One rule to choosing the right guitar tuner
There are many guitar tuners out there, but the better ones have one specific feature that comes in very handy.
Take the Korg GA-50. Very simple with a nice large display, very easy to operate and tunes by built-in microphone (for acoustic guitars) or direct input (for electric guitars). It can output sound itself for tuning by ear, and it has an output jack on its left. It even has a little pop-out stand on the back so you can prop it up when placed on a desk.
The GA50 is one of the best designed guitar tuners there is, no question about it.
There is however one thing about it that I really, really like. The dedicated "FLAT" button.
I mainly play in Eb these days, and the fact the GA-50 has a FLAT button is oh-so nice. It's right there, right in front. Just push a button and you got it.
Clip-on tuners can all tune flat, obviously. But there are two issues. First, the button to make it flat is almost always in the back. Second, the indicator for flat - if the tuner even has one - is tiny and almost unreadable, requiring you to crane you neck towards the headstock of your guitar just to see it.
On the GA-50, you get a button. An obvious button. On the front. And you know when the tuner is set to flat tuning.
The GA-50 may be a cheap little tuner, but it's the thoughtful design of it that really makes it awesome.
Oh, and one last thing to know about this tuner - when playing at home, you usually don't even have to plug your electric guitar in to tune with this. Just set your amp to clean at a lower volume, use the microphone on the GA-50 to listen for notes, and it tunes just as good as when using direct input... which actually makes it easier than using a clip-on tuner.
Using a Garmin StreetPilot i3 in 2019 and beyond
My first GPS was a Garmin StreetPilot i3. I bought it at launch date in August 2005 for $400. Yeah, I paid that much for it. I now own two more i-series StreetPilots, a somewhat beat-up i5 and the i3 seen above in really good condition.
I have updated it to 2020 maps:
Was I able to fit the entire USA into the i3? No, because it's not possible. And that's why I'm putting this page up.
I actually had to buy an old, lightly used 2GB SanDisk memory card just to get this thing to work. I found out the hard way you can't use a larger capacity card, force-format it to 2GB and expect it to work, because it won't. The card has to be the old style SD and not SDHC. You put in an SDHC card, even if it's just 4GB, and the i3 will not recognize it. Not possible.
The i3 only recognizes a maximum 2GB microSD formatted with the FAT16 file system.
This being the case, I squeezed in what I could on the memory card.
I live in the south, so I just cut out the middle northern states.
Is the i3 actually usable?
I only use dedicated GPS for driving, and for that purpose, yes it's usable.
But I'm well aware of the limitations.
Aside from the 2GB cap, there are 2 things to deal with.
First is the GPS antenna. The i3 doesn't have a SiRF chipset, so GPS acquisition is slow. And for cars with specially coated safety glass (like minivans and probably modern SUVs and crossovers), there's no way the i3 can get a signal in one of those cars. In other regular cars, the i3 gets a signal but it sometimes takes a minute or two.
Second is the fact there's no way to enter direct GPS coordinates into an i3. Addresses and named locations only.
Okay, actually that's not true. You can mark locations by coordinate by pressing and holding the wheel button to mark a favorite. But that's only when you're directly at the location you want to mark.
The only way to get coordinate-based locations into the i3 otherwise is by POI Loader or using the BaseCamp software. Kind of annoying to do it that way, but at least it's possible.
Why bother?
I mainly did it for nostalgic reasons since the i3 was my first dedicated GPS.
The only practical reason is that the i-series is the only GPS I know of that operates by two standard AA batteries. Everything else uses a proprietary battery.
The i3 I keep in the house, but I keep the i5 as an emergency GPS in the car. If the phone runs out of battery and the car charger port fails for whatever reason to where I can't charge the phone, I can grab the i5, pop in 2 batteries and I've got navigation back.
Granted, the likelihood of ever needing an AA-powered GPS is very remote. But if it ever did need it, I'd be glad to have it. It's still better than having to resort to paper maps - but I keep one of those in the car too.
If my Schecter was a Stratocaster, it would be this
This actually doesn't look half bad.
For context, this is my Schecter that I own. So of course, when I saw the Fender Player Stratocaster HSS Plus Top in Blue Burst, yeah I had to read up on this guitar to see what I was all about.
At the time I write this, the Strat is on sale and priced lower than the regular Player HSS model, which is good. This means you not only get a discount off a special edition but also save over the standard model as well.
The finish is a flame top (the Schecter is a quilt) with a a very pronounced center line where the two pieces of the body meet. You can see this behind the bridge. That's normal.
Neck is satin finished on the back, which is always better than gloss.
Pickups in the HSS is an interesting selection but it actually does make sense. The humbucker is an alnico II while single-coil pickups are alnico V. This was smart because it means the humbucker has lower magnetic pull, which should result in it not overpowering the single-coils.
No split coil on this one, which I 100% agree with. I owned a Fender Strat HSS in the past that had the split humbucker feature. It didn't sound that good. It's better just to have a humbucker with a lower powered magnet that has decreased output and increased treble to match better to the single-coil pickups, which is exactly what Fender did here. Good call.
Worth the price tag?
At the sale price it currently has at the time I write this in June 2019, yes.
At full price, well... you'd feel the sting of that. Or at least I would.
In 2018, Fender tried a blue Strat and it was fugly. They tried a color called Sapphire Blue Transparent with no burst and no flame, and it just didn't work.
This Strat HSS however with its flame top and black pick guard treatment does work. And does it look upscale? Yes.
Is it the best looking HSS with flame top? To me it would be a tough call between this one and the Aged Cherry Burst with pau ferro fingerboard. But given the blue one is 90 bucks less, yeah I'd take the blue.
The only Gibson guitar strap worth owning
You've seen Fender guitar straps, but Gibson takes it up a notch with theirs.
Above is the Gibson Austin Premium Comfort guitar strap. It's expensive, but this one actually lives up to its "premium comfort" claim.
The strap is, of course, made from premium leather. But you've seen leather straps before. It also has premium stitching. But you've seen that before too.
What you haven't seen, aside from the Gibson logo on it, is half-inch thick memory foam padding in combination with classic Western styling.
Basically, what Gibson did here is take some nice styling, added in old school quality leather, then added in new school memory foam. This is actually a really good combination.
With most other higher end straps you either get the leather or get the foam. With this Gibson strap, you do get both.
Is this the most expensive guitar strap? Hardly. The Jodi Head Western Snakeskin Concho strap costs more (which I have to admit looks really cool). And there are straps out there that run even higher than that.
I'm honestly not a fan of leather guitar straps unless the strap has actual legitimate practical purpose. Even though the Austin isn't a bargain by any means, it is one of the darned few that actually delivers both for appearance and comfort. You get the leather and the memory foam all in one. And the look works with any Gibson guitar, electric or acoustic.
It doesn't get much better than that. For Gibson guitar owners, that is.
The EVH Shark Guitar actually doesn't sound that bad
Enough time has passed where the hype is over and I can now talk about this.
Let's get one thing out of the way right up front about the EVH Striped Series Shark. It's ugly. Really, really ugly. Most guitar players wouldn't be caught dead with this thing (maybe that's why it's easy to find open-box examples of the guitar?) The only people who actually like this guitar are guitarists who love Van Halen. Aside from them and only them, all anyone sees with this is a really fugly guitar.
It was highly speculated that this guitar would sound like total crap based on what Eddie Van Halen himself said about the original build. Specifically, he said the turnbuckles (those suspended metal things at the rear) absolutely ruined the sound of the guitar, yet we see them in full glory anyway on the Shark.
This guitar in all honesty actually doesn't sound that bad. Many thought it would sound tinny and overly jangly. It doesn't. The worst complaint you could give the guitar tone-wise is that it actually sounds "dark" - but I think it was voiced that way very much on purpose.
According to the EVH Gear web site, the pickups are "EVH Wolfgang w/metal braid wire" for their respective positions, both with pickup rings instead of direct-mount seen on other EVH Striped models like the 5150. It's usually true that anyone who owns a Shark also owns a 5150, and from what I can tell, how the pickup is mounted really doesn't affect the tone of the guitar at all.
The truth of this guitar's tone is...
...modern guitar effects can make any electric guitar sound like a million bucks.
Back in the day, Eddie didn't have guitar modeling technology. He also didn't have access to what we have today, that being hundreds of options for hand wired, hand crafted boutique guitar effect pedals and amplifiers.
Even if the Shark did sound like absolute garbage (which it doesn't), all it would take to make it sound right is modeling and/or boutique effects and/or boutique amps to make it sound perfect.
The last reason you buy a Shark is for tone, as the guitar is all about appearance first and foremost. Achieving that supposed Van Halen "brown sound" isn't nearly as impossible as it used to be.
Getting the brown sound with yesteryear tech was very difficult and I don't deny that. But we have the modeling and boutique gear today to get the brown sound fairly easily these days.
I'm 100% convinced it's modern tone shaping gear that can make a Shark sound good today. That and a good ability to do finger tapping since that's a Van Halen thing.