humidity

[gcard24]

Hi, I,m interested in how others are controling humidity in their workshops.
I am working in a small workshop, partly used for my joinery business whilst general joinery is not a problem, guitar making requires more control.

Any thoughts

[Jimbo]

You'll need a device to measure the humidity and if you want to change it, a humidifier / de-humidifier. I'd have thought as long as the conditions aren't too extreme, it wont matter that much

[gcard24]

Thanks for the reply Jimbo, my solution at the moment has been to make a cabinet attatched to a dehumidifier with an humidistat , I keep my wood in the cabinet, its been running for about 10 days now and seems to work well keeping everything at about 35-40%.

Cheers Gary

[Sam Price]

Living near the border of Wales, you don't get many problems here of dry air (minus 45% RH) well, it's the opposite!!

I have a dehumidifier in my workshop, and will only regulate the humidity to optimum RH when I am glueing cross-grain joints such as braces. However saying that, I don't allow the shop to become TOO humid....I might run it for half an hour a day on excessively humid days...

[gcard24]

Your right, it doesn,t seem to matter too much, I,ve produced 2 guitars without any problems at the moment. I own a couple of Avalons an L300 g and a Rio, both are superb the Rio especially, but there is something special about your own guitar. My 1st was Ziricote back and sides with spruce sound board, wow so much volume unreal when playing chords the second is quilted mahogany, I still have to finish this one but the body is finished.
I,ve tried a bolt on neck with this one, I know some people don,t like that but it has many advantages .

[boombox]

Thought I'd resurrect this earlier thread with a query I also posted on the Collings board.

For the last couple of months, my Collings OM has sounded, in comparison to the usual, like *^**! I initially put it down to some John Pearse strings I tried, which, while Ok for a few days, went deader than a dead thing very quickly. However, new strings haven't improved things and I haven't been playing it as much as a result, so my Avalon has been getting 80-90% of my attention. Then, the thought struck me when looking at a weather forecast online: could it be the horrendous amounts of humidity we've been experiencing all summer?

I have to admit to being new to the special issues relating to acoustics and am a beginner when it comes to humidity. Over the winter, low levels of humidity seemed to affect the Collings and regular use of one of those Planet Waves sponge humidifiers worked wonders, but I am now beginning to think the inverse has now happened. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but the action seems, for want of a better word, "wrong" - the guitar seems more difficult to play and doesn't sound as sweet as it did. Incidentally, my Avalon (also sitka/rosewood) doesn't seem affected at all. I don't want to mess with the action if at all possible as, after a 1/4 turn tweak following an increase in string gauge, I had it just right at the start of the summer. Am I right in assuming the action will go back itself to where it was at the end of the summer if I just wait? One thought which did occur was that the Collings lives upstairs and the Avalon downstairs, though both cases are kept on inside walls, away from direct sunlight. In the course of a day, heat rises and gets trapped upstairs, so...???

Was just wondering if any other UK players are having similar experiences, especially thsi summer, and as a general shout-out to everyone, what do you recommend as a quick (if at all possible, cheap!!) fix?

[Lentin]

Well, I'm not living in the UK exactly... but in the centre of Spain.
Temperature is summer can be really hot.
Last years I became really concerned about the impact that such hot and dry weather could have on my guitars.
But this year I have not done anything. As soon as I finish playing, I clean it with a dry cloth and I put it immediately back into the case. The case is always closed.
I have not detected (fingers crossed now) any change. Even more, I turned to think that the Planet Waves systems (I bought and used two different models) provided too much humidity, being the guitars in their cases-

Cheers.
Lentin