Humidifying Solid Bodies

[hotroad]

Do you humidify solid body electrics? If so, what level should they be kept at. My acoustics are at 40% with in case humidifiers and humidistats.

[clintj]

I keep mine on the same room as my acoustics, which is humidity controlled. Consensus seems to be a solid body doesn't really need it, but controlling it helps prevent fret sprout and the resulting sharp edges, and helps tuning stay stable from day to day. That pretty much echoes what I've found.

[Darwin]

Clintj is right on. The necks dry out and develop fret sprout. -- Darwin

[MikeBmusic]

What they ^^^ said.

[JeffreyAK]

I've never taken any special care of my (mostly lacquered maple neck) electrics, and have never seen any problems with body, neck, frets or anything else that could be caused by humidity. As noted above, the neck would be the most probable part to have problems from high/low humidity. Other fretboard woods may be more susceptible. Personally I don't worry about it even with the ebony fretboard my Strat currently has, though fortunately I live in a region where the indoor humidity does not vary much from 40% - it's nearly always on a stand out of it's case.

[Parlorman]

I've never worried about humidifying my solid body electrics and have not had any problems, even living in New England where indoor relative humidity can get to Saharan levels in the winter.

[jonfields45]

Worse case you get the fret sprout cheaply repaired. And typically it will only need to be done once for any particular guitar.

[BT55]

Humidifying is not just for your guitars. All of the wood furniture in your home needs humidity. Joints in wood furniture are the first problem areas when they dry out. You’ll find chair joints fail or draw dovetail joints shrink when they dry out. Whole home humidifiers are a necessity in winter months.

[jwguitar]

Originally Posted by hotroad

Do you humidify solid body electrics? If so, what level should they be kept at. My acoustics are at 40% with in case humidifiers and humidistats.

Honestly, I never really have. I play mine all the time so I think just doing that keeps them normal as weird as that sounds. Most of my guitars are solid with poly finishes and ebony fingerboards. I play professionally so I always have a guitar in my hand. I only set them up twice a year. I dont even bother to humidify my semi-hollow bodies. Just keep them in the cases when you aren't using them and you should be fine.

[Darwin]

It depends on where you live. Here in Minnesota we have had a cold winter with low humidity. I removed the fret sprout from five of my electrics a couple of days ago. There is no correlation to brand as two of them were a Tom Anderson and a Ron Tracey, both stainless steel frets, and three G&Ls. If you file them after the driest period, you will probable not experience the problem again.

It is an easy fix with a flat file to carefully file the edges. You can feel the file biting the metal and as soon as the feel becomes smooth I use a fret file to trim the sides of the fret ends. It does not damage the finish on the edge of the neck if you are careful. They feel perfectly smooth after doing this. You really develop a feel for doing this. --Darwin

[s2y]

Originally Posted by Darwin

It depends on where you live. Here in Minnesota we have had a cold winter with low humidity. I removed the fret sprout from five of my electrics a couple of days ago. There is no correlation to brand as two of them were a Tom Anderson and a Ron Tracey, both stainless steel frets, and three G&Ls. If you file them after the driest period, you will probable not experience the problem again.

It is an easy fix with a flat file to carefully file the edges. You can feel the file biting the metal and as soon as the feel becomes smooth I use a fret file to trim the sides of the fret ends. It does not damage the finish on the edge of the neck if you are careful. They feel perfectly smooth after doing this. You really develop a feel for doing this. --Darwin

Sign of inadequate humidity. The fingerboard is drying and shrinking. Cracking is possible. It'll likely develop some annoying back bow when the summer humidity hits.

[clintj]

In extreme cases on Gibsons with bound fretboards, dryness can cause the fret to push out the binding and crack it. Otherwise, fret sprout is pretty harmless as long as you remove the sharp burr that results. Those can really hurt!