fixing a car radio
It's old, but it works. Mostly.
I finally got around to fixing the wonky volume control for my car radio. It's one of those pretend-analog things where there is an actual potentiometer in there, but the signal it controls is digital. Mine was in a state where it worked, but turning it in either direction could increase or decrease the volume and it was really difficult to land it on a specific volume.
The fix? DeoxIT D5. I've been mentioning that a lot recently, but yeah, it worked here. I pulled off the volume knob, gave a spritz in there, turn-turn-turn back and forth, spritz again, repeat. Knob back on, done. Now it works like it's supposed to.
Part of the problem with this control to begin with is that it's a pseudo-infinite adjust, which means a smooth feel when turned. If it had detents, then the problem never would have happened. And, wouldn't you know it, the knob on right side for choosing a radio station has detents. No problems with that one. I rest my case.
My car radio is not at 100%. Only 3 of 4 speakers work due to age. The front two work, but the driver's side rear never has since I got the car. I've literally been debating for years whether to replace the rear shelf speakers or not. Every time I consider doing it, the decision is always nope, not worth the effort. And that's due to the first car I ever owned. More on that in a moment.
The CD player stopping working a while ago. It will take a disc, but it's a tossup whether it will read or not. Also, it's a tossup whether the unit will actually eject the disc. The last time I had a disc in there, I honestly thought it was stuck, but after trying over and over again, the disc finally ejected. I've not put another disc in there since. Yes, I could take the whole radio out, take it apart, clean the lens and lubricate the mechanism. But like with the rear speakers, it's not worth the effort.
Everything else on the radio still works, including an AUX IN that I never use.
Do I even listen to the radio? Rarely, and that's the first reason I've not bothered replacing the rear speakers.
The second reason is that my very first car, a Civic from the early '80s, only had two front speakers. The car didn't have any radio originally, and the guy who sold it put in the cheapest AM/FM radio-with-cassette deck he could find, slapped in two speakers in the door panels and that was it. I was happy to have any way to listen to music in the car at the time.
The third reason is that me and car radios do not get along.
For that first car I had with that cheap AM/FM cassette deck thing, it never had a problem. Never "ate" tapes, and the radio always worked. True, it wasn't that loud, but it was good enough. It was just about every car radio I had after that which developed a problem or two or more.
Many moons ago when I was making regular trips from Vermont to Connecticut, I would be driving on I-91 and listening to the radio because there was music there I didn't have on tape. I could actually gauge how far along the trip I was because of one station I'd listen to for many miles. Once that station was out of range to where it was just static, I knew that I'd driven a little more than half the trip. And that kind of sucked because there weren't any other stations to listen to until I got to my destination. But that was how things were at the time in the long-ago 1990s.
What I've learned over the years is not to mess with car radios. If I try anything fancy, there will be problems. Just like car radios of the past, I've had CD players stop working and speakers that fuzz/blow out. And if I try to get fancy and connect something, be it wired or wireless, something will go wrong.
It absolutely does not matter how careful I am with a car radio. It could be absolutely bone stock without a single modification done to it, I could clean it regularly, never play it too loud and be super careful with it. Again, doesn't matter. Something on it will bust at some point. And it will be something decidedly annoying.
That first car radio spoiled me just because it always worked, even as cheap as it was.
What I've learned over the years with car radios is that if the radio and two front speakers work, I'm good.
I fixed the volume control. The front two speakers still work. The radio still works. I'm good.
strat shaped guitars with no pick guard
While I'm happy with my Yamaha Pacifica PAC112VM and it absolutely works for me, it does have a pick guard. Granted, it only covers the middle and neck pickups along with the selector switch, but still, that disqualifies it from the "super easy to maintain" category.
Truly super-easy Strat shape guitars have no pick guard at all because you can access the electronics for maintenance from the rear via small panels, so let's look at those.
Two things out of the way first:
First, if you gotta have a Fender Strat but want one with no pick guard, only two exist that I've mentioned before. Fender Aerodyne Special Stratocaster and Fender Aerodyne Special Stratocaster HSS. That's it. So if you just have to have Fender, there you go.
Second, I'm specifically going to concentrate on mid-tier guitars, but if "I want a Strat shape with no pick guard, I want it new, and want it cheap" sounds like you, see Jackson JS11 and JS12 Dinky models. To the best of my knowledge, that's the absolute rock bottom lowest cost no-pick-guard Strat shape you can get for a fully assembled guitar.
In my research for mid-tier Strat shape guitars with no pick guard, Ibanez and Schecter rule the roost here.
...is something I am seriously impressed by considering what you get for the money. The carve in the back is insanely good to get access to higher frets, which Ibanez calls the "Super All Access neck Joint". The neck itself is roasted maple. Can you say stainless steel frets? The AZ24S1F has them, and they're of the wide/tall flavor. Body is alder, pickups are alnico 5's, and yes, that little switch changes from humbucker to single-coil.
Ibanez claims you can get 10 different tone types out of this guitar because of the dyna-MIX10 system with "power tap" mode.
Can you?
Incredibly, yes.
Holy crap.
Even before mentioning the other guitars, the AZ24S1F is the best of the lot. No question.
...doesn't have as many features as the AZ24S1F does. But it does have 3 pickups instead of just 2, and the output jack is top-mounted instead of side-mounted, which is more convenient.
Also, the guitar is just straight up gorgeous. Natural finish with tastefully done flame and gold hardware. Even the tuners are gold. Yep. Also, something I personally like better about it is that it's a hardtail. No vibrato system whatsoever.
Simple, solid, easy-player, gorgeous guitar.
Schecter Traditional Van Nuys...
...is the old school Schecter design. Instead of the 3x3 tuners they use on basically everything, it has the 6 inline tuners like a Strat does. This is an HSS, and the humbucker has a nice chrome cover on it. Push-pull exists, so yes, you can get single-coil goodness out of the humbucker.
The only finish offered is Gloss Natural Ash, so it has that coffee table look going on. Ordinarily I don't like this, but this has a darker hue and it carries all the way to the headstock, so it works.
Schecter C-1 Exotic Spalted Maple...
...proved to me spalted maple can actually look good, because otherwise I can't stand the spalted maple look. This C-1 model somehow pulls it off and it looks right.
Again, this is one of those coffee table looking things, but Schecter just seems to get the right combination of colors while other guitar makers can't. Schecter just knows how to do natural.
In this one is a pair of zebra humbuckers, the body has binding (and looks good), the knobs have a mysterious red/brown look to them (which you'd think wouldn't work, but again, Schecter knows good color), and yes, I think this earns "Exotic" in its name.
As for the sound, it's the Schecter Diamond '78 humbuckers, and yes there is a toggle for single-coil sounds.
Straight up gorgeous guitar, just like the Ibanez offering.
Is the no-pick-guard Strat shape the way to go?
For a lot of guys, yes.
With all electric guitars, there's maintenance. Maintaining your guitar should be easy, because if it's complicated, you get annoyed with that real fast.
Also, one of the best parts about the double cutaway Strat shape is no neck dive. Not only is a no-pick-guard Strat style guitar easy to maintain, but also is an easy player sitting or standing.
I covered the mid-tier stuff because there are guys who want something nice that's not insanely priced and easy to maintain. Yes, you can get it, and do so without going to the poorhouse in the process.
finding a new case for an old phone can be annoying
This was (and still is) an adventure, and not one I wanted to take.
My phone is old. It's a 2016 model that I acquired in 2019, but it still works and I don't want to give it up. It takes fantastic photos, records fairly good videos (including 2K 30fps and 1080p 60fps resolutions) and gets the job done. The only thing it can't do is run certain apps because the Android version is old, but I can live without those for the time being.
I've only had one case for the phone this whole time, which as of recent ended up being a disgusting mess due to age and wear, so it had to be replaced.
Off to eBay I went to find a replacement phone case, of which there are many. Amazon also has many, but eBay is where I decided to go.
I find a case that looks okay, and make the order. A few days pass and it arrives.
Stupid thing doesn't fit.
Ugh..
Start an eBay return, go to eBay again, buy another case. Another few days pass, it arrives, and this one actually fits. Okay, good.
Technically, this new case is "better", but I prefer the design of the old one. The corner bumpers were done right. Not-so much on this one, but I literally have no other choice because nobody makes that style of case anymore...
...or so I thought.
For my original case, I had to fight to find that one back in '19. A fair amount of hunting around was required, but I found one on eBay, and it was only $3.29. Digging through some old emails, I was able to find the eBay seller who originally sold it. But of course, that seller no sells them.
Drat.
What I did have however was the title of the product the seller originally used.
I did an eBay search for that and... oh my God, I found it. The exact same case, proper corner bumpers and all.
One problem. It's in China and it'll cost $8.50 to get it.
The price is obviously cheap, so that's not the issue.
Being it will come from mainland China, it may take anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks to get here. And that's a risk, because sometimes buying stuff from there never makes it to the USA.
This is a risk I'm willing to take, because I really want my old phone case back.
I may end up $8.50 poorer with nothing to show for it, but only one eBay seller in China has my favorite phone case (believe me, I looked thoroughly), so... yep, gotta do it, take the risk and hopefully get my case back.
the nipple you need? guitar pot cleaning cap
I recently griped about Stratocaster design in how it's such an annoyance to clean the volume and tone pots. The cap I'm about to describe might be a solution. Maybe.
A reader emailed me and told me about a thing known as a pot cleaning cap. He called it a nipple. I'd never heard of this thing before, so I looked into it.
Out of the gate, you have to be careful buying one of these things for one reason. Statute vs. metric. Some are made for 3/8 x 32 thread, meaning those will not work for a metric size. But then there are others that state it fits 7mm and 8mm.
In other words, know the measurement you need before you buy one. If what you have with the scratchy pots on it was made in America or Mexico, it most likely uses 3/8 x 32 measurement potentiometers. If it's an import, then it's probably uses metric.
How does it work?
- Pull knob off
- Screw cap on
- Insert straw from DeoxIT D5 into the little hole in the cap
- Spray (lubrication travels down the shaft)
- Turn-turn-turn back and forth to spread lubrication
- Test to make sure scratchy noise gone
- Remove cap
- Put knob back on
Unless I'm missing a step, I believe that's how it's supposed to work.
Who benefits most from using this?
Anyone who owns a thing where it's an annoying production getting to the potentiometer to lubricate it.
Examples of this are the Fender Stratocaster, semihollow and hollow body guitars, and just about any guitar amplifier.
What's it made out of?
The majority of these caps I've seen for sale are made from either aluminum or brass, so it's safe for anybody to use, including those with a nickel allergy.
Do you have to use DeoxIT D5?
Not necessarily, but recommended because the stuff just works, and it's known to be safe for metals and plastics. You can peruse other contact cleaners if you like and maybe try WD-40 Specialist Contact Cleaner (which also claims to be safe on metals and plastics). There is also DeoxIT F5 specifically for faders, but I don't know if I'd feel comfortable using that on a potentiometer. For me, I use D5 and it gets the job done without damaging anything.
Does this cap actually work?
From what I've read, some guys swear by these things just because it saves so much time. Semihollow guitar owners especially love them because it can be ridiculously complicated snaking tools or straws or whatever inside the F-hole just to get a pot lubricated.
To answer the question directly however, I don't know because I don't own one since I just found out about them.
If you do have one, feel free to contact and let me know if it worked or not.
And on that note, price. Right. Not an expensive thing but also not exactly cheap. You're going to spend $10 to $30 for one. That's a little bit up there for something so small...
...but then again, the time this saves is arguably worth it. Also, depending on what gear you have, it may serve multi-duty for both your guitars and amps.
This is a specialty tool, to be sure, but sometimes you need a specialty thing to save yourself from an evening of swearing and throwing things across the room out of frustration.
old school emergency finance guide for the terminally online
I put this guide together for those who literally have no clue how to make payments if your debit or credit card gets frozen.
Before I begin, everything I'm going to say here is common sense to anybody born before 1995. And the reason I say that is because even if you were born in '95, you were 18 years old in 2013, which is right around the time when smartphones were beginning to take over everything. However, you were still taught (or at least should have been) how to pay for things without a phone nor internet.
For those born after '95, however... different story. There are loads of people in their teens and 20s that literally do not know how to address a letter for mailing, much less understand how to pay for anything without a computer. And yeah, that is part of this guide, so let's get to it.
The situation
A day comes when the normal online way you pay decides to stop working. It doesn't matter whether you pay from an app on your phone or a browser on a computer. There's a bill to pay, you can't pay it because the payment system you use decided to break, and now you're in a state of panic.
How do you prepare for a situation like this?
I'll tell you.
Step 1. Have cash on hand somewhere.
When I say "cash on hand", that means you have placed physical cash somewhere in your living space for emergency use. It doesn't matter where it is as long as you can get to it.
The absolute bare minimum of cash on hand should be $100 in small bills. If you're not familiar with that term, small bills usually refers to 20's. This is important because some places do not accept cash in denominations over $20. In other words, have five twenty dollar bills in an envelope somewhere in your living space.
Ideally, you should have $300 to $500 in cash on hand, again in small bills. That amount of physical money should be able to cover most small emergencies for when you need to pay a bill. But, given the state of things these days, asking a younger person to keep that much cash on hand is a big ask. This is why I say if you can get together $100 in cash in small bills, that's better than nothing.
Step 2. Find out the payment mailing address for every account you have.
To make a manual payment through the mail, you need the mailing address to mail it to.
Every credit card issuing bank in the United States has a payment address, and there are usually two. The first one is for normal payments, and it's ordinarily a PO box. The second is either for fast overnight payments and/or higher security when sending a very large payment that requires them to sign to receive it. The one you'll most likely use will be the PO box.
Get the address(es), write it down (yes, actually put pen to paper), and keep it with your physical cash on hand so you actually know where it is.
Step 3. Get the account number for every account you have.
When sending a payment by mail, the account number needs to be listed on your payment. I'll give more detail on this in a moment. An example of an account number would be the credit card number printed on the card. The expiration date and CVV is not necessary. Just the account number.
Step 4. Buy security envelopes and a book of stamps.
Regular envelopes and security envelopes look the same on the outside, but the inside of the security envelope has a printed pattern so you can't see what's inside when held up to a light bulb.
You'll notice on listings for security envelopes that the product photo actually shows the pattern on the inside, because that's the whole reason you buy them in the first place.
A book of "forever stamps" is available to purchase at your local post office and most grocery stores. You'll probably be going to the grocery store to get your stamps. You can't buy stamps off a shelf because that's not the way they are sold. Go to the customer service area or wherever they issue the money orders to get them.
And speaking of which...
Step 5. Learn how to purchase a money order.
If you don't have a checking account or the one you have becomes frozen for whatever reason, a money order is how you buy something that looks and acts like a check, but you buy them as one-time purchases. Money orders are not things you buy now and save for later, because they do expire if not used within a certain period of time, meaning you buy it when you need it. Also, money orders are not free, but not expensive either.
Generally speaking, there are three places to buy money orders. Any bank, any post office, and most grocery stores.
Chances are you'll probably be buying your stamps (which you can save for later) and your money orders all from the grocery store.
How do you buy the money order? With the cash you have on hand. Just remember the money order costs extra. It should be between $1.50 to $3 per money order, depending on where you go. Banks always charge the most, the post office usually charges the least, and the grocery store is usually mid-priced (although sometimes they beat the USPS in price, depending on store).
For example, if you need to send a payment of $20 and the cost of a money order is $1.50, you're going to spend $21.50.
Putting it all together
On the money order, you write down the name of the company you're sending the payment to, and your account number in the memo field, which is usually at lower left. After that, put the money order in the envelope.
On the envelope, you write down the full payment address in the middle of the envelope, write YOUR address at the top left of the envelope, and then place one stamp at the top right of the envelope. And when I say YOUR address at top left, make sure that address matches that of your account you're making a payment on.
After that, mail the letter. The three general ways to do this are:
Mailbox at a house. You put the letter in the mailbox and then turn the little plastic or metal flag on the side of the mailbox upward. An upward flag tells the postal worker who delivers the mail that there is a letter in there to be mailed out. He or she will take the letter the next time they come by and bring it back to the post office to be mailed out.
If it's a cluster of mailboxes at an apartment complex, there will be a slot somewhere on the cluster just for outgoing mail. That slot should be marked with a sticker that says "OUTGOING MAIL". If you can't find where it is, ask your apartment manager to show you.
At most post offices is the big blue box, which is literally a big blue metal box that sits outside. Some have a big slot you can put outgoing mail into, others have a pull-down flap, and some have both. Either one can be used for outgoing mail. Alternatively, if you go to the post office while it's open, you can walk inside, go to a clerk, hand them your letter and ask to add to their outgoing mail.
Postmarking, and why it's important
You have a bill due next Monday, but the only time you can mail your payment out is on Friday. Obviously, your mailed money order will not get to the company by Monday. Does that mean you will get a late fee?
No. Or rather, you shouldn't.
If you look at any regular letter you receive in the mail (meaning not a flyer), you'll see the outside of the envelope stamped with a date. That is a postmark, and that date is not when the letter was sent, but rather when the letter was received for processing by the post office.
That postmark is what companies go by for determining if a payment has arrived late or not. If you mail your payment on Friday, and your letter is picked up whether from a house mailbox, cluster mailbox or post office itself, it will be postmarked as that Friday date.
What this means is that if a bill is due next Monday, you mailed your payment on Friday, but the mailed letter isn't received by the company you mailed it to until next Wednesday, that's technically not a late payment because of the Friday postmark.
I said above that you shouldn't get a late fee for paying a bill this way. The reality is that it depends on whom your sending the payment to. Most companies will honor the postmark. But some other businesses (usually landlords) may get a bug up their backside where if a bill isn't physically received by the due date, you get socked with a late charge no matter what.
If this concerns you, call the company and ask if they honor postmarks for bill payments. They will know exactly what you mean when you inquire about it, and it's a fair question to ask anyway, because you're just trying to pay a bill on time.
Generally speaking, the best way to stay ahead of the curve with mailed payments is to always mail payments one full week in advance unless a major holiday is approaching. If a mailed payment is happening any time around Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or New Year's Day, increase your lead time to two weeks instead of just one.
Yes, you should make a test payment to try this out
For younger folk who have never mailed out a payment, it's scary stuff because there's a lot of physical involvement here. Get your envelopes, get your stamps, get your money order(s). Mail out the payment(s) and not know when it's actually going to get there (which is the scariest part). And even if the payment is received by the company and successfully processed, it's unlikely you'll be notified about it and you'll have to either go online and see if a payment was processed, or (gasp!) call the company and ask if they got the payment or not.
My personal take on this whole process
To me, one of the more amazing things is that money orders, even as ancient as they are, still exist and sell very well. There's more than a fair share of people to this day who pay most if not all their bills by mail using nothing but money orders.
Why? Several reasons, but there are two big ones.
First, most companies won't accept cash payments in the mail.
Officially, the USPS says it's legal to mail cash up to $500, and if over $500 it has to be sent via registered mail. But again, most companies won't accept a payment in the mail as cash, so it's not even worth the bother.
Second, some people just don't like banks.
Since companies won't accept cash payments in the mail, a mailed payment has to be in the form of a check (personal check, bank check, cashier's check, business check, certified check, traveler's check or whatever), or a money order.
Money orders do not require using a bank to get one. Yes, the bank obviously offers them, but most who use money orders will just go to the post office or grocery store whenever one is needed.
As electronically connected as we all like to think we are, every now and then you come across somebody who is as anti-connected as they come and pays for everything with cash and money orders. Yes, people like this spend an extra $1.50 to $3 every time they pay a bill, not including the cost of envelopes and stamps, but they're happy to pay bills that way.
Reasons vary wildly as to why some people are 100% cash-and-money-order types, but oh yes, they're out there.
Old school bill pay knowledge is good to know
I'm glad the money order still exists, if for no other reason than it's a guaranteed way to get out a payment that will absolutely work. A money order cannot be argued with because it has to be funded in advance for it even to exist.
Even if you are a Gen X like me, you really should take the time to gather the account number and payment address information for every active account you have. And you should have some cash on hand like I said above should you ever need to do the money order thing.
If you need to pay a bill, and your normal online way of paying goes on the fritz or a card stops working or whatever it is, yeah, that will suck. But you can still get out a payment the old school way with a check or money order just like you used to do and get on with life.