Dry

This had been a Squier P-bass which was a display unit at the store. After the strings were removed, we can all agree that the fretboard had dried up along the way & it's in need of moisturization. I'm of the opinion that, the fretboards of instruments on display are subjected to more drying than its sealed up counterparts. Reason being - indoor air-conditioning. It's not an anomaly by any means; all porous fretboards undergo drying along the way, we need to give some TLC by applying some fretboard oil or re-moisturizing fluid along the way.

BT @ DGMC

Just a price update - The Orange Baby Terror is now in stock @ Davis GMC ($299). Reminder - this is an amp head, you'll need speakers to make it work. Also, it's solid state technology.

Pic: TGM

Price watch (108)

Just look at these ridiculous listings. Once again, I'm sure everyone would agree that upgrade is a subjective term when tagged onto musical instruments. Our concept of an upgrade might be different from what others understood it to be. Inflating a Squier in view of such upgrades is a push factor as opposed to attracting potential buyers. $800 for an upgraded Mustang? Look harder & you'd find Fender (not Squier) Mustangs listing for less.

That $2K Mustang reeks of ignorance & possibly desperation. The details of the listing did not disclose the 'revamp'. It's 'hardly use in good condition' but it's 'not for fussy buyer'. We have other listings to consider which are neither confusing nor contradictory, yes?

Japan-inspired

Fender calls this the Japan-Inspired series. I have absolutely no idea what those terms are supposed to conjure; is there a unique Japanese inspiration out there going into these guitars exclusively? After reading the specs, I did not see any such inspirational inputs that went into these guitars leading to the term used to describe this series. Whatever, Fender.

Pic: Fender Japan

Kala U (4)

Kala made it a point to round off the edges of the Wave Baritone ukulele for maximum playing comfort. I look forward to see more of such ergonomic design considerations from the manufacturer. I have no idea if such simple consideration would entail some significant costs in production. The outcome here implied a simple procedure but I'm not a luthier so I have no idea what processes were involved.  

It's a wrap

There are 1001 reasons out there as to why people do a wrap over for their tune-o-matic + hard tail bridge assembly. Some cited added sustain & tension issues for doing so - good for them. My personal reason is depicted above; the wrap over method prevents the strings from coming into contact with the tune-o-matic bridge because the break angle is less acute. If strings come into contact with that tune-o-matic bit, there would be some funky buzzing happening which would highly likely annoy you. So, there.