PSA ~ Don't forget to Humidify

[Rev Roy]

Originally Posted by SFCRetired

Every time I checked them yesterday the highest it ever got was 36 in both of my Martins.

That's pretty much where I'm at, too...even with my guitars in cases with Humidipaks up by the headstocks and in the sound holes. But at least that's better than the 20% RH in the un-humidified house.

[perfidia]

I never heard of humidifying a guitar until I recently bought my first. The guy at the store recommended 45-55%. Even with a whole house humidifier my house has been at 39% this month. I leave the guitar out during the day but have been putting it in a case it at night where a MusicNomad keeps it at 50%. I guess I'm doing the right thing. My brother-in-law has several guitars and questions the need. He claims he never had a problem with them just hanging on a wall or in a stand.

[JakeStone]

I use the Aircare (Essick) MA0800 (1.2Gal) - $70-$80 (I got mine at Lowes). It has a built-in Humidistat which is nice and easy to set.



It works perfect in my 20ft x 30ft room. It is pretty quiet on low setting. But you do hear the fan on the 2nd or 3rd setting. I have it on low when I'm in the room. It's 28F outside and 70F inside my room.
RH inside is around 45%RH.

I was at GC the other day. They use the larger 3.6-Gallon Aircare units in the acoustic rooms.

Originally Posted by jess32

I know it's been talked up before but while were on the subject what's your fav room humidifier. I've been on a quest lately to find the 'perfect one' from a $300 Boneco Air-0-Swiss ultrasonic that puts out white dust to a $80 Vornado evap2 that's so loud it will run you out of the room but it doesn't produce white dust . I'm back to my stand by homemedics 1 gal. ultrasonic with distilled water (no white dust) but at full blast it won't get my 300sf room over 32%. Distilled water is definitely the way to go but I was hoping to find an ultrasonic with a good enough filter system to eliminate the white dust which I can't tolerate at all.

[jess32]

I thought about trying the Evap3 next. How's the fan noise ?

[yoni]

Originally Posted by SFCRetired

For years I never heard of humidifying a guitar nor did anyone ever tell me to. I don't even think the instructions said anything about humidifying a guitar on the guitars I have owned.

Now I do use a small room humidifier that will keep the RH on days like yesterday and today around 35 at best because my guitar room is not a closed off room. So I bought some of those hole Planet Waves humidifiers to put in the sound hole. Every time I checked them yesterday the highest it ever got was 36 in both of my Martins.

Now of course I never had solid wood guitars, in the past, unless you count my Tele. But I was around people who had expensive Martins and they never talked about humidifying a guitar. All they ever said was keep it out of the sun.

My dad's guild that he got in 63 was never humidified until the last 3 years and it never had a cracked top or lifting bridge and it traveled the world on an air craft carrier for it's first 2-3 years of life. Who knows what's going on?

[SamsDaddy]

Originally Posted by jess32

I thought about trying the Evap3 next. How's the fan noise ?

I set it to auto so it mostly runs the fan on low mode. On that setting the fan is pretty quiet and barely noticeable. On high it is definitely a bit loud, but still not enough to cause me distraction while playing. To be clear though, it rarely ever runs on high after you get the humidity established. It just kicks on low periodically to maintain.

[muscmp]

With El Niño upon us that is the last thing I need to worry about.

Play music!

[JakeStone]

Originally Posted by muscmp

With El Niño upon us that is the last thing I need to worry about.

Play music!

Yep.. Everywhere is different.

Glad I got a decent humidifier and able to keep room and guitars stable.
Definitely keeping guitars in cases for now ..when not playing them .