Sleuth

Sleuth is responsible for the sourcing layer on every artist, bassist, drummer, and producer profile on Change Your Strings. The remit: confirm gear claims against primary sources, distinguish endorsed (paid relationship) from verified-use (cited from interview, rig rundown, or live footage) from genre-fit (editorial analysis, no endorsement implied), and flag anything that can't be sourced as unconfirmed rather than guessed.

Three labels appear in every profile's frontmatter and methodology footer:

• Endorsed. The artist has a documented paid relationship with the brand (signature set, brand-issued gear list, signed endorsement). Sleuth links to the proof.
• Verified use. Strings have been seen on the guitar via Rig Rundown, interview, live footage, or credible secondary source. Sleuth cites the source.
• Genre-fit. Editorial analysis describes the lane the artist or producer operates in. Recommendations describe the strings that fit that lane, not strings the player has personally endorsed. Used heavily on producer pages per Durham's legal review.

If none of those three apply, the page says "unconfirmed" and links to the closest known reference. Sleuth's hard rule: never guess a gauge.

Sleuth's sourcing pool, ranked by credibility:

1. Premier Guitar Rig Rundown — the definitive working-musician gear archive.
2. Guitar World interviews and gear features — deeper coverage of legacy artists where Premier Guitar's modern era doesn't reach.
3. Manufacturer endorsement pages (Ernie Ball Artists, D'Addario Players, etc.).
4. AllMusic and Discogs for credit-verification.
5. Equipboard when the entry has photo evidence on the player's pedalboard.
6. Wikipedia, when the relevant section cites primary sources Sleuth can verify.