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Hey team Gibson!

 

Like alot of others i used to play when i was younger,started in middle school and played in jazz band and a few various garage style bands with friends and just kinda of fell out of it as i got older and started moving around, well long story short and i don't know if it's TMI but i've been through a rough few years with being diagnosed with stage III cancer just two months after my first son was born and to top it off 6 months into my cancer treatments and trying to help raise my boy, my whole family was killed in a car crash by drunk drivers,(not my wife and kid,but every other living relative i had left)this was a little over a year ago and i just hit my 1 year cancer free mark and have decided to celebrate by buying myself a nice guitar and getting back into my music, a long lost love of mine. i'm happy to say that i've picked up a proper Gibson Les Paul Classic in Silverburst and a nice mesa boogie amp to go with it, i cannot even begin to relate how excited i am for this thing to show up later this week! i feel like a 5 year old waiting on Santa at this point,lol. i really couldn't afford this at the moment and it's a real stretch but sometimes you gotta struggle a bit for the good things in life, lol, good news is i got a KILLER deal on the amp at a local pawn shop and got a fair price on the guitar as well! no joke i literately was dreaming of Gibsons a few nights ago. lol. Awesome dream. :)

 

so this brings me to the question that i really had which was how do i take care of this thing properly, basically it's going to be kept in a closet when not in use in my "man room" as my wife has dubbed it, the problem here is that it's a small room that always has the heat running in it as i'm still pretty emaciated and am trying to get weight back on,but man, i'm always freezing my butt off these days, lol, i'm really worried about the humidity in here and what it may do to my new guitar, i'm wondering if i should chuck a humidifier in the closet and just keep it like that, or if i should store it in it's case and put one of those humidifier discs in there or if i should simply do nothing and i'm just being a bit crazy in my excitement... i.e. slow my role.... i mean i do live in Washington state...seems pretty humid 99% of the time around here.

 

i've obviously been doing a bit of reading on this and really kinda just ran myself into a circle now and need some outside perspective as to what i should do...i'm so worried about drying out my new guitar i feel anxious about it and really can't wrap my head around how to deal with it properly.... i'm willing to invest money into taking care of my stuff at a medium to high level.

 

sorry, if the whole life story thing is weird, i know it makes some people uncomfortable, but to be honest with you i'm a 36 year old guy, this is my life and i haven't quite figured out the appropriate way to handle all of this stuff in relation to other people,lol, i mean i'm cool, i just don't quite know what the etiquette for talking about myself is anymore,so bear with me, i'm trying my best over here, i just really don't know when it's cool to bring all of this crap up or not and honestly don't like being treated like a special case because of it, only mentioned it here because it's the reason i'm on the forum/bought the guitar in the first place and explains why a guy has to sit in a tiny room with the heat cranked to 85 all day,lol.

 

so if you made it this far,thanks a ton for reading my drivel, putting up with me and giving me a hand here,really,i cannot thank you guys enough just for a bit of peace of mind if anything.

Cheers!

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Good Lord 2-tone, I'm so sorry you've gone through this, and at the same time I'm so happy for you hitting the 1 year mark. thats awesome. I don't have much to add as far as humIdifiers for a solid body guitar. I'm sure there are those here that will know. I'm looking forward to the responses.

again 2-Tone, wish you the best with your continued health. I'd give you a hug if I could.

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Wow! What a story and so sad for you losing your relatives and the cancer. That has to be very hard on you. Well, Cancer I know about: Im a victim myself, I had a brain tumor cancer 40 years ago that Doctors said I should have died and it was an advanced cancer. I was an experiment for them so they hit me big and heavy doses of all they had back then in 1978. Even went through a bone marrow harvest. So Id like to first congratulate you on your one year mark cancer free. My prayers are with you to continue on that success too. 2nd, congrats on the Les Paul Classic, Thats a nice one so enjoy. It will take time to build your strength and weight back up as it did with me so till then keep playing and practicing.msp_thumbup.gif The humidity thing Ive learned more from the folks here then I knew before. Way back I had an Acoustic guitar I stored in a closet in its case for decades and 30 years later the bridge was warped and it needs repaired. I read up on it and was told on the Net don't store guitars in closets. the closest can be hotter then the room or colder depending on the temperatures outside. So I stopped putting any guitar in a closet. Some folks here do store them in closets I've read so Who knows best? I Know I didn't put anything in the case of mine so thats my fault. Ive been told to put a very little bit damp cloth in the guitar case where the sales slip or guitar picks are stored or a dryer sheet in the case with the guitar. Acoustics put them in the open hole of the guitar. I don't have our house ever hotter then 70 degrees in the winter or colder then 68 in the summer and Nebraska is a humid state. I have a dryer sheet in my Gibson LP GT Standard and store it in its case leaning on an interior wall away from the outside walls and have done so for 5 years now and its perfect condition in mint shape. There's several experts here and maybe one will be along with better advice? I'm always learning too.

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hey thanks for the well wishes,always nice to hear from caring strangers out there in the ether, yeah this guitar is a pretty big deal to me, i know alot of people here have entire collections of guitars the caliber of mine,but for me i probably won't ever be able to justify another one this nice again, so i'm very concerned with treating it right,it kinda sounds like just keep it in the case with one of those humidifier tablet things or the DYI equivalent is the standard practice? so maybe just get a good case for it..i know some of the SKB/pelican type cases seal up basically air tight, that might be the way to go...honestly, i'm kinda scared to keep it anywhere other than a closet due to the toddler,accident prone wife and dogs and the rest,lol, i'm sure once i put a few scratches and chips in it myself that might not be as much of an issue to me, but for now i'm trying to make it where i'm the only one that's going to hurt this pretty thing. :)

 

or am i just completely over thinking everything here? lol, i have a tendency to do that.

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Hello and welcome

 

Sorry to hear what you have gone through, a terrible set of experiences.

Congratulations on coming through, and on a nice guitar.

 

As to storing the guitar; it should be happy if stored at 'room temperature' or a little cooler. Now this means 'normal' room temperature which is between 17c and 25c. I wouldn't want my guitars (which I always store in their cases) to get below about 10c and any higher than 30c at the extreme. Exposing them to either one of those temperature bands for more than a little while is asking for trouble. Too cool may affect the finish, too warm might make it warp.

However, obviousy you need it warm; I don't think you will do your guitar any damage initially if you keep it that warm, but the wood will dry out eventually and bad stuff may then begin to happen.

If you have a toddler and dogs, the closet is a must-have. Guitar in case, in closet. A cold closet is ok, a heated one is not. A humidifier of some sort might be good but as Retired says, a small damp cloth is cheap and as good as most of the things you can buy. You would only need that if it is usually warmer than the 'normal' above in wherever you store the guitar.

 

I don't have a humidifier or a bit of cloth; am in the UK, it rains lots and doesn't usually get above 30c in high summer.

 

Best wishes.

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....i cannot even begin to relate how excited i am for this thing to show up later this week! i feel like a 5 year old waiting on Santa at this point,lol.....

 

Heh. Lot of 5 year olds around here. msp_biggrin.gif

 

I keep all my guitars in their cases. Put a damp sponge in a baggie full of holes in there so the fretboard doesn't get too dry. Congrats on getting back into it with a new Gibson!

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