Hacking Gear, Weightless Tone and Catching Up

Thanks so much to the sponsor of today's episode, Sweetwater! Make sure to check out all the gear we use here and more: https://www.sweetwater.com/shop/dipped-in-tone/

We're back! Rhett just wrapped the biggest touring year of his life — 60 shows, ten months, three continents, including a 31-show fall run with The Midnight he's calling the best tour experience he's ever had. After catching up (GTA 6 hype, a wild Halo community-modding scene, and a cosplay build), a viewer hot take about keeping pedalboards simple turns into a real conversation about knowing your gear inside and out, plus Zach's go-to trick for not freezing up when you sit down with an unfamiliar guitar at a shop.

Rhett also gets honest about his Mexico fly dates — why a Quad Cortex-based fly rig technically worked but never felt as good on stage as his full amp rig, and what that actually comes down to. We rate a viewer's rig, and Rhett closes with a shill that might be the biggest thing we've talked about all year: community-hacked firmware on his Elektron Octatrack, and an experiment using AI to reverse-engineer 20-year-old hardware so it can run modern amp modeling — and why that might mean your gear never has to become e-waste again.

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DIPPED IN TONE IS:
Rhett Shull https://www.rhettshull.com
Zach Broyles / Mythos Pedals https://mythospedals.com & https://highvoltageguitars.com
Produced & Edited by Addison! https://www.instagram.com/addisonsauvan

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:40 Tour recap
00:02:09 Fall tour with The Midnight
00:03:42 Touring etiquette
00:04:44 GTA 6 & gaming chat
00:09:36 Halo mod scene
00:10:31 Bud Light commercial story
00:12:07 Instagram algorithm rant
00:13:17 Cosplay build
00:14:10 Darth Vader costume story
00:15:23 Discord reminder
00:16:25 Sweetwater shoutout
00:17:46 HOT TAKE: simplify your board
00:18:43 Rebuilding every patch
00:26:33 Guitar Center trick
00:28:43 Philly Guitar Center chaos
00:30:51 Vintage LinnDrum story
00:32:34 Brad Paisley & a Trainwreck
00:35:35 Les Paul insured for $1M
00:37:20 Rig placement cuts feedback
00:39:34 Managing pickup feedback
00:41:12 Wax potting & tonewood
00:46:37 Mexico fly dates
00:47:01 Building the fly rig
00:48:44 Soundcheck surprise
00:49:07 Crew notices the difference
00:49:46 Why it feels weightless
00:52:17 In fairness to the Cortex
00:53:50 Rig Dip: Kurtis's rig
00:58:06 SG, Golden Fleece & more
01:00:50 Score: 9.0
01:03:10 Second rig & shill guitar
01:06:14 Octatrack hacked firmware
01:07:40 The hardware-modding era
01:08:10 Using AI to hack firmware
01:10:14 Why gear won't be e-waste
01:11:57 Outro

Gear We Use

Universal Audio Apollo Twin X Duo Gen 2 → https://sweetwater.sjv.io/gRVWQg
Shure SM7B → https://sweetwater.sjv.io/X4qX5G
Universal Audio Volt 2 → https://sweetwater.sjv.io/oNWyao
Mac Mini (M4) → https://sweetwater.sjv.io/B5Q2YB
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro → https://sweetwater.sjv.io/WOLGPJ
Mogami Gold Studio mic cable, 10ft → https://sweetwater.sjv.io/0G3dBO
Gator Elite Series Main Desk, Black → https://sweetwater.sjv.io/n4z2eV