Curing Acoustic Set Up Ills.

[Tone2TheBone]

Good thread you guys keep it up.

Steve how do you think the Martin will do where I live? I'm at 5000' above sea level but like you there in Idaho...it's high and dry. Where do I get one of those hydrometer or hygrometer thingies?

[sunvalleylaw]

Good thread you guys keep it up.

Steve how do you think the Martin will do where I live? I'm at 5000' above sea level but like you there in Idaho...it's high and dry. Where do I get one of those hydrometer or hygrometer thingies?

I would take care of it, but given decent care, they are not reputed to be super vulnerable, like the Taylors are reputed to be. Note I say reputed. I am just going on hearsay from guys at the shop and other local guitarists. Like I was mentioning, one local musician/sound guy who has a lot of nice guitars including Martins apparently does fine with the sponge technique. The Martins in the shop I frequent seem to do fine. The shop is humidified, but it is a big room and the door to the outside opens and closes a lot. They seem to do fine.

So given the level of care you give your stuff, I would think your new baby will be fine. :

[Tone2TheBone]

I would take care of it, but given decent care, they are not reputed to be super vulnerable, like the Taylors are reputed to be. Note I say reputed. I am just going on hearsay from guys at the shop and other local guitarists. Like I was mentioning, one local musician/sound guy who has a lot of nice guitars including Martins apparently does fine with the sponge technique. The Martins in the shop I frequent seem to do fine. The shop is humidified, but it is a big room and the door to the outside opens and closes a lot. They seem to do fine.

So given the level of care you give your stuff, I would think your new baby will be fine. :

Well we have forced air heating AND burn the woodstove in the winter time and that eats up any moisture in the air real quick. I never even thought about what it does to guitars especially acoustic guitars until now. All the shops in town have their acoustics inside a closed room with humidifiers cranking away and now I suppose I'll have to do the same. My other acoustics seem to be doing ok though...I have no visible problems with them at all and I guess that's why I never paid it much thought.

[Cal]

Well we have forced air heating AND burn the woodstove in the winter time and that eats up any moisture in the air real quick. I never even thought about what it does to guitars especially acoustic guitars until now. All the shops in town have their acoustics inside a closed room with humidifiers cranking away and now I suppose I'll have to do the same. My other acoustics seem to be doing ok though...I have no visible problems with them at all and I guess that's why I never paid it much thought.

Tone, I'd guess the RH in your home is currently around the 25% mark. Too dry for solid wood acoustics.

The laminated wood babies fare quite well in all sorts of humidity for obvious reasons. But bear in mind that most fretboards are solid and you don't want the fret ends slicing your fingers off when the board shrinks. Also, any humidity excesses will affect the neck itself (usually through the fretboard as the back of the neck is normally sealed by its finish), which I think is probably Steve's problem.

So, during the winter I'd keep your guitars in their hard cases with humidifiers that let the moisture get to the whole guitar (Shiner's DIY ones are superb) and have a digital hygrometer in the case too, to make sure the RH is around 50%.

Just my 2 cents.

[Tone2TheBone]

Tone, I'd guess the RH in your home is currently around the 25% mark. Too dry for solid wood acoustics.

The laminated wood babies fare quite well in all sorts of humidity for obvious reasons. But bear in mind that most fretboards are solid and you don't want the fret ends slicing your fingers off when the board shrinks. Also, any humidity excesses will affect the neck itself (usually through the fretboard as the back of the neck is normally sealed by its finish), which I think is probably Steve's problem.

So, during the winter I'd keep your guitars in their hard cases with humidifiers that let the moisture get to the whole guitar (Shiner's DIY ones are superb) and have a digital hygrometer in the case too, to make sure the RH is around 50%.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for your 2 cents! Done...I'm ordering one of those gadgets right now thank you for your assessment sir.

Btw Stephen S.T. Esquire I didn't mean to hijack your thread sorry!

[KrisH]

Underhumidification can masquerade as many different problems. I played my old Hohner for several years, treating the fret buzzes by raising the saddle with shims and obliviously blaming the humped neck on bad construction. I finally decided that the neck on that guitar had serious problems, and bought my first new guitar -- a Washburn. But within a few weeks, it started exhibiting the same symptoms.

Enter Dreadman : , who posted on the WGF, where I went for help with my new **** guitar. I took the advice he gave and humidified the guitar and lo -- the buzzing stopped, the neck straightened out. I tried the treatment on the Hohner, and it ended up not having a neck problem at all. After letting both guitars reach a happy level of humidification, I did setups on them, complete with new bone saddles for each. And they both played just fine. (The Washburn had other unrelated problems.)

Ultimately, I got more guitars and other instruments sensitive to humidity extremes, and I thought it best to put a humidifier in each room of the house once the heating kicked in. You never know where you'll find a guitar, fiddle or bass propped up in our home! Besides, it helps with static electricity, sinuses, and general comfort .

So it might be a good idea to get the wood in the guitar back in decent condition before tweaking the truss rod or shimming up the saddle. But don't rehumidify it too quickly! It's the sudden changes in in moisture content that cause different parts of the guitar to contract or expand disproportionately, and could cause permanent damage.

That's just my experience, and what has been taught to me.