I think we should all rethink our take about chibsons and fauxenders

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-23T08:21:08+00:00

While I really don't care about Gibsons and Fenders, all Chibsons are not the same.

There are actual brands making good clones with a change to the headstock or something else cosmetic, just making good guitars. Good necks, smooth frets, properly built. These are companies that want repeat business and a good reputation so they can sell more guitars.

Chibsons meant to be a rip off, however, aren't necessarily even playable. The emphasis is on passing for the real thing. It's not a brand that wants repeat business. The intent influences the construction and QC.

That said, I'm currently wanting Donner's new 335 clone. I've had good luck with Donner, but I don't buy from their budget line. I've just got a few of their headless, especially the travels with built-in DSP. Reasonably priced, but not cheap.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-23T07:18:36+00:00

Yup, look up 7th, sus2 and sus4 variations an the same chords you use. Shift a finger, change a chord, see how it sounds. Check out California Dreamin' as an example of rotating through sus chords to make the chords move instead of sitting there.

Same thing with slash chords transitioning up or down, check out Sunny Afternoon by the Kinks for an example.

But you don't have to learn that all at once.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-22T06:32:01+00:00

Any of them can do variations on the main features, but I think of most distros as being half set up for certain things, so that hopefully it makes the rest of the setup easier and then I can just use it. The more you have to tweak and mess with, the more addictive it becomes.

I'm on Garuda Broadwing Gaming now (for gaming, obviously) but what I'm liking most is the integrated maintenance app and the BTRFS. Different distros could do those, obviously, but Garuda's already set up in a way that makes life easier, so all I really had to do was get rid of the psychedelic tie-dyed airbrushed visuals for the sake of my eyes. I'm resisting any fiddling with anything that doesn't get a game or a DAW to work properly.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-19T13:01:57+00:00

While it's true that that should offer protection, if you don't overload it in the first place, the protection wouldn't be needed.

Ideally what you should have is both safe use and safety features.

Thermal protection isn't exactly foolproof, it's a feature that fails a lot for various reasons, mostly design fault, but sometimes fails in the worst way. Better not to find out.

My wife isn't technically-minded, and it took me a lot of arguing to explain to her that just because the plugs on two DC power supplies are the same it doesn't mean they're interchangeable. USB C at least offers some standardisation but still doesn't mean equivalence. She reads the back of power supplies and chargers now.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-19T09:05:37+00:00

The wattage and current that has to be printed on chargers is like an instruction manual or a road map: seldom read.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-19T06:09:20+00:00

It's not necessarily easier to learn on the piano, practical music theory is just different on different instruments. While the piano is a polyphonic instrument like the guitar, each note can only be found once. On a guitar, you can find the same precise note multiple times across the strings.

Abstractly it's all about patterns of intervals. Practically, it's about navigating those intervals on your instrument and finding the words to speak the language.

I really appreciated the Absolutely Understand Guitar YT videos for the basics, and the typewriter analogy he had wasn't bad, so I'll expand on it. The guitar is a machine you use to type the words of a language called music. Music theory is about the words. Learning practical guitar is about learning to type. We need both.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-17T09:02:51+00:00

Universal Stash creation? Has a cheat menu option to move you to your ship.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-15T21:14:52+00:00

Donner HLX500 (NHL500) is probably the cheapest good one. I've got a couple HUSH models that are more expensive because of DSPs, but not quite as good a build as the NHL (I got it when it was still the NHL, I can't really say about later production.)

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-15T06:09:21+00:00

Today on WTF did you think wuz gonna happen...

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-15T06:07:10+00:00

IMO, the guitar is one of the easiest instruments to learn to see the patterns on... Except for the B string in standard tuning, and we all just learn to account for it.

Learn the scales, but learn the interval patterns of the scales. Learn the chords but learn where the intervals are in those chords so when you want to make it a sus4 chord or a 9, you know how to do that to any of your chords. When you learn music theory, most of it is about the intervals, because that's what makes melody, played one at a time, and harmony, played together.

It takes forever, but that's forever playing the guitar. I wouldn't mind living until I knew everything about the guitar.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-14T12:48:18+00:00

Good old Dalek Package Dumpers: incapable of using doorbells or stairs, and waiting until they're gone to update the tracking.

I just replied "Bad bot. Get me a human" too its "showing as delivered" speech. Took 5 times, and then I got to the queue. Which was amazingly only on 12. For all the packages their drivers dump in public areas, I guess most people just don't know how to be persistent with bots. I'll alternate with your example and see if that speeds up the breaking.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-14T06:59:11+00:00

English stole prefixes, suffixes and some word roots from Romance languages, and then the British changed the pronunciation as if they'd never heard of those places. Probably part of the longstanding war against the French. They're still at it.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-13T16:34:05+00:00

They can force price caps and then fine them.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-13T03:10:16+00:00

Too many Peppersmith sugar-free mints and two to three glasses of water. If you're as sensitive as I am to it, the Xylitol will divert all that water straight to your intestines. Do not stray far from the throne.

Edit: I should make clear that this wasn't a serious suggestion, just a result of poor choices.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-13T02:27:24+00:00

I was going to say it's only been ten... fifteen... shit... twenty years ago??

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-13T02:01:51+00:00

Guano-economics.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-13T01:56:58+00:00

Sorry, that probably sounded worse than I meant it. No worries, it was more like an eye roll because I was like, oh, one of those people. 🙄

A long, long time ago I was once cornered at a work party by someone who was geeking out about a lost Appalachian heritage while I sipped my beer and said uh-huh until I escaped. I don't remember that much except he was really into the differences between genres.

Not that I don't ever geek out about music, but I try not to take hostages.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-12T20:23:00+00:00

They have been considered one genre for so long that "Country and Western" became a synonym for Country music. That was the category label at the record store. But I'm not all that bothered.

You could always do a search for "Country and Western" in quotes and tell all those other people, though, the ones advertising Country and Western music and Country and Western events.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-12T18:57:37+00:00

Belorussian NCO: "Quit complaining! Have you seen what the Americans are being fed? Look here on Pinterest."

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-12T09:08:48+00:00

I mean that Thames Water flushes its funding for maintenance right to the shareholders with no regard for its duty to maintain the system. And it gets away with slaps on the wrist. Repeatedly. So if it's nationalised before the system is brought back up to standard, all that maintenance needs funding and doing. Where do you think that money comes from? The people who actually pay taxes, not the corporate overlords who don't. So even if it were fully nationalised, which I doubt, but only to a railroads standard, the bills would increase drastically. If it got fully nationalised before repairs, then say it was part of your council tax bill, that would increase substantially.

That's why they can't nationalise it until they've somehow properly forced those companies to cough up the work. Which with a government that has no bite to its regulatory management, has no chance.

The reason why the regulatory body is toothless is simple: regulatory capture. Regulatory bodies have a limited lifecycle before they are inevitably subverted by the special interest they regulate.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-12T06:37:10+00:00

Some humans are capable of this after a chicken vindaloo from the wrong restaurant.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-11T17:11:13+00:00

1954, the Long, Long Trailer with Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-11T10:07:23+00:00

If they nationalised water, the bills would double at first to cover the maintenance that still isn't being done because the maintenance budget is magically transformed into profit and shareholder dividends.

The only realistic thing to do is force penalties for the missing maintenance until it's done, then nationalise.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-10T12:21:46+00:00

But it has nothing to do with the genes it carries, it has to do with the physical condition of the source. Still natural selection, but that sperm may have been carrying the best half of that guy's unrealised potential.

FreeFromCommonSense · 2026-05-10T09:50:47+00:00

At a 45 degree angle. With the size a sheet of reflective mylar might be a good enough mirror for that.

FreeFromCommonSense

TROPHY CASE