Fender American Performer series guitars
Fender just released a new line of American guitars, the Performer series. Nice for what they are, but there are some models better than the rest.
The new Performer series comes in Strat, Strat HSS, Tele, Mustang, Jazzmaster and some bass flavors. My favorite is the Telecaster Hum.
Here's my overview:
Worst of the lot is the Jazzmaster. That may sound odd coming from me since I like the Jazzmaster guitar, but believe me, I have a good reason. It has a Stratocaster bridge on it, and a Stratocaster back plate too. The guitar is just plain weird. Fender should have just kept this one as a hardtail top-loader.
After that Jazzmaster, things get better.
The Mustang is cool. Really cool, actually. My only knock against the guitar is the fact Fender decided to eliminate the pickup slider switches and instead put in a 3-way toggle pickup selector. I can forgive that however since the rest of the guitar is just plain great. This is an "affordable" American short scale and it's done right.
The best part of the Strat is the return to a 6-screw bridge. I've never liked the 2-point. The styling is great, the choice to use the "transition" silver Fender logo is cool, and this guitar gets it right all around. My only knock against this one is the use of 2 string trees. Minor nitpick at best, however.
On the HSS Strat, Fender smartly offers this guitar with a push-pull knob to switch the humbucker to a single-coil and back again. Very nice. Good choice.
For the Tele, there's really not much I can say other than yeah, it's a good Tele and I dig the '70s styling of it. It's the same simple guitar it's always been, and that's what makes it great.
The Tele Hum however is the winner of the lot. The Vintage White looks absolutely fantastic. This one having the humbucker at the neck really captures that '70s custom Tele vibe. The guitar thankfully does not have the ability to switch the humbucker to single-coil - and believe me, that is totally correct. A humbucker at the neck position in a Telecaster should be "all humbucker," and this one is. You get the knobs with knurled sides, you get the brass saddles, you get the great tuners, it's all there.
Are these guitars just rebadged American Special series?
No. There are changes to each model so that all of them are actual new-model guitars.
My only confusion here is that Fender now has this odd thing going on where the Performer and Professional series are quite literally only $350 apart from each other in price.
What this has done is cheapen the Professional Series. You see the Performer Series, then see a Professional Series, then notice the $350 difference between the two (which is not a lot,) then wonder if the Performer is too expensive or the Professional is too cheap...
...and both those thoughts are correct. Performer should have had a price of $999 to put a $450 difference between it and the Professional, because $350 is just too close.
Performer Series are all great guitars, but the goof was in the pricing structure. If Fender knocks back Performer by $100 to a $999 price point, that will give the proper price point gap between models and make them all winners.
LED Christmas lights are still terrible
I'm glad you can still buy incandescent Christmas lights.
Recently, I watched a video where the guy described fairy lights as the best kind to have. They're called twinkling lights, and they're wonderful...
...but only if you get the incandescent kind and not LED.
I was fortunate enough to locate two 100-count of these in an Ace Hardware. It was the last two boxes the store had, so I was lucky to get them at all. And yes, they are wonderful and have that perfect warm glow for what Christmas lights are supposed to look like.
This is the exact set I bought. The online price for these things is a few bucks higher compared to the in-store price. My price was $7.99 a box locally, online price is about 5 bucks higher.
Worth it? Yes. As I said, these are what proper Christmas lights are supposed to look like.
Why LED is still awful for Christmas lights
Although LED uses less electricity and doesn't give off any heat you can feel, the light color and glow is just plain wrong. It's too bright and the colors aren't what they're supposed to be.
Proper Christmas lights are not supposed to be ridiculously bright since the entire purpose of them is to be decorative. They should have a soft, warm glow to them. White lights should have a silver or gold tint to them, and colored lights should have deep colors and only in red, gold, green and blue.
LED white lights have this beaming effect when lit and have no warm glow at all.
LED colored lights also have no warm glow and for some ridiculous reason have purple bulbs that just look terrible.
The LED version of twinkling lights also gets it completely wrong. They have an on/off blink like a switch, again no appreciable nice glow, and just look stupid.
I know why LED Christmas lights are still bad. It's because they have not caught up to where house lights are just yet.
For those that remember when LED light bulbs first appeared in the market, they were all one color. Stark, bright white. The kind that hurts your eyes just to look at it. After a few years and many complaints by consumers, bulb companies started producing "soft white" LED bulbs that are much more pleasing to the eye.
Christmas lights in the LED variety haven't come around to making string sets with softer light just yet. Eventually they will, but definitely not this year. When I perused all the Christmas LED lights, all of them were the same. Stark light, no warm glow, no fade in/out twinkling like the old sets had... yeah, someone has to go back to the drawing board there.
Presently, LED works best for outdoor Christmas light use, but definitely not indoor.
Best to stay with incandescent for indoor use until someone creates an LED set that has the right color, correct glow and hopefully correct twinkling effect too.
Line 6 Spider is more than good enough for metal guitar tones
I'm starting to believe naysayers of this amp really don't get how amps work.
I own a Line 6 Spider V 60 amp and am very happy with it. However, one thing I've seen a lot of is, of course, metalheads that say the amp sucks and can't do metal tones at all.
I beg to differ.
Metal is a music style I hardly even play anymore, but with just a few quick edits to a preset, I was able to get a fairly decent metal guitar tone out of the Spider V. With a Telecaster. A single-coil Telecaster. A Squier Bullet cheap-as-dirt Telecaster.
This something I was able to do with very little effort. One guitar, one Spider V amp plugged in direct over USB, nothing else.
Again, I used a cheap Tele. Can you imagine how this would sound if a rock guitar built for metal tones like the Schecter Hellraiser C-1 was used? Or maybe an Ibanez RG421AHM?
Believe me, the Spider V sings with some simple preset editing. Don't let anyone tell you different.
And remember, the Spider V Remote software is free by Line 6. It's on Line 6's software page. If editing presets direct from the amp is too much of a bother, just plug in to a computer and do it there instead.
Over a shoebox full of Casio watches
Yeah, this is ridiculous.
By nature I am a bit of a minimalist, but the one thing I genuinely have too much of are Casio wristwatches. They are plentiful, after all.
My Casio watches fill up an entire shoebox plus a few extra timepieces on the side.
I didn't buy these watches all at once. It took years to get as many as I have. Each year I would pick up 2 or 3 of them. I've not counted them all, but I think I have over 20 now, most of which have their boxes.
The most expensive one of the lot was the A500WGA-9DF because it's a gold color. And, of course, I have the stainless steel version too.
The second most expensive was my second G-SHOCK DW-9052V, both bought used for under $40 each. Why two? The first one started getting some fraying on the strap keeper, and it was cheaper to just outright buy a second one instead of getting a replacement strap. Eventually, when the first one finally gives up the ghost, I'll have the second ready-to-use.
At least it's a cheap hobby that doesn't take up too much space
A slightly-more-than-a-shoebox's worth of digital watches doesn't get in the way of anything, and I do genuinely enjoy having variety for what I want to wear on the wrist on any given day.
Sometimes I feel like something thin and in steel like the A158WEA. Sometimes I want something small and light with countdown timer like the F201. Sometimes I want a big display like the SGW100B. Sometimes I go with the G-SHOCK. Sometimes I strap on the CA-53 calculator watch. Whatever I'm in the mood for.
Yes, my watches actually get used. Most of them, anyway.
Casio W59 inbound
In the late 2000s I had a W59 and returned it, but I've decided to give it another go because while I really like the F-91W (I have 2 of them), the W59 has slightly better water resistance and slightly bigger buttons on it.
Function-wise, the F-91W and W59 are identical. Size-wise, the W59 is a little smaller, but I've got small wrists anyway so that's not a big deal. (For larger wristed folk that like the F-91W but want a bigger case, the W217H is a much better choice. Steel version is the B650WD).
Will I keep the W59? I won't know that until I receive it. I'm no stranger to returning watches I don't like as I've done that several times. But I think this one will work out and it should see some decent wrist time.
Fender Jazzmaster in CME Lake Placid Blue
I'm not sure if this works or not.
This is not a regular production Jazzmaster solely because of color. Ordinarily, the Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster Special is only available in 3-color sunburst or black and that's it.
But then there's this Jazzmaster in Lake Placid Blue. It's a CME exclusive color. Every now and then, CME being a large seller will order up colors exclusive to only that shop. While technically not FSR (Fender Special Run), it's treated the same where you get the same price, same warranty and so on.
Lake Placid Blue on a Jazzmaster with matching headcap is not new because this particular finish was available in the 1960s as a custom order. However, it was with a white pick guard and not tortoise shell.
If this guitar had the white guard, I'd consider it a total winner. But with the tortoise shell, not-so much.
However, there's no stopping anyone from buying this new Jazzmaster, taking off the tortoise shell guard and replacing with a Fender issued "vintage" new guard in eggshell white.
To anyone considering picking this guitar up: If you do get this, get the white guard separately and install it yourself (or have a tech do the work). Trust me, that simple color swap makes a huge difference in how this guitar looks in the positive direction.