
Micah Blue Smaldone
Our columnist asks his favorite acoustic players how their hometowns, new and old, have changed the music they make.
As musicians, we tend to put most of our mental energy into the ānext thingā: that next song, show, tour, or piece of gear. The beauty of music-making is that there is always somewhere new to go, but itās also important to remember that we all came from somewhere. In this column, I connect with some excellent acoustic players about the places that shaped their playing and their craft, where they started and where their music has taken them.
Micah Blue Smaldone
Micah Blue Smaldone has a story that in many ways mirrors my own. Growing up in the pleasant (but less-than-stimulating) atmosphere of a quiet New England town, Smaldone found his salvation in skateboarding and punk rock.... Sounds familiar!
Kennebunk, Maine, lit some kind of fire under Smaldone, and the road ever since has been long and winding, indeed. He went from being a founding member of the snappy and provocative punk group the Pinkerton Thugs, to producing a series of beguiling, mostly acoustic solo records that almost exist out of time: His phrases, both vocal and musical, are consistently poetic and graceful.
āThe beauty of music-making is that there is always somewhere new to go, but itās also important to remember that we all came from somewhere.ā
After 20 years of continuous touring, Smaldone credits his approach to neither his hometown nor his current digs, where he builds excellent amplifiers under the moniker Arkham Sound in South Portland, Maine. Rather, he says, āThe strongest memories are the ones where I felt that I was part of a moment that called upon everyone present. A performer is only part of the equation. Scenes, movements, even just circles of friends who are all feeling something together at a certain time, place, era, stage of lifeāfor me thatās what gives urgency to a musical experience. I am so lucky to have felt that so many times already in my life.ā
Micah has reconnected with his roots in a big way in the last couple years, forming the rock trio Wake in Fright and releasing a new eponymous album that offers a set of confident, Clash-inspired tunes that might just get you back in the pit!
Charlie Rauh
Photo by Andrew Golledge
Charlie Rauh didnāt just take the road less traveled; he cut his own very unique path. Growing up in the South, first in Huntsville, Alabama, and then Herndon, Virginia, Rauh began forming his musical personality in the gathering clouds.
āI remember the scent in the air before the intense storms we would get, and the shade of green the sky turned before a tornado. I didnāt play an instrument at this time in my life, but the atmospheric elements of the environment had a massive emotional impact on me.ā Natureās push and pull are all over Rauhās playing, which centers around a measured, intimate, fingerpicked style that is truly his own. I still have the business card that he gave me when we first met, and the tagline still puts a smile on my face: āCharlie RauhāWonāt Play Loud. Canāt Play Fast.ā
Rauh is now an in-demand session player in his current home of New York City, and recently participated in a first-of-its-kind residency at the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine. āI was brought in based on my solo guitar work, with the directive of translating the intention of interspecies wellness through my music. The experience was completely life-changing for me, and the music I composed for solo acoustic guitar and 6-piece choir would become my album, Theoria. In addition to performing the music live, I have been presenting guest lectures on the process as well as publishing written pieces and lessons on the process I used to create it. The way I think about music has been deeply impacted by my time spent with the animals and doctors I worked with.āRosali
Photo by Jamie Davis
I first became aware of Rosali when she released her excellent second album Trouble Anyway in 2018. This year, her ascension continues with Bite Down, her Merge Records debut. The album is full of masterful melodies, rollicking alt-country backing, and no small amount of artsy, homespun guitar goodness. Originally hailing from Michigan, Rosali considers Philadelphia to be her hometown: āI spent 12 years thereāmy formative adult years. The scene was cross-genre, toughāin a good wayāand psychedelic. So many intelligent players, intricate and also bone-headed. I think there was a beautiful mix of approaches and appreciation for one another, at least in the early days. I think of Jack Rose and Meg Baird, Mary Lattimore, Weyes Blood. I went to a lot of noise and DIY shows in West Philly. Not to mention the energy of the city itself. Just rough and raw and very real. It toughened up this midwestern girl in an invaluable way. I owe a lot to that place.ā
James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg
Photo by Joan Shelley
Of all the musicians I spoke to for this column, James Elkington and Nathan Salsburg have probably logged the most miles. Elkington grew up in the English village of Chorleywood, about an hour outside of London, while Salsburg spent his youth in Louisville, Kentucky. To date, the pair have produced three outstanding records of guitar duets (their latest, All Gist, is out now), and have also collaborated on several albums for Joan Shelley, a top-tier singer-songwriter who happens to be married to Salsburg.
Despite musical excursions in and out of London from the age of 16, Elkingtonās imagination was truly captured by the Chicago scene of the early 2000s, with bands like Gastr del Sol and Tortoise being his guiding lights.
āI had got it into my head that Chicago was a musical wonderland where everyone played on each otherās records and labels really supported each other, and when I came here that turned out to be sort of true.ā Indie music in Chicago is historically known for being some shade of āpostāāpost rock, post hardcore, etc.ābut Elkingtonās expansive playing takes in the past, present, and future. He can effortlessly conjure contrapuntal folk baroque, fuzzy, abstract expressionism, and pretty much everything in between! Elkington carries the musical influences of his place of origin, as well as those from his current home, with equal aplomb.
The connection that Elkington found with Nathan Salsburg is of a rare and wonderful kind. Like Elkington, Salsburg is something of a musical polymath. He came up in the vibrant punk and post-rock scene of ā80s and ā90s Louisville, where bands like Slint, Rodan, and Squirrel Bait were redefining rock for a new generation. All the while, Salsburg was absorbing the Bob Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, and Dave Van Ronk records played by his parents. After stints in a handful of local bands and a few years in New York City, Salsburg returned to Louisville with āa desire to make music with focus, rigor, thoughtfulness, and peace of mind.ā He developed a highly melodic and animated fingerpicking style that has put him at the top of his class in the world of guitar soli.
But if one guitar is great, canāt two be greater? Enter Elkington, and a wonderful partnership was born. Not since John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman have two players cooked up such a heady brew of English and American folk-guitar concepts, and the transcribers of the future will surely be scratching their heads trying to untangle Elkington and Salsburgās playful, harmonically dense lines.
Whether we realize it or not, the places we are from, the places where we are, and the places that weāre going play a huge role in the music we make. We can even look at our individual journeys like we might look at the structure of a song. Is your hometown the intro, the overture, or is it actually the theme that runs through the whole piece? Is your song carefully composed, or are there a few extended improvised sections? How different will the ending be from the beginning? To paraphrase author Jon Kabat-Zinn, āWherever we go, there we are.ā
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The ultimate hand-wired Tube Screamer from Ibanez is up for grabs! Enter the I Love Pedals giveaway today, and come back daily for extra entries!
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The high priest of prog-metal guitar, John Petrucci, is still finding new territory on his instrument.
The legendary progressive-metal guitarist details the darknessāand the renewed camaraderieāthat led to his band Dream Theaterās 16th full-length record, Parasomnia.
Some very important events happened in John Petrucciās life in 2024. He celebrated an enormous milestone with his bandmates in prog-metal behemoth Dream Theater: Theyāve been a band for 40 years. Many bands arenāt destined to last a single decade, let alone four. Itās a titanic personal and artistic achievement. And yet, that anniversary paled in significance next to another major development: The band wrote and created a new full-length record with founding drummer Mike Portnoy, who had been absent from Dream Theater since 2010.
The news of Portnoyās reunion with Dream Theater rocked the metal world. Over the years, whiffs of acrimony and hurt feelings suggested Portnoyās return to the band might be a pipe dream. But in October 2023, the band revealed that they had all independently reconciled with Portnoy, a process that culminated backstage at New Yorkās Beacon Theater in 2022. Portnoy attended Dream Theaterās show at the venue and met up with the band afterward. It was the first time heād seen vocalist James Labrie in 10 years. Within seconds, 13 years melted away in the warmth of camaraderie.
āThe gear was all set up and we sat there and started playing. It was magic. It was like we never missed a beat.ā
A few months after the announcement of Portnoyās return, he and bandmates Labrie, Petrucci, bassist John Myung, and keyboardist Jordan Rudess convened at the recently renovated Dream Theater HQ, their longtime creative hideout and recording studio in Long Island, to begin to create new music. Petrucci, speaking over the phone from Brazil during Dream Theaterās December 2024 tour, remembers that period fondly. āFrom the moment that we all stepped in the studio in February, the gear was all set up and we sat there and started playing,ā he says. āIt was magic. It was like we never missed a beat.ā
After shaking off the cobwebs, the first song they wrote together was āNight Terrorāāāif that gives you any indication of the energy and vibe and mood that we were in,ā quips Petrucci. Itās heavy, riffy, aggressive, and progressive, a capsule of 13 years in just shy of 10 minutes. āWe let that all out in the first couple of weeks of just being together,ā Petrucci continues. āIt was wonderful and the creative juices just flowed the way they always did. There was great brotherly chemistry between all of us.ā
Last year, Dream Theater celebrated their ruby anniversary as a band. Four decades on, theyāre still exploring the dark corners of what happens when we sleep.
The band continued to create together as theyād always done. They had some concrete ideas: They wanted to make a concept album, and it had to be heavy and riff-centric. Petrucci, who produced the record, was intrigued by parasomnia, a medical concept which refers broadly to any unusual sleep pattern, like sleepwalking, nightmares, insomnia, sleep paralysis, and more. He hadnāt experienced those nocturnal issues (the worst he deals with is snoring), but he began deep research into them. A path had opened up. āThat creative part of me just wakes up, and then that turns into it also being musically creative, lyrically creative, visually creative,ā says Petrucci.
This is how Parasomnia, Dream Theaterās 16th studio record, came to exist. Engineered and mixed by Andy Sneap, the concept album comprises a collection of suites and vignettes that center on various sleep disturbances, opening with āIn the Arms of Morpheus,ā a slowly building soundscape that sets the scene for all that follows. It soundtracks someone getting ready for bed and falling asleep, and just as theyāre drifting into a dreamstate, a musical theme starts to creep in. It heightens and gets weird before exploding into the full chaos that gives way to āNight Terror,ā the nine-minute-plus epic. Petrucciās playing on this song alone is staggering: Thereās the classic, open-string beginner riff, then vintage, hyper, ā80s-metal single-note melody work, then a truly brain-melting, lightning-fast solo that leaves your jaw open.
True to Dream Theater lineage, there are pieces of the record that feel ready to soundtrack alien drag races on Mars next to swanky sections of jazzy, hard-rocking funk-blues, like on āA Broken Man.ā Petrucci slips in and out of modes and scales like a chameleon changing its colors, each sounding as lived-in and natural as the last. His fingers just seem to know where to go. His only reprieve is the funereal interlude āAre We Dreaming?ā which prepares us for the power ballad āBend the Clockā and the devastating, scorched earth closer: āThe Shadow Man Incident.ā
Parasomnia is Dream Theaterās 16th studio record, and their first since reuniting with founding drummer Mike Portnoy.
āItās wacky,ā says Petrucci about the phenomena behind that songās title. If youāre not familiar, āthe shadow manā is a colloquial name given to a figure that appears during some episodes of sleep paralysis. People around the world have reported a similar apparition visiting them while theyāre experiencing sleep paralysisābut thereās no scientific consensus for what causes the similar visions.
āThereās something in the human brain that is unaccounted for or whatever that must be producing that, that repeated experience,ā continues Petrucci. āYou start doing all this research and going down rabbit holes online. Youāre like, āWow, for centuries, in every culture and civilization, the same thing has been happening. What is this?ā It definitely explores the depths of the human mind, but it reminds me of any sort of topic that holds your interest in a weird way, like UFOs. A song like āThe Shadow Man Incidentā is a long, epic piece of music that gives you the backdrop and license to go into storytelling more.ā
The goal was to take that storytelling beyond the normal confines of an LPāor, at least, what we think of as an LP in the streaming age. āWhat we decided to do was to make the album kind of like a Dark Side of the Moon listening experience,ā explains Petrucci. āOur hope is that people will get this record, turn down the lights, get together with some friends for a drink or whatever you do, and just listen to the whole thing like youāre watching a movie. Itās supposed to be an experience.āPetrucci even studied the music of composers like John Williams to get a bead on how to create epic, cinematic feelings in music. He displayed his research to his bandmates in the form of creative direction for certain songs, likening the process to scoring a film. āThe album or song topic presents certain imagery, and you want the music to match that imagery, so you have those tools in your toolbox, like, āOkay, I know what kind of chord movement or chordal sounds or modal things I can do that are going to make that,ā and itās going to create that flavor as opposed to just going in and writing in the typical way that you would if you didnāt have that knowledge ahead of time.ā
āWith Mike rejoining the band, I wanted to lean into the nostalgic aspect in some of the recording process.ā
A part of that soundscaping is what Petrucci describes as āear candyā: spoken-word passages, or sound effects like clocks ticking and alarms ringing. These elements help build a more profound, immersive listen, but they only work if the songs are good, says Petrucci. āYou can have all these sound connections and overdubs and voices, but if the songs suck, itās not going to mean anything. No oneās going to want to listen to it.ā
Knowing that the record would deal with all things eerie and creepy, Petrucci wanted to explore what types of tonalities could unsettle the listening experience. āFor āNight Terror,ā I use the super Phrygian mode, which is like a mode of the Hungarian minor which has a very unresolved sound that creates a lot of tension,ā he says. He also experimented with constructs like the Prometheus and Tristan chords. āThat gives you that dreamy weird thing you hear in āIn the Arms of Morpheus.ā That first 8-string chord is this crazy chord of all tritones that just makes it sound like youāre in a nightmare right away.ā
Petrucci, pictured here shredding in November 1994, broke out plenty of classic gear for the recording of Parasomnia to mark the reunion with Portnoy.
Photo by Frank White
Petrucci called on a range of tools old and new to bring Parasomnia to life. āWith Mike rejoining the band, I wanted to lean into the nostalgic aspect in some of the recording process,ā he explains. He used his 6-, 7-, and 8-string Ernie Ball Music Man Majesty guitars, in a spread of different tunings. He used his Mesa/Boogie JP-2C on everything except the recordās solos. For those, he busted out his old Mesasāa Mark III, IV, and IIC+ among themāfor a shootout and wound up choosing the IIC+ that he used on old Dream Theater records (plus his own solo release, Suspended Animation). A Roland Jazz Chorus even clocked in for some cleansāa page Petrucci took from James Hetfieldās book.
The nostalgia didnāt end there. The band reached out to recording engineer Doug Oberkircher, who engineered all of the bandās records from 1992ās Images and Words through 2003ās Train of Thought, to purchase the Neve preamp used on those albums. All the guitars on Parasomnia were recorded through that preamp.
In many ways, a production this grand and intricate is familiar territory for the band. Petrucci and Dream Theater obviously have a penchant for art that is narrative, theatrical, and grand. But Parasomnia is specially weighted with circumstance and time.John Petrucci's Gear
Petrucci and Dream Theater have managed an incredible feat: Theyāre just as excited about their music now as they were when they were teenagers.
Photo by Ekaterina Gorbacheva
Guitars
- Various Ernie Ball Music Man The Majesty 6-, 7-, and 8-string guitars with DiMarzio Dreamcatcher and Rainmaker pickups
Amps
- Mesa/Boogie JP-2C (rhythm parts)
- Vintage Mesa/Boogie Mark II C+ Simul-Class (lead parts)
- Roland JC-120 (clean parts)
- Mesa/Boogie 4x12 Rectifier Traditional Straight cabinet
Effects
- MXR Bass Compressor
- Boss CE-2W
- Boss DC-2W
- TC Electronic Dreamscape
- TC Electronic TC 2290
- TC Electronic Corona Chorus+
- MXR Stereo Chorus
- Keeley Blues Disorder
- Dunlop JP95 John Petrucci Signature Cry Baby Wah
- MXR Custom Audio Electronics MC403 Power System
Recording
- Neve 1093 Pre/EQ
- API 3124MV
- Solid State Logic PURE DRIVE OCTO
- sE Electronics VR2 + Mojave Audio MA-D (rhythm parts)
- sE Electronics SE4400a + Royer Labs R-121 (lead parts)
- Royer Labs R-121 in stereo (clean parts)
- sE Electronics RNR1 (mid room)
- sE Electronics RNT in OMNI (far room)
- Waves H-Delay Analog Delay Plugin
- Soundtoys EchoBoy
- Soundtoys MicroShift
- Soundtoys Crystallizer
- D16 Group Audio Software Repeater
- Valhalla DSP VintageVerb Plugin
- Valhalla DSP ValhallaRoom Reverb Plugin
- Radial ProRMP
- Radial J48
- EBow
Strings & Picks
- John Petrucci signature Dunlops
- Ernie Ball .10 gauge electric sets
āJohn Myung and I met when we were in middle school, so we were like 12, and I remember everything about us playing together, going over to each otherās houses after school and playing every Iron Maiden song there ever was, going to Berklee and meeting Mike when we were 18, forming the band,ā says Petrucci. āHere we are, itās 40 years later. How the hell does that happen? But the great thing is to still be playing with my brothers and my buddies, and still making music together that weāre just as excited about as we were when we were 18. Itās all we ever wanted to do.ā
All of this history isnāt just window dressing. It comes out in Petrucciās playing, too: Itās all one, long story. āBy the time I was 16 or 17, I had a handle on the kind of style of player I wanted to be, and those original elements are still there and will always be there,ā says Petrucci. āBut now, 40 years later, thereās still new things coming in. Even on the new album, thereās things I never did before. Weāre playing these shows and Iām trying to master this stuff live in front of an audience and see if I can pull it off under pressure. The challenge of it is just as much as it was when I was a teenager. I love it.
āItās a continuing experiment,ā Petrucci continues. āAs you develop new techniques and go down new roads of playing, all of a sudden you realize you abandoned some older techniques, then you go back and rediscover those things, and through the process of rediscovering the old things you used to do, all of a sudden you could do some stuff that you never were able to do before. Itās like something thatās living. Itās a living experiment of guitar playing. Itās just forever inspiring.ā
YouTube It
Last year marked Dream Theaterās 40th anniversary as a band, and the official Dream Theater fan club caught up with the group before their gig in Oslo to see how they brought the milestone tour to life.
Fifteen watts that sits in a unique tone space and offers modern signal routing options.
A distinct alternative to the most popular 1x10 combos. Muscular and thick for a 1x10 at many settings. Pairs easily with single-coils and humbuckers. Cool looks.
Tone stack could be more rangeful.
$999
Supro Montauk
supro.com
When you imagine an ideal creative space, what do you see? A loft? A barn? A cabin far from distraction? Reveling in such visions is inspiration and a beautiful escape. Reality for most of us, though, is different. Weāre lucky to have a corner in the kitchen or a converted closet to make music in. Still, thereās a romance and sense of possibility in these modest spaces, and the 15-watt, 1x10, all-tubeSupro Montauk is an amplifier well suited to this kind of place. It enlivens cramped corners with its classy, colorful appearance. Itās compact. Itās also potent enough to sound and respond like a bigger amp in a small room.
The Montauk works in tight quarters for reasons other than size, thoughāwith three pre-power-section outputs that can route dry signal, all-wet signal from the ampās spring reverb, or a mixture of both to a DAW or power amplifier.
Different Stripes and Spacious Places
Vintage Supro amps are modestly lovely things. The China-made Montauk doesnāt adhere toold Supro style motifs in the strictest sense. Its white skunk stripe is more commonly seen on black Supro combos from the late 1950s, while the blue ārhino hideā vinyl evokes Supros from the following decade. But the Montaukās handsome looks make a cramped corner look a lot less dour. It looks pretty cool on a stage, too, but the Montauk attribute most likely to please performing guitarists is the small size (17.75" x 16.5" x 7.5") and light weight (29 pounds), which, if you tote your guitar in a gig bag and keep your other stuff to a minimum, facilitates magical one-trip load ins.
Keen-eyed Supro-spotters noting the Montaukās weight and dimensions might spy the similarities to another 1x10 Supro combo,the Amulet. A casual comparison of the two amps might suggest that the Montauk is, more-or-less, an Amulet without tremolo and power scaling. They share the same tube complement, including a relatively uncommon 1x6L6 power section. But while the Montauk lacks the Amuletās tremolo, the Montaukās spring reverb features level and dwell controls rather than the Amuletās single reverb-level knob.
āHigh reverb levels and low dwell settings evoke a small, reflective room with metallic overtones from the spring sprinkled on topāleaving ghostly ambience in the wake of strong, defined transient tones.ā
If you use reverb a lot and in varying levels of intensity, youāll appreciate the extra flexibility. High reverb levels and low dwell settings evoke a small, reflective room with metallic overtones from the spring sprinkled on topāleaving ghostly ambience in the wake of strong, defined transient tones. There are many shades of this subtle texture to explore, and itās a great sound and solution for those who find the spring reverbs in Fender amps (which feature no dwell control) an all-or-nothing proposition. For those who like to get deep in the pipeline, though, the dwell offers room to roam. Mixing high level and dwell settings blunts the ampās touch sensitivity a bit, and at 15 watts you trade headroom for natural compression, compounding the fogginess of these aggressive settings. A Twin Reverb it aināt. But there is texture aplenty to play with.
A Long, Wide Strand
Admirably, the Montauk speaks in many voices when paired with a guitar alone. The EQ sits most naturally and alive with treble and bass in the noon-to-2-oāclock region, and a slight midrange lean adds welcome punch. Even the ampās trebliest realms afford you a lot of expressive headroom if you have enough range and sensitivity in your guitar volume and tone pots. Interactions between the gain and master output controls yield scads of different tone color, too. Generally, I preferred high gain settings, which add a firecracker edge to maximum guitar volume settings and preserve touch and pick response at attenuated guitar volume and tone levels.
If working with the Montauk in this fashion feels natural, youāll need very few pedals. But itās a good fit for many effects. A Fuzz Face sounded nasty without collapsing into spitty junk, and the Klon-ish Electro-Harmonix Soul Food added muscle and character in its clean-boost guise and at grittier gain levels. Thereās plenty of headroom for exploring nuance and complexity in delays and modulations. It also pairs happily with a wide range of guitars and pickups: Every time I thought a Telecaster was a perfect fit, Iād plug in an SG with PAFs and drift away in Mick Taylor/Stones bliss.
The Verdict
Because the gain, master, tone, and reverb controls are fairly interactive, it took me a minute to suss out the Montaukās best and sweetest tones. But by the time I was through with this review, I found many sweet spots that fill the spaces between Vox and Fender templates. Thereās also raunch in abundance when you turn it up. Itās tempting to view the Montauk as a competitor to the Fender Princeton and Vox AC15. At a thousand bucks, itās $400 dollars less than the Mexico-made Princeton ā68 Custom and $170 more than the AC15, also made in China. In purely tone terms, though, it represents a real alternative to those stalwarts. Iād be more than happy to see one in a backline, provided I wasnāt trying to rise above a Geezer Butler/Bill Ward rhythm section. And with its capacity for routing to other amps and recording consoles in many intriguing configurations, it succeeds in being a genuinely interesting combination of vintage style and sound and home-studio utilityāall without adding a single digital or solid-state component to the mix.
Watch the official video documenting the sold-out event at House of Blues in Anaheim. Join Paul Reed Smith and special guests as they toast to quality and excellence in guitar craftsmanship.
PRS Guitars today released the official video documenting the full night of performances at their 40th Anniversary celebration, held January 24th in conjunction with the 2025 NAMM (The National Association of Music Merchants) Show. The sold-out, private event took place at House of Blues in Anaheim, California and featured performances by PRS artists Randy Bowland, Curt Chambers, David Grissom, Jon Jourdan, Howard Leese, Mark Lettieri Group, Herman Li, John Mayer, Orianthi, Tim Pierce, Noah Robertson, Shantaia, Philip Sayce, and Dany Villarreal, along with Paul Reed Smith and his Eightlock band.
āWhat a night! Big thanks to everyone who came out to support us: retailers, distributors, vendors, content creators, industry friends, and especially the artists. I loved every second. We are so pleased to share the whole night now on this video,ā said Paul Reed Smith, Founder & Managing General Partner of PRS Guitars. āI couldnāt be more proud to still be here 40 years later.ā
With nearly 1,400 of the whoās who in the musical instrument industry in attendance, the night ended with a thoughtful toast from PRS Signature Artist John Mayer, who reflected on 40 years of PRS Guitars and the quality that sets the brand apart. āThe guitars are great. You canāt last 40 years if the guitars arenāt great,ā said Mayer. āMany of you started hearing about PRS the same way I did, which is you would talk about PRS and someone would say āTheyāre too nice.ā Whatās too nice for a guitar? What, you want that special vibe that only tuning every song can give you on stage? You want that grit just like your heroes ā¦ bad intonation? The product is incredible.ā