Hey everybody—Stephen here, Gear, Stuff & Things—and this video is a major announcement: I’ve officially partnered with the fine folks over at Zzounds (I call it “Zounds”). I wanted to share the excitement, but also be super transparent about how the deal works and why it’s not a “corporate shill” situation. The long and short of it: they’re opening their inventory up to me so I can borrow gear for a short period of time, make the content I actually want to make (reviews, demos, comparisons), and then send it back. The biggest win here is I’m no longer at the mercy of my own wallet just to try something for a video. In the past, if I wanted to review something I didn’t own, I had to buy it outright—sometimes even using Zzounds’ payment plans just to make a video happen. Now, if I can dream it and they’ve got it on the site, we can test it. I’m kicking this off with what this channel was founded on: baritone guitars. I’ve already got two baritones coming for a comparison series, and after that I want to branch into more modeler shootouts and bigger rig experiments. If you’ve got requests, tell me—if it’s on Zzounds, I’ll try to snag it and get into it.