humidity affects tone

[frquent flyer]

Anyone have any therories on why humidity affects tone on acoustic instruments?

[dazco]

If i had to guess it would be the obvious one....wet wood is dead wood. If you tap a piece of wood then soak it, it kills resonance of course. Humidity is nothing more than moisture in the air, so what else could it be? granted, it's a he|| of a long ways from the wood being wet, but it must have the same effect only to a fractional degree. I notice it too. It's been humid here lately and i can tell my guitar seems to have very slightly lost that crispness in the wound strings. But only very very very slight. Then again the humidity hasn't been nearly as bad it sometimes gets here.

[mellecaster]

Anyone have any therories on why humidity affects tone on acoustic instruments?

Not exactly a Theory....Wood absorbs moisture when it's Humid....back to yer regular programming.

[Galisti G]

not written in stone:
high humidity, guitar wet doesn't sound as good.
low humidity, guitar dry, better vibration, sounds good.
But, guitars all need some humidity so they don't dry out and crack.

[vibrasonic]

My acoustics sound better in the winter when the humidity in my house is in the high 30's to mid 40's. My D28 being rosewood is more affected by high humidity the my Gibson J50 (mahohgany)

[old goat]

Humidity makes the top expand, but since it's constrained by the sides a lot of stress develops. Also--the bracing is cross grain so that is a source of stress as well. I suspect that the stresses that develop with high humidity have more to do with the change in tone than the moisture of the wood itself, which is still not that much (if you do have major swings in the moisture content of a guitar it destroys itself.)

[toddinjax@yahoo]

Humidity doesn't necessarily affect the instrument, but more so the perceived sound or tone because "sound" is the series of waves created by the instrument moving through the air - which now has more moisture/water/humidity in it (because, like you said, it's humid). So your guitar hasn't changed, but your perception of what you hear changes, because the sound is coming through a different environment. Sound travels through air, so anything that affects the air, affects the sound.
FWIW,IMHO, colder and dryer air brings out the best of and acoustic instrument. I've experienced this with several different instruments over the years.

[rmhomer@btinterne]

Humidity makes the top expand, but since it's constrained by the sides a lot of stress develops. Also--the bracing is cross grain so that is a source of stress as well. I suspect that the stresses that develop with high humidity have more to do with the change in tone than the moisture of the wood itself, which is still not that much (if you do have major swings in the moisture content of a guitar it destroys itself.)

I think you are spot on! My 20 year old D28 somes awful when its very humid. In fact it is the most tempermental acoustic I ever owned in this respect. I have a Taylor NS32ce nylon which seems far more forgiving in this repect. It has a smaller body, so perhaps the dimensional changes in their respective tops are greater on the Martin, hence it is affected more significantly?

[Joseph Hanna]

Humidity doesn't necessarily affect the instrument, but more so the perceived sound or tone

Naw...you're partially correct in your assertion that sound waves are affected by humidity. They are absolutely.

You're utterly and completely wrong in your assertion that a guitar badly over-humidified doesn't change in tone. Depending of course on the guitar and the amount of moisture it's retained, a guitar can undergo a Titanic and biblical change. Some guitars more prone than others and some regions of the States much more brutal than others.

Further it's relatively easy to see (document) the changes of uber humidity on some guitars. There are many tell tale, physical manifestations a guitar displayes when it's either over or under humidified.

I have an old parlor guitar that I gig with in the summer. Lot's of outdoor gigs in brutal humidity. There was a summer a few years back where the guitar (despite herculean efforts to dry it out) simply didn't start sounding right until well into the winter months. After it got soaked it didn't matter if I played in low relative humidity or not, air conditioning or not...it thudded and dudded to an awful degree.


FWIW,IMHO, colder and dryer air brings out the best of and acoustic instrument. I've experienced this with several different instruments over the years.

Yes of course but this is mainly because the drier air has a tendency to also regulate humidity levels in the guitar and not so much because wave forms are less impeded.

[kevinhifi]

As mentioned above, it's the fact that wood swells as it absorbs water that really makes things get wacky. The wood is picking up extra mass and making room for it. Different types of wood and different cuts swell differently, so a top that's different from the rest will cause all sorts of contortions and stresses.

That's why I play solid body electrics here in the Twin Cities :). It gets really humid in summer and really cold in winter.

[toddinjax@yahoo]

Yeah, I should have stated that I was talking about just walking into a humid room or a rapid change in the weather. Of course a guitar stored in a high H20 environment will effect the instrument.