Protecting your guitar through the winter months

[neverfoundthetime]

What would a Bear know about tending to it's guitar in winter..... he's asleep the whole time in his cave! No doubt wrapped around his Taylor.....

[Chasplaya]

BigBear wrote:

Chas- I have heard you can also just fill up your guitar with water and that will keep it moist. It's harder to play when full but humidity isn't much of a problem!! :silly:

Ohh so thats how you play Handels water music

[jayswett]

Thanks for the info. I followed Suzi's lead and bought a humidifier or two. I figured it can't hurt, and might actually help.

[beaker]

I live in Vancouver BC, It is quite humid here, but in the winter, I heat my place with a gas fireplace. I think this dries out the air in my place quite a bit. I have on old guitar that I have kept on a stand for years. It shows signs of drying (cracking). I recently got a new guitar. It came with some literature regarding caring for guitars. I read that but wanted more climate specific advice. I went to the Larrivee headquarters here in Vancouver. I spoke with a very knowledgeable employee. He told me to keep my guitar in the case whenever I am not playing it. He also recommended buying a humidity meter, and a sound hole dampener. He said to err on the side of more damp rather than more dry. The bottom line is, don't let your guitar dry out, don't let it hang out in extreme humidity. Don't expose it to excessive heat or cold, being especially aware of rapid changes in temp.
I hope this helps you, Beaker.

[jayswett]

I spent my honeymoon in Vancouver, Victoria, and Whistler 14 years ago. Beautiful area.

[tovo]

It's a good question Jay and I would just like clarification of a part of it. My understanding is that if you keep your guitar safely in it's case when not playing that pretty much protects it from the effects of humidity. Is that correct?

[dennisg]

I live in the same general region as Beaker: Seattle. We get very wet weather in the fall and winter, but the indoor humidity gets as low as 32 percent with the heater on, which is pretty much all the time. Considering how fond I am of my guitar, I want to keep it healthy, so I did a bit of research on humidity systems. Taylor highly recommends the HumidPak system, both for its ability to supply necessary humidity when the air's dry, but also for its ability to pull humidity out of the air (inside the case) when there's too much wetness. Since I started using it, the humidity level inside the case stays in the range of 45 to 49 percent, which is ideal for guitars.

- Dennis (in Seattle)

[jayswett]

Good info. Thanks to all.

[cosmicmechanic]

Problem is, keeping my guitar in it's case means I can't grab it at a moment's notice, and so it'll stay put there more. Anyone know of methods to control humidity at least a bit when a guitar is always out on it's stand and smiling at you?

[dennisg]

So far as I know, there's only one way to control humidity for a guitar that's in a stand, and that's to humidify the entire room. No guitar-based system is going to be effective in an open space.

- Dennis (in Seattle)