Humidifiers

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Walt Pilcher on January 21, 2010 at 10:55am

Blake,
In my opinion it might be of some slight benefit that way, but it is really designed for the guitar to be in its case or gig bag. Otherwise, most of the moisture is going to just evaporate into the air.
Walt

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Gundrum on January 21, 2010 at 11:30am

I think the type of humidifier you have relies on a closed case to be effective. It's not going to be very effective if the guitar is sitting out in the open because the sponge material will dry out more quickly and do so with the room air instead of inside the guitar.

I own Damp-Its which cover the sound hole completely. IMO, this prevents the sponge from quickly drying out and keeps the humidity in the guitar. Each Damp-it has a scale on the front so you can monitor what the humidity is. I keep a guitar out for short periods of time and always keep the Damp-It in it when not in use. Usually the guitar that is out is the guitar I will be using at my next performance. So naturally it will get put in it's case before traveling.

While there is less talk of the neck when it comes to humidity, it too is susceptible to drying out or getting too humid. The result of a dry fretboard are fret wires protruding at the sides. You'll know this because it'll hurt. :-) If a guitar is sitting out there is no reasonable way to gauge what is happening with the neck. I'd say 99.9% of guitars out there have a truss rod in them. I'm sure many luthiers will put a guitar in its case and get it completely within acceptable humidity levels before making any adjustments. I know Taylor has stated on its website that most of the problem guitars they receive have issues because of improper humidity levels. Taylor will get the guitar to proper humidity before doing any adjustments. Here's a link to an article on Taylor's website that does a really good job of addressing the effects of humidity on guitars. Here's Taylor's take on using a guitar humidifier. Here's the page of all of Taylor's Tech Articles.

John

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bluepoet on February 3, 2010 at 10:51pm

Hi, Blake,

In your climate, that humidifier will be pretty useless, unless it's in a case. I'm in Arizona, which is known to be "pretty" dry, too!

If you want to keep your guitar out, on a stand, you'll have to get a humidifier, for the room it's in.

If your guitar has a solid wood top, it's very important to keep the humidity levels between 35-50%. It's ok to have it drier than that, for a short time, like when playing it, but the main thing is to keep it consistently in that range.

If you have a guitar that doesn't have a solid wood top (laminate), it's not as much of a concern, although dryness will still affect the neck, as has been mentioned.

If you're not sure about whether it's a solid top, check with the manufacturer web site.

The Taylor link is a good guide, and, somewhere on the Taylor site, Bob Taylor has a video of a guitar he "brings back to life", that's pretty interesting. I think he's using a couple of Dampits, there. Although, recently, Taylor has begun recommending the Planet Wave Humidipaks, again.
https://www.taylorguitars.com/taylorware/Item.aspx?itemid=1146&...

The Humidipaks are great, because they keep the humidity constant, without having to add water. They were recalled, a year or so ago, due to problems with leakage, but have apparently been fixed.

I used to use an O'cello sponge, inside a baggie, with holes punched in it, inside my guitar case. I have a room humidifier, these days, because I tend to play more, if all I have to do is grab my guitar off it's stand.

Hope this helped!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by blake wright on February 4, 2010 at 10:21am

yeah, I keep it in the gig bag wiht a humidifier constantly in it...why take the risks? It's solid cedar top.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sean on February 4, 2010 at 9:39pm

Hi Blake,

I have to agree with these guys. I'm a Coloradoan too! The air is very dry this time of year, usually around 25% rh for the most part. It will get better in the summer months but for now, the Oasis is not going to do the job by itself but should be fine in the summer. For the winter months I'm doing a couple of things;

Option 1: If you haven't heard of the "soap dish method" it's and easy and cheap way of getting more humidity into your case with the guitar in it. If you go to WalMart or Target and go to where all that $1 travel hygiene stuff is, you can find a plastic traveler soap container. Buy one and then go get some anti-bac sponges in the cleaning supplies aisle. Take a small pilot bit and drill several holes into the dish top and sides. Then take a sponge, cut it to fit in the container with scissors if necessary, and saturate the sponge with water. Wring the sponge so that it's very moist but not dripping and place into the container and like magic....el cheapo extra humidifier inside your case. Although if you have a gig bag, you may have to get creative about where you put it.

Option 2: I found a cheap Reli-On small room (cool evaporative) humidifier on the end cap at WalMart one day for $10. The filters for it cost around $4 and last for at least a month. If you keep the doors to the small room shut and run a small humidifier with your guitar on it's stand, it will love you. I notice that my hygrometer reads on avg. around 48% when I do this but I've heard that they are not the most accurate little things ( I have the Oasis one too). Don't be discouraged about your purchase though, experts believe that if they are off, it's within 10-15%, so just go with your gut here. My guitar seems plenty happy with it's environment even when I take it out for a few hours to the coffee shop and such.

You can go with one or the other, or both as I have.

Hope this helps, Colorado Springs rox!
Sean

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Gundrum on February 5, 2010 at 1:40pm

Just an update on a couple things I did for humidity in the house here. I'm in the north east so it gets cold and dry. We are currently waiting on about 14" to 24" of snow now!

Last Saturday I went to Radio Shack and purchased an Indoor/Outdoor Wireless Weather Forecaster. This has a hygrometer and the wireless sensor transmits up to 100 feet away. I setup the main unit on a wall in the music room. At first I put the sensor outside thinking it'd be nice to see the current temp and humidity level. After a day I decided it would do better put in another room in the house to check what the humidity levels are.

So, all said, the music room had a humidity level of 17%!!! Yuck! At most I have one or two instruments out at once. All others are kept in their cases and there is a damp-it in each of the acoustics in the case and when sitting out and not being played.

The remote sensor was put in the living room and had a similar ~15% humidity level reading. On Tuesday I purchased two Hunter Evaporative Humidifiers from Home Depot. One is in the music room running almost non-stop since Tuesday and the door has been kept closed. I've filled it about five times now and the humidity level is currently at 39%. I'd like it to be above 45% but it's so much better than the 17% a few days ago.

One thing I did notice is the level got to about 30% and stayed there for a while. Seemed like it was never going to move. Then all of a sudden it started creeping up. I saw it hit 33%, 36% and now 39%. At one point it ran out of water (I think it was over night) and it dropped back down to 29%. But it recovered more quickly than I thought it would.

The theory I have why its taking longer to get to a higher reading is everything in the room is absorbing the humidity. What makes me believe this is that it took only about 8 hours for it to go from 29% to 39% when it initially took it about 36 hours to go from 30% to 37%! What's in the room must be getting near the point of not sucking out the humidity from the air.

I've even noticed my skin is less dried out! I dunno why I wasn't using it more so before this!

John

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Walt Pilcher on February 5, 2010 at 1:58pm

John,

I had the same experience when I first put the room humidifiers in place, one in the music room and one in the bedroom. (See previous discussion on this too: http://www.acousticguitarcommunity.com/forum/topics/proper-humidity ) Used a lot of water at first and then after a few days settled down to a more predictable rate, presumably as everything in the room, including furniture, walls, and woodwork (and guitars), soaked up the moisture, reached a sort of equilibrium, and said "Aaahhh, thank you!" Also, now when I blow my nose, there's no blood on the Kleenex (sorry for that picture, but it's true).

Walt

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Gundrum on February 5, 2010 at 2:12pm

Walt,

Thanks for the confirmation of an equilibrium being reached! Its pretty much what I though was happening. I won't be so worried now about turning it off once it reaches above 45%. I was thinking the humidity would dive bomb if I left it off to long.

I guess the next fear is opening the door.... :)

John

• ▶ Reply