Encouraged by my success at creating a reasonable musical instrument, I set out to try again. In tandem with friends Mr. Peikert and Vikram, we ordered real wood and attempted to build guitars from scratch.

My effort was decent, and I almost made it through bending the sides (hairdryer and spray bottle) without breaking all the wood. Ultimately, it was an unsuccessful journey - not enough planning or patience at this point most likely. The scrap was able to become my repeat showing at the Science Olympiad Sound of Music competition.

Less successful this time - the judges were unimpressed that I made a guitar two years in a row with no demonstrable innovation in the process (even though this one looked and felt much more real). Ultimately that was the least important part, because I already had the bug.

Thanks again to my science and physics teacher Mr. Peikert for running the Science Olympiad team and always encouraging me to build and try wild things (and in this case, building wild things with me).