Glowing Guitar?

[StPatrick]

If you were expecting Spinal Tap or crazy late-eighties stuff, sorry.  The power just came back on here, shortly after the sirens went off.  Having been forced out of bed to go downstairs by those sirens, I found myself bored, and the flashlight wasn't helping much.  Reading by white LED is miserable.  Luckily, I have an old Martin acoustic and had a couple beers in the fridge - seeing as how there's no way to know when this all ends, why not a beer or two before they get warm while quietly (baby next door, townhome) playing some tunes?  I couldn't think of a better way to go out that didn't involve another person IYKWIMAITTYD, so the plan was set.

 

After all that epilogue, here's what I found: once my eyes were adjusted to the no phone / no flashlight level, I started seeing brief flashes of green light in the vicinity of the strings near the bridge.  I wasn't feeling any sort of arc, and the light was too slow to be a static discharge, so I did some investigating.  It turns out the light was coming when flesh (not fingernails) ran against the pickguard - the static electricity generated was apparently enough to cause the pickguard to phosphoresce briefly.  For reference, any of you bathroom scientists will note that it's a tortoiseshell celluloid pickguard.  I doubt you get this effect out of nylon.

[LowBb]

Nice!! Riding the "acoustic" lightning :)

Be safe dude!! It looks like the storm is sweeping all the way through the state. Highs in 70's. Edited January 30, 2013 by LowBb

[StPatrick]

Nice!! Riding the "acoustic" lightning :)

Be safe dude!! It looks like the storm is sweeping all the way through the state. Highs in 70's.

 

The storm moved on with no ill-effects here.  If history holds, Clarksville and Hopkinsville KY will get hammered while the inner midstate gets a pass.  East of here should be fine if the pattern holds, but you never know how things change weather-wise once the storm hits the plateau.

[LowBb]

Weather is saying storm will hit plateau just as kids are going to school.

[Murgatroy]

Lots and lots of bad weather farther north.

 

Tornado sirens the whole nine yards. 

[jhc77]

My wife has an old blanket, not sure of the blend. I found out that the trim on it emits a glow of sorts if you pass your hands over it. In other news, I'm taking ownership of a Gibson Mastertone, Any suggestions for lessons?

[peejman]

Nice!! Riding the "acoustic" lightning :)

 

:rock:

 

 

Very interesting on the phosphorescence.  The nerd in me is gonna have to look that up at some point.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Physics lab demonstrations, one combination for static electricity is rubbing rabbits fur and celluloid. As best I recall, some small van de graaf generators and wimhurst machines relied on celluloid parts.

 

Old celluloid decomposes into nitro-cellulose compounds that are fire or even explosion hazards. It is a storage problem for old celluloid movie reels, and you can google reports of antique celluloid guitar picks alleged to have caught fire started by static electricity of playing the geetar or mandolin.

 

Dunno if the static phosphorescence on your celluloid pick guard would be a fire problem. Maybe depends on how old is the celluloid?

[LowBb]

Or how much you're sshhhrrrrreeeeeddddiiiiinnnngggggg :)