I had said in the comments section of one of your earliest videos that we would listen to any story you wanted to tell us. Once again, you didn't disappoint.
As a former state worker, I so appreciate your observations about the inanities that abound in government service. (I couldn't take it and had to leave after 2.5 years of banging my head against my assigned desk).
Hi Randall... short story you might find interesting... in 1981 I was 17 and a Senior in High School near Philadelphia. I had been wanting a Mesa Mark for a long time; as a reader of Guitar Player mag - saw your tiny ads in the back as early as '75. Back in '81 the wait was something like 6 months minimum for an amp, and at that time, there were not many Boogies on the East Coast. Anyway, I wrote you a letter in February saying I was studio musician and that I needed an amp ASAP for a "very important date" in March. It was an important date (to me), but not for a recording.,..for a show at my High School in front of the entire Senior class! You called me shortly thereafter and told me to send a payment in full for a IIB 60 watt head ($600 at the time). Having cut lawns the previous summer (and sold weed!) I had the money- and you got me the amp in 3 weeks! My friends were like "how did YOU do that???". It sounded incredible - like nothing I or anyone ever heard at the time. Anyway, I used that amp for multiple gigs, bands, and for several years, including a stint in San Diego and LA where I DID do sessions with it. I traded the head in 1988 for a fully loaded Mark III combo. I subsequently have owned many Marks (Is, IIs IIC+s, IIIS) and always loved the care and workmanship you put into your amps. Wishing you the best- Paul Saulino (Lafayette Hill PA)
I'm an architect and a guitar tool designer. I am LOVING your stories about the early days at Boogie. It's inspirational to hear your "damn the torpedos" attitude with regard to creating new technology.
Holy-friggin'-moly Randall !!! My head is spinning after listening to what you went through with the famous Frank Garske PioneerTown house Flying Tigers Rd., the Bureaucratic B.S. you had to deal with and the meshuganer you sold it to who cooked himself with the space heater for 5 mos. and then personally discovering his corpse and all!! Unreal Randall!! Merci for running it down here on your YT channel!! Jon aka @HammondCast *oh yeah, last time I went in to Prune, Commander Cody was in there getting a keyboard he had fixed there - just flashed on that - I used to see him do Hot Rod Lincoln at the Berkeley Folk Festival in their prime and his Lost Planet Airmen!
Thank you very much for your take on history, and for the MB Mark amplifier sounds. Regards from a German MB afficiondo since the 80s and 3 time pilgrimage to MB Petaluma factory 'alumni, ..keep up the good work😊
Man, your travails - much appreciated. I was self-employed for most of my professional life (now retired) and so I’ve felt your aggravation. You’re tough!
Keep the stories coming, they are all fascinating and history that needs to be told. You know what they say, life is stranger than fiction. They couldn't make this stuff up!
Youe storytelling is really enjoyable, you are being yourself which is good for a change since most youtube presenters are not authentic. All the best, Randall.
My Father was an architect and I was raised in Colorado. He was influenced by Frank Loyd Wright designs and had a collection of books about him. I remember looking through those books and I appreciate his unique designs were meant to blend in and complement where they were built. My Dad taught me basic skills about construction and how to build houses. I ended up going into electronics and playing guitar. I fast forward and my Mother moved to Palm Springs. I would visit her and climb mountains in that area. I visited the Joshua tree area. I have wanted to live in that area of the desert for years. Great story. But I am dumbfounded by the "official inspectors" that made life rebuilding this house in PioneerTown so hard. Last, I remember watching The Cisco Kid series on a black and white TV. "Let's went"
Great stuff Randy ! I am really enjoying your videos here ! I am around your age and am one of those guys who first began learning about and coveting your Boogie in the early 70s after hearing Carlos Santana playing it. Since I have owned a number of Boogies, and currently have my keeper, a Mark IIa. So glad you started your channel. You really have lived a very eventful and adventurous life. Love hearing about your adventures !
Wild story!!! Thank you for sharing!!! I am so sorry the house didn’t find a happier ending. I owe a couple of Mesa boogie amps - time to go play them!!!
Hi Randall..could you explain the story about Mark v and the technical choices behind It? And why in your opinion Is considered the black sheep in Mark series?thanks
Wisdom and tribal knowledge are critical - and it is critical that it be transferred from generation to generation through wise individuals that have shoveled a whole lot of “dirt”. You are doing your part Randall, and I thank you. I feel silly saying this again, but just a huuuuuge fan of Mesa/Boogie and have 4 of them right here in my office - straight from the Mecca that was Mesa Hollywood. My daughters went with me there so many times that it’s a family topic still to this day…they rolled their eyes every time I said we were going on a field trip to Mesa 😂😂😂
Lets talk about Sir Jackie Stewart and his time on the ELF racing team. One of the most iconic racing pictures is Jackie and his Ford Elf with all the wheels off the ground.
In western NC after the hurricane, an Amish group donated 100’s of tiny houses for people who lost their home as temporary housing, and the government there said that the tiny houses “aren’t up to code” so they rather them be on the street.
@RandallSmith2G thank you for building a company and culture 100% focused on customers and valuing employees. Your employee retention is record setting. No other major amp manufacturer provides the service and support of Mesa. Even now, when I had issues with my old Mark III red stripe combo, I could call up Mesa and was put directly through to Mike B who discussed my issues, recommended a course of action, and a mod to refine the tone. You have built, and leave, an amazing legacy to be proud of. Good luck on all the things you do.
Randall, you should totally write a book on your life! These videos are great, but a book would be awesome & give you as much space as you need to tell all these interesting little crazy (& kinda hilarious) stories. To the video : There's few things bureaucracy doesn't make worse & people love exerting their small pieces of power.
Planning committees destroyed my opportunity to save an inherited family cabin, or sell it at Anything Near the past 5 years' upscaled assessment valuation. Their paralysis gutted the selling process - thanks Island Country! 😢
The style of the house dictated unusual construction. It's great you saw the value of preservation. Even the F.L. Wrights running water house had huge initial problems and subsequent repairs.
Randall, really enjoying your stories! Do you have any memories about the alternative rock scene in the 90s, like Soundgarden or the Californian punk bands that used your gear? I currently have one of your Recto-verb 25 heads, previously owned a Multiwatt Dual Rec and curious about the Mark V 35 head, too. Ciao from Italia.
Having dealt with building inspectors on both residential and industrial buildings I have come to determine many inspectors have little to no common sense or practical understanding of basic mechanical engineering or physics. Many of them are looking for an envelope full of cash.
I know that this would be something more of interest to a smaller number of viewers, but I would love to hear anything you would feel like sharing specifically about the Mark IIa model. I know that you made some design changes from the original Boogie that you had been producing for most of the 70s to produce the Mark IIa. I would be interested in knowing more about it and what you liked about it at the time.
It you are building in rural (for lack of a better term” you have to pay an expeditor to help with permits, inspectors and compliance, and while it seems ridiculous to have to provide ADA to the electric meter, people with disabilities have been neglected in our societies. From listening to your history, you had a slash and burn operation jacking houses in the old days which I assume is where some of your frustration is coming from. People who rebuild in California are going to have to basically build fireproof homes in order to get insurance. Some homes. Were built with concrete and tin roofs that didn’t burn. It’s going to be frustrating for a lot of people, but many of these homes were originally summer cottages. I don’t know what all the answers are but it is going to require major coordination and strict compliance for rebuilding
Why was the MarkV mode named Extreme rather than MarkV? I know given the situation with LA it might seem a bit tone deaf, but I’m watching this and staring at my MarkV and I’ve always wanted to know why it wasn’t named MarkV mode….kinda seemed like it would have worked. Also, did you ever consider putting an EQ in a rectifier? When I first started playing I used to put an EQ or sonic maximizer in the FX loop to get more gain an it sounded huge. It was more of a fun bedroom thing and not always practical in a band setting or stage situation, but it’s fun to go nuts with your amp sometimes. I mean, we do have some great noise gates these days. All the best, bro.
Great reminder that we don't hate these petty tyrants enough. If you think you get wound up about this you should hear me talking about local referenda after a bourbon or two.
Yeah, I think a lot of people in the affected fire areas are going to be essentially screwed out of their homes when they find out, that if their insurance companies actually cover their house… That the insurance company is only going to pay what their house was worth at the time of the fire and not take into account these idiocies from the state that are going to happen and it’s going to end up costing them 50,000 or 100,000 or more over top of what their home is worth to rebuild. Because most of those houses in the Palisades have been there for a decent time. Meaning they probably aren’t up to current code. Which means they’re going to have to be brought up to modern standards. It’s so ridiculous. I truthfully don’t know why anybody’s there anymore. Business has left, a ton of people have left and it has to be frustrating for you and everybody there realizing that it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. It saddens me, because some of these people who aren’t mainstream celebrities that may have the money to rebuild… Are going to be put in a corner that they can’t get out of. Forced to sell their land. I guess the only good thing going for it is 2/3 of the property value is the land. Which the LA County commissioner said that while these people rebuild… They are still going to be on the hook for the taxes for the land, just not their home. Which is only 1/3. When property tax there is so expensive already. California has priced everybody out except the super rich, even from renting. They said that Airbnb locations are raising their rates some of them by 5 to 10 times, just to take advantage of the people who need a place to stay while their homes are being rebuilt, and those that are coming to town to help build them. One of the first things, the governor should have done, was put a freeze on rates for both hotels/motels and Airbnb rentals. On top of that, they should’ve frozen builders, plumbers, electricians and anybody else who would be on the front line rebuilding those homes, rates. But I have a feeling that everybody is just going to rake everybody else through the coals. Because if lodging raises its rates, that means that the builders are going to have to raise their rates and the Domino’s start the fall. I’m sorry what happened to you Randall. I am terrified for what’s going to happen to everybody who lost a house. Especially those who didn’t take pictures or a video of all of their belongings inside the house, so that they could prove what was in there and what it was worth. Which is a whole different story.
Hey Randall..Im absolutely loving these videos and your stories..I could genuinely listen to you all night here in Scotland!Would it be possible for me to contact you personally at all to ask you just a quick couple of questions?If so I could leave my email address here..If Not I understand..So no sweat..Yours sincerely and hopefully.
Western NC are dealing with this now trying to rebuild after the hurricane, I wish people would stop voting in a direction that ends up with these policies. NC keeps voting democrat
Edited to fix bowling to bolting. For every home fireplace made to be built like fort Knox there's 100 bridges in your region that were built in ways they shouldn't have. My Lady is a welding and bolting inspector. NDT. She climbs mountains, hangs hundreds of feet in her harness yet developed a phobia of driving over bridges a decade into inspecting them. In the last 20 years a common bridge design being put in all over the country on highways was found to have a serious flaw. I forget the specifics but they're the common new style used everywhere 20 to 5 years ago. They kept building them after discovery but the solution is to re inspect yearly, drill holes at ends of cracks on the steel, sign and photograph. That's how they deal with most every crack. This bridge design was developing cracks in the steel in the first season in the same spots, just about every instance of a spot. So they just keep watching on them, like all the old bridges with cracks. It's just upsetting because they're new, common, much of our infrastructure has deteriorated but having most of the new ones we do have developing cracks right away in a common, supposedly simple elegant design, leaves little hope for getting after stuff we've neglected. And most of the other new work, on the old bridges is just as depressing. All the shiny new painted metal you see appear under old bridges after a lengthy road closure, not reinforcement, it's there to catch the parts that fall off. Just measure cracks, thickness where the steel is delaminating and expanding, drill 2 holes at each crack line. Many bridges they just inspect the pins. Remarkably some of those ones last the longest, the little country bridges with Xs on the side, big fat pins hold the panels together. They were designed for the second WW, had tons in surplus, put in bridges everywhere. I assume they made more. Anyway, the only part the state gets them to inspect is the big fat pins that join them. Grind clean at tip, UT, no voids returned, clean goo and spray paint. She said those ones will live forever though. They just replaced the pins when they fail as I understand it.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
I had said in the comments section of one of your earliest videos that we would listen to any story you wanted to tell us. Once again, you didn't disappoint.
Man Randall, you could not make this stuff up. Keep em coming!
As a former state worker, I so appreciate your observations about the inanities that abound in government service. (I couldn't take it and had to leave after 2.5 years of banging my head against my assigned desk).
Hi Randall... short story you might find interesting... in 1981 I was 17 and a Senior in High School near Philadelphia. I had been wanting a Mesa Mark for a long time; as a reader of Guitar Player mag - saw your tiny ads in the back as early as '75. Back in '81 the wait was something like 6 months minimum for an amp, and at that time, there were not many Boogies on the East Coast. Anyway, I wrote you a letter in February saying I was studio musician and that I needed an amp ASAP for a "very important date" in March. It was an important date (to me), but not for a recording.,..for a show at my High School in front of the entire Senior class! You called me shortly thereafter and told me to send a payment in full for a IIB 60 watt head ($600 at the time). Having cut lawns the previous summer (and sold weed!) I had the money- and you got me the amp in 3 weeks! My friends were like "how did YOU do that???". It sounded incredible - like nothing I or anyone ever heard at the time. Anyway, I used that amp for multiple gigs, bands, and for several years, including a stint in San Diego and LA where I DID do sessions with it. I traded the head in 1988 for a fully loaded Mark III combo. I subsequently have owned many Marks (Is, IIs IIC+s, IIIS) and always loved the care and workmanship you put into your amps. Wishing you the best- Paul Saulino (Lafayette Hill PA)
I'm an architect and a guitar tool designer. I am LOVING your stories about the early days at Boogie. It's inspirational to hear your "damn the torpedos" attitude with regard to creating new technology.
Holy-friggin'-moly Randall !!! My head is spinning after listening to what you went through with the famous Frank Garske PioneerTown house Flying Tigers Rd., the Bureaucratic B.S. you had to deal with and the meshuganer you sold it to who cooked himself with the space heater for 5 mos. and then personally discovering his corpse and all!! Unreal Randall!! Merci for running it down here on your YT channel!! Jon aka @HammondCast *oh yeah, last time I went in to Prune, Commander Cody was in there getting a keyboard he had fixed there - just flashed on that - I used to see him do Hot Rod Lincoln at the Berkeley Folk Festival in their prime and his Lost Planet Airmen!
Great stuff! Really enjoying your interesting stories. Thank you!
Thank you very much for your take on history, and for the MB Mark amplifier sounds. Regards from a German MB afficiondo since the 80s and 3 time pilgrimage to MB Petaluma factory 'alumni, ..keep up the good work😊
randy you have the best stories and such a great teller of them...keep going!
Love watching these Mr. Smith. Thanks for posting your stories and knowledge.
Crazy story ! You're an amazing guy Randy !
I love these videos. Please spend the rest of your life posting these. Joking/ not joking
Man, your travails - much appreciated. I was self-employed for most of my professional life (now retired) and so I’ve felt your aggravation. You’re tough!
Keep the stories coming, they are all fascinating and history that needs to be told. You know what they say, life is stranger than fiction. They couldn't make this stuff up!
Youe storytelling is really enjoyable, you are being yourself which is good for a change since most youtube presenters are not authentic. All the best, Randall.
My Father was an architect and I was raised in Colorado. He was influenced by Frank Loyd Wright designs and had a collection of books about him. I remember looking through those books and I appreciate his unique designs were meant to blend in and complement where they were built. My Dad taught me basic skills about construction and how to build houses. I ended up going into electronics and playing guitar. I fast forward and my Mother moved to Palm Springs. I would visit her and climb mountains in that area. I visited the Joshua tree area. I have wanted to live in that area of the desert for years. Great story. But I am dumbfounded by the "official inspectors" that made life rebuilding this house in PioneerTown so hard. Last, I remember watching The Cisco Kid series on a black and white TV. "Let's went"
Great stuff Randy ! I am really enjoying your videos here ! I am around your age and am one of those guys who first began learning about and coveting your Boogie in the early 70s after hearing Carlos Santana playing it. Since I have owned a number of Boogies, and currently have my keeper, a Mark IIa. So glad you started your channel. You really have lived a very eventful and adventurous life. Love hearing about your adventures !
Really cool information Randall, thank you for sharing. Tell us more about racing 🏁 I've been really enjoying your stories
Thank you Randy!
Keep em coming bud!
Wild story!!! Thank you for sharing!!! I am so sorry the house didn’t find a happier ending. I owe a couple of Mesa boogie amps - time to go play them!!!
Great story Randall!
Hi Randall..could you explain the story about Mark v and the technical choices behind It? And why in your opinion Is considered the black sheep in Mark series?thanks
Fantastic stories!! Genuinely love these.
Love all the stories, keep them coming. I have an old S.O.B From the early 80’s. Any suggestion on where to get it serviced.
each video Randy is pure magic - like many Mesa players, you're family, we know you so well even though we have never met!
Wisdom and tribal knowledge are critical - and it is critical that it be transferred from generation to generation through wise individuals that have shoveled a whole lot of “dirt”. You are doing your part Randall, and I thank you. I feel silly saying this again, but just a huuuuuge fan of Mesa/Boogie and have 4 of them right here in my office - straight from the Mecca that was Mesa Hollywood. My daughters went with me there so many times that it’s a family topic still to this day…they rolled their eyes every time I said we were going on a field trip to Mesa 😂😂😂
great line “ shoveled a hole lot of dirt “. : ). thanks
Lets talk about Sir Jackie Stewart and his time on the ELF racing team. One of the most iconic racing pictures is Jackie and his Ford Elf with all the wheels off the ground.
😳😳😳😳😳😳😦😦 What a nice historis. Thanks.
Wow the movie of your live I’m waiting for it ,holy moly,greetz from Belgium 🇧🇪
my respect for mr smith keeps going up with every story
this one seems like it is a wild movie with a crazy twist ending, big lebowski feel to it. : )
In western NC after the hurricane, an Amish group donated 100’s of tiny houses for people who lost their home as temporary housing, and the government there said that the tiny houses “aren’t up to code” so they rather them be on the street.
@RandallSmith2G thank you for building a company and culture 100% focused on customers and valuing employees. Your employee retention is record setting. No other major amp manufacturer provides the service and support of Mesa. Even now, when I had issues with my old Mark III red stripe combo, I could call up Mesa and was put directly through to Mike B who discussed my issues, recommended a course of action, and a mod to refine the tone. You have built, and leave, an amazing legacy to be proud of. Good luck on all the things you do.
Randall, you should totally write a book on your life! These videos are great, but a book would be awesome & give you as much space as you need to tell all these interesting little crazy (& kinda hilarious) stories.
To the video : There's few things bureaucracy doesn't make worse & people love exerting their small pieces of power.
Planning committees destroyed my opportunity to save an inherited family cabin, or sell it at Anything Near the past 5 years' upscaled assessment valuation.
Their paralysis gutted the selling process - thanks Island Country! 😢
The style of the house dictated unusual construction. It's great you saw the value of preservation. Even the F.L. Wrights running water house had huge initial problems and subsequent repairs.
Looking forward to the stories of the first Recto, Mark II, and how the Marks got the graphic EQ.
Randall, really enjoying your stories! Do you have any memories about the alternative rock scene in the 90s, like Soundgarden or the Californian punk bands that used your gear? I currently have one of your Recto-verb 25 heads, previously owned a Multiwatt Dual Rec and curious about the Mark V 35 head, too. Ciao from Italia.
Randall, it’s people like you that make America great, but it’s the other lot that spoil it.
Having dealt with building inspectors on both residential and industrial buildings I have come to determine many inspectors have little to no common sense or practical understanding of basic mechanical engineering or physics. Many of them are looking for an envelope full of cash.
A lesson in paralyzation by bureaucracy and power hungry bureaucrats. It runs parallel to the story about the audio engineer/patent lawyer. 😆
That's a wild story
I know that this would be something more of interest to a smaller number of viewers, but I would love to hear anything you would feel like sharing specifically about the Mark IIa model. I know that you made some design changes from the original Boogie that you had been producing for most of the 70s to produce the Mark IIa. I would be interested in knowing more about it and what you liked about it at the time.
“Bureaucratic Idiocy” is not only how we are forced to live our lives, it’s another good band name!
did you ever figure out who the Bobby character was?
It you are building in rural (for lack of a better term” you have to pay an expeditor to help with permits, inspectors and compliance, and while it seems ridiculous to have to provide ADA to the electric meter, people with disabilities have been neglected in our societies. From listening to your history, you had a slash and burn operation jacking houses in the old days which I assume is where some of your frustration is coming from. People who rebuild in California are going to have to basically build fireproof homes in order to get insurance. Some homes. Were built with concrete and tin roofs that didn’t burn.
It’s going to be frustrating for a lot of people, but many of these homes were originally summer cottages.
I don’t know what all the answers are but it is going to require major coordination and strict compliance for rebuilding
For anyone with experience, do inspectors want money, power, or both ?
Both is the easy answer, but how does it really go in practice ?
Why was the MarkV mode named Extreme rather than MarkV?
I know given the situation with LA it might seem a bit tone deaf, but I’m watching this and staring at my MarkV and I’ve always wanted to know why it wasn’t named MarkV mode….kinda seemed like it would have worked. Also, did you ever consider putting an EQ in a rectifier?
When I first started playing I used to put an EQ or sonic maximizer in the FX loop to get more gain an it sounded huge.
It was more of a fun bedroom thing and not always practical in a band setting or stage situation, but it’s fun to go nuts with your amp sometimes.
I mean, we do have some great noise gates these days.
All the best, bro.
Stuff for a movie... geez!
That was quite a yarn
They will....they will have to bring their houses up to current codes when they rebuild....
Great reminder that we don't hate these petty tyrants enough. If you think you get wound up about this you should hear me talking about local referenda after a bourbon or two.
I wonder if he is aware of Uncle Doug, and vice versa.
Yeah, I think a lot of people in the affected fire areas are going to be essentially screwed out of their homes when they find out, that if their insurance companies actually cover their house… That the insurance company is only going to pay what their house was worth at the time of the fire and not take into account these idiocies from the state that are going to happen and it’s going to end up costing them 50,000 or 100,000 or more over top of what their home is worth to rebuild. Because most of those houses in the Palisades have been there for a decent time. Meaning they probably aren’t up to current code. Which means they’re going to have to be brought up to modern standards.
It’s so ridiculous. I truthfully don’t know why anybody’s there anymore. Business has left, a ton of people have left and it has to be frustrating for you and everybody there realizing that it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. It saddens me, because some of these people who aren’t mainstream celebrities that may have the money to rebuild… Are going to be put in a corner that they can’t get out of. Forced to sell their land. I guess the only good thing going for it is 2/3 of the property value is the land. Which the LA County commissioner said that while these people rebuild… They are still going to be on the hook for the taxes for the land, just not their home. Which is only 1/3. When property tax there is so expensive already.
California has priced everybody out except the super rich, even from renting. They said that Airbnb locations are raising their rates some of them by 5 to 10 times, just to take advantage of the people who need a place to stay while their homes are being rebuilt, and those that are coming to town to help build them. One of the first things, the governor should have done, was put a freeze on rates for both hotels/motels and Airbnb rentals. On top of that, they should’ve frozen builders, plumbers, electricians and anybody else who would be on the front line rebuilding those homes, rates. But I have a feeling that everybody is just going to rake everybody else through the coals.
Because if lodging raises its rates, that means that the builders are going to have to raise their rates and the Domino’s start the fall. I’m sorry what happened to you Randall. I am terrified for what’s going to happen to everybody who lost a house. Especially those who didn’t take pictures or a video of all of their belongings inside the house, so that they could prove what was in there and what it was worth. Which is a whole different story.
Hey Randall..Im absolutely loving these videos and your stories..I could genuinely listen to you all night here in Scotland!Would it be possible for me to contact you personally at all to ask you just a quick couple of questions?If so I could leave my email address here..If Not I understand..So no sweat..Yours sincerely and hopefully.
Lucky to be the first one here.
Egos mxed with idiocy. Whew!!
Wild
The Meatwagon! A great name for a new amplifier 😂
That is one of the grossest stories I've ever heard.
The Man, The Myth The Legend... Randall Smith!
I wonder if the Buddhist locked himself in the bedroom because there was a mountain lion in the house 🤣?
This is what you guys keep voting for.
It's just as bad in red states
@@MercilessGuitar151 Yeah it is. That doesn't change anything.
No one wants to see that pic, so you may as well post it.
Western NC are dealing with this now trying to rebuild after the hurricane, I wish people would stop voting in a direction that ends up with these policies. NC keeps voting democrat
And the republicans will vote away the programs to help you rebuild and give that money to the billionaires, like they want to do now.
UL Approved = send us your money $$$$$$$$$$$
Edited to fix bowling to bolting.
For every home fireplace made to be built like fort Knox there's 100 bridges in your region that were built in ways they shouldn't have. My Lady is a welding and bolting inspector. NDT. She climbs mountains, hangs hundreds of feet in her harness yet developed a phobia of driving over bridges a decade into inspecting them. In the last 20 years a common bridge design being put in all over the country on highways was found to have a serious flaw. I forget the specifics but they're the common new style used everywhere 20 to 5 years ago. They kept building them after discovery but the solution is to re inspect yearly, drill holes at ends of cracks on the steel, sign and photograph. That's how they deal with most every crack. This bridge design was developing cracks in the steel in the first season in the same spots, just about every instance of a spot. So they just keep watching on them, like all the old bridges with cracks. It's just upsetting because they're new, common, much of our infrastructure has deteriorated but having most of the new ones we do have developing cracks right away in a common, supposedly simple elegant design, leaves little hope for getting after stuff we've neglected. And most of the other new work, on the old bridges is just as depressing. All the shiny new painted metal you see appear under old bridges after a lengthy road closure, not reinforcement, it's there to catch the parts that fall off. Just measure cracks, thickness where the steel is delaminating and expanding, drill 2 holes at each crack line. Many bridges they just inspect the pins. Remarkably some of those ones last the longest, the little country bridges with Xs on the side, big fat pins hold the panels together. They were designed for the second WW, had tons in surplus, put in bridges everywhere. I assume they made more. Anyway, the only part the state gets them to inspect is the big fat pins that join them. Grind clean at tip, UT, no voids returned, clean goo and spray paint. She said those ones will live forever though. They just replaced the pins when they fail as I understand it.