Humidity

[ksdaddy]

All but a few of the guitars are down in the man cave. All summer long it is a battle to keep the humidity below 65%. And they do sound bad. The main floor is typically 10% or more lower and if a guitar happens to stay upstairs for a few days it sounds a lot better. I'm using an old early 60s Sears dehumidifer that will pull 2 gallons of water a day out of the air. I'm skeptical that a newer one would work better. I may have to spend some money and find out.

[Sitedrifter]

All but a few of the guitars are down in the man cave. All summer long it is a battle to keep the humidity below 65%. And they do sound bad. The main floor is typically 10% or more lower and if a guitar happens to stay upstairs for a few days it sounds a lot better. I'm using an old early 60s Sears dehumidifer that will pull 2 gallons of water a day out of the air. I'm skeptical that a newer one would work better. I may have to spend some money and find out.

 

 

Probably the only gain on using a new dehumidifer is most have a hyrgrostat as well as a defrost cycle.

[Hall]

I dunno. All my guitars became over humidified just reading these two pages!

[chasAK]

I got this off of the forum a few years ago. Thought it might be informative.

 

 

 

Guitar Humidity

100%;You shouldn't really be playing your new guitar out in the rain

95%; This is dangerous for your instrument; glue joints are compromising rightnow and the thin wood plates are highly stressed and buckling due to theirswollen condition

90%; This is far too humid for your instrument; the action of the strings isvery high; maybe it's time for some air conditioning for both of you? Badthings are possibly going to start happening to your instrument

85%; Too humid; your wood plates are beginning to swell with the moisture; thisisn't good

80%; A little too humid I think (plus, aren't you getting uncomfortable?);soundboard movement is starting to affect the action (making it higher over thefrets)

75%; Probably getting too humid; if it keeps up you may actually notice thesoundboard movement; sort of OK for awhile

70%; OK for awhile but don't let the guitar get too warm; more wood movementwith the soundboard bellying out somewhat perhaps

65%; A little too humid; there might be a small bit of wood movement but don'tpanic

60%; Still sort of OK

55%; Not too bad

50%; OK

45%; PERFECT

40%; OK

35%; Time to think about humidifying your guitar; the soundboard is starting tosink in; probably will be OK for a few days so don't panic (yet!)

30%; It is really time for humidifying your guitar, (a few days might be ok);action starting to get low; maybe you can start to feel the ends of the fretsbeyond the edge of the fretboard (which has shrunk back due to moisture loss);install the Planet Waves Guitar Humidifier when you are not playing theinstrument

25%; Time to be really concerned; time is not on your side; take correctiveaction now; use the Planet Waves Guitar Humidifier and put the guitar in thecase until the dry conditions are over; cracks are planning their assault;frets are hanging over the edge of the fretboard now

20%; Danger Will Robinson!!! You are living on the edge now; huge stresses arebuilding up in the plates of your expensive instrument and; cracks may start toappear at any moment; the soundboard is sunk in and you have string buzzes

15%; Give me a call and we can discuss a time slot for your repair

10%; Now we need more time to fix all those cracks and glue the thing backtogether

5%; It's over!

 

 

[ksdaddy]

I never paid any attention to humidity until January of 2011 when I got a Garrison from Arizona. The top was caved in and the neck looked like a roller coaster. I bougth a hygrometer and the house was 19%. I started running a humidifier 24/7 but with forced hot air heat it was a battle to get it to 30% and keep it that high. Amazingly the Garrison smoothed out after a week or so.

[4 FINGER PETE]

I live in Montreal and in winter time with the heating is turned up, humidity level goes down in the 30's. I really need to humidy then. If your's stays in the 40's, as that other fellow wrote, it's really not a problem.

 

 

[Jerry K]

On the hygrometer front, my finding is that most of the inexpensive electronic ones are about the same. A fellow over on the UMGF who has a sling psychrometer reported that the cheap electronic ones are pretty accurate in the middle of the humidity spectrum but less so at the extremes. In my view extreme accuracy is not necessary for a guitarist; you only need to be aware that you are going below 30 or above 60, really. The really cheap analog ones that use the expansion and contraction of a fiber are also adequate to spot the danger zones, just not as fun as the digital ones.

[jmjohnson]

Essick Air makes some very nice humidifiers - I use the MA0800 and the MA1201.

They used to be available at HomeDepot / Lowes...not sure if still the case.

 

Auto-humidity sensing on/off, adjustable digital hygrometer control in 5% intervals, 3 different fans speeds, fill/filter indication, replacable filters, removable tanks for water refilling, etc. etc.

 

Well worth it.

[chasAK]

I have three different digital ones ( hygrometer). In the 30% to the upper 40% they typically have a 4% span. My goal is the mid 30 to mid 40 in the winter time. Below the mid 30s I start to put a humidifier in the case, when it gets in the upper to mid 20s I put the humidifier in the sound hole. I don't know if this is good plan or not, but seems to work for me. Also relative humidity is relative, but that all goes beyond my brain and interest. At that pointI just want to know what works.

 

 

[Sitedrifter]

I purchased a humidifier that I feel fits the bill for me.

 

1.6 Gallon reservoir (less filling)

Variable speed mist output

Variable humidistat adjustment from 30(min) to 90(max) percent (This is a nice featyure allowing me to fine tune the humidifier to my calibrated hygrometers)

Hard Water filter - helps keep teh white dust down

Dual mist jets that rotate 360 degrees

Auto shutoff when empty

3 year warranty.

 

I looked at digital models but they all have humidistats the adjust in 5 percent increments. To me that is not good if the unit is +/- 5 percent. With the variable humidistat, I adjust it until my hygrometers reflect 50 percent humidity (that is what I chose to keep my guitars at)and since I don't need a hygrostat sicne I have hygrometers already, a humidistat is all that I needed.