Fender "Anniversary" Jazzmasters are surprisingly cheap

The reason for this is probably something you didn't consider.

Actually, there are a few reasons. Let's get into that.

You see the Fender 60th Anniversary '58 Jazzmaster (made in 2018) and think, "Wow, all that must be at least 4 grand."

Nope. Way below that.

Then you take a look at other "Anniversary" Jazzmasters and say, "Wow (again)! The prices on these things are so low! Why...?"

Here are the reasons why:

Reason 1: It's a traditional Jazzmaster.

Traditional Jazzmaster guitars usually have everything that make a Jazzmaster a Jazzmaster. This means you get both the rhythm and lead circuit, the 1K linear taper potentiometer for lead circuit volume control and 1K audio taper potentiometer for tone control, true Jazzmaster pickups (meaning not a P90 in a Jazzmaster case) and neck with some actual shoulder to it.

In other words, the "complicated" original style Jazzmaster. Super-bright pickups, a vibrato system that takes getting used to if you don't know the Jazzmaster, and the guitar has an offset waist (meaning the neck sticks slightly further other because of the "lean" in the body).

Reason 2: Not a Stratocaster, not a Telecaster.

Strats and Teles always outsell the Jazzmaster and it's always been that way. Sellers have a more difficult time selling them, and for owners, custom parts for the Jazzmaster aren't anywhere near as plentiful.

Yes, there are custom parts available. Pickups, bridges, different vibrato system and so on. But the selection available is obviously greater for the Strat/Tele guitar.

Reason 3: "Anniversary"

It's typically true that any Fender (or Squier) guitar labeled as an "Anniversary" is priced high out of the gate, then the price drops off a cliff shortly thereafter. The guitar is worth its most only when new and the model was introduced fewer than 6 months ago.

After that 6 months, however... yeah, that's when the price dives and stays down. Very rarely does an Anniversary guitar gain real collector value. The guitars are released to make a quick buck, and the ones that didn't sell initially get their prices slashed just to get rid of them.

There's actually nothing wrong with an Anniversary guitar at all, and in fact should be better built than the standard production run of the same instrument.

And where the Jazzmaster is concerned, oh yeah, it's easy to find one that has had $500 or more slashed off the price.

The only real negative of a Jazzmaster Anniversary model is that color choice is limited. This is by design because an Anniversary guitar is supposed to have a color not available on any standard production run of the same guitar. Usually, the color given to an Anniversary is a good one, but you'll have to look at the listings yourself to see if there's anything that really catches your eye.

However, in all honesty, most Jazzmaster fans would be perfectly happy with a J Mascis model Jazzmaster. Not an anniversary model, but obviously has a much nicer price and is genuinely built well.

KidiZoom DX3 smartwatch tutorial and setup

I'm going to start this one with the most valuable piece of information to know concerning this smartwatch.

Quoting directly from the manual:

When the Master Power Switch is set to the Off position, the unit will not function, and the battery will not charge.

What this means is for the battery to charge, that switch must be set to ON. If that little switch on the back isn't ON, it won't charge when connected to power with the little micro USB cable it comes provided with.

Regular use of the vtech KidiZoom DX3 is to click that little power switch to ON (yes, this is shown in the video below), leave it on, charge the watch battery with the little micro USB cable, use watch normally until the battery dies, charge it up again, repeat. That's it.

This brings me to the second most valuable piece of information concerning the KidiZoom DX3: You're not supposed to turn it off unless you plan on putting it away for a long time. If for example the watch will be put away and not used for a few months, that is when you click off the power switch.

What happens when you set the power switch OFF? The date and time settings are lost when you do that, meaning they have to be reset once you click on that switch again and power up the watch.

The rest of the setup is fairly straightforward as you'll see in the video below.

Video: How to set up vtech KidiZoom DX3 Kids Smartwatch

My first acoustic bass, Glarry GMB102

Transparency notice: Glarry sent this instrument to me for free. Consider this a sponsored review.

It's my first acoustic bass.

Glarry emailed me and asked if I wanted to review one of their products. One of them was the GMB102 acoustic bass. Being I've never owned an acoustic bass before, I said yes.

I was sent this bass for free and do not have to return it, so you can consider this a sponsored review of sorts.

The video below goes into detail about what I received and you can hear how it sounds both acoustically and electrically, but here's the long and short of it:

The finish did have a few flaws, but they were minor and did not affect the playability of the instrument at all.

This is an easy player, although the roundwound strings it comes installed with don't do it any favors since you will hear a lot of finger moving noise while playing. I say this in the video but will say it here also: I strongly recommend switching over to D'Addario Half Rounds string set. I have used these before and they're great. It's the middle ground between flatwound and roundwound where you eliminate all of the finger noise while still getting that familiar roundwound feel. And they're not crazy-expensive either.

A feature that's usually only available on upper-end basses is both 1/4" input and XLR - but you get that on the Glarry GMB102. I've not looked around, but I think this is the absolute cheapest way to get a hi-z and lo-z electric bass. That XLR being there is a big deal. You can go direct-to-mixer with no problem at all and use the on-board EQ to shape the sound so it works with whatever setup you have.

Lastly, the piezo pickup. You have to understand that piezo has a specific sound to it, and it's nothing like what a pickup sounds in a regular solid-body bass. I'm not saying it's bad but rather different. You will have to spend some time shaping the sound to your liking.

Here's the best advice I can give concerning a piezo pickup: It will sound terrible through a guitar amplifier, but sound near-perfect through a PA speaker, especially if you connect using XLR. Output one of these the same as you would with a regular vocal microphone (like a Shure SM58), and the sound will be much more to your liking. Trust me on that one.

Full video review

I made sure to go through everything about this bass. What's in the box, how much it projects, how to get a battery in the battery box, and so on.

The only watch anybody needs (for real)

What makes the Casio WV58A (or metal bracelet version WV58DA) watch special and the only watch anybody needs?

Before I answer that, the model you may want more is the Casio WVA-M630B. That one has an additional feature I'll mention in a moment.

There are three major things that make the WV58A the only watch anybody needs. Radio controlled (as in "atomic") clock sync, all necessary info on the home screen and price, which at the time I write this is under $35 for the resin strap version.

The minor things that make the WV58A great is that it has an alarm feature, stopwatch, countdown timer and the ability to flip the date from month/day to day/month, meaning it is US and UK-friendly where date display is concerned.

As far as I am aware, the WV58A is the absolute cheapest way to get radio clock sync on your wrist. If you're not familiar with that, it means the watch sets itself. During the wee hours of the morning when radio traffic is at its lowest, in America the watch will attempt to receive time and date information up to six times from the time server station in Fort Collins Colorado to sync its clock and calendar...

...which is why I mention the WVA-M630B above just in case you prefer analog over digital. It's more expensive, true, but it's there if you want it.

WV58A is an old model which I think is from the late 2000s (I couldn't confirm the model launch year) that's still made new. Casio is no stranger to this as they have other models still made new that haven't changed in over 30 years (hello, F-91W).

Small bit of Casio history: The first worldwide Casio watch model with radio controlled timekeeping was the WVA-300, launched in 2001. Yeah, that was close to 25 years ago at the time I write this, but where watchmaking is concerned, anything post-2000 is "recent". Was the WVA-300 the absolute first Casio radio controlled watch model? No, that was the FKT-100L from 1995, and only in Europe.

Before continuing, another current new model with radio control is the WV200A. It's chunky and big, but under $40 currently.

I call the WV58A the only watch anybody actually needs because it requires absolutely no interaction to use it. You don't have to set the time because it sets itself. You don't have to press a button to see the weekday, date or year because it's already there on the home screen. The only thing I can think of where you have to press a button is to use the night light for night viewing.

Otherwise, you just strap this watch on and go. It even automatically adjusts for Daylight Savings Time when that happens. How cool is that?

There's only one negative about the WV58. The battery only lasts for about 3 years (which incidentally is the one thing the Casio WVA-M630B has over it as that is solar powered). The battery used in the WV58 is the CR1620, and those are fortunately cheap.

And yeah, that's literally the only negative. Wear the watch until the battery dies, replace the battery, put back on, sync the clock (which can be done manually) and off you go.

The WV58A is the watch you get when even setting the time annoys you

Have you ever seen one of those "atomic" wall clocks? Having one of those in your house, office or shop is LOVELY because after its first radio clock synchronization, guess what? You're done! It works, and it's always correct!

Wouldn't it be great to have that on your wrist too? That's why you get a WV58A.

Some other radio clock sync watch options...

If you don't like the look of the WV58A, here are a few more options other than the WVA-M630B mentioned above. All of these are more expensive, but they all look nice.

G-SHOCK GWM530A. Old school G-SHOCK "solar atomic" model, but very legible (which can't be said about many G-SHOCK watches). There is also the MTGM900DA-8CR. Different model but exact same watch in a "Sand" appearance. You'll understand what that means when you take a look at it.

G-SHOCK GMW5610U. The updated classic square G-SHOCK, which is also "solar atomic". The older 5610 (again, also "solar atomic") is still being sold, but the 5610U has some updated features for about $30 more. Yes, it's worth it because some convenience features have been added in that the old module didn't have. An example of that is a switch from the EL blue night light to LED white, along with adding in the night light to be on for 3 seconds instead of just 1.5.

Citizen Air Skyhawk. Busy dial, but as far as I know, all of these have radio clock sync. The Citizen Navihawk also appears to have all models with radio clock sync.

No matter what you get, having radio clock sync in your life will be very welcome because it's one less clock you have to set.

Full instructional video

If you get a WV58A or WV58DA of your own, follow this instruction video on how to set one up.

Using the Bluey Wackadoo kid's watch

I was lent this to review.

What I was told is that kids are all about the Bluey show right now here in the US, and that I should put together a video tutorial on how to use the Bluey branded watch, so I did.

Before getting the VTech Bluey Wackadoo watch, I literally had no idea what Bluey was, so I looked it up. It's an Australian TV show on ABC Kids for preschoolers (which is Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not to be confused with American Broadcasting Company), and in the United States the show is on the Disney Junior network and internationally through Disney+.

I don't know anything about the show but do know this watch type, as it's very similar to the Blue's Clues Learning Watch.

What I find most interesting about watches like this are the challenges faced by those who design them.

You may think about the intended audience for this watch (very small children) and then have questions.

Why is this watch not waterproof?

Why only a monochrome LCD display?

How come it does not have a backlight?

Why is the audio speaker somewhat soft in volume?

Why is it not a smartwatch?

Why include any watch features at all?

I actually have answers for all these questions, because the way this thing is designed actually does make total sense.

The watch is not waterproof because there is literally no way to do this and have a speaker you can hear at the same time, given the price point. Sure, such a kid's watch could be designed to have a good speaker and be waterproof, but that would add so much cost that nobody would buy it.

The monochrome LCD display and the non-backlit display is for one reason. Better battery life.

I believe the reason the speaker isn't louder is for the parents and not the child who wears this. The audio volume of this watch is set to "tolerable". It's more than good enough for its intended purpose.

Kids smartwatches do exist, but this one is not. The main advantage of it being a plain watch is it never needs to be charged, it never needs a cable attached to it, and never needs to be connected/paired with anything.

The watch features aren't there for the preschooler. I'm positive of that. Those features are for the parents. If a parent needs something to quickly tell the time, set an alarm, use a stopwatch or a simple timer, all they have to do is take the watch and it's all there. In fact, the only "complicated" parts of the watch are specifically for those features. Everything else is simple. The super simple stuff (meaning the games) is for the child, the rest is for the adult if they choose to use it.

When you think of the watch features in that respect, then it starts to make sense. The designers were trying to make something both small children and adults could get use out of, and I think they succeeded.

Need help setting one of these up? For instructions on how to use the Bluey Wackadoo kid's watch, see my video How to set up Bluey Wackadoo kid's watch.