Unbiased, engaging, in-depth, and entertaining, every guitar demo video made by Play and Trade Guitars is a labor of love. Started in 2020 by John (the guy on camera) and Zach (the guy behind the camera,) Play and Trade Guitars is like the sales rep you always wish you had. And from backstage rundowns with some of the world’s top players to touring factories and the NAMM Show floor, Play and Trade Guitars has become a source for all sorts of guitar industry info.
Now official partners with zZounds, John and Zach sat down with me to discuss their musical backgrounds, look back on some of their favorite projects, and just shoot the breeze on some awesome guitars.
Be sure to subscribe to Play and Trade Guitars on YouTube and follow them on Instagram. Besides not missing out on any of their videos, you’ll be kept in the loop about all of their guitar giveaways — including the Martin D-28 they’ll be giving away when they reach 100,000 subscribers!
If you’re shopping for a new guitar and have found John and Zach’s videos helpful, why not shop their personal gear list on zZounds? They earn a small commission on gear sold through that link, so it’s a great way to show your support! Plus, you get all the zZounds-exclusive perks like interest-free payment plans and fast, free shipping!
zZounds: Can you guys tell me a little bit about what you were doing before Play and Trade Guitars?
John: Musically, I’ve been playing guitar since I was 11 or 12. So all through my 20s, I played in cover bands, tribute bands, original bands, rock bands, jazz, blues, lots of styles. I even quit playing electric and played exclusively classical for three or four years, went to Spain and studied. I’ve just had a real mixed bag of styles and influences over the years. I was playing with an original band when we started Play and Trade, and that was right before the pandemic. And that changed not only everything that we were doing musically, but also gave this new importance to what we were doing with the channel from 2020 on.
Zach: I went to school in Nashville, Tennessee at Belmont University for music business/music production, worked with bands out of college, toured around the country a little bit. And then ultimately, was working in the music industry for a record company for about five years doing final production, master delivery, all that stuff on the back end of the records we were getting delivered. I moved back to the Chicagoland area in 2019, started hanging out with John and yeah, we were sitting around watching YouTube one night and he said he had been thinking about starting a YouTube channel and I said dude, you’d be a great YouTuber. And so we got everything we needed: the lights, we got our little camera setup and then right about that time, we were going for about six weeks and got the news that the world was shut down and it really kind of allowed us time to focus all of our energy on figuring out how we’re going to start this up quickly.
zZounds: How do you compare the experience of being a musician on YouTube versus trying to make it in a band? There’s some similar aspects of grinding and getting your name out there. But, it’s got to be way different too.
John: I feel like guitar is a lifestyle. I live guitar. There’s a lot of years of experience behind every time I’m picking up a guitar and presenting it on the channel. And the dance of Zach and me working together on this, I don’t think we could do it successfully without all the experience of playing in bands. And the grind is real. Don’t let anyone tell you YouTube’s easy. It’s not. But it’s rewarding. And I think if you’re serious as a musician, you’ve got to think about YouTube as an income stream. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. Your YouTube channel could be a supplementary thing to your music career and vice-versa.
zZounds: When you first started, how did you get the guitars that you were you were demoing? And when it comes to Play and Trade, I know you play them, but then you trade them with…who?
Zach: Now we trade them with you. (laughs)
John: I was in a band in 2016-ish. And I said, Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if you bought a vintage guitar or a used guitar, you filmed a video, and then you sold it and bought another, rinse and repeat? And that would be the basis of the YouTube channel. So Play and Trade — I love wheeling and dealing with gear. We used to flip open my hatchback and say, Here’s the haul for the week, like here’s the stuff I bought on Craigslist and Facebook. What was so hard for us when we were starting is how the heck do we get our hands on new guitars?
The biggest change for us was to have access to the inventory that zZounds afforded us to do the same type of review that we would have typically done on an occasional new guitar, applying all of our former experience to the new releases. Honestly our channel really took off when zZounds enabled us to have access to that inventory. That was the big difference.
Zach: I think early on we realized, as cool as it was to find rare and interesting vintage guitars, new guitars definitely got the most search traffic. They were topical. And so really cracking that code of how do we get new guitars on the day that they’re released when people are searching for them trying to buy them? That was really that was kind of the question we were trying to answer.
John: And I think the first day that our shipment of new guitars came in for review, we filmed the FedEx truck coming with the pallet and just pinched ourselves because we knew what it would mean. And we knew that we were really gonna hit it hard to do this. It’s been such a such a blessing for us.
And also you can’t tell the story of our channel without at least touching on the whole Adam Jones story. Long story short, when Sweetwater had those Adam Jones models stolen from that truck, we were a young channel at the time. We did some guitar news reactions, and Adam Jones ended up seeing our videos and messaged us directly on Instagram and started getting in touch with us about the whole story, and that led quickly to an introduction to Cesar at Gibson, and we got to go down there and tour. That’s how we got our tour with Gibson.
zZounds: It can be hard to find unbiased gear reviews, especially when somebody’s working with a big retailer. But you guys are not afraid to go under the hood, take measurements and talk about what you don’t like about a model and just be objective. So how did that philosophy come to take shape?
John: Yeah, we’re not afraid to show if something goes wrong with a guitar. In fact, we just had an earwig crawl out of the truss rod hole. And you know, that made it on video because we just thought it was funny!
But yeah, we’ve had some guitars where out of the box I say on the video, ‘I would send this back.’ But the beauty of an affiliate model is I can give you an honest review. And let’s say I’m doing PRS versus Fender, it allows me to be objective because I’m not selling the model that I’m reviewing in the video. I’m selling the idea that we’re here to get knowledge and ultimately when you make a purchase, make it with us. It helps us make these unbiased reviews. And sometimes I say this is one of the best guitars I’ve played in a long time, you should buy it. If you’re going to do reviews, you have to build trust.
zZounds: And on a side note, I just appreciate that you do more than just blues licks in your demos. You’re both great players. Zach, I saw you on drums in a recent video too. And you’re always doing something different. You give context to the instrument.
John: Zach can throw a track together in like 10 minutes and it keeps it fresh.
Zach: Backing tracks always kind of irked me. So I take pride in making one that has a purpose.
zZounds: Did you guys have any preconceived notions or beliefs about certain guitars or gear before you started that maybe changed over time?
John: I’ve noticed that people like to to regurgitate a lot of stuff online about particular brands. And when you actually put guitars to the test, you find out this is really just an echo chamber where certain brands or certain guitars will get a bad rap where they don’t deserve it, or sometimes vice-versa.
To tell you the truth, before I started doing this, I probably knew the least about PRS. And one area that totally blew me away — in fact I play one on stage now — is the SE line. For a budget series, like under 800, sometimes under 700 , 600 bucks, like, yeah, holy cow, you know? These are great guitars.
I think the one that people pick on is Gibson. People love to say, like, oh, you know Gibson. Gibson quality control is trash. And it’s like, we’ve toured the factory. We’ve seen the people making these guitars. Jim DeCola personally helped us tour the facility with Cesar too. And every Gibson that comes in, it still has the magic to me. And it’s like, I don’t know what you guys are all drinking on on the internet, but I’ll tell you, it’s a special day still when a Gibson comes out of its case; the smell, the feel, it’s like, this is what you want. People just like to pick on certain brands, I think. So we try to show them otherwise.
zZounds: What are your guys’ holy grail guitars?
Zach: For me, it would be like a 1990s Gibson Firebird. One of the first guitars that we featured on our channel was a Custom Shop guitar that had what I always called like the Mountain Dew Baja Blast burst. It was like a very cool kind of aqua green. But the Firebird, that’s one guitar where I wouldn’t mind having it in sunburst, so you can see through to the different layers.
John: You know, I’m kind of weird where let the guitars come to me, and then when one has that magic, I just hold on to it. But we’re in the middle of doing American Vintage II right now. And I would love to have, like an old Telecaster. I play a lot of styles, and to me, the Telecaster can do everything. So I probably want, like a pre-CBS Tele, probably with rosewood.
zZounds: Are any of your videos particularly controversial? I know YouTube comments sections can sometimes be a rough place.
Zach: Yeah, you have to have thick skin if you want to be on YouTube. Kind of have to learn to laugh at it. We we met Paul Reed Smith earlier this year at the start of the summer. In that video he was talking a lot about tonewood, and he stands against the internet on that debate topic.
John: So I waded into that. I knew what I was getting into, but I definitely, I still believe in the magic of tonewood. Whatever you want to call it, I was finding myself on Paul’s side of things, and so I put a video out that I knew was going to get a lot of feedback. And there are people on both sides, but yeah, I got quite a reaction to the to that one.
zZounds: Just as a personal note, I really love the video you guys made when Yngwie Malmsteen came to town and you did a rundown with his tech.
John: That’s my favorite video that Zach did the editing on! There’s so much being said between what’s being put on the video, you know, and it’s just so masterfully done. I just love that video.
zZounds: Last thing I want to ask you guys — any advice you have for somebody who’s thinking about starting a guitar YouTube channel or making guitar content?
Zach: Convince yourself that you’re a YouTuber when you decide to you want to be a YouTuber. Because working really hard and not seeing any payout at first, it really has to be a labor of love. The most important thing for us was finding our niche and defining your audience before you find it.
John: For most working musicians who are stringing together sources of income whether it’s teaching or playing gigs, YouTube is really something to look into. Because you can play that gig, you get paid, and you need another gig. With a video it’s on the internet forever and if you do it right, you can get paid forever. The biggest piece of advice I have is just get started; you don’t need a fancy camera, all you need is a smartphone. Just point it at yourself and if you’ve got chops or something to say, just be consistent. It’s gonna take a little while to figure out what works, but it’s worth it.
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