Bizman62

Looking at the ART made me think about the Cthulhu mythology (again) where unnamed figures start creeping from the dark depths.

I wouldn't use that phrase until you utterly fail for our amusement. Which I hope won't happen. We have a one word translation for Schadenfreude. I've always wondered if that's something that native English speakers never feel! A primitive Fenno-German state of mind that the Brit-'Muricans sitting on a higher branch of the Tree of Civilization have no personal experience of?? Then again, the latter also don't seem to need to put their smaller children somewhere outside home during the working hours, hence Kindergarten. Either one of the parents doesn't have to work or if both do, they can afford a nanny - which after Brexit may have become too expensive as the au-pairs have to be paid some serious money. Maybe that will bring a new word to the English language? Infantinarium? Kiddygarden? Childjail?

Those, or peeling the copper tape off the hole. Wood is insulating as such.

I know! That's why I chose a short video instead of a couple of others where he digresses for an hour...

Just for better understanding why, here's a half cut sketch looking from the cavity:

Ammonia. For once a short Crimson video:

Sometimes it pays to be a simpleton...

For this once. Usually I type so slowly that there's three answers before mine. A simple solution is to wrap some insulating tape around the jack to sort of a lose hose so it can't touch the cavity. The thread protruding the body is already grounded so that needs no addressing.

Exactly that. There's many protruding spots in the jack that can touch the walls of the jack cavity and sticking the plug in can spread them even more. So if any part of the tip (hot) connector - solder, bare wire, lug - hits the copper shielding it's immediately grounded causing the signal to vanish.

Not an idea, that's something you'll have to figure out by yourself. But here's an idea about testing without damaging: Stickers! There's self adhesive plastic film in all colours, maybe even ready cut Roman letters. It's also easy to cut thin stripes to mimic the fishbone. They'll last long enough for you to pose in front of a mirror or look at the guitar hanging on the wall for a week or three.

Another thing that can cause scratches is too much pressure on the sandpaper. You can't make the grit go deeper than down to the paper but if you try, the wood dust and sand residues create huge (compared to the grit) abrasive lumps that make serious scratches.

A-ha! I knew you have an explanation!

Indeed! I really can't see the half circle by the pool any more! But to be honest there seems to be a discontinuity issue on the back. I see it's similar on the front but that would be hidden under the pickguard. The yellow stripe just seems to stop without a reason. But I'm sure I'll be baffled when I see the final version!

There's one thing that has puzzled me while making me proud at the same time since I started building guitars and following numerous builders all over the world: The usage of Finnish tools and accessories! Mirka, Fiskars... It's not only about people using them, it's about people all over the world swearing by them! I might add Sjöbergs workbenches as their Swedish factory is closer from my whereabouts than Lincoln is to Washington DC.

So that's the story behind the paint having been sanded in the spotted yellow stripe picture! Although the outline of the yellow still shows. I thought it was just a scratch waiting to be sanded away... Now that I saw the "before" picture I'm glad you outlined the yellow. Although there's nothing wrong with the flag of Germany.

Interesting! Cartoonish leopard spandex??!?

That explanation! I'm out of words, I can't even think what to say in my own language! The yellow with the bold black outlines definitely adds a childish superhero vibe, furthermore it accents the "night and blood" feeling of the black and red. It makes me think of The Mask entering Gotham City by night. For some reason there seems to be no "big" super heroes dressed in yellow, maybe because of the meanings you described for black and red. There's some yellow villains like Reverse Flash, some minor heroes and a bunch of masquarade party costumes - maybe a guy dressed in yellow spandex would too soon be called the Wee-man...

Now that's a real improvement! Before the yellow it made me think of the heraldry of my hometown but now it's something entirely unique! The blue fretboard would suit the theme but obviously you can't have it...

Extending your body blanks may not work, the end grain joints won't hold. For a quarter inch thin top over a solid base that might work but it might not look good. If your pieces are too short for a bookmatch, one option is to build a slightly asymmetrical body. A slanted lower bout is almost as comfortable as an arm contour and the lower horn is always shorter than the upper bout/horn. Thus gluing the halves like below is a valid option: -I split my post to three just for clarity as there was so many different things involved.

Well, in my case nothing was actually "lost". The chainsaw dust was used as an additive for our compost and the offcuts were chopped to firewood. Not getting the saw cut straight was the biggest issue and even that might have been easier with a harder or drier log. As I said, the poplar has very long fibres! There's plenty of videos about cutting planks with a chainsaw, even freehand, so that shouldn't have been that difficult! But you can use a hand saw, freehand with a guiding line - either drawn or a slat nailed on the side - works just fine! Just look at this guy:

Actually I found a piece of outdoor drying advice given by a Finnish lumberyard. I just forgot to mention that the suggested outdoor drying time was only some 9 months which should dry the wood down to about 15%. Other sources confirmed that. They also noted that it still is twice too wet for furniture building which would require some 8% humidity. The one inch rule is most likely for thickness, not width. I'd recommend you to cut the logs to blanks and store them in the same place where you've had them for several months, including the driest time of the year (here it's about January to April) after which move them indoors to normal room conditions or drier for another few months. Put slats between the blanks to ensure good airflow all around. Here's a sketch I've posted some years ago:

A friend who used to turn wood once told me that if you let a log lie on the ground for a year the fungi will "kill" the wood so it won't warp or split. He was talking about birch but I guess the same applies to all wood. That can also cause spalting or miscolouring, the latter happened to my poplar which on a guitar body looks interesting so no harm done. My poplar blocks didn't move at all, not during the shed years nor when resawed and planed and stored in room temperature. Poor sawing with the chainsaw was the biggest issue, I didn't have a dedicated splitting chain and the regular one wandered all over the place. Not to mention that the poplar fibres seem to be long and loose so the saw got clogged in no time! To get usable pieces I had to cut the blocks to half length which is barely enough for a body. The cut was so rough that despite having tried to get about 5" thick blanks the bookmatched and planed pieces are barely 1 3/4"thick!!!

Have you tried drilling backwards at least to start with? That way the drill doesn't chew in.

Such pretty woods! Can't wait to see them finished!

There's many types of rubber, starting from the soft eraser type to semi hard car tyre to the hard rubber used for combs. Back in the day I read a book about guitar playing, written in the late sixties by a Finnish session player. If memory serves me right, he mentioned tucking a piece of foam rubber or something similar right in front of the bridge for a slightly muted sound pretty similar to those rubber bridge guitars.