mostly the boss ones.

Tom (30:06):
So cool.
But you can't beat them for theprice and the way they're built
and the sounds you can get.
I just built a boss boardactually.
I uh I built a board becauseI'm trying to build some boards
and you know, so people can seehow you run the cabling and all
that when you build one fromscratch.
And uh I built a boss board theother day.

(30:26):
It's got nine pedals on it, orseven nine pedals on it, and I
love that board.
It's got all the basic bosspedals, probably the same ones
you're talking about.
I got the OS2 and the DS1.
I've got an SD1 on there, theBF3 flanger, the DD6 delay, you
know, NS2 noise suppressor, theEQ7 for my boost in that.

(30:49):
And I love that board.
And I can tell you right now,that board wouldn't cost more
than $300 with all nine pedals,the board and the power supply.

Dana (30:59):
Yeah.
Nice.
All right, so um to close thisout a little bit here, I you
know, you know, Rob opened upthis whole episode with uh with
the phrase, and I'm gonna do thesame closing it.
And the mine is you know, musicis life, so keep listening so
you can stay among the living.
I mean, nice how does that notfit every musician in the world?
Exactly.

Tom (31:19):
No, that that that should be that should be how you live
your life because I tell youwhat, music has helped me and
tons of friends that I have outjust during bad times, have
something to sit and listen,whether you're sad or you're
happy or you're angry, exactly,or whatever it may be.
You know, you throw somethingon, you sit back, close your
eyes, you listen to it, and justlet the world kind of melt away
for 30 minutes or an hour, youknow, while you while you're

(31:41):
jamming.

Dana (31:42):
Hell yeah.

Tom (31:44):
And if you're gonna do that, do it to Slayer's raining
blood.
It's only oh, there you go.

Rob (31:48):
Very cool.

Tom (31:51):
And uh it'll get you going again.
You'll be ready to go out andand punch yourself for
something.

Rob (31:57):
Well, Tom, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking with
you today.
And uh uh keep going with yourwith your YouTube videos that
because they're they'reoutstanding.
But in closing, what would youlike to say to your viewers?

Tom (32:09):
No, um, I'd just like to first of all thank all everybody
that's jumped on the um thepedal train with me, you know,
right here from the beginning.
Um I hope they stick around andhope they know that everything
I do, you know, I try to do notjust for me, but for them.
I know it sounds corny, but youwouldn't do this if you weren't
trying to reach people, if youweren't trying to uh help them

(32:29):
out.

Dana (32:29):
So that's exactly why we do our show.
I mean, we're not in it to getrich or to fame and fortunate,
but just to help out, you know,fellow musicians who are either
just starting out or maybe in alittle bit of a rut and they've
got a band, but they don't knowhow to get any, you know, any
farther as far as playing onstage, or even once they're on
stage, you know, how do you getyou know lawyers and everything

(32:50):
else involved?
So you know, just here to helpeverybody through every step in
life in the musicians' world.

Tom (32:55):
And y'all keep it up because uh what you do is is
helpful.
If I was a younger guy andactually trying to you know make
a living at this, a lot of thestuff you guys put out is stuff
that I would need to know then.
And uh that's good.

Rob (33:08):
Cool, thank you.
Appreciate that.
All right, well, Tom, well,thank you and to everybody,
thank you for listening andbeing loyal listeners and peace
out.
Yep, love y'all later.
Bye.

Tom (33:18):
See you guys later.
Bye bye.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.