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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Jordan Buckley is back for round two, and what starts as a classic Tone Mob conversation slowly reveals a little more weight under the hood.

In this episode, Blake catches up with Jordan about life in Better Lovers, finally taking guitar more seriously, learning from the absurd level of talent around him, and why picking the instrument back up with fresh eyes has changed everything. They also wander into the weeds on creativity, burnout, parenting, touching grass literally, internet weirdness, AI art, and the ongoing battle to stay human in an increasingly synthetic world.

It’s funny, thoughtful, honest, and very much in the spirit of Jordan’s first appearance on the show.

Stay tuned for the next one, or sign up for Patreon to get it early!

Check out Better Lovers on their main website HERE https://betterloversband.com/

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This week, we’re digging way, way back into the vault for a proper Tone Mob reissue.

While I was in Nashville helping move the Stringjoy shop, I needed something special for this week’s episode and decided it was finally time to revisit one of the oldest artifacts in the archive: episode two. Yep, the second episode ever.

In this early conversation, I’m joined by my good buddy Chris Benson of Benson Amps, recorded in the sweltering attic of his old Portland house with no AC, a couple of SM57s in hand, and probably far more sweat involved than any podcast should require. At the time, Chris had just quit his job to go all-in on Benson Amps, and listening back now, it’s a wild snapshot of two guys at the beginning of their own strange little journeys in the gear world.

We get into amp design, low-wattage magic, speaker efficiency, tape echoes, plate reverbs, why some “bad” tones work better in a mix, and the beautiful sickness that makes guitar people obsess over all of this in the first place.

It’s raw, a little scrappy, very early-internet, and a whole lot of fun to revisit now that the show is well past 500 episodes.

So here it is: Tone Mob episode two, reissued. Enjoy.

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This week on The Tone Mob Podcast, Blake hangs out with Colt Westbrook of Walrus Audio for a conversation that wanders through guitar pedals, business experiments, digital rigs, tube amps, customer service philosophy, and the delicate art of telling your friends they can’t just show up at the factory and hang out all day.

Colt walks through how Walrus has evolved over the years, from the early days of pedals like the 385 and Monument to the creation of entire product ecosystems like the Mako DSP line, Canvas utility gear, and the more affordable Fundamental series. Along the way he shares some surprisingly candid insight about what worked, what didn’t, and why “budget” pedals in the boutique world often aren’t nearly as profitable as people assume.

The guys also dig into what working at a pedal company actually looks like day-to-day. Spoiler alert: it involves a lot less shredding and a lot more soldering, packing boxes, managing teams, solving problems, and trying to keep people from treating the shop like a guitar-themed coffee hang.

Naturally, there’s plenty of gear talk too. Colt walks Blake through his current guitars, his pedalboard, why EQ might be the most underrated effect ever, and why he’s leaned more into digital rigs lately while still respecting the glorious chaos of tube amps turned up loud. They also get into Boss HM-2 love, the mysterious Terra Echo, Quad Cortex rigs, and the never-ending quest for consistency without killing the magic.

Colt also shares some genuinely solid advice for anyone dreaming of starting their own gear company: build something great, make it meaningfully different, and treat your customers like they actually matter.

Oh… and somewhere along the way we learn about a teenage band that shared one distortion pedal between two guitarists, and the Oklahoma pizza place that fueled their rehearsals.

If you’re into guitar gear, building brands, or just hearing how the sausage actually gets made in the music industry, this one’s for you.

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Steve Sladkowski of PUP joins Blake for a conversation about the strange business of building a life out of noise.

This one wanders into the good stuff. The human stuff. The part nobody puts on the laminate. Imposter syndrome. Burnout. Getting older. Learning that rest is not the same thing as quitting, even if your brain, like an underqualified middle manager, keeps sending panic memos in all caps.

Steve talks about PUP’s early days, growing up in Toronto, falling into music through school programs, and slowly realizing that the thing you love might become the thing that carries you, if you’re willing to drag it uphill long enough.

There’s also the darker chapter. The moment when Stefan’s voice gave out, a doctor delivered the kind of sentence that can rearrange your organs, and the band had to stare down the possibility that the whole machine might stop.

What comes through here isn’t just the crisis itself, but the way a band survives something like that: by choosing not to let fear, blame, or bad luck rot the foundation from underneath.

And then, because no Tone Mob episode can go too long without somebody describing an amp like it’s their best firend, the conversation rolls into guitars, pedals, and the slow, stubborn art of figuring out what actually works. Fender guitars. Vibroluxes. Dr. Zs. Roland Cubes. Road-tested pedalboard choices. The glorious stupidity of moving real air. Steve talks about finding gear that feels like home and hanging onto it, which is maybe not so different from finding people like that too.

It’s a conversation about surviving long enough to mean it. About staying curious. About making peace with the fact that even after years of doing the thing, some tiny part of you still expects a knock at the door from a guy holding a clipboard and bad news.

Check out all things PUP on their website HERE https://www.puptheband.com/

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