Need Advice from Floridians
 

My extended family is in contract on a townhouse in Titusville, FL. I'm trying to decide which guitar to leave down there. This will be a vacation home and may be unoccupied for long periods of time. My first inclination is to leave my Emerald X20 down there, but it's not my favorite neck so I don't play it much anyway (a bit too wide feeling, likely due to the neck carve). My Rainsong Shorty might be perfect, but I'd like to keep that one at home.

I have a couple of solid wood candidates, but I am concerned about maintaining proper humidity with the place empty.

Thoughts on wood vs. carbon fiber in FL?

Thanks!

We had a townehouse on Hilton Head Island, (SC) and I just left an old Yamaha there in a good sealed case with the planet waves saddle bags humidipacks. It was fine to play when I was there and I wasn’t worried about it and didn’t miss it. I left it strung with coated strings. Our townehouse was rented a lot so it wasn’t empty but I kept the guitar locked in the owner’s closet. Once we moved there and had a house as well as all my guitars there full time maintaining all of them was a bit more of a challenge between heat and humidity, my performance guitars, beach guitar, studio guitars, etc. now we’re in Colorado so that’s a different challenge. All my guitars are wood.

So, you’ve got at least two carbon fiber guitars and some wood ones. Think about how much you might be there, what you’d like to play, who else will be there when you are there and when you’re not, and know you can always change your mind and switch your FL guitar if you’d like. If you’ll be driving down you could try some different ones on different trips. Also check out the local scene to get a feel for guitar circles, jams, venues etc if you like to play and or listen to others, that might help inform your decision. Go to a local store and ask about some of the challenges of maintaining a guitar in that location.

Have fun!

The biggest concerns are too much humidity and heat in the summer. When unoccupied, most people will keep the A/C running - set high (perhaps 80 degrees) just to keep the humidity in check. All of my guitars are wood. I leave my guitars in their cases when not in use. I have never had a problem.

jerry

I have a cheap Yamaha (see sig. line) in a case down there. We keep the A/C set in the summer around 80. Keeps the humidity fine.

Been 5 years. Whenever we get back down in November and I take it out of its case.......the first strum amazes me because it’s still in perfect tune! No worries.

I have family in Palm Bay, I went to a pawn shop about 10 years ago when we were there for a visit, and found something decent for 150 bucks.. It's in my sister in laws spare bedroom closet in a crappy gig bag.

It doesn't play all that great but it's usable. if anything happens to it, I honestly don't care.

Under air, wood instruments will be fine. If air conditioning is out for an extended period of time there could be a problem with a wood guitar. Where I live in central Florida, I've had periods of both 8 and 10 consecutive days without electricity after hurricanes. Temperatures in my home were in the mid-nineties with humidity levels about the same. My wood guitars survived both instances with no permanent damage , but it took them about a week in an air conditioned environment to return to "normal", structurally (neck bow) and tone-wise (sounded like they were stuffed with wet socks). My carbon fibre guitar was unaffected by that, or even being left in the trunk of my car in the Florida summer sun for a day or two.

When I moved to Florida, my biggest fear was loss of power during summer storms. I built a house and installed a whole home propane fueled generator. I told my wife I did it to make sure we had refrigerators, A/C and lights. I really did it to protect my guitars. :D

Like someone said, if you keep the guitar in a case, keep the air conditioning 80 or below you will be fine.

Cincy

Thanks for all of your responses! I'm inclined to leave an older, all solid wood, Taylor 214e that has some repaired (not very pretty) cracks already and/or my old 814ce that was essentially glued back together and plays like buttah.

Much appreciated!

As a former Floridian (and forever Gator), I think you can rest assured that the "normal" things folks do to maintain unoccupied vacation homes will be more that sufficient to keep a modest guitar in good shape. However, I still don't think it's a good idea to leave anything to which you have an attachment. Like several others have already said, just pick up a solid top yamaha and leave it there. No case necessary. Just by a wall hanger and put on some coated strings, and it will always be ready for you or anyone else that wants to play. Even if you purchased this stuff new, we are only talking about $230 at full price.

No need to spend more money with what I already have.

And Go Bucks! :-)

Humidity is why I hate the weather in the southern United States. I love the south but our weather can be harsh. I don’t think it will dry out in Titusville.

Im in NE Florida and my 10 year old Takamine has never been in a case. I leave it on a wall hanger in our home office or on a stand in my living room and I’ve had zero issues.

I’m confused, I think. So if my air is set on 78 degrees and my solid wood guitars are kept in their cases, I do not need to humidify my guitars? I thought the air conditioning dried the air to the point of being too dry. My small room hygrometer(accuracy unknown)reads 36% right now, which I consider to be a bit low.
So I’m humidifying my guitars unnecessarily?

I’ve owned guitars in Florida for 18 years now and never humidify them. I have had dozens of wood guitars over the years and have not had any issues. That being said, my primary guitar is a Rainsong. Mostly the heat that motivates me towards carbon fiber though. Sometimes have to leave my guitar in the car for a short time and was always paranoid about leaving a wood guitar in there even for a few minutes.

In Florida, humidifying isn't necessary.

I've never humidified a guitar and I've never had one crack. I've got a 28 year old Martin with no finish cracking or crazing, and it's never been humidified.

Right now, I'm in coastal northwest Florida (Fort Walton Beach) (the "Panhandle", aka "Lower Alabama" :) ). Temperatures are in the low 90's and the A/C been running for a couple of months. I got a dehumidifier this winter because the bedroom was developing a moldy smell. Since the dehumidifier has a Relative Humidity display built in to it I can see what the R/H is anytime. When the tank's full and dehumidifier's been off for a while, even with A/C running, R/H rises to 70%. I set the dehumidifier to 45-50% and it will continue running all day attempting to dry out the corner of the house it's in.

Years ago, sometimes winter humidity in heated houses could drop to level that you could have static electricity develop. But with the more milder winters from global warming I haven't seen dry air to allow static electricity development for several seasons now. I was running the dehumidifier in my bedroom during day for the winter (noisy, so shutdown at night) and winter humidity was 80% in the morning the majority of the time.

edit: In Hindsight, maybe it's a regional thing? NW Florida has the Gulf of Mexico, and is very humid with the north prevailing winds. If you're on the Atlantic coast, it's supposed to be drier. Maybe that's where difference comes in; the Gulf of Mexico is a major factor in the Deep South humidity for states bordering it.