Humidity/Temperature and Guitars

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wildshoetwt

Member
Messages
831
I've had a problem with all my guitars, over time they become sort of lifeless, and I only realized this after getting a new one today. I always LOVE my guitars when I first get them, only to find that over time they just get sold because I didn't bond with them.


Then something hit me, I remember some Captain Beefheart about leaving your guitar in a dark area with a saucer of water to keep it humid.

I store my guitars about 6 feet from a window that blows dry California desert air when it's open, and its one of the brightest areas of my room.



And then another thing struck me, everytime I take my guitar to my tech, he has a very humid but temperate shack that he stores all the guitars hes working on inside, and it's pretty dark in there.


So what's the story? How can I make this guitar last for me?
 
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halo3628

Member
Messages
52
Do you have A/C or a Swamp-cooler... personally i have a swamp-cooler so my house is basically a giant humidifier (*ARIZONA*) ... I you have A/C i would suggest getting one of those ceaph $20 humidphers at bed, bath & beyond and putting it colser to the guitars and try to keep the room humid... The brightness of a room does not matter because the wood is sealed which means it wont be affected by that to much.

Hope that helps
 
S

Schmidt

Member
Messages
145
RH (relative humidity) should never go below 35% where guitars live! Keep in mind that dry air - not humidified - kills guitars and that wood generally loose humidity to the dry air twice as fast as they can absorb it from humidified air.
 
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wildshoetwt

Member
Messages
831
it seems that humidity in my area (91301) can be as low as 30% at this time of year, not sure about other times of the year


yikes, so is keeping the window closed in the room i keep the guitar in and keeping the a/c on a good enough solution?
 
J

=JL=

Member
Messages
984
You're asking a valid question about temperature and humidity, but don't base anything on what Beefheart said!
He also said he threw his saxophone in the trash when it ran out of notes...
 
S

Schmidt

Member
Messages
145
matthornet said:
Where I live, we have 80% humidity! 'tropical rainforest'. Is it too wet for guitars?
Click to expand...
Depends on which type of guitar... if it's a vintage ES-330 or 335 which is glued with hide glue (and TiteBond and phenolic formaldehyde) - it might harm at least the hide glue - which stick top and back to the sides (kerfed linings which is bonded to the sides with aliphatic glue like TiteBond original and to top/back with hiot hide glue). The phenolic formaldehyde used for laminating top, back and sides plies will not be affected in RH on 80.

Other types of guitars - such as LPs and Strats will make it unhurt thru the tropical nights :) That said: Most places in tropical reainforrest areas have air conditioning that will de-humidify the air to more "normal" values.

The wood itself is sensible to dry air rather than wet - except rapird changes (counts for rapid temperatur changes as well).
 
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