Humidity

[andrew]

G'day all.

I am about to buy an Avalon guitar - most likely a A100 gold series from a shop in the U.S.. But, before placing my order, I wanted to ask about the impact of high levels of humidity on the guitar - and fish for any ideas on how to protect against it.

I am currently living in Panama City (Central America not Florida), where the ambient humidity is, well, absurd. Today for example is very moderate - few clouds, no rain - and humidity is still about 65%. It regularly gets up to 80% or more.

To give you an idea of the problem - three weeks ago got my 12 string brought over from Dungannon, Northern Ireland (aka home) restrung it, stored it in a silica-sachet-infested case, inside a room with a dehumidifier and the strings and machine heads still show early signs of rust... groan.

Obviously I do not care too much about the strings, but I am worried about what this might do to my lovely new A100 tonewoods! both in terms of warping and the impact on the sound over the longer-term.

Should I just wait until I live somewhere more sensible, by which point I might have passed through the Ards peninsula and got myself the real deal?

Regards, Andrew

Congratulations on a great forum by-the-way