#1 Reason for Luthier Repairs?

[Fatstrat]

Originally Posted by jseth

Funny, I was going to answer "IGNORANCE"... which is indicated by not humidifying a guitar in the desert areas, I believe...

I don't think any player PURPOSEFULLY does anything to hurt their guitars - a lot of folks just don't know any better, or don't find out until they're getting it fixed (and the luthier/tech tells them!)...

+1. I played guitar for many years before I ever heard that humidity was an issue. Lucky for me, my guitars were laminates. But in truth, I didn't know about humidity damaging guitars until I got on the internet about 12 years ago.

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by itself

I find this so hard to believe, since a simply sponge with a plastic bag is a simple inexpensive way to humidify.

Many folks don't know, many folks who do know simply are not aggressive enough.

I've had 2 tops crack on me. One guitar I had left out on the stand for 2 days, another I had waited just a little bit too long to refill in in-case humidifier. First one re-cracked because I hadn't yet figured out that you need to refill the humidifiers in a gig bag more often than in a hard case.

In summer you need to refill them every two weeks, you can get away with once a month in winter. (opposite of everywhere else)

But yeah, top crack repairs outnumber all other repairs out here.

[Indigocowgirl]

Originally Posted by AZLiberty

Many folks don't know, many folks who do know simply are not aggressive enough.

I've had 2 tops crack on me. One guitar I had left out on the stand for 2 days, another I had waited just a little bit too long to refill in in-case humidifier. First one re-cracked because I hadn't yet figured out that you need to refill the humidifiers in a gig bag more often than in a hard case.

In summer you need to refill them every two weeks, you can get away with once a month in winter. (opposite of everywhere else)

But yeah, top crack repairs outnumber all other repairs out here.

Yikes, I guess I was lucky because I neglected to humidify my guitars while living in Scottsdale, AZ and suffered no ill consequenses. But, this was on the advice of some fellow guitar players who like the sound of a "dry" guitar over that of a humidified guitar and at the time I didn't know better. I will not take chances in the future though and plan on keeping my new guitar encased and humidified.

My husbands Martin cracked on the back, I believe because of the humidity change from Santa Barbara to Prescott, AZ. He refused to case or humidify, now he does both.

Good advise given above.

I am now a big believer, please humidify!!!!

[susitna]

I was going to say splits/cracks. Humidity problems.

The only time I've ever had to have a guitar repaired was when the two piece back pulled apart. This would have been due to inadequate humidification, I'm sure. At the time I discovered the problem, I'd only had the guitar for about 1-2 weeks after purchasing it new. It was very painful to have repaired, even though I paid no money. The guitar was my first nice one, and they kept it for a very long time so they could re-humidify it. I was terrified for months that I'd have to be vigilant with wet sponges in order to protect my instrument, but it's been a couple years now with no further problems.

[Charlie Hoffman]

Here in Minnesota the low humidity problem is during the winter - every year we will see 400 - 500 guitars with low humidity symptoms and perhaps 150 - 200 of them have cracks in the top. I hand out perhaps 500 brochures a year on the problem and it has not gone away.

[Shabby Chic]

There's a great line in the book Understanding Wood that goes something like:

"Someone once quipped that 90% of all problems with wood involve moisture. For those who ignore basic wood-moisture relationships that is a conservative estimate."

[Jack Orion]

Well I live in 'ol blighty where it's never dry!

I never knew about humidity till I joined here but I don't worry about it too much - I keep my guitars in their cases and I have a humidity reader out in the house - it tends to hover around 55% when it's been raining and settles down at 40% when it's dry - but there have been days when it's been as high as 80% or as low as 30% - I just don't take the guitar out of it's case on those days and trust that any change it feels will be slowed by the case...

Haven't noticed any adverse reactions yet...