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.