Fretter pandemic check-in - let us know how you are!

[duhvoodooman***]

BTW: Happy Birthday DVM!

Same back atcha, BC!

Glad to hear you had a mild case....

Looks like a fun project, Vood - good to hear from you! You WILL, I hope, inform us of your reaction to the finished project...

Finished it up today. Comments and photos here:

http://byocelectronics.com/board/vie...497015#p497015

DVM, with the shielding paint, can you connect it to the shielding on the pickguard somehow? The static noise from pickguards during the winter drives me nuts.

Yeah, that's possible and often done to maximize EMF shielding and minimize electrical noise, especially for guitars with single-coil pickups. I've done that on this guitar using the wire that comes up from the pickup cavity under the hardtail bridge to ground it (and through it, the strings and tuners). I added a strip of conductive copper tape under the very bottom edge of the pickguard and overlapping its shielding foil, so that it contacts that same grounding wire.

The bad news is that I doubt that it will have any real effect on the problem you're referring to, which arises from the build-up of static charge on the TOP of the pickguard during very dry winter weather. I've found two ways to address that:

1) PRETTY GOOD: You're probably already familiar with this one. Rub the top of your pickguard with a fabric softener/anti-cling dryer sheet like Bounce or Cling-Free. It'll do a good job suppressing static charge build-up for a few days, then you'll have to do it again.

2) BEST: Get yourself a good humidifier for the room where you usually play, and try to maintain a relative humidity of 45 - 50%. This works wonders. I strongly recommend a good evaporative humidifier like THIS ONE. Stay away from the ultrasonic kind if you have any significant amount of hardness in your tap water, because the dreaded "white dust" ends up on EVERYTHING. Unless you want to feed the thing distilled water, which gets pretty expensive! Vaporizers aren't much better because the hardness minerals just end up accumulating in the heater portion of the unit and are a maintenance headache. With the evaporative humidifiers, you just toss the filter pad when it gets fouled with mineral build-up and install a new one.

[Tig***]

I'm a little late, but doing well here in Texas. My wife is a nurse, and got COVID 19 in the early days, but was fine after a week.

Almost a year ago, I had LRTI surgery on my right thumb, which took about 6 months to completely recover. Before that, I couldn't hold a pick for more than a few minutes. Unfortunately, I lost my desire to play and still haven't found it. I haven't sold any guitar gear, so the door remains open.

Overall, my health started declining in 2015, mostly osteoarthritis and what was diagnosed as fibromyalgia. I still ride bikes, but just a fraction of the endurance and speed. I love being out, enjoying nature. Life continues to have it's difficulties, but I try to keep it as positive as possible. I've learned to simply get comfortable with being uncomfortable!

[Jipes***]

Dear Tig my prayers and thoughts goes to you hoping that things get stable and maybe better

[tjcurtin1]

Hey Tig, I hear ya re the 'getting comfortable with being uncomfortable' - just recognizing myself that it goes with the territory of getting on in time... curiously, I also hit a wall with playing in the last 6 months. After having made pretty good progress with lots of study and practice, I got tired of playing by myself (partly covid isolation) - just not enough satisfaction in that after a certain point. I used to make music with my students every day, but since retiring, it's just been me, myself and I. I haven't given up completely tho. Anyway, hope that you can keep things at a slow glide and stay well.

Jipes, always good to hear from you, too - hope that all is well in your part of the world!

Ted

[Jipes***]

Jipes, always good to hear from you, too - hope that all is well in your part of the world!

Ted

Hello Ted, everything fine on my side got retired January 2022 and enjoying life with my sweet wife. So far health had blessed me keep my fingers crossed and still playing with two bands getting gigs from time to time, always a blessing and a joy to play live