- 1 hour 8 minutesCosmodio and the Art of Beautiful Chaos (Barton McGuire)
Barton McGuire doesn’t believe a guitar pedal should politely prevent you from making a bad sound. Where’s the adventure in that?
In this episode, Blake sits down with the founder of Cosmodio Instruments to talk about accidental self-oscillation, homemade noise contraptions, imposter syndrome, and the long road from stuffing circuits into RadioShack boxes to running a growing pedal company.
Barton explains why Cosmodio builds “adventurous pedals for adventurous people,” how the Gravity Well helped put the company on the map, and why a pedal should offer more than a carefully fenced pasture of acceptable guitar tones. Sometimes you need a beautiful chorus. Sometimes you need the machine to cough sparks and open a portal.
They also dig into the realities of launching a small business, learning from criticism without being emotionally flattened by it, assembling the right team, and accepting that anything worth making will eventually irritate somebody on the internet.
Plus: the Cosmodio Splinter Twin, glitchy pitch shifters, no-input feedback, Ryan Burke’s approach to trolls, New Zealand pizza, and the enduring importance of twisting the knob you probably shouldn’t twist.
Check out Barton's work HERE https://cosmod.io/
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15 June 2026, 6:28 pm -
- 1 hour 20 minutesWill York: Thunder Road, Vintage Guitars & Betting It All
Will York of Thunder Road Guitars PDX joins us to tell the real story behind one of the West Coast's favorite guitar shops.
Before Thunder Road Portland became a destination for vintage guitar weirdos, touring players, local lifers, and anyone who enjoys staring at old offsets under flattering lighting, Will was a Gainesville, Florida kid chasing music any way he could. That road eventually led him west to Lollar Pickups, then to Thunder Road in Seattle, and finally to opening the Portland shop in 2017.
This episode gets into the unglamorous, deeply human side of building a guitar store: living in the basement of the first shop, putting every penny into the business, surviving the COVID guitar boom, buying a commercial building, learning when to delegate, and navigating a major open-heart surgery scare right in the middle of it all.
We also talk vintage guitar shows, rare finds, the difference between selling new and vintage gear, why guitar stores should actually feel welcoming, and why Will still believes the whole thing works best when everyone remembers how lucky we are to play with this stuff for a living.
Plus: gold-hardware Jaguars, first-year Jazzmasters, Paul Bigsby lore, TK Smith guitars, Boss pedals, Portland pizza, and a very important reminder that nobody regrets buying the guitar. Selling it? Different story.
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8 June 2026, 11:20 am -
- 1 hour 25 minutesToo Many Knobs? Perfect. Shea Sterner of THISHEAVYEARTH
This week on The Tone Mob Podcast, Blake hangs with Shea Sterner of thisheavyearth, a Portland-based builder making heavy pedals, brutal solid-state amps, and gear that looks like it crawled directly out of a fantasy-metal record sleeve.
Shea shares his path from punk and metal scenes in Pennsylvania, to recording experiments in Texas, to learning repairs and circuit design in Salt Lake City, and eventually launching This Heavy Earth in Portland. The conversation gets into acid-etched pedals, self-taught PCB design, the FleshRot amp and preamp world, Ampeg VH140C inspiration, HM-2 chainsaw tones, baritone guitars, and why solid state deserves a much louder seat at the table.
They also dig into building a gear company with your spouse, NAMM stories, fantasy artwork, plugins, small-business chaos, and the joy of making sounds that can swing from beautiful to absolutely disgusting with a single stomp.
Check out the brand's offerings HERE https://www.thisheavyearth.com/
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1 June 2026, 8:29 pm -
- 1 hour 6 minutesThe Sleeping’s Douglas Robinson Woke Up a Guitar Player
Douglas Robinson is best known as the voice of The Sleeping, but with his new project Held, he’s stepping into a whole new role: guitar player, riff writer, and newly minted Gibson SG obsessive.
On this episode of The Tone Mob Podcast, Doug joins Blake to talk about Held’s new record Grey, rediscovering the guitar after years of primarily being a vocalist, and the strange joy of realizing people are just as excited about your riffs as they are about your voice.
They get into the punk rock roots that shaped his approach, the difference between playing with personality and playing for internet points, the disappearing mystery of rock bands, and why sometimes the best music still starts with a few people in a room figuring it out together.
There’s also plenty of gear talk, including Gibson SGs, Fender Tone Master rigs, Mesa cabs, Boss delays, and the eternal truth that Jersey pizza people are always prepared for combat.
Held’s Grey is out now. Go listen.
Get more info at:
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27 May 2026, 9:35 pm -
- 1 hour 4 minutesMARK MORTON!!!!!!
Mark Morton joins the show today, and we somehow manage to talk about the gravitational pull of the electric guitar, the operational realities of a world-class metal band, parenting, vintage Gibsons, noise gates, and New York pizza without anyone needing a liability waiver.
Mark gets into the early magic of the guitar, back when the instrument didn’t just look cool, it felt like a secret door. A wooden plank with wires, knobs, and just enough electricity to rearrange a kid’s entire personality. From there, we talk about the family support that helped him chase that feeling, and how that same idea now shapes the way he supports his own kids as they find their own creative obsessions.
We also dig into the less glamorous, more interesting machinery behind one of metal's most popular acts. Touring, family, business calls, merch approvals, stage production, the whole industrial riff-farm. The rock and roll fantasy is still in there somewhere, wearing sunglasses indoors, but these days it has a calendar invite and probably needs to approve a hoodie sample.
And yes, there is plenty of guitar talk. Mark breaks down his move to Gibson, the creation of his signature Les Paul, his love of vintage instruments, the L.o.G writing process, and why some guitars feel alive while others just sit there like expensive furniture with strings.
Plus: the Boss NS-2 gets its day in court.
Bring a slice.
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18 May 2026, 11:20 am -
- 1 hour 2 minutesThe Used’s Joey Bradford Wants Guitars to Feel Human Again
Joey Bradford of The Used is back on The Tone Mob, and this one wanders through the good stuff: touring, dad life, studio rabbit holes, guitar rigs, loud amps, weird pedals, and the eternal human illness known as “maybe I need one more piece of gear.”
Blake and Joey talk about what it’s like to spend a massive chunk of the year on the road, then come home and try to be a normal dad like you didn’t just spend the last several months vibrating in a bus bunk. They also get into Joey’s home studio, producing bands, experimenting with sounds, and why sometimes the ugly little noise in the corner is exactly what the song needs.
There’s plenty of gear talk, of course, because this is still The Tone Mob and we have paperwork to maintain. Digital rigs, real amps, analog pedals, guitars that multiply when no one is looking, and the quiet thrill of walking into a music store for “just a patch cable” all make an appearance.
But the bigger theme is this: rock music is not dead. It was never dead. It was just out in the garage with a half-dead cable, a loud amp, and a kid learning a riff that might ruin somebody’s afternoon in the best possible way.
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11 May 2026, 11:20 am -
- 1 hour 4 minutesFluff vs. The Internet: Who’s Actually Winning?
Ryan “Fluff” Bruce is back, and this time it’s less about chasing tones and more about chasing sanity.
After more than a decade in the YouTube trenches, Fluff joins Blake to talk about what happens when the thing you built starts to feel like a treadmill set to “forever.” Social media burnout, algorithm roulette, and the strange reality of being “internet famous” without it always translating to real life… it’s all on the table.
They get into the evolution from scrappy early content days to a world where nobody cares about subscriber counts anymore (seriously), why passion still beats strategy every time, and how Fluff is shifting his focus toward building something that actually lasts. Along the way, there’s talk of signature guitars, starting new ventures behind the scenes, and why doing cool stuff with cool people might be the only goal that actually holds up.
Also: vintage gear chaos, tuning guitars lower than nature intended, and a brief but important appreciation for YouTube dads teaching the world how to fix toilets.
It’s thoughtful, it’s a little existential, and it’s exactly what happens when two long-time creators zoom out and ask, “what are we even doing here?”
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4 May 2026, 6:54 pm -
- 1 hour 18 minutesChumbawamba!!! (Something A Bit Different)
This week I'm serving up something a bit different!
There is another podcast I do called Tape Spaghetti with my good buddy Scott Marquart. On that podcast, we explore strange musical stories, and I'm giving you a sample of it here. Let's get into it!
OG show notes:
You already know the chorus. In fact, you've probably scream-sung it at a bar. But, what do you know about the band behind Tubthumping?
What if we told you that the biggest pub anthem of the '90s was written by militant anarchic agitators who supported striking miners, clashed with fascists, and called a crumbling Victorian mansion home?
Yep, Chumbawamba is probably a LOT more interesting than you might have imagined. In this week's episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott & Blake trace the band’s journey from punk squatters in Northern England to Britpop chart-toppers, and the ideological tightrope they walked along the way.
Some might have accused them of selling out, but when "Tubthumping" became a global smash, the band used their spotlight for disruption: rewriting lyrics on national TV, provoking politicians, and donating profits to radical causes.
Here's what happens when anarchists accidentally write one of the catchiest pop hooks ever recorded.
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27 April 2026, 6:18 pm -
- 1 hour 8 minutesWhat It Takes to Survive in the Guitar Industry w/ Danny Songhurst (The Rock Slide)
What do you get when you mix a family legacy, a near business collapse, and a piece of gear most people treat like an afterthought?
Something that refuses to disappear.
This week, I’m talking with Danny Songhurst, the man behind The Rock Slide, a company that didn’t just survive but quietly carved out its own lane in the guitar world. We get into how a simple idea, fixing the sloppy feel of traditional slides, turned into a real business and how Danny ended up carrying it forward after losing the person who started it all.
Along the way, we cover growing up in the shadow of grunge, early guitar obsession, building and nearly destroying a custom guitar business, and what it actually takes to stay alive in an industry where most things don’t make it past year one.
There’s also talk of cold calling every guitar shop he could find, why most entrepreneurs spread themselves too thin, and how sometimes the smartest move is sticking to your lane and doing it better than anyone else.
Plus cars, dad life, NAMM chaos, and the kind of perspective you only get after 15 plus years in the trenches.
If you’ve ever tried to build something from scratch or wondered what it really takes to keep it going, this one’s for you.
Check out the stuff on Danny's website HERE https://therockslide.com/
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20 April 2026, 5:54 pm -
- 1 hour 4 minutesHow Dan Tremonti Built FRET12 Into a Music Culture Machine
In this episode, Dan Tremonti shares the full story behind FRET12, from its early days creating The Sound and the Story to building a full-blown music culture brand rooted in community, storytelling, and craftsmanship. Along the way, he breaks down how working with artists evolved into building a loyal fanbase, launching original products, and eventually opening a one-of-a-kind retail space inside Chicago’s Salt Shed.
We get into the realities of building a brand in the music world, why most “merch” is missing the point, and how Dan approaches everything from handmade clothing to artist collaborations and curated gear. There’s also a deep dive into the philosophy behind experiential retail—and why the future of music shops isn’t just selling gear, but creating places people actually want to be.
Plus: the origin of the “String Thing,” supporting local builders, and why analog experiences might be more important than ever.
This one goes way beyond pedals and pickups—it’s about building something real in a world that’s increasingly digital.
Check them out at on their website https://www.fret12.com/
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13 April 2026, 8:00 pm -
- 1 hour 4 minutesJordan Buckley Returns, Part 2: Healing, Heavy Music, and Letting Go
Jordan Buckley is back for Part 2, and this time the conversation heads somewhere unexpectedly hopeful. After years of noise, pressure, and carrying things that don’t travel light, Jordan talks about what it actually feels like to start setting some of that down.
The recent Better Lovers shift becomes less about endings and more about perspective. About realizing not everything is meant to last forever, and that doesn’t make it a failure. Sometimes it just means it did exactly what it was supposed to do.
There’s a lot here about growth. About learning how to exist outside of the thing you’ve always been known for. About finding space where there used to be tension, and figuring out how to move forward without dragging the past behind you like a busted amp with a bad wheel.
And somewhere along the way, there’s a genuine sense of relief. The kind that doesn’t show up loud or flashy, but sticks around.
It’s honest, it’s reflective, and it’s about what can happen when you finally give yourself permission to feel better.
Check out all things Better Lovers HERE https://betterloversband.com/
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6 April 2026, 6:05 pm -
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