Humidify your darn guitar

[Freeman Keller]

Martin DM. Owner says he has ten instruments, he likes to keep them "on display". Don't know about his house but at mine its 12F and 66% RH outside, 68F and between 16 and 26% inside. The humidifier in my music room goes thru 2 gallons of water a day and can't get it above 30%.

 

Top crack (looks like its been repaired before, sunken, frets will slice your fingers and it buzzes like a bee hive.

 

 

 

I put a damp car was sponge inside and another in the case. Told him I would call in a few weeks and tell him how its going

 

 

So easy to prevent...

 

 

[katopp]

And make sure you understand, how hot, dry air moves...

I had built a cabinet for my servers to shut them down acoustically and installed silent, hi volume radial fans to extract the heat out of the double-glassed cabinet. Even though the average rH in the room was ok, the acute rH of the hot air was way below that and since two guitars were directly in that hot and dry airflow I still ended up with damage, so, if you have hot air vents, check rH there, too and move your guitars out of the airstream!

[Idunno]

Well, if you're gonna be dumb, you'd better be tough. This is precisely the reason I do not make friends easily. I pay very close attention, down to the nuanced level of my world, including people, places, things, environment, etc. Having lived as a traveling inhabitant (gypsy) through all known weather patterns, geography and demographics, one becomes acutely aware of himself as a combatant, primarily, and only then a citizen. In business it's known as the continual monitoring of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) as it applies to me, my world and how they contrast. It's also why I find solace in playing guitar. People, generally speaking, are prone to continual failure and after 61 years of witnessing that reclusiveness becomes the better partner in cohabitation.

 

[uSER=210795]katopp[/uSER] - Duh. That might sound offensive, and maybe it is in the context of the common sense warning about not holding your hand above a flame (guitar in the hot, dry airstream), but it seems obvious to me one would place hygrometers and guitars together in the still air spots of a room.

 

Freeman - Thanks for yet another example of human failure. I'd be the kind of guy who'd let the dood know he bought himself a new top because if a previous repair did not hold, subsequent repairs will suffer the same fate based on his lack of cranial prowess.

[bigald18]

Depends where you live Freeman. Here in Tampa Bay area it's most always humid. Humidity in my house stays at 55% with a/c on and with heater on goes down to 50%. Don't really need to humidify but I do anyway. Better safe than sorry. Sometimes during summer I have to DEhumidify the music room. Too much moisture can also cause problems.

 

BigAl

[katopp]

[uSER=168471]Idunno[/uSER] Yeah, assembled the cabinet, put it into a corner and left the hygrometer where it has always been. Stupid, I know...

[Delmont]

Well' date=' if you're gonna be dumb, you'd better be tough. This is precisely the reason I do not make friends easily. I pay very close attention, down to the nuanced level of my world, including people, places, things, environment, etc. Having lived as a traveling inhabitant (gypsy) through all known weather patterns, geography and demographics, one becomes acutely aware of himself as a combatant, primarily, and only then a citizen. In business it's known as the continual monitoring of SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) as it applies to me, my world and how they contrast. It's also why I find solace in playing guitar. People, generally speaking, are prone to continual failure and after 61 years of witnessing that reclusiveness becomes the better partner in cohabitation. . . .[/quote']

 

Are you saying that dumb people (a) will never change and (b) annoy you? Makes sense to me.

[DeepEnd]

Humidity in the mid 90's here in St. Louis, low 40's in my living room, thanks to hot water heat, which doesn't dry the air as badly as forced air. My guitars sit in a corner with a hygrometer on a shelf nearby. I check it periodically and act as needed.

[kwakatak]

Humidity in my house has dropped into the teens so all three of my solid topped acoustic guitars now have dual humidistat for the soundhole and headstock. You have to keep those fretboards hydrated too - even though my Martin has a Micarta fretboard, I want the Neck to be stable.

[Mikeo]

I keep my acoustics in there cases with some home made travel soap box and sponge humidifiers.

 

Having tried just about every humidifier on the market, I feel this works as good as anything you could buy.

 

If you insist on leaving a guitar out, pick a room, close the door and humidify that room. Smaller spaces are just easier to humidify than a whole house.

 

I have good old fashion steam heat too.

 

Two of my Martins are very prone to humidity and lack of it. the tops have sunk before, so I watch for that. I have a Lil Martin at work with a solid top that has 2 sponge box humidifiers in it. What ever it takes.

 

Monday night is refill the humidifiers in the guitar cases.

 

 

I have even taken a guitar into the bathroom, put it in a stand on the sink vanity( one could put it in a stand on the floor).Then taken a shower and let things get re-hydrated that way. You will want to take the guitar out immediately after showering, cause you can end up with a pretty wet guitar from condensation, if you stay in the bathroom too long and the guitar is too wet, just wipe it down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Freeman Keller]

I was just visiting my local music store. The owner said that their humidifier pumps 22 gallons of water a day into the store's atmosphere and its still hard pressed to maintain 40%.

[Tony Burns]

I'm big on humidifiers and dehumidifiers as well - i go about threw about 2 1/2 gallons each day -

but still have a slight problem with one guitar - not that big of a deal

 

Not sure why alot of people try to do this on the cheap- you can get a very good house one threw Walmart for about a 120 bucks -

and the chemicals are not that exspensive either - allot cheaper than trying to repair a guitar -plus its better for your health and that of your families-

plus your furniture wont dry out etc.

[Tony Burns]

Freeman , i have seen damaged guitars in a few music stores -some of those guys act clueless about damage dryness does to their stock -i even asked one owner why he didn't humidify his store and he basically said - its to hard - kinda stupid to try and sell damaged stock and make any money this way - thats why i dont buy stuff from him any more - Ive heard his stores not doing very well -Duuh !

[Gromit]

In a way, I'm lucky. Living in the UK where we practically have fifty different names for rain, and very few houses have A/C, the problem is more likely to be dehumidifying. The main problem I have is worrying that I might rust away.

[panhandler]

Living on the Gulf Coast now, I don't need to humidify as much as I did back in VA.

There are still some winter months when the humidifier goes into action. If only for a short time.

 

This winter has been very warm. Lot's of moisture in the air naturally right now.

[Grant Harding]

68% here according to the dehumidifier.

[Emory]

Here near beach in Thailand usually so humid might as well use wet cardboard for git bodies. However, it is now "the dry season". Regular Sahara here, humidity reads 41%. Wonder if the change from "normal" high to this any cause for worry.... doubt it, but life is full of surprises.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I'm big on humidifiers and dehumidifiers as well - i go about threw about 2 1/2 gallons each day -

but still have a slight problem with one guitar - not that big of a deal

 

Not sure why alot of people try to do this on the cheap- you can get a very good house one threw Walmart for about a 120 bucks -

and the chemicals are not that exspensive either - allot cheaper than trying to repair a guitar -plus its better for your health and that of your families-

plus your furniture wont dry out etc.

 

Do you have a link / model number?

 

I live in Southern California, which is basically a semi-arid / desert region. We don't get as cold in the winter as many do back east, but do use a central (gas) heater, and the summers aren't overly humid, and we have to run an air conditioner due to the heat... so keeping my acoustics hydrated is a year-round responsibility.

 

FWIW, I've always stuck with in-case humidifiers. Like Mikeo said, it's easy and cheap to make them from soap containers and sponges - get the O-Cel-O sponges if possible - they're treated and resist mold much better than untreated sponges. Also, make sure you use distilled water - that way, you avoid mineral buildup too.

[garthman]

I've never humidified any of my guitars and a few of them are coming up to 50 years old. None have shown any signs of damage.

 

But that's probably because I live in the good old damp UK where theRH rarely drops below 65%

[Tony Burns]

 

Do you have a link / model number?

 

I live in Southern California, which is basically a semi-arid / desert region. We don't get as cold in the winter as many do back east, but do use a central (gas) heater, and the summers aren't overly humid, and we have to run an air conditioner due to the heat... so keeping my acoustics hydrated is a year-round responsibility.

 

FWIW, I've always stuck with in-case humidifiers. Like Mikeo said, it's easy and cheap to make them from soap containers and sponges - get the O-Cel-O sponges if possible - they're treated and resist mold much better than untreated sponges. Also, make sure you use distilled water - that way, you avoid mineral buildup too.

 

Phil- the one i have is quite old -thou I did recent see a essick hmidifier listed on the walmart site for about 120-130 bucks- believe it was a 2 1/2 gallon model

[Phil O'Keefe]

Thanks Tony.

 

Are you using distilled water in yours?

[Jasaoke]

I've had my guitars hanging or on stands for decades. I live in Pennsylvania; see a 100-degree temperature shift every year, and humidity is just as volatile, sudden summer thunderstorms, dry autumns, winters and forced-air heat. I've never humidifiedk or climate controlled anything, and I've never had a problem with any of my guitars. I suppose things just right themselves throughout he course of a year, but I've never noticed anything out of whack.

 

Maybe guitars are like kids: If you keep 'em ultra clean, sterile, climate controlled, and are really picky about you feed them, they don't develop their natural immunities. But if you let 'em run and play in the dirt and have fun, they grow up pretty well-adjusted.

 

They're all beater guitars and they're all show guitars, and they're all fine.