Another humidity question.

[pick me]

At what point when the humidity either begins to rise, or fall do you start to hear a difference in sound?

[fazool]

There is no one single answer. There are way too many variables to give a concrete answer. Each of my guitars is different, in this regard.

Generally speaking, I like the sound of my guitars in the 30-35% range but that is not safe so I compromise and try to live around 40%. 45%-55% is considered optimal (by Taylor and Martin) but once my RH starts approaching 50-55% my guitars start sounding like they are full of wet socks.

[Mr. Scott]

I'll go along with fazool, but living in Britain as I do, I can more accurately tell the RH from the sound of my guitars than from a hygrometer! But my aoustics usually sound best around 45-50%. maybe they live with a slightly raised RH as they have years of living with a mid to high RH. We don't get RHs of 10-15% very often here.

[Diamond Dave]

Guitars sound best when they're bone dry and so lightly built that a slight breeze will fold them in half. It's the luthier's job to maintain as much of that precious tone in a box that is compatible with the weather and human hands.

[mercy]

Yes, 10% dryer than when its built sounds good while 10% wetter sounds terrible.

[Mr. Jelly]

At Santa Cruz guitars, and probably other builders, they build the guitars under a controlled humidity environment. I'm not sure but I think it's 50%. Because their guitars go to all different areas of the world they aim for the least amount of variation.

[chitz]

I like the sound of mine @ 35-40% after 55% they begin to dull. They are dull now.

However, mine only see 35-40% during the winters when the heat is on, since moving to the Gulf Coast.