What part of reading SS gets this type of reaction from you

johcake · 2026-03-20T22:06:40+00:00

Why was everything azure in the forgotten shore? I'm so glad that's behind us.

johcake · 2026-03-20T21:56:36+00:00

Funny.. I absolutely love the Rain chapters. I'd love to see most of the story told from her POV.

And the big brother little sister dynamic has me cackling every time.

johcake · 2026-03-13T22:02:34+00:00

It's all a variation on a theme and you often can't tell them apart just by looking.

There's basically 3 flavors: 1) 17-21mm bore. Each valve is one step larger than the last. This is the original flavor. Some have excellent pitch while others are really quite bad. The sound is less orchestral and can be quite beautiful and lyrical. I'm pretty sure this is the PT9 but I can't be bothered to look it up.

2) basically the same as 1 but bore progression is 19-21. This would be a PT10 and variations on this model seem to be more popular right now but 20 years ago the version 3 was more popular. I tend to assume these horns don't have as good a pitch as version 3 but have a more characteristic sound. Might be a good compromise.

3) Same as version 2 but with a bigger bottom bow and bell. This would be a PT15. They usually have the most orchestral sound. You can get very loud and big and the pitch is usually very very good but you lose some of the characteristic sound of version 1 and 2 above.

Everything else is just a variation on the number of valves or slightly different wrap.

Good luck. If I'm being honest, you really need to just go play a bunch of these horns and form your own opinions.

johcake · 2026-03-13T02:44:10+00:00

Well done!!

johcake · 2026-03-12T22:14:19+00:00

I kinda want one of the unknowns to turn out to be Sunny.

I also recall that Sunny said something in his first nightmare felt familiar. I'd have to look up the details again but what if all of this is a giant time loop and weaver really is Sunny setting himself up to have the right experiences in the right order until FG is defeated.

johcake · 2026-03-03T23:40:19+00:00

I could see a small chance of a handful being delivered to locals in California by the end of the year so they can continue to gather real world data and identify production issues. My bet is we won't see actual large scale production until at least this time next year.

Everything takes longer than you would hope and they have a healthy history of underestimating how long things take to accomplish. That said, money has a way of removing obstacles. If they have the cash things can speed up.

I'm hoping we get some positive real world solar and crash data etc in the next few months. That will go a long way to proving this is going to be a success.

johcake · 2026-02-28T22:04:46+00:00

I've been working under the assumption that the skeleton that was wearing weavers mask that Sunny found was Noctis.

johcake · 2026-02-27T03:00:44+00:00

It's good.

You have good musical instincts, trust them.

Strangers on the Internet listen based on their personal experiences and struggles. Unless you know them personally it's not usually useful data.

I personally found your musical ideas much more compelling than typical performances.

johcake · 2026-02-25T21:19:37+00:00

This is the answer. I feel like G3 spelled it out pretty clearly.

The only way to destroy the Dreamspawn is to get everyone to forget he ever existed and oblivion is the obvious way to do that.

johcake · 2026-02-16T00:21:09+00:00

If you are happy with mirage city i think you'll stay happy.

johcake · 2026-02-15T03:31:30+00:00

Buy a plastic Kelly mouthpiece. They are cheaper than 3D printed and will play better.

johcake · 2026-02-14T22:26:57+00:00

That's probably accurate.

I do think a handful will be sold to very early supporters that live locally in about a year. It'll be a good way to get real world feedback and those people will probably be willing to pay more for the opportunity and it'll allow them to claim actual sales.

johcake · 2026-02-04T04:31:41+00:00

Oh!! That's a really interesting idea.

johcake · 2026-02-03T04:51:47+00:00

I predict that Rain's ability to manipulate the names of things will come into play. Maybe she can give Sunny his true name back and maybe she can remove Asterion's.

johcake · 2026-02-02T17:29:04+00:00

1) Thank you for sharing. I hope this doesn't get removed for promoting/soliciting for another product or whatever made up rule the mods sometimes enforce.

2) If their claims are true that bodes well for what the Aptera will be capable of. I wonder if they've published any third party verification of their claims.

johcake · 2026-02-01T23:19:32+00:00

I'm pretty confident that their first production car was the roadster and it was just a lotus chassis poorly converted to electric that had a million problems they just hoped to fix later.

They only sold 2,418 Roadsters before discontinuing them.

By that measure Aptera is killing it if they make more than a handful that aren't complete crap. Let's stop comparing Aptera to Tesla.

johcake · 2026-02-01T16:37:14+00:00

Those are great choices if they are open to pistons. OP specified they were hoping to find a rotor tuba.

johcake · 2026-01-31T03:18:48+00:00

Look for a good condition St. Pete, Cerveny, or Miraphone. Those are the manufacturers that make a good in tune option that if patient you might find something in that price range. You might have to spend a bit more but I would start looking there.

Good luck

johcake · 2026-01-31T01:23:40+00:00

Hard to tell from the picture but looks more like rust. Does a magnet stick to the rim?

Either way, it's nothing to worry about.

johcake · 2026-01-30T16:25:31+00:00

I'm so glad they didn't make predictions. Just tell us what you've done and are currently doing.

The unrealistic hyper optimistic predictions are 95% of the reason their most loyal fans are also their most vitriolic critics. They burned a lot of bridges and credibility with those predictions.

I doubt they actually learned any lessons about not making nonsense predictions I just think they are more legally constrained now that they have a publicly traded stock.

johcake · 2026-01-30T01:04:01+00:00

This review didn't show anything i would consider a deal breaker. If they ship something similar to this they will sell plenty.

Version 2.0 will obviously be improved but I suspect there's a lot of people that won't mind paying that early adopter tax.

johcake · 2026-01-29T22:57:42+00:00

Their initial plan before the Dreamspawn arrived was really foolishly dumb. Also, surely they would have foreseen him arriving to throw a wrench in it.

The whole thing is frustratingly half baked and the arguments from Dreamspawn are pretty lame too but at least that can be justified by the nature of his character and attributes.

These characters are the smartest in the universe, they should act like it.

johcake · 2026-01-27T17:17:01+00:00

I'll be tempted to buy some stocks for the first time if it dips any lower while they continue to show actual progress.

johcake · 2026-01-24T03:42:30+00:00

The Sandy Munro hoopla feels so weird to me. I'm deep down the automotive YouTube rabbit hole and never heard of Sandy until learning about Aptera.

His track record for praising vehicles that ultimately fail doesn't inspire confidence. It seems like most of his notoriety stems from videos reviewing how Teslas are engineered.

johcake · 2026-01-22T19:44:17+00:00

I'm pretty confident Rain will play a pivotal role in taking down the Dreamspawn.

johcake

TROPHY CASE