Help: Guitar Humidifiers

Subject: Guitar Humidifiers
From: GUEST,Tomk
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 12:54 PM

I live in a Northern climate and it gets pretty dry in the home in the winter. I was reading that getting a guitar humidifier for acoustic guitars is a good idea. Any thoughts on this? Experience? Suggested types, brands? Thanks. Tom

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: GUEST,Les B
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 01:09 PM

I too am wondering about this, being in a northern clime and having just acquired a new guitar.

The info with the new instrument seems to offer caution on both sides -- saying not to put anything wet in your sound hole unless it's really needed, and then saying it is certainly needed if the humidity dips to 50%, which seems extremely unlikely here.

When I check the local weather page on my computer it's usually in the 85% range. I've decided to trust to a room humidifier to keep the house air at the right humidity and hope this will satisfy the requirements. I'm really leary of placing a water wick (so to speak) into an instrument.

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: mousethief
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 01:33 PM

I used one when I lived in Chicago. It may have been shark repellant, or it may have kept my guitar from being damaged by the low humidity.

There is no low humidity in Seattle. Hence I no longer use it.

It was the kind that was basically a piece of perforated surgical tubing with a sponge inside.

Alex

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: GUEST,Bob
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 01:44 PM

Info on Humidity and Guitars

The Standard in acoustic guitar humidifiers.

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 02:29 PM

If you have a relatively new guitar of decent quality, and live in a climate that requires you to heat your home during part of the year, a humidifier is essential. Cold air holds less humidity than warm air, and heating your home causes the air to dry out even more. I have seen the effects of low humidity on quality instruments, and it isn't pretty -- cracks, sunken tops, protruding fret ends, etc. In other words, serious structural stuff that can severely damage your instrument. If you have (and maintain) a home humidifier, you may not need a separate one in your case. But you have to maintain a moderate humidity level one way or the other.

The damage from low humidity is likely to be more dramatic than the potential dangers of high humidity. But, as in all things, moderation is the key. If your soundhole humidifier is dripping wet, you've gone too far. The absorbent element in the humidifier should be damp, not soaking wet. If you use a Dampit style humidifier (the most common type), you soak it in water for a few minutes, then squeeze it dry, then give it a final squeeze in a towel. Works just fine, and it's not much trouble at all.

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: Gary T
Date: 27 Nov 00 - 02:36 PM

Be aware that weather reports on humidity (i.e. outside air) do not address the typically much lower relative humidity inside a heated structure. Although the air inside and outside may have the same gross percentage of moisture (in say, parts per million), when air is heated it gains the capability of holding much more moisture. This means its relative humidity (how much moisture it has relative to how much it can hold) goes down. For example, air with a relative humidity of 85% at 20' Fahrenheit may only have a relative humidity of 25% when heated to 65' (I'm making up the exact numbers, but that's the gist of it). The reverse of this, cooling air down to where it can't hold as much moisture and the water condenses out, is observed when your cold eyeglasses fog up upon coming inside or when you can see your breath out in the cold.

I suggest getting a hygrometer to place in the room where instruments are stored and/or in the instrument case(s). Some brands/styles of instrument humidifiers come with a little "blue-to-pink" style indicator (like you may have made in grade school) that is convenient to use inside the case.

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: GUEST,Les B
Date: 28 Nov 00 - 11:46 AM

Thanks for the info, guys. I see the error of my ways. Will put in a "Dampit" pronto.

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: GUEST,TomK
Date: 28 Nov 00 - 12:08 PM

Thank you for the link Bob. The Dampit has made my Christmas list. Thanks for all the responses. Tom

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: GUEST,Toad
Date: 29 Nov 00 - 10:56 AM

I'm on my second Larrivee. The first one cracked (even though I had a 'Dampit' in place regularaly). I phoned Larrivee and talked to Jean Larrivee and he said that I should get the guitar lots of humidity until the cracked closed in and that I was with putting the guitar in the bathroom with the shower going to really get the proccess started. By the way, I was living in Saskatoon where the weather is 20 below most of the winter with two or three weeks at a time in Feb and Jan being 30 or 40 below. Well I got the crack closed and then the next bar I had to go play in was another dry place so by the time the gig was over it just opened up again and this went on for the whole winter until the top of the guitar started to go all wavy.

So Now I has an arch/ripple top Larrivee (to my knowledge they have never made arch tops) so the next fall my wife and I were planning a trip to California and where going to go down the coast from Vancover to LA so when we were in Van I stopped at Larrivee's new shop in Van (this was in the nov of '85) He said the guitar was wreck'd.

So, now I'm on my second Larrivee and it is a 'D' style and I just let the front of it crack where the sound board join (Larrivee's suggestion) and it closes up in the summer and then opens again in the winter. My point is that ... it's really hard to keep a guitar like that humid enough in a northern climate if you plan on playing it. All my guitars are working instruments (for work) and they have to be able to climatize to the sitruation that i'm working in. I can't leave guitars in their cases all the time. They have to be where I can get at them. It's too bad but most of the instruments have to go throug some ruff treatment. They go from a truck where it's thirty below to a country dance hall where it's hot and dry and have to climatize in a matter of minutes.

So far the only real trouble I've had was my Larrivee. I have a few fiddles (chek fiddle about 100years old) a mando and a banjo and a couple of solid body electrics that all go with me to every gig and they seem to be surviving.

Too bad the larrivee cracked.

It is not that the humidity or lack of humidity has to do with hurting the instrument. It has to do with the day that the instrument was glued up. If you take a Larrivee that was glued up on a wet Vancover day and stick it in Saskatchewan pubs for the winter then it is going to dry out thus shrinking the wood and probably crack. Although if you take a Saskatchewan built guitar, one that was built in a heated shop in the middle of January, one in which there is no humidifier it will not crack in any of the driest places on the planet. But, you get just as big a problem with the reverse situation happening when you take the Saskatchewan guitar and stick it in Vancover on a rainy day. The wood starts to expand and it may warp.

For Saskatchewan built guitars check out Timeless Instruments.

Toad

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 29 Nov 00 - 12:46 PM

Toad, it sounds like you've had some interesting experiences with this, but I'm not sure you've drawn all the right conclusions. For one thing, most luthiers maintain temperature and humidity controlled environments in their workshops, so a Vancouver guitar really shouldn't be radically different than a Saskatchewan guitar (at least as far as humidity is concerned). Also, it sounds like you live in a pretty extreme environment, but don't really want to adapt your instrument care habits to it. If you carry your guitar in a "thirty below truck" on the way to the gig in a hot, dry barn, with only a few minutes to let it acclimate to the new setting, you're going to have problems (no matter where your guitar was built).

For most of us, it only makes sense to devote some attention to controlling the extremes of temparature and humidity that our instruments are subjected to. I live in the Boston area, which gets reasonably cold and reasonably dry in the winter, but with just a little care, my guitars (including my Larrivee) are surviving just fine.

Subject: RE: Help: Guitar Humidifiers
From: Mooh
Date: 29 Nov 00 - 02:31 PM

I use four Kyser brand soundhole mounted humidifiers and some homemade (perferated 35mm film canister and sponge) units. Both work great. The Kyser will double as a feedback buster on a loud stage too.

Mooh.