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Posts: 1708
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
Caution: Cases with Humidifiers Bui...
I recently built a guitar for a customer (the negra shown in the Lutherie Section) who put it in a case with built-in humidifiers. Somehow he accidentally overfilled the humidifiers with the propylene glycol solution that they come with and some of it leaked onto the guitar. The propylene glycol softened the shellac finish in those areas and it had to be repaired. (However, if you need to strip off a shellac finish, propylene glycol may be a good stripper to use.)
Yeah - i have seen that happen before with my buddy's guitar. He over filled the element and didnt shake it out before puttimg it back into the case. It leaked all over the guitar and ruined the finish. We see this alot hee in the south western US due to the dry climates. I use plain old distilled water which you can by at any drug store. You dont want to use tap water in the element as the mineral despoits will with time render the abosrbing capabilities of the element useless.
Sorry to hear that - Humicase Metro, right? I've heard of this happening. I purchased a used one for Stephen Faulk to ship my blanca in, and thankfully he either removed the humidifiers or they had been removed previously. I like the Oasis humidifiers, which is what I'm using now.
kitchen sponge under the faucet, squeeze out the water, put in a plastic bag up under the tuners in the case. Slowly evaporates, guitar stays nicely humidified never had a problem, and it's a bunch cheaper that any of the real guitar humidifiers. They don't drip, they don't leak, and they last for a few weeks at a time. Bag is left open.
The moisture simple equalizes throughout the case. It might not seem like it would, but it does. I have three guitars, and whichever two I'm not playing I pack away with a sponge in a bag like that. I used to get sharp fret ends and other dry guitar symptoms. None since I started using a sponge in a bag this way. The kitchen sponge holds plenty of water for a good 2-3 weeks here in Chicagoland in the winter even with all the water squeezed out.
RE: Caution: Cases with Humidifiers... (in reply to n85ae)
Thanks for the tip. But I have a few concerns. Did you measure the humidity in case? Couldn´t the humidity become too high? Furthermore taking the guitar out to play might be a shock for the wood if the difference between in the case and outside the case is too big?
Been doing it for ten years, never had a problem. The rate of evaporation out of the sponge is not that high. It's no different than 90% of the real guitar humidifiers, they are mostly all just sponges in plastic ... It's just that one looks fancy the other doesn't. One costs money for a name, the other is cheap.
Anyway that's what I do, and it works for me. I would guess since the guitars are stored at room temperature that the evaporation rate of the water is relatively low so not a problem.
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