Blue's Clues Learning Watch (it's kinda ridiculous)
Would I dare wear this thing in public?
The story behind this watch is that the special person this was given to didn't like it. I was then asked if I wanted it since I like watches. I said sure, why not. And of course I had to make a video above it, seen above.
Yes, this is a real watch. Expensive? Not at all. And surprisingly functional.
I'm going to mention a few things not covered in the video I made about it.
Let's talk about the manual. It is informative, but done somewhat backwards. What I mean by that is that I'm 100% certain none of the parents who buy this thing will know you can turn off "Try-Me" mode. The reason for this is because you have to dig into the manual just to find where that information is stated.
Why does this matter? No parent would think for one second that this thing can function as an actual watch. They'd just assume the Try-Me mode is the regular mode when in fact it isn't. Getting the watch out of Try-Me mode should be on the very first page. Instead, it's on page six.
When the watch is put to regular operating mode, then it can actually do watch things. It tells the time. It has a countdown timer. It has an hourly signal feature. It has an alarm. And it has other stuff.
Will the intended user (kids age 3 to 6) ever use these features? No. And this means none of the features will ever be used by anybody who ever gets this...
...which is kind of a shame, because I can tell whoever designed this thing really tried, succeeded, but also failed at the same time.
Where the wins happened: Correct volume (not too loud), button action is just right, display very legible, strap very comfortable and doesn't irritate the skin, very nice menu animations that are done right.
Where the fails happened: Everywhere else.
This watch is way too big for a 3-year-old. I have a 6.5" wrist and it fits me, a grown man. It shouldn't. This thing is gigantic. 42mm diameter and 30mm thickness with cover closed? This thing is a brick!
The menu system is cute and friendly, but way too complicated not only for kids but most adults. I'm positive that moms are never going to spend the time figuring out how to use this thing. It should be no more difficult to figure out than a Casio F-91W. That, or the menus need to be redesigned so that reading the manual is absolutely not required to figure it out.
I'll put it to you this way: This watch stumped me, and I know watches. When I first received it, I knew it had a watch function because of the right side clock button but could not figure out how to get it out of Try-Me mode. Only after getting the manual did I figure that out, which is why I put it in the video. Nobody would know how to do it otherwise.
No water resistance? For a kids watch? It says right in the manual that the watch can't handle being submerged in water at all. If you're going to make a product for child, it had better be able to handle water. This watch can't.
This needs to be repurposed as an adult watch
Even with all its flaws, I like this watch even though I'd never wear it in public.
If this were redesigned and repurposed, it would be a winner.
For example, if the case was black, buttons in gray, cover removed, external speaker removed, slimmed to a maximum 15mm height, had a straight strap (same material) that was slightly longer, front sticker removed, front OK button removed, games removed and had 30m water resistance...
...this would make for an excellent adult fashion watch. Quartz watches with matrix displays are cool, and I wish there were more of them around.
As a kid's watch, yeah I suppose it works only because kids don't care about watch functions at all. But all that function going to waste is such a shame.
Again, if it were redesigned and repurposed as a fashion watch, then it would be great.
My Christmas fixings
No, this is not about food.
Some of my Christmas "gifts" to me this year were in the form of fixing a few things I own.
Mean Green calculator rides again
Above is a really cheap Radio Shack calculator. For those interested, it's catalog number 65-1009, and that's not just for the single calculator. It's the part number for a three-calculator set that came in a blister pack. Each calculator was a different color. Green (seen above), purple, and blue. I probably have the purple and blue ones somewhere.
This calculator is either close to or over 20 years old. Every time I think this calculator is gone, it somehow magically shows up in a box somewhere. Incredibly, this thing still worked on its original battery after all these years. I finally decided to clean it up and change the battery. It was obvious this calculator was never meant to be taken apart, but I had nothing to lose so I did it anyway and was able to fix it up and make it work again like new.
Is this a collectible item? Not in the slightest. But this calculator is great. Extremely slim, easy to read, actually has an off button (probably the reason the battery lasted so long), super-easy-press soft buttons... it's great. I was happy to fix it.
I had to order a specific battery cell just for this calculator called an LR1130, formerly known as a GP189. It also goes by AG10 for some reason. No idea why. And, of course, I couldn't order just 1 or 2. I had to order 10. While the cost of this was just $3.42 shipped, now I have 9 batteries I'll probably never use... for a calculator probably not worth more than a dollar. Oh, well.
Garmin nuvis still working
Speaking of battery replacements, I just did the same thing with two Garmin nuvi GPSes I own.
Before anyone asks, yes I know the phone can navigate. I don't like it, which is why I use a nuvi.
I have my daily driver GPS and a second identical model as a backup because I like it that much. Both had their original batteries from the early 2010s. Changed those both out with replacement 1200mAh batteries and they're good to go.
Car stuff
The latest with my car (it's over 10 years old) is that I installed a fuse tap, a.k.a. add-a-fuse, add-a-circuit or whatever it's called.
I did this for my dashcam so it doesn't have to use the 12V port. The tap was installed to the accessory fuse so power is only delivered when the ignition is on. The reason for installing it this way is so the dashcam is never draining the car battery when the engine is off. Cheap tech, but works great.
Guitar fixings?
Not too much to report here just yet. I'm not going to get into my Strat project until sometime in 2021. That's the plan, anyway.
Clean guitar player's second best friend, tremolo
The main reason many guitar players don't know about the tremolo effect is because of overdrive and distortion. Tremolo usually doesn't work there. I'll get back to that in a moment. But when playing clean, it's your second best friend.
Two things to note before continuing.
First, the tremolo effect is not vibrato. Vibrato pitches the sound back and forth. Tremolo is a volume effect, almost like a controlled stutter.
Second, the best friend to a clean guitar player is, of course, compression. If you play clean, you need that. And as far as which chain order you should have, you can go either way with compression first, tremolo second, or tremolo first, compression second. It depends if you want the "strike" to be heard first from the guitar sound or the tremolo effect. You'll have to experiment to see which chain order works best for you. But it's absolutely true that the less noisy way is compression first, tremolo second so you're not compressing the tremolo effect itself.
Tremolo is a really easy effect to miss, because as said above, most guitar players drown their guitars in way too much overdrive or distortion.
However, if you dial the overdrive back to a civilized level, you can ring out some really cool sounding stuff with an overdriven tremolo sound.
Typically, tremolo works best on the bridge side (as in the rear) pickup whether clean or overdriven because it allows the effect to be heard more clearly. This doesn't mean you can't use the neck side (as in the front) pickup with the effect, but to make that sound right, a generous amount of compression helps quite a bit.
Tremolo works better with chords than solos, but if you must solo, the nice part is that you can do long droning notes and the tremolo effect carries things along quite nicely. There's no need to go all over the fretboard when the effect is in use.
Is tremolo a one trick pony?
No. And the reason for that is simple. You can adjust the depth, wave and rate.
Slower, wider tremolo effect sounds completely different compared to a faster, shorter stutter. You can go anywhere from full-on country tone to '60s acid rock to '80s new wave and several other genres all from this one effect.
Clean is where tremolo sounds best, but as noted above it does work with overdrive, provided you keep it civilized.
Pick yourself up a BOSS TR-2 and you'll love it. Or if you have the effect in your virtual rig or multi-effect amp or pedal (they all have tremolo buried in there somewhere), use it. Tremolo is a great effect to have in your tone arsenal.
How to easily avoid an expensive mistake with guitar pedals
Remember a simple rule, and you'll avoid wasting money.
Take a BOSS Loop Station RC-5. Is it good? Of course it is. BOSS makes great stuff. But there is one huge problem with it...
...the screen.
It's not that the screen is bad or doesn't work or anything like that. The pedal works as intended.
But when trying to read that screen from a standing position (or even a seated position for that matter), that's where this design fails and fails hard. And that's when you go right back to a BOSS RC-3 with its much more readable display.
I have made the mistake before of buying a floor pedal with a screen on it similar to what's on the RC-5. Yeah, it looks cool. And yeah, the manufacturer can stuff a ton more features into a pedal with a screen on it.
But ultimately it all comes down to legibility. Pedals with screens simply cannot be read as easily as those with segmented displays.
Even if you have perfect 20/20 vision, you're going to squint when trying to read the RC-5's screen from a standing position. These screens also have a tendency to wash out very easily under bright lights or when used outside in sunlight.
Comparatively speaking, the older RC-3 and RC-1 models can easily be read from a standing position. The RC-1 in particular, while the most basic of the bunch, is the easiest to get along with because it uses lights and colors in a circle instead of having to read anything.
Are you better off using pedals with no screens at all?
In all honesty, yes.
The only thing you need for most pedals is one light that tells you if the pedal is on, off or doing something as indicated by pulsing, flashing or changing color.
However, for pedals that have presets, memory slots or need to count up/down things, the best display that's been around since the '80s is a segmented red backlit display, such as on the RC-3. This is something you can read from a distance without a problem.
The rule is...
Don't get pedals with screens on them.
With amps, that's a different story because those displays are much closer to eye level, and they're not being literally kicked around.
If the pedal effect for whatever it is lives on the floor, you're always better off with simple segmented displays or just lights.
Yeah, you totally want the newer stuff with the screen because it looks cool and has every feature imaginable. Don't do it. Remember where the pedal lives.
If you want a simple example of how bad an idea it is to have a screen on the floor, take your phone, load up a web page and increase the font size. Then put it on the floor, stand up and look down at the screen. Try to read it. You probably can - but then imagine that screen as less than half the size of your phone's screen. You'll then understand why a screen on a pedal is a bad idea.
Fender Stratocaster in that other yellow you never see
It's not Graffiti Yellow, but you could mistake it as such.
A Fender Custom Shop '69 Stratocaster in Monaco Yellow is a sight to behold.
It's easy to confuse this with another Fender color, Graffiti Yellow. I actually like both, but the main difference between Monaco and Graffiti is that Monaco is a few shades darker. Some players really like this particular yellow because it's a "mostly loud" color without being too in-your-face, so to speak.
Monaco Yellow has appeared on several Fender electric guitar models and a few basses, but it unquestionably looks best on the Stratocaster. And the main reason for that actually the pick guard and black pickup covers and knobs. The combination of Monaco Yellow body, white guard, black covers and black knobs just really works.
A nice thing about Monaco Yellow is that it's not necessarily tied to any specific decade. It works as a '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s or 2000s guitar color. The only decade where this wouldn't work is '50s. But for any other decade, yes, works.
The particular Strat seen above is a 1969 kinda/sorta reissue model, meaning yes, there is a 4-bolt plate holding on the neck and not the '70s 3-bolt. The neck also has some really nice figuring to it, so aside from the body color, the neck has some nice eye candy to it as well.
If you've got the cash for this guitar, grab it. Monaco Yellow is something that upon first glance looks a little loud initially, but it grows on you quickly. Seeing a Strat in a nice sunny color always puts a smile on the face.