Guitars and Humidity

[RIX]

Hello every one, I have to say I have enjoyed visiting this forum and reading your helpful information and entertaining comments. Anyway while doing some research on humidity and guitars I came across a write up; see link below. And it seemed worth sharing with my fellow Epi fans.

 

Acoustic Guitars and Humidity

[Gordy01]

I think a lot of us have read or heard that a relative humidity of approximately 40% is best for acoustic guitars.

 

I live in a very dry climate, and it extremely hard to keep that level of humidity in the house, or even one room. During the winter months we can get temperatures of -40. At that temp the humidity is around 0.

 

I combat this by using a guitar humidifier. I have to wet it more often in cold dry weather, but it keeps just enough humidity in the case to protect the guitar.

If I lived in a humid climate I would probably keep some kind of de-humidifier in the case.

 

The other thing we all have to do is let the guitar acclimate to our individual climates.

This is done over a period of a few years, keeping just enough moisture in the case to help the guitar not crack or split. Done slowly enough a guitar will last for years in whatever climate you live in.

 

Most guitars are manufactured in humid climates. Drying out too quickly has all the bad effects listed in the article.

I personally think that too much humidity is worse. Glue, being water soluble, can fail a lot easier in high humidity. Besides string pull, that is the cause of most acoustic bridge failures.