MarkVonShief wrote:
Thanks for the advice here. I already did the clorox thing and put it up under a steel plate (separated by saran wrap) for a couple or three days.
1A
So the mold thing happens commonly? I've wondered why guitars aren't finished or sealed inside. That would help keep mold spores from sprouting into moldy blackness
1A
So the mold thing happens commonly? I've wondered why guitars aren't finished or sealed inside. That would help keep mold spores from sprouting into moldy blackness
Actually the mold thing is not something that happens very often and this may be the first post on this forum about it.
This leaves me to believe that you are not using humidity control where you build or store your in-progress work. Humidity control is an absolute must with guitar building and if not observed any resulting instruments will likely not survive the changing of the seasons without cracking or deformation.
For Lutherie for most climates a range of relative humidity of 42 - 48% works well for many of us and the major f*ctories too. If the guitar will live in a very dry or a very humid climate once complete these numbers can be tweaked some as well.
How you measure the RH (relative humidity) is a discussion in and of itself too because the vast majority of store bought hygrometers are simply junk and no better than painting 45% on your wall and going by that.... But that's another subject and there is lots in the OLF archives about hygrometers and which ones suck and the few that don't.
Regarding sealing the inside of an instrument there are two sides to the argument here but as a repair guy who also built as well I'm not keen to seal the insides. First regardless of what you use to seal, shellac, etc. it will only belay and delay the permeation of moisture for likely a couple of hours tops.... The down side is the serviceability argument. If the thing needs to be repaired in time the presence of shellac makes it more difficult to repair without removing the shellac so that the glue used has some unadulterated wood to grab onto. Some builders seal the insides any way and lots of repair folks when they have to deal with their stuff are known to use colorful and descriptive language....
