Official Luthiers Forum!

Its true, very few folks really understand the violent stresses that a guitar undergoes when the exposed to extreme conditions. You can probably talk to you are blue in the face. I think Greg is just like the rest. We'd like our work to last. Preferably forever.
But hey, we're gluing thin pieces of spruce and rosewood cross grain together. I think its great that his box survived so well. In theory the box dome should rise, and the poor thing would eventually come back "home" when the humidity returned to normal. It sounds like it did that. I feel better about my own cross grain boxes.
My suggestion about the fretboard overhumidification, however, seems erroneous. I realized this about 10 minutes after the post, but had to leave town. If the fingerboard has been expanding in length, it looks more like the action would have headed lower.
I appreciate the kindness of folks not pointing that out.
Its probably better the guy didn't leave it in 100 degree heat and 10 percent humidity for a week.
Unfortunately, people that play guitars don't often really understand they are made of wood. Thin, fragile, wood like quartered spruce that someone has glued nearly evry joint-crossgrain

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. BTW Ken, I had already sent the Taylor document to the customer.

The guitar has not changed much at all since it arrived back in my shop, and since it is going back to Hawaii again I decided to forgo any further drying and reset the neck today. I have intentionally over-set the neck slightly, making the action a bit too low now. I am going to shim up the saddle to correct action and send a couple extra shims with the guitar so the owner can adjust the action down if necessary in the future. Not an ideal situation but better than shipping the guitar back and forth. I'm also going to re-level the frets to take some of the relief out.

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It will probably be alright.

I heard a bunch of stories of how some luthiers would intentionally try to dry out their shop extra or over-humidify it when building for clients who lived in more "extreme" climates.... For example - build somewhere around 60% RH for clients living in the Gulf Coast, South Florida, and Hawaii... Build as low as you dare if you are sending a guitar to a fellow in Arizona....

Then - just do your normal shop climate control for most everybody else... I suppose it's better than the alternative (Such as the fate of many beautiful instruments coming from Puerto Rico and Honduras) which crack to pieces and become more or less unplayable when they "Acclimate" to their new homes far away from their original climate....

I don't have to deal with any of that - so I just try to do the bulk of my bracing during winter when I am heating, then I do my finishing in summer when it's warm outside and the finishes dry/cure well....

Thanks