In this video series, veteran Electric Guitar YouTuber Rob "Chappers" Chapman and Lee "The Captain" Anderton talk about guitars and amplifiers at Andertons.
Chapman is the leader of the band Dorje, a Epic Metal band, and Anderton is the third-generation owner of Andertons Music Company, a well-known music shop in Guildford, a small town on the outskirts of London. Together, the two represent a firm majority of the ownership of Chapman Guitars, a builder of guitars headquartered in the UK. They discuss guitars and amplifiers and generally talk about the status of the music world as perceived by them. Occasional guest stars include Rabea Massaad, a fine guitarist in his own right, employee at Andertons, and member of Dorje; Peter "Danish Pete" Honore, another guitarist and presenter on Andertons' YouTube channel, and Joe Leach, friend of Rob and Lee's and owner of Riff City Guitars in Minnesota, which they consider a "sister store" to Andertons.
Tropes presented by Chappers and the Captain:
- Accentuate the Negative: Averted. While not taken to Polly Anna-like extremes, the Captain does own a guitar shop and must keep his company's suppliers' feathers unruffled, so even in an instrument he's not wholly sold on, he will make sure to draw attention to its positive features.
- Ascended Fanboy: Lee is a huge Fender fanboy and Andertons is one of the largest dealers of Fender guitars in the UK. If they are not demoing a specific instrument, Lee will often be cradling one of his large personal collection of Fender guitars on his knee. Rob, being a metal guitarist, is slightly less so, but he has a very soft spot for the company's products and two of his own company's bestselling guitars, the ML 1 Traditional and ML 3 are homages to the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster, respectively. The Chapman guitar headstock, as well, appears to be a tribute to the classic Fender Telecaster headstock.
- British Stuffiness: As indicated, this is thoroughly averted. Chappers approaches Keet territory in his enthusiasm (though definitely not appearance), and Captain Lee is not far behind.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Grrrrreetings, I'm Rob Chappers!" "And I'm the Captain!" "And we're coming to you live from Andertons..."
- Friendly Rivalry: With their 'sister store,' Riff City Guitar & Music Company, first demonstrated in a 2016 video where Anderton and Leach each chose a rig demonstrative of their home country for a shred-off.
- Friendship Moment: During this show where Lee and Rob discuss their first guitars. Lee describes Rob's crestfallenness when he first mentioned that he was unable to find the correct color of Rob's first guitar, a banana-yellow Yamaha RGX-312. On his words "And so the search continued...", Rob looked up. Lee described how he, with the assistance of a Spanish fan, found the guitar of Rob's childhood, and presented it to the look of overwhelmed joy on his friend's face. Rob promised on the spot to send a guitar to Miguel, the fan. That moment is partially reciprocated a few minutes later when Rob confessed that despite a great deal of effort, he'd been unable to find an exact duplicate of Lee's first guitar (a blue Korean Fender Stratocaster). The entire episode is a testament to the love and friendship shared between the two men.
- Funny Background Event: Oh so many. A good number of the quite cheesy peripheral
special fx qualify. - Heterosexual Life-Partners: Chappers and the Captain's friendship is entirely unashamed in its closeness and warmth.
- Large Ham: Both of the primary presenters have a pretty big dose of British ham.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Andertons have an employee named Lee who occasionally appears on-screen, thus the need for Lee Anderton's "The Captain" moniker.
- Repeating Ad: Avoided as much as possible, given that the YouTube channel is one large advert for Andertons. Even though Chapman and Anderton are both owners of Chapman Guitars (Chapman as the founder, Anderton as a major shareholder), they avoid flogging their own instruments unless it's absolutely the instrument for their purposes, and they have in the past visibly agonized over choosing a Chapman guitar for one of their challenges (during the US vs. UK challenge, the Chapman guitars were the only current-make guitars made by a company headquartered in the UK, in fact).
- Stylistic Suck: The video special effects are intentionally cheesy, and it adds to the show's charm.
- Tears of Joy: Rob Chapman, during the aforementioned Friendship Moment, can be seen dabbing at his eyes a couple of times.
