Just a reminder ya'll, check your guitars!

sbutler
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Wed Feb 07, 2018 12:15 pm

Living here in the Midwest, we usually don't have to deal with excessive cold for long periods of time. But this winter has been different. When dawn broke on New Years day , my thermometer read -17f.

And although that seems to have been the bottom of the scale this year, it has been in the single digits a lot, making my house furnace run a lot. The indoor humidity has been hovering around 22%. Half of what is healthy for a guitar.

I took my GS Mini in for a check up and some TLC, only to hear that he would have to hydrate it for a couple of weeks before he would be comfortable making any adjustments, as it would likely move again after the wood stabilized.

Ive seen very expensive guitars come apart because they had not been cared for. So everyone do yourself a favor, DON'T FORGET YOUR GUITARS THIS TIME OF YEAR!

There, thats all I have to say about that!

Scott


wrsomers
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Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:51 pm

Excellent advice Scott. I have 6 guitars in my studio and use an ultrasonic humidifier to keep them all in a humidity range between 45 and 55 percent. I used to keep the guitars in cases with Humidipacs in them. They are expensive and have to be constantly tended to. The humidifier makes it so much easier to keep the guitars happy. The only caveat with using an ultrasonic humidifier is to use only distilled water in it (not filtered water or bottled spring water). Filtered or bottled water has minerals which create a fine white powder that gets all over everything. No residue with distilled water. I buy the water from a home delivery service ($7 for 5 gallons) I get almost a week out of a 5 gallon bottle.

I highly recommend this particular humidifier:



Cheers,
Bill


michelew
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Location: Sydney, Australia
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Wed Feb 07, 2018 2:53 pm

Or move to Sydney where you’ll never need to worrry about your guitars drying out.


... though regular 70% humidity in summer is probably not the best either ... currently 69% - on a beautiful sunny day. :)

Hi Scott, Bill and y’all

Michele


heatndude
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Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:58 pm

Scott,

Great pointer for everyone! I live in the mid-west myself and yes its been cooooold :woohoo: I'm a 30 year veteran of the HVAC trade and there are only a few ways to guarantee the proper healthy levels of humidity in your home. A whole house humidifier with outdoor temperature sensing is by far the best, this will insure the correct levels without allowing mold to grow in your home. Also keep you and your guitar healthy. Here's a link for some of my favorite "professional" options https://www.aprilaire.com/whole-house-p ... humidifier

These are typically installed or sold by your local HVAC contractor, they will take care of the entire home and not just one room which is excellent. Humidity on a given level in your home will balance out, nature has a way of doing that with everything. If its to dry in a bedroom and your guitar room is next door or near it nature will balance it out unless the room is completely sealed and very rarely opened up. Stand alone or single room type humidifiers will work short term and require lots of maintenance (should be practicing :) ) You cam also get whole home De-humidiifers for warmer months to help keep the levels down in the entire home to a healthy level. AC systems typically can't do this because they are typically sized to cool the space at the highest possible outdoor temperature of where you live. This means 90% of the cooling season they only run for very short periods of time and not long enough to De-humidify, causing the home to heat up at night etc...If you run a whole house system you can keep the space warmer and fell cooler at the same time!

If its 80 degress in Arizona where it's dry you feel very cool and can wear long sleeve shirts
If it's 80 degrees in Wisconsin it feels like 95 due to high humidity

If anyone has questions on how to handle this in their home please reach out, Ill do all I can to help!

Mark


sbutler
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Wed Feb 07, 2018 4:58 pm

When I lived in Alaska, I learned this lesson all to well. Every time hung out at my local guitar shop, I saw first hand, the damage that dry Alaska {15%| can do to the guitars that were brought in. Basically a collection of glued joints, that can an do come apart. Its not a pretty sight.

Scott


Michelle, we get up to 70% plus here in the summer. But we usually have the AC going when its that bad. Basically a big ole humidifier. But I have learned to always keep my guitars in a case, with humidipacs, and I never have to much to worry about, unless like this past month, I forgot to check.


michelew
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Location: Sydney, Australia
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Thu Feb 08, 2018 5:56 pm

Hi Scott,

We’ve had the air conditioning going this summer too. I checked the humidity where I keep my guitars. - 50% yeh!

Thanks for the reminder.

Shel


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