Casio G-SHOCK G9100 Gulfman review
This was a disappointment.
As I said before, the G-SHOCK watch I wanted to get was the G9100 Gulfman, so I bought it.
And returned it.
This is the story of what happened.
We'll start with the Casio G-SHOCK G9000 Mudman first. Actually, we'll start with the G-SHOCK I already own, the DW-9052 that I bought used for 29 bucks.
The DW-9052 is fantastic. Truly. It's the right size, right weight, right everything. My only real complaint about it is that it only has a single alarm. I wanted multiple alarms (at least 3), which is why I wanted the G9100 in the first place.
Now on to the Mudman.
I never bought this one because I am not a fan of the styling. But it just so happened I saw this model in person and decided to try it on. While I had no intention of buying it, I just wanted to see what it felt like. It felt fine, but wow, what a small display. This is a watch that is "all case". Yeah, it's readable, but for a watch that measures 52mm lug-to-lug, 46.3mm across and has a 16.3mm thickness, the smallness of the display got me worried.
Why did I get worried? Because the Gulfman is 51mm lug-to-lug, 46mm across and 16.4mm thick. It's smaller than the Mudman.
Even though I was worried that the Gulfman would have the same smallness issue that the Mudman did, I bought it anyway.
The watch arrived in the mail, and there were two problems with it.
First, the beeping on alarm or countdown timer sounded wrong, and I know exactly why. Even though the watch was brand new, the battery in it was old. It was probably a model that had been sitting in storage for God knows how long. That was enough to prompt me to return the watch, which I did. I wasn't about to take apart a brand new G-SHOCK to replace a battery that should have been new or at least recent.
I'm actually glad the beeping was irregular, because the second problem was just maddening.
The watch was both too big and too small at the same time.
This is the weirdest issue I've ever had with a wristwatch, so I'll do my best to explain.
My existing G-SHOCK, the DW-9052, has measurements of 48.5mm lug-to-lug, 43mm across, 14.7mm thick. And it fits just right.
The G9100 is physically larger yet has a display that is smaller than the DW-9052.
On my wrist, which measures 6.75" at its thickest point, the lugs of the G9100 have slight overhang. I expected this because I know a lug-to-lug of 50mm is pretty much the absolute limit as to what I can wear on the wrist, but figured a little overhang from 51mm wouldn't be too bad.
Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I put on the G9100, see the slight overhang from it being slightly too large yet having a display that makes it look too small at the same time.
The DW-9052 even though physically smaller wears larger, as in normally. The G9100 Gulfman, while physically larger, wears smaller. It's just a very odd-fitting timepiece.
My review of the G9100
Aside from the really weird sizing issue, here's my take on the features of the G9100 and whether they're actually usable or not.
Tide graph setup
In order to set up the watch to accurately report the tide, inputting the proper longitude and lunitidal interval is required.
I live in the Tampa / St. Petersburg / Clearwater area of Florida, otherwise simply known as Tampa Bay Florida. The gulf near me is the Gulf of Mexico.
The manual does list the settings to use for most areas. But for Florida, it only lists Miami. That's worthless to me since I live in Tampa Bay which is clear across the other side of the state. This means I had to manually figure out the longitude and lunitidal interval figures myself.
Figuring out the longitude wasn't that hard because that information is accessible via Google Maps.
For lunitidal interval, if you do a search for "lunitidal interval calculator", there is a site where you can get that information.
But even after inputting the proper settings, the information the watch gives is just so-so at best.
I honestly believe one would be better off with a traditional tide clock.
Moon phase
Totally worthless on the G9100 for one reason. You can hardly read it. The tide graph can be read just fine, but the moon phase is itty-bitty and sunken down to the point where it's almost illegible.
Buttons
Big, easy to press, and designed in a way that they don't get pressed accidentally. This is one of the good things about the G9100.
Time and date display
Fairly easy-to-read, but when you want a legible display, a G-SHOCK is not the best choice. In all honesty, the super-cheap F-91W is still one of the easiest-to-read watches that exists. Yes, it's small, but the display is designed perfectly. Buy yourself one and you'll understand why.
Other features
The stopwatch does have a 5 second pre-count that you can enable that counts down 5 seconds before the stopwatch starts. The first 2 seconds are silent and the final 3 have ready-set-go beeps.
The countdown timer does have auto-repeat and progress beeper functions. Nice to have but not necessarily useful.
The alarms are nothing special. They work. Mine would have worked better if the battery was fresh.
The time zone feature that can display one of 29 different zones (from 48 cities) is a take-it-or-leave-it feature. It's not much better than a dual time feature. In fact, it pretty much acts the same.
Verdict
The G9100 Gulfman gets more things wrong than it gets right, and I don't recommend this one.
I suggest these alternatives.
G-SHOCK analog-digital with tide and moon data
Gulfmaster. Large and in charge, but arguably the best thing to wear on your wrist when on the water.
G-SHOCK digitals with tide graph and moon phase
G7900 or GLX-6900. Much easier to read over the Gulfman.
Casio model with tide graph and moon phase but not G-SHOCK
WS210H. This has measurements of 45.4 x 44 x 13.3mm. Midsize for a digital, but still easier to read than the Gulfman. Also, a nice bonus: Does not require the lunitidal interval to have the tide graph work. All it needs is the time of the first high tide of the day and it will calculate the interval from that.
I can pretty much guarantee you will like any model above better than the G9100.
Yeah, I know I'm really coming down hard on the G9100, but compared to other models Casio has that are so much better, it's puzzling why the G9100 still even exists.
Fender replacement neck vs. Warmoth replacement neck
It's really easy to replace a Strat neck these days, but which is the better choice? Fender or Warmoth?
Actually, there are 3 places where you can get Strat necks (as well as other Fender necks) easily. Fender themselves (if you see a Fender logo on it, it's from Fender), Warmoth and AllParts. True, there are other places to get Strat necks, but when you want a neck that "just works" with the least amount of hassle, you go Fender, go Warmoth or go AllParts.
In the way the pricing works, Warmoth has the lowest price - but - that's only if you buy one of their in-stock necks. If you custom build a neck from their web site, the price goes up quite a bit.
Fender has the mid-tier price depending on which neck you get. If you get a Mexico-made neck, it's mid-tier cost. If you get the USA-made neck, the price is obviously significantly higher.
AllParts Strat necks have varying prices, but they do offer a very ritzy option if you want it - the quartersawn neck. It's expensive, but believe me, "quartersawn" isn't just a marketing term. It's a real thing where you get the straightest possible wood grain and it genuinely costs more to source compared to flatsawn/plainsawn.
As far as who offers the best replacement Strat neck, here's how I sort that out:
"Looks like a Fender"
Get the Fender neck. Other than buying a parted-out Strat neck from eBay (which is completely legal to do), if you want that Fender logo the legal way, you have to buy a neck from Fender.
"Gives me the most neck options"
Get a custom Warmoth neck. Necks from Warmoth can be configured in many different ways, including a custom conversion option where you can order yourself a 24.75" Gibson scale instead of the standard 25.5" Fender scale.
"Gives me the most builder-friendly options"
Get a neck from AllParts. For example, if you want an unfinished neck where you apply the sealant yourself, AllParts sells that. Or if you want a quartersawn board or even a baritone Strat neck, AllParts sells those too along with many others. When you want the kind of Strat neck that "gets you more into the wood", to so speak, AllParts suits best here.
My thoughts on not-so legal Fender waterslide decal logos
Easy to find, but I do not recommend using them.
You are better off using a custom headstock logo instead.
Why?
Because otherwise you're going to feel some serious regret.
Let's say you go ahead and buy a not-so legal Fender decal and apply it to your new non-Fender replacement Strat neck. Done and done.
Every time you look at that guitar, you know it's not a true Fender. It doesn't matter how many people you fool into thinking it is a Fender. You know it's not.
Now let's say you put your own custom decal on the headstock. That's a completely guilt-free free thing you can do. No regret involved whatsoever.
In the end, if you really, really want that Fender logo for the cheapest possible price, just buy a parted-out neck from eBay like I said above. It's not as expensive as you think. No, it's not as cheap as a logo, but at least your mind will be at ease from knowing that yes, you've got a true Fender neck with true Fender serial number on it.
Guitar of the week #99 - Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2
When you want a Super Fender Telecaster, you actually want a Charvel.
There are some guitar players out there that want a Fender Telecaster that has a contour cut in the rear like a Stratocaster, comes equipped with a pair of "hot" humbuckers and has a Floyd-Rose tremolo system.
That guitar is the Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2. (And in case you're wondering what the Style 1 is, that's a Super Strat).
Charvel is able to get away with a Strat-style headstock and Telecaster styling because they are a Fender brand. In effect, Charvel pretty much has free reign to copy the Fender Strat and Tele as much as they want to since it's all under the same Fender umbrella, so to speak.
What you get with the Pro-Mod San Dimas Style 2 is a Telecaster/Stratocaster inspired guitar with a pair of premium Seymour Duncan pickups (a JB TB-4 and a '59), push-pull coil-split electronics with no-load tone circuit, Floyd-Rose FRT-O2000 trem system, and a neck that's a 25.5" with 12-to-16" compound radius.
What makes this guitar worth getting? It's basically a Fender Elite Telecaster with a Floyd that costs a whopping $1,200 less than the Fender.
Is the guitar worth getting?
If you were to modify a Fender Telecaster yourself with everything that comes in the Charvel Pro-Mod, you'd end up spending over a grand for something you can buy already completed for less cash. Remember, part of what makes the Charvel real nice is that neck with the compound radius on it.
The closest Fender-branded equivalent is the special edition custom Fender Telecaster FMT HH. That axe is $100 less than the Charvel, but there's no Floyd on that guitar, so that's the tradeoff. It also doesn't have the compound radius, but it does have a super-flat 15.75" with jumbo fret wire, which is fairly close in spec to the Charvel.
In the end, it all depends how bad you want a Tele with a Floyd on it. Charvel basically makes the best Floyd-equipped Tele there is without going into 4-figure price territory. And since Charvel is a Fender brand, it is the most "Fender-ish" Super Tele you can get right now.
Short scale guitar note "warping" and what you can do about it
Guitars like the Squier Bullet Mustang HH (a very nice low-cost guitar) are cool, but there is a known problem with a short scale electric you should be aware of.
Before telling you what it is, a few quick notes:
The scale measurement on a guitar is the measurement from the bridge to the nut. On a 6-string electric, a scale length of 24 inches or fewer is short scale. This includes guitars like the Squier mentioned above, the Fender Mustang, Fender Duo-Sonic, Squier Jaguar and a few others.
Note "warping"
When you play a chord and you move the side-to-side (as in you physically twist your waist while holding the instrument), the notes "warp", meaning they pitch slightly flat. When you stop moving, the pitch returns to normal.
It's normal to freak out a little when first hearing this because you may think something is wrong with the guitar. There isn't. On a short scale there is less string tension compared to a longer scale, so when you shift the guitar, note warping happens more easily.
Solution #1: Always stretch your strings properly to put the most string tension on the neck.
Solution #2: Try thicker strings.
Solution #3: Try not to flail around so much when playing.
Does note warping make the short scale electric suck?
No. In fact, when owners of short scale electrics realize it is the nature of the instrument to have notes go slightly flat from side-to-side movements, they breathe a sigh of relief because now they know what causes it.
Some short scale electric owners hear the note warping and think it's bad wood, bad strings, bad construction or bad-something-else. No, it's none of those things and your guitar is fine. It's just less string tension from the shorter scale that causes the neck wood to bend more easily from side-to-side movement.
I'm a G-SHOCK guy
It took me a long time to figure something out...
...and that something is that I've been a G-SHOCK guy all along and didn't know it.
With guitars, I found out that my true calling was Fender and Squier offset models. The Jazzmaster, specifically. If someone had told me back in my teens that one day I would simply stop playing Strats completely and switch over to this weird-ass shaped, buzzy, trebly-extreme guitar with a gaggle of controls, I would have called you insane. But that's exactly what happened. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
Similarly, if someone had told me that the perfect wristwatch for me is a Casio G-SHOCK, I would have called you insane on that one too. But now I own a G-SHOCK. Just as the Jazzmaster is the guitar that totally says "me", a G-SHOCK says the same and that's what I wear on my wrist daily. But it took me a few years to realize this.
If you go back through my older posts here, there are more than a few things I've written about Casio watches as well as other brands. It started in 2011, and it wasn't until January 2017 that I finally bought a a used Casio G-SHOCK DW-9052. I wasn't even planning on buying one, but I was scanning around eBay, found one in great shape, placed 1 bid on it not thinking I'd actually win, and won it for just 29 bucks.
In the short time I've owned a G-SHOCK, I now understand why these things are so great. It has been said in YouTube videos, forums and other places that "those who know get a G-SHOCK". They just handle life better than any other watch you could get.
An example of "handling life"
Recently I had to drag a lawnmower out of the shed and get the thing running to do some mowing with it (yes, Floridians do start mowing in late February and early March). I got it running and mowed the grass. While doing that I glanced at my watch a few times because there were some errands I needed to run later that day at a certain time.
Not once did I worry about whether the watch could handle grass and dirt thrown at it. And oh yeah, it got dirty. But it was nothing to worry about. After I was done mowing, I went inside and just washed it off in the kitchen sink.
Had this been a smartphone, the dirt thrown around would have scratched up the screen like crazy, and you don't exactly hold a phone under running water to clean it. Even if I kept the phone in the pocket, I wouldn't have been able to pull it out anyway because I was wearing work gloves. But let's say I could have magically pulled the phone out. My work gloves would have scratched up the screen along with the dirt flying around.
It is the tough-built nature of the G-SHOCK that makes it worth owning. Knock it around, get it dirty, get it wet, whatever... it can handle just about anything.
One more G-SHOCK to get...
On my wish list is the second G-SHOCK I want to get, the G9100 Gulfman. And I have a very specific reason for wanting it.
I love the DW-9052, but there is only one thing it doesn't have that I wish it did. Multiple alarms. I do use those almost every day. Right now I use two watches to get that task done. I wear the DW-9052 and keep a cheap AE1200 at my desk for a second alarm.
Aside from the DW-9052, there are only two G-SHOCK models with multiple alarms and a countdown timer with auto-repeat (which I also require) that fit my wrist. The G9000 Mudman and the G9100.
What keeps me from getting a G9000 Mudman is the fact the buttons on that model require a very firm press to work. This is by design. The reason it's called a Mudman is because it has extra protection over all the buttons to keep mud and dirt out of the case.
The G9100 Gulfman's buttons can be pressed much more easily. Function-wise it's much different than the Mudman as it has things like moon phase and tide prediction. It also has a titanium case back, hence the reason it says "RUST RESIST" right on the strap, as the titanium resists rust and corrosion better than a stainless steel case back would.
I don't necessarily need the moon phase and tide prediction, but I do need G-SHOCK toughness in a watch that has multiple alarms and timer with auto-repeat.
When I do get that G9100 in one way or another, if it fits right (and I think it will), I believe it will pretty much the best watch I could possibly own. There is nothing better out there for what I need a wristwatch for. And believe me, I've looked. The G9100 ticks all the right boxes, so hopefully I will be getting one at some point.