Did PRS win best black guitar of 2019?
They might have with this one.
I've said before that I don't like PRS guitars, but do like the Mira model. Out of everything PRS makes, Mira has a look to it with real character. Most importantly, it's not trying to copy another guitar and is its own design.
Before going further into this guitar, how does it play? It "plays like a PRS", which is not a bad thing. Mira has that slightly shorter 25.0" scale, their patented adjustable stoptail bridge, great tuners, great playability, and so on. If you know PRS, you already know how Mira plays and sounds. It will be good out-of-the-box.
It's the look that really sells this thing however. Even in basic black with a tortoise shell guard, Mira looks fantastic. Heck, even those dopey bird fret inlay markers look good when the finish is a solid color.
Simple guitar, simple switching, great design and very well thought out from stem to stern. This is a player's machine (except for the aforementioned dopey inlays). This is what a PRS is supposed to be.
On a final note, yes I know some of you like the bird inlays as that is a PRS thing. I don't. I just can't get used to them. But I totally admit this black Mira is the first I've seen from PRS in a while where the birds do not detract from the overall look and actually look right.
Black Friday guitars 2019
This is a bit of a tradition where every year I list off my picks for the guitar buys where you get the best bang for the buck.
For this year, I have 8 guitars, starting with the cheapest first and goes up from there - but the top price is $500 and does not go higher. Or at least it doesn't at the time I write this.
Let's begin.
This is as cheap as you can possibly go while still getting something decent. It's usually true that when you buy a guitar priced as low as this one, what screams "CHEAP" more than anything else are the tuners. Ibanez is one of the very few where the tuners actually work right at this price point. They're about on par with Squier Affinity guitars, which is not bad to begin with.
What do you get? Basic black, 22 frets, 2 humbuckers, 3-way selector, volume, tone, bridge with whammy bar. It works.
You get the most Strat for the least cash with this one. This guitar will probably be discontinued in 2020, so if you want one, get it now. It has everything Strat guys like. 2-point bridge, 22 frets, proper sunburst finish, parchment (meaning not stark white) color pick guard, knobs and switch tip, good tuners, good pickups. This is also a very mod-friendly Strat, much like the Mexican Standard (now discontinued) used to be.
This is another one that will probably be gone in 2020. Like the Strat, this Tele has all the stuff Tele players like. Upgraded string saddles, "barrel" switch tip, upgraded tuners, 22-fret neck, and again like the Strat, mod-friendly.
You get the most eye candy for the lowest price with this specific finish. Usually this guitar is over $400. This one is way less. The guitar is more than just looks. 3-piece neck, mahogany body, flame top, set neck, X-Jumbo fret wire (very nice for soloing), handles any style of music you can throw at it. Totally looks like a custom shop guitar without the custom shop price.
ESP LTD EC-256 Black w/Gold hardware
Same guitar as the Lemon Drop finish. No flame top on this one. Instead you get the full "black beauty" treatment, complete with gold hardware everywhere - including the tuners. Yes, it does cost more than the Lemon Drop version to get all that gold.
Squier '70s Telecaster Thinline
I used to own one of these personally. Pictures don't do it justice. Gorgeous guitar, and this interpretation of the Wide Range Humbuckers sounds pretty darned good. Obviously a semi-hollow body, so it's very light in weight. You would be hard pressed to find a better Thinline Telecaster for the money, at least where an HH pickup configuration is concerned.
Gretsch Electromatic Double Jet Broadway, Jade
CME has a bunch of these, and they want them gone. When you want something unique and cool while still being an easy player and having a stunning appearance, well, this is it.
How does it play? More or less like a Les Paul. 12" fingerboard radius, top loader, 24.6" scale, Filter'Tron pickups, and body chambered internally for lighter overall weight.
The last one here is another CME. They don't have a bunch of these. Just one. And it's worth getting. This is just a simple guitar with two single-coil pickups, 3-way selector, volume and tone. Nothing new there. But what makes it special is the finish. This is only offered through this specific listing. You can't order this from anywhere else. This is a great little bang-around Mustang. Ridiculously easy to play because of the short 24.0" scale.
Out of all guitars listed here, this is by far the easiest to get along with. Simple construction, simple electronics, great sound, short scale, easy player.
The HSS guitar is not a good idea
Guitars with this type of setup may be usable, but the cons outweigh the pros.
HSS is a pickup configuration. It means humbucker/single-coil/single-coil. The way this is said is actually backwards. It should be SSH because the front of the guitar is the neck side and the rear is the bridge side, and you're supposed to label things on a guitar front-to-back and not the other way around, but whatever. The guitar industry calls it HSS.
Two things happen to almost every guitar that combines humbucker and single-coil pickups. Whether the guitar is HSS, HSH, S/H or H/S, if the two types of pickups are mixed, this crap occurs:
Problem #1 is that when you switch to the single-coil, there's a huge volume drop. It's so noticeable that you think something is wrong. There's not.
Problem #2 is that the single-coil either has too much treble response, or the humbucker doesn't have enough treble response.
What's going on here and why does this stuff happen? I'll explain.
Humbuckers have greater output than single-coil pickups. Sometimes a lot. When you switch from the humbucker to the single-coil, that's why the volume drops off a cliff.
Traditionally, guitars with single-coil pickups use a volume pot with 250K resistance. The goal of the 250K is to decrease treble since the singles have so much treble response to begin with. Guitars with humbuckers traditionally use a volume pot with 500K resistance. The goal of that one is to increase treble response since humbuckers will sound too "muddy" otherwise.
Then there's HSS. Which volume pot should be used? If the one with 250K resistance is used, the humbucker "muds" right out. If the 500K is used, the single-coil pickups produce too much treble.
Guitar makers will typically use the 500K volume pot, and that's why on HSS guitars the single-coil pickups just don't sound right. Too much treble.
Is there a solution to this problem?
Yes and no.
As I said above, almost all electric HSS guitars have this problem. One doesn't. Sort of.
At the time I write this, there is the new Fender American Ultra Stratocaster HSS. Part of the selling point of this guitar is that Fender did solve the "volume drops off a cliff" and treble response issues with some cleverly engineered electronics...
...but there are other solutions. Or rather just one solution.
The pickup configuration where a humbucker and single-coil can mostly live happily together is when you combine humbucker + P90. But this is all dependent on whether you actually like the P90 pickup sound.
Before I get into that, I'll explain the P90 in simple terms. Compared to the Stratocaster single-coil pickup, the P90 is physically larger, has greater output, less treble response and more midrange response. It's also usually mated to a 300K volume pot, but can still sound decent with mated to a 500K.
P90 does not sound like a Strat single-coil but still has single-coil character. Think of it as the middle ground between a Strat single and a humbucker.
I personally think P90 pickups sound great, but many players who try them do so on the expectation it's going to have Stratocaster or Telecaster sound character. Nope. P90 is P90 and you'd have to hear one for yourself to understand that fully.
The point I'm making is that if you have a guitar with a humbucker and a P90 mated to a 500K volume pot instead of a humbucker and two singles, that to most players would be a much more agreeable sound to the ear overall.
The better idea however is to keep singles and humbuckers in separate guitars. It's not a sin to own two guitars to get two distinct sounds. If that's what you have to do, that's a-okay.
Cheap Strat copy replacement necks are sometimes better than genuine Fender
The reason for this is something most players don't think about, but it counts.
When replacing a neck on a Fender Stratocaster guitar, you have two options. Go with the genuine article, or get a clone copy.
Fender does sell necks where you can simply outright buy one. They range from $200 to over $500 and do have the Fender logo on them.
None come with tuners, but Fender issued necks do all come with pre-drilled holes for them. I'm not talking about the pegboard holes but rather the smaller holes that don't go all the way through the neck on the back of the headstock for tuner installation. Depending on what you intend to do with your new Strat neck, this will either be a blessing or a curse.
If you intend on using Fender standard tuners, it's a blessing because it's a drop-in solution. Get the neck, get new tuners, everything goes together real easy, done.
If you do not intend on using Fender brand tuners, those extra holes on the back of the headstock will be a curse. With just about any non-Fender tuners, not only will you have to drill new holes but open ones will be left behind. Not a good look...
...and this is where cheaper Strat copy necks are sometimes a better option for a replacement.
When you search for non-Fender Strat necks, these things are cheap, starting at around 50 bucks.
The only pre-drilled holes on one of these will usually be pegboard holes and nothing else. Yes, this means the butt of the neck won't have any pre-drilled holes either.
However, there is one thing - and it's a darned good thing - which makes cheap Strat copy necks way easier to deal with.
The 10mm solution
10mm pegboard holes, as in the holes the tuners are installed into, are what you want to make your life easier.
This sounds seemingly insignificant but wow, does it make it easier to get that new neck installed quicker.
When you have a neck with 10mm pegboard holes, you can install Wilkinson tuners, Gotoh tuners or pretty much any inline Strat equivalent tuner set.
The best part? Two words: ONE SCREW.
All you need to do to install these style of tuners is drill one small hole on the back of the headstock for each machine head. It is stupidly easy to install these things. Moreover, it's a clean installation since you don't have to cover up any other holes.
Worry about other stuff, not the tuners
Things like leveling frets, getting a proper neck pocket fit, possibly installing/replacing a nut (TUSQ is always a good choice) and so on... yes, you should put work into that stuff.
But as for tuners, no. Those should be easy. Slap on a set of Wilkinsons or Gotohs, one screw for each, a washer and nut on the other side for each, done and done.
How do you get 10mm pegboard holes?
That's the nice part. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any cheap replacement Strat copy neck should come with 10mm pegboard holes on the headstock for the tuners.
And by "explicitly stated otherwise", if the neck listing states it has "vintage" size pegboard holes, those are 11/32" (8.73mm) size, which are smaller than the modern 13/32" (10.32mm). The 13/32" is slightly larger than 10mm. But the 25/64" is 9.92mm. For all intents and purposes, that's 10mm.
Said another way, if the neck states the holes are 25/64", that means 10mm will also fit. It also means tuners stated to fit 25/64" holes will also fit 10mm and vice versa.
Also, if the clone neck listing does not state the pegboard hole size, you can safely assume a 25/64" a.k.a. 10mm size.
Also also, given the fact most imported necks have everything manufactured by by metric measurements anyway, it's more often than not true that any neck bought from an Asian country will have 10mm pegboard holes drilled.
Cheaper and easier?
When looking to save a buck, yes. But of course, clone necks don't guarantee an exact fit, especially at the neck pocket.
But at least things are a lot easier at the headstock side when fitting new tuners. You get a lot more choice when there are 10mm holes there.
This is most retro Casio watch released in almost 34 years
There's retro, and then there's really retro. Where 1980s Casio digital watch designs are concerned, this is as retro as it gets.
The watch I'm talking about is the Casio F-84W. For retro Casio enthusiasts, yes you've seen this watch before. It's basically a near-exact copy of the F-87W from 1986. The only difference is that the 87W has a red border and the 84W a blue border. If you look at the Casio F-87W, you'll see what I mean.
Is this watch for sale in the USA? Nope. (Update: Yes it is.) I had to order it from Japan, hence why you see the JDM packaging with the hang tag at top. Is it expensive? No. Mine cost slightly over $14 with shipping included.
Why did I buy this watch?
I have a Casio F-28W. Mine is in fairly good shape. When the F-28W was discontinued, it simply vanished. On very rare occasion you will see one pop up on eBay. It's always used, never new-in-box, and either really beat up, or the seller wants some ridiculous price for it. This model is clock-only. It doesn't beep, doesn't have a night light and has no alarm. Just time and date. The only other feature is the ability to switch from 12-hour to 24-hour and nothing else.
The F-84W is functionally identical to the F-91W in every way. If you know the F-91W, you already know the F-84W.
When I saw the F-84W had almost the exact same case shape and thinness as the F-28W, I jumped on it because I know this case very well.
The F-91W is slightly bigger and more angular. The W59 is slightly smaller than the F-91W but thicker.
With the F-84W, this is one of the lightest, thinnest watches one can wear that has the same super legibility of the F-91W. The only thing lighter would be a paper watch (which by the way are in fact real clocks that actually do tell time).
When I say this is the most retro digital watch Casio has released in almost 34 years, I'm not kidding. The F-84 has perfect mid-1980s digital styling. It has the older thinner model text, the "Lithium" word to promote the fact it has a lithium battery, and the alarm graphic right below that to promote the fact it has an alarm function.
Also, this is a very reserved design. The F-91W and W59 are slightly "loud" in appearance. Not the F-84W. It's very simple and pleasant to view.
Now of course, the original intent of this design back in the '80s was to look futuristic. But now it serves as a simple, well made digital timepiece that has a less-loud design compared to the F-91W.
Is the F-84W a tribute watch? No. It's the exact same thing they did almost 34 years ago. The only thing that's changed is the red to blue border and that it's made in Thailand instead of Japan. Otherwise this is literally the same watch from decades ago - and it's cheap to buy.
If you thought the F-91W was as retro '80s as it got with Casio digitals (which it never was since it was intoduced as a 1991 model), you were wrong. The F-84W is the king of the hill. The only thing more retro is a late 1970s era Casiotron model!
Will this ever be sold in the US? I guess that depends on whether or not Casio wants to spend the money to put this in a box, because that's the way all Casio North American packaging works for their watches.
At the time I write this, the F-84W is an eBay-only, Japan-only thing.
Lastly, is the F-84W better than the F-91W? No. As said above, they're functionally identical. Both watches have the same quality to them. The reason to buy the F-84W is for the mid-80s styling and the fact it's slightly smaller, thinner and lighter.