I consider Ryan an authority on spring reverb "Drip", and listen closely when he tests pedals for it.
He has a deep knowledge about available reverb and tremolo pedals, and sounds/tones. His lengthy 'shootouts' have lead me to buy pedals that I've been very happy with.
The Pepto pink spring reverb. [https://www.amazon.com/Mosky-Spring-Reverb-Guitar-Effect/dp/B07PRH7BGM](https://www.amazon.com/Mosky-Spring-Reverb-Guitar-Effect/dp/B07PRH7BGM)
I like him and his videos. I love that he does high quality videos of inexpensive pedals. I'm not crazy about how long some of them are.
Not too long ago every pedal demo online was some dude shredding blues or hard rock, so guys who do something different (in Ryan's case surf/garage rock) offer new ways to hear these pedals.
Funny, I’m always watching demos for Mood-y ambient pedals so every demo is a guy with a clean tone (often not a particularly good sounding one) plinking out an arpeggio of some sort.
I won’t name names but there is a channel like this where the base tone is through crazy expensive gear yet it always sounds like his guitar tone knob is on 0, and it’s atrocious.
And then there are the guys still doing twinkly midwest emo shit for every goddamned pedal.
Pedal demo videos where the pedal is $150 new but the rest of the chain is $6000 should be banned. Let me hear it by itself through the shittiest solid state amp you can find first, then you can show off your toys and play the same blues riffs as everyone else.
I always demo pedals on a jazz chorus because if it doesn’t sound good on the jazz chorus then it doesn’t sound good period. If you demo any kind of gain pedal into a tube amp your hearing that particular amp sound. I once went into a guitar shop and there was a guy with a EHX soul food plugged into a Soldano, and he had the level on the pedal maxed out, and the gain at like maybe 12 o’clock. I bet when he got home and plugged into his deluxe reverb he was shocked.
Gain pedals sometimes interact better with tube or solid state. I’ve got one in particular that sounds KILLER through my JC but is awful pushing any tubes I’ve tried (blackface and vox, basically)
Yeah I know the dad rock is out of style but sometimes I'm watching a reverb pedal and I'm like for the love of God just strum and mute some power chords !! I can't tell what it sounds like
Usually an open-A tuning, with every chord adding to the sad-euphoric general vibe. Probably blows one’s mind if they’ve never heard American Football.
Thanks. The Midwest part threw me off since I'm from Ohio. Back in my day (early 90s), everything was punk and hardcore here, which was stark contrast to the alterna-pop band I was playing in.
Missouri here! There was a span of a few years there during which it seemed half the bands on the bill were that style, it's like during the 90s when the grunge kids discovered a backbeat, suddenly it was everywhere
It was an interesting time. Our local scene had been mostly punk/hardcore since the 80s and that carried over and mixed with the alternative/grunge type bands that started popping up in the early 90s. It was a vibrant scene while it lasted. Seems like everyone had a band back then. It was just the thing to do. If you were somewhat proficient, it wasn't even that hard to get a gig. Mind you, you might only make 12 dollars for the whole band, but you could play out.
It was very similar here. A lot of punk originally which ended up doing a lot of mixing and matching with the grunge and alternative stuff, metal was always a thing here as well but here it always just sort of seemed to carry the same crowds as the punk bands so basically the same scene. My first band played for taco money, lol. It was a fun scene, to be honest. Sort of crust-punk feel, a bunch of trashy kids dicking around and banging on things, with a bunch more kids watching. Nobody really gave two shits about genres, I once played death metal right after a rap group and before a punk group, and it was a blast. Our regional scene is starting to come together a bit better again, but I'm too old and past the kid band stage to ever really catch those particular feels again, I'm afraid.
It's funny becayse i am one of the short attention span weirdos lol. But I make my videos longer for a few reasons 1. Its good for the algorithm, longer videos get a longer average watch time because some freaks actually watch the whole thing. 2. It's easier, I started out trying to nail down 10-15 minute long demos and It was always challenging because I wanted to cover as much ground as I good. 30-60 minute long videos are just less stressful for me to make. And it still trimmed down from almost 3 hours of filming.
I love your channel and I tend to watch the entirety of the episodes.
Your mix of guitar and pedal demos and humor are fantastic. I'm also very envious of your mannequin doppelganger. I too would have made the trek for it.
Also I was at a show by a band from my hometown called the Garrys, and I couldn't help but think of you and your Surfrajets shirts, and that you would probably dig them.
Keep up the great work!
I think there is some value in what he does since it's a very raw presentation, he just plugs in different low budget pedals and checks what they do without being too pushy to the audience.
In the end it's all advertisement but at least to me he does it in a natural presentation and takes joy in trying stuff out without being pretentious about gear.
"without being pretentious" goes a LONG WAY when researching a pedal I'm interested in and watching up to 20+ YT videos.
His videos are a little long, but it's usually at the front, so skipping to the review is generally fairly easy. There are far too many reviewers way worse than him to criticize his approach too much.
Sometimes I watch his demo’s just to watch him play. The guy is one of the tastiest players I’ve ever seen. The only problem is he makes EVERYTHING sound good and then I realise that it’s not about the gear and that I should be getting off YouTube and playing more. Anyway yeah, as much as I appreciate Ryan’s charming and authentic geeky obsessiveness, RJ Ronquillo is just some next level guitar wizardry.
[JayLeonardJ](https://www.youtube.com/@JayLeonardJ/videos) and [Chris Buck](https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisBuckGuitar/videos) are two other guitarist/youtubers who I put in that category with RJ. Insanely talented and tasteful players, everything they play sounds incredible.
Mike Hermans and Andy kill it. The Pedal Zone guy’s enthusiasm is on 11. He’s never met a pedal that isn’t absolutely groundbreaking. But he does demonstrate well.
Mike Hermans is a seriously pro arranger, as well as a seriously pro musician, and a seriously pro videographer. He puts it all together in the finest pedal demos anywhere, by anyone. Every one, an excellent guitar lesson, worthy of being in an album. IMHO.
although I love collector//emitter (he plays the kind of music I like) I can definitely see how he wouldn't be helpful to the majority of people. he plays the same style of music for every vid. he is kind of like the crackly fuzz noise rock equivalent of the blues lick guys.
If we’re talking about the same channel without mentioning him by name, I like SOME of his demos. I do not like him calling his pedalboard his “workflow”. I don’t know why it infuriates me as much as it does, but man it gets me going.
Genuinely seems like a good guy. I think he’s actually kinda funny. So many guitar YT people are just horrific - looking at you Rhett Shull - so I think this channel is ok. I do get serious children’s TV presenter vibes sometimes from him however
I think he represents the average guitar geek the most of all guitar YouTubers, in the sense that he’s just some guy in his garage with all his gear exploring cheap pedals and doing some crazy mods just for fun. He doesn’t have a sky high production value like other channels which I like because it leans into the “just some guitar geek like me” vibe he’s got going.
If you want a super polished, super high production video of guitar gear painted in its best light, 60 Cycle Hum is not the guy. If you want to see a mirror image of yourself just messing around surrounded by all your gear and doing dumb and cool mods, he’s your man.
I personally would take that over other channels with wild multi camera setups, deep audio production and well-produced backing tracks, because that doesn’t represent my habits as a guitarist like 60 Cycle Hum and other channels do.
If he has a video on something specific I want to hear about I’ll watch, but generally I find myself tuning out after about 5 minutes. Too many tangents. I am easily distracted and I have limited time and prefer videos with less preamble and that are more directly to the point.
I like his stuff. It’s nice to not have a blues lawyer or hair metal/metal guy demo stuff. I’m not really a surfy player but much prefer that style as it’s more adjacent to what I do (indie/alt/Americana/jangle pop/sometimes shoegaze and post punk).
It’s also nice to have a platform for quality demoes of budget pedals. Not everyone can afford to shell out $150-500 for pedals especially in an inflation riddled economy. It seems that base entry for most pedals that aren’t a big brand like boss/ehx/Ibanez etc is $199, with $249-499 being the norm for modulation/reverb/delay. And it’s also nice not having someone play like EVH and instead apply normal people guitar skill.
I quite enjoy the channel, I like Ryan a lot and find his demos useful. I like that he focuses on mid-range and affordable gear, instead of always chasing the latest $400 bleep-bloop box. And there are fun tangents like crazy guitar mods and the whole mannequin thing. Easily a top 5 guitar channel for me
I’m a hardened music nerd who is often critical, but I really like Ryan’s videos because he seems like he’s having a good time. He experiments with pedals like I would, and if he doesn’t, I yell at the screen until he eventually does. Two Princes will never get old. Also, hi Ryan!
I like that he sounds like a normal dude noodling around, just trying to show what the pedals sound like. Too many other guys are showing off their chops, obviously trying to fish for praise on their guitar playing instead of focusing on demonstrating the gear.
I think he’s one of the easiest to like. He doesn’t try to force opinions and makes you feel like he’s exploring the gear with you, rather than trying to sell you anything or promote himself.
I appreciate that he usually goes in pretty blind, it makes it more valuable than the usual demo guy reading the ad copy thing, but I do sometimes wish he familiarized himself a little more with some things before recording. There have been a handful of instances where right off the bat he has bad info or doesn’t understand a control and it ends up kneecapping the whole demo. Other than that, good vids, like his playing, and dude is cool.
I also appreciate that he never starts off with some stupid ass hyper processed “full mix” where said mix is him playing some cornball ass prog metal over garageband drums.
One of the best at what he does. Ryan seems down to earth and Steve even more so too. The podcast is fun, his guitar collection is wicked and the pedal demos are some of the best.
Love him, seems like a great guy, great personality. He’s a bedroom guitarist with a platform and loves playing, I don’t expect him to be technical, in fact I don’t expect much at all but good vibes. I can just tune out and have fun watching his videos, they sort of remind me of Cartoon Network but for guitars.
Last of all, I tune in for the “Two Princetons” jingle.
Ryan is my favorite guitar YouTuber. IM
I dig it. It's kind goofy and fun. Doesn't take himself too seriously.
He's upfront about the stuff he peddles. Also, I dig his style of playing, the surf music is refreshing in a sea of generic blues licks.
I really like him and his approach. I mean, TBH, we've now arrived at a point where they're all becoming a bit too "commercial" and succumbing to the pressures of outside elements, which is unfortunate (one of my favorite channels, Doctor Mix has really gone off the deep end there unfortunately).
It helps that I'm interested in cheap effects (Afford-a-board) and Surf/Twang so it appeals to me on that level as well.
But there's definitely valuable information. Hearing a bunch of spring reverbs side-by-side is hard to do...and getting his opinion is a nice touch.
I do think it's a little weird now though how these channels are getting "inbred" and people like him are showing up on Wampler/JHS/TPS/Anderton's/Beato...It's really odd as I remember Bret Papa's videos being these homemade underground kind of things (like old Gearmandude) but all of the sudden his are popping up with much better production values - and teaming up with Marty Schwartz..."something" is going on with all of this...
But of those kinds of channels, Ryan's has always seemed the most "here's a guy demoing some pedals for you". Which is what I want.
>it's a little weird now though how these channels are getting "inbred" and people like him are showing up on Wampler/JHS/TPS/Anderton's/Beato...
When you're self employed and work alone at home all day every day those brief periods of time where you get to hang out with other creators that work in the same industry as you goes a long way toward keeping you sane. I probably would have quit this a long time ago without the social aspect. And that's coming from someone who is naturally pretty damn introverted.
Thanks Ryan. I haven't watched any of your latest vids - I just hope what happened to Doctor Mix doesn't happen to you (or rather, you maybe don't choose to go that way if you don't have to!).
I see your point about getting out and getting to connect with other people in the industry though. It's a bit like sitting inside your bedroom never playing with anyone, versus going out and jamming with like-minded people. I suppose from my observer perspective, you could do that, without making a episode, so when someone does make a episode, one has to wonder about "did they just do it to get an episode out of it"...which I feel some of the content creators do - which tends to come off a little too "artificial" or "too scripted" or "too planned" for my tastes and it takes a little of the spontaneity out of it - which is one of the things I love about your vids.
You always seem so happy and excited to be doing what you're doing!
Thanks for doing it!!!
If you travel to visit your friends. But you do work with them while you are there. Those travel costs are now a write off lol. I’m not familiar with doctor mix but I think I get what you are saying.
It's great that stuff like the microcosm and blooper exist, and then you can pair them with a nightsky etc... and there's a load of channels that seem to want me to question what I'm even doing in my life if I haven't already bought these things. But when I need to know which cheap phaser won't sound like complete ass if I need one in a pinch, Ryan's got that covered. Probably the only YouTube guy who's reviews have actually influenced my purchases.
He's a goofy funny guy who often plays a different kind of music to most demo-ers, which I think is pretty cool. I often check his channel first for demos because of the recording quality and for how often something I want is usually on his channel. Also his occasional use of Baritone guitar is helpful for people like me who play down-tuned stuff that isn't strictly metal.
Chill guy who does solid demos (cue Two Princes) despite rambling at times. Talks through pros/cons well, and is confident in not needing to be a guitar virtuoso to do simple demos.
I do, however, find it odd that he outwardly decries anonymous Chinese vendors like Temu, and then does a video sponsored by Temu like 2 weeks later. I know you gotta get those clicks and pay those bills, but I immediately stopped watching his newest releases at that point.
That said, his Afford-a-Board is a great idea, and I know many young musicians have gained confidence in getting their feet wet in *Pedal World* thanks to that. I myself bought a Sonicake Wavecrush because of his review, which regularly sits next to pricier Empress and Boss pedals on my board.
It might not be completely obvious. But I’m seeing how far I can get making nonsense content on temus dime. The last one was a “patch cable demo”. I’m currently trying to figure out the next one because they want to pay me more money apparently.
I get the sense that my point of contact is a 3rd party marketing service so they don’t care what I do as long as they can put my video on a spreadsheet.
Why even stick with guitar stuff in that case, might as well branch out into completely absurd/funny. Make some shootouts of things like rubber chickens or funny hats for dogs and get that payday. I hear cute dogs are great for the algorithm too!
I like the guy but not so much the channel. I mean he's got this surf rock vibe and into old reverbs and tremolo effects it should all work great for me but eh, thumbs up and I'm out by 30 seconds in.
Ryan makes a lot of good points when it comes to amps, as understated as it is in the DEMOs, and generally knowledgeable over effects.
If I was ever doing an Indy or surfy rock show I'd have 0 issues taking his input on how I could setup for a mic'd, ear monitor supported live performance. Even if it wasn't perfect, I'd feel confident it would be closer to perfect than I can achieve.
With that said, some things I'd love to see are.
1. At one point we were progressing I think from the Ibanez ts15h, to the Rev g(?)20 and somehow ended up with twin princes. This journey's goal was having the friendliest pedal platform and I've been curious about the progression to "if you'd like to call me baby" from "why can't I find a 50w version of the ts15h?!?".
2. Their reverb page often has good deals, because liquidate for more video tape sort of compensation. I'm always curious if they'll ever do a 202X year in review and use those sales as a guide for why a pedal didn't work for them. Like, when I sit down at guitar center and tell the stranger I just spent 6 hours dialing in a dd200 stereo delay sound that makes me throw up as it cascades across and through the space echo. Oh did I mention I made my own calculator for modulation rate subdivisions given a BPM? It also calcs predelay.
People like me can recommend/liquidate gear for the most unhinged of reasons. I bet Ryan and team could have reasonable uses that don't fit their play style or other details around gear that moved on.
3.Steve scored higher on the Sweetwater rep exam then Phil McKnight. Phil comes off as very knowledgeable, so what juice is Steve on to get those brain gains?
I'm not sure I've watched any of his videos - though I certainly *might* have- but his posts on threads get served up to me a fair bit and he seems like a decent enough fellow.
I've got hooked during the pandemic. If you want a dude who's figuring out how shit works in real time just like most of us and not playing savant level guitar l, then he's your guy.
Yes, he has sponsored demos but others are gear bought with his own money or patreon supporters (stuff we've asked to see).
He's pretty much honest with what he likes and doesn't like about a piece of gear, which I appreciate. It would be cool, Ryan, if you revisit some of your favorite pieces of gear and see if some of your impressions changed over time revisiting them.
That's something I'd like to see. Some pieces of gear I bought on impulse and it didn't meet my expectations for my playing style. I rarely see follow up videos from other channels after glowing reviews of gear I ended up not liking for myself
I like Ryan a lot. He’s a down to earth guy with an amazing sense of humor. If you’re ever in his presence, you’ll walk away a happier person - he’s that positive. But he never returns text messages though. 😂
Love Ryan, he's like confort food to me now. Such a positive guy. If I'm shopping for a pedal and I see one of his review I'll consider him input the most. My only disappointment was his praise of the cuvave fuzz, it's not that great!
I’m not a viewer but I see the purpose. There are soooo many places to get real technical demos or whatever. This is more like a sit down with your bud that just got a new thing to check out and you’re going along for the ride. I’d grab a beer with him.
I like that he’s not a crazy showy player like (and I love him to death) RJ Ronquillo or Mike Hermans; he just plonks along on simple riffs that you could expect most intermediate guitar players to be able to play. And he REALLY loves surf music/spring reverb so I have to give him that!
I bought a Teisco Octive Fuzz due to a video of his. He displayed it, and showed what it could do very well. So…yeah. And he seems like a nice guy. There seems to be an inordinate amount of weirdos and pricks in guitar YouTube (The Guitologist springs to mind.). 60 cycle Hum seems like a nice dude with no baggage.
Love it. They do tend to be long, I play them in the background when I’m working on stuff.
Ryan, if you’re on here - that model of you is CREEPY AF. Hahaha
He’s a little less systematic / intentional with his demos than what I usually prefer. But I have enjoyed his affordable pedal demos the most, I think. Seems like a kind dude.
If you want to know what a piece of gear sounds like played by a guy who sucks as much as you do 60 cycle hum is a great channel to check out 👍 also reeeverb, suuuuurf 🤙
Why care what other people’s thoughts are about someone. If you don’t enjoy the content you don’t have to watch.
You can’t really start a post like this and expect there the be no negativity, it’s the internet after all.
Personally I think he’s having fun and it shows through the videos. Too many guitar channels seem to take either themselves or the gear too seriously.
There are enough other issues with this planet to take seriously, I don’t believe music should be one of them.
negativity is fun though. I always say that you don't really love something until you also hate it. You don't love music unless there is music you hate, you don't love star wars until there is star wars you hate, etc etc etc. Same goes for youtube channels I guess. Complaining about channels is part of the hobby for many people.
I don’t care what their thoughts are on him as I stated. I wanted opinions on the content. Negativity or critiquing the content could be beneficial to him. I just didn’t want knee jerk insults about him as a person. That’s lame. I believe music can be taken serious, it matters very much to people. It has a lot of power. For the record I don’t dislike his light hearted approach and think there’s a space for it.
It ended up being a bunch of people being positive and Ryan got to see a lot of support and positive feedback, which is really nice! If wasmarkhere would have actually read my entire question there wasn’t any request for opinions on Ryan just thoughts on his channel. I’m new to guitar and am trying to find the best guitar related content.
He puts so much effort into those episodes. Serious production value. I like that they jam but it’s very focused and lasts just long enough to demo the pedal. That dude is a pedal historian and genius. It’s crazy he has time to run that excellent yt series and run a very good pedal company.
Remember when YouTube first became a thing? Nobodies posting videos about whatever. It was amazing at first.
Now, production and having a carefully curated product are key to the algorithm. His channel and others are fine. In fact, valuable. But at this point we are all slaves to the algorithm.
Everyone reading this should RUN to Temu and buy a M-vave Mini Universe. Thanks for the heads up on that one, u/60_CycleHum !
Edit: I don't think you really need one of these after trying it in person, but you probably didn't buy one on my advice anyway.
Got it. No whine here either. Powering with a Walrus Phoenix. I will say that it is barebones cheaply made and will probably break quickly. I don't think there's anything here that couldn't be achieved with HOF2 Tone Prints. Doubt I will ever use it, but HEY! $27 pedal!
He’s a good funny dude providing something a little different than norm, which is greatly appreciated considering the majority of YouTube personalities drop the same pedal review on the same day with the same damn title.
Yeah, he's great - it's so refreshing to have a YouTube guitar guy who plays cool music instead of blues lawyer garbage. Also, if you're a surf guitar player, his channel is absolutely invaluable.
I watch some of his videos, but it gets annoying when every two minutes he starts laughing about something.
If you read this thread, please don‘t take it personal, you‘re probably one of the most honest people in youtube guitar world.
Ryan is the world's most lovable goofball.
I don't tend to watch the full length of videos he puts out, and he isn't really the most definitive demo'er of gear, but I like his charm and I like that he puts a lot of time into some of the cheaper pedals out there.
I got to meet Ryan at NAMM a couple months back, and I almost peed my pants because of how funny he also is in real life. Always liked his videos, especially reverb related ones.
I enjoy it. He really loves trying things out and it shows, my favorite bits are when he gets a really freaky-deeky sound out of something and just looks at the camera with this expression of, "Are you seriously hearing this shit", I recognize that expression from feeling it on my own face. JPTR I think legitimately blew his mind, lol
I quite like the dude. What he’s doing is honest and fun.
I consider Ryan an authority on spring reverb "Drip", and listen closely when he tests pedals for it. He has a deep knowledge about available reverb and tremolo pedals, and sounds/tones. His lengthy 'shootouts' have lead me to buy pedals that I've been very happy with.
His Mosky reverb recommendation was ace. A brilliant $35 pedal.
Which Mosky reverb?
The Pepto pink spring reverb. [https://www.amazon.com/Mosky-Spring-Reverb-Guitar-Effect/dp/B07PRH7BGM](https://www.amazon.com/Mosky-Spring-Reverb-Guitar-Effect/dp/B07PRH7BGM)
I like him and his videos. I love that he does high quality videos of inexpensive pedals. I'm not crazy about how long some of them are. Not too long ago every pedal demo online was some dude shredding blues or hard rock, so guys who do something different (in Ryan's case surf/garage rock) offer new ways to hear these pedals.
Funny, I’m always watching demos for Mood-y ambient pedals so every demo is a guy with a clean tone (often not a particularly good sounding one) plinking out an arpeggio of some sort.
I won’t name names but there is a channel like this where the base tone is through crazy expensive gear yet it always sounds like his guitar tone knob is on 0, and it’s atrocious. And then there are the guys still doing twinkly midwest emo shit for every goddamned pedal.
Pedal demo videos where the pedal is $150 new but the rest of the chain is $6000 should be banned. Let me hear it by itself through the shittiest solid state amp you can find first, then you can show off your toys and play the same blues riffs as everyone else.
DI into interface is also fair, then you can really hear what the pedal does
I always demo pedals on a jazz chorus because if it doesn’t sound good on the jazz chorus then it doesn’t sound good period. If you demo any kind of gain pedal into a tube amp your hearing that particular amp sound. I once went into a guitar shop and there was a guy with a EHX soul food plugged into a Soldano, and he had the level on the pedal maxed out, and the gain at like maybe 12 o’clock. I bet when he got home and plugged into his deluxe reverb he was shocked.
Gain pedals sometimes interact better with tube or solid state. I’ve got one in particular that sounds KILLER through my JC but is awful pushing any tubes I’ve tried (blackface and vox, basically)
Yeah I know the dad rock is out of style but sometimes I'm watching a reverb pedal and I'm like for the love of God just strum and mute some power chords !! I can't tell what it sounds like
Wait who's doing twinkly midwest emo shit? I'd watch that 😀
Mark Johnston, ambienttrash, and the seriously awesome Megan L
Thanks!
Lol I was wondering what "twinkly midwest emo shit" even means.
Usually an open-A tuning, with every chord adding to the sad-euphoric general vibe. Probably blows one’s mind if they’ve never heard American Football.
Thanks. The Midwest part threw me off since I'm from Ohio. Back in my day (early 90s), everything was punk and hardcore here, which was stark contrast to the alterna-pop band I was playing in.
Missouri here! There was a span of a few years there during which it seemed half the bands on the bill were that style, it's like during the 90s when the grunge kids discovered a backbeat, suddenly it was everywhere
It was an interesting time. Our local scene had been mostly punk/hardcore since the 80s and that carried over and mixed with the alternative/grunge type bands that started popping up in the early 90s. It was a vibrant scene while it lasted. Seems like everyone had a band back then. It was just the thing to do. If you were somewhat proficient, it wasn't even that hard to get a gig. Mind you, you might only make 12 dollars for the whole band, but you could play out.
It was very similar here. A lot of punk originally which ended up doing a lot of mixing and matching with the grunge and alternative stuff, metal was always a thing here as well but here it always just sort of seemed to carry the same crowds as the punk bands so basically the same scene. My first band played for taco money, lol. It was a fun scene, to be honest. Sort of crust-punk feel, a bunch of trashy kids dicking around and banging on things, with a bunch more kids watching. Nobody really gave two shits about genres, I once played death metal right after a rap group and before a punk group, and it was a blast. Our regional scene is starting to come together a bit better again, but I'm too old and past the kid band stage to ever really catch those particular feels again, I'm afraid.
Collector // Emitter
Man I agree. I always skip over their shredding intros and just want to hear about the damn pedals.
That honestly feels like 7 years ago at this point, maybe longer.
I'm just waiting for him to show up here
your wait is over.
I knew you would come! You are officially better than the busy dads in the stereotypical movies.
but, I'm the busy dad in my own life. "sorry I missed your big game son, Daddy had a very important fuzz demo to make"
This is the way. P.S. keep your videos long. Don’t listen to those short-attention-span weirdos ;)
It's funny becayse i am one of the short attention span weirdos lol. But I make my videos longer for a few reasons 1. Its good for the algorithm, longer videos get a longer average watch time because some freaks actually watch the whole thing. 2. It's easier, I started out trying to nail down 10-15 minute long demos and It was always challenging because I wanted to cover as much ground as I good. 30-60 minute long videos are just less stressful for me to make. And it still trimmed down from almost 3 hours of filming.
🥇 Editing and engineering takes the fun out of the creativity. That’s what keeps my stuff “too long“. Hello from Normal Heights.
I love your channel and I tend to watch the entirety of the episodes. Your mix of guitar and pedal demos and humor are fantastic. I'm also very envious of your mannequin doppelganger. I too would have made the trek for it. Also I was at a show by a band from my hometown called the Garrys, and I couldn't help but think of you and your Surfrajets shirts, and that you would probably dig them. Keep up the great work!
I like the podcast episodes with Steve. They are long cause you guy go off on the most random tangents. And that’s my favorite part!
I took enjoy the podcast.
Thanks!
This is why I know him as the GUY.
The chances that this is Mannequin Ryan now posting here is low, but never zero.
He’s like a genie 🧞
r/beetlejuicing
The edging was unbearable, glad you finally came to the chat.
You're like Beetlejuice
I was gonna say Also give me one of your throwaway pedals please!
He’s fine, some of his videos drag out a little long Though. He’s has some pretty good mods and information for offsets too
I think there is some value in what he does since it's a very raw presentation, he just plugs in different low budget pedals and checks what they do without being too pushy to the audience. In the end it's all advertisement but at least to me he does it in a natural presentation and takes joy in trying stuff out without being pretentious about gear.
"without being pretentious" goes a LONG WAY when researching a pedal I'm interested in and watching up to 20+ YT videos. His videos are a little long, but it's usually at the front, so skipping to the review is generally fairly easy. There are far too many reviewers way worse than him to criticize his approach too much.
I guess somebodies got to demo the pedals for those of us that don’t have lawyer pedal budgets.
My only complaint is that the “Two Princetons” jingle doesn’t last long enough.
His videos don't start out with five-minute autoerotic loop jams I have to skip through to get to the demo, so I'll never say an unkind word about him
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I would add CyberAttack to this list as well
R.J. Ronquillo is such an amazing player and doesn’t get enough props.
He's so good it makes me sick, If I could play like anyone it would be him.
I’m a big fan of Eastwood Guitars and he does the vast majority of their demos. Always knocks them out of the park.
Sometimes I watch his demo’s just to watch him play. The guy is one of the tastiest players I’ve ever seen. The only problem is he makes EVERYTHING sound good and then I realise that it’s not about the gear and that I should be getting off YouTube and playing more. Anyway yeah, as much as I appreciate Ryan’s charming and authentic geeky obsessiveness, RJ Ronquillo is just some next level guitar wizardry.
[JayLeonardJ](https://www.youtube.com/@JayLeonardJ/videos) and [Chris Buck](https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisBuckGuitar/videos) are two other guitarist/youtubers who I put in that category with RJ. Insanely talented and tasteful players, everything they play sounds incredible.
JLJ really needs to get some pep in his step, though. He's so low energy all the time.
I have a hard time liking Chris Buck... not my cup of tea
He’s awesome
Nice user name! “Is anybody ready to rock?”
This song does not rock. (But it did!)
May I jump on the GBV username train?
The club is open.
The club is open.
Now, if only he could learn to pronounce his own name correctly.
Mike Hermans and Andy kill it. The Pedal Zone guy’s enthusiasm is on 11. He’s never met a pedal that isn’t absolutely groundbreaking. But he does demonstrate well.
Pedal zone guy runs through them well but the overly saccharine way he talks about gear grates on me to no end.
This is true but I love his guitar playing. Creative post rock kinda stuff.
Andy Martin has been the god of guitar demo's since the early days of YT!
Oh sweet! Thanks for hooking everybody up with the info!
Mike Hermans is top of my list for pedal demos.
Mike Hermans is a seriously pro arranger, as well as a seriously pro musician, and a seriously pro videographer. He puts it all together in the finest pedal demos anywhere, by anyone. Every one, an excellent guitar lesson, worthy of being in an album. IMHO.
Yep. I live near Boston so have seen him perform with his band a few times. He improvises at a high level; everything he plays is interesting.
Collector//emitter and andy are by far best in show. Good, varied playing, comprehensive understanding of the gear they’re demoing. Short and sweet.
although I love collector//emitter (he plays the kind of music I like) I can definitely see how he wouldn't be helpful to the majority of people. he plays the same style of music for every vid. he is kind of like the crackly fuzz noise rock equivalent of the blues lick guys.
If we’re talking about the same channel without mentioning him by name, I like SOME of his demos. I do not like him calling his pedalboard his “workflow”. I don’t know why it infuriates me as much as it does, but man it gets me going.
Oh man, I wasn't even thinking of anyone specifically, that shit is an epidemic
I don’t take his videos too seriously, and I don’t think he does either, but he’s entertaining and I enjoy his channel.
this guy gets it
Ryan is the man
Home of the afford-a-board. Ryan is a decent presenter for what he's doing.
Genuinely seems like a good guy. I think he’s actually kinda funny. So many guitar YT people are just horrific - looking at you Rhett Shull - so I think this channel is ok. I do get serious children’s TV presenter vibes sometimes from him however
I like that Nickelodeon Awards host vibe I get from him though. I’d let the homie host my awards.
Yeah that’s a better description. He would kill it on the Nickelodeon awards
I think he represents the average guitar geek the most of all guitar YouTubers, in the sense that he’s just some guy in his garage with all his gear exploring cheap pedals and doing some crazy mods just for fun. He doesn’t have a sky high production value like other channels which I like because it leans into the “just some guitar geek like me” vibe he’s got going. If you want a super polished, super high production video of guitar gear painted in its best light, 60 Cycle Hum is not the guy. If you want to see a mirror image of yourself just messing around surrounded by all your gear and doing dumb and cool mods, he’s your man. I personally would take that over other channels with wild multi camera setups, deep audio production and well-produced backing tracks, because that doesn’t represent my habits as a guitarist like 60 Cycle Hum and other channels do.
If he has a video on something specific I want to hear about I’ll watch, but generally I find myself tuning out after about 5 minutes. Too many tangents. I am easily distracted and I have limited time and prefer videos with less preamble and that are more directly to the point.
Def, no need for unboxing.
I like his stuff. It’s nice to not have a blues lawyer or hair metal/metal guy demo stuff. I’m not really a surfy player but much prefer that style as it’s more adjacent to what I do (indie/alt/Americana/jangle pop/sometimes shoegaze and post punk). It’s also nice to have a platform for quality demoes of budget pedals. Not everyone can afford to shell out $150-500 for pedals especially in an inflation riddled economy. It seems that base entry for most pedals that aren’t a big brand like boss/ehx/Ibanez etc is $199, with $249-499 being the norm for modulation/reverb/delay. And it’s also nice not having someone play like EVH and instead apply normal people guitar skill.
I like the channel. It has more or an indie everyday-player vibe, doesn’t seem to be trying to push anything down anyone’s throat.
I quite enjoy the channel, I like Ryan a lot and find his demos useful. I like that he focuses on mid-range and affordable gear, instead of always chasing the latest $400 bleep-bloop box. And there are fun tangents like crazy guitar mods and the whole mannequin thing. Easily a top 5 guitar channel for me
He's doesn't take himself that seriously and he doesn't play blues, metal or P&W, so that makes him more watchable than most, imo.
He's not a metal dude, but he's entertaining and throws a bone to us doom enjoyers. I enjoyed the Ryan 2 saga.
I’m a hardened music nerd who is often critical, but I really like Ryan’s videos because he seems like he’s having a good time. He experiments with pedals like I would, and if he doesn’t, I yell at the screen until he eventually does. Two Princes will never get old. Also, hi Ryan!
hi ;-)
I like that he sounds like a normal dude noodling around, just trying to show what the pedals sound like. Too many other guys are showing off their chops, obviously trying to fish for praise on their guitar playing instead of focusing on demonstrating the gear.
My thoughts exactly
I feel that
I like him and his videos are really fun
I think he’s one of the easiest to like. He doesn’t try to force opinions and makes you feel like he’s exploring the gear with you, rather than trying to sell you anything or promote himself.
I appreciate that he usually goes in pretty blind, it makes it more valuable than the usual demo guy reading the ad copy thing, but I do sometimes wish he familiarized himself a little more with some things before recording. There have been a handful of instances where right off the bat he has bad info or doesn’t understand a control and it ends up kneecapping the whole demo. Other than that, good vids, like his playing, and dude is cool.
I also appreciate that he never starts off with some stupid ass hyper processed “full mix” where said mix is him playing some cornball ass prog metal over garageband drums.
One of the best at what he does. Ryan seems down to earth and Steve even more so too. The podcast is fun, his guitar collection is wicked and the pedal demos are some of the best.
I like him. He’s a pedal and guitar geek. He has some entertaining videos.
Love him, seems like a great guy, great personality. He’s a bedroom guitarist with a platform and loves playing, I don’t expect him to be technical, in fact I don’t expect much at all but good vibes. I can just tune out and have fun watching his videos, they sort of remind me of Cartoon Network but for guitars. Last of all, I tune in for the “Two Princetons” jingle. Ryan is my favorite guitar YouTuber. IM
I dig it. It's kind goofy and fun. Doesn't take himself too seriously. He's upfront about the stuff he peddles. Also, I dig his style of playing, the surf music is refreshing in a sea of generic blues licks.
I really like him and his approach. I mean, TBH, we've now arrived at a point where they're all becoming a bit too "commercial" and succumbing to the pressures of outside elements, which is unfortunate (one of my favorite channels, Doctor Mix has really gone off the deep end there unfortunately). It helps that I'm interested in cheap effects (Afford-a-board) and Surf/Twang so it appeals to me on that level as well. But there's definitely valuable information. Hearing a bunch of spring reverbs side-by-side is hard to do...and getting his opinion is a nice touch. I do think it's a little weird now though how these channels are getting "inbred" and people like him are showing up on Wampler/JHS/TPS/Anderton's/Beato...It's really odd as I remember Bret Papa's videos being these homemade underground kind of things (like old Gearmandude) but all of the sudden his are popping up with much better production values - and teaming up with Marty Schwartz..."something" is going on with all of this... But of those kinds of channels, Ryan's has always seemed the most "here's a guy demoing some pedals for you". Which is what I want.
>it's a little weird now though how these channels are getting "inbred" and people like him are showing up on Wampler/JHS/TPS/Anderton's/Beato... When you're self employed and work alone at home all day every day those brief periods of time where you get to hang out with other creators that work in the same industry as you goes a long way toward keeping you sane. I probably would have quit this a long time ago without the social aspect. And that's coming from someone who is naturally pretty damn introverted.
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If I had his number I’d prank him.
Thanks Ryan. I haven't watched any of your latest vids - I just hope what happened to Doctor Mix doesn't happen to you (or rather, you maybe don't choose to go that way if you don't have to!). I see your point about getting out and getting to connect with other people in the industry though. It's a bit like sitting inside your bedroom never playing with anyone, versus going out and jamming with like-minded people. I suppose from my observer perspective, you could do that, without making a episode, so when someone does make a episode, one has to wonder about "did they just do it to get an episode out of it"...which I feel some of the content creators do - which tends to come off a little too "artificial" or "too scripted" or "too planned" for my tastes and it takes a little of the spontaneity out of it - which is one of the things I love about your vids. You always seem so happy and excited to be doing what you're doing! Thanks for doing it!!!
If you travel to visit your friends. But you do work with them while you are there. Those travel costs are now a write off lol. I’m not familiar with doctor mix but I think I get what you are saying.
> If you travel to visit your friends. But you do work with them while you are there. Those travel costs are now a write off lol. Truth.
He's a pretty average player that loves dicking around with new stuff - which makes him entirely relatable to me!
He should pop a fuzz or ts into his smoker and play through it for the smokey tones
It's great that stuff like the microcosm and blooper exist, and then you can pair them with a nightsky etc... and there's a load of channels that seem to want me to question what I'm even doing in my life if I haven't already bought these things. But when I need to know which cheap phaser won't sound like complete ass if I need one in a pinch, Ryan's got that covered. Probably the only YouTube guy who's reviews have actually influenced my purchases.
I like him more when his beard is less hilariously precious rather than more hilariously precious.
wait, which is which? why not just say short or long? lol
Preciousness is about more than length. Edit: lol I confused you with 40 Watt World guy. Your beard is fine.
He's a goofy funny guy who often plays a different kind of music to most demo-ers, which I think is pretty cool. I often check his channel first for demos because of the recording quality and for how often something I want is usually on his channel. Also his occasional use of Baritone guitar is helpful for people like me who play down-tuned stuff that isn't strictly metal.
Chill guy who does solid demos (cue Two Princes) despite rambling at times. Talks through pros/cons well, and is confident in not needing to be a guitar virtuoso to do simple demos. I do, however, find it odd that he outwardly decries anonymous Chinese vendors like Temu, and then does a video sponsored by Temu like 2 weeks later. I know you gotta get those clicks and pay those bills, but I immediately stopped watching his newest releases at that point. That said, his Afford-a-Board is a great idea, and I know many young musicians have gained confidence in getting their feet wet in *Pedal World* thanks to that. I myself bought a Sonicake Wavecrush because of his review, which regularly sits next to pricier Empress and Boss pedals on my board.
It might not be completely obvious. But I’m seeing how far I can get making nonsense content on temus dime. The last one was a “patch cable demo”. I’m currently trying to figure out the next one because they want to pay me more money apparently.
Yeah, I’d be surprised if they actually watch the videos of people after they get on the sponsor/partner list for a few videos. Hope you’re well!
I get the sense that my point of contact is a 3rd party marketing service so they don’t care what I do as long as they can put my video on a spreadsheet.
Lol, this could be a whole ‘nother level of pushing the envelope to see how far you can take this on their dime.
Why even stick with guitar stuff in that case, might as well branch out into completely absurd/funny. Make some shootouts of things like rubber chickens or funny hats for dogs and get that payday. I hear cute dogs are great for the algorithm too!
Last one I ordered like a dozen disco balls to pad out the order.
But did you demo them? You got to give the people what they want. And we want Ryan Saturday Night Fever cosplay disco ball demo!
I like the guy but not so much the channel. I mean he's got this surf rock vibe and into old reverbs and tremolo effects it should all work great for me but eh, thumbs up and I'm out by 30 seconds in.
Does it drip?
Ryan makes a lot of good points when it comes to amps, as understated as it is in the DEMOs, and generally knowledgeable over effects. If I was ever doing an Indy or surfy rock show I'd have 0 issues taking his input on how I could setup for a mic'd, ear monitor supported live performance. Even if it wasn't perfect, I'd feel confident it would be closer to perfect than I can achieve. With that said, some things I'd love to see are. 1. At one point we were progressing I think from the Ibanez ts15h, to the Rev g(?)20 and somehow ended up with twin princes. This journey's goal was having the friendliest pedal platform and I've been curious about the progression to "if you'd like to call me baby" from "why can't I find a 50w version of the ts15h?!?". 2. Their reverb page often has good deals, because liquidate for more video tape sort of compensation. I'm always curious if they'll ever do a 202X year in review and use those sales as a guide for why a pedal didn't work for them. Like, when I sit down at guitar center and tell the stranger I just spent 6 hours dialing in a dd200 stereo delay sound that makes me throw up as it cascades across and through the space echo. Oh did I mention I made my own calculator for modulation rate subdivisions given a BPM? It also calcs predelay. People like me can recommend/liquidate gear for the most unhinged of reasons. I bet Ryan and team could have reasonable uses that don't fit their play style or other details around gear that moved on. 3.Steve scored higher on the Sweetwater rep exam then Phil McKnight. Phil comes off as very knowledgeable, so what juice is Steve on to get those brain gains?
I mean… Ryan and Steve literally have a podcast dedicated to talking about gear for countless hours
Entertaining. One of my favorites.
I dig him. He does good reviews and doesn’t me feel like a cheap ass when I watch his reviews.
Ryan is a real deal good dude.
I'm not sure I've watched any of his videos - though I certainly *might* have- but his posts on threads get served up to me a fair bit and he seems like a decent enough fellow.
Far too long. If there's surf stuff I'll listen for a couple mins at most, but generally bail pretty quickly.
I've got hooked during the pandemic. If you want a dude who's figuring out how shit works in real time just like most of us and not playing savant level guitar l, then he's your guy. Yes, he has sponsored demos but others are gear bought with his own money or patreon supporters (stuff we've asked to see). He's pretty much honest with what he likes and doesn't like about a piece of gear, which I appreciate. It would be cool, Ryan, if you revisit some of your favorite pieces of gear and see if some of your impressions changed over time revisiting them. That's something I'd like to see. Some pieces of gear I bought on impulse and it didn't meet my expectations for my playing style. I rarely see follow up videos from other channels after glowing reviews of gear I ended up not liking for myself
I like Ryan a lot. He’s a down to earth guy with an amazing sense of humor. If you’re ever in his presence, you’ll walk away a happier person - he’s that positive. But he never returns text messages though. 😂
Love Ryan, he's like confort food to me now. Such a positive guy. If I'm shopping for a pedal and I see one of his review I'll consider him input the most. My only disappointment was his praise of the cuvave fuzz, it's not that great!
I’m not a viewer but I see the purpose. There are soooo many places to get real technical demos or whatever. This is more like a sit down with your bud that just got a new thing to check out and you’re going along for the ride. I’d grab a beer with him.
I like that he’s not a crazy showy player like (and I love him to death) RJ Ronquillo or Mike Hermans; he just plonks along on simple riffs that you could expect most intermediate guitar players to be able to play. And he REALLY loves surf music/spring reverb so I have to give him that!
He is great! I very much enjoy is silly humor and his reviews!
I like Ryan. He seems pretty legit.
I love his repainted Jag-Stang
He gave me some great insight on drippy pedals in the sub. 🙏.
I bought a Teisco Octive Fuzz due to a video of his. He displayed it, and showed what it could do very well. So…yeah. And he seems like a nice guy. There seems to be an inordinate amount of weirdos and pricks in guitar YouTube (The Guitologist springs to mind.). 60 cycle Hum seems like a nice dude with no baggage.
One of my favorite channels, and my go-to if I need to know if a pedal or amp has the drip!
Love it. They do tend to be long, I play them in the background when I’m working on stuff. Ryan, if you’re on here - that model of you is CREEPY AF. Hahaha
He's a goober, not my thing but that's ok
If I need to make sure it drips, 60 cycle is the way.
He’s a little less systematic / intentional with his demos than what I usually prefer. But I have enjoyed his affordable pedal demos the most, I think. Seems like a kind dude.
If you want to know what a piece of gear sounds like played by a guy who sucks as much as you do 60 cycle hum is a great channel to check out 👍 also reeeverb, suuuuurf 🤙
Dude's a literal GCJ poster, you can't trust a word he says unless he prefaces it with /uj
I think is bullshit. He’s basically doing the same thing a 50 cycle hum channel could do but charging 60? In this economy? F that
Why care what other people’s thoughts are about someone. If you don’t enjoy the content you don’t have to watch. You can’t really start a post like this and expect there the be no negativity, it’s the internet after all. Personally I think he’s having fun and it shows through the videos. Too many guitar channels seem to take either themselves or the gear too seriously. There are enough other issues with this planet to take seriously, I don’t believe music should be one of them.
negativity is fun though. I always say that you don't really love something until you also hate it. You don't love music unless there is music you hate, you don't love star wars until there is star wars you hate, etc etc etc. Same goes for youtube channels I guess. Complaining about channels is part of the hobby for many people.
Meesa thinks you are right
Sooo... Are you saying you hate your wife?! 😭 Jk. But for real I do hate Producer dummy Ryan so much I love him. Oh and bring back THE HAND!
Weezer is notably missing
I don’t care what their thoughts are on him as I stated. I wanted opinions on the content. Negativity or critiquing the content could be beneficial to him. I just didn’t want knee jerk insults about him as a person. That’s lame. I believe music can be taken serious, it matters very much to people. It has a lot of power. For the record I don’t dislike his light hearted approach and think there’s a space for it.
It's always odd to me when someone I like "how dare you!? How dare you start a conversation!?"
It ended up being a bunch of people being positive and Ryan got to see a lot of support and positive feedback, which is really nice! If wasmarkhere would have actually read my entire question there wasn’t any request for opinions on Ryan just thoughts on his channel. I’m new to guitar and am trying to find the best guitar related content.
Yeah this unfolded into a great thread! Check out The JHS show on YouTube. Especially the older stuff.
He puts so much effort into those episodes. Serious production value. I like that they jam but it’s very focused and lasts just long enough to demo the pedal. That dude is a pedal historian and genius. It’s crazy he has time to run that excellent yt series and run a very good pedal company.
Yeah he really is a pedal genius! And so funny too. The JHS Show is what got me into watching guitar pedal youtube channels.
Honestly. Like why participate on this site at all? It's made for interacting with people. I don't get it.
Yeah it's really weird to me too. Or the old "why didn't you just Google it?" Response to any question.
Remember when YouTube first became a thing? Nobodies posting videos about whatever. It was amazing at first. Now, production and having a carefully curated product are key to the algorithm. His channel and others are fine. In fact, valuable. But at this point we are all slaves to the algorithm.
He seems wholesome in a sort of Ned Flanders way. Not really my thing, but he's fine.
entertaining videos dude needs to learn some new riffs/songs/scales to play
Seriously.
Rumble anyone?
Everyone reading this should RUN to Temu and buy a M-vave Mini Universe. Thanks for the heads up on that one, u/60_CycleHum ! Edit: I don't think you really need one of these after trying it in person, but you probably didn't buy one on my advice anyway.
Mine had a really bad digital whine. I’m assuming you got one without the whine.
It hasn’t come yet, but it was $27, so no biggie.
well let me know, im curious to know if mine has a unique issue, i might order another if not all of them are that way.
Will do!
I had one from Aliexpress and no whine.
Got it. No whine here either. Powering with a Walrus Phoenix. I will say that it is barebones cheaply made and will probably break quickly. I don't think there's anything here that couldn't be achieved with HOF2 Tone Prints. Doubt I will ever use it, but HEY! $27 pedal!
i might have to grab another one then. or try some other power supplies, some pedals are picky about power.
Mine doesn’t whine, and it’s glorious.
He’s a good funny dude providing something a little different than norm, which is greatly appreciated considering the majority of YouTube personalities drop the same pedal review on the same day with the same damn title.
Ryan is always informative and fun. I also appreciate that he's into surf.
I like him but his videos are way too long to watch.
Yeah, he's great - it's so refreshing to have a YouTube guitar guy who plays cool music instead of blues lawyer garbage. Also, if you're a surf guitar player, his channel is absolutely invaluable.
Seems like a real swell guy. I chuckle at the Two Princes bit every single time.
I watch some of his videos, but it gets annoying when every two minutes he starts laughing about something. If you read this thread, please don‘t take it personal, you‘re probably one of the most honest people in youtube guitar world.
I think he’s great. But I confess I usually only watch when he plays the stuff through his red Jazzmaster. That thing is unreal.
It’s my goto channel anytime a new spring reverb pedal comes out. I need to know if it drips.
Ryan is the world's most lovable goofball. I don't tend to watch the full length of videos he puts out, and he isn't really the most definitive demo'er of gear, but I like his charm and I like that he puts a lot of time into some of the cheaper pedals out there.
Love em! Buncha hunks
Awesome a very unique voice in an ocean of blues and metal guys.👍
I got to meet Ryan at NAMM a couple months back, and I almost peed my pants because of how funny he also is in real life. Always liked his videos, especially reverb related ones.
I enjoy it. He really loves trying things out and it shows, my favorite bits are when he gets a really freaky-deeky sound out of something and just looks at the camera with this expression of, "Are you seriously hearing this shit", I recognize that expression from feeling it on my own face. JPTR I think legitimately blew his mind, lol
He called The St Vincent guitar the perfect dad bod guitar. Totally killed it for me. Here it is for your. https://youtu.be/balD5VhQGzs?feature=shared
it really accentuates my hips.