This week on the podcast I'm talking to Ryan Lynn of Eastide Guitar Repair, Hank Failing of Hank's Music Exchange, and Brad Boynton of Rhythm Traders.
All of these exceptional musical entrepreneurs have com together under one collective roof here in Portland, OR to form a one of a kind independent Music Mall.
I sat down in their basement to get the story of how they came together and how they see this new endeavor serving the local music scene and beyond.
It is a really cool episode with some really cool dudes! I think you'll dig it, so dive in and listen!
Check Out Hank's HERE https://www.hanksmusicexchange.com/
Check out Eastside Guitar Repair HERE https://www.eastsideguitarrepair.com/
Check out Rhythm Traders HERE https://www.rhythmtraders.com/
Support The Show And Connect!
The Text Chat is back! Hit me up at (503) 751-8577
You can also help out with your gear buying habits by purchasing stuff from Tonemob.com/reverb Tonemob.com/sweetwater or grabbing your guitar/bass strings from Tonemob.com/stringjoy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1:10:31
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1:10:31
Bark at the Moon: Inside Moon Guitars with Kyle Wolfe
Blake sits down with Kyle Wolfe of Moon Guitars to chart the journey from teenage Van Halen brain-melt to full-tilt luthier madness.
Kyle gets “voluntold” into his cousin’s repair shop, learns the craft one fret polish at a time, and discovers that carving his first Tele body flips the big red switch that shuts up the brain gremlins.
We get into launching Moon in 2018, ditching repair work, and the unsexy truth about small-shop economics: time costs, dust flies, and quality wins—or it doesn’t ship.
Kyle talks outsourcing finishes like a grownup, chasing a truly affordable line (factory samples inbound), and his design sweet spot.
We are talking familiar bones with pointy ’80s attitude. Sparked by the Fender Performer and blessed with actual John Page template tracings. We hit the Blood Moon, Troublemaker, Crescent Moon, and Zenith; the Mjölnir collab with Ravenkelt; how the Internet sometimes actually delivers; impending dad mode; and eternal laws of the universe: the BOSS OD-2 rips, pepperoni pizza is the people’s champion, and cold slices at 1 a.m. are a moral right.
If you like guitars that look loud, play forever, and don’t apologize for either... this episode is for you!
Check out Kyle's work on his website HERE: https://moonguitars.com/
Support The Show And Connect!
The Text Chat is back! Hit me up at (503) 751-8577
You can also help out with your gear buying habits by purchasing stuff from Tonemob.com/reverb Tonemob.com/sweetwater or grabbing your guitar/bass strings from Tonemob.com/stringjoy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1:11:21
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1:11:21
Coils, Swords, and High Gain w/ Ricky Sutton of Arcana Pickups
Ricky Sutton of Arcana Pickups rolls in to talk metal, hand-wound voodoo, and why the word “influencer” sounds like something you catch at a gas-station bathroom.
He grew up in rural Tennessee, moved to Portland, and in 2016 decided metal deserved its own pickup company. Now he winds coils that make your amp behave like a caffeinated raccoon and dresses his guitars like they’re headed to war.
We get into the black-metal aesthetic—yes, actual armor, hoods, spikes, swords—and his band Cavisum. Every Cavisum track has Arcana pickups on it, so if you want to hear what scatterwound fury does inside a mix, that’s your field test. We also wade into the eternal “art vs content” swamp and see what we can drudge up.
This is a fun, surprisingly deep, and metal filled episode. Dive on in!
Find Arcana
arcanapickups.com • IG/YouTube/FB: @arcanapickups
RAPIER20OFF for 20% off through September 30, 2025.
Support The Show And Connect!
The Text Chat is back! Hit me up at (503) 751-8577
You can also help out with your gear buying habits by purchasing stuff from Tonemob.com/reverb Tonemob.com/sweetwater or grabbing your guitar/bass strings from Tonemob.com/stringjoy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1:14:31
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1:14:31
From Elvis to Extreme Metal: A Chat w/ Taylor Danley
Metal YouTuber and fellow Oregonian Taylor Danley shows up with riffs, opinions, and a tube-amp habit that could brown out a neighborhood. We trace the path from Elvis ukulele kid to extreme-metal lifer, then get into the real fight: cranked amps vs. modeling.
We make the case for the Boss Tube Amp Expander (turn it up, keep your lease), why an Axe-Fx is the smartest carry-on, and how millimeters of mic placement beat a mile of copy-paste presets. We talk producers who actually make bands sound like bands (Adam D., Will Putney), the charm of leaving one or two “human” wobbles in the take, and why the Boss Katana is still the new-player cheat code.
Gear heads get the goodies: Orange OR80, old Marshalls, NS-2 doing unglamorous hero work, the Metal Zone used tastefully (yes, it can be done), and the story behind Taylor’s Obsidian Audio boost plus a new preamp on the way. There’s record-store nostalgia, kids discovering Sabbath, a Corolla-vs-’69 Camaro tone analogy, and a very Portland pizza detour to land the plane. Good laughs, useful takeaways, zero gatekeeping. (Well, excpet for noisegates.)
Check out the goods on the Obsidian Audio Website HERE https://www.obsidianaudiofx.com/
And Taylor's YouTube Channel HERE https://www.youtube.com/c/TaylorDanley
Support The Show And Connect!
The Text Chat is back! Hit me up at (503) 751-8577
You can also help out with your gear buying habits by purchasing stuff from Tonemob.com/reverb Tonemob.com/sweetwater or grabbing your guitar/bass strings from Tonemob.com/stringjoy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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1:12:12
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1:12:12
The 1-800 Number That Built Mojotone
Mojotone has been “that place that has everything” for decades—but how did a parts house become an OEM powerhouse? Blake talks with Mojotone’s Andy Turner and Michael McWhorter about the wild ride from surplus pallets and a borrowed warehouse to building cabinets and amps for the biggest names in guitar.
We dig into the early Mojotone years, why turning on an old 1-800 number suddenly flooded them with Fender calls, the ZZ Top/Billy Gibbons stage builds (banana-leaf wraps, anyone?), and how amp kits evolved from one-off requests into a full product line.
The guys trace their OEM leap (hello, Gibson Goldtone era), the pickup journey from undercover “Custom Wound” to Quiet Coil noiseless singles, and the three-year quest to make a soundhole acoustic pickup that doesn’t, well, suck—plus the low-mid notch that changes everything.
Also on deck: tubes vs. modeling, why passion beats spreadsheets in the musical-instrument (MI) world, and the classic Tone Mob lightning round... Boss favorites and pizza opinions included.
Check them out on their website HERE https://mojotone.com/
Support The Show And Connect!
The Text Chat is back! Hit me up at (503) 751-8577
You can also help out with your gear buying habits by purchasing stuff from Tonemob.com/reverb Tonemob.com/sweetwater or grabbing your guitar/bass strings from Tonemob.com/stringjoy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The year was 2015. Show host Blake Wyland intended to start a podcast where he took a deep dive with his guests from the guitar world to explain their rigs. What happened was that, but also a whole lot more. The show quickly evolved into discussions about people's lives. Guitars, pedals, amps, etc. are the central hub of the show, but it really is more about the PEOPLE behind all of it. Both the musicians who use the gear, and the folks that create these magical tools of expression. You can expect chats about songwriting, favorite bands, family, loss, addiction, conspiracy theories, philosophy, and most of all....... food. This podcast goes all over the place. Come take a ride.
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