Mid January 2020 update

I see that it's been about 9 days since my last post. I really haven't had much of anything to write about on steem lately. I've just been plugging along with a few of my model railroad projects, and I'm not sure if there's enough material there to make a good post out of. It's mostly a bunch of little random projects that I've working on with my railroad modelling.

I was going to do a series of posts about making an archery bow from a piece of oak, but I couldn't find the pictures for the posts. I finally found them a couple of days ago on one of my old computers, so I copied them onto a memory stick so that I can use them.

I haven't gotten much done lately on either of my guitar amp projects. I had to order parts for one, and I'm still trying to decide what to do to finish the preamp on the other one.
You can read about the newer amp project here.
https://steemit.com/guitar-amp/@amberyooper/a-new-guitar-amplifier-project-the-pe-30-part-1
https://steemit.com/guitar-amp/@amberyooper/new-guitar-amplifier-project-the-pe-30-part-2

The other amp is something I've been working on for a couple years, off and on. I just ordered the parts to put a channel switching circuit in the amp. I wanted to be able to switch between a clean sound and a distorted sound.
You can read about that amp here.
https://steemit.com/guitar-amp/@amberyooper/getting-back-into-the-tube-amp-projects

Another project that I was working on but am stuck on right now is the guitar body project for my 4 string electric guitar, or baritone ukulele. The last post I wrote about that is here.
https://steemit.com/guitar/@amberyooper/building-a-guitar-body-part-6

I actually have gotten a bit more done on the body since my last post about it. I couldn't find a stain color for it that I liked the color of. I wanted a clear red stain for it, but the regular red stains that you find at the hardware store just aren't the color that I wanted. I decided to just put a clear oil finish on the wood instead of staining it. I used clear Danish oil, which is a good oil finish for wood, and recommended by some for an oil finish on guitar wood.
This was the body before I put the oil finish on it.

The oil finish turned out pretty interesting. It darkened the wood just a bit, and made the birds eye detail stand out more than before.

The problem that I ran into with this project is that the fret board on the neck sticks out of the body too far for the bridge that I have for it. The neck slot is the same depth in the body as it is on my Squire Stratocaster, but this body is thinner, so the neck sticks up higher. I have to find a way to raise the bridge enough for the strings to clear the neck by the proper amount. An unexpected outcome...

So far, the winter depression hasn't gotten into my brain much this winter, so I'm calling that a win, so far. It's nice that it stays light out for about a half hour longer than it did at the end of December, that helps a bit. Keeping busy with my little model projects helps also. I think another thing that has helped up to now is that it hasn't been bitterly cold for more than a couple days at a time. The bitter cold temps tend to give me anxiety for some reason.

Of course, with the not so bitter temperatures, we get more snow, so I've been doing more snow removal. I have to keep up with what slides off the front of the greenhouse roof. Last year, it piled up right to the roof line and had nowhere else to go. Too much snow on the shallow pitch could cause trouble, so I've been using the snowblower to move it away from the front of the greenhouse before it can pile up too much.

Well, that's about all I have for this post, thanks for stopping by to check it out!