My take on Casio Oceanus watches

I don't talk about Casio Oceanus watches for basically one reason. They're not sold in America.

There are cheap Casio watches and then there are expensive models. Most people think the only expensive Casio watches that exist are upper tier G-SHOCK models.

Well, there's another line Casio makes which are definitely built to be luxurious-but-tough timepieces. Oceanus models. This is a tier (if not several tiers) higher than the Edifice models. Casio Edifice is not top-end, as you can get one for just 30 bucks. Where Oceanus is concerned, they usually start at $400 and top out in the thousands.

There aren't a lot of Oceanus models (a total of about 15), but every one of them is gorgeous. There's not a single one that looks bad. Every model has a titanium super-light bracelet, of which I believe all are slide-adjustable, like a Rolex Submariner's bracelet is. Every model is true 100m water resistant. Every model is solar powered. Every model has at least 2 subdials. Every model has atomic timekeeping for perfect timekeeping accuracy.

The main selling point of Oceanus is "The World's First Full-Metal GPS Wave Ceptor", which again boasts about its ultra-accurate timekeeping while at the same time offering some luxury with its case and bracelet materials.

I personally cannot wear an Oceanus because they're all big timepieces that are too large for my wrist. Most have a 44mm or greater case size. The nice thing however is that while Oceanus models are large, they're not big-for-the-sake-of-being-big. Every millimeter of size has purpose.

I've never seen an Oceanus model in person because they've never had a North American presence. As far as I'm aware, Oceanus is for Asian markets only. From the links above you'll see them on Amazon, but they're all Japan imports and that's par for the course.

I hope to at least get a look at an Oceanus model someday because they are very high-tech, high-end Japan timepieces. I can never buy it because the size is too large for me, but even in photos you can see a lot of attention has been put into the details of the design. It would be cool to see what a true luxury-built Casio really looks like in person.

Guitar of the week #71 - Fender Deluxe Tele Thinline

Fender makes a good amount of guitars with one-piece maple necks, but some are better than others. This is one of the better ones. In fact, I think it's one of the best electrics they've made in 2016.

The Fender Deluxe Tele Thinline has several things going for it that are just plain cool.

First, the fretboard has a 12" radius. That makes for easier soloing.

Second, the pickups are Vintage Noiseless. I've more to say about that in a moment.

Third, it has a 4-way switch instead of just a 3-way.

Fourth, the saddles are the better block style and not those dopey (and cheap) bent steel things.

Fifth, it has short-post locking tuners.

This is a Swiss Army Knife Tele of sorts. Darned good one, too.

Oh, and just to satisfy curiosity, the fourth pickup selection is the back + front pickup in series wiring rather than parallel. What that means is that on that particular position, you get more output and more midrange tone. I don't know how particularly useful that is, but it's nice that Fender included it.

Do the Fender Noiseless pickups in this Tele suck?

There's more than a few players who don't like the Noiseless pickups from Fender, but this one might appease the naysayers. Maybe.

Currently, there are two types of Fender Noiseless pickups available for the Telecaster. Fender N3 Noiseless and Fender Vintage Noiseless. The pickup set in the Deluxe Thinline is the Vintage Noiseless.

There are several differences between the two sets, but the most noticeable is that the N3 uses Alnico 5 magnets and the Vintage uses Alnico 2.

Explained in the simplest way, the N3 has modern "punch" while the Vintage is more "clear".

The big question however is this: Is the Vintage Noiseless set appropriate for the Thinline?

Yes, it is.

The output of the Vintage Noiseless isn't as in-your-face as the N3; it is a good choice for the Thinline, especially with the 4-way selector where overly loud pickups would ruin the series wiring selection.

If the Noiseless N3 set was in the Thinline, the tone would suck. It would be too "hot," tough to control, and, ironically, a noisy mess. Not the 60-cycle hum kind of noisy mess, but you'd hear way too much string drag, pick noise, body clunking and pretty much every other unwanted noise you can think of. The tamer Vintage set is a much better choice because you get the clarity without extraneous noise nor hum noise, and that's the entire point of having a noiseless pickup set to begin with.

So to answer the question, the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups in the Thinline do not suck. They genuinely sound good, and with the modern bridge give a nice blend of vintage tone + modern appointments.

To really put a fine point on it, does the Vintage Noiseless "sound like a Telecaster?" Yes. No, you won't get "perfect '52" tone out of it. But what Tele would other than a real-deal '52?

Complaints?

I only have one, and it is unabashedly a personal preference on my part.

I don't like Strats or Teles with 22-fret necks on them.

Being the Deluxe Tele Thinline has modern appointments, yes it makes total sense that the guitar has a 22-fret neck as that is a totally modern thing...

...but I don't like it. I would much prefer to see a 21-fret neck.

There is, however, something that makes having that 22-fret neck worth it. Another modern feature, the heel cutaway. That cutaway makes it super-easy to reach for and bend high notes on the high-fret end of the neck.

The more you look into this guitar, the more you realize it truly does earn its "Deluxe" name in the model title.

I still don't like 22-fret guitars, mind you, but I'm certain this one is a joy to play. And from what I've heard, it also sounds right.

This is a genuinely good player's Telecaster. It's not meant to be a collectible. And by that I mean that this guitar was not built to be a case queen. Rather, this is one you play the hell out of.

Guitar of the week #70 - Squier Affinity Strat HH in Candy color option

This is the first time ever that I've seen a Squier priced this low with not one but three candy color options along with a few other goodies.

I'll first explain all the things that make this guitar unique and different compared to the stock Squier Affinity Strat.

Zebra pickup HH pickups. An HH Strat is nothing new, but seeing zebra color pickups in a Squier Strat priced this low is. This is the first time ever that I've seen zebra pickups in a Squier.

"Blackout" hardware. Black bridge/saddles, black tremolo arm and switch tip, black output jack, black tuners, black string trees.

Candy color option. This is where things get really interesting.

There are three of these.

First is the Candy Blue.

Second is Candy Green.

Last is the Candy Pink.

Body color-matched decals on the headstock. You can see this on the pink model the most, but all the decals on the headstock are matched to the body color. While I have seen color-matched headstocks from Squier before, this is the first time I've seen color-matched decals.

What is a "candy" finish?

Heavy metallic flake. Extra-big chunks of metal are mixed in with the paint to give it a super-sparkle of sorts.

If the Squier brand has released a candy finish Strat before, I don't remember ever seeing one. I've certainly seen Fender Strats with the candy option (like the Dick Dale Stratocaster), but not a Squier.

Price-wise, a candy Affinity Strat is $30 more than a regular Affinity.

Collectible?

Yes, absolutely. And a cheap collectible at that. The funny thing however is that it will be interesting to see which of the three colors will hold the most value in the future. You'd think it would be the pink one, but who knows? Maybe the blue or the green will command top dollar.

As for my pick of the three, it's the green one, and I have to explain that choice a bit.

Green, ordinarily, is an absolutely awful color for a solid-body electric, especially for a Strat. But the candy green with the zebra HH layout works for some strange reason.

I've only seen one other green Strat in my life, and that was the Eric Clapton Stratocaster in 7-UP Green. Ugly guitar. The Squier in candy green actually has more character to it.

For those of you that remember the Squier Strat in Orange Metallic, this is not a copy of that guitar. This one has way more metallic flake in the paint, a white pick guard instead of black, and it has the cool look of the zebra pickups.

How does it sound? Probably a bit on the bland side, but that's not why you buy this guitar. You buy it to get something that sticks out in a sea of Strats that all look the same.

One thing is for sure if you get one of these. Whether you play in a band or just make videos for YouTube, it will probably be true that you'll be the only one with a stock candy color Squier HH. The stuff on this guitar is what other players would mod their guitar to look like, but you won't have a mod a thing. Just plug in and go.

Another sleeper watch: Casio AW-82

Found another ana-digi, and wow is this one good. Next to the Casio G-SHOCK DW5600E, this just might be the ultimate bang-for-your-buck tool watch.

Every now and then I check out watches online. Casio is one of my favorite brands, and while I was looking at different models, I came across the Casio AW-82.

How I came across it is interesting because I wasn't looking for it. Rather, it appeared as one of those "since you just viewed X watch, you might be interested in Y watch" things on Amazon.

As it turns out, the AV-82 is European market only and has absolutely no presence in the US at all. You won't find this one in any store in America, and it's not even listed on the Casio web site (but is on the Casio UK web site).

The AV-82 comes in six flavors. All of them have a silver plastic case. What changes are the colors and strap it comes with.

• Casio AW-82-1AVES
• Casio AW-82-7AVES
• Casio AW-82-2AV
• Casio AW-82B-1AVES
• Casio AW-82D-1AVES
• Casio AW-82D-7AVES

The toughest one to find is the AW-82B (the red one). There's usually no listings for it, and when you do, the price will be high. The AW-82B has some definite uniqueness to it as it's the only one of the lot to have its own unique color and a canvas strap with "FISHING GEAR" imprinted on it.

Which model would I go for personally? Not the red one. True, it's a collectible, but it doesn't look as good as the one I would get, the AW-82D-1AVES (black dial with metal bracelet). It's readily available, priced nice for what it is, and it could very well be the ultimate tool watch.

What makes the AW-82 (any model) possibly the ultimate tool watch?

On the surface, the AW-82 look like a plain analog-digital watch. But once you dig in, you find it's loaded with goodies.

10-year battery. Nice to have.

LED night light. Illuminates the analog face. Has configurable afterglow of 1.5 seconds or 3.

Has lume on the hands that actually works. Very cool.

Auto calendar. Programmed up to year 2099. This means it knows all the leap years so the calendar is never wrong.

Moon phase indicator. This is shown via the little blue circle at the right side of the digital display.

Fishing timer. This is where things get interesting. This is, technically, a Casio "Outgear" model. At the left of the digital display are little images of fish.

Does this feature actually work? In fact, yes it does, if you set up the watch correctly.

If you input the correct longitude and latitude data for where you live, the fishing timer is said to be pretty darned accurate from what reviews I've read by owners of this timepiece. And even if you don't fish, who cares? It's just a cool feature.

While true the manual does have presets for cities around the world, for best accuracy, you enter in the coordinates yourself manually for where you live. To find that info, you just go to any mapping web site that displays coordinate data on the map and get it from there.

For example, in the manual, the closest preset I could choose is Miami. But I don't live in Miami. I live in Tampa Bay where the coordinates are obviously different. Miami has a latitude/longitude of 25.7N 80.1W. Tampa has a latitude/longitude of 27.9N 82.4W. Since the Casio AW-82 doesn't do coordinate decimals, I would just round it to 28N 82W. That data allows the watch to calculate the appropriate time to fish. As for how it does those calculations, I've no idea. But it's supposed to work pretty great.

There are 4 fish total on the digital display. Supposedly, if all 4 fish are showing and all are filled-in (meaning not outlined,) that is the ideal time to fish.

I really have no idea how well or not well the fishing timer works other than the reviews I've read on it. But again, those who actually understand how to program the lat/long coordinates correctly do say it really works.

Dual time. The analog clock can display the home time and the digital display can display a different time or vice versa. Or you can have both display the same time. Your choice.

Stopwatch. Nothing you haven't seen before.

Timer with auto-repeat. A timer is nice to have. A timer with auto-repeat is even better. I use one personally for my workouts.

3 multi-alarms with snooze feature. Each alarm can be configured in 1 of 4 different ways. Daily alarm, date alarm (sounds at specific date of the year, such as someone's birthday,) monthly alarm or an alarm that sounds on every day of a particular month.

Button tones on/off toggle. I own a couple of Casio digitals that do this. Nice to have if you don't want to hear beeps when going through menus.

Safety catch (metal bracelet only). This is the style of metal bracelet where you press two sides to release it, and serves two purposes. First, to prevent the clasp from wearing out too quickly and second, to prevent it from accidentally being knocked open.

AW-82 vs. AE1200 and final thoughts

I own a Casio AE1200 which I thought had all the possible goodies you could get in a Casio timepiece for under 50 bucks.

The AW-82, while more expensive, puts up a very good argument against the AE1200. Both timepieces are absolutely chock full of features, both have 10-year batteries, both have several different models and colors to choose from.

I think in the end it all comes down to style. The AW-82 has a more upscale look while the AE1200 has a more military look to it.

I will say that when it comes to price, you simply can't beat an AE1200. On the link for that model above you'll see an offering that at the time I write this sells for just 15 bucks. That is so cheap considering how just plain good the AE1200 is.

However, the AW-82 has better styling to it, and more traditional measurements. 46.8mm lug-to-lug, 40mm case size, 13.5mm thick.

If you know watches, you know 13.5mm is a bit chunky. However, the crystal of the AW-82 is domed, and the CR2025 battery it uses is bigger which allows the watch to run for 10 years before the charge wears down.

Is there any ana-digi that has as many features as the AW-82?

Answer: No. You can't do any better for for the price. Your only cheaper choices with similar feature sets are all-digital models, also from Casio. Namely, the AE1200 mentioned above and the AE1000 (also just 15 bucks).

On a final note, I did mention the DW5600E at top, a G-SHOCK model. I consider that the ultimate tool watch simply for the fact the case is ridiculously over-engineered and will withstand any punishment you throw at it. There is no other watch where I could say, "Yeah, take it in the ocean and swim with it. No problem." If you want the ultimate bang-for-buck, the DW5600 is it. Or, if you want something with the same style and ruggedness with atomic timekeeping, that's the GWM5610 model. Twice the price, but has a lot more features (solar powered, time zones, auto-EL, auto-timekeeping, etc.) Not the most stylish thing, but totally rugged and a great tool watch.

Guitar of the week #69 - Epiphone "1955" Les Paul Custom

I definitely see a future collectible here, while at the same time being a great player's guitar.

Those who know my opinions on guitars know I don't like gold hardware simply for the reason that the gold rubs off with regular play of the instrument...

...but I make an exception because the Epiphone "1955" Les Paul Custom just looks so damned good.

These are the things that make this guitar awesome:

• Split diamond inlay on the headstock. These are only on Les Paul Custom guitars, so it is totally appropriate for this one. The truss rod cover even states it's a Custom model.
• Block inlays. Not trapezoid, but still look great. I believe it is abalone or at least an abalone look.
• P90 pickups. Single-coil Les Paul goodness at its finest.
• Gold screws and gold pole pieces on the P90 pickups. Epiphone didn't have to do this but did anyway. Nice touch.
• Gold text on "poker chip" pickup selector plastic with gold color metal for switch housing and correct orange color switch tip. Again, Epiphone didn't have to do this but did anyway.
• Bound body, front and back.
• Bound neck.
• Bound headstock.
• Triple-ply black-white-black pick guard with gold screws and gold body mount.
• Gold-color tuner metal.
• Gold screws for both cavity covers on the rear.
• Gold-color strap buttons.
• Gold-color screws for the truss rod cover.
• EVEN THE FRICKIN' OUTPUT JACK IS GOLD.

This is, for all intents and purposes, a totally "fully loaded gold" Les Paul Custom. All the bases have been covered with this one and Epiphone did not skimp on anything.

I really mean it when I say this is one seriously good looker of a Les Paul.

Future collectible? Absolutely.

Good players guitar? Also a yes, but there are three things to note here.

First is something I already mentioned. The gold will rub off with regular play. Specifically, it will rub off in the upper area of the bridge and the stop tailpiece where the player's wrist rests when playing.

And no, there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop the rub-off other than not play it. But that's no fun.

There is however a nice part to the gold rubbing off from playing this guitar. It is genuine player wear and it does look cool when it happens.

Second are the tuners. These are the old-style gears with the "tulip" buttons on top, and it is totally period correct for a '55 inspired style. The downside to this is that the gears are nowhere near as good as a set of metal Grover Rotomatics. It can arguably be said that the absolute best set of tuners you could put on a Les Paul is a set of Grovers.

HOWEVER... there are Grovers in gold that would totally work on the '55 Epi Les Paul Custom. Yes, they exist. You'll even see from that link that there's even a tulip-shaped button version.

The third thing to note is that this Paul has a flatter-than-usual 14" fingerboard radius. The normal radius is a rounder 12". Although I can't confirm this for certain, I don't believe there is any drastic difference on this particular Paul for having a 14" fingerboard radius instead of a 12" due to the fact it uses medium jumbo and not jumbo frets. The neck shape is reported to be a C and not a D. That paired with with 14" radius should make for a very comfortable playing neck.

In the end, the "1955" Epi Les Paul Custom is a damned fine guitar. I rate it as an instant collectible and also a genuinely good player's instrument.

On a final note, this is one of the rarer instances where an import Epi Les Paul is actually worth its price tag. All the binding is there, all the gold is there, all the things that make it a true Les Paul Custom model are there and accounted for. The guitar is missing nothing.