Keeping the right humidity level
“I have a guitar at home and it’s buzzing all over”!
As a musical instrument store owner in New Brunswick, Canada, I’ve heard this from my customers time and time again. The east coast of Canada is notorious for wild temperature and humidity fluctuations. It’s not uncommon for the temperature on any given day in January to be minus 20 degrees Celsius and the next day to be plus 12. It is what’s called a maritime climate, and it wreaks havoc on guitars and other acoustic instruments.
Through my years in business, I’ve met many people involved in the manufacturing of guitars. Owners, production managers, quality control people, and they all say the same thing: The ideal humidity for your guitar is between 45 and 55 percent. It sounds easy enough but depending on what geographical region you live in, it may take some time and effort to make sure your guitar is adequately humidified.
In my retail store, we have a built in humidifier in our ventilation system which keeps our humidity levels at 45% on average. The idea of having a system like that in my house sounds nice but also a little unrealistic. So for my own personal guitars, I keep them in a case from October to April. I also include guitar humidifiers in each guitar and I fill them regularly. I must admit however that during the summer months I keep them on guitar stands because humidity in my city during that time hovers around 50 percent.
The telltale signs of a dry guitar would be for starters that when you run your fingers up and down the neck of the guitar you would feel the frets protruding ever so slightly. The reason for this is that metal doesn’t shrink when exposed to dryness but wood of course does. Other telltales signs would be visible on the guitar top. On a dry guitar, the grain of the guitar top can almost appear corrugated. If your guitar gets too dry, the solid top can split thereby rendering your guitar virtually worthless. Adversely a properly humidified guitar top is obvious to the eye. To me, it looks almost like an ice rink after the Zamboni machine has gone over it. The corrugated effect is gone and there is a very smooth look to it. Larrivee guitars has great photos and information on this subject in the education section of their website. http://www.larrivee.com/features/humidity.php
When it comes to an accurate humidity reading, we feel the digital hygrometers are more reliable. We’ve found some analog hygrometers to be inaccurate by as much as ten percent. You can purchase these devices in most electronic gadget stores with prices starting at about twenty five dollars and up.
A quality instrument is an investment. Generally speaking, when you take proper care of your instruments they often sound better with age. It only makes sense that we care for our guitars by exposing them to the proper humidity levels. For more tips on acoustic and electric instruments visit us at caring for your guitar.
