the power of humidity

[ssstewart]

So, I have never seen this in my 40+ years of having guitars. This fall and winter has been horrible for trying to maintain humidity. back in October i posted for help with my 29 archtop its upper bout brace (it only has 2 braces) had suddenly dropped 1" to my dismay. this is a carved top guitar not laminate. the AGF members came to my rescue and offered help in moving forward with removing the back to access the repair on the top brace. before i proceeded I conferred with another builder who seen the case and guitar ( the case is an older wooden jumbo case, only one i had big enough to hold this archtop) and since it has f holes and not round sound hole i was using case humidifers (2) in it. we made very crude sponge in vented sandwich baggies humidifiers for each of the f holes. after 3 weeks the brace started to retract back to the top and the top was rising ALOT. i used alot of shade tree woodworking tools and dental tools, offset clamps and cleaned and reglued the brace to the upper bout ( was very tedious with mirrors/ headlamp lights in the fholes/extended length dental tools etc) Another 5-6 weeks of the sandwich bag humidifiers and this top is now fully curved back to better than it was when i started this restoration over a year ago. the old case had been sucking all the moisture i was creating with the case humidifiers and drying the guitar out (this fall/winter has been horrible for low humidity) None of any of my other guitars with soundhole humidifiers have ever had an issue like this. although this was my first 90+ year old archtop ( only had/have 50-60s era archtops)

so when ppl comment on how bad low humidity is this year, it is the gospel lol. the top came up so much i had to lower the adjustable bridge and reshape its feet i made for it to get the action back down to 2.5 at the 12th. the guitar looks better than it ever did, sooo curvatious and plays very well, not thuddy or muddled from adding the moisture i have been adding to cure the dryness, and even more volume than it had before ( and it was very loud before all this fiasco) anyways very pleased with how everything worked out. will be looking for a GOOD case that seals completely (need a BIG one though) that wont contribute to drying out the maple git and will have to keep and even more watchful eye on this gits humidity in the future, very happy i didnt have to cut into guitar

[Dbone]

It has been a weird year for sure. I’ve been leaning on my carbon fiber guitar more than usual.

[campfireplayer]

Originally Posted by Dbone

It has been a weird year for sure. I’ve been leaning on my carbon fiber guitar more than usual.

My guitar room is controlled and my humidifiers will go 11-12 hrs. before I have to refill them, but if I go anywhere else to play I take my Martin DX Johnny Cash.

[The Bard Rocks]

Good story that came out well. Until you find that case use a large plastic garbage bag over it. Once the case gets hydrated, that should do the trick.

[Matt McGriff]

Just moved from south Florida (where maintaining humidity was never an issue) to Memphis, where the heat and fireplace have been on almost constantly for the last two months. All of my wood guitars are tucked away in their cases in the closet, with humidipaks. My Rainsong is proudly sitting tall out on the stand, ready to be played…