Correct humidity for a Gibson

[12barBill]

Originally Posted by RalphH

no, but when a guitar is built at a certain humidity it is affected by humidity above and below that point, so if the Taylor factory is maintained at 50% humidity and the Gibson factory is maintained at 40% then those are the best humidities to keep those guitars at and they are different.

That's very true. The %RH at a certain temperature that a guitar is made at gives a good guide for a range of humidity levels to monitor before having any concerns. Taylor says their guitars are made at 47% RH and 74°. According to Sweetwater Gibson guitars are made at a range of 40%-50% RH (big range?) and an average of 70°.

[RalphH]

Originally Posted by Bill Sims

That's very true. The %RH at a certain temperature that a guitar is made at gives a good guide for a range of humidity levels to monitor before having any concerns. Taylor says their guitars are made at 47% RH and 74°. According to Sweetwater Gibson guitars are made at a range of 40%-50% RH (big range?) and an average of 70°.

It seems like quite a wide range. Either they are a bit sloppy with it or sweatwater have guessed. I suspect it's at the lower end of that, around 40% given that Gibsons start to sound soggy a lot earlier that Taylors (based on my huge sample set of one of each )

[RalphH]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

IMHO, you can’t go wrong with 45% as the high end. Anything more ....meh!
So...40-45% will get you good tone and safety. Why not try that and see how it goes.
My true preference is 40%, but I can’t maintain that number.

I never really thought about personal preference in terms of humidification.

Now I can maintain it to any point I want and keep it there without a problem I've been able to experiment.

How this controller works is you set a target value, and a range. It'll turn on hum/demum once the edge of the range is reached and keep going till it gets back to target, eg set at 45% +/- 2% it'll let humidity get to 47% then dehum it back to 45% and then turn off.

The range is settable in 0.1% increments, so I could have it set to 45% +/- 0.1%, but then I'd be listening to it run all day.

I'm surprised to find I can hear the difference even with a couple of % humidity change in my target and 24h to settle.

I like 45% best for my hummingbird. 42.5% sounds too dry, 47.5% too wet.

[fazool]

For acoustic guitars it's all the same.

It's not like a Gibson wood is different and requires different humidity than a Taylor wood.

It's just their own opinions on what seems best.

It's a balance too, too much humidity and the guitars can lose some tonal quality, not enough and you can damage the guitar.

For me - I don't like the sound when humidity is over 40% - I hear a noticeable muddiness.

I run my guitar room (den) at around 40%. My humidifier turns on at 39% and turns off around 41-42%

Taylor recommends 45-55 which, IMO is too high

[RalphH]

Originally Posted by fazool

For acoustic guitars it's all the same.

It's not like a Gibson wood is different and requires different humidity than a Taylor wood.

It's just their own opinions on what seems best.

That's already been suggested on this thread and it is not true -- manufacturer recommendations are based on the humidity of their factory, and needing to keep the guitar close to that, as the wood has stabilised at the factory humidity and deviation from that causes swelling and shrinkage. If you made a guitar in a 99% RH environment you could break it by keeping it at 50% as it would be to dry for it. If you made a guitar in a 1% environment you could break it by keeping it at 40% as it'd be too wet for it.

That said, Gibson and Taylor are not 1% and 99%. Taylor keep their factory at 47%RH. Gibson a little dryer i'd guess.

[fazool]

Originally Posted by RalphH

That's already been suggested on this thread and it is not true -- manufacturer recommendations are based on the humidity of their factory, and needing to keep the guitar close to that, as the wood has stabilised at the factory humidity and deviation from that causes swelling and shrinkage. If you made a guitar in a 99% RH environment you could break it by keeping it at 50% as it would be to dry for it. If you made a guitar in a 1% environment you could break it by keeping it at 40% as it'd be too wet for it.

That said, Gibson and Taylor are not 1% and 99%. Taylor keep their factory at 47%RH. Gibson a little dryer i'd guess.

Good point ! I agree it should match what their wood is stabilized at.