What exactly did he tell you that made you a believer, like was it about the bias or matching tubes to a specific circuit? I've heard the same speech from old timers and half the time it sounds like voodoo until you actually hear it. Curious what specific setup or gear finally made it click for you.

Fix your setup before anything else. I broke down around cut nine once and started wearing a compression glove on my off hand plus switching to lighter shears mid-day. Stretch your wrist and fingers between every single client even if it's just ten seconds of shaking your hands out. Also book a buffer of 15 extra minutes around cut twelve onward so you can actually eat and hydrate. That got me through a 16 hour day without locking up.

That worn tape probably had more character than any crisp stream could give you.