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I'm in a hotel in Okemos near MSU and had to leave my condo because we lost power from the ice storm Tuesday. It's pretty cold in Michigan this time of year and after trying to stay there for two days with no heat or power I booked a suite near my favorite guitar store in Lansing, Elderly.

So here's what's going to be interesting. I have about 35 guitars hanging on the walls as art and as guitars that my friends and I play. I also have a bad hernia, five actually and have scheduled surgery for May since they claim I may need a 3 or more day stay. So I could not carry anything more than 5 lbs when I left.

The power is scheduled to come back up tomorrow at noon. Yeah right I can hear ya already... When it does and since I have no way of knowing if the power schmucks are telling the truth and/or the nature of power girds they can't know what other problems exist down the line until the bring up an area. So I don't want to give up my digs here and be homeless in the cold.

We had 800,000 people in Michigan without power in February.

So the recovery plan is this:

When the power comes back up my security system and multiple devices will send me messages letting me know my network is up. Then I can look at my thermostat from wherever I am it's one of those God awful, not really for prime time NEST Google thermostats.

When the power comes back up I will be able to tell the temp there now and the RH from my phone app for my home. My cameras will also come up, I have half a dozen and I can visually see many of my rooms for a water from a broken pipe and such problem if that happened.

My plan is to bring up the temp slowly knowing as I do being in the repair business that thermal shock is a top splitter and bridge lifter and finish crazer. So if it tells me it's 35F I'm going to set it to 40F and wait four hours and then when it's 40F we will repeat to 45F and wait four hours and so on and so forth.

So in this example my rate of temp increase is 5 degrees every four hours. Close to one degree an hour.

I know that most of you can't know if this is sufficient, I don't know either I have never done this before.

But any considerations, advice, thoughts that you might like to share with ole Hesh here who wants to save his kids/guitars from any harm in the recovery process would be very much appreciated.

I have an automatic, commercial humidifier solution that will and does maintain 45% at all times so we have that covered and it's plumbed in so it never runs out.

I'm very worried about my guitars though.....

Thanks

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Ann Arbor Guitars

WoW !
Hang in there!

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Mike Collins

Fingers crossed!! I know we have a love/hate reaction to how tech has affected our lives, some good, some bad. In this case tech has allowed you to monitor and control the outcome - once the power comes back on…

Again, fingers crossed, M

Yeah, that’s rough, Hesh. I hope it all turns out OK and good luck on your surgery in May!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
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I have no help for you, my friend - but I feel for you and understand. I wish you the best of luck!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Hey Michael that is a VERY valid point and I am a tech guy and always have been. Was an enterprise software engineer for GE back in the day.

You're right maybe I should cut my NEST thermostat some slack because in this case it gives me options I would not have otherwise. Great point!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Hi Hesh,
If it goes to plan I think you will be O.K. When guitars go from cold cars to warm houses we usually only allow an hour or so for the cases to warm up. No Guarantees - and most of us wind up a little crazed eventually, but I think they will be O.K.

Sounds like a reasonable plan to me Hesh, good luck brother.

Your plan sounds like what I would do, for whatever that's worth.

Is your heating system forced air and are any of the guitars on the wall near air registers? If any are, I think your plan to bring the temp up in small increments would be a good idea. Any chance you could set it to raise the temperature specifically by just one degree per hour? If it's set to go up by 5 degrees and hold for five hours, you'll actually get an increase of 5 degrees in the first 15-20 minutes. May not be an issue, but if you want to be ultra conservative, setting it to increase the temp by 1 degree every hour on the hour might be worth considering.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Not answering the question but good luck with the big freeze.

We are at the end of the line with power so I have been checking the firewood stocks and the butane for the camping stove. But two or three days would start getting a bit grim. The batteries for lights would be getting low and no hot water...

And what about the cats!

Good luck also to your neighbours. We in the UK think a few degrees a bit lower than zero C is cold but I guess you have much lower than that.

All the best Dave

When this is over Hesh, move South. Yes, we have tornados, but rarely temp extremes like that. Good luck!

Good point J about the 5 degree bump at once I thought that too. My power came back yesterday afternoon and I'm a couple hours away in a hotel. But I started yesterday going 1 - 2 degrees an hour with the phone app and yes I woke up to do it in the night. It's 3:00 AM here in Lansing.

Heating is gas forced air butane of the guitars are where they can take a hit from a heat register or on an outside wall.

So we are already back up to 65F and I'm feeling much better and packing up the Honda to steer south and go home.

There's no place like home.

Thanks J!!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Now this is the best suggestion yet. Who needs this dang winter, ice, snow it BS I tell ya....

Thanks Mike!!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Power came back yesterday afternoon and I have been raising the temp 1 - 2 degrees an hour and I'm headed home.

Yay!!!

Thanks everyone!!!

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Glad you're getting back into your home. Hope all the guitars are ok.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

One hour from Nashville

Yeah and I've considered that if I ever head south I thought the Nashville area would be good too. Robin Ford told us he loved it there after escaping from LA.

I want to work until I can't because I love making folks happy making their guitars play better than ever. With all the pickers in Nashville even with the heavy competition there I suspect there might be a place for ole Heshtone here.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

Everyone says that they are OK so that means I am too. Whew, it ain't easy having this many kids.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

And the guitar I bought while staying near Elderly Instruments arrived today and it's great.

2018 Firebird Studio in EC. Pictured is my new friend Ben Nelson from Elderly posing for me.

Want to learn some Johnny Winter tunes and thought a Firebird would be a nice touch.

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Ann Arbor Guitars

So, Hesh…

Are all the guitars OK?


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay

Yep everyone is in good shape. Whew.....

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Ann Arbor Guitars

>phew<…


Pierre
Guitares Torvisse

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Pierre Castonguay