Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi Folks;
I have been commissioned to build a little koa guitar for a good friend of mine. Problem is... He lives in New Mexico for most of the year & spends his summers on his boat here on the west coast. (about 75 miles north of Vancouver BC)
I store all my wood & do all of my assembly work in a humidity controlled room. The RH is maintained between 42 to 48% RH.
I have been very careful with this instrument to keep all the components in the assembly room at all times, except when using the sanding or cutting machines.
My question is... how likely is this guitar to crinkle up like a raisin when it hits the dusty dry heat (my friends description of his home weather) of New Mexico?
The owner wants to be able to hang the guitar on the wall in his house. Is there an effective way to humidify when the guit isn't in its case?
I was thinking a humidifier inside the guitar & a rubber soundhole plug (with a few ventilation holes punched in it) might do the trick.
Any suggestions? cautionary notes? etc???
Thanks in advance,   Dan

Your customer/friend needs to get real! If he wants to hang it on a wall while the room humidity is under 20% then he bears full responsibility. I would put in writing the fact that your warranty is null and void if he fails to keep the instrument properly humidified.

On the other hand, if he were to spend the money and effort to properly humidify the room then all can be made right with the world. It's his choice...and his risk.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Is your owner contemplating bringing the guitar from the desert to his boat on the ocean? Because that sounds like a serious challenge.

If it is just going to live in New Mexico, maybe you can build the guitar in the lowest humidity you can muster in your shop...after all, it seems like problems arise when the instrument sees a large change in humidity. Low humidity doesn't, by itself, cause a problem, unless the instrument was made in higher humidity.

I have no experience in this strategy, but doesn't that make some sense? Anybody tried this?

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Dan,
New Mexico is my old stomping grounds. Raised and grew up in the Santa Fe area before I migrated to the Northern Rockies. It is dry there but no dryer than in the elevation where I live now. Our humidity here is around 22-35%. I always kept my guitars and mandolins "CASED", with some kind of humidity in the case, never a problem and I lived there for 25 years. Hanging on a wall.....with a custom built $3000-$4000 guitar.....well, maybe the guy should buy a $100 plywood guitar. I'm w/JJ. If he leaves his guitar in the kind of situation you mentioned & no humidity I'd say "all bets are off".
Dave

Build him two.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Yeah, that wall hanging business works GREAT if you have the humidified room for it...otherwise, with humidity swings like you're talking about, it'll look like a pringles (with cracks) in no time flat.

I'm with JJ: I think a change of perspective, and a little bit of wooducation is in order for your friend.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Thanks for your honest input guys.
I like the "build him two" idea!

jj's comment above is totally correct. i would go further however.

folks need to be educated that musical instruments are not wall art, items of decor.

probably 40% of the repair work that comes through my door originates with someone using the intrudent as a room/wall decoration. almost all the major structural repairs originate with the instrument being left on the stand or hung on a wall as part of the decor.

if the individual can't understand the need for proper care and commit to doing it then i would not build for him. i have more respect for the wood and my effort than to waste it on some brain dead egoist who needs to show off to the world.

I don't think that you need to build two guitars. Where I live, (New England) we see that kind of humidity swings all the time. I would build the instrument at closer to %30-%35 percent than the usual %42. A dry built guitar will fair better in wet air than a wet built guitar in dry air.

If the guy insists on hanging the guitar on the wall, tell him to get a Damp-it sound hole humidifier. They come with a plastic sound hole cover and seem to work pretty well. The main problem with them is that you have to keep recharging them with water.

If the guy just want to show off he guitar, he might consider a display case. I saw one once where the guy bought a cigar humidor glass case. This case was large enough for a guitar once the shelves were removed. The case was designed to maintain a constant humidity for the cigars. I don't know what that humidity level for cigars was but the guy said that 45% was maintainable with the adjustments. I don't know if it needs to plumbed to a water supply or had a reservoir.

a sound hole humidifier is not designed to humidify a room, which is what you are asking it to do in a wall hung instryment. humidifiying the room is the only solution to the humidity issue. that still does not resolve the issue of using a guitar as wall art. what goes up on a wall all to easily falls down off a wall, with shattering consequences.

Finish the inside of the guitar to slow down loss or gain of moisture. I don't see anything wrong with wanting to display an instrument if a few precautions are taken.

Barry...Assuming that the inside were finished (a controversial practice to be sure), would you honor a warranty if a guitar was stored at 20% humidity or less for 6-9 months at a time and developed a crack?

I don't think the issue is whether one displays a guitar...it's an issue of care by keeping the moisture balanced.

It seems crazy for luthiers to agonize over the environmental conditions of their shops and then give the customer a pass on living up to his responsibility for proper care.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

[QUOTE=crazymanmichael]
folks need to be educated that musical instruments are not wall art, items of
decor.


.[/QUOTE]

It sounds like you need a new interior decorator Dan.

Why not have a nice poster size picture of the guitar made to hang up instead of the guitar?   

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.