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Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=24847		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Glenn LaSalle [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
Now that Winter is coming upon us, I often reflect about guitar storage and humidity wrt playing. I have come up with some observations:

To a guitar player, guitar cases are evil: OK, jesting a little bit. However, I have performed an experiment - and this is my disclaimer, this experiment was performed by me, for me, and you may not have same results. I work from a home office, and live in a very active house. Following are 2 tests I did wrt guitars and cases.

Test Case 1: For 1 month, I kept 1 guitar on a guitar stand in my office at all times (the other guitars in their case). I took note of how often I played my guitar and noted that I played quite a bit everyday for small periods of time.

Test Case 2: For 1 month, I kept all guitars in their guitar case. During the month I played guitar MUCH less frequently. Actually, quite a bit less.

Synopsis: My biggest guitar influence has been and continues to be Stefan Grossman (studied with him in 80's). Stefan always said keep your guitar out and about so you will play it. I have found that to be so true. I always keep a guitar on a guitar stand in my office now.

Humidity tie-in: So how does humidity get into this test? Well, I have personally found it extremely uncomfortable to live in a house during the winter that is dry. I have always humidified my entire house every winter, and try to keep humidity in the 40-45% range during winter. I have never believed in guitar cases with humidifiers or guitar humidifiers because my philosophy has always been if I am comfortable, my guitars will be comfortable :-). I also switch guitars around so I play all my guitars (and sometimes have 2 out on guitar stands when I am in the mood to play bottleneck)

Anyway, I apologize for my rambling (and hope the post is appropriate for this forum), but I found this experiment to be very interesting, and encourage you to keep a guitar OUT of its case and available. After all, what good is that beautiful guitar if you don't play it?

Thanks!

Glenn
Author:  Michael Dale Payne [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
The outcome of your experiment is predictable. An instrument at arms reach will be played more often than one you have to uncase.

On the humidity issue 40%-50% RH is magic in only one perspective. It is a mid point mean RH right smack between 100% and 0%. Here is a good question for you. If and instrument is left full time in a 20%Rh environment do you believe the instrument is equally as comfortable or at any more risk of detrimental changes than an instrument in a constant 45% environment full time?

I am not trying to be confrontational just trying to ad a bit more to the conversation and thereby the collective knowledge.
Author:  Glenn LaSalle [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
Michael Dale Payne wrote:
The outcome of your experiment is predictable. An instrument at arms reach will be played more often than one you have to uncase.

On the humidity issue 40%-50% RH is magic in only one perspective. It is a mid point mean RH right smack between 100% and 0%. Here is a good question for you. If and instrument is left full time in a 20%Rh environment do you believe the instrument is equally as comfortable or at any more risk of detrimental changes than an instrument in a constant 45% environment full time?

I am not trying to be confrontational just trying to ad a bit more to the conversation and thereby the collective knowledge.


Thanks for the response Michael. Actually the 40-45% humidity is not driven by the needs of my guitars, it is the level that I feel most comfortable. My point is I keep my guitars where I am comfortable, not vise versa.

And yes, the results ARE quite predictable. My "test" was quite in jest, but reveals some major simple truths. Keep your guitar out if you want to play more. Very simple :-)
Author:  woody b [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 3:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
The way I look at humidity is two fold. Too many people make way to big of a deal about it, but I think a guitar that lives in an enviroment that's alot dryer than the envoriment it's built in is likely to have problems. I make sure the humidity isn't too high when I'm gluing stuff together.

From this players perspective. My cases are in the closet. My guitars are hanging on my wall. I try to keep my guitar room humidity between 35% and 60%, and my guitars, 3 of which are older than me, seem to be happy.
Author:  Fred Tellier [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
I also humidify the house and leave a guitar or 2 out on wall hangers. I also often grab the guitar for a quick play when ever I get a chance. Sometimes only 1 song but often the few minutes stretches out longer. If I have a guitar in the shop I also will pick a little down there also while waiting or thinking.

Fred
Author:  SteveSmith [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 5:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
I keep 3 guitars hanging on the wall so I can play them regularly. Started by using a stand about 15yrs ago but the guitar got banged around a bit so I put em on the wall where they are away from dogs and small children. My biggest priority is that they are available to play, cases are for transporting them to somewhere else to play. Even had one hanging on the wall at work for a few years when I worked at a place that was 'guitar friendly'. We probably should humidify the house in winter but don't. Only had one top crack in an HD28 in all that time, maybe I've just been lucky.
Author:  wbergman [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 6:00 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
In a cold northern climate with an average home constructin quality, 45% relative humidity throughout the house will likely cause excessive condenstation and damage to windows and walls. Maybe even the dreaded "mold".
Author:  Zach Ehley [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 6:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
I keep all of my guitars and basses hanging on the wall in an extra bedroom/office for the last 4-5 years. I as well found I played much less with them all stashed away. I keep the room conditioned in all seasons. The zoot stash is in there as well, so its easy to justify. Best room in the house.
Author:  Frank Cousins [ Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:12 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
Interesting is that over here in the Eurozone, where many of us live in 'older houses' the biggest problem is actually keeping the humidity down below 70%rh! Although because it tends to be pretty stable throughout the year, it does not seem to have too much an impact on the instruments a they seem to be aclimatised?

The biggest threat seems to the usual rapid temperature fluctuations which even in a case have caused checking in the Cellulose Laquer .... but on the older ones this is now considered a benefit ;-)
Author:  Dave Stewart [ Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
The reasons of accessability / environmental stabitlity were just why I went ahead and built a storage cabinet, which will hold 6 of my guitars. (pics here, if you haven't seen it. htp://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewt ... 01&t=23874 )
I was finding the same thing...they'd go in their cases & rarely be played. You can tune a cabinets environment, from passive (humidor type sponges / descecants) to fancy forced-air systems
Anyway, I find I'm able to better understand the pros & cons of each guitar just by having them readily available for comparison. If you're at all interested in doing a bit of cabinetry, you wont regret building one.
Author:  Hesh [ Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
I used to get grief often on guitar building forums when I would display a pic such as this one:

Attachment:
DSCN2213.jpg


And I agree that personally I play far more if a guitar is within easy reach.

However.... :o :D I live in the midwest US where our winters are long and cold as as such we use forced air heating which is very drying.... So like some of the others I have always humidified my house trying to maintain something in the 40ish range in the winter. It's a LOT of water hauling too, cleaning humidifiers, filters, etc.

Like Glenn my own comfort is as important to me as my guitar's comfort so keeping my place humidified had the additional benefit of serving my guitars well too.

What I wanted to add here to this thread is the idea that keeping your guitar in it's case if you do not humidify where the guitar lives is a very good idea. This is the season where the repair folks often see cracks in customer's guitars. In fact these days I am inclined to just keep everything in it's case except for one "shop" guitar which could just as easily be a "living room etc." guitar. A decent case will slow the RH changes and in some cases pretty much eliminate RH changes at least for a period of time depending on how well the case is sealed.

RH can fall here in the midwest very fast and just not being home and/or forgetting to schlep water to the humidifiers (3 are currently running here....) can create a rapid change in RH that could damage a guitar. If the guitar is in a case it's far more likely to survive RH changes.

And before I forget remember too that our hygrometers are inherently inaccurate especially digital ones that can't be calibrated.... When considering maintaining proper RH for your instruments also consider that what your hygrometer reads may be science fiction.... Learn to do a wet bulb test with one of the various easy, cheap, and reliable methods and KNOW for sure what the RH is and your guitars will thank you for it.

So now that I said it I feel better... :D But yeah, I agree, a guitar at hand gets played far more here too... :)
Author:  Todd Rose [ Wed Dec 02, 2009 1:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Guitar Cases and Humidity: A Players Perspective
I build at around 42% RH so that the guitars can withstand RH down to 30% (or lower). I can't humidify my house above about 33% without having problems with condensation - in fact, I really can't get the humidity any higher, because, above that level, the moisture condenses out. That's drier than I'd ideally like my house to be, but my family seems to do fine with that, and so do my guitars.

Instruments that I'm not playing frequently are kept in the humidity controlled room of my shop, which I do manage to keep at 40% or above in the winter.

I think the cracking problems come from too-quick, large drops in RH, especially in situations like guitars left in cars and other severe micro-climates, or prolonged exposure to very dry conditions (like around 25% or below), as well as from guitars that were built in too-high humidity. My first guitar has one small crack in the top, which I attribute to being built in too-high humidity.
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