Humidification in the desert

[bobriggs55]

I’ve taken up part time living in Tucson, AZ. I have a carbon fiber guitar there but I’d like to have one of my nicer guitars there but I’m worried about maintaining humidity when I’m not there for months at a time. I use a case humidifier at my main home in eastern Washington. Any advice or experience on maintaining a healthy environment in the desert?

[Mandobart]

I also live in the the eastern WA nevergreen shrub-steppe. I have all my instruments hanging on the wall in my insulated, humidified and climate controlled basement music room. I have two Aircare humidistat controlled humidifiers. I can keep RH at 45%, but in the depth of winter it takes about 6 gallons a day.

I grew up at 7000' elevation in northern NM. Single digit RH in the winter. Drier than Tuscon. Got a big fat blue static spark every time you touched a doorknob. Our family never gave a thought to humidity and my old violin, 6 string guitar, my dad's 40 year old Martin classical guitar and my grandpa's violin from the 1880's all did just fine.

That said, not all instruments or their players will be so lucky. If you're going to be gone from your guitars for weeks or more at a time you can do one or more of the following:

1. Whole house humidification
2. Have a neighbor/family friend/paid caretaker refill your room humidifiers daily
3. Keep your instruments cased with active humidity control like Boveda or other (I'll admit I've personally never tried them). A damp sponge in a soap dish won't last a week in the southwest.
4. Don't worry, it's possible everything will be ok. You could get lucky like I did.

[Mr. Paul]

That's a tough one. In order of my preference

1. Plumb a floor standing humidifier with a float valve for auto fill. I have not done this but my friend has.

2. Bring the guitar with you, take it when you leave.







3. Take your chances

[Italuke]

I lived in Phoenix for 35 years. Always used cheap dampits or film canisters. Usually forgot to regularly fill them. No issues with solid wood instruments whatsoever.

In fact, I firmly believe that my wife's beautiful 1996 Guild DV52 sounds BETTER because it spent 20 years in the desert.

[Jamolay]

Has anyone tried those humidipacks that are designed to maintain a steady humidity in a case, then sealed the whole thing in a plastic bag?

[ras1500]

I live near Phoenix. I thought my Martin D1-R was in need of a neck reset. After I quit humidifying the guitar in its case, the top flattened and a straight edge placed on the fret board projects over the bridge. Thus, no reset necessary. There has been no fret sprout either. Perhaps humidifying a guitar is not necessary. YMMV.

[AZLiberty]

I live in Phoenix:

Cracked a Larrivee when I didn't quite get the in case humidifier refilled in time.
Cracked a different one when I left it on the stand over night.

About every two weeks in a hard case. One week in a gig bag. 3-4 weeks in those stupid Martin cases that everyone hates (but they hold moisture really well)

It should be noted that Phoenix is generally drier than Tucson.

[Dru Edwards]

Can you have someone check your guitar every week to refill humidifier options (regardless of what option it is)? If not, then I wouldn't leave one of your nicer guitars unattended for months at a time in the desert.

[mcmars]

That is going to be tough if you are gone for multiple months at a time. I am in Utah and deal with similar environment. I use 4 bovida bags, 2 in the hole in the saddle bag holders. The 2 bags I put near the headstock. I put 2 bags into a zip lock bag that I cut slits into and then I sandwich a damp cellulose sponge between the 2 boveda bags.

I find the SKB, Gator or Carlton ABS cases do hold the moisture better/longer than a traditional HSC, but the suggestion to put the entire case into a plastic bag might buy you some more time. But know even plastic does breathe out moisture over time, I learned this back when I was young and worked in Biology lab and also did old style photography and had to put all the chemicals in glass to avoid the chemicals going bad from oxidation. I have never over humidified a guitar here, but I have suffered damage. Just yesterday I had a bridge start to lift up even in a case humidified as described above.

Problem with installing a self filling humidifier set up with a cut off float is what happens when the float valve fails and nobody is there to discover the leak. That could ruin your home That is why I got rid of my "swamp coolers" they always leak and eventually cause water damage to the roof or home.

Maybe solution is to just buy a more expendable nice playing and sounding guitar with solid top and laminate back and sides and see how that goes before you risk your expensive boutique guitars? But bet your carbon fiber guitar might cover that base for you?

[Jamolay]

Perhaps going to a local desert pawn shop and finding an old dried out guitar that hasn’t cracked or sprouted.

[archtopkook]

Originally Posted by Jamolay

Has anyone tried those humidipacks that are designed to maintain a steady humidity in a case, then sealed the whole thing in a plastic bag?

I live here in the high desert near Joshua Tree Park I have a flame gibson the one with the stars on the fretboard. I keep an eye on, it's already had a hard life surviving Katrina losing some the finish on the cut-away where the flooding wicked into guitar from the case. Now in the desert, it has started to crack on the back at the matchbook seam, just a bit though. I played the heck out of it, in the direct desert sun, or the dry winds and in the winter rain or summer monsoon rain season at various gigs here. Your car in the summer is the scariest place for a guitar when it's 120 F. outside. You can't leave your guitar in the car even to run in the store, I lost a 70's guild that way! My buddy who is in the film business has a Gibson j200, he travels for months at a time for work, the guitar stays home in the desert, sometimes though at his house in LA by the beach. He swears by those humidity gel pack, his buddy in Bozeman recommended to him when he saw the effects of the desert on his J200. I haven't tried them myself but I've seen the effects, his guitar has great action up and down the fretboard with no buzzing and sounds beautiful.