And then there were two (guitar minimalism)
Okay, technically three.
I just parted with 4 guitars and replaced them with a new Fender Stratocaster.
The details of the new guitar will be covered in my next article, but for now I'll just say in brief that the guitar is a new Fender Player Stratocaster in a color called Surf Pearl.
As of now I only have two working guitars. My first guitar, a 1989 Squier II Stratocaster, and the new 2021 Fender Player Stratocaster. I also have a non-working 1993 Fender Stratocaster that is in pieces at the moment (it needs a neck, among other things).
The guitars that are gone are the SX Furrian Fat, SX Furrian, Glarry GJazz and Glarry GTL. Those were all traded out.
This also marks the end of my Telecaster phase.
The hoard is thinned yet again
Every few years it seems guitars find their way into my living space and I have to flush them out. Before getting the '21 Strat I had six guitars, and now it's three. At my worst, I had seven. I've never been in double-digit territory with my number of guitars.
The main benefit of owning a bunch of guitars is you get to try a bunch of body styles and pickup configurations. My three Tele-style guitars were all different. One had traditional S/S pickups, the other had S/H and the third an S/S but with semi-hollow body and "ashtray" bridge.
The main drawback of owning a bunch of guitars is you can only play one at at time. This means guitars purposely have to be rotated in regular play just to keep them working right.
In other words, I don't like owning a bunch of guitars because they all have to be played, and all have to be maintained. After a while, rotating the instruments feels like a job you don't even get paid for, and that's no fun.
The dumbest thing I bought...
...was the bass. True, what I had was dirt cheap (under $100 new,) but the exact same thing happened that always does.
I buy a bass thinking that yeah, I'll use this thing all the time for bass backing tracks. The bass is bought, I'm all sorts of happy at first, it gets played for a couple of weeks, and then gets put on a stand and goes unplayed. And sure enough, I look at that bass later and question why the hell I bought the thing in the first place. That's when it gets traded out.
A bass for me is always a "sounded like a good idea at the time" purchase. At least I was smart enough to purposely go super cheap with it this time around.
For now, I'm done with basses unless I go all stupid again and buy another one.
Bass will now be done either by detuning my guitar or just using my synth.
Why the Stratocaster again?
I could have traded out all those guitars for a Fender Telecaster in the same color I bought my Stratocaster in, and for literally hundreds less. But no, I went Strat.
The main reason was ergonomics. The Stratocaster body with its contours feels better playing sitting or standing. With standing play in particular, I can angle the Strat body so the neck stays up whereas I can't with a Tele body without putting the strap through a belt.
The second reason was the sound. I've come to appreciate Stratocaster tone again. However, this is largely due to how Fender is making the Player Stratocaster these days.
I'll cover this more in my next article, but I greatly appreciate the Player requires no mods. It has a nice set of alnico 5 pickups and comes factory installed with tone control wired in on the bridge-only pickup selector position. This breaks with tradition as Strats typically don't have tone control wired there, but I very much welcome it as it makes that pickup selection so much more useful. And oh yes, I do use that tone control there.
The third reason is that I've come around to appreciating the Stratocaster overall again. I was anti-Strat for a long time. Not anymore.
There is The Big Question, will I keep it? Well, I just got the thing, so I have time to return the guitar should it not work out. But to answer the question, I'm mostly certain I will keep it unless it develops some wacky problem.
Next article will detail the story of the guitar purchase and other things. I actually wanted the Buttercream finish version and had no intention of buying a Stratocaster in Surf Pearl, so it will be an interesting read on why I got the one I did.
The 3.5" Garmin nuvi is still needed after all
A weird chain of events led to the point where going back to a GPS navigator made in the early 2010s is sometimes actually the best (if sometimes not the only) option.
The 3.5" screen Garmin nuvi was around from 2007 to 2011. The model you see above is the best one they ever released, the 2250LT. I own two of these. I also own the very last 3.5" model Garmin ever made, the 30LM, although it doesn't have anywhere near as much features as the 2250LT does (like traffic reporting when connected to a GTM36).
At the time I write this in 2021, all new cars now have an infotainment screen that starts at 7" in size and goes up from there. The problem is that in-car navigation is terrible, making that big screen useless for actually giving directions.
Is the smartphone a good alternative? It may not be. There are three problems with it. First, it can't be mounted anywhere because of modern car interior design. Part of the screen will always be blocked. Second, connecting it wirelessly to the car's infotainment system will at times drop connection, making that option useless. Third, the GPS antenna on the phone is weak and will also drop connection often...
...which is when the 3.5" nuvi, as old as it is, sometimes ends up being the only usable option.
Better to use a 3.5" than "mod" your car interior
I've read stories and seen photos of "mods" by guys who did some seriously stupid things to their car interiors just to get a good screen mounting position. Brackets and/or plates that required drilling holes, crazy gooseneck mounts, and so on. Not smart.
A 3.5" is basically the size of a car gauge. And because it's so light, it's unlikely a suction mount will fall when used with one.
Where a 5" or greater size screen can't go, the 3.5" can, and it's legal to mount it in the lower left of the windshield in all 50 US states...
...and that alone makes it worth having one, just in case you ever need to use it.
Reverse headstock S-style with "cheese wheel" for cheap
There are two things that impress me about this one.
The last guitar I mentioned was not cheap in price, but this one is and has some rather nice features to it.
This guitar is simply known as a Zuwei Customshop Series. I have no idea what the model name is because it's not mentioned. What I do know is that it's way under $300 new.
What we have here is a simpler design with S-style basswood body and S-style HSS switching, but with a reverse headstock and a 24-fret neck. At the butt of the maple neck you can see the "cheese wheel" for adjusting the truss rod, and that's cool. Very easy to get to.
However, this guitar has a few more tricks up its sleeve. It has that back-mounted output jack very similar to the Charvel I just talked about. It also has a deep cutaway on the rear of the bottom horn for easy access to the higher frets.
The cheese wheel and output jack are just really nice things to have, and this Zuwei has them for real cheap.
Given how low the price is of the guitar, even if the pickups don't sound that great, who cares? With the cash saved on this one, it can easily be put towards a replacement set.
Charvel is making the best "fast Telecaster" right now
This thing is nuts, but in all the right ways.
While this isn't a guitar I'd particularly own, I do appreciate it for what it is.
Quick specs out of the way first. Carmelized maple neck and fingerboard. 12"-16" compound radius on the neck. Heel-mount truss rod adjustment (easily accessible). Ash body. Hand rubbed satin urethane finish (meaning silky smooth everywhere). Fishman Fluence Open Core PRF-COC pickups. Gotoh Custom 510 Tremolo bridge. Die-cast locking tuners. "Luminlay" side marker dots. Ridiculously easy high fret access with "shredder's cut heel".
Like I said, this thing is nuts.
The worst part of the guitar is the name. Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 2 24 HH 2PT CM Ash. Yeah, that just rolls right off the tongue. Sounds more like an automotive part number for a Ford F-150.
My favorite part of the guitar is something Charvel doesn't even mention, the output jack.
It is ingenious where they put the jack. When standing you can snake the cable with the least amount of stress right over the guitar strap. And again, Charvel doesn't even list this as a feature, even though it is.
Now in addition to all this, the guitar just plain looks good. Charvel, somehow, managed to make a natural finish look great. Usually, the natural finish looks terrible because it causes the guitar to look like a coffee table. But not this one. This, in all honesty, really does look "pro".
Why wouldn't I own it? Too much shreddy stuff for my taste, but then again, that's Charvel's thing, so it's expected.
It pleases me to no end that Charvel made this. They put in all the good stuff but kept the styling classy and subtle.
Color me impressed.
SX Furrian Fat returns... sort of
At least this is actually available again.
I've been asked more than once if the black SX Furrian Fat I have is available should somebody want one, as it has been out of production for a while.
The black one isn't available, but at least the red one can be bought again right now at the time I write this.
This guitar is labeled as a CAR which is supposed to mean Candy Apple Red, indicating the red does have some metal flake in it. As for how much sparkle the finish has, I'm not certain because I've never seen it in person. But from photos, it appears to be a subtle sparkle, which I consider a good thing.
Can you get the white guard instead of black? I don't think so, but you can email Rondo and ask them. They do sell pick guards but the Furrian Fat guard isn't listed there. However, just because it's not listed doesn't mean it's not available, so again, ask. Getting that extra white guard won't be free, but considering how low in price the guitar is, spending an extra $10 or $20 on one still makes the guitar a great deal.
Yes, I do think the guitar would look far better with a white guard on it instead of black. If the neck had a rosewood fingerboard on it, then sure, leave it black. But it's a maple fingerboard, so the contrast between the neck color and guard color is very pronounced.
Is this CAR version of the Furrian Fat the same one I have? I believe it is. So if you've been waiting for this one and don't mind the red with the black guard, now you can get it.
Can't find a fat Furrian?
See Squier Telecaster Custom and Squier Telecaster Deluxe. Those two guitars are the next best thing.