Acoustic guitar care - case humidifier?

JMP220478 · March 2019

Recent step up in acoustic guitar quality - nice faith venus - has me a little concerned as I know jack about ideal storage for above.
any advice - dos donts etc greatly appreciated

fyi / have faith hardcase - 12s in it atm .

Cheers

Milk · March 2019

have a look here https://blog.taylorguitars.com/using-a-guitar-humidifier-and-other-guitar-humidity-tips i know its not a taylor but there is some very useful knowledge and info .

ESBlonde · March 2019

Don't subject the guitar to rapid temp changes.

Don't set it in direct sunlight for long.

Don't set it beside radiators or other heating sources.

Don't leave it closed up in the car on a hot or cold day.

If you take the guitar from a warm home to the cold car then into a warm venue, leave it in the case half an hour before opening it. It evens out the changes a little and can sometimes result in a more stable tuning early in the session.

thermionic · March 2019

Much of the advice on humidifiers comes from North America, large parts of which have dry summers and cold winters where the heating is going full blast. I've always had the opposite problem - guitars soak up moisture too easily and the top swells, raising the action. Get a hygrometer first to see what the humidity in your house (and inside the case) actually is.

JMP220478 · March 2019

thermionic said:

Much of the advice on humidifiers comes from North America, large parts of which have dry summers and cold winters where the heating is going full blast. I've always had the opposite problem - guitars soak up moisture too easily and the top swells, raising the action. Get a hygrometer first to see what the humidity in your house (and inside the case) actually is.

Any you would recommend ?

thermionic · March 2019

I have an Oregon Scientific thermometer I got in Maplins years ago. A quick look on amazon gives loads of results, this one looks reasonable to me.

Mine currently reads 46%, which is pretty much ideal. Most of the year it's reading 55% or over and rarely gets close to 40%.

stuartryanmusic · March 2019

An Oasis humidifier is great for those times when the guitar has become too dry and needs some moisture

crunchman · March 2019

If you are in the UK, where the air is relatively damp, and don't set your central heating ridiculously hot, then it's highly unlikely to be a problem.

The big issue is relative humidity. When the air is really cold outside, it cannot contain a lot of water vapour. When it comes inside and is warmed up by your central heating then it still has the same absolute moisture content, but the relative humidity is much lower. The more you warm the air up, the lower the relative humidity will get.

If you keep your central heating at 25C then you might get problems as your relative humidity will be significantly lower than at 20C. If you live up in the wilds of Scotland, and it is 5 degrees colder outside, that could cause problems, but in England, with a sensible setting on your central heating, it shouldn't be an issue.

terada · March 2019

Generally in the uk it’s not an issue. Most of what you read relates to the US where it is often a big concern.

In fact, case humidifiers can leak and cause a much larger headache.

I’ve had my hd35 and j45 our and about in the living room with no ill effects whatsoever

steveh · March 2019

Just go buy a ThermPro TP-50 for a few quid and that will tell you all you need to know about the environment where you store you guitars - it'll probably confirm that there is nothing to worry about. Mine reads between 45 and 55% pretty much all of the time, throughout the year.

Re case humdifiers. Yeah, great idea to stick moisture inside a guitar case in the UK. I once heard Martin Simpson tell a great story about a guy who destroyed a Sobell doing this: warped the top +++

stuartryanmusic · March 2019

Most instrument shops in the Uk sell humidifiers for a reason. Granted, we don't live in Arizona and I'm not talking about dunking them in a bucket but as the seasons change and central heating comes back on many guitars can benefit from a few drops of de-ionised water. Keep an eye on the hygrometer - if it's 45 - 55% then there's likely no problem at all. I used to live in a valley where the climate could change dramatically and sometimes a humidifier would make a huge difference. When Martin Taylor feels his guitars are too dry he leaves them in the bathroom with the shower running for a while...

crunchman · March 2019

stuartryanmusic said:

Most instrument shops in the Uk sell humidifiers for a reason.

Yeah. They make a profit on them.

StuartMac290 · March 2019

Interesting - I bought a hygrometer due to this thread and stuck it in my guitar room, and the humidity is only 42% with an accuracy of +/- 5%. Hmmmmm

crunchman · March 2019

StuartMac290 said:

Interesting - I bought a hygrometer due to this thread and stuck it in my guitar room, and the humidity is only 42% with an accuracy of +/- 5%. Hmmmmm

42% shouldn't cause any problems.

The Taylor site says that the ideal relative humidity is 45 - 55%:

https://www.taylorguitars.com/support/maintenance/symptoms-wet-guitar

I've seen other articles that say ideal humidity is 40 - 50%, so 42% is in that range.

StuartMac290 · March 2019

crunchman said:

StuartMac290 said:

Interesting - I bought a hygrometer due to this thread and stuck it in my guitar room, and the humidity is only 42% with an accuracy of +/- 5%. Hmmmmm

42% shouldn't cause any problems.
The Taylor site says that the ideal relative humidity is 45 - 55%:
https://www.taylorguitars.com/support/maintenance/symptoms-wet-guitar

I've seen other articles that say ideal humidity is 40 - 50%, so 42% is in that range.

It's dropped to 40%. Given the tolerance is stated as +/-5% I've stuck a humidifier in the room for a bit.

JMP220478 · March 2019

looks like another piece of gear to invest in .. thanks for advice ..

in the meantime - Ive stumbled across Mike Dawes and Ernesto Schnak

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Acoustic guitar care - case humidifier?

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