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Episode 6: The Tubes Aren't the Problem
98 Plays17 days ago
In this episode of Amplified Nonsense, hosts Bryan Sours of Soursound Audio Works, Charles Henry of Silktone Amplifiers, and producer Emily Harris of Get Offset talk about the recent Fretboard Summit in Chicago (including plenty of talk about food) and answer questions about gear they wish they'd designed, tubes that keep blowing, and give relationship/situationship advice.
If you'd like Bryan, Charles, and Chris to answer your question on an episode of Amplified Nonsense, call (513) 334-3803 and leave a voicemail.
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts Overview
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Amplified Nonsense, a podcast that's kind of about amps, but is also an excuse for three amp experts to hang out and answer your random voicemail questions.
00:00:18
Speaker
Your hosts are Charles Henry of Silktone, Chris Benson of Benson Amps, and Brian Sowers of Soursound Audio Works. My name is Emily and I'm just here to try to keep these three on track.
00:00:29
Speaker
So let's turn it over to them and get the show started. how are y'all doing? Good. Awesome. Are we all wearing black hats and black and white shirts today? Yeah, but that's no different for me. I guess that's... many other day.
00:00:43
Speaker
I guess that's every day. Really, I should be asking that question and asking, what are you two doing? my My hat is very dark gray.
Fretboard Summit and FOMO
00:00:52
Speaker
Fretboard Summit was awesome.
00:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, I want to hear about that. Yeah, yeah. it's You should have come. it was It would have been rad to do like a live episode or something. Maybe next year we could all go and do like a live episode in front of a panel or something. That'd be rad.
00:01:06
Speaker
I had FOMO about it. Really? Like it took a couple of days, but I totally did. I was like, I realized i i even said it to Jess. i was like, you know, I just should have gone. And Jess was like, yeah, you should have.
00:01:18
Speaker
Oh, sorry. Was it the pictures of Chris's awesome beef jerky that he brought or? You guys didn't send me those photos. See, I've missed out. You've confirmed my fear.
00:01:31
Speaker
As soon as Chris got there on Thursday, he was like, dude, I brought you some beef jerky. And I was like, well,
00:01:39
Speaker
get it out.
Soy Allergy Scare
00:01:40
Speaker
Let's go. Many people ate the beef jerky. It was funny. Yeah. I actually handed one to Emily and told her the ingredients right before she ah she bit into it.
00:01:53
Speaker
Which is a good thing because she was about to take a big bite. I was like, yeah, it's got soy sauce in it. And she said, I'm allergic to soy. Oh, that's right. And then she ran to the bathroom to wash her hands.
00:02:04
Speaker
and Threw it at you and ran off. Yeah. yeah I thought she just really didn't like it. No, I forgot my EpiPen at the hotel. oh wow. That bad. Oh, gosh. That would have been such a nightmare.
00:02:16
Speaker
No, it's it's in it's the EpiPen's for emergencies. ah usually avoid it well enough. I've never needed it Never? That's good. the ah What was your guys' a favorite part of the show? My favorite part of the show was the
Italian Beef Sandwich Debate
00:02:28
Speaker
Italian beef.
00:02:29
Speaker
Oh, yes. God damn it. Ryan and I had way too much Italian beef sandwiches, and it was so good. Did you get more after the night we went to Portillo's? or Yeah, we did. We went to the other place, Al's.
00:02:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah. du Which one did you like better? I actually liked Portillo's better, but yeah I could see how Al's is a more like legit version of it yeah but it was just too much man it was just like i think you have to like work out in a chicago way which is like drinking like way way too much of uh what is that stuff malort you have to have like four shots of malort a day in order to eat like ah the owls beef stuff
00:03:18
Speaker
I told y'all not to drink that. And of course I see photos of it that very night. Didn't listen. You know, i had it and I liked it. Gross.
00:03:29
Speaker
You're a psychopath. It wasn't as bad as I thought. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Did you guys have a reaction to it? Everyone, I drank it last year for the first time, but I didn't have any this year, but everyone was like watching me to see what the reaction would be. and I was pretty straight faced.
00:03:45
Speaker
I was not straight faced. I had it before, like many years ago, and that was horrible. But I think I've just lost enough taste buds at this point where I was just like, oh, I could totally see myself drinking this.
00:04:00
Speaker
I was just like, oh, yeah, it tastes pretty great, like grapefruity. And that was my only reaction. Yeah. I still think it's gross, but I've definitely tasted worse things. Yeah, I got a lot of for saying I i think I prefer Portillo's sandwiches.
00:04:14
Speaker
We had Al's this time too, and I got it dipped and everything. And it was super good, but don't know. Something about the Portillo's one, I prefer. it was good.
00:04:25
Speaker
Yeah. Both Ryan and I preferred the Portillo's. Is it like a cheesesteak thing where it's like, well, you're saying it was good. Cheesesteak's gross, so. No, cheesesteak's gross, too. Did you get whiz on your beef?
00:04:37
Speaker
yeah But yeah, it's just like a chopped beef sandwich with cheese if you want it and peppers and what's it? Giordano? Giordano spread and giardinero spread.
00:04:50
Speaker
And ah you dip it in this like beef gravy stuff and yeah. ah Is it all juice? Kind of. It's thicker than au jus, I think. At least the stuff at Al's was thicker than au jus.
00:05:01
Speaker
But yeah, it's super good. I tried Ethiopian for the first time, and that was miraculous. there You've never had Ethiopian food? I never have. I've never had
Trying Ethiopian Food
00:05:11
Speaker
it. Oh, man. I've always meant to, but no, I never had. And yeah, we got it and it was really, really good. And it was right across the street from like some of the best tacos I've ever had. We, there's this like, uh, the whole, they only do goat meat and it's all, it was a goat birria and it God, it was good. It was so good. You, you got it too, right, Chris?
00:05:32
Speaker
Yeah, we, uh, we ordered it cause we were just, uh, zapped and i had it. It's not the best birria, I've had, but it was good. I was expecting it to be a lot like gamier because it had has goats.
00:05:46
Speaker
Right. Yeah. But it was nice. and Yeah. It was tender. It was nice and pretty smooth and pretty, pretty mild, honestly. Yeah. Mild. I liked the way they did the birria with the log of cheese at the bottom of the tortilla. was I love that. We've been talking about this for like 10 minutes and Brian's just like a vegetarian.
00:06:03
Speaker
Total. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just assumed y'all were trying to, you know, do more of the FOMO. Yeah. Trying to rub it in for next time. The meat was so good, Brian. You missed out so much.
00:06:16
Speaker
i got I got no fear of that. No fear. Try harder. Yeah. The show was red though. We had a really good room, bunch of cool people
Fretboard Summit Room Description
00:06:24
Speaker
in there. We were in there. See if I can remember everyone.
00:06:27
Speaker
Uh, there was some Benson amps in there and then, who and then, um, black Bobbin and Lockhorn were in there. Um, Caroline was in there.
00:06:40
Speaker
Shock the Fox, Voltic, Madsen, and then the Scythe dudes and Silk Tone. It was cool. It was a fun room. We all got along and it was trying to just like a party the whole time.
00:06:52
Speaker
What was the coolest thing you saw, Charles?
Guitar Innovation Discussion
00:06:54
Speaker
I think we talked about it. I forget. trying to remember the brand name is like Motander or Motanda. Those like neon are like, was like eighties blue with like the built-in trem system.
00:07:05
Speaker
And it like, they had it hooked up to like, like the pickups were doing a stereo ping pong effect thing. That thing was pretty cool. That thing was fun. Yeah, I love that. um ah Without getting too deep into it, ah the technology is super cool.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah. um Really original idea. And they had multiple things like that, like Pitcher bought some like crazy module that they had wired up in a Tupperware container. yeah Oh, is that what he was walking around with? I saw i saw you had something.
00:07:33
Speaker
Yeah, and TSA stopped him. yeah yeah But I played the guitar, and The tremolo almost sounded like electromechanical or something. Like it sounded... Yeah, it sounded really, really good.
00:07:46
Speaker
Almost like a Leslie. so And I think they've made a couple of them, and they're making a few more, and I i told them i I kind of want one. So get get in touch when they're wrapping them up.
00:07:57
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool. they They had the whole thing built into the back of the guitar, and I think a lot of it was Arduino-based. Wait, this is the the tremolo on the guitar? ah The website says no batteries.
00:08:08
Speaker
no it's for that's for their uh pressure sensitive mute switch oh so you're talking about the arduino ardu weirdo sorry eight channels of analog optical tremolo oh wow whoa this thing looks cool yeah it was cool it was really cool yeah so that was probably my favorite what was your uh your standout my big standout was uh
Three Bender Collaboration Discussion
00:08:33
Speaker
Let's see. It it was the the three bender collaboration with Black Bobbin.
00:08:38
Speaker
Oh, rad. Which is that little, ah it's not a B-bender, but it's it kind of functions as as a B-bender. It's like this ah metal contraption that like goes below a Jazzmaster bridge where you can make it a bender.
00:08:52
Speaker
So there's lever sticking in and you can use that to ah to bend different strings. And man, it works so well. And then I also like went to the three bender booth and tried all their stuff out too. And that, that, that stuff's really fun. And that both of those blew away, both me and Ryan and Ryan, especially as hard to impress.
00:09:12
Speaker
That's cool. Yeah. Everyone seemed to love those. Everyone was checking those out at the black bobbin booth and yeah, I didn't get a chance to mess with it. Emily, what about you? The same as Chris and I i bought one.
00:09:23
Speaker
oh nice. ah but Yeah, I bought one to use. I might buy a couple more arms depending on how much I dig it. You can get up to three of them. So, ah yeah, we'll see. We'll see. But ah I mean, I have another vendor, I know Chris does as well.
00:09:41
Speaker
So it was real. I've always wanted one on a Jazzmaster. Yeah, that's rad. But Chris, is your B-bender is like a Parsons style, right? With the strap button engagement? Yeah, I have, yeah, my Creston has a literally installed by, and it works really well.
00:09:57
Speaker
And then I ordered a three-bender Telecaster thing as well, because I'm just addicted to guitars. yeah that's rad yeah i'm not i never got into the b bender thing so it didn't didn't jump out to me but it sounded really cool when everyone else was playing it yeah i'm totally the target market target market for that I feel like it was literally made for me.
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, me too. I told Shelby that. Brian, what's your what's your favorite thing that you did while you weren't at Fretboard Summit? I worked. Having fun with all of us. Oh, fun. Let's see what else. ah Clean the basement.
00:10:31
Speaker
Didn't finish it. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. i I got really annoyed with a software package. Yep, a really annoying software package. Yeah, that's pretty much it.
00:10:43
Speaker
I think the conversation about what your favorite thing at the summit was might go well with the first voicemail if you all are ready for
Design Aspirations and Snack Metaphors
00:10:52
Speaker
that. And if you would like your call featured on Amplified Nonsense, please call 513-334-3803 leave voicemail. That's 513-334-3803.
00:10:58
Speaker
phone number also the show notes. Cool.
00:11:03
Speaker
that's five one three three three four three eight zero three the phone number is also in the show notes
00:11:12
Speaker
Hey guys, I have kind of like a two-parter. So the first part would be, what's a piece of gear that any of you wish that you had designed? Like something that like when you played it, you just loved it so much and it was like pretty in line with the things that you kind of already do that you're like, ah, I wish I thought of that.
00:11:34
Speaker
The second part of the question is If you were going to be a snack, what snack would you be? Okay, bye.
00:11:47
Speaker
Whatever snack Brian Sowers likes to eat. Chips. I'm from Ohio. eat chips. ah
00:11:56
Speaker
Which um Emily will appreciate the gravity of this statement. Emily, I i have not eaten chips in over a month. I haven't eaten chips other than tortilla chips in a year. Oh, you're not from Ohio. Pfft.
00:12:07
Speaker
I had some pretty pretty sweet kettle cooked dill pickle chips not too long ago. Those are good. Man, if I was going to be a snack, I would want to be watermelon with tahini on it. night that you were texting me or that you were telling me about that, I totally, ah I grilled pineapple and then threw tahini all over it and then threw that in tacos. And it was wonderful. It was great.
00:12:32
Speaker
It's so crazy how good, like something just clicked in my brain. And I'm absolutely obsessed with that stuff. It's good. Are we a food podcast now? What the hell happened? I mean, we have been. We've talked about food on every episode, I think. It's ah my favorite part of the day.
00:12:47
Speaker
What kind of snacks are you guys? That's the kind of snack I want to be. I'm probably actually like a bunch of Cheetos or something. Yeah, chips is good. The most celebrated snacks. I want to be that snack that everybody loves, but they feel so guilty to eat me, you know?
00:13:02
Speaker
First part of the question...
00:13:06
Speaker
God, I don't
Admiration for Marshall Time Modulator
00:13:07
Speaker
know. Trying to think. I don't, I don't think I've ever wished that I designed something else. That's a boring answer. But, uh, I, when I like gear, I, I celebrate it and I'm like, Oh yeah. And I can get excited about it. I feel like it's easier for me to get excited about other people's stuff than it is for me.
00:13:27
Speaker
Like I'm proud of the stuff I made, but I, it's a different feeling. Like it's kind of like, You know, if you make a record, i doubt you're listening to it all the time on your own.
00:13:39
Speaker
You made it and you're done. You're not throwing on your own record in the car. So like all the gear I like, I'm glad I didn't design because I get to enjoy it in a different way without all the resentment and stress.
00:13:53
Speaker
That's a boring answer. Hopefully you guys got a better one. I think Benson's got something because I can see it on his face. I see it. I see it brewing. Yeah.
00:14:01
Speaker
I had the you the same initial reaction as Charles. was like, I don't know. I just like stuff and I don't get jealous. But I will say one thing that I i was a little jealous of was ah when I played John Snyder, um ah Electronic Audio Experiments, his sending pedal. oh Man, he just like absolutely slayed on that thing.
00:14:24
Speaker
Just knocked it out of the park. I still haven't played it. i still haven't played one. Yep. A wonderful sounding digitally controlled analog delay with that ah that cool kind of like one knob dirt thing that he he did. Yeah. And it's just, it's so cool.
00:14:41
Speaker
Just kind of the apex of delay design, I guess.
00:14:46
Speaker
In my opinion. Yeah. See, I'm in the opposite camp on this. um I had an answer immediately. Marshall Time Modulator. The greatest flanger that's ever been made.
00:14:57
Speaker
You know, it's... it's ah It's a legend. it's It's the sound of Darth Vader. It's ah the first, I think, the first known usage of parallel multiplexing in analog delay lines.
00:15:13
Speaker
That box is utterly freaking incredible, and even to this day is probably the top sounding flanger of all time. That thing's amazing. So when you played it, you were like, man, I wish I made this.
00:15:26
Speaker
Well, my first experience was looking inside of one. and was like, oh oh my God, this is terrible. And I had to fix it. I mean, the the delay lines are, they're like compound delay lines.
00:15:37
Speaker
So it's not just like one chip. And it's, and this is all, when did he make this stuff? I don't know, early 80s, I think, late 70s. And so they're all potted in epoxy. And then there's a... Oh, brother. Yeah, there's a, what's it called? The...
00:15:53
Speaker
ribbon PCB where it's the vapor deposited copper. So the control panel has one of those. And it's it's like they all are falling apart. i mean, it's it's the epitome of what you don't want to see.
00:16:05
Speaker
in a piece of gear like that, but at the same time, that nothing sounds like that. They had like warnings in the manuals about certain settings that would literally pop your studio monitor speakers.
00:16:19
Speaker
jee Sure enough, I mean, there's there's many ns dead NS10 drivers, you know, scattered in landfills across the world that were all killed by a Marshall time modulator. It's just such an amazing piece of equipment on so many levels.
00:16:32
Speaker
I never played one. And like the guy who designed it was just super, super weird. And, uh, but like very boisterous, like I've read interviews with him and he just says some stuff that's like, he what what?
00:16:48
Speaker
And, ah but the guy just knew his stuff. like And the story of it is is that he designed it in one evening to win a bet. And then like a week or two later, he's at AES and gets like flooded with orders, like starts a company basically overnight.
00:17:05
Speaker
It's ridiculous. Like, I don't know if I believe any of that, but. Crazy. But that effect is just unbelievable sounding. Damn, I gotta check it out. I've never messed with one. There's plugins for it. I don't know anything about the plugins. There's one company I saw who supposedly was licensed by Mr. St. Croix's estate.
00:17:24
Speaker
So maybe that's the legit one. I don't know. Never used a plugin of it. Um... It's incredible. There's a repair shop that works on stuff like that called Foleytronics.
00:17:39
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I saw a YouTube video like a long time ago of them fixing one and demonstrating it. And they literally like hit play on an MP3 or whatever that was James Earl Jones reading from the Bible.
00:17:53
Speaker
And, you know, James Earl Jones, obviously the voice of Star Wars, of of ah Darth Vader. And it's James Earl Jones just like reading from the Bible, right? Which is already an amazing track by itself, but ran through this thing.
00:18:05
Speaker
And then he just starts dialing in settings. And I think within like 15 seconds, it's like, that's Darth Vader. That's it right there. Have you ever, have you guys ever seen the video? Man, it's been on YouTube for...
00:18:16
Speaker
decades now but the darth vader chronicles where someone took they like took a bunch of star wars clips of vader and put lines from james earl jones's other movies over his voice they would have ran it through a martial time modulator it would have sounded legit please go look it up if you if you haven't watched it please look up darth vader chronicles on youtube and go enjoy the uh the masterpiece that is yeah that's a good answer brian thanks I feel very strongly about that piece of equipment.
00:18:48
Speaker
i ah my Yeah, it's the inspiration for my long lost analog delay design that no company could ever produce because it would cost way too much money.
00:19:00
Speaker
Oh, the one we're going to do, you mean? Are we doing it? I would do that. Someday. <unk> Surprise, surprise. All right. Chris Benson, the only man dumb enough to make that thing. Eat your shorts, John Snyder.
00:19:13
Speaker
yeah John knows about it. A certain gear selling outlet gave us a green light on that other project that no one should ever do. You know what I'm talking about.
00:19:24
Speaker
They're in Chicago. Oh, okay. Are you announcing this to the world? Does this have to be edited out? I don't know what's happening. No, this is like a teaser. Oh, right.
00:19:34
Speaker
Okay. All right. There's so many pieces of gear that have come out of my brain that are like, non-corporeal that should never be produced. so that this one This one came out of my brain, but I i called you about it because you're you're going to have to help with it.
00:19:51
Speaker
I don't remember which one.
00:19:55
Speaker
Do you all want to go to another question? Yeah. Hey, boys, I have a question. Modern tubes, KT88s and sixty five fifty s I've been having a real bad run of luck with reliability for these tubes.
00:20:11
Speaker
I've blown through four JJKT88s in the last year alone. What's your recommendation for the best modern tubes that are actually reliable?
00:20:24
Speaker
Cheers from Sydney, Australia. Bye.
00:20:28
Speaker
Yeah, what you what is your amp that's blowing KT-88s? I think the JJ KT-88 is like one of the best built modern tubes of of out there. Their KT tubes are like way more robust than than their Chinese or Russian counterparts.
Technical Talk on Flyback Diodes
00:20:45
Speaker
And ah if your amp's blowing KT-88s, it might not be the tubes. I had this experience back when I was working out a shop that almost exclusively used those giant bottle tubes, 6550s. It really amp dependent.
00:21:05
Speaker
I'm wondering if these are being stuck in an amp that doesn't have diode protection. yeah b Brian's nodding his head. Well, I was just thinking in my head like a diatribe about how...
00:21:16
Speaker
You know large bottle tubes specifically used in, you know, high voltage power supplies and what output transformer flyback voltage on the primary, you know, you have to have your plate loading correct.
00:21:30
Speaker
Yeah. And you're talking about flyback diodes. So please, by all means, I didn't mean to stomp on your parade. No, I mean, i I just know where they go and that you should use them. You probably can explain a lot better than I can because I don't think about the stuff that much these days.
00:21:44
Speaker
Yeah, flybacks are are crucial. And I always look at it from the perspective of if a power supply is like approaching or over 500 volts, plate supply.
00:21:55
Speaker
Yeah, they're kind of required, in my opinion, just for reliability. I do think... that you know every brand has their tube has like a better tube than another brand which is a stupid way to put it my point is just like i was always kind of picky choosy which company which tube you know and you know would value some sounding better than others or others being more reliable and try and balance those things back to the point flyback diodes with big bottles yeah it's it's crucial there's a lot of people who don't like the way they sound i actually
00:22:28
Speaker
think they sound great because they take this buzziness off of the higher outputs with bigger bottle twos, bigger supply voltages. And you look at on the scope, you can see the spikes.
00:22:40
Speaker
You can see where that stuff's kind of popping up when you run just a sine wave in and, you know, push the dang thing into clip. You can see it. and then You tack in the diode and the spikes start coming down. i it's They're great.
00:22:52
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, the voltage is is generally caused um by the primary, the output transformer, because because what you have there is a high inductance inductor, effectively.
00:23:02
Speaker
and With any inductor, when the field collapses, the inductor tries to keep voltage there so the current keeps flowing as the field collapses.
00:23:13
Speaker
And so it produces a voltage in order to keep that going. And it's it's just it's storage, you know, it's storing energy. And so it's just kind of Faraday's law on how it's being used and...
00:23:24
Speaker
used and changed into this flyback voltage. But point being is is that when you have higher supply voltages, you generally have ah higher voltage swings on the primary output transformer. You generally have bigger transformers, bigger cores, more inductance.
00:23:39
Speaker
So you've got more storage capacity, which means, again, the inherent flyback voltage that's produced when the field goes down to zero, that is greater with a larger transformer, a larger inductance, larger voltages, etc.
00:23:54
Speaker
So yeah, I mean, that's why, I mean, for me, at least with when I've made bigger wattage amps, with big tubes and big voltages, and you know, you gotta use a flyback. It's just, you know, you can't be shredding through tubes, especially with what that costs these days.
00:24:10
Speaker
I use them all in my big bottle KT-66 stuff. I had a lot more problems with um the Chinese tubes. Typically when stuff was getting overdriven between all the crazy harmonics going on and then also flyback issues, those Chinese tubes, God, I forget what it was. I think it was like... terrible Is there only one factory? There used to be two in China. Is there only one now?
00:24:32
Speaker
There used to be one. Then there were two. Now there's... Well, there was a fire back in like 2018 or... and there was one. Yeah. But now that one's back up, but the second factory never produced KT 66, but they do KT 88.
00:24:46
Speaker
I didn't, I'm not sure how those ones were, but, but the Russian and Chinese KT 66 is for a while. There was an insulation between the plate and filament. I think it was, or the plate and, um, it would just melt.
00:25:00
Speaker
It would melt. And in the, um, It would either blow internally inside the tube or if the tube was robust like a JJ and that filament didn't burn up, I was getting actual arcing between pins on the tube socket and it would just like smoke and fry.
00:25:16
Speaker
So I had to put flyback diodes. Yeah, I just tie them from from plate to ground, like a little 2,000-volt rectifier diode, and it solved all those problems and and kind of smoothed out some nasty distortions. So I love them. I advocate for them all the time.
00:25:34
Speaker
And, you know, a slew rate of on the diode, how fast it turns on how fast it turns off affects how well that works, too. So ultra-fast and all the fast diodes work better for it. I'm very particular about my flyback diodes. sounds Well, I mean, I made like high wattage, high voltage amps. That was like my thing for a hot minute. I've got a chassis that's a 400 watt base amp sitting somewhere in this shop.
00:26:01
Speaker
You're the one that pushed them on me. You're the one that suggested I do it. And I was like, I don't want to do that. That's lame. And then I tried it and was like, oh, this is cool. Okay. Well, especially as a manufacturer, like, yeah, your job is to make, you know, a good sounding piece of equipment, but you know, it doesn't sound good if it doesn't work.
00:26:18
Speaker
You know, i i've I've done, this i've I've got a list of amps going through my head right now that was like, you know, like a divided by 13 or an Ampeg or this or that that would come my way, you know, and I'd be like, there's no flybacks in this. What the hell is this person doing? You know, and oh, it keeps blowing tubes. don't know. it keeps blowing tubes. Well, let's put the diodes back in. Oh, the diodes are in. Oh, great.
00:26:38
Speaker
You know, it's, it's, yeah. The amps got to work for to sound good. Yeah. That's the most important thing. So yeah. Sounds like your amp sucks. Yeah.
00:26:51
Speaker
you know I don't know if this person is a tech or customer or amp owner, but depending on what amp is blowing the tubes, um you might take it to a tech check yourself, see if it's got ah some flyback diodes, and that might solve your problem.
00:27:08
Speaker
You're shorting big bottle. feel like this is an episode of Car Talk where like you've got the problem and you've got some of the context, but not all of it. And it's our job to come up with the fix. But the reality is, is that there's so many, ah so many different things, so many different ah issues that could be causing something like this, that it really is hard to say, like definitively fix this and then this will work.
00:27:30
Speaker
Yeah. Going through tubes. Going through tubes sucks, you know, and they're super expensive now. Those are so expensive. so expensive. I feel like that was very helpful. Yeah, I think y'all nailed it.
00:27:44
Speaker
And we have one more call, and I hope you nail this one also because she really needs your help, guys.
Advice on Long-Distance Romance
00:27:51
Speaker
There's this guy I met through a work event in 2022. And since then, he has been in my Instagram DMs. And I've never entertained it up until now because I've either been seeing someone else or just like generally emotionally unavailable.
00:28:08
Speaker
But also, he lives across the country. Over this past summer, i became emotionally available. And now I have a crush on him. It's very flirtatious. It's like clearly flirtatious, but I feel like he initiates a lot in the DMs, but like the times that we've texted, I've initiated.
00:28:26
Speaker
But then once I initiate, he keeps it going. I don't like initiating because it makes me feel like I'm being annoying and i don't want to feel like I'm chasing this person. So my questions are, do I text him or do I leave him alone?
00:28:40
Speaker
But then he might just never, we might just never talk again. and Because he lives across the country, is this something even worth pursuing? do we like long distance relationships or should I just give up?
00:28:55
Speaker
Okay. Thanks. I'd love to add a third option to this. She could tell him what she needs. You know, and i feel like if, you know, if you want to consider being in a relationship, even a long distance one with this person, you we would want You would want them to be the type of person who could listen to your needs.
00:29:17
Speaker
And it sounds like, you know, having a partner that is willing to initiate more is something that you value and that you need from your partner. And you should be able to tell them that.
00:29:28
Speaker
And, you know, if if he's not down with that or doesn't feel good about you sharing that, well, um he lives on the other side of the country. Yeah, I think that's extremely valid. It's not going to go anywhere. If you're already tripping about not being able to text him without feeling like you're bothering him, if you can't be open about that, it's just going to fall apart fast. So be honest and be open about what you need.
00:29:54
Speaker
Yep. I'm a big fan of that kind of candor in a relationship, especially one where there's a lot of, there's potentially miscommunication if you're not in the same area. So just be honest and upfront. Yeah. What's y'all's feeling on the long distance aspect of it?
00:30:11
Speaker
I'm curious. It can work. I've done, I've never done long distance stuff until recently. Um, and it was weird at first, but that was a relationship that started not long distance. You know, we were, we were together and live together and then for work purposes have been apart, but it,
00:30:32
Speaker
Communication is the same either way. Like, regardless of whether you're near or close, like, you can make it work if you like each other, or you can close the distance if stuff really works out. But if problems with communication start before you're even...
00:30:48
Speaker
you know, close to one another, then it's it's not going to get any better regardless of the distance, I would think. Communication is hard sometimes and often i think you're more afraid of the reaction a person's going to have because of imaginary scenarios you build up in your head and you're kind of condemning this guy to hurt your feelings or for hurting your feelings when nothing has really happened yet.
00:31:15
Speaker
So if you actually just come out and say what you're feeling or what you need, more often than than not, I've found that it's it's um appreciated and reciprocated more than frowned on and being treated as needy or anything like that. like i think't thats just I think that's just fear and not actually how most people react.
00:31:39
Speaker
Especially she said that, you know, it's not on again, off again, but like they work together and they've known each other. So like, it's not weird. and don't know. It's not weird to be open. No.
00:31:50
Speaker
If he likes you, then he'll be understanding and and want to help and make you feel as comfortable as you can feel. And if he doesn't, then, well, then you found that out and got that out of the way and move the on.
00:32:00
Speaker
Yeah. Good point. Yeah. Right, Chris. Is he frozen? I think he's frozen. I gotta go see you about a girl. um So how about, a what do you think about the long distance part, Chris? Oh gosh, I've been married for what, over 20 years?
00:32:20
Speaker
i don't know what modern relationships are at all, so I'm i'm going to pass on that one.
00:32:27
Speaker
Fair. It's better than spewing bullshit advice. For what it's worth, I think that was really good advice, and that's what I would tell her as well that you should talk to him.
00:32:38
Speaker
And if he responds well, then that's great. And if he doesn't respond well, then crisis averted. But what I really liked was when, I think it was Charles said that you are having an argument with somebody in your mind.
00:32:55
Speaker
i mean, you're not really having, exactly. You're not really having that argument, that catastrophe, fees not happening in real life with the real person you are just arguing with yourself and making yourself feel bad so please stop making yourself feel bad caller charles did your therapist tell you that no i told my therapist that means that's from hard hard years of experience it's a school of hard knocks quote is that what that is yeah Thank you for listening to this episode of Amplified Nonsense.
00:33:29
Speaker
Our goal is to release a new episode every other week, so please subscribe wherever you listen. If you have a question for Brian, at Charles, and Chris about amps, pop culture, or relationships, please call five one three three three four three eight zero three and leave a voicemail.
00:33:48
Speaker
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