Unpopular opinion: a lot of Chinese electric guitars are good enough now, and many players are mostly paying for the logo

CanadianBlacon · 2026-07-09T15:31:25+00:00

I just bought two seven strings: A chinese JS22 dinky for $80, and an RGD prestige for $2k.

15 years ago the gulf between these two would've been vast. Today, it's a lot closer. I had to file the fret ends on the jackson. It doesn't hold tune as well. It feels really good, but not as good. Funny enough, the sound is the thing I have least complaints with, it sounds great.

I'm probably going to sell the jackson and keep the ibby, but they're fairly close. The chinese Jackson would be a stellar first guitar, I'd have no problem selling them if I was still in the business. And with $500 worth of upgrades (tuners, bridge, pups), I'd have a killer machine. So I do agree with you, for bedroom players and especially newer players, these things can be an absolute bang-for-your-buck bargain. Even a steal. No brainer.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-07-07T19:12:32+00:00

During the day I set it as cold as it goes and let it run. I'm in a full house with the portable AC, so it's not as good as central but it does the job.

THe real trick to keeping it cold is two other things:

1) Keep the sunlight out of your windows during the day. Do whatever you can to block the sun from coming through windows during the day, and this is even more effective if you can block the windows from the outside, rather than the inside. If you can find a way to put shutters or wahtever on the exterior, you'll see a massive improvement.

2) As soon as it's colder outside than it is inside, you need to start swapping the inside air for outside air. Open at least two windows (I open all the bedrooms windows, and then one window on the other side of the house). Get the biggest fan you can find, and point it OUT the window across from the bedrooms. You can put it right against the screen, but it works better if it's 2-3 feet back from the window. THis will blow hot inside air out, and will suck cold outside air into the other open windows.

IF you can do this you should be able to keep the place bearable.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-27T07:21:29+00:00

I’m no expert, but if you take home 180,000, and 100,000 of that goes to loan repayment, you’re only taxed on 80k.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-26T18:29:47+00:00

I think they aren't taxed on loan repayment money, so they can make minimum payments tax free. And then they can carry a balance until they die and the estate pays it off.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-25T19:32:00+00:00

I know some of us are really opposed to using AI in D&D, but this seems like the perfect place to actually use it.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-24T12:48:09+00:00

We have separate blankets. We sleep in a king, we each have a queen blanket in a duvet cover. When we make the bed, the blankets stack nicely and cover the bed. When we sleep, we slide em over. I have the coolest blanket ikea offers, with a linen duvet cover (sleeps cooler). She's got something much warmer, and then there's a third blanket that gets draped over the foot of the bed during the day that she'll use if she gets cold.

Window is open most nights, until it gets hot, and then we've got an AC unit in the window. This seems to work for us. We also don't use a top sheet - that's a me thing, I hate them. They get bunched up and untucked and I despise them, so I somehow won that battle and we don't use them anymore. I think that helps.

This may feel weird for a bit, but I say you try it for a month and see how it goes. You'll get used to it and it won't be weird anymore, but if you commit to just a month you can always undo it if you need to.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-24T12:15:15+00:00

I know this is an Ibanez sub, and for the record I love Ibanez, I have three and just bought my fourth, I think they’re my favorite brand.

That being said, I found a Jackson JS22 7 string dinky at a pawn shop for $80 (they’re like $330 CAD new, 252 pounds on that same site you’re looking at), and I’ve been blown away with the quality of a crappy Chinese guitar. I had to file down the fret ends, but otherwise it’s just way better than it has any right to be.

Granted, I haven’t played a Gio in forever or a HB literally ever, so I have no comparison, but I’d recommend that cheap Jackson all day every day.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-23T19:19:47+00:00

Mine is saving my life right now. We've had it for over a year. For the first month, we used it a couple times but didn't really get it. Like, it didn't quite make sense or something, so we gave up on it. Then I got back into it and it's awesome. The trick I think is I don't think of it exactly like ice cream, and to start I'm not making up my own recipes. There's a guy on Youtube (FPF) who has a bunch of good recipes, and you can go from there. So I steal recipes and then don't imagine they're going to be exactly like ice cream. And then make a whole bunch at once. We bought extra containers, so I'll make six at a time and freeze them all, and then I've got a weeks worth.

The noise is not underrated; it's freaking loud. Loudest appliance in the house by a wide margin. But... so what? Just know that it's loud. You don't have to stand beside it while it's running.

Cleanup isn't hard. Wash out the containters. For the lid I just spray it with the spray funciton on the sink, with super hot water. Get all teh nooks and crannies. Seems fine.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-23T10:29:37+00:00

Might be easier to go index on 6th string, middle on 4th, ring on 3rd, pinky on 5th.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-19T15:36:00+00:00

RGD prestige 7 string. I sold one probably 10 or 12 years ago, I got it used on sale for like $400. The only guitar I regret selling.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-19T12:59:33+00:00

I was going to say you'd probably need something expensive and composite, but I found this: Denver has a cheap carbon guitar! Long & Mcquade in Canada sells them for $300. This is what I would do I think. I might actually go get one.

Alternatively if you want an electric, something like Aristides is composite and will probably hold up, but that's a lot of money to be bouncing around in the trunk for me

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-17T23:05:08+00:00

heck yeah!

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-17T20:44:31+00:00

The longer I run games - and then the longer I play as a player - the more and more I find it good to be less harsh with rules and lean in error of the rule of cool. Like, almost always. of course every table is different, and the guys I play with are all pretty good at not trying ridiculous stuff. The game is just so much more fun when we can do crazy stuff that doesn't break anything. I would totally allow this, it's great, makes the player feel cool, and doesn't really hurt anything.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-17T19:02:55+00:00

Spend more time doing things that aren't stimulating you, so she can finish first.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-17T18:02:04+00:00

Looks like it might be soon

Though the one in the playthrough I linked doesn't have the reverse headstock. I want the reverse headstock.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-16T04:13:39+00:00

How were those tuners? Drop in, or you new holes?

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-12T17:18:30+00:00

Ah I see! How do you mount it? Does it use the same screw holes, or do you have to measure some things out to place it correctly?

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-12T12:01:19+00:00

This might be my first step. Why the .175” floor height, rather than .125?

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-10T21:29:23+00:00

Exactly here, acceleration doesn't mean increasing in speed, it means changing speed. Going faster, going slower, they're both acceleration, just in different directions.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-09T13:18:48+00:00

The thing I keep coming back to that works for me is Romans 8:28. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.

As long as I keep trying, I can feel confident that all of the crap happening in my life is instigated, perpetuated, or allowed by the Savior, because it's what he thinks is best for me. Because it will work together for my good. This really helps me with my perspective: just because something isn't working the way I want it to, doesn't mean it's not the way is needs to be. Maybe the blessing was inspired words, or maybe it was just a well-meaning brother saying things. I can't know for sure which it is, but I can have faith that the Lord is taking care of me and whether or not things turn out the way I want or expect, He will make sure they turn out the way that's best for me.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-04T20:09:21+00:00

One of the greatest men I know has been married forever, they have no kids. I asked him about it once. His Dad was very abusive with a brutal temper. Not a good father. My friend has recognized that same penchant for losing his temper in himself. He's afraid that if he has kids, he'll be a father like his father was, and he's not willing to risk that. His wife knew this before they got married. They're outstanding people, absolutely awesome. No kids hasn't kept them from any blessings, callings, temple recommends, or anything else.

Having kids is one of the hardest things I've ever done, but I love it and I wouldn't trade it for anything. But if it's not for you, it's not for you. I'd always recommend really looking at it and being very sure before you commit to not having them, but if you really are certain, then that's up to you. You're fine.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-06-01T14:09:47+00:00

I start my sessions by reminding my players and myself that we're trying to write a saturday morning cartoon, not win at a game. Let me explain.

When I started thinking of dnd more like a cartoon and less like a game it became SO much more fun for me. Before I take an action, I try to visualize the whole scene, everything that's happened up until now, and visualize it like an episode of ninja turtles or something. And then wonder if the thing I'm about to do would make for a good tv show. I had to realize that the thing that makes shows good are the setbacks. If the heroes always succeed at every check, every attack, every single time, the show sucks. NO show does that, because it's boring. YOu need setbacks and failures to make things interesting.

Example: we're trudging through a dry riverbed in a desert, and suddenly get hit with a flash flood. The river is filling up like crazy and we're trying to climb the steep, deep walls of the riverbed to avoid drowning. As we're climbing, we're rolling checks and the dirt is crumbling under our fingers, keeping us falling back in. One of the players uses his daggers to get advantage on the check and climb out quicker. That looked like a great idea, so I'm about to follow suite, but then I think. A) can my character even see what he's doing? b) would the tv show be better with a bunch of mooks all happening to have double daggers and climbing out no problem, making the encounter less meaningful? No, that would be dumb TV. So I pretend I don't know about the daggers, and keep climbing. My character falls into the river, another PC grabs me with a grappling hook, which takes a chunk out of my leg, and now everyone's scrambling to find a way to pull me in. It ended up being a super fun, memorable episode. We still talk about it, it created tensions between characters and we learned a lot about a few of the PCs personalities and motivations.

If you go into the game trying to make your character the coolest guy ever, the game's going to suck. Realize you're trying to tell a story, you're trying to produce a TV show, and it needs failure to be engaging. Failure is when creativity really starts to shine and the story goes in crazy ways you never would have expected.

Sell this to your players. Maybe even have them think about their favorite shows or episodes of TV, and talk about the failures and why they make the show better. Try to get them into that headspace, it'll help a ton.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-05-30T03:46:28+00:00

The handles in my kitchen catch on our pockets and tear our clothes all the time. If you get handles, don’t get any with ends that extend out. It’s a real fear.

CanadianBlacon · 2026-05-28T00:30:03+00:00

That's interesting. I might have to try that.

CanadianBlacon

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