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Humidity and guitar
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Ruphus
Posts: 3782
Joined: Nov. 18 2010
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 RE: Humidity and guitar (in reply to por medio)
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Hello there,
Luthier´s opinion about humdity seem to differ individually, but for a rough guide see what Kevin Ryan says, whose estimation to me appears reasonable.
quote:
100%; You shouldn’t really be playing your new guitar out in the rain
95%; This is dangerous for your instrument; glue joints are compromising right now and the thin wood plates are highly stressed and buckling due to their swollen condition
90%; This is far too humid for your instrument; the action of the strings is very high; maybe it’s time for some air conditioning for both of you? Bad things are possibly going to start happening to your instrument
85%; Too humid; your wood plates are beginning to swell with the moisture; this isn’t good
80%; A little too humid I think (plus, aren’t you getting uncomfortable?); soundboard movement is starting to affect the action (making it higher over the frets)
75%; Probably getting too humid; if it keeps up you may actually notice the soundboard movement; sort of OK for awhile
70%; OK for awhile but don’t let the guitar get too warm; more wood movement with the soundboard bellying out somewhat perhaps
65%; A little too humid; there might be a small bit of wood movement but don’t panic
60%; Still sort of OK
55%; Not too bad
50%; OK
45%; PERFECT
40%; OK
35%; Time to think about humidifying your guitar; the soundboard is starting to sink in; probably will be OK for a few days so don’t panic (yet!)
30%; It is really time for humidifying your guitar, (a few days might be ok); action starting to get low; maybe you can start to feel the ends of the frets beyond the edge of the fretboard (which has shrunk back due to moisture loss); install the Planet Waves Guitar Humidifier when you are not playing the instrument
25%; Time to be really concerned; time is not on your side; take corrective action now; use the Planet Waves Guitar Humidifier and put the guitar in the case until the dry conditions are over; cracks are planning their assault; frets are hanging over the edge of the fretboard now
20%; Danger Will Robinson!!! You are living on the edge now; huge stresses are building up in the plates of your expensive instrument and; cracks may start to appear at any moment; the soundboard is sunk in and you have string buzzes
15%; Give me a call and we can discuss a time slot for your repair
10%; Now we need more time to fix all those cracks and glue the thing back together
5%; It’s over!
What "snake things" are concerned: If you are relating to those foam filled rubber tubes; Two of them must be laying around in my basement, of which one got used for a short time and never again.
To me these are examples of silly inventors and overpriced gimmicks in the same time.
In the long term you will probably not avoid the end of these things touching the inner surface of your guitar ( either back or sides ). Whenever you see a guitar with stained label or worse warped sections, chances are this kind of product was engaged before.
Also other more refined, foam-filled products won´t turn out too well in the long run, for any soaked foam enclosed will develop dough inside.
I for my part found a simple and inexpensive solution that looks like below. Just a piece of kitchen foam and a toothpick. ( Depending on the cases lid you might want to place the stick closer to the foams edge.)
Just make sure that the foam has been soaked evenly and with not more than ~ 5 ml of water. At around 30% RH, depending on the case used, a load will last for at least a week and longer. An eventually inserted hygrometer will let you know exactly when it´s time for reloading.
If you want the humdification to be happening more gently, you can take a travelling soap box, thoroughly perforate it, put the soaked foam inside, and put the box under the gear head into the head compartment. This should be of sense, considered how the gear head being less sensible than the corpus sheets.
However, I would recommend rather doing so if the guitar case will allow "buffering"/ absorption / homogene transmission, hence preferably one made of mache or better even wood.
88% seem quite high.
If your guitar sounds good at such a measure of humidity, it likely has been assembled at corresponding climate.
I fancy that it can relatively acclimatize over the years if you lower environmental humidity very gradually; but better to ask old hand luthiers about this specific point.
I´ve been told of fellow player´s guitars that cracked yet after over ten years in same home / humidity.
Hope that helps.
Ruphus
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Date Nov. 29 2010 12:30:57
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