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Hey, it was only 107 here today, and it got up to a whole 4% humidity, we're doing just fine. 

I have no clue as to what your strange American temperature values are. I live in celcius land. 

Maybe this is a sign that Arizona is just too damn hot and dry for human habitation? At least of the kind that likes to play guitars?   

Can you show examples of the work of art on non-RoHS vs. RoHS? 

RoHS solder is just a formulation difference.  While I prefer lead based solder given the choice, RoHS doesn't dictate board layout.  If you're referring to SMT vs. Through-Hole, that would be here regardless of whether or not RoHS existed.

Then I meant SMT. Sorry for the confusion. I don't solder much these days anymore.

He only ever wrote one novel, and its pretty thin at that. Most of what he wrote would be in the short story to novella range, 20-40 pages, with the longest clocking in around 140 pages. Mostly he was published in magazines and journals.

A bunch of it is public domain too: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Howard_Phillips_Lovecraft#Works

Fair warning, he's a bit of an.... "awkward" writer, so may take a tick to get used to his voice.

That's usually a thing with all older writers and even old movies. The language and imagery they use is different then ours. Not to mention that people had so much more patience back then. They really took their time to get their stories going. And if you look at old newspapers its like seeing giant walls of text. Pictures of photos? Pff! Paragraph spacing and breaks? Pff! I love the imagery and style of old posters though. It's really superior to what we do today. Especially the ones that were drawn. Works of art!

Slightly better pic.

Yeah, look, I tried white backed transfer on my first two builds, and it comes up pretty good (and I followed the tute on that site you linked to).  The issue is that they soak up the clearcoat like a sponge and you really need to be careful with it as the transfer will wrinkle and carry on if you go too hard too fast, so it takes a while to finish them up.

A luthier taught me that the best technique was to spray a very fine thin mist over the decals first, like 4 to 5 times, almost barely noticeable, and only then apply a full thick coat. By applying those very thin sprayings first they would form a thin layer that would prevent the wrinkling that would happen if you cover the decals with a full thick coat from the get go. I've been using that technique ever since on my pedal and guitar builds. It works great every time.

You know, I've come across Lovecraft being mentioned in so many other stories, movies and shows, and yet I've never come across one of his actual novels. It's like being told the Beatles are such a massive big influence on song writing, recording and musical structure, again and again and again. And never ever hearing one of their songs.

I reckon its like with tone. Fanboys will obsess endlessly about what gear their guitar hero uses to sound like him, while give that guitar hero any guitar and any rig and he'll still sound just like him. If you have good solder technique you can work with anything. And getting better high end soldering gear just makes things easier. A Dutch saying has it that one should learn how to ride a bicycle by using an old bike. Not because its easier but because its harder.

As for RoHS, all those circuit boards look the same. I'm sure they are marvels of technical design, but whenever I see an old school circuit board it looks like a work of art. Because it is, both of design and technical craftmanship. And it doesn't hurt you can pilfer the old school board for rare unobtainium parts.

I basically always used white backed decals for my pedals. Never tried the t-shirt transfer thing. Seems like too much hassle when applying white backed decals is the exact same process as clear decals.

To each his own. If you're happy with it that's all that matters. To me the ashtray bridge doesn't feel nice and if you think about it its a poor design all the way. It's really designed to be used with that cover plate that nobody ever seems to use. Intonation is harder then with a 6 piece bridge, and if you want to change the pickups you need to remove the entire bridge. Using the six piece hard tail bridge you sometimes see on Strats would make far better sense, and use a different method to install the bridge pickup separately. I reckon that if Leo Fender were to have designed the Tele later in his career he would not have used the ashtray bridge. It's the one thing on this guitar that just doesn't make any sense. That and 21 fret necks.

Yeah, you really need something to steady that drill in the absence of a drill press. And if you do have a drill press you need one that's adjustable in both height and width. Because 99% of the commercially available drill presses out there won't allow you to reach certain places on a guitar's body, as they only do height. And some of the places where you want to drill for tremelo studs are out of reach. Depending on the body type of course.

I've had a three saddle bridge Tele, if that is what the 50's and tweed and twang represent I'll leave that to the dustbin of history. It's 2019, I'll take a six piece saddle any time, thank you very much.

I for the life can't understand the appeal of the vintage ashtray Tele bridge. I don't like the looks of it, but that would be excusable, if it weren't for how it looks like friggin' intonation nightmare. One of life's little mysteries I guess.

Well, if drilling out the DC jack is all you have to do, no real biggie. I'd be worried more that the holes for the pots fit the layouts of the PCB's. Maybe from now on PCB sellers will advertise their new boards as Tayda enclosure friendly?

(Again, I should visit here more often)

Yeah, the whole paying in Germany thing can be a be of a PITA, especially for us auslanders (I've been in Germany for the better part of the last 13 months, working on a project that's a one hour flight from my home).  I routinely carry cash for small transactions, but prefer to use my MC for meals, if for no other reason, than it guarantees I get a receipt, which is not always that common otherwise (my accountants have a real hate on for "non receipt" expenses, yet HR refuses to let me go on a per diem, even though that would make everyones life a lot easier).  Problem is, most restaurants where I am won't take credit cards unless you run up a bill past 20 Euros, and I typically don't eat a single meal in the day that cost 20 Euro (meals here tend to be on the large and affordable side, and 20 Euros would be like a main, a litre of beer, and dessert, and I am having a hard enough time keeping my weight stable without adding all those calories), so then it's back to cash.

Yeah, nobody uses credit cards in daily life over here. I only use mine to pay for the odd stuff where I can't pay online via paypal, or to pay for my ZIN membership.

If you're still in Germany and near the Netherlands, I'm in Nijmegen. Feel free to visit.

And the one, two, and 5 cent coins drive me nuts.  You can't use them in vending machines, they are a hassle to carry, and given that I am typically here for 40 days at a time, by the time I leave there's a half pound of coins that the cleaning lady gets to keep.

I had a friend who collected those old coins. All Dutch 5 cent coins. He had like 20.000 when I helped him move. Those jars he kept them weighed like a ton of bricks each.

Sounds like my kind of pedal. I like extreme sounds. None of this subtle analog sustain for me please. I want Pterodactyl noises!