I might be a believer in HSH guitars now
I bought one. And I might keep it.
A new guitar in the barn is the Ibanez GRX70QA. I did try this guitar out before, but the reason I didn't buy it is because the color it was in was terrible.
I went to try out some guitars recently, and by chance the one decent color of the GRX70QA was there, transparent black sunburst. After playing it, it was an easy decision to make the purchase, especially considering how low in price the guitar is.
This guitar has the most usable HSH setup you can get
When you combine single-coil and humbucker pickups in a guitar, there are two problems you immediately deal with. The first problem is that a humbucker works better with a 500k volume pot while a single-coil works better with 250k. The second problem is that the humbucker overpowers the single, hence why the humbucker on most HSS guitars is REALLY LOUD and then the volume drops off a cliff when switching to singles.
Ibanez's take on this was to use an all-passive setup (meaning no active pickups and no battery) and wire it as a 5-way.
There is still volume drop with the "quack" positions 2 and 4 and the single-only 3 position - but the end result is 4 out of 5 positions that work well with the 500k volume pot. Only the middle 3 position blares a bit but it's still usable.
The 2 and 4 "quack" settings actually work because having extra treble from the 500k pot is a good thing... unless that's not a good sound to your ears. But there's an easy fix for that. More on that in a moment.
This is a "half Stratocaster" guitar
What Ibanez did with this HSH is what makes the most sense. They made the guitar get Les Paul and "half Stratocaster" tones. You get the front and back humbucker sounds, two Strat-like "quack" sounds, and a mostly-usable middle pickup sound. All of this is dirt simple to operate. One master volume, one master tone, one pickup selector. On an all-passive low cost HSH guitar, this is as good as it gets.
This differs from HH guitars where the humbuckers can be split. On that type of pickup setup, what you get is Les Paul and Telecaster-ish tones. What gives a Strat its quack is in fact that middle pickup. Without that middle pickup, Telecaster-ish is what you get when you coil split the humbuckers.
Yes, it is possible to wire up an HSH setup to do both Strat and Tele style tones, but the wiring on this Ibanez is just "half Strat". I could rewire/reconfigure it for Strat+Tele tones but probably won't.
Fun fact: Getting an affordable HSH guitar without a Floyd-Rose system isn't exactly easy
The choices for readily available and affordable HSH guitars you can order right now that DO NOT have a Floyd system on it are few.
Ibanez's GRX70QA is the most affordable and easiest to acquire, no question. If you want HSH, want it now, want it cheap and don't want a Floyd, you get the Ibanez. Any upper tier model after that from Ibanez with HSH and no Floyd busts over a grand, such as the Ibanez AZ47P1QM.
PRS does make two no-Floyd HSH guitars that I know of. The Modern Eagle V and the 509. Both are each expensive and not exactly affordable.
Charvel does make an HSH no-Floyd, the Pro-Mod DK24 HSH. Not cheap, but not ridiculously expensive either.
Godin makes two HSH no-Floyd guitars that I know of. There's the xtSA, which is ridiculously complicated as it is not only a guitar but a synth controller. Then there's the much better (and cheaper) Radium, which is priced similar to the Charvel. I do like the look of the Radium a lot. A few finish options show the wood grain of the Radium in a very nice way. And while true I generally can't stand "coffee table" looking guitars, Godin did theirs 100% correct with the Radium model. They not only make the most classy looking HSH for sale, it's also the only HSH I know of with no vibrato at all, meaning yes, it's a hardtail.
Ernie Ball Music Man has one HSH no-Floyd model, the Silhouette HSH. Too expensive for me. And you have to like the styling of it, which I don't.
Lastly, Fender does have a sub-$1,000 HSH no-Floyd guitar, the Player Stratocaster HSH made in Mexico. If you know the Player Stratocaster, you already know this guitar, just with HSH instead of SSS or HSS.
Does Squier have any offerings? Surprisingly, no. I thought they had at least one, but they don't.
Is HSH superior to other pickup configurations?
It's not superior, but rather just different in what it offers.
As said above, HSH, at least in the way Ibanez does it, gives you two Strat quack tones, two Les Paul like regular humbucker tones and a middle single-coil tone that I guess can best be described as "semi-boosted middle" because of the 500k volume pot.
HH with split coils gives you Les Paul like regular humbucker tones, and Telecaster-ish single-coil tones, usually with too much treble output.
HSS without split coil humbucker gives you Les Paul humbucker tone on the bridge side, a somewhat muffled bridge+middle Strat quack tone, Strat middle tone, Strat mid+neck tone and Strat neck tone. However, because the volume pot is almost always 500k on HSS guitars, only the humbucker and humbucker+middle settings sound decent. After that, the volume drops off a cliff and turns into a over-trebled clacky mess.
The secret sauce of the Ibanez GRX70QA is...
...the fact it has a 500k linear taper volume pot.
Les Pauls traditionally use 500k linear taper volume pots. Strats traditionally use a 250k audio taper volume pot.
The 500k linear pot allows you to edge off treble response very easily just by turning the volume down to 7 or 8. You get to keep almost all out of the output while at the same time edge off the treble response without losing tonal character.
With the 250k audio taper, treble isn't edged off until turned down to 5 or lower. A lot of output is lost to the point of the sound being almost unusable. Yes, the tone controls are there to reduce treble without losing output, but that might not (and usually wouldn't) be a sound you like.
On the GRX70QA, the two quack positions and middle position do have a little too much treble present - but - that's fixed instantly by turning the volume pot down just a little.
It's like I said, the way Ibanez wired the guitar does make the most sense for its HSH configuration. When you know that a 500k linear volume pot can edge off treble easily with just a very small turn, now you've got a guitar where you can use all 5 positions instead of just a couple.
Formatting a USB stick to work in all smartphones
It's funny what particular filesystem is the standard, and it's over 15 years old.
I currently bounce between Windows, Linux and Android (technically Linux with a modified kernel), and sometimes I need to move files between the devices I use. There are three ways to do that. Either a) use the internet, b) use my local network, or c) use a USB stick.
Internet works but it's slow because I have to upload to the cloud first then download on the other computer I want to copy files to. Using a local network is faster but the amount of setup required to get Windows, Linux and Android all talking to each other is difficult and not worth the bother...
...which leaves the USB stick. It is the fastest way to get large files from computer A to computer B, if it's a filesystem they can all read.
That system is exFAT.
exFAT is old and has no journaling. It's a filesystem that was introduced by Microsoft in 2006 and is specifically designed for use on USB sticks and memory cards. The biggest advantage of exFAT over the older FAT32 is that you can copy files greater than 4GB in size. The theoretical maximum file size that can be copied to an exFAT filesystem is 128 petabytes.
I found out how important exFAT actually is when I started doing some research on the Linux filesystem ext4.
Supposedly, Android phones can read a USB stick formatted to ext4. Yes, I know ext4 is a journaling filesystem and it can potentially "beat up" a USB stick, but I wanted to try it anyway, so I did. My Android phone would not read the stick. Not happening.
I then formatted the stick using the phone itself. The filesystem it chose? exFAT.
Then I searched around to see if it's possible to "format" a USB stick to exFAT in Linux. The answer is yes, but tools need to be downloaded. In Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu, the tools to download from Synaptic Package Manager are exfat-fuse and exfatprogs, which gives you mkfs.exfat, and from there you can format a stick or a card to use the exFAT filesystem from the command line or partition manager of choice.
exFAT is the best thing to use on a USB stick that Windows, Linux and Android can read with no fuss. It's an awful filesystem for an OS (I honestly don't even know if it's possible to run an OS on exFAT), but just fine for its intended use on USB sticks and memory cards.
Garmin DriveSmart 66, four months later
It was worth getting this.
In September '22 I bought a new Garmin DriveSmart 66. I liked this model enough to where I bought a second refurb model for backup for 44% less.
Do both work? Yes. Do they work well? Yes.
After four months of use, my DS66 still works fine, although I know enough about Garmin automotive navigators to where I know the unofficial rules of using one of these things.
Rule #1 is powering off the unit fully when done driving for the day. You turn the car off and the screen blanks out, giving the appearance it's turned off, but it's not. Over time, what this does is drain the battery completely. You start the car one day and the Garmin won't turn on, so you think it's broken. It's not. All you have to do is that while your car is on and power connected to the Garmin, press and hold the power button until the screen comes on again, problem solved... BUT... the proper the workaround is to fully power the Garmin off. Before you turn the car off, press and hold the power button on the Garmin until a message pop up on the screen asking if you want to power off the device, and power it off that way. Do you have to do this every time you leave the car? No. It's only necessary if it's going to be more than 3 hours before you start driving again.
Rule #2 is avoid overheating while off. This means keep it out of the sun when parked. Either cover the screen with a microfiber cloth so it absorbs the heat instead of the unit itself, or just taking the unit off its mount and putting it in the glove box or some other place where the sun isn't beating on it.
Rule #3 is avoiding overheating while on. I use this Arkon mount to place my DS66 over a vent. On hotter days I will run either just air or air conditioning to keep it cooled off.
Were I using a smartphone for navigation, I'd still have to follow rules 2 and 3 because there's just no way around that.
Is the DS66 navigation good?
Yes, but that brings up another rule for any navigation system, be it Garmin, phone or otherwise.
Rule #4 is to never trust a navigation system 100% of the time.
More often than not I can punch in or speak a destination to the DS66, and the route it gives me is usually best way to get there.
Sometimes the DS66 gives me oddball routes, although not that often. If I do notice something weird in the route it gives me, I use the detour function to get around a specific section, or, avoid the weird part of the route myself once I encounter it and let the DS66 auto-recalculate.
There is something I have learned the hard way. When the DS66 calculates a route to a place I've been to many times before using a totally different way than usual, there's a reason for that. It's avoiding traffic. I have had it happen where I ignored the DS66's suggested directions, went the way I thought was better and uh-oh, traffic. I'd come upon the traffic and then realize, "Oh. Now I know why it was telling me to go a different way. Oops."
This doesn't mean I always use the route the DS66 suggests. There are times when I know my way is better, and other times when the DS66 knows the better way.
I'll give an example of when I go my way. When the DS66 says to take a specific highway exit, and on approach of that exit I see the ramp all backed up with cars, I won't take it and just use the next one.
An example of when the DS66's instructions are better is for just about any traffic alert. For major traffic events, the DS66 auto-recalculates around it. Sometimes it's a long way around. I'm okay with that. Better to take the long way around and be moving instead of stuck in gridlock traffic and stopped.
Is the DS66 reliable?
Yes. My DS66 acquires a signal quickly, signal lock and location accuracy are excellent, speaker volume is good, voice recognition for "OK Garmin" works fine... no real problems to report.
The only complaints I have are two annoyances. The touchscreen is a little over-sensitive and there's some menu choppiness when entering locations. Maybe this will be fixed with a software update in the future.
Finding stuff
Something I've been doing ever since I started using Garmin nuvi models in the mid-2000s is using GPS coordinates whenever I need to get to a very specific place. What I'm about to describe is something I would do even if I were using phone navigation.
Addresses and POI (Point Of Interest) locations are usually correct. However, if the destination is a place where I need to be led to a very specific spot, that's when I use GPS coordinates instead.
An example of this would be a specific entrance at a large shopping mall because that spot does not have an address or even a name, so using coordinates is required.
To get that info, I will either a) go to Google Maps on my computer, enable satellite view and right-click the spot I want to go to and get the coordinates that way, or b) launch Google Maps browser version on my phone, enable satellite view and long press the spot to get the coordinates.
I take those coordinates, input that into the DS66 and I will be navigated exactly to that spot, which is exactly what I want. Also, if it's a place I intend on returning to later, saving that location is easy on the DS66 and I can name it whatever I want. Since the favorite is saved direct to the DS66 and not the phone, I don't have to do any of that login/authenticate/sync stuff. I just turn on the DS66, find the saved spot in Saved and go.
Would I be better off using Google Maps? No, because again, locations like the one above can't be found by name nor address. Regardless of map system used, navigating to a very specific spot requires direct GPS coordinates input.
Better than the older Garmin models?
I have to get a physical size thing out of the way first before answering this.
The DS66 is bigger than the DriveSmart 55 but smaller than the DriveSmart 65. If you want a model the same size as the 65, you actually have to get the DriveSmart 76.
Does the 76 operate the same as the 66? Yes. Whatever I say about the 66 applies to the 76.
The single most annoying thing about the 55/65 are the always-there favorites icons on the map that cannot be hidden. Those infuriating ugly green heart icons are gone and off the map on the 66.
There are some things about the 66 that are annoying to some, but I personally don't consider them annoyances.
Here they are:
- No more "Shorter Distance" route calculation option. "Faster Time" and "Off Road" are all you get.
- Avoid tolls prompt removed. With tollways, you set to always take them or always avoid them.
- In the Route Planner, ability to sort points of a route based on distance to them was removed.
- You cannot request a detour using a voice command.
- Uses USB-C, meaning any older Garmin charge cord you have that's mini USB won't work with the 66.
Some of these choices I understand while others were bad decisions.
"Shorter Distance" more often than not really didn't work in your favor, especially when combined with other set avoidances that would result in route calculations taking a really long time. You can basically get the same type of route just by using "avoid highways" or by tapping the double-arrow icon for any destination to show an alternative route.
I definitely understand the reason why the tollway question was removed, because that reduces driver distraction, and I'll tell you exactly where - while driving. I turned off the tollway question on my older Garmin models because if I had to take a detour, I did not want the GPS asking me if I wanted to take toll roads or not on recalculation. All I wanted was to get back on track without any manual confirmation of the route. Having the tollway as always-on or always-off available from a submenu was the right thing to do.
The elimination of sorting points of a route based on distance didn't affect me, but really ticked off delivery drivers. That was a feature they really liked that they used often. The Drive 52 and DriveSmart 55/65 were the last to have it as far as I'm aware.
Removing the ability to request a detour by a voice command was dumb on Garmin's part and should be put back. Requesting a detour at bare minimum requires 4 taps (from map: Menu > Edit Route > Detour by Distance > Avoid Next X miles). If you have Trip Data fields or the Turns list enabled, then it's 5 taps because you have to close Trip Data or Turns first.
As for using USB-C now, my only complaint is that Garmin didn't do this sooner. This means that presently, replacement power blocks and Garmin-specific USB-C cables aren't exactly plentiful. Available, yes, but not plentiful. This isn't a problem for me personally since I have two DS66's, meaning I have a backup block and cord. For others that just get one, yes the block and cord provided are of good material and should last for years. I'm the crazy dude who just has to have backups just in case, even if I never use them.
The DS66 delivered what I wanted
What I needed and got with the DS66 is a rock solid navigator that does not drop signal and gets all its position and traffic info using no phone data connection whatsoever. Yes, I can connect my phone to it optionally to get additional goodies and info using the Garmin Drive app (including traffic cameras), but it's not required.
My DS66 is still working fine 4 months later. Is it perfect? No, but it works like it's supposed to, which is all I can ask of it.
I'm finally getting away from HDD for SSD
1TB is under 50 bucks now.
In late '19 I bought a Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD as my main drive. Works great, no problems. I did not commit to 1TB because it was too expensive.
Well, that's not the case anymore because a 1TB SSD is under 50 bucks. The Silicon Power a.k.a. SP brand offers 1TB for cheap. According to Amazon user reviews, it's a decent SSD so I went ahead and bought it.
My main computer is an old Dell Latitude laptop in a docking station. The computer is over 10 years old, but with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD, oh yeah, it's plenty fast enough. SSD speeds up any old laptop that can support one. Windows laptops or Macbooks, doesn't matter. If you have an older laptop that has HDD now, dump that and get SSD. A 256GB SSD is literally under 20 bucks new, so you have no excuse.
My main drive is SSD, but my backup drive is a 512GB HDD. I've been wanting to bump the backup storage up to 1TB for some time now. Sure, at any point I could have bought a 4TB HDD since those are cheap and plentiful, but... it's HDD, meaning slower and mechanical, meaning it will eventually start making whining noises as it gets older.
True, you can't beat the price of HDD. When you want the most media storage for the cheapest possible price, HDD is still top dog. In the world of HDD, 4TB is actually small potatoes. 8TB is cheap now, and so is 16TB. The price starts to get steep only when you bust into 18TB territory or greater.
Why spend more on SSD? Aside from the fact it's 100% silent, it runs cooler and can take a knock better. Moving around a hard drive is a bad idea, but moving around an SSD doesn't cause any problems at all. This means if the SSD is housed in an external enclosure, nothing bad will happen to it if you move it from one computer to another. Heck, you could even physically mail the thing and it would survive the rigors of going through the postal system with ease.
HDD is the only storage thing I use on a computer these days that physically moves on the inside to operate, and I'll be happy to finally get away from it...
...although I'd be lying if I said an 8TB didn't look attractive. When those get down to $50, I wouldn't be opposed to buying a pair and using them RAID 1 style (one mirrors the other).
For now, a single 1TB SSD suits me just fine.
Things I eat now that I didn't 10 years ago
If I had a conversation with my 10-years-ago self, he'd give me weird looks if I told him what I eat now.
Tastes change as you get older. As my middle age continues, I now eat different foods because I genuinely prefer the taste of them over what I used to eat.
These are a few things I eat now that I didn't 10 years ago.
In the world of snack crackers and chips, you have the choices of potato, corn (ex: Fritos, Doritos, etc.), flour (as in saltines, ex: Zesta), rice and wheat.
Triscuits are made from wheat, and I prefer wheat crackers over all other base ingredients. I learned from eating Triscuits that I do not like potato chips. I used to eat potato chips somewhat frequently. Now I won't touch them. I'm a Triscuit guy now.
I have no childhood memory of eating rice. It's not that I'm repressing bad memories or anything like that. My parents simply did not buy rice for whatever reason. It wasn't until years later in my 30s that I discovered rice. However, it wasn't until middle age that I found out about jasmine rice.
Jasmine rice has a nice scent to it when cooking and is far better than white or brown for taste. The texture of it is also "just right". Take a 1/3 cup of dry jasmine rice, boil for 10 minutes, done. It's that easy.
White Onions
I've had onions ever since I was a kid, but actually buying, preparing and cooking them wasn't something that happened until I reached middle age. I prefer whites because they're the most versatile and easiest to see the color change when frying.
Black Beans
Although I also like light red kidney, dark red kidney, red, garbanzo and a few other bean varieties, black is my preferred bean. I originally started getting these because they're always available and typically have the lowest amount of calories per serving. After a while, they became my preference over other beans.
Sardines
The only reason I tried these originally is because all my life I heard sardines were gross. Then I thought, "How bad could they be?", so one day while at the market I bought a can of them. Back at home, I opened the can, grabbed a fork, had a taste, and thought, "Oh. This basically tastes almost like tuna." After that I just finished the can.
Every so often I'll buy 2 or 3 small cans of sardines. It's only about 100 Calories per can.