David Anderson
So, it’s cold out side and the snow is falling. You decide to sit by the fire with your favorite hot beverage and your guitar for a little one on one time. You give your prized axe a strum, but it seems someone has replaced your instrument with an imposter. This guitar looks like your old friend in every way, but it’s buzzing and rattling, and the frets are sharp. You ask yourself what is going on.
Humidity is what’s going on, or more accurately, the lack of humidity. Guitars and other stringed instruments require 45 to 55% relative humidity in the environment in order to function properly. If your guitar gets below 45%, it will actually begin to shrink. Your instrument can easily loose 1/8 of an inch of mass from shrinkage due to a dry environment, and that means sharp fret edges, notes that buzz, cracks in the wood, lifting bridges, and even failing neck joints. If your instrument is over-humidified, on the other hand, you will notice an immediate difference in the way it plays due to the neck relief changing and the top rising and bellying up. You may even notice a difference in tone.
But don’t “fret”…it’s not too late! You can reverse the condition of your guitar by simply changing the relative humidity of the environment in which it resides. If you have a hard shell case, you can easily add humidity by purchasing a guitar/case humidifier, but you must be sure to keep the guitar in the case while not in use to allow the case interior to act as the immediate environment for the guitar. If you like to hang your instrument on a wall or display it on a stand, you will need to get a cold mist humidifier for your room (home furnaces with built in humidifiers will not suffice). It’s a good idea to purchase a hydrometer so you can keep track of the relative humidity in your area. Expect it to take a few weeks for your guitar to acclimate to its proper environment. This may seem like a lot of effort, but so is humidifying and repairing a top crack or dressing frets due to dryness, fixes not covered by the manufacturer as warranty work. Prevention is key!
So, if you want to give that special stringed someone the gift that keeps on giving, give the gift of humidity. Your guitar will be happy, and you will too.
Written by: David Anderson
I purchased a humidifier for my home studio/instrument room, but it’s a warm mist humidifier. I live in New Jersey. I’m curious why your article recommends a cold mist humidifier for the winter. It’s my understanding they’re prone to pumping white residue powder all over everything.
>loose 1/8 of an inch of mass
Since when is mass measured in inches? This is confusing.
Also, are not guitars that have thick finished (most electric guitars) much less susceptible to humidity issues? Seems like more of an issue for acoustics than electrics. While clearly humidity can be an issue, particularly with rosewood fingerboards, however oiling them at string changes does the trick.
This article seems to leave a lot of holes informationally.
Inches are not units of mass. It’s hygrometer, not “hydrometer”. Get your terminology straight before you attempt to instruct others on a technological topic. Unbelievable…….
Peter, while I have read about issues with cold mist humidifiers blowing powder or mineral residue, I feel if the unit is cleaned and maintained properly, you shouldn’t have issues. I always hesitate to recommend warm mist humidifiers becaue the blow steam and in close quarters, this could be problematic.
Tim, I should have been more clear and stated that you could loose an 1/8″ of string height at the bridge from the top sinking into the body. Though electric guitars are less likely to have issues from humidity change, especially with the body of the instrument, the neck can shrink, creating sharp fret edges, as well as the amount of neck bow or relief can change causing a difference in your set up.
FlatRacer, you are correct. It is hygrometer, not hydrometer…My bonehead mistake.
About six months ago I purchased a pristine Gibson SG Classic on Ebay. Upon reciept of the instrument, as I always do, I checked the electronics, neck, everything including what I consider the most important, the truss rod, which operated perfectly. Now, after playing all kinds of guitars and doing my own setups for over 40 years, I know that a neck, just about any neck usually needs adjustment at the change of seasons,espesially on Long Island, N.Y. where there is a great amount of humidity. I take this as a given. When I recently went to play said SG,there was way too much relief.” No problem ” I said to myself, I’ll just tighten the rod. I tightened until there were no more thread to go, and still too much relief for my liking. The only thing that I could come up with was to have more thread added to the rod at great expence. Please, any sugestions would be greatly appreciated by this financially strapped guitarist.
Thanks,
Walter, I would take it to a local repair tech in your area that you trust. That being said, if you got the truss rod to straighten out the neck a bit, but ran out of thread, your tech will possibly be able to remove the nut and cut new threads with more adjustment on the rod. You have to be careful with these because it’s fairly easy to break the rod where the threads end. This will require some special tooling and some removal of wood around the rod at the nut area. Again, my first advice is to take it to a repair tech you trust. Other options are to remove the fret board or possibly heat press the neck, though I don’t recommend heat pressing necks unless a last resort
I always wonder where the numbers 45-50%RH come from. Try to humidify you house to that level when the temperature is lower than 20 F outside is a dangerous proposition for your house, inviting mold and other issues related to excessive moisture. The key is to avoid abrupt changes in environmental conditions, this means temperature and humidity. If you humidify your house to 35% RH in the middle of winter you will be fine. Too much humidity is just as bad and in the middle of winter and 50% RH is way too high.
I recently went to my local big box music store and visited the acoustic room. They had the humidity up to an alarming 58% on a 18F day. I looked inside an acoustic and saw black mold under the top of the guitar. I checked out several others and more than half had developed mold problems. I pointed this out to the guitar tech and he was so insistent that the humidity had to be greater than the prescribed 50% that he just blew off the presence of mold in an an expensive Martin.
I really only enjoy the sound of my acoustics but I am in Florida and it seems so hard to keep humidity low in summer and keep things higher in winter. honestly I leave them in gig bags and just keep the house comfortable.