Dirt cheap Jazz-Strat HSS... worth getting?
This sells for cheaper than a Squier Bullet Strat, and it might be exactly what you're looking for.
Take the Monoprice Offset OS20. The guitar brand on the headstock says Indio. I've no idea who that is...
...and it doesn't matter, because the guitar is selling right now for so cheap that it makes no difference.
Is it worth getting? It might be simply for the fact it has a Jazzmaster body (yes, with the contour cut in the rear) with HSS Strat electronics and a traditional style Strat trem system.
Is blue the only color? No. There is also sunburst. Same price as the blue, but I think the blue looks better.
It is the combination of Jazzmaster body + Stratocaster trem and electronics that makes it worth taking a risk on this thing.
Does it play well? I have no idea. Is the sound good? I have no idea. It might be crap. It might be great. Or it might be great after putting in a different set of pickups, different tuners, changing the nut and performing a fret leveling. And even if you did all those things, you are still well under $250 spent.
One thing cannot be denied, this is the cheapest way to get a Jazzmaster body with Strat electronics + Strat trem in it. Nothing else can touch it for the price.
The easier way to play a cowboy G riff on guitar
When you concentrate on not playing barre chords on guitar, things get a lot easier.
I, like so many other guitar players, started off playing just power chords, as in 5th chords. Two notes. And the majority of those are played on the 5 and 6 strings or 5 and 4 strings.
As I got better at guitar and learned more stuff, I started playing more chords. The "big" chord on guitar is the barre chord, where you anchor the thumb on the back of the neck and use all your fingers. I started using that quite a bit.
Years passed, I learned even more guitar stuff, and came to know that a few famous guitarists never bother with the 6 string. Some hardly even bother with the 5 and mostly concentrate on the 1, 2, 3 and 4 strings.
This is something I wanted to experiment with, so I did. The end result is that I found that I can get the musical idea I want to get across without chords that use all six strings.
I really like the full 6-string chord sound, but if I can get a full sound using fewer strings, I will certainly do it. This video I made is an example of that.
There are two main benefits from playing this way. The first is that chords that use fewer strings are much easier to play. The second is that there are many times where playing the root note "on the bottom" isn't necessary.
I genuinely like playing this way as it suits the Telecaster well. But then again it would suit just about any guitar.
Easy way to keep a Garmin GPS running right
Something that nobody thinks about (usually not until it's too late) is the memory card in a Garmin GPS.
On my GPSes, I can't use the internal memory for storage because the maps simply won't fit, so I use memory cards.
What I've learned over the years is that as memory cards get older, they can and will start causing problems. As long as you use a card that's not old, the GPS will run fine.
Which memory card to use?
Almost every Garmin nuvi and zumo model made can support up to a 32GB microSD memory card. The reason you don't use more than 32GB is because of the file system used. Anything greater than 32GB won't be recognized in a nuvi.
Note that I said almost every nuvi. A short list of nuvi and zumo models don't support up to 32GB, and they are:
- nuvi 295W (8GB max)
- nuvi 850 (8GB max)
- nuvi 880 (8GB max)
- nuvi 855 (8GB max)
- nuvi 885 (8GB max)
- nuvi 5000 (8GB max)
- zumo 450 (4GB max)
- zumo 550 (4GB max)
- zumo 665 (8GB max)
Every other nuvi and zumo can support a 32GB memory card as of this writing in September 2020.
Brands I recommend for new 32GB cards are Samsung and Sandisk. This is one of those instances where brand actually does matter because those cheap knockoff cards really don't work that well.
If you have to use 4GB or 8GB, your best bet is NOS (new old stock) sealed package memory cards from Sandisk, Samsung, PNY, ADATA, Lexar or Kingston. And again, make sure whatever you buy is in a sealed package and has never been opened. You have to buy NOS for 4GB and 8GB because it's rare to find those made new anymore.
Warning signs that a memory card is failing
There is unfortunately nothing that really tells you how much useful life left your memory card has, but there are a few telltale warning signs.
If the GPS starts taking longer (and you will notice it) to draw maps, calculate routes and/or search POIs, that could mean the memory card is starting to near the end of its useful life.
If the GPS outright crashes on startup or during a route recalculation, the card should be replaced immediately.
If the gold colored contacts on the memory card are tarnished, crinkled and/or all scratched up, the card should be replaced immediately.
How long is a memory card supposed to last?
I've seen some last 10 years, but how long yours lasts depends on the conditions it has been subjected to.
The two things that make a card fail sooner than later are excessive heat and oxidation. There's not really much that can be done about this since the GPS is exposed to sunlight and the elements in the air whenever your car window is open.
One of the few things you can do is periodically clean the memory card contacts to extend the life of the card. This can be done with very light passes using a pencil eraser. You can also use DeoxIT D5 contact cleaner spray that's specifically designed for cleaning electronics contacts.
However - and this is important to note - keeping the contacts clean doesn't affect the memory itself. If the GPS continues to have trouble with map drawing, calculating routes or POI searches after a card cleaning, replace the card.
Generally speaking, you can get about 5 years out of a memory card in Garmin GPS with regular daily use. You may get more than 5 years, but if you don't, you now know the warning signs and what actions you can take.
If Fender built a Jazzmaster like this, I would buy it
You probably can't afford this, but if you can, you should get one.
I've not mentioned Bacchus guitars for a long time, but given I'm thinking about getting a Jazzmaster type guitar again, I took a look at the Surf-Breaker model.
The Bacchus Surf-Breaker is made in Japan, and it's not cheap. About $2,200. And that doesn't include shipping.
This is a Jazzmaster body shape made of ash with a 24.75" scale neck (available in maple or with rosewood fingerboard). Fingerboard radius is about 11 inch (280mm). The finish is matte. Pickups are American. The front is a gold foil with thick 44 gauge wiring. Rear pickups is a Telecaster style overwound with alnico 5 magnet pieces using enamel wire. Tuners are premium Gotoh.
What's not said is that when you order one of these, it's essentially hand crafted for you. The only thing you don't get is nitro, but that's totally fine considering how good this looks.
No, I can't afford this guitar, but this is about as perfect as you can get for a blend of Jazzmaster and Telecaster with a Les Paul scale.
The Surf-Breaker is vintage + modern guitar design done very, very right.
Is there an alternative?
For the Jazzmaster shape, not really other than the Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster. That guitar is not up to the spec of the Bacchus, but then again, it's WAY less in price and much more attainable.
Re-buying guitars is a bad idea?
Is it okay to rebuy a guitar you had before?
Take the Epiphone Les Paul Custom Classic Pro. Nice guitar for what it is. I've owned an Epiphone Les Paul before, see this one, and think... should I get it?
Over the years I have bought and re-bought four particular shapes of guitars. Stratocasters, Telecasters, Les Pauls and Jazzmasters.
I'm a firm believer in not hoarding instruments. At my worst, I owned 7 guitars. Now I own 4, one of which is in pieces (a Strat,) one of which was brought back to playable condition (my first guitar, also a Strat, and I'm never parting with that one,) and two SX Furrian guitars in the Telecaster shape.
Right now I own no Les Paul guitars, but I see the Epiphone above and think yeah, that looks cool because it has the "tuxedo" black-and-white with gold accents. Very classy. But then I think about the last experience I had with one of these and whether this one would suit any better.
For other players, it would totally work. If you want a Les Paul and want something good for well under $1,000, the guitar above ticks all the right boxes.
For me, however, it wouldn't. I'd ultimately run into the same issue I did with my last one, which is an unusable single-coil sound.
The above guitar does have ProBucker pickups with push-pull for the single-coil tones. But I know I will never be able to make that guitar sound like a Telecaster. That is why I play Telecaster type guitars now. When you want Telecaster type tones, get a Telecaster.
For humbucker tones, oh yeah, that 'Paul can absolutely do that with ease. But that's just not my sound now.
Every now and then when I see a cool guitar I've had before in one form or another, I have to sit there for a moment, think, and remember why I play the guitars I do now...
...but that doesn't mean I don't have other single-coil pickup guitars I'm considering for a re-buy. I'll leave that for my next article.
On a last note for now, the guitar above is one of the better LPs you can buy at the moment. Full body binding front and back and neck, all the good stuff, all the fancy electronics, and so on. Also, when Epiphone does gold, they do gold right. This isn't something where just some of the metal components are gold. All of them are, right down to the strap buttons, output jack plate, tuner covers on the back of the headstock, every screw and even the pickup pole pieces. Again, Epiphone totally does gold right, which to me is a good selling point of the instrument because they don't miss anything.