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humidifier thread 3 :-)


blindboygrunt

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i didnt want to take the other guys humidifier threads off in a direction they didnt ask about , but after reading the threads my tiny mind is mixed up .

you all must know that here in ireland warm dry air is a rare thing , i dont need to explain irish weather . arizona it ain't .

ok so , i've never had a humidifier , never had a problem in 25 years of owning a guitar . nobody i know has a humidifier . i've never seen one other than looking them up after reading about them . i have no finish checking problems , dont notice a lot of difference from one day to the next sound or tone wise from the guitar .

my guitar lives on a stand in the living room .

goes in its case to gigs and comes out when i get home . i will not open the case immediatle on entering the venue if its cold weather and the guitars in the boot .

dont get me wrong , if i lived in some dry climate , then sure i'd have one , but i dont ,

theres certainly none in guitars in guitar shops , i play with a guy who spent a lot of years over in canada and the US and he has described guys taking the guitar out of a pickuo boot and opening the case in a pub and just watching the poor guitar die in front of your eyes . i'm not careless with my guitar ,i love it , and i can only afford one , at this time , and had to save up for this one. i'm not some rich guy who can just buy another one , far from it .

i'm not interested in 'collecting' . i just like to play it .

please dont take this as me saying all you guys are wrong for having one in climates similar to mine . no ones right or wrong .

i am just interested to see if anyone else doesnt think they are necessary unless you live in the sahara ?

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BBG, I've only ever used one during the winter months when the Mrs has the heat on in the house fairly constantly, during those time I've noticed tuning etc... so the dry heat does have some effect, of course this is much more noticeable when they're not in cases.... summer months here may not be as bad as Scotland or Ireland, but I've never really had to worry much in summer, there's no direct heat source, they're in a room that's normally shaded from the sun etc....

 

My concern (and perhaps yours too) would be winter months where the central heating can dry the place out quite a bit.....

 

but as you say Arizona we certainly are not, so we're probably nowhere near as affected as some other members from drier climates.

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there's a part of me that listens to some of you guys , most of you are intelligent enough folk , and theres the other part of me that hasnt needed one in all these years , and the latter part of me sees guy who put covers over motorbikes to 'protect' them only to find out it can speed rusting up because it never drys out . i'm not comparing the dryness issue but rather a point that sometimes you can love a thing to death , doing more harm than good by unnecessarily fussing .

so i'm in two minds , as usual :-)

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BBG, I was in the navy for 22 years, taking my guitars everywhere I went, now live in Florida. my guitars hang on the wall, only in a case if we go somewhere.

Ive owned several of my guitars over 30 years

I have never humidified or dehumidified, I havent had a problem yet ( fingers crossed )

I simply play them, change strings and wipe them down once and a while

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BBG, I was in the navy for 22 years, taking my guitars everywhere I went, now live in Florida. my guitars hang on the wall, only in a case if we go somewhere.

Ive owned several of my guitars over 30 years

I have never humidified or dehumidified, I havent had a problem yet ( fingers crossed )

I simply play them, change strings and wipe them down once and a while

 

thats good to know , thats the sort of thing i was hoping to hear . cheers christo :-)

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Yea in Sydney i'm the same. No humidifier.No problems. Guitars always out on a stand or leaning against a wall.I guess we are lucky.I'm not sure if I lived in the outback there would be problems.Maybe dingos sneaking in and stealing guitars.

That said I do have a Larrivee that seems to get sharp fret ends occasionally.So maybe it is being affected by weather in some way.But I don't play it much anymore since I have a Gibson and Martin now which I enjoy playing more.

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I always wondered the same thing. What did they do in the days before guitar humidifiers? I heard the slice of apple thing in the case but I really don't think alot did that, they just kept them in the case. I know, alot of old guitars have cracks from being too dry but what about other instruments like violins and violas ? Some have survived from the 17th century with no cracks. Just something to ponder.

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I live in the northeast. In the summer, humidity here gets over 90%. In the winter, with the heat on, I've seen the humidity in my house get below 30%. I used to keep my first Gibson (J45) out on a stand 24/7. I did this for 5 years and I had no problems with cracks or checking. But, the tone would change and so would the action. It would sound "fat and muddy" in the summer, and "crisp and bright" in the winter. The action changed so much, I used to have a summer saddle and a winter saddle. I'd just swap them out with the season change. Now, I do use a humidifier in the winter, but I only fill it once every three weeks.

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I've been here at the ranch with both of my current guitars for twenty five years outside temp ranges from -10 to 115 Far.

Humidity swings from 8 to 100. With central heat and AC we try to keep at 72 during the winter and rarely use the AC

My guitars usually set on stands in my music room unless they are traveling. This year we had an extremely dry winter and my CW developed not one but two soundboard cracks.

But than again she's an old gal and was abused and stripped naked before she came to me.

 

BTW , cracks are repaired but she's staying an extra week or so for a bone graft. I'll have her here in plenty of time for SANSJAM.

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