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Good Morning Gitaardocphil,

  You make a good point about the wood.  Awhile back I had a fellow bring me a Squier body for a refinish job, he wanted a different color scheme.  So I stripped the thing down to bare wood and was surprised to find that the body was made of plywood!
Living up here in "lumber land" I can honestly say that it was not high quality plywood at that!
  Surely not good enough for the vintage sunburst coloring he wanted, the transparent colors would have shown all the worm holes and defects that had been filled so the original solid color would look smooth.  So we used it as a pattern and carved out a replacement body from a nicely grained slab of Alder I had laying around the shop.  Finished that out and installed some hot Seymour Duncan pickups.  Fitted the neck back on and wound up with a really nice Strat knock-off that is not only highly playable, not too heavy, and "sustains for a week".
  Mahogany is preferable because of it's uniform density and light weight.  Straight grained Poplar would make a nice body for an electric with pretty veneer on it. But I built a Birds-eye Maple body for a friend a few years ago that was pretty, and sounded good, but you needed a strong back and serious strap to support!  The Beast weighed 9 Lbs assembled (4.08Kg)!

  Take Care;  Doug

I'm not so sure that this is so much embarassing as funny, in retrospect, but here goes:

  Back in High School (which seems like a long time ago now) I used to hang with a bunch of guys who enjoyed the hunting, fishing, trapping outdoor activities.  My good friend Bart's family owned a rather large estate just out of the city limits and we would often hunt the area. 

  One early Saturday morning seven of us met up at Bart's house for an early breakfast to be followed by a sweep of the north 80 acre pasturage for Pheasant.  It was a cold cold morning as they are often here in the Great Northwest and shortly into the hunt, with the dogs working the hedgerows beautifully, that fourth or fifth cup of coffee caught up with me.  Handing my shotgun to Bart I announced my intention to step off and "water a bush", so the party halted to allow me time to attend to that.  Glancing over in my direction Bart informed me that "somewhere over there is an electric fence wire, watch for it." .
Yes, just as the stream weakened I found that wire, well attached to a charger of sufficient current to burn the nose hairs of any poor cow for a twenty mile stretch.  Searing agony such as can only be compared to being struck by lightening... my gonads being yanked into my armpits, I sat down in eight inches of very soggy Oregon mud.  Where I'm told I convulsed for several seconds while steam or perhaps smoke exuded from my fly.
  We cut the hunt short because nobody in the group could restrain laughing long enough to hold a good lead.  From then on every time we went hunting, someone would remind me to "watch for wire!".

Good Hunting;  Doug

Hi All,

  Nela's idea of a chat-room has merit.... But.  There's always a but in there somewhere, I have noticed that this is a truely international forum.  Sitting out here at something like GMT +8 unless chordians are nocturnal, we'd never get to "chat" with our friends on the other side of the planet.

  Guess that's why "The Lord of The Internet" invented E-Mail.

Take Care; Doug

Greetings Everyone,

  Roger, I didn't open up a can of worms the other day did I?  But thank you for the kind e-mail.

Rules are good and it is nice to see that for the most part everybody is running on the same moral standard even without a published guide.  It all comes down to "good manners", saying please and thank you, and behaving like you would if you were visiting someone else's home.  I have been reading these forums off and on for a couple of years before I decided to register, and I will say that everybody is very civil.
If Chordie was a model for the UN, the world would surely be in a better state!

Goodonya;  Doug

Yo.... Last Rebel,

You Go Girl !!!!!

That's a soapbox that needed to be drug out of the corner!

Hi Leo and welcome to Chordie!

  I personally have played rhythm guitar for most of my life... like over thirty years.  Mostly because I never took the time to learn properly the theory part of music.  Scales, Modes etc. Doing that now, much to late to make money at it.
But you will likely find that if you look through Chordie for those Beatles tunes, you are going to find versions that you can play with mostly open chords, even if you have to capo into another key to make it work.  Don't be afraid to try those difficult chords, and learn your barres which are only open chords with your index finger replacing the capo making the chord movable.
Practice a lot and your fingers will learn where to go, do it properly and do it often, and later when you get one of those unusual chords like flatted third augmented fifth add thirteenth you won't wind up tying your fingers in knots.
As to when you are ready?  The sooner the better!  When you play with others you teach and learn from those you are with.  Yeah it is going to take some rehearsals, and you will screw up now and then and have to pick it up again.... usually after we all stop laughing about that wrong chord (what was I thinking there? You sure that wasn't supposed to be G flat Maj 7?).
  Have fun with your music, it just keeps getting easier!

Take Care;  Doug

Thanks for the kind welcome  Doc... but actually I have been regular as a visitor for over three years now and feel as if I already know many of you regulars rather well. 
But from time to time I think I have a couple of cents to share, so I figured seeing as how I was spending a little time here every day anyway, I might just as well register.
And yes I am using my real name and have identity to prove it if needed, although I am NOT the Doug Smith from Seattle who plays guitar like I wish I could.

On a personal note Doc, I have total sympathy with you and your back problems.  We have a lot in common, if I recall correctly you are 7 or 8 days my elder.
I killed a horse with a Datsun auto in 1990 resulting in a fractured vertebra at T-5, Blew a Disk at L-4-5 four years ago that partially shut off the nerves to my lower body, and in April of this year another auto accident cracked T-3, crushed a disk at C-4 and undid some of the surgeon's good work at L-4.
I am intermittantly parapalegic, and that darn cervical disk shuts off both hands once in awhile.  Through it all we have to TRY and have a good life, and on some days just being able to crack open the case and play a tune that is recognizable is an accomplishment to truely be proud of.  So hang in there, we're pulling for you! Your strength of spirit inspires us.

Take Care;  Doug

You are spot on Headcase.
  I too have seen chords where they don't really fit, but I am guilty of augmenting or diminishing in my playing.  Usually I will note my changes on the sheet music itself as notes to remind myself what my interpretation of the tune should sound like...  but then again I am a "flesh and steel" fingerpickin kinda guy.

What fits in whatever pattern I am doing sounds good because I am not hitting that note except where it fits to "flavor" the music.  If you just strummed it, could sound like...?
Well use your imagination there.

  This is a "family forum" and I'm trying to avoid expletives.  Haven't been here long enough to know all the rules.

Perhaps I can help with number 4:

La Guitarra Mexicana (Mexican Guitar),  Think Classical... nylon strung in various body volumes and scale lengths. Played with the fingers only as in classical.  I'm thinking that the style of play rather than the instrument itself is the major difference.

Good Job!  You are absolutely correct about that measuring twice and cut once.  Although I have always cut less than I wanted and carefully filed the rest of the way to the line.  There very little room for error if you overcut, although you can get shims in various thicknesses at your luthier's.  I know that Ovation for example comes with a .040" shim installed factory which allows easy adjustment if you go to extra light strings, but if you lose the thing, going the other way can be a pain without some shim stock to install.

By the way the local Luthier around here usually charges $75.00 to do what you just accomplished, so you made money on that one!

Here in the US it depends on the State and the School system, but generally it runs kind of like this:
Pre-school, 2 years
Kindergarten, 1year
Elementary School, 7 or 8 years depending on the School District, some run grades 1-5 as elementary and grades 6-8 as middle school
High School, 3 to 4 years for a total of 12 years not including pre-school

College, depends on the degree sought:
Associate's Degree, 2 years
Batchelor's Degree, 4 years gets you your basic
Master's Degree, 2 more years
Doctorate, 2 years above Master's depending on your field.  Medical Doctorate will usually require an additional 2 year internship and 2 years of residency before entering "private practice".

Is that confusing enough?

Master's and Doctorates require some dissertation or thesis to aquire.

As to which school is better...  that is a matter of class distinction, some schools have reputations for turning out exceptional graduates and those schools are preferred because their graduates command better salaries upon matriculation. Although in the schools of law or medicine, one can get a good education at a number of other institutions for a lot less money. The quality of education is generally very good at the higher levels.  There are "board" or "Bar" exams that insure quality among those professionals that are issued by the States in the form of Licenses to Practice.

Music Scholarships are available although perhaps not as easy to attain as in the past.  My father managed to get no less than 3 Engineering Degrees on a combination of Music and Athletic Scholarships.