Outdoor gigging

[STEELSTRINGS]

I know that humidity and changing temperatures and such as that have an effect on your guitar. But what if any precausions should I take when doing an outdoor gig?( I have three this week), Also is inside relative humidity of 55%-59% too high ?

[Queequeg]

for the length of time or duration of an evening gig, I wouldn't worry about outdoor RH.

as to ongoing indoor RH of 55%-59%, that's a little on the high side. better would be about 10 points lower (45-49).

you could run an A/C for a while which sucks some of the moisture out off the air, or invest in a de-humidifier.

[d28andm1911a1]

High humidity won't hurt your guitar. (short of putting it underwater)

It will hurt your guitars tone.

[Queequeg]

 

Originally posted by d28andm1911a1 High humidity won't hurt your guitar. (short of putting it underwater) It will hurt your guitars tone.

 

High humidity is a dangerous thing over an extended period of time. Even at 60%RH you can run into costly repairs. At 80% or higher in a matter of weeks you can destroy the glue and cause neck damage.

Taylor Guitars has a white sheet on this subject.

Symptoms of a Wet Guitar

[d28andm1911a1]

 

At 80% or higher in a matter of weeks you can destroy the glue and cause neck damage.

 

 

If that were ture then every guitar in FL would have fallen apart years ago. My D28 has spent 25 of the last 30 yrs in FL with no humidity problems and my house with the AC on 24/7 rarely gets below 80% and is often in the 90% range.

 

High humidity won't hurt your guitar. It will make the sound kind of muddy.

 

Last weekend I played a '38 0-17 that has never lived in an AC house that lived in FL for over 50 yrs in humidity in the 90+% range and it's only need one neck rest about 20 yrs ago.

[Queequeg]

High Humidity

By Terry Myers, Taylor Guitars

 

In the past, we haven

[Queequeg]

T A Y L O R T E C H S H E E T

SYMPTOMS OF A WET GUITAR

While much of our

energy is devoted

to preventing

guitars from drying out, it

also is possible for guitars

to become too wet. Usually,

a guitar becomes overhumidified

when it has

been exposed to the elements

for a period of several

weeks in an area where the

humidity is very high (80 to

90 percent), or for several

months where the humidity

is medium-high (60 to 70

percent). In some cases,

guitar bodies are overhumidified

by well-meaning

owners who, in an

effort to prevent their guitars

from drying, have gotten

carried away with

soundhole humidifiers.

While high humidity

usually will not crack the

wood the way low humidity

can, the adverse effects

can be just as damaging and

sometimes can be more

costly to repair. The wood

in a guitar can swell

tremendously, causing

glue joints to fail and neck

angles to go bad.

Distortions in the wood can

remain even after other

damage has been repaired,

leaving the guitar cosmetically

disfigured. Read the

tech-sheet,

[d28andm1911a1]

If what Taylor was saying was true then all those guitars that live in FL, LA, MS, GA etc for long periods of time would be destroyed. I played a 1928 5-18 all over VN in the most humid weather you can think of (worse than FL) and it's still ticking fine. Hasn't even had a neck rest.

 

Taylor is in the business of selling guitars. Take anything like that with a big dose of salt. Martins it has to be between 45-55% the same way, big dose of salt.

 

If you guitar is coming apart from high humidity then there is something wrong with the construction.

[DADGADammit]

i live in New Orleans and i own a guitar that is 6 years older than i am (i'm 24) it is never below 75% and that is very rare, from March to October you'd be lucky to get below 95% and its often 100%. its pretty bad but you get used to it. i've never had any problems with my guitar which is a japanese martin copy(S Yairi)

 

i have to agree and say that high humidity can't be as bad as that article says it is. if your guitar is messed up, you've been playing guitar in the rain or underwater or its just {censored}ty construction