Guitar of the week #92 - Epiphone Nighthawk
Someone at Epiphone is convinced this guitar will work.
Back in 2014 is when I made first mention of the Epiphone Nighthawk, which at the time was priced just under $300. It costs more than that now, but not all that much more.
I have seen this guitar come and go several times. Every time I think this guitar is dead as a doornail and never to return, it just keeps coming back.
There has never been a time when the Nighthawk was not a limited edition since 2014, and this one is no different...
...except that Epiphone might have got the guitar right this time. Maybe.
The Nighthawk technically qualifies as a HSH pickup configuration. There's a slanted humbucker at the bridge, a single-coil in the middle and a mini-humbucker at the neck.
The bridge is not Les Paul-like at all but much more Strat-like. And yes, the strings are thru-body mounted.
You do see ornamentation. The body is bound as is the neck as is the headstock. You also see ornate inlay work on the fingerboard.
The neck is a "fast" SlimTaper D shape.
What I think Epiphone got right this time are the finish choices. For this volley, Epiphone has gone with three quilt color options of Transparent Blue, Transparent Purple and Transparent Black. And they all look good.
Prior to this, Epiphone tried a tiger stripe finish. I saw that guitar in person and, eh, didn't really do much for me. The darker quilt finishes however really make the guitar pop nicely.
What's it sound like?
Bright. Kind of like the in between sound of a semi-hollow and a Telecaster, but manageable.
In other words, a very modern tone as far as my ears are concerned.
Technically, this guitar covers a lot of ground, tone-wise. You can make it sound like an SG or a Strat or any other number of guitars. So if you like a guitar that just screams "I'm versatile", the Nighthawk is a good choice.
Put simply, yes you totally get what you pay for with a Nighthawk. And I say that in a good way.
How to embrace fret buzz and enjoy it
You'll enjoy your roundy-neck guitar a whole lot more once you work with fret buzz instead of against it.
Take the Fender American Professional Stratocaster. The fingerboard radius is 9.5-inch. Feels great, but buzzes around here and there because that's just the nature of how Fender electric guitar necks work.
Whenever you search for anything related to fret buzz on the internet, you only see articles and videos on how to get rid of it because fret buzz is deemed Worst Thing Ever on a guitar.
It's not - if you know how to work with it.
"Perfect" Fender or Squier setup sometimes has fret buzz
The vast majority of electric guitar necks for both Fender and Squier will have the "Modern C" shape (which is a slim oval) on the back with the 9.5-inch fingerboard radius on the front and "medium jumbo" size fret wire.
If you set up the neck with the action low as most players do, you will usually hear some buzzing on the wound strings 4 (D), 5 (A) and 6 (low E).
Even with a neck that has no uneven frets and the truss rod has the proper neck relief set, you will still run into fret buzz mainly for the fact you're playing a very round neck.
7 ways to work with fret buzz
(This is presuming your neck and saddles are set up correctly.)
1. Chord more
Chords that use 5 or 6 strings sound fine even with some fret buzz present.
2. "Small chord" more (anything but fifths)
This just means that whenever possible, play 2-note chords because like with the 5-note and 6-note chords, having a little amount of buzz present is acceptable when more than one note is heard...
...except for "power chords" fifths. Chances are pretty good that any guitar player who reads this has been playing for more than 3 months. If that sounds like you, you can do a lot better than playing stupid power chords.
3. Use short notes and chords
Fret buzzing only sounds truly terrible if left to be heard for a long time. Use shorter notes and chords to combat that. Get good enough at it and you can completely mask any and all fret buzzing.
4. Use light overdrive
A light overdrive transforms fret buzz into a nice overtone.
5. Turn the tone down
Take some of the treble out and this will mask out fret buzz as it is a high pitched clacky sound by nature.
6. Play percussively
Most guitar players refer to this as playing "funky rhythms". It's a style of chord play that's mostly clean and involves a fair amount of muted notes, also known as ghost notes.
Playing some percussive lines for certain chords with the picking hand lets the strings literally snap back to the frets and sound nice.
7. Use the front side pickup more
The front pickup, known as the rhythm pickup or "neck pickup", does work better with fret buzz when chording. It also works better with single notes when you're trying to either mask buzz or just make it sound better.
Yes, there are $7,000 guitars that buzz
Really expensive Fender Strats can buzz. Again, it's not player error nor is the guitar set up poorly. Strats just do that.
The Fender American Professional Stratocaster seen at top? That buzzes too.
If you go down the line from the Fender Standard Stratocaster to the Squier Classic Vibe Stratocaster and even all the way to the lowest tier, the Squier Bullet Strat, they all will buzz somewhat.
My point is that no matter how much money you throw at a Strat or a Tele, fret buzz happens.
Is there any electric guitar that doesn't buzz?
The only way to really combat fret buzz is to play guitars that have thin necks with very flat fingerboards.
A cheap example is the Ibanez GRX20; it has a thin neck, big fret wire and 15.75" fingerboard radius.
A not-so cheap example is a Jackson Pro Soloist SL2, which has a 12-to-16" compound radius and jumbo fret wire.
You will notice quickly that the less-buzzy electrics with the thin necks and super-flat fingerboards are "metal" guitars. And I don't care much for those at all.
Lower cost recommendations for those that want a less-buzzy neck on guitars that aren't "metal"
"Metal" guitars suck. These don't.
This is an SG and sometimes listed as having a "faded" color. It has the SlimTaper "D" shape neck with 12-inch fingerboard radius. At the time I write this, it does sell cheaper than the Squier Classic Vibe guitars do.
I'll be talking more about this guitar later this week. Loads of character.
This has a 24.75" scale length like a Gibson and a 13.75" fingerboard radius. Both pickups are lower-output vintage style, meaning it does not have ridiculous "metal" pickups with too much output. Nicely priced.
Sterling by Music Man Cutlass CT50
This is basically a Strat with a 12" radius fingerboard without the high price tag of the Eric Johnson Stratocaster.
Fret buzz is not your enemy
I play a Jazzmaster, which is a total buzz-monster if not the most buzzy guitar Fender and Squier makes. It buzzes not only on the neck but also at the bridge and even has overtone vibrations behind the bridge. But I love the guitar anyway. I learned to work with the buzz and now I get tones out of that thing I never could with any other guitar.
If you know your guitar is set up correct and it still buzzes, yes you could switch to balanced tension strings (promotes even vibration) and a thin, flappy pick (the more flexible the pick, the less the strike strength, the less vibration, the less buzz), and that may help somewhat...
...but it's better overall to just accept the buzz and work with it - especially if it's a Fender or Squier electric.
The worst Squier I ever owned
Not all Squier guitars are good. This is the tale of the worst one I owned.
I've gone through a fair share of Squier guitars. And contrary to what some believe, no, I do not keep them all because I'm not a guitar hoarder. For example, there was one particular Squier guitar I kept for only 3 days before returning it for another guitar (which led me to getting my first Jazzmaster, so that was definitely meant to happen).
One Squier guitar in particular however was the worst, and it's a guitar still being made at the time I write this, the Squier Vintage Modified Surf Stratocaster.
Said up front, the guitar is built well. Build quality is not the problem. The problems are the saddles, pickups and electronics.
Something on certain Stratocaster guitars I absolutely cannot stand are bent steel saddles, which the Surf Strat has. I've talked about this before so I'll keep this short. You lose a ton of adjustment range with bent steel compared to full block. And the ironic thing is that you get the the full block saddle on the cheap Squier Bullet Strat while you do not on the Fender American Standard Stratocaster. Full block saddles used to be on the Standard but the chintzy bent steel is now used and has been for a while now.
I did change out the saddles on the Surf Strat from bent steel to block, but it didn't help the next problem.
The pickup set in the Surf Strat is too bright to the point where 3 out of the 5 pickup settings are unusable. Mid+Neck and Neck are usable and the rest are not. The best way I can describe this is that the pickups just sound screechy. Too much treble response comes out of those lipstick pickups. And it doesn't help that there is no tone control wired to the bridge-only pickup setting.
There is also a physical problem with the pickups. They sit loose in the pick guard because of the rounded lipstick casing. It is required to take off the guard and place small pieces of silicone tubing around the pickup height adjustment screws just to keep the pickup from rattling around.
Usually, a Strat or Tele pickup only shifts around and rattles when sitting very low in the pick guard. But the Surf Strat's lipstick casing on the pickups being very rounded on top means they always shift around. What a stupid design.
What would fix the Surf Strat?
A saddle change and pickup change is all that's required...
...or you just buy the Squier Deluxe Stratocaster instead. That guitar has the block saddles and traditional Strat pickups in it and is $50 less than the Surf.
I didn't want the Deluxe model (not a bad guitar but it's not what I wanted), and I wasn't willing to do the mods to the Surf to make it a usable Strat, so I traded the guitar out.
Again, the Surf Strat guitar isn't built bad, but the hardware choices for saddles and pickups are what make it suck.
My suggestion is that if you like the guitar and you're willing to put some work into it, pick up one in Surf Green, change the saddles, change the pickups to ones that have traditional casings so they sit in the pick guard correctly, and you're all set.
To put it another way, buy it with the intention of modding it, because I guarantee you will not like the guitar in stock condition.
Guitar of the week #91 - Squier Vintage Modified Baritone Jazzmaster
Not a "proper" Jazzmaster, but oh, what a sound.
A baritone guitar is one with a longer neck with thicker strings tuned significantly lower than standard E-A-D-G-B-E tuning. You can tune one a fourth lower to B-E-A-D-F#-B or a fifth lower to A-D-G-C-E-A. Tuning to either of these allows the player to play notes and chords the same as in standard tuning. In other words, you don't need to relearn the guitar again. Everything is the same, just lower.
The best bang-for-buck baritone that has "the low twang" is the Squier Vintage Modified Baritone Jazzmaster.
What about the Bass VI?
There's some confusion here for some people so I'll clear this up right now.
The Squier Bass VI is exactly what its model name says it is. A bass. Yes, it may have 6 strings and the same 30" scale length as the Baritone Jazzmaster, but it comes strung with and is designed for bass strings. This literally means the Bass VI is tuned to E-A-D-G-B-E but one octave lower compared to a regular 6-string guitar.
The strings that go on the Bass VI are not intended for the Baritone Jazzmaster, and the strings for the Jazzmaster aren't intended for the Bass VI. One is a guitar, one is a bass. Each is tuned differently, each uses specifically sized strings for what they do.
Which is better for the guitar player to do guitar player-like things on it? The baritone.
Not proper, but it's got that sound
I said the Baritone Jazzmaster isn't a proper Jazzmaster. What I mean by that is that compared to a regular Jazzmaster, it has no vibrato system, a hardtail bridge, Stratocaster "football" output jack, one circuit with volume/tone, and a 3-way toggle positioned in the lower-middle of the body instead of the bottom horn where it usually is...
...but that doesn't take away from how unbelievably cool the guitar sounds. Those big Jazzmaster single-coil pickups take to thick strings turned low very nicely.
What does clean, twangy baritone guitar sound like?
The immediate example that comes to mind is the theme song from Twin Peaks. I never watched the show, but absolutely do remember its theme song because absolutely nothing else on TV sounded like it at the time.
I don't know if a baritone or a Bass VI was used, but that is the sound. Get yourself a baritone guitar and a tremolo effect for that "stutter" tone and you got it.
Aside from Twin Peaks, Duane Eddy's Rebel-'Rouser also has that low twang tremolo stutter tone to it.
Baritone guitars were also used here and there with surf rock music as well as other '60s tones.
Is the baritone guitar a "one trick pony"?
No.
Remember, baritone guitar playing is no different from regular guitar. It's just lower tuning.
Could you simply lower a regular six-string to get the same effect? No, because you're missing the extra scale length and thicker strings and will buzz all over the place.
It has been said that the baritone guitar is woefully underused. I think the main reason for that is guitar players simply aren't aware the baritone guitar exists.
Well, now you know.
Is there anything cheaper than the Squier?
Yes, there is ESP LTD Viper Baritone version, but I don't recommend it. At all. Pickups are awful and the tuners aren't correct for the tuning it's supposed to hold.
The Squier Vintage Modified Baritone Jazzmaster is the best lower-cost option for a true baritone electric guitar. Right scale length, right tuners, right pickups, right everything. It's not the lowest-priced baritone, but it is what a baritone electric is supposed to be.
How to set the time and date on a Casio CA-53 (with video)
I said I was going to buy this as one of my nerdy purchases for 2017, and I did.
The Casio CA-53 is the de facto calculator watch. In fact, whenever you hear "calculator watch", Casio is the brand that immediately comes to mind. While Casio wasn't the first company to bring a calculator watch to market, they did do it best.
Before I get into the review of the watch, I made a video on this watch explaining how to set the time, set the alarm, change from 12-hour to 24-hour a.k.a. military time, and so on. That video is below.
Here are the main points of what's in the video in written form since this is what most people want to know about this particular model. If you don't understand any of these, watch the video below to see a visual example explained in plainer English.
Enabling or disabling the alarm
Go to alarm screen. Press 4.
Choosing AM or PM when setting the alarm
While setting the alarm time, press the period key (as in the one with a tiny little "PM" next to it).
Enabling or disabling the hourly chime
Go to alarm screen. Press multiplication key (the one with the × next to it on the right side).
Enabling or disabling 24-hour a.k.a. military time
From main time screen, press adjust button (the recessed bottom silver button on the right side of the case). Press mode button (the silver button just above the recessed button) once to switch to adjusting the hour. Press the plus button (the bottom right key).
Starting or stopping the stopwatch and resetting
Go to stopwatch screen. Press plus key to start. Press again to stop. To reset, press 0 (the bottom left key).
Viewing the year, month and day
From the main time screen, press and hold the division key ÷ (the top right key).
Review of the CA-53
At first...
My initial impression of the watch once I put it on the wrist was, "Wow, this thing isn't nearly as nerdy as I thought it would be."
The funny thing about the CA-53 is that in pictures on a computer screen, it looks like this unwieldy, oddly-shaped thing. In person, that's not the case at all. The watch actually has quite the sophisticated look to it. Yes, seriously.
Compared to other Casio watches, the CA-53 is an exercise in restrained design. The only thing even remotely "loud" on it is the "WR" (Water Resist) gold lettering at top right of the case. Everything else about it is subtle and purposely understated.
In a world full of digital wristwatches that look really, really tacky, the CA-53 is such a nice thing to see.
Readability
While the digits are actually smaller than on the F-91W, the display is easy to read. It can even be read easily while wearing polarized sunglasses.
The watch does not have a backlight/nightlight, but that doesn't bother me at all since I'm more interested in daytime and not nighttime reading. I have returned a few watches because of legibility problems in direct sunlight. And that even includes a few analog timepieces. The CA-53 can be read easily even under the brightest Florida sun.
Functionality
Good, but not as easy as other Casio timepieces, for the reason things are not put in "Casio standard" locations. And because some features are outright hidden unless you read the manual first. Most of the hidden features not plainly marked on the watch are noted above and shown in the video below.
There are three more hidden features I didn't mention above or in the video below.
First is how to get a demonstration of the alarm tone. When on the alarm screen, press 0 and + (bottom left and bottom right keypad keys) at the same time and an alarm tone demo will sound.
Second is a feature that's not hidden but ambiguously marked. The stopwatch does in fact show hours as it will go up to 23:59.99, but hours are not displayed on the stopwatch screen. The division key ÷ (top right), also labeled "DATE/ST-Hour", will show how many hours have passed on the stopwatch screen if pressed and held. ST-Hour literally means "Stopwatch Hour".
Third is another stopwatch feature. The watch will beep once for every 10 minutes of stopwatch time elapsed, but only when the stopwatch screen is selected. If you run the stopwatch, leave it running and go back to the time screen, the beep will not sound every 10 minutes. This means if you want to hear that 10-minute interval beep, stay on the stopwatch screen when the stopwatch is running.
Style
I really like the plainer, understated '80s style of the CA-53 and I absolutely have no problem wearing it in public.
For some reason there's this belief that when you wear a CA-53, everyone gawks and stares at you. That's not true at all. The only time people gawk and stare at a watch you're wearing is if it's something oversized and/or loud and/or tacky, and the CA-53 is the furthest thing from that.
Here are the actual measurements of the CA-53, and I took these myself:
Case size side-to-side: 34mm
Case size side-to-side with button included: 35mm
Case size diagonally measured: 43.5mm
Lug-to-lug: 42mm
Thickness: 8mm
The most misreported measurement is the thickness. Everywhere I've looked, the thickness is reported as 7mm. Not true. It's 8mm. If the "hump" on the back plate is omitted, then the measurement is 7mm. But that hump is what directly rests on the wrist, which when included adds up to 8mm.
Aside from that, the never-mentioned diagonal measurement is what takes people by surprise. The CA-53 is definitely rectangle shaped so it is taller than it is wide. On the wrist, that makes for a good look. Smaller side-to-side compared to an F-91W, but also taller compared to an F-91W.
On my 6.75-inch size wrist, the CA-53 looks great. And I'd presume it would look good on a wrist size range of 6.5" to 7.25".
Sound
The beep tones of the CA-53 are what I believe to be unique to the watch. I'm going to be using the F-91W as the comparison tone since that's the one people know best.
Volume of the beep is not as loud as an F-91W, but still fairly audible.
Length of the beep is shorter than the F-91W.
Speed of the beep is a quicker stutter for alarm and hourly chime. The F-91W is a "BEEP BEEP" while the CA-53 is a "BEE-BEEP".
The total time an alarm will beep for is just like the F-91W, 20 seconds. The alarm can of course be interrupted with a key press.
Overall, the beep is a little quieter and definitely not as shrill as the F-91W's beep.
Lastly I'll say this about Casio beep tones: The F-91W and steel version A158 have the loudest beeps. I own other newer Casio digital timepieces, and none of them have the volume of the F-91W/A158. If you want a cheap Casio with a loud beep tone, you want an F-91W...
...and if you can't hear the tone of an F-91W, then I'd suggest the Casio W735H, a "Vibration Alarm" model. If your ears can't hear the beep tones, switch to something that vibrates the wrist instead. And before you ask, no, it will not vibrate so much to wake you from sleep. But it does vibrate enough to alert you when you're awake.
Comfort
The CA-53 is very comfortable. Very thin, lays flat on the wrist, very light in weight. Mine weighed in at 25g on my kitchen scale.
I can definitely say that you will have absolutely no problem pulling a shirt sleeve over the watch, so you can wear it with pretty much anything.
Durability
I just got mine so I can't really say anything too much here. But I can say that this is a watch I don't plan on getting wet. Yes, the watch is technically water resistant, but all buttons added up total to 18, meaning there's 18 different places water can enter.
What this basically means is other than an accidental light splash, this watch shouldn't go anywhere near water.
Yes, I know there are plenty of people who claim they've taken the CA-53 in the shower, gone swimming with it and so on, and the watch survived just fine. I personally would not do that.
Other than the water resistance or lack thereof, a known issue with the CA-53 is the strap. It's soft, but thin. Try not to pull on it too much when taking the watch on and off the wrist.
Happy?
I am happy to own the CA-53. There was a small learning curve but I figured everything out in a few minutes.
Will I ever use the calculator feature? Yeah. In fact, I surprised myself by using the calculator the first day I had it. I went to the grocery store to pick up a few items, and when I got back to the parking lot I wanted to check the receipt to make sure all my items were added up properly. Usually I would grab my phone to do this math, but I remembered I was wearing the CA-53 and thought I should try using that, so I did.
Sure, the keypad buttons are small, but I was able to do my calculations. It worked!
Check out the video for more info
I go over most of the watch features and do a quick comparison to some other Casio models.
Video: How to set time and date on a Casio CA-53 calculator watch