Thirsty guitars? (humidity related)

catndahats · #1 01-29-2022, 09:31 AM

Just wondering, anyone else have a thirsty guitar?

It's winter in the Texas hill country, central heat is running, occasionally the wood burning stove, and the humidity is hovering between the mid 20's to 40's and up to mid 50's on rainy days/nights. Nothing unusual house or weather wise...when the humidity drops below 40% I start humidifying guitars in cases.

Noticed something new this month. One of my guitars is extremely thirsty relative to the others---not showing signs of low moisture damage, and never has, but it is soaking up the moisture from damp sponge in the case at a rate I've never noticed.

Being a hobbyist type wood worker, I am assuming the different woods absorb humidity and give up moisture at different rates. The thirsty guitar is mahogany b/s and sitka topped, and lives in its' case when not being played, as do all the others.

Two guitars are rosewood/sitka (same builder) and appear to not be soaking up moisture like the mahogany guitar.

Two others are maple/sitka-German and appear the least thirsty.

Maybe I am the only person that does not realize how different woods absord and lose moisture, just found it interesting...

Anyone else have a "thirsty" guitar?

RP · #2 01-29-2022, 09:36 AM

Other than the genus/species of the particular wood, couldn't it relate to the extent of drying that took place before the tree became a guitar???

catndahats · #3 01-29-2022, 09:44 AM

maybe so.
All 5 guitars range between 5 - 30yrs old...so, any drying out has probably already occured/stabilized I would think.

And, 3 of them are the same builder, same case, same environment, just different back/side woods.

The mahogany guitar is the thirsty one, and I bought it new 10ish years ago...maybe it has always been thirsty, and I am just now noticing it relative to the others?

Quote:

Originally Posted by RP

Other than the genus/species of the particular wood, couldn't it relate to the extent of drying that took place before the tree became a guitar???

Bluenose · #4 01-29-2022, 10:02 AM

I'm not familiar with the water absorption properties of different species of wood but I can relate that I was simply gob smacked by how much water it took to bring it back my 000 RK (sitka/mahogany) that I unwittingly let dry out to the point of implosion of few years back. I put a big damp sponge in it's body and left it in a case for 2 days and when I opened the case the sponge was bone dry and the guitar was back to normal. BTW I believe that guitars do sound their best when on the dry side but obviously you've got to be careful it doesn't dry out too much.

catndahats · #5 01-29-2022, 10:52 AM

I'm leaning towards the wood species differences being suspect.
Fortunately, mine is fine and I am thinking it is just now becoming apparent how thirsty this mahogany guitar is relative to the others.
* same experience---sponge dry after 2-3 days, and yet the others are still pretty damp. The only variable I see is the wood itself.

Always learning something new!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twiddle Dee

I'm not familiar with the water absorption properties of different species of wood but I can relate that I was simply gob smacked by how much water it took to bring it back my 000 RK (sitka/mahogany) that I unwittingly let dry out to the point of implosion of few years back. I put a big damp sponge in it's body and left it in a case for 2 days and when I opened the case the sponge was bone dry and the guitar was back to normal. BTW I believe that guitars do sound their best when on the dry side but obviously you've got to be careful it doesn't dry out too much.

Guitars44me · #6 01-29-2022, 11:42 AM

Perhaps try humidifying the CASE, when the axe is out of it.

If you haven’t already done so….

Sometimes a case can get dry too, and it will suck up a lot of water.

Cheers

Paul

lowrider · #7 01-29-2022, 01:46 PM

I agree that it's probably the case. It's probably not as air tight.

Mandobart · #8 01-29-2022, 01:47 PM

It's possible the case just doesn't seal as well as the others, so the sponge in the case in question is also trying to humidify the room.

I'm a believer in keeping the room humidified that all my instruments stay in. Then I only humidify one space vs 24 different cases.

zmf · #9 01-29-2022, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catndahats

...when the humidity drops below 40% I start humidifying guitars in cases.

Anyone else have a "thirsty" guitar?

I pretty much rely on cases the entire year, and I do seem to refill the humidifiers more on some guitars.

One possible explanation is there may not be more thirsty guitars due to their woods, but rather guitars that are out of their cases more often,and which therefore dry out more. I don't record this, so I don't really know, but we tend to have go-to guitars.

I assume my guitars are in different states of hydration because their times out of the the cases probably varies. Put the dry ones in their cases and they may suck up more water.

Just a working hypothesis. But then maybe some woods absorb and release water more quickly. So 4 hours out of humidified case may mean more to one guitar over another.

Bluenose · #10 01-29-2022, 03:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

Perhaps try humidifying the CASE, when the axe is out of it.

If you haven’t already done so….

Sometimes a case can get dry too, and it will suck up a lot of water.

Cheers

Paul

I just had to look at my cases after I read your post and discovered that they're made out of some type of hard plastic. i don't think they've made cases out of wood for quite a while.