My daughter's Epiphone Les Paul "express" (smallish, good for a 9 y/o) seems fine. The neck is straight, the action is good, the wiring looks fine.If Gibson's quality has gone to shit, I wouldn't go near an Epiphone these days.
I use goal zero and have had great luck. I have multiple products. I have smaller panels that can do a phone or AAs. I have some of their solar lanterns. And larger boulder panels. I use the nomad to strap on my pack and charge the phone.
Biolite also makes decent light weight ones. They also have a cool stove that you burn sticks in and it charges your phone.
https://www.rei.com/product/115523/biolite-wood-burning-campstove-2-with-flexlight
OK man....
A. Looks like really high quality durable stuff.
B. If I was alone and living off grid either by choice or by circumstance it might still be worth looking into.
C. Their smallest, least expensive panels (which would likely do all I want to do) are at the top end of what I'd be willing to pay for something like this (when they're on sale).
D. I'm looking at maybe a 3-day weekend with a couple 12-13 year old city kids here, not infiltrating Afghanistan.
Cool stuff though.
To give you an example of where I'm coming from, my "pack" is a medium ALICE rucksack that was new in the early 90's. I use a heavy duty construction site cleanup type trash bag as a waterproof liner, and my phone, wallet, fire-making goodies go in zip lock bags inside of that. I've never owned a GPS unit in my life, never turned on the location feature on my phone or had a big red arrow or computer voice tell me where to go. Old school road map gets me where I need to go on wheels. Topo map and compass gets me where I need to go on foot.
Not Luddite anti-tech or whatever, just see zero need for any of that stuff here. Hauling some extra batteries just gonna give me a little more exercise I could use. If I was in the high Rockies or Alaska or something I would likely think quite differently about it.
these guys give fair reviews
Thats it, the pickups actually sound better than decentThat's exactly it. I restrung it with D'Addario light weight wound strings, my friend set the action to the way she wanted to teach my daughter, and it's been perfectly serviceable ever since.
If you only want it for phone you can try something like this. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B077...ne+charger&dpPl=1&dpID=417lb5eTfUL&ref=plSrch
I'd bet it's a durability thing. If it gets very regular use the GoalZero may be better. (I don't have experience with the examples) If you're just an occasional user you can probably get away with the lower end model. & to me, in this case, if you're an occasional user, the lower end model may be a better choice because in a few yrs batteries will be bigger, and the next $49 charger will be better too if you need a new one down the road.More durable, rugged, etc. is good but really it just lays on your back. They all have some holes or loops to tie them down though the GZ has a couple more. If the ones I linked aren't waterproof there's ones in that price range that are.
I'd bet it's a durability thing. If it gets very regular use the GoalZero may be better. (I don't have experience with the examples) If you're just an occasional user you can probably get away with the lower end model. & to me, in this case, if you're an occasional user, the lower end model may be a better choice because in a few yrs batteries will be bigger, and the next $49 charger will be better too if you need a new one down the road.
Last, how long are you actually going to be hiking with a pack? If it's 3hrs, that leaves a lot of the day you're stationary to pull the charger out, leave it sitting still, charging, with very little wear&tear.
You can build your own Goal Zero type stuff like the battery pack way cheaper.
Use a cheap cooler, AGM style battery from a bulk store like Costco, and a Tripp Lite Inverter/Charger.
If you want to charge it with solar, a simple $20 charge controller and a solar panel will do the trick.