Weird Book Matching

[Doug Edwards]

I work one day a week at a local music store, we have a unique guitar.

This one stares back at you.

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs158.snc3/18536_1041627429424

[Doug Edwards]

http://www.facebook.com/#/photo.php?pid=115305&id=100000461103205

[MikeEdgerton]

There is something wrong with the address of the images, there's no filename or extension.

[Doug Edwards]

http://www.facebook.com/#/photo.php?pid=115305&id=100000461103205

[JEStanek]

Werewolf-ey.

Jamie

[Doug Edwards]

one more try, it's resisting.

[MikeEdgerton]

That's freaky. Here's te picture for anyone that doesn't have a facebook account.

OK, you got it before mine went up.

[man dough nollij]

http://hphotos-snc3.fbcdn.net/hs158.snc3/18536_104162742942429_100000461103205_115305_42298 08_n.jpg

[JeffD]

I bet it does a good job on high lonesome.

[Mark Walker]

Wow. Amazing how that grain formed that image! :disbelief:

[Austin Koerner]

Weird is an understatement.

[KristinEliza]

hmmm...maybe there was a reason it was resisting? Freaky!

[Ben Milne]

Awesome back... owmuchessit?

I suspect that if i had this axe, combined with a pick of destiny my guitar playing chops would improve considerably - maybe even up to bearable

. looks like the perfect guitar for Tenacious D.

[Bill Van Liere]

Looks like a piece of wood from a talking tree.

[Austin Koerner]

Hey Doug, who is the maker of the guitar?

[Doug Edwards]

It's a Hohner guitar. Someone is actually doing a newspaper article about it. Not much happening down here I guess.

[Andy Fielding]

Yaah! It's the Dreadnought of Turin! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_turin) :?)

[D C Blood]

If it was an image of Jesus it might sell on ebay for many thousands...;)

[Mark Walker]

I have a Hohner guitar, but it's got a three-piece rosewood back - much like the Martin D-35's. While the grain on it is beautiful, it's nothing like that one!

[Bertram Henze]

Just wait until it stirs in its case at night...

[Bertram Henze]

...or it would make a nice unplugged instrument for these guys (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNGNLo8K6Fk)?

[Fretbear]

"Treebeard" from Lord of the Rings.....

[kirksdad]

I don't want to be anywhere near that guitar during a full moon

[hank]

Not to Worry. Inverted it is a priest with a pointy hat with his hands together in prayer. DA DA DA DAAAAAA :grin:

[leathermarshmallow]

That is awesome! I would love to have a guitar like that!

[JEStanek]

I looks a little bit like a Decepticon symbol... maybe I just finished watching the Transformers with my son but I think that guitar might turn into a wine crate!

Jamie

[Doug Edwards]

If it was an image of Jesus it might sell on ebay for many thousands...;)

This guitar is more like the satanic signature series. Our in-house luthier makes sure it's turn away from his bench so it won't watch him. :)

[Bertram Henze]

Let's add a bit of science here:
1 - the brain is wired as to optimize pattern recognition (the monkey that sees the tiger in the bush first is most likely to survive), i.e. we involuntarily try to find familiar things like faces in any random picture and in most cases we find them. Psychological tests like Rorschach utilize that.
2 - Living creatures on this planet show a characteristic symmetry, therefore everything symmetric tends to look like an animal or a person (cars, for instance, or symmetric houses). The perfect symmetry created by bookmatching is bound to produce that impression, especially if it contains any pair of points that qualify as eyes.
3 - Letting the resemblance with a face generate uncomfortable feelings is a self-feeding cycle of fear that can drive people crazy - not going down that road is the test for a healthy self (not just for Jedi knights). In my little bedside locker, there is a wood knot that looks exactly like a skull, looking at me during the night - no problems at all. :)

[billkilpatrick]

dryad! ...

[Andy Fielding]

Of course our friend here may have Photoshopped it, too.

[Paul Kotapish]

Call the pope, just in case.

[Doug Edwards]

Of course our friend here may have Photoshopped it, too.

I took both photos in the thread with my camera phone. It's real.

[Doug Edwards]

For the skeptics, here's the newspaper article (http://www.fullhouseproductions.net/ARCHIVE2010/100127GuitarFace.htm) to be published January 27.

[Andy Fielding]

"You’ve heard of Jesus in a tortilla, and a crucifix in a baked potato. If you hurry to Hill Country Music store, you will see a demon in a guitar..."
As far as it looking like a "demon", I imagine that nearly any face that'd occur from something like vertical-grain book matching would look "demon-like" in that:

(a.) It wouldn't look like a realistic face, but like some kind of fantasy character's.

(b.) The vertical orientation would make it look "evil" and "angry" (big furrowed brow, downward-pointing features).


"...Some - like on-site luthier Glenn Stevens - swear it is the face of Satan. He is loathe to get near it."
Heh! Now there's a clue why superstitious people like to have imaginary friends to protect them from their imaginary enemies. [Falling down on knees in prayer] "Oh great and powerful gods of the musical instrument world, please protect me from the demon in the Hohner guitar!" And this is a guy who, presumably, makes his living by understanding wood. :?D

Seriously, though, it's a perfect example of the lower brain functions we have from our primitive past. Inside the human brain is a complete sub-brain quite similar to a lizard's. Let's say you step into a friend's yard and see a garden hose coiled in the grass—the lizard brain kicks in. You immediately think, "Snake!!" and jump back to protect yourself. Such survival-oriented pattern recognition bybasses our logical brains and immediately triggers the "fight or flight" instinct.

It happens in social situations, too... Your boss calls you into her office and says she's not satisfied with a report you submitted. Immediately you start sweating, your pulse and breathing speed up, and your body prepares to either run away or physically defend itself. Totally unnecessary and inappropriate responses for something that requires intellectual skills. It actually impedes your ability to think well. Sure explains a lot about some of our traditions, and why reasoning has such little effect on them. :?)

On a lesser scale (no pun intended), that's what happens with random images like this one. Most of us are able to see it as an amusing coincidence, but some are left with strong feelings of fear they can't explain, so they feel compelled to resort to equally-primal "countermeasures". Pass the holy water, huh? Fascinatin' stuff. Glad you shared this.

[MikeEdgerton]

Andy, you're so far over the line here that I'm sure Ted or Scott will be taking care of this. If you can still see the site please check out the Posting Guidelines (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/faq.php). You've violated two three here.

[zookster]

Anybody check to see if the guitar is Serial #666??

[Bill Snyder]

Mike apparently he hasn't. I reported Andy's post to Ted because while I find nothing wrong with the guitar, I do find his post offensive. Ted said Andy's post was just fine.

[Larry S Sherman]

I agree with Ted...I was not offended, and didn't see it as an attack on anyone. Our brains are hard-wired to perceive our environments in particular ways for survival.

This is an interesting example:

38XO7ac9eSs

On topic, I love how the design is a different image upside down. I wouldn't have any issue with this guitar, and would enjoy showing it to people.

Larry

[Mario Proulx]

Wow! 38 posts and not a wolf tone joke yet ;)

[Mike Bromley]

I think that guitar might turn into a wine crate!

Jamie

That would be the Doppelgänger you have recently worried about.....:))

[hank]

"Wow! 38 posts and not a wolf tone joke yet" ~:>~:>~:>~:>~:>

[Dobe]

I'm getting really scared !

Just had a vision of thousands of board feet ripped & still,

no holy bookmatch :disbelief:

[bigbike]

one more try, it's resisting.


I have never seen anything like that before. That is wild! Whomever matched that back has got a great eye and a better sense of humor. Now it may actually save the new owner some time. I mean now they don't have to travel to the crossroads, they can just talk to the back of their getar to make their deal!;)

[David M.]

2 - Living creatures on this planet show a characteristic symmetry, therefore everything symmetric tends to look like an animal or a person (cars, for instance, or symmetric houses). The perfect symmetry created by bookmatching is bound to produce that impression, especially if it contains any pair of points that qualify as eyes.

Not everything symmetric resembles a face. I understand what you're saying, but nature is full of symmetrical patterns (leaves, insect wings, flowers, tree growth rings, etc.) that have no facial characteristics at all and are perfectly axial or radial symmetrical. Too much design education/practice coming out here, I guess :)

This Hohner example surely does, though. Weird...

[Randi Gormley]

David M's post reminded me of an ad i recently saw where they showed all sorts of everyday things that looked like frowns and then a bunch that looked like smiles, including a chair, a car's front grille and rope on a boat. i guess we like seeing faces in things. it's like spotting pictures in clouds. One thing about that guitar -- would be tough to fence or sell if it were ever stolen!

[Bertram Henze]

Not everything symmetric resembles a face. ... insect wings,...

Maybe not everything, but insect wings are such a good example:
http://www.schmetterling-raupe.de/bild/bild169.jpg

[David M.]

It's cool how spots on a fish's rear fin or an insect's wings are a disguise of its own eyes.

[CES]

I thought it was cool until you turned it upside down, Bertram...that's just freaky!!

To take your explantation further, an interesting phenomenon has been seen in patients with later onset blindness (maybe from macular degeneration, for example). Their brains often will substitute images (typically pleasant or familiar as opposed to typical hallucinations which tend to be frightening, though not always) for those not being seen. It tends to be worse in settings like dementia, but I can remember my grandmother asking me (before her dementia really set in) if "there were kids playing over there in that corner, or if I'm just nuts." When reassured that there were no children she was responsible for she was fine...and I don't mean to trivialize dementia or mental illness at all...

Anyway, cool photo...thanks for posting!

[Philippe Bony]

Mike apparently he hasn't. I reported Andy's post to Ted because while I find nothing wrong with the guitar, I do find his post offensive. Ted said Andy's post was just fine.

:))

[bigbike]

Upon further study, i believe it is Roddy Mc Dowell back (kinda looks like his Planet of the Apes character!)

[Bertram Henze]

I thought it was cool until you turned it upside down, Bertram...that's just freaky!!

For justice's sake it must be said that there is a difference: that butterfly's wings look like that to frighten away predators, the animal gaining advantage out of the recognition effect. It is unlikely, on the other hand, that the tree tried to avoid becoming a guitar by frightening the luthier...

[papawhisky]

Just caught a look at this. Kind of freaky. I showed it to my girlfriend and she said it looks just like Chewbacca. I don't know. I'm just saying.