From playing tips to gear reviews and personal stories, Sean Pierce Johnson’s YouTube channel is an inspiring and informative place for any guitarist. This GIT graduate is a prolific performer with one foot in the rock scene via his band Cockeyed Optimist and another in the worship world. On camera, he’s an approachable and engaging persona who humbly shares his experience and expertise in every video.
Our video interview runs the gamut on everything from trends in guitar gear to the highlights of going to guitar college, to philosophical musings on what it means to be a musician. Check it out above or read the transcript below!
And if you’re on the hunt for some new guitar gear and have found Sean’s videos helpful, why not shop his personal gear list on zZounds? Creators 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!
NOTE: This transcript has been edited for brevity and readability.
zZounds: Why don’t you just tell me a little bit about your musical background before you started your YouTube channel?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Well, it’s funny. I actually just had a conversation about this recently with a friend who isn’t musical. And it’s odd that I can’t really place the moment that music started to play a role in my life. Music was always kind of there. No one in my family is a musician, but my dad was always playing stuff like The Beatles, Michael Jackson. Those are my earliest musical memories is hearing Beatles songs and Michael Jackson at the same time. And I remember being a little kid and like that “Moonwalker” VHS tape. I still have the copy of it that I used to watch when I was little. I’m surprised that thing still survives because I watched that thing constantly. So music was always kind of there, but it didn’t really start to play a role in my life until like about the age of 11 or 12. At that point, you know, I started, you know, perusing the TV channels outside of the stuff that kids normally watch. So I happened upon, you know, VH1 on a lazy Sunday morning and it was like, ‘oh, there’s some rock music. There’s music videos. Oh, this is interesting.’ Go to MTV. And that was like the heyday of TRL. So it was almost like the perfect time for an 11, 12-year-old to like start to get curious about this greater world of music. And it’s not like I wasn’t exploring anything before that either. I had, there were kids shows like All That on Nickelodeon that would have musical guests every once in a while. So I was definitely exposed to some like decent pop and R&B groups of the late ’90s, early aughts time. But really that time with TRL when they were willing to play things — like TRL was like Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. But at the same time, there was Limp Bizkit, Blink-182, Korn, all that other stuff. It was a very eclectic musical time.
zZounds: Yeah. I remember. I think we’re probably about the same age because that rings true to me.
Sean Pierce Johnson: I would have to guess. If that hits you in the heart, then you understand the time. But ironically, when I started playing guitar, like the first couple of years, I just hated it. And I think, and I think after, you know, some odd years, I think at this point I’ve been playing guitar now for double the time of my life that I didn’t play guitar. I think it came down to two factors. One, when I started, I wasn’t really motivated all that much because the concept of what getting into being a musician is, I just thought, ‘oh, playing guitar looks like it would be fun.’ And it wasn’t fun. Something didn’t click there. But then I thought about how I had a three-quarter size nylon string guitar, but I was into like the rock stuff that was coming out at the time. And I started about two months before my 12th birthday taking guitar lessons. Pretty shortly thereafter, starting lessons was when I started to hit my growth spurt. So by the time I’m six months into lessons, my hands have gotten bigger. I’m way too big for a three-quarter size student guitar. So for a year and a half, I was plunking along on this small guitar. It’s like no wonder I hated it because every time I’d go to, I know that I’m playing this bar chord right. I know that I have this. It just sounds like plink, plink, plink, plink. So that was a real disheartening moment. But man, the first, I got a decent electric guitar from my dad who had, he’d kind of sort of, I guess he kind of like hid it away for a little while. Just kind of in the hopes that I really took to it. But as soon as I got that, I played on stage for the first time at age 14. I played that guitar solo in front of an audience and it was like, dude, this is it. This is the thing.
zZounds: What was it? What solo? What song?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Oh, man. Everybody’s going to think this is so lame, but I remember it vividly. It was the solo from “Island in the Sun” by Weezer off The Green Album. I mean, it’s just the song’s melody, but at the same time, you hit the distortion pedal, and it’s just singing out.
zZounds: I read somewhere that George Harrison was very into taking the verse melody and adapting it a little bit for guitar.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Oh yeah, speaking of George Harrison that nylon string guitar solo in “All My Love,” that right there is a perfect example of that.
zZounds: So it makes sense. Like you’re playing a three-fourth scale [guitar]. It’s like you’re playing basketball with shoes that are two sizes too small. Why do I hate this so much?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Exactly. And it’s one of the things that I, one of the byproducts of doing what I do. And I feel very fortunate that people consider me to be an authority when it comes to guitar-related stuff, whether it’s playing or advising people on equipment. They’ll ask me if their kid is wanting to start playing, and I can never give them a simple, straight answer other than: whatever you do, don’t buy them a student guitar.
zZounds: Obviously, this has changed a lot in the last few years. Since you and I started playing, a $300 guitar is not what it used to be—in a good way. But if you get something with sharp frets or a truss rod way out of whack, you’re not going to want to play that thing. Even if you don’t know what’s wrong, you feel it.
Sean Pierce Johnson: It’s amazing to me because—I don’t want to get too far off the flow of the conversation — but I have a guitar right next to me. Can I bring it on to show you guys real quick?
zZounds: Absolutely.
Sean Pierce Johnson: So, last year, a friend of mine, who I’ve met through my crazy involvement in the gear world, introduced me to this company called Hills Guitars. It’s a new company, a new brand. They’re built in Indonesia, and the company is sort of like a sister brand of a company based out of Korea. Headless guitars are really hot right now, and this thing is $500.
Last year, I did quite a few guitar demos, many thanks to our partnership together. So, thank you to you guys for helping me explore the world of guitars last year.
zZounds: No problem. And since we don’t sell that guitar, I’m going to cut all of this out. Just kidding!
Sean Pierce Johnson: Right! Although they’re a growing brand, and they might be interested in having some dealers. I figured nobody knows this brand, nobody is going to watch this video, but I was interested in it. So I liked it and wanted to show people. I’ve played guitars that were four times the price of this, and this was the guitar last year that absolutely blew me away.
The fact that it’s $500 and as good as it is—that’s the perfect encapsulation of what you just said. A guitar that was $300 back when we were getting started was just completely not the thing you would want. I remember those Squier Bullet Strats being like $99. Nobody would want to be caught dead playing one of those. Now, though, here’s a $500 headless guitar with premium features, and it’s unreal the way that quality has increased over the years.
zZounds: Definitely. Actually, you answered one of my later questions, which was going to be: what’s a piece of gear from last year that really inspired you, that really surprised you?
Sean Pierce Johnson: That really surprised me, but believe me, there’s plenty more where that came from.
zZounds: I’m sure. So, going back to your history, I saw that you attended GIT.
Sean Pierce Johnson: I did, yeah.
zZounds: So, obviously, you caught the fever and took it further. Tell me a little bit about your experience applying and what it was like to be a student there.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Oh, man. My experience applying was a bit interesting because I had originally applied to get into their bachelor’s degree program. Some of the requirements for that entrance test were just beyond my knowledge at the time. So, I didn’t end up going for the bachelor’s degree. I just went straight for GIT, which in itself is not a four-year degree program.
But, my God, man, if there is any period of time in my life that I would never trade for the world, it’s the time I spent at Musicians Institute. I was there for three years, with about two years specifically at GIT. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by other guitar players who were as passionate about it as I was, who wanted to be as good as they possibly could be—no matter what style—and there was no competition among us.
I cannot tell you what it meant to finally be surrounded by a group of people who were totally cool being friends, trading licks, and helping each other discover new playing techniques. We weren’t slinging mud or throwing shade at every turn. We used to have auditions come through, and ten of my classmates would be going for an audition to be the rhythm guitar player for The Offspring or something. We would literally have a group watching from outside the audition room, cheering for each other. If one of us got a gig, nobody begrudged them. It was incredible.
The staff was just spot on. You’re talking about guys who were trained by members of the Wrecking Crew. How can you not want to soak that in? I’ve had debates with other creators in the guitar space about the whole Berklee vs. MI rivalry, and to me, the list of GIT graduates speaks for itself.
When I went there, Paul Gilbert was the big name that everyone looked up to. I actually managed to have a private lesson with Paul while I was a student there, which was a huge thrill. Pete Thorn came through. Alan Hinds did open counselings. Scott Henderson would come in to teach. We had celebrity guests come in all the time. The teachers were incredibly knowledgeable.
One teacher that everybody at GIT knows is Dan Gilbert. I’m going to give that guy his flowers because I don’t know who’s giving him his flowers these days. You go into GIT, you have no idea who he is. By the time you’re done with your first six months, you know exactly who he is, and you want him to be the guy teaching you before you leave. It was such an honor to sit with him and learn. My music theory teacher, Dale Turner, used to write for Guitar One magazine and was fantastic at explaining theory in a way that completely took away the blinders.
zZounds: That’s awesome.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Also, at one point, we had a guy named Jimmy Wyble. He was a contemporary of Joe Diorio and Howard Roberts, the founders of GIT. Sadly, he’s no longer with us, but he was in his ’80s, coming in and playing jazz guitar. It was some of the most beautiful jazz you’ll ever hear, and I was lucky enough to take a class with him.
GIT and MI changed my life in every way imaginable. I studied music business, went through the audio engineering program, and it even affected my personal life — I met my wife there. She was a student in the vocal program. So, it changed everything.
zZounds: Wow. That’s incredible.
Sean Pierce Johnson: I owe a lot to my time at MI.
zZounds: I’d say so!
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah, yeah. It was great.
zZounds: And you and your wife are in a band together, right?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yes. Yes, we are. The band is called Cockeyed Optimist. We’ve been on a bit of a sort of a self-imposed hiatus trying to, you know, obviously the pandemic shifted all our plans for 2020. And in the ensuing years, we’ve had to kind of dial it back a little bit, take care of some personal things. But we are gearing up to start recording some new songs because the time is now. The time is now. So hopefully there will be some updates for you on that in the near future.
zZounds: I was watching your videos and one of the ones that first stood out was you’re kind of telling the story about your, experience I think you were a teenager and I think it was Christmas, getting the Les Paul. Oh, it’s right behind you — yeah that one.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. That one. The number one.
zZounds: It got me thinking, I’ve had that feeling too and I think I think any guitarist can relate to that whether it’s Christmas or not whether the guitar was a gift or not. Even if you just buy it yourself online it shows up at your doorstep it’s that Christmas morning feeling. Do you think other instruments carry that same weight to people?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Oh yeah, I mean the one thing that I think with with that particular guitar I think it’s an emotional connection to the reason why it was given, but it’s also what I’ve been able to do with that as my main. I’m pretty sure I said it in that video, I pay my bills because of that guitar. So many things have been opened up to me because of that. So the bond that I have with that guitar in particular is pretty strong. But I definitely think that that kind of thing can happen for various reasons. It’s not just that kind of stuff. I have a guitar in the closet right now where I keep my main instruments at the ready. It’s a custom Tele-style build that was built for me by a very good friend. And that one has a special attachment to me because I’ve never really been much of a Fender guitar guy. I’ve had Fenders over the years, but I’ve just never really bonded with one and then he gave me a prototype that of a the Tele model that he was wanting to release and I just fell in love with it I it was everything that I thought a Telecaster was supposed to be so I commissioned him to build me one to my specs and as soon as I got that it was like Les Paul has its Fender counterpart, finally. And I also, it holds a special place because I literally picked it up the week before the whole world shut down in 2020.
zZounds: Oh, wow.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah. Like not five days later, it was like, boom, no, everything. So it was kind of like the last little, it was sort of the last little connection point I had before everybody started isolating and things started going nuts. So to have that, it was like that guitar was sort of my, that was sort of my like a hold on to this because this can’t last forever. This connection is not severed. You’ll, we’ll be together in the same room again. And thankfully, like our relationship since has been very strong. He, I consider him a brother in more ways than one. And yeah, he’s just a fantastic builder of guitars. And I’m so glad that he’s doing well. And I just love that connection. But for, and it can be any other reason other than those, you know, I think even amplifiers have the same thing. Effects pedals have the same kind of connection. Really, it all just boils down to, when you hold the guitar, when you strum that first chord, what do you feel? How strong is that connection? How big is that inspiration? It’s a very… I don’t want to get too woo-woo on you, But the spiritual aspect of the creation of music and the idea of sound has been a very interesting thing to me in the last couple of years. And I definitely think that as musicians, we have a very distinct privilege of being able to be stewards of sound in general. And the spiritual aspects of it are really strong, I’m discovering.
zZounds: It’s fine by me. It’s all, it’s literally all vibrations. I mean, yeah. You know, at one level.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah.
zZounds: Stewards of sound. I like that. That’s got a nice ring to it.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah. I kind of like that.
zZounds: Speaking of your videos, another thing that I’ve noticed is you’ve been doing these lesson videos and a few of them go into a little bit of the holistic side, like how to stay healthy with your arms, your wrist and joints in particular. And then you show warm-ups of non-playing-related and playing exercises related to help you before a gig. Can you tell me more about that side of things?
Sean Pierce Johnson: A lot of that is very much based on a little bit of GIT, but it’s more based on just the practical things that I’ve had to learn over the course of the last few years. Obviously, I think a lot of people had their alarms go up about health when it came to the pandemic. And that could go one of two ways. It could either go one way to the extreme where it’s not such a good way of taking care of your health. But then there are other things that you can do that can take care of your health and very small practical things that you can do. I care very deeply about physical health for myself, for my family, and for the people that watch my stuff. And that was kind of the impetus really of discovering. After my shoulder injury and after dealing with a few other problems related to my hands, whether it be the picking or the fretting hand, it really just became kind of obvious to me. My chiropractor who has been helping me with my my rehab and just general overall wellness, he said something to me that completely changed my perspective and it’s like ‘you’re a performing musician, you have a guitar strapped to your body that’s an extra weight, and you as a performer are an active performer you’re not sedentary; you are an athlete.’ So you need to treat yourself like one. My dad and my brother were both baseball players and I remember them doing their warmups, you know? So it’s like, if you’re going to be fairly physical when it comes to your playing and, you know, I wouldn’t accuse myself of being anywhere near as active on stage as say the Dillinger Escape Plan, but I’ve been known to get a little nuts on stage when I play. And I don’t do nearly as extreme when I’m doing videos here or if I’m playing at my church, but it still warrants, especially on the days that I have to play at church and wake up so early. It’s like, dude, I’m still like half asleep when I’m like pouring my first cup of coffee. I need to get my body and my mind ready for this. If I’m not 100% rested, on my game, or I’ve been jarred out of sleep by my alarm, I need to do something to get myself ready. Because if I’m not paying attention, I can hurt myself.
zZounds: I think we’re about the same age, so I’m feeling that too. I understand. The potential for hurting yourself is greater every year.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah. I wish it weren’t the case, but such is the way of it.
The spiritual aspect of the creation of music and the idea of sound has been a very interesting thing to me in the last couple of years. And I definitely think that as musicians, we have a very distinct privilege of being able to be stewards of sound in general. And the spiritual aspects of it are really strong, I’m discovering.
zZounds: You mentioned this and that’s something that I wanted to ask you about. So you perform both in a rock band and in a worship band, not to say that they can’t rock too, but they’re obviously different audiences, different settings. Can you tell me a little bit about what it’s like to be in each type of band and where they’re similar, where they’re different, how they kind of inform each other? I’m curious about that.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Absolutely. So obviously, I’m just going to caveat this by saying straight up, if I play in a worship context, y’all know about me, I am a professing, practicing Christian. I read my Bible. I believe that Jesus is the Lord and Savior of my life. That’s what I do. So that’s essential for the framing. When I talked earlier about the responsibility and the privilege we have of music, a lot of that has come through me finding faith in that I realize now, that this is to get a little bit more in the weeds.
I love Tolkien. Like I love Lord of the Rings and I love Middle Earth and I love all that lore. And around the time that I first became a believer was the first time I picked up the Silmarillion. The interesting thing about that book is that you know Tolkien’s a Catholic. So he in and of himself is a Christian and he’s writing the creation of Middle Earth like it’s the god’s singing songs. Music is what births life in the universe of Middle Earth. And sound and voices of messengers in the Bible are very important, too. So I think as a musician, I have this incredible privilege and responsibility and gift given to me so that I can use it however I can to glorify God. And to me, like the first gift I was given was rock. It was what drew me to the gift. It was what pulled me in and got me excited. And I have not, and I play some pretty heavy stuff. There’s a seven string back there tuned to drop A right now. I got an MT-100 sitting behind the camera right there. I do not shy away from the heavy stuff. And I have not felt a pull after coming to belief from God to like abandon the heavy stuff.
zZounds: That’s great. Not even like, ‘hey, no more tritones.’
Sean Pierce Johnson: Exactly. Not even that. Not even that. Because I also believe that music was created by him. So we should be afraid of none of it. On that flip side, though, worship was a world I had no idea about. None whatsoever. So I had to learn on the job. But going into the first day that I played, I was reminded of my training. My training at GIT helped me to understand the skills needed to be able to do something at a moment’s notice, to do it professionally, to do it well. And because many of the people that taught me were sidemen, they were also giving us instruction on the culture of being a sideman. And the one thing that a sideman will tell you is like, you’re not the star of the show. So that first day that I walk in with literally 48 hours worth of notice to fill the spot, it was like, well, okay, I’m not going to worry about that. Like I prepared as best as I could. And I’m not supposed to be the focus of this anyway. This is a church service. It’s about God. It’s about learning about things in the Bible. Like, pressure is off. And so I just walked in saying like, this is the greatest exercise in being a sideman. So great. Pressure’s off. And I have no problem going back and forth between the worlds. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
I have a good group of guys that are my friends that are guitar players on the worship team. one of which, you know, before he became a Christian, he was playing in like a really hefty death metal band. So we have that bond over heavy music, which is great. And I’m discovering heavy bands in the Christian world, like, like Convictions and HolyName. And even going back to stuff like discovering Stryper, because I wasn’t exposed to it when I was younger, but Stryper and others. Oh my God, If you want to hear some really great like Led Zeppelin kind of-esque Christian rock from the ’70s, you’ve got to look up a guy named Larry Norman. This dude was on like, oh my God. If I would have known this guy existed when I first started listening to Christian music, I would have been just like, he’s my dude right now. He’s just so great. But it’s all music. And I should be afraid of none of it. And thankfully, a lot of the gear I have, I know how to be able to make it work in both worlds. It’s just a matter of what does the genre call for? Okay, so the worship genre likes fairly light drives, delay, and reverb, and some compression. That’s pretty simple. And fairly ambient delays and reverbs. But at the same time, I like ambient reverbs and delays in my heavy music too. So it’s not that hard to take the stuff that I would use in the context of the alternative metal kind of stuff that I’m creating with my band. And then going into worship and it’s like it’s the same two pedals. You might have a couple different sounds, but at the same time, I could easily get away with my main delay for my board right now is the Keeley Halo, the Andy Timmons delay. I use that in rock because that’s kind of what Andy uses it in anyway. And then I use it in worship because it’s just like it’s it just works. So why not? Why not use both? I’ve even said to the guys on my team because they they always come to me now for gear advice, every time I always say one day, guys, there’s going to be a permanent fuzz pedal on the board. And they’re like, no, there’s not. And I’m like, yes, there is.
zZounds: I feel like there are pedals you would use for metal. There’s a pedal you would use for blues. There is a worship tone in a way. And I know that there’s variety, but just like when you think of a shoegaze tone, you have a certain set in your head. But, but if you’re on a mission to work fuzz into that, I think that’d be really cool.
Sean Pierce Johnson: I’m telling you, it is not far off. I can feel it. There have been moments where, because the church that I play at and that I attend, they write music too. And there have been moments where we’re working on, a newer song where I’m hearing like this almost Ebow-ish kind of guitar part, but I don’t have, I misplaced my Ebow a year ago. I can’t find it for the life of me. So I’ve been replicating it up until a certain point with just one of those Keeley Super Rodent pedals lapsed into the Rat mode. So it’s a Rat distortion and it’s got the old school Rat filter control on it. So it’s basically just rolling off highs. I just make a really dark, super saturated sound with that. And I can create a fairly fuzzy kind of distortion sound for these sort of singing lead parts. And it works. so I I kind of feel like it’s a challenge for me. I want to try to use atypical gear in the genres that I work in, like if I can find a way to work like a Tone Bender into the worship sound like I’m totally going to do it and at the same time if I can like make a super washy ambient delay work in that kind of alternative hard rock metal arena I’m all for it. i just chase tone man.
zZounds: Isn’t it kind of fun when you’re playing with a band, and you get an idea in real time for a part you could play? It already has a tone in your head, and you’re just messing around, dialing that in.
Sean Pierce Johnson: I’ve had so much fun with the experimentation and discovery—figuring out how to take what you hear in your head and actually bring it into the world. It’s so fun.
At a certain point, there is option paralysis because we have so much at our disposal. But, man, I’m staring at a stack of four amps next to my studio desk right now, each one serving a purpose for one reason or another. I’ve got pedals on my desk that I need to make videos on. They all do something, and I’m like, “I could do something with that!” It’s just about chaining something together and seeing what comes out. It’s very exciting.
zZounds: Yeah, absolutely! And your wife is a musician, so she gets it too. You don’t have to justify all this [gear], right?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah, thankfully! Because this is my day job and part of my work materials, a lot of the gear I get for videos is provided by companies in order to do the work. So I don’t have to spend money that should be going toward groceries on this stuff. But I will say, the closet is starting to get a little full, and I think she would like to see it less full.
zZounds: I bet. I bet. Well, you went to NAMM. We were talking over email to set up this interview, and I know you mentioned you were going to NAMM this year. I’ve seen some of your videos—have you been going for several years?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Buddy, I’ve been going to NAMM long before I started doing NAMM videos.
zZounds: Oh, wow! Okay. I think you’re based nearby, right?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah, and that’s why I’ve gone for so long. I think this year was my 15th year at NAMM. I live about 30 to 40 minutes south of Anaheim, so it’s fairly easy to get to the show and still come home at night, cook my own dinner, and sleep in my own bed—which is excellent.
zZounds: Yeah, absolutely. What have you seen over the years? People who have been in this industry for a long time—I’m curious about your take on how the guitar market, including amps, pedals, and whatever else you want to talk about, has evolved over that time.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Man, we could talk about that for a while! I’ve actually wanted to do my own video, especially about this year’s NAMM, which I felt was overall pretty positive.
The interesting thing about when I started going to NAMM is that my first show was in 2008. Keep in mind, this was shortly before the industry fully acknowledged the global financial crisis of 2008–09. So at that point, the attitude was still, “This is the NAMM show! This is what everyone talks about!” There were artist signings, tons of energy, booth girls at Dean and Schecter, and so much free swag. I walked away with so much free stuff that year. It was like, “Wow, look at NAMM!” Within two years, so much of that had gone away.
zZounds: It was like the stock market of 1929 versus 1930.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Buddy, so true. It was nuts how it went from this incredible bombast to, “Well, we have to scale this back. We can’t do this anymore.” It wasn’t even sad, really. It was just like, “Oh wow, that was fast. That was a change.”
But over the years, as the economy improved, NAMM started building back up again. By NAMM 2020, I really felt like, “Yo, next year, NAMM is gonna be back!” That year, it was the biggest show I had seen since I started going. The convention center was completely full—there wasn’t an empty bit of space on the show floor.
zZounds: I was there, that was my second NAMM.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Oh boy, I feel bad. You had one under your belt, so you at least knew what to expect, but I felt bad for everyone that year that that was their first because even for me at that point, it was a lot. It was a lot.
Now, thankfully, I walked away—and I’ve managed to walk away… where’s the near… oh, here we go. Had to knock on wood for a second. I’ve walked away from NAMM for quite a long time without catching the “NAMMthrax.” But the interesting thing I feel about NAMM is that I do now feel like NAMM is starting to recover from the pandemic, which is great. It needs to.
But the thing that I’ve noticed most over the years is that NAMM kind of has a thing that it does. And it does what it’s supposed to do. It’s supposed to be a business-to-business show. It’s not a Comic-Con. That’s the thing that I think a lot of people misunderstand when they first start attending. They get a badge or they see the coverage from the various different content creators and think it’s supposed to be something like that. And that’s just not what it is. If you attend the show and really look at things, it’s not hard to see that. But I think a lot of people work up in their minds that NAMM’s like this giant Guitar Center. And it’s like, no, it’s just the giant Guitar Center because it’s loud, unruly, and it oftentimes sounds bad. That’s the only reason.
zZounds: I will say that the caliber of tunes that you hear being played on the guitars at NAMM is much higher than Guitar Center.
Sean Pierce Johnson: For sure. I think we should give some credit to the people that demo at NAMM, definitely. But it’s a cacophony, and that’s the only reason people think it’s like a giant Guitar Center. It’s not a Comic-Con. Sure, they do artist signings, but that’s because, one, signature products sell, and companies want to sell to dealers and buyers. And the artists are there for that reason. Now that NAMM has kind of relaxed a little bit on the restrictions of who can get in, when you consider the amount of public that actually ends up getting into the show, and now they’re starting to offer tickets for sale to the public, I think it’s time for NAMM to acknowledge that it needs to steer into the con side of things.
It needs to be able to serve — well, you really can’t serve two masters — but at the same time, this is kind of a scenario where NAMM has to consider that for its future. NAMM needs to embrace its business-to-business aspect because that’s what people in the industry come to NAMM for; it sets the tone for their year. But it also needs to embrace the fact that the musical instrument world has bred communities that need a gathering spot to celebrate all that they do. And I think there’s definitely room for the public now. I didn’t think so much several years back. I think there’s room for NAMM to embrace the public that wants to see what NAMM is all about. But the challenge is, how do you implement that? How do you make it serve the people that effectively pay for them to put on the show and then serve the public that’s really excited about, “What’s this NAMM thing? I want to see it.”
zZounds: Well, comparing it to Comic-Con makes me think maybe more artist panels would be something?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah, something like that, definitely. And there are a lot of panels. The one thing that most people miss about NAMM is that they do a lot for educating members on different aspects of the industry. One of my contacts is the president of a marketing company based in Florida, and he did several talks this year at NAMM for members about utilizing people like myself to further their marketing. So there’s so much that NAMM does for its members as far as education goes, and that happens quite a lot over the course of the weekend. And most people don’t realize that.
zZounds: Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned that $500 guitar. I’m curious, what other things did you see at this year’s NAMM show that stood out to you?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Boy, what did stand out to me? Well, for one, I know the news of them getting a substantial stake of their company bought out by a company from China has soured people on them a bit. But I was very pleased to see Marshall make the comeback that they made at the NAMM show.
When I started going to NAMM, Marshall was under the Korg umbrella, so they were just a section of the overall Korg booth. But this was like, “This is the Marshall that everybody’s supposed to be like, wow, Marshall!” It was very nice to see them back and trying to get back into the fold, now that they’ve been around for as long as they have. I got a chance to play and hear the new amplifiers, and they sound great. I would love to do something with those in the near future. So it was good to see that kind of legacy brand make a comeback.
The one thing that I felt was common among a lot of attendees I spoke to was that this year didn’t really feel like anybody was necessarily pushing boundaries. Nobody was really going out on a limb. And that’s fine. I heard one person say, “It’s like a blank white piece of paper with black Sharpie on it that says NAMM. Like, that’s how I feel about the show.” And that’s fine. But personally, I found a lot to be excited about.
For me, it’s just as simple as every company that is here is still here. After everything, they are still here. They’re still doing stuff. They’re still releasing things. I’m happy to see brands like EHX still have a presence. That’s Electro-Harmonix, for those who don’t know the shorthand. It’s great to see Boss still around and doing stuff.
And dude, I got this recently—oh boy—this SDE-3. Oh my goodness. This is something from back in the day, made modern, but it’s new to me. And it’s so exciting. It’s so good. I remember talking to a friend of mine baouw how I jsut love delving into those classic session guitar tones recently. Rediscovering guys like Dan Huff, Michael Landau, Michael Thompson, Paul Jackson Jr. — all those guys that played on all the hits, and realizing how much of their sound came from this equipment. I love that a lot of these companies that were part of the heyday are bringing some of their older stuff to a new platform for a new crop of guitar players. It’s really fun to see.
There are also plenty of younger companies like Walrus Audio that do fantastic work. I swear by their Mako ACS-1; it’s one of the best amp sim pedals I’ve ever played. It’s great to see that there are companies still doing this and that they didn’t fall away because of the challenges of the last few years. It doesn’t seem like they will fall away even with the current challenges facing the industry.
As much as the innovation may not have been there in the way most people would have liked, I just enjoy that everyone is still trying. If you’re resting on your laurels and not at least trying, that’s one thing. Companies have done that. Every company is guilty of that at some point. But then one year, a legacy company will be like, “We shied away from doing this thing for a really long time, but we’re doing it now.” And I’ll say, “Well, you’re about four years late on that, but it’s nice to see you got the memo.” And then a small company will finally do a new thing, and I’ll say, “Well, thank God. You’re about five years too late on that one, but at least you’re doing it.”
Unfortunately, I feel like there are a lot of smaller brands doing really great work that don’t go to NAMM. I would like to see NAMM make it easier for them to get there.
zZounds: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know if they have the space for them, but they’ll figure out a way.
Sean Pierce Johnson: As of last year, this past NAMM show, with the floor space they had, there’s room for them. They opened up Hall E again. The basement downstairs is open again. It wasn’t last year. So the show floor space is expanding, and I like that. I’ve heard some chatter about what they want to do for downstairs next year. But since it’s just rumor, I won’t comment on it.
zZounds: Fair enough, fair enough. I wanted to ask you, too — as a YouTube content creator, do you have any advice for someone aspiring to start their own channel or make guitar-related content? Or just any content in general?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Don’t.
zZounds: Oh, really?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Oh, man. I say that partly jokingly. Allow me a moment to find the words I want to share.
Content, in and of itself, is precisely what that word is — it takes up space. There’s a phrase that I’ve come to utilize about certain pieces of work I’ve done over the years that haven’t performed as well as I wished they would. I refer to them as “collecting digital dust.” The good thing about normal dust is that you can wipe it off, clean something up, and it looks brand new. But you can’t do that to something that collects digital dust.
The market for content creators right now is incredibly saturated — incredibly saturated. Because it’s an avenue that has proven to people that it’s a means of attaining success. And that’s great.
When I started doing it, YouTube was still mostly cat videos and guys getting kicked in the nuts. But I went to my first Summer NAMM show, and I was talking with Orange Amps, who were exhibiting that year. I remember telling them I had a Rockerverb 100 and loved it. They said, “That’s awesome, man. I wish more people knew about that amp here in the States.” At the time, Orange didn’t have a strong retail foothold in the U.S., and their amps were hard to find.
I had just gotten a digital camera, and I thought to myself, “I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who would like to hear this amplifier.” Sure, I didn’t have the best microphone, and I wasn’t recording in a nice studio, but I knew there were people who would want to hear it.
When I got home, I took a day to rest, and then the next day, I threw that little camera up on a stack of books (because I didn’t have a tripod) and shot a video of me playing my Rockerverb 100. That kind of started everything.
I took a break, though, because—one—it was hard to find any kind of good work after I had done that video. This was during the financial crisis, and as soon as I got the first paying opportunity I could, I took it. That pulled a lot of my attention away from making content.
had just gotten a digital camera, and I thought to myself, you know, I’m sure that there’s a lot of people out there that would like to hear this amplifier. Sure, it’s not the best microphone, and I’m not recording in a nice studio, but I’m sure there are people out there that want to hear this.
So when I got home, I took a day to rest, and then the next day, I threw that little camera up on a stack of books—because I didn’t have a tripod—and shot a video of me playing my Rockerverb 100. And that kind of started everything.
I took a break because, one, it was hard to find any kind of good work after I had done that video, because it was the financial crisis at the time, the recession. And as soon as I took the first paying opportunity that I could, I did. And that took a lot of attention away from that side of things.
But I saw potential in it—the idea that I have something that people would want to hear, and I want to share that with them.
By the time that I had started up again and was doing it very seriously, YouTube had kind of proven itself as an avenue of gaining notoriety in a given field. When I really got started up again, guys like Rob Chapman had already been around for several years doing what they were doing. And I had just discovered Andy and Pro Guitar Shop, and Gearman Dude, also, of course. So knowing that there were these guys doing it, it was like, okay, well, it’s proven now that you can do this.
I didn’t see it proven as a way to 100% earn a living, but I at least knew that the idea of guitar-related videos about gear was validated. And so I just started making videos of the stuff that was in my collection that I wasn’t seeing a lot of videos about.
I kind of came at it from the idea of—really, the first content that I ever saw of pedal demos was the ZVEX website back in, like, 2006, 2007. They had demo videos of every pedal they made on the product page, which was great because I wanted their pedals, but I had nowhere to try them out. So I would watch those videos and figure out which one I would like best.
So I took that approach to it. If you can’t find something to play and you want it, well, where are you going to go to hear it? Well, maybe I can be the guy that you go to to hear it.
My intention with everything that I do is always—if you can’t try it yourself, can I showcase it in a way for you that helps inform your purchase and also inspires you a little bit? Whether you think I’m a good guitar player, whether you like the songs or the pieces of music that I create in order to showcase the equipment, whatever it is—is it going to inspire you? Not just to buy the gear; I can’t make people spend their money, but I can inspire them to play guitar and create.
I say all that to finally get to this point: the content market is so saturated right now. And everybody that I see that’s new—well, not everybody — a good portion of people I see that are new come at it in the same way that everybody else is doing it. But I almost always sense this, like — they’re getting into it because they think it’s going to change their career. Like, they think it’s going to change their lives.
For some people, that is the case. But there has to be a nobler intention in creating content. It can’t be that kind of simple-minded, like, this is my way to fame. Because fame is incredibly fleeting.
And the only reason I stick with doing this, even though it’s gotten a bit more difficult to do — you know, despite the fact that I’ve been doing this for as long as I have, I don’t have quite the following that people that have been doing it half the amount of time that I have been doing it have. But I still do it because, at the end of the day, I remember the noble intention.
I remember the guy. I remember me. I remember wanting something and not being able to find it, not being able to play it, and really appreciating when I found a way to hear it.
So I want people that watch my videos—whether it’s an amplifier, a guitar, or even if it’s, like, we talked about earlier with my lessons, and even to the more holistic side of being a musician — I want to give people something of real value that improves their musical life.
Ask yourself the question before you start anything, “must I do this?” Ask yourself the question, “what’s the point of me doing this?” Ask yourself the question, “if I’m going to do this, how can I do it ever so slightly different?”
As a content creator, I’m probably the worst content creator because I really don’t just like making stuff. There’s gotta be a point. There’s gotta be an intent behind it. And so to get to the real advice, aside from don’t, because that’s not real advice. Ask yourself the question before you start anything, “must I do this?” Ask yourself the question, “what’s the point of me doing this?” Ask yourself the question, “if I’m going to do this, how can I do it ever so slightly different?” Because I think there’s a lot of metal, rock, blues, all that kind of guitar in YouTube, maybe it would be kind of nice to see some jazz guys get into it. I don’t know. That’s just a thought
Making content is hard. I don’t think people realize just how hard it is to keep up with all the different platforms and the way that they’re changing on a weekly basis—sometimes even daily. And it’s a lot more work than it looks like. Even if you’re just doing stuff, like, your phone is your camera — if you want good audio, you’ve got to find a way to be able to hook good audio into the phone, to be able to record that and automatically sync it to the video.
And then it’s like, then you got to do the legwork. You’ve got to build a network of companies.
I recall one conversation I had with another content creator where he was stunned that I was getting stuff from certain companies. He thought at the time with my subscriber count I shouldn’t be getting stuff from them and it’s like well I mean I was their friend before I was asking them to send me stuff so I could make videos and maybe eventually make some money off them. I approach these people as my friends because that’s what they should be. They were my colleague before i was providing them a service. Now these days I absolutely approach companies from the heart of a servant, like “how can I help you? What is it that you need? What is it that you feel is not working and what can I do to help you?” And that’s that’s proven to be the best game changer for me. Telling myself, like, serve these people in the best way possible and if they have a need, meet it.
But content is hard, man. Content is hard. We had a few little issues and hiccups before we got started rolling. Those are the things that you deal with. And I sadly don’t think that a lot of people consider those kind of things. This game is hard, man. It’s hard to keep up with everything. Keeping up with the Joneses is far too exhausting for me. So that’s why my computer that I use for my studio is, at this point, 13 years old. I’m running Mac OS 10.12. My Pro Tools is Version 11. My cameras, I’ve had for over 10 years. They only shoot up to 4K. These days, you could get far higher than that. But I still use a lot of the same equipment I started with when I really got serious about YouTube. And I’ve not made many upgrades because technology moves so fast.
You just find what works. But understand that you’re going to have to do a lot of legwork to find what works, and get ready for that work, because it’s a lot. But if you’re okay with putting in the time and putting in the effort, and really understanding and honing in on — “should I do this?” And “what’s the point of me doing this?” Then you should be fine. But know, it’s going to take some time. It’s going to take some effort. But I would highly recommend you not do it to try to get famous.
zZounds: I get that. I hear the disdain in your voice for the word “content” and what it means because I think it’s kind of minimizing. And I agree with that. If you’re just in it to make content, to be famous or to boost your business or as just an accessory to your business, you’re going to get burnt out and you’re not going to want to keep up with all the demands of the multifaceted business that is being a YouTube personality and making something from your heart versus just making fluff content.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s not “fluff” in terms of Ryan Bruce Fluff. We love Fluff. No, no, no, of course not. Just wanted to make sure that that doesn’t happen because that’s the other thing too that I think a lot of people in the content world, because the influencer space is so wide and things on the internet can get taken away from its original point very, very quickly. Sometimes you have to cover your tracks a little bit and sometimes you also have to look before you step
zZounds: To close this out I wanted to ask you do you have anything coming down the pipeline on your YouTube channel or musically?
Sean Pierce Johnson: Yeah, there’s quite a lot going on. This year kind of feels like it’s a year that I’m going to be stepping out in some new things, but also sort of reclaiming things. My band, Cockeyed Optimist, which we’ve been kind of on a little hiatus for a while, we’ve written a few new songs and we’re getting ready to get into the studio, which is actually going to be here in my home, which I’m really excited about to track some drums and get some new songs out. I kind of want to do a quick turnaround for this first single and i think we might be able to make that happen so I’m very excited about that. There’s been a lot of new material in the last few years that that needs to start coming out. Outside of that, gear-wise I’m staring at four pedals that are waiting for pedal demos right now. I showed you the STE-3000 EVH, which is great. I’m also looking at a Boss RV-200, which I’m thinking about doing something with. Over the years, I’ve really come to appreciate Boss for all the things they’ve done and continue to do.
Outside of that, I just made a few modifications to my American Pro II Stratocaster, which I’m very excited about. I finally feel like—alright, this is the Strat I’ve always wanted it to be. So I’m really happy about that. I’d mention some of the other gear I have, but they’re not currently carried by zZounds. But that’s just for now—you never know how things may work out, folks.
Really, I’m looking forward to spreading out my musical creation this year and really diving into that aspect of creating. I’ve felt it on my heart that this year is supposed to be the year I step out more in that direction. I’ve really liked the idea of experimenting with different tunings and even different tuning calibrations. Right now, I’m planning a video where I take some of the frequency research I’ve been doing over the last few years and actually try to show people more. We’ve all heard about A=432Hz — the hippies love 432. Man, that’s going to be a great story when I tell that one. But then there are other tunings—how do you access the frequencies people talk about in these weird, new-agey communities, where everything’s so frou-frou and woo-woo? What are these frequencies? Is there any real validity to it? If not in a spiritual or physical sense, what does it actually do to the sound of an instrument? What does calibrating your instrument to an A being a different frequency actually do for the overall sound?How does the instrument behave when there’s more or less tension, even in standard tuning? That’s been a really fun area of experimentation for myself recently, and I want to lean into it more—maybe experiment with some ambient records.
I’m also thinking this might be the year to start working on a solo guitar record. And for some reason, all I can think about is doing a Christmas album. I don’t know why, but I’ve started playing a few Christmas songs over the last couple of years, trying to arrange them in a heavy guitar style, and I’m like—yo, this is fun. I want to do this.
So overall, I just want to create more—not just videos, though that’s obviously part of it. I still want to do that, and I still want to serve my friends who build the gear. But I also want to create music—something people can come back to, and continuously listen to, and really get something out of.
I also have one other big project currently in the works. I’m contacting people right now, but that will be revealed in due time.
zZounds: Well, looking forward to all of it! It sounds like you’ve got a lot going on this year, which is awesome.
Sean Pierce Johnson: I hope my year is full and fruitful.
zZounds: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much—it’s been great talking to you, Sean. Wish you all the best.
Sean Pierce Johnson: Thank you.
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