Hurricane Preparation: Guitars

[Sub City]

Anyone here in Florida getting ready for the hurricane? I'm OK with insurance. But what if the power goes out, and it's 95 degrees inside with no AC for all our guitars?

[rivaeast]

pack them up and get the hell out!

[TonyD]

Yeah... what he said.

But if you are there, put them in their cases. Any changes in temp or humidity should happen slowly enough not to be drastic.

[bluesjuke]

I'd only worry if the power was off long term, more than a couple of days.
Where in Florida are you?
That can make a difference too.

[bluesyjacuzzi]

For hurricane Katrina I took 20 guitars with me and left six on the second floor of my house in NOLA. Couldn't get back till a month later due to seven feet of water in the house and the power was off the whole time. didnt come back on until 5 months later in jan 2006.

but when I got back after a month the Martin d18, Gibson 330, Carvin ae185, Alvarez Yari classical, G&L s500 and Heritage golden eagle were all in the exact same condition as when I left. I was amazed but they had no heat or humidity damage. They were all in thier cases in a closet and they did not get wet. everything on the first floor was totally destroyed but most things on the second floor were fine.

Now when I go and look at the computer models on weather underground and see any tracks pointing toward Louisiana it makes me sick to my stomach.

[shally]

you fared much better than i did.. i lost most of my amps and many of my guitars.. those amps that didnt flood had water damage from rainwater when the roof was damaged and severe rust and corrosion. most were total losses

many of the guitars had water damage and mold when the house was without power for weeks

it was months before i could even begin to think about playing any more..

fortunately GAS is more powerful than even a class V hurricane

[bluesjuke]

shally-
"fortunately GAS is more powerful than even a class V hurricane"

Sure is!

[axelicker]

Don't use the tried-and-true just nail plywood boards to it :nono


j/k Best of luck, and nothing's worth more than yourself.

[dvilla76]

I rented an air conditioned Public storage space for the last big one and put all of my things guitars amps computers tv and important papers there and hoped for the best. Not much you can do about the temp and humidity, we were out of power for 10 days and all guitars were fine.

I'm on the East coast and saw earlier it was going to West this times Good Luck.

[bluesyjacuzzi]

I know what you mean. I couldn't play for about a year either. took a long time to want to do alot of things after that. NOLA is starting to look up now but I couldn't go through it again. God forbid if it does happen again I will have to leave this city even though I love her.



you fared much better than i did.. i lost most of my amps and many of my guitars.. those amps that didnt flood had water damage from rainwater when the roof was damaged and severe rust and corrosion. most were total losses

many of the guitars had water damage and mold when the house was without power for weeks

it was months before i could even begin to think about playing any more..

fortunately GAS is more powerful than even a class V hurricane

[MichaelThomas]

This damn storm forced my band to cancel a bunch of shows on our current tour. Uuuugggghhh. Anyways, just keep your guitars in their cases and they should be fine. If the power goes out it wont be for long I think (not four months like Andrew). I live in Miami so the public storage thing isnt an option for me. All of the storage places around me are on really low ground that floods easily. Unless you can find one of those awesome two-story Public Storage places with temperature control.

[SLG]

I get ready for a hurricane by putting new strings on my acoustics. If the power goes out for a day or two, I'm good to go.

[J Purcell]

I get ready for a hurricane by putting new strings on my acoustics. If the power goes out for a day or two, I'm good to go.

Now there's a man who's thinking ahead. :AOK

I'm 50 miles south of Tampa which is right in the predicted landfall area. Lots of vintage gear to protect but I'm putting up storm shutters this morning and I have my generator ready in case the power goes out for more than a few hours.

Probably going to lose a couple of gigs but hopefully everything else will be safe.

[Ben S.]

but when I got back after a month the Martin d18, Gibson 330, Carvin ae185, Alvarez Yari classical, G&L s500 and Heritage golden eagle were all in the exact same condition as when I left. I was amazed but they had no heat or humidity damage. They were all in thier cases in a closet and they did not get wet.

It is amazing how much protection a simple case can provide.

To the OP, my advice is always to pack up and go. I did not always think that way, but I will never go back to the days of Hurricane Parties -- partially because now I live in Central New York.

Here is a picture of how lucky I got during one of the lesser hurricanes in NoLa during the 90's.
Check out the water line:
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/groutfulone/frontview.jpg

[unoguitar]

Pre-Katrina - I cased my guitars and left them stowed as high in the closet as possible, on the top shelf and on top of stacked boxes. (Never did that before, Why did I intuitively do it then?)
As it turns out my area did not flood, matter of which floodwall broke first, we lucked out.
Since then I have my sold my higher valued guitars, and I will evacuate with only one in any future events.
I did not go through what Shally and bluesyjacuzzi did, but I fully feel the same about not enduring the experience again....


you fared much better than i did.. i lost most of my amps and many of my guitars.. those amps that didnt flood had water damage from rainwater when the roof was damaged and severe rust and corrosion. most were total losses

many of the guitars had water damage and mold when the house was without power for weeks

it was months before i could even begin to think about playing any more..

fortunately GAS is more powerful than even a class V hurricane

[Shine]

Right here between Tampa and Orlando, I live in a second story apartment so we should be ok, but I've had a roof collapse at my old hourse. Not fun.

[~el gringo loco]

One word; trashbags!

I lost a few guitars and amps in Katrina -- I didn't know what to worry about, flooding or rain, so I stashed my and amps at least 4' above what my insurance papers showed the lake level to be. Turns out the pumps, well, pumped that up a little, and we got 5' or more in the house.

A lot of stuff got wet, I saved some it, but some of my favorite guitars and amps were toast. The initial water damage was survivable, I think, but being damp and hot cause things like my '56 ES225 to simply fall apart . . . it was pretty ugly.

If I had to prepare again and time was tight and I had the same dilemma I'd solve it with a couple of rolls of construction grade trash bags -- you know, the big ol' heavy ones. If I'd stashed my guitars and amps in those I'd have come through fine . . . oh well, 20/20 hindsight is easy. :FM

Funny thing, though -- for all the hassles I had with guitars and amps, the stuff that survived, even if it was damaged and repaired, sounds somehow better than they did before. I have a J-100 that I had to strip and do a lot of neck work on that sounds wonderful, now, and a korina solidbody that drank up 4-5 lbs of water and then dried out that sounds incredible -- the water and heat aged the guitars 50 years in a month, and I wouldn't trade 'em for anything, now.

I know it sounds simple and low tech, but if I had had a roll of heavy duty trashbags and a couple of hours to use 'em I could have saved myself $15,000 in uninsured losses . . .

http://www.funkytele.com/trash/vintage-guitars.jpg

Good luck,

~j

[unoguitar]

Excellent! - Once more to the Home Depot.

One word; trashbags!

-construction grade trash bags -

~j

[scottcasey66]

Glad to see so many New Orleanians on this board. I too was forced to leave all of my gear (20+ guitars, 4 amps, pedalboard, PA computers etc...) on the seconfdfloor of my office in Mid City. They sat in 90 plus degree heat above 6 feet of water for over a month and were fine. I on the other hand was a basket case, I sat in Baton Rouge for a month wondering if my office had been looted or if the roof blew off etc... Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and snuck into town with fake credentials and looted my own office! It was the scariest day of my life as I loaded all my gear into a truck while men with machine guns rolled by. My house was a total loss, but ALL of my gear was fine! And I made it out of town without being shot or arrested. I will NEVER leave town for a storm without my valuables again!

[Sub City]

My home AC went out last year right in the middle of summer in Florida; it was 95 degrees in the house before you could bat an eye. You never saw someone load up a station wagon with guitars as fast as I did! Even with adequate instrument coverage with Heritage, it's a scary thought dealing with storms, floods, loss of power, excess heat, etc.

~j, thanks for sharing the picture. Man, that's a serious dose of reality!

[Mattbedrock]

I think my guitars like the humidity. I'm more worried about them drying out in the A/C. That's why I take them out and play them at my beachside gigs almost every weekend.

I have been lucky so far -

[bluesjuke]

I've been lightning up on worrying about my guitars too much humidity.
When I lived in Florida though fairly stable they were touchier but then again the humidity is always higher there than in Texas.

[scottcasey66]

Here we go again! I'm taking them with me this time!!!

[bluesjuke]

Good call!