A Geek Goes Flying

Anyone who’s been to the Hollywood Bowl for a John Williams night knows how it inevitably ends: I want to bring my new Savi’s Workshop lightsaber to this, but I was concerned about the sound effects built in. Turns out they can be easily, reversibly, disabled. The speaker is in the battery compartment, which has four metal terminals on the top (blade end): The inner two are connected to the three AAA batteries: That makes the outer two connectors the speaker connection. Interrupt either side of that circuit and the speaker won’t sound. This can be done with a simple piece of electrical tape; I punched it in a bit into the recess to give whatever pin is inside the hilt room, to avoid bending it: That’s it. Super easy. I’ve taken the tape off and verified the speaker comes back on, put the tape back, verified it was silent, taken it back off again (and that’s how I’ll store it, in its normal configuration).

This year for my birthday, my mom and some friends and I spent a day at Disneyland. Ever since my first visit to Black Spire Outpost , I’ve wanted to build a light saber. But at $200 (at the time; they’re $220 now), I just couldn’t justify it. Until my mom insisted on gifting me the experience. (Note: I was under the impression, maybe from what I’d seen at Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities , that there were wildly different types and styles of light sabers that could be built, and that the starting price was about $200. No. At Savi’s you’re building a single blade light saber from one of four sets of pieces, and they’re all priced the same.) Apparently, when Savi’s Workshop first came online, the process involved an hour or more waiting in line, getting strict return times , etc. Now (January 2022), it’s all done through a reservation system, and it’s quite painless. (Also, though apparently for a time the lightsabers weren’t coming with the padded carrying case , as of late January, tha...