This is the coolest Jackson King V there is

This guitar has some crazy good looks to it - and it's a Jackson.

To be honest, I've never liked the King V from Jackson. I always liked the Rhoads V with the shorter bottom fin (which can be had for a very nice price), but never the King - until now.

Take the X Series Signature Scott Ian King V by Jackson. This King V is the first that actually has a great look to it. It's a combination of vintage Flying V and modern Jackson goodness that works oh-so nicely.

24.75" scale? Yes. 12"-to-16" compound radius? Yes. Set neck construction? Yes. Neck and headstock binding? Yes. Awesome pearloid block inlays? Yes. Dopey vibrato system? No, thank God. It's a good ol' hardtail top-loader V, the way it was meant to be.

Although this is called a King V, I call it a Super Flying V. It's got the right hardware, to be sure, but the styling touches are amazing.

When I call this the coolest King V there is, I'm not joking. I'd be proud to play this one on stage. Killer guitar.

Some Gibson Custom guitars are better than others

If you're going to spend big money on a Gibson Custom guitar, some have certain things about them that are better than other models.

At the guitar festival I attended earlier this year, I did see some high-end Gibson Custom builds. All of them were nice, obviously.

However, were I to spend the big cash on something, such as a Gibson Custom 1957 Les Paul Standard Natural Back VOS in Antique Metallic Teal, it's good to know what you're getting into when buying one of these things.

The big deal with the Gibson I just mentioned is that it's a True Historic model. This takes a little explanation to describe what that exactly is.

Generally speaking, you have three types of yesteryear new builds. Reissue build, spec build and historic correct build. Guitar companies use various names to describe each, but they all fall into one of those three categories.

A reissue is a model of guitar that looks like the model it's made to emulate, but doesn't exactly follow how it was made originally. Things will be different, such as finishing, woods used, electronics used, and so on.

A spec build is a reissue that follows all the same dimensions as the original, but again does not necessarily use all the same materials or electronics the original did.

A historic correct build is when every single last little thing on the guitar is built exactly like it was originally in the past. Same measurements and dimensions, same finishing, same woods, same electronics, same wiring, and oftentimes the same tooling. The only things not correct will be due to lack of availability. An example of this is when a guitar company uses synthetic ivory (called ivoroid) instead of real ivory. No guitar company will go club a seal or shoot down an elephant to get real ivory for a guitar build regardless of how much money is offered, so synthetic will be used instead.

The Gibson seen above is an example of a historic correct build, and that's a reason for the high price tag. It's not just another reissue or spec build. This is meant to be a guitar that would be exactly (as much as possible) the same thing you would have bought in '57.

The Big Question: Does this build style make it a better playing instrument?

No. It will have the same quirks the original '57 did, which is in fact what buyers of this guitar want.

The reason you buy one of these is because it's a far smarter choice than buying the actual genuine article.

If you bought an actual '57 Les Paul, that's a 62-year-old instrument and absolutely unplayable due to age. You can look at it, admire the instrument and such, but you can't play it. Even the lightest play on that guitar can result in breaking something which instantly devalues it by thousands of dollars.

I can assure you that you don't want a valuable vintage guitar where bakelite plastic was used for pick guards or tuner buttons, or used thin little screws to hold things in either. That plastic and metal after 62 years is so brittle that even the slightest pressure will cause it to crack, or in worst case disintegrate. Yes, disintegrate. As in turn to dust to where it can never be repaired.

A guitar is a machine. It's not like a 1940s era Philco radio that just sits on a table and doesn't move. Guitars are moved every time they get played, and again, when I say a 62-year-old electric guitar is unplayable, I'm not kidding. You can't play it. Well, not unless you destroy the value of it by replacing all the brittle parts with new...

...which is why you buy the new historic correct build. That's absolutely playable. It has everything the original had, and you can pick it up any time you want, strum away happily and not worry about it.

Yeah, it's expensive. But if you want that "real '57", the smarter money is spent on the new build. It's everything the original '57 was, with one big difference. You can admire and play this one whenever you want.

The Second Big Question: Have the imports caught up?

Oh, yes. Just take a look at the Epiphone Les Paul 59. Guitars like that really bring into question whether the super-high-end stuff is even worth it, because with that Epi, you're getting something very, very nice.

Probably the last time you will ever see this Fender Strat for this little

I apologize in advance if you're too late to grab this one, but maybe you won't be if you get to it fast enough.

I was scanning around and found this black Stratocaster. It's a Mexico build, and the selling point of it is really simple to understand. It's an open-box special that's selling for...

...under $500. Well under $500, actually. What's wrong with it? It's a "blemish" open-box, but there's nothing wrong with it otherwise.

The cool part is that you still get the warranty. That's the single biggest advantage of buying blem/open-box over used (which usually has no warranty at all).

I seriously dig this Strat. It's the last outgoing Mexico Standard with those oh-so sweet ceramic magnet pickups that aren't used anymore. This is not the new Player model but the older (and arguably better) Standard.

For many, myself included, this is a near-perfect Strat. Truss rod adjustment at the headstock, ceramic magnet pickups, full size body, "spaghetti" Fender logo instead of "transition", 6-screw bridge, standard neck connection (meaning no micro-tilt which never really worked right anyway), standard proper 21-fret neck with normal size frets, standard proper electronics, single string tree, black-on-black with parchment color plastics and single piece maple neck.

Is this a special edition Standard? Yes, it is. All that means is a Mexico Standard with an American Standard appearance, which is the best of both worlds.

If you have the cash, grab this one.. if it's still available by the time you read this.

If you did miss out on the open-box, it's still available as brand new for a little over $500 at the time I write this in June 2019. Still a great deal for what it is. If you wanted The Last Great Fender Standard Strat, well, this is it. And the price is right.

Guitar wrist pain and watches

I like guitars. I like watches. But wearing a watch is not the best thing to do when playing guitar. I'll explain what I do to get around that so I can wear a watch while playing and avoid wrist pain 100%.

In my recent adventures with fret hand pain, I decided to take an extra step where watches are concerned. This step has everything to do with the strap.

The fret hand pain I had wasn't specifically in the wrist, but over time it might have been due to what I discovered.

Here are some things I found out.

Metal watch bracelets "fall up" and create a pressure point

Metal bracelets aren't worn tight because that creates ugly marks on your wrist. For everyday wear, having the bracelet slightly loose is totally normal and you'll never have a problem. But when playing guitar, it does cause a problem because then the watch travels up the forearm and then gets tight. That's where the pressure point is created.

The grip from that tightness can really mess with your wrist as you move your fingers around during guitar play.

I absolutely will not wear a metal bracelet anymore during guitar play for that reason.

Leather, resin (rubber) and nylon watch straps do not lay the watch flat enough on the wrist

When not using metal and instead going with leather, resin or nylon, more often than not this results in the watch not laying down flat enough. The end result of this is that the watch is "leaning up" at a slight angle during guitar play, which creates a small pressure point on the underside of the wrist.

This isn't anywhere near as bad as what happens when you wear a metal bracelet, but still, it does introduce a pressure point that can cause pain from longer guitar playing sessions.

Solution: More surface area fixes everything

Determined to find a way to be able to somehow wear a watch that didn't create any pressure points during guitar play, the solution presented itself in the form of increasing surface area on the wrist.

There are two ways to do this.

Method 1 is to wear a sweatband and then strap the watch around it. This adds more surface area, allows the watch to lay flat and the band is super comfortable to wear.

Method 2 is a cuff bracelet. This goes by several names. Sometimes it's called a gauntlet strap. Other times it's called a bund strap. It has the right look and also will fit many watches and smartwatches (because let's face it, smartwatch bands are just terrible).

Given that I prefer smaller timepieces, I went with one that fit the Casio. Specifically, my AW49HE model. It's cheap, but the blue dial looks nice, the little digital part at bottom shows digital time and is also where to set an alarm or use the stopwatch. It's a basic 36mm size that works.

The cuff strap I have absolutely does not pull or push on my wrist in any negative way while playing guitar. Mission accomplished.

As a bonus, the cuff strap immediately made my cheap AW49HE look more upscale. The strap that connects to the watch is nylon, but the rest is leather and that's what physically touches the wrist. Brown leather looks cool as long as it's subtle, and mine definitely qualifies as such. I didn't want anything garish or gaudy on my wrist, so what I went with totally works.

There is however a negative. In hotter weather, sweat does make this type of strap stick to the skin and there's just no way around that. For outdoor day gigs, it would not be a good idea to wear the leather cuff strap, so I will most likely be buying some sweatbands and use a resin strap watch over it. Most of my resin strap watches are black, so a black watch over a black sweatband would be my choice. Obviously, this won't look as good as leather, but it would get the job done.

I would of course sweat playing outside in the heat, but a sweatband is designed for soaking up sweat, so it would be used for its intended purpose. And I still get to wear a watch while I play.

I sold my G-SHOCKs

Both my G-SHOCKs are gone, and I'm totally okay with it.

Last week I sold off both my G-SHOCK watches. Both of them were DW-9052V models, and were originally bought used in mint condition. I wore one semi-regularly and it developed some light wear on the strap. The other I never wore, and bought it solely for the strap because it was cheaper to get the whole watch rather than buy a factory replacement.

After recently getting my WS1000H, I realized that I had no more need for the G-SHOCKs, so I posted them to eBay and they were shipped out a week later. I didn't make back what I originally bought them for, but in the end I only lost about 15 bucks, so that's not too bad.

My tumultuous experience with G-SHOCK watches

The DW-9052V was the only G-SHOCK I ever liked. Prior to that I briefly owned a DW5600E and a G9100 Gulfman, both of which were returned quickly. Why? Neither fit my wrist correctly...

...but it's not because of the watch case itself. It's the straps Casio uses.

My wrist gets along with nylon straps Casio makes such as the DW-9052V has. But where resin straps on a G-SHOCK are concerned, no frickin' way. They never fit right no matter what.

For the DW5600E in particular, there is the option of getting strap adapters to switch over to a NATO strap. Does it work? Yes. And it makes the watch fit much better. But I didn't want to put the money into it. It turns a $45 watch into $70. True, that's not a lot of money. But I didn't get it just based on principle. I shouldn't have to do that, so I didn't and just went with the DW-9052V instead.

There was another reason I was fine parting ways with the DW-9052V, and that was legibility issues. Pretty much all G-SHOCKs have this problem. The watch is made to be tough. In order to achieve that, the case has to be thick, and I understand that. The tradeoff is that the display has to be sunken down into the case and the LCD characters made smaller.

Digit display on most G-SHOCKs is small. For things other than the clock and date in icon form, they're almost unreadable. With the DW-9052V, the icons for alarm, hourly signal and 24-hour indicator can barely be seen unless staring at the dial directly in bright sunlight, or by using the night light.

How to get tough and legible?

The only way is to go with a high contrast analog display.

Only one G-SHOCK exists that almost gets it right, the G100-9CM.

Legibility is really good here. Black dial with contrasting indices and hands. It doesn't get any better than this. Unfortunately, the digital part is, of course, shrunken and small. But at least you can tell the time very easily at a glance.

The G100 is a "small" G-SHOCK with 49.6mm lug-to-lug, 47.8mm case size and 15.7mm thickness with a weight of 59g, but it's still tough all over, no question about it.

If I ever get another G-SHOCK, it will be a G100. For now, I'm sticking with my WS1000H. It's a runner's watch and not a tough watch, but it works great for me.