So, what about some guidelines? Lab and real world research
suggests: If ambient humidity is 40% or less - humidify
your guitar; if humidity is 70% or greater -
dehumidify. For safety's sake, strenuously avoid rapid temperature
changes (more than 20F per hour), and exposure to temperatures less than 45F or
more than 105F. Naturally, individual instruments respond differently to thermal
and humidity stress, some being more sensitive (i.e. more easily damaged) than
others. In turn, the above limits are meant as a guide only - it's better to be
safe than sorry. Also, it is a good idea to let your instrument adapt slowly to
significantly different conditions while inside its case - before removing it!
The leading cause of instrument damage and expensive repairs
is exposure to excessive temperature and humidity conditions. Just ask any
repair person about cracked and shattered finishes, top crack repairs, bridge
re-glues, neck resets, and various other re-gluing, straightening, and
restoration jobs. He'll probably tell you that, aside from routine maintenance
items like re-fret jobs, as much as 90% of the repair business comes from
thermal and humidity abuse. Even the best hard-shell case is inadequate
protection when an instrument is exposed to rapid changes and extremes of
temperature and humidity.
Aside from use of synthetic materials, hard shell cases really
haven't changed much since the 1800's. Currently available hard shell cases
themselves, do not provide adequate thermal or humidity protection to
accommodate routine weather changes, much less the exposure that occurs when the
instrument is taken outside, or left in a closed automobile or aircraft cargo
hold.
The reality is that stringed instruments made of various
woods, plastics, metals and other dissimilar materials are susceptible to damage
from heat or cold, and from excessive dryness or humidity, as evidenced by the
thermal/humidity damage present on the vast majority of used and vintage
instruments. No matter how much effort the luthier puts into obtaining
stabilized tone woods, de-stressing instrument structures, or developing
elasticized finishes, a guitar will eventually show damage due to thermal/
humidity exposure unless it is kept in a stable environment. In addition, world
class high performance guitars are more susceptible to damage than lesser
instruments, due to lighter overall construction, thinner tops, smaller braces,
and closer tolerances.
IMPORTANT!!! MAKE SURE that you use a
LAB-QUALITY humidity gauge, preferably solid state. Note that most small
humidity gauges have accuracies of +/-20%, which is dangerously imprecise.
Other types may be designed for weather forecasting use, and may be mechanically
undesirable since an instrument case can see fairly rough action (shocks) every
now and then. This type will not maintain accuracy if it is knocked around.
Additionally, most humidity gauges supplied with currently available humidifiers
are accurate to +/20 to 30% only (and don't ask me why they supply such junk!) I
guess, the cliché "ya gets what ya pays for" applies here too. The
gauges below are widely available on the internet for our purchase of you may
obtain them from display and play.
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