Casio A168 camouflage special edition
To my pleasant surprise, this really is a special edition that delivers.
How it delivers is not so much with the watch itself but rather the packaging.
Before I get into this, there are some Casio collectors that are real sticklers for details. If that sounds like you, the exact model of watch I have is the A168WEC-1EF.
Now as far as the functionality of this watch is concerned, if you know the F-91W or the A158 with module 593, you already know this watch. And if you know the regular A168 or the F105W (both of which have the EL nightlight), the A168WEC-1EF is functionally identical to those models.
When I got this watch in the mail, I noticed the package was a bit flat. This immediately disappointed me because I thought the seller did not include the box. But then I got real happy when I opened the package and saw the special teal colored sleeve.
The sleeve is just felt material and nothing more with a stamped silver "CASIO". It's not expensive material by any means, but this is the first time I have ever seen an official Casio sleeve. In the US, Casio watches are never sold like this. Most of the time all you get is a box. Sometimes you get the upscale G-SHOCK tins, but only if you buy a high-priced model.
I purchased this watch direct from a seller in Spain, and this specific EU model (you can see EU on the hangtag) does come delivered in the sleeve.
Yes, I know, it's just a cheap felt sleeve. But it's little things like that which make this model of watch special and separate it from a regular A168 model.
On the back of the watch, Casio does use a different model name for this edition. Instead of A168 there is A168WE.
But of course the main reason to own this watch is for the face.
I do not like the look of the regular A168. Yes, I like "retro" Casio design as much as any other fan of the brand, but I've never cared for the A168's face.
The A168WEC-1EF face obviously has the gray camouflage pattern, but also has a few things removed. Nowhere on the face does it state ELECTROLUMINESCENCE, ILLUMINATOR or WATER RESIST. That text is thankfully gone and makes the watch look far more appealing.
As I said before, the only reason I never bought the A168 before now was because of the styling. This one is styled better.
Real-life appearance
The gray camouflage pattern works well with the stainless steel bracelet, and I consider the watch best used as an everyday casual timepiece. This wouldn't work with a suit but does work with a t-shirt or polo shirt easily.
The case size of the A168WEC-1EF is also about as good as it gets. Corner-to-corner, the case measures a little over 38mm. To put that in perspective, that's a full 2mm wider than the F-91W, which for all intents and purposes makes this A168 a slightly-larger-than-midsize timepiece.
According to official Casio measurements, the A168WEC is 38.6mm tall x 36.3mm wide x 9.6mm thick. I measured the case myself and yes the measurements match if you include the little "shoulders" where the buttons are.
Negatives
The only negative I can give this watch is the display panel. While the watch is larger than the F-91W, it's not as readable. This is something most people wouldn't notice, but I notice it. The F-91W has a perfect digital display and it's just a genius design. It might be small but it's ultra-readable and can be read at almost any angle. The A168 however has a display that's slightly countersunk with slightly smaller digit segments. It totally works and there's nothing wrong with it, but the F-91W is still the readability king...
...except where the nightlight is concerned. The EL nightlight of the A168 is spot-on perfect and that is the biggest selling point of the watch, functionally speaking, since the feature set is identical to the F-91W. The EL has perfect illumination with a perfect aqua blue color while the F-91W's backlight is terrible.
Overall
I wanted the A168 but hated the style. Then I saw the A168WEC-1EF, its styling suits me and yes, I'm keeping this one.
Fender Special Edition Noir Stratocaster and Telecaster
I'm not sure how I feel about these...
... but at least Fender is doing something different.
There is the Fender Special Edition Stratocaster HSS Noir Satin. There is also a Telecaster version.
As far as I can tell, both these guitars are just appearance packages. The Strat is a Mexico-made Fender Standard Stratocaster and the Telecaster is a Mexico-made Fender Standard Telecaster.
The body finishes on these guitars appears to be satin black, which results in a dulled gloss and not a high gloss. And I believe the satin urethane finish is on both the body and headstock.
As far as what the pick guard is made of, I've no idea. It has a brushed texture look to it with red outline. Whether it has actual texture or is just a print, that I don't know.
The logo treatment on the headstock appears to be in red text, with the Fender transition logo in either a silver or gold outline (probably silver).
The only weirdness I find here is that the Strat has a half-blackout treatment. The output jack is black but the bridge and saddles are not. As for the Tele, the hardware was kept all in chrome there.
Cool? Not cool? You can be the judge of that.
As for price, each is priced $50 higher than the regular version, which for this appearance package is fair since you never see the red pick guard outlines nor red Fender logo/model text on the headstock.
Casio A168WEC inbound
I need another watch like I need another hole in the head, but this one caught my eye.
Before I get into that, as of late I've been wearing nothing but Casio watches, because I am a Casio guy. The brand just speaks to me. I do own other watches from different brands, and while true I could in fact get more functionality out of a Timex Ironman for real cheap, I just keep going back to Casio.
On a daily basis I wear either the G-SHOCK DW9052 or the Databank CA53W. But then I had the urge to grab my A158WEA and put that on, so I did and wore it for a short spell. While wearing it, I thought, "This thing would be so much nicer if it had the EL nightlight on it like my DW9052 does..."
EL means electroluminescent, which is Casio's version of Timex's Indiglo. While the A158 that stems from the F-91W keeps its traditional module (both have exact same module 593), the old-school nightlight LED bulb is just terrible. Very weak and almost useless.
The solution to the weak nightlight is to get a Casio with the far superior EL. If you want something very similar to the F-91W with EL, that's the F105W. And when you want something with a steel bracelet, there's the A168.
I, however, don't like the styling of the A168 which is why I've never bought one...
...until now.
There is a special edition of the A168, the A168WEC. Instead of the black border dial with big blue stripe at top and multicolored text around the dial or the regular A168, this one has a monochromatic treatment to it with gray camouflage border. This is a style I like a lot better over the stock A168.
Best styling for this style of watch? No. That honor belongs to a special edition of the A158, the A158WEA-1EF.
I'm half tempted to get that one at some point just for its look because it has a total blackout of the dial while keeping the same gray LCD. The only colors present for text are white and gray, which is just right. This has the look and style of a ritzy Seiko digital from the early '80s and that's just cool. This is as elegant as digital gets. Unfortunately it does not have an EL nightlight. Just the old LED bulb. But the styling is spot-on good.
Anyway, back to the A168WEC.
I don't have it yet because it's still in the mail en route. But from what I've seen in photos, I think the styling will agree with me.
The gray camouflage version is the one I liked best. There are actually 4 versions. There's the gray camo A168WEC-1EF, the A168WEC-3EF which is stainless steel and green camo, the A168WEGC-3E which to my eye is an absolutely disgusting and stupid looking gold + green camo, and the A168WEGC-5EF which is a slightly better but still ugly gold + brown/light-brown camo.
Yes, it is crazy what Casio rolls out when you look around. And I'm certain there will be those who will absolutely love even the disgusting gold camo versions and immediately buy them.
Another reason I don't like the stock A168 is because it's too easy to acquire and too common. For something like the A168WEC, you have to be watching Casio's catalog to know it even exists. This is similar to how G-SHOCK enthusiasts are constantly watching Casio's catalog for new releases of limited run styles.
I'm not saying the A168WEC's style is for everyone, because it's not. I just think it looks better than the stock A168. It has F-91W simplicity in a stainless steel bracelet version with the EL nightlight, and it's a model that's definitely not available in every department store.
Fender American Jazzmaster Special makes a return
A Jazzmaster sneaks its way back into the lineup as a limited Fender run.
A guitar that I honestly thought was gone, the Fender American Jazzmaster Special, has returned for a short spell. This had a run in the Fender lineup and then disappeared...
...but now it's back as a limited run with a walnut finish.
This guitar is exactly what it looks like, a simplified hardtail Jazzmaster. No vibrato system present here. Just a stop piece, a Fender Adjust-O-Matic bridge, no rhythm circuit, a pair of Fender American Vintage '65 Jazzmaster pickups, one volume, one tone, one 3-way toggle.
Also atypical is the fact this Jazzmaster has sealed tuners and two "roller" string guides instead of just one.
The neck is the familiar Fender Modern C shape with a 9.5" fretboard radius and jumbo frets.
Is this a good Jazzmaster?
This Fender is arguably the most friendly Jazzmaster you could buy. The guitar was intentionally built to be a very easy player.
You might be wondering why you should even bother with this when the Squier Deluxe Jazzmaster ST is a very similar guitar and you get the rhythm circuit, all for a whopping $900 less.
This is one of those instances where I think the Fender is the better buy. The AV '65 pickups are amazing (truly, they are), and for a hardtail guitar, the sealed tuners do a better job for keeping the guitar in tune compared to slotted.
In other words, the Fender in this instance will have better overall stability. For a hardtail Jazzmaster, it definitely is the best one to get. It has the proper Jazzmaster tone, excellent stability and is a guitar that can definitely take a beating and be played like it should be.
Ernie Ball vs. D'Addario guitar strings
This ended up with an interesting conclusion.
I'm the type of guitar player that will periodically revisit a brand of string - even if I hated it before - just to see if it stills feels and/or sounds as good or bad as it was the last time I used them.
Why do I do this? Because as far as I'm aware, no make of guitar string keeps the exact same formula for the life of the brand. The machines that make the strings wear out and get replaced, the sourced steel changes depending on supply, the winding process on wound strings changes with advances in technology, sometimes coating is added to give guitar strings longer shelf life, and so on. Even something as insignificant as the weight of the ball end changing by a tiny amount matters.
Most importantly, I'm changing as a guitar player as I get older. I switched from the Stratocaster to the Jazzmaster and changed from 9-42 size to 8-38 (although that may change again later).
The current string I use is D'Addario EXL130.
When I first started playing guitar in my teens, I started off using D'Addario strings because every guitar store had them. But then after bouncing around a few brands, I switched to Dean Markley NickelSteel LT and stuck with that for a long time. Back when I was playing a Strat, Dean Markley handled my playing style very easily.
I stopped using D'Addario because back then (and this is the '90s I'm talking about here) they would gum up real quick. The plain strings seemed to turn black almost instantly and the wound strings would dent up quickly. The Dean Markley strings didn't do that.
In the 2010s I switched over to Dunlop DEN0942. Worked very nicely on the Strat and had very quick break-in time. But when I switched to the Jazzmaster, they really didn't work that well. And when I switched to 8-38, I found that Dunlop just doesn't make a good 8-38 set and it was garbage...
...so after many years, I switched back to D'Addario. They make a very good 8-38 set.
Now I'll talk about Ernie Ball and why I gave those a go.
There are some people who swear by Ernie Ball strings. I don't.
Back in my Strat playing days, in my teens I would snap Ernie Ball strings very easily. Almost too easily. I would pop high-E and B strings sometimes right after installing a set.
Every few years I would try a set of Ernie Ball strings, and every time I did I got the same result. Snapped strings in a very short period of time.
Fast-forward to present.
I like the D'Addario EXL130, but they have an annoying problem. A fresh set takes a while to set in. Usually a few days. They never feel right on the first day. The strings have to be installed, tuned to pitch and settle in before they start acting correct. Once they do, they're wonderful and last a good long while. But before that point, they're awful.
Ernie Ball does make an 8-38 set, the 2225. I figured I'd try those since I've never played an Ernie Ball 8-38 set. And since I don't bend notes on the Jazzmaster like I did on the Strat, maybe I'd actually like them.
Here's what happened.
For break-in and feel, the 2225 set is actually really, really good...
...but they sound so bad that it makes the Jazzmaster almost unplayable.
For anyone who reads this that isn't in the know, I play a Squier Vintage Modified Jazzmaster, which by nature is a super-bright guitar. Big single-coil pickups mated to a ridiculously bright 1 meg volume pot on the lead circuit. This thing is so bright that it makes the treble response of a Stratocaster or Telecaster sound tame in comparison. All proper Jazzmasters are like that.
What happened with the 2225 set on the Jazzmaster is that it sounded like I had installed ProSteels on it.
If you're not familiar with ProSteels, it is arguably the brightest possible electric guitar string you can buy because the steel composition is highly magnetic. And this is exactly what you don't want on a Jazzmaster (or a Jaguar for that matter).
When you have strings with too much treble response on the Jazz or the Jag, what's best described as a screeching sound happens. The treble response is too overblown and makes the guitar sound more or less unusable.
An overly bright string will compensate for a muddy-sounding humbucker. But I noted a moment ago, the Jazzmaster is already super-bright and doesn't need any more help in that department. The Ernie Ball 2225 added in way too much treble, so I had to ditch them and go back to the D'Addario EXL130.
That 2225 set was so screechy that I actually thought something was wrong with my guitar. After I put the EXL130 set on, I realized this wasn't he case, but wow, what a bright string the 2225 set is.
If you play super-extra-ultra-whatever-light 8 gauge like I do and want a really, really bright string to get more note definition from a muddy humbucker, then sure, the 2225 is exactly what you want. But for Strats, Teles, Jags, Jazzes and pretty much anything with a single-coil, no way. You're better off with D'Addario EXL130, Fender 250XS, Fender Super Bullets 3150SL, DR Strings Tite-Fit, GHS Nickel Rockers or any other number of 8-38 sets out there.
And for other set sizes like 9-42, 10-46 or greater, the same applies. The Ernie Ball would work well to liven up a humbucker, but the single-coil guitars need something without as much screech on the treble side of things to sound best.