I'm hoping someone here can explain something that I haven't been able to find a satisfying answer to - why don't traditional acoustic guitars crack? I mean obviously sometimes they do, but it seems to me like that should happen all the time. For anyone unfamiliar, the front (top) and backs of wood acoustic guitars have their grain direction running parallel to the neck. And inside, there is bracing. That bracing runs perpendicular to the grain of the top, and the bracing is typically glued to the top. Gluing perpendicular grain is generally considered a huge problem when it's an item of furniture and it would be reasonable to expect an object constructed like that to tear itself apart in a few years as humidity fluctuations do their thing. But guitars usually don't do that and I don't understand why.
Well-cured wood can help. Guitars built with green wood will crack easily.
Plywood guitars are tough - my resonator guitars are impervious to dryness, and they're made of plywood basically.
The other thing that might explain it is survivor's bias - the guitars on the wall at the pub or in a mountain cabin either survive, or they crack and die. We see the ones that made it. Same thing with 200 year old parlor guitars - they are survivors.
I hadn't considered survivorship bias or that my original assertion was wrong. Solid point.